from the very top of the chapter. For I would that you knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and into all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in him. Now if you'll notice some of what I've read here, verse number two brings to our attention what is described as the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. And it tells us that everything that is anything, everything that is important is wrapped up in that mystery, and therein, in the mystery of God, God the Father, and God the Lord Jesus Christ, and them in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found. Everything we need to know about anything hinges upon what we learn there. But he says in this passage, there will be those who will try to beguile you. That is, they will use their fancy words, their enticing words, and they will attempt with malicious reasoning to convince you otherwise, to deceive you in effect, to lead you down trails where you ought never to go. But he says to the church here at Colossae and to us, he said, but you received the Lord. And now that you've received the Lord, you ought to walk in him. And in order to do so, you need to be rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. But once again, the warning is there. He says, beware. Oh, beware. Watch out, watch out. There are storms coming. There are things on the horizon, he says, that could absolutely spoil you, spoil you. To be spoiled is to be rotten. It is to decay. It is to be so fouled that it is of no use whatsoever. And so he says, beware of whatever element there might be that would bring that fouling after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And then that phrase is there that reminds us that everything dwells, As far as the Lord is concerned, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and He said, and the big deal about that is, you are complete in Him. That is, we don't have to taste of the world's things to be satisfied. We don't have to drink at the world's fountain in order to quench our thirst. No, no, we are complete in Him. We don't have to drag in the world's entertainment to get what we need. No, we are complete in Him. And in order for us to manage when the storms come, in order for us to manage when these perpetrators of deceit find their way to us, he says, get yourself rooted and grounded. Rooted and grounded. Just six years ago this last April, 10th day of the month, it was the Friday before Easter Sunday, At the noon hour, I had a guest in town, Brother Lou Rossi had come, and he and I had gone a few blocks from the SWORD offices and were having lunch. And as we finished our lunch and walked out, we were aware that there was weather in the area, but we did not realize what was about to unfold in front of us. And as we walked out of the restaurant there on Broad Street in Murfreesboro, I looked off to the north and about a mile from us there was a large tornado on the ground. It looked like a big black woolly worm coming out of the sky and coming all the way down to the ground. And I could tell from the movement of it that it was moving across the northern part of our city. And that's exactly where Betty and I live on the north side of town. And I immediately phoned her and I said to her, I said, there's a tornado on the ground and it's coming right at you. There was another lady there helping Betty clean the house. And I said to her, I said, you and Kim take cover. We have two different places in our house that we kind of consider to be as safe as can be for what we have to work with. And I said, get in the safe room, get in the safe room, the two of you, and stay there until this thing passes. Now, the horrible story, the horrible story that unfolded in the next few minutes was mind boggling. When that thing passed through, and it did pass very, very close to our house, just two blocks from our house, all kinds of things were torn up. Five and six blocks from our house looked like a war zone. The only two people who were killed were just six blocks from our front door. But across the path of that tornado, 840 homes and businesses were destroyed, over 400 of them totally obliterated. I mean, brick homes, nothing left but the foundation. And the drive from the sort office to my house, even with traffic, even with traffic morning and evening, you can do it in 15 or 16 minutes. It's only about six, six and a half miles. And even with traffic and with 29,000 red lights, you can do it. You can do it in 15 or 16 or 17 minutes, typically. That particular afternoon, and I went to the SWORD first and declared an emergency and had our workers to get in the safe rooms that we've established there, but I immediately left. I finally managed to get Betty on the cell phone, found out they were safe, but I immediately left to head toward home. It took me four hours to make that six-mile journey. Stuff scattered everywhere. Now, fortunately, as I told you, only two people lost their lives. The amazing story in our city, within minutes, there were literally thousands of people out on the streets with chainsaws and shovels and dump trucks and tractors and blades and all. I mean, you have never seen such a demonstration of community, camaraderie, and support. I had people tell me, they said there were people showed up in my yard that I have not, didn't know then, and I've not seen them since. They just said, we're here to help. So there were some good things that came out of that. But I mention that to you tonight because there were things, there were things, and I inched my way home. Things that had been very much in place the morning before now were in shambles. Things that had taken years to grow now were bent over and broken and laying flat upon the ground. Things that I thought were solid as a rock were shattered. Things that appeared to be deeply rooted and that would be there, I mean, it's just going to be there. We know it's going to be there, but all at once it was gone because a storm came. A force, a mighty force came and obliterated I mean, just millions of dollars worth of things. Now, this passage has its warnings when it says to us, this I say, verse four, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Then down in verse number eight, he says, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. Now, these are warnings to a church. These are warnings to a church that is basically a pretty good crowd of people. And when he talks about them being spoiled and all of that here, he's not talking about them losing their salvation. I mean, anybody with even the slightest ability to read the English language can discover in the Bible that salvation is everlasting life. It is eternal at its nature. because God gives it and God doesn't take it back. He didn't give it to us because we deserved it and he doesn't take it back whenever we don't do so well. But what he's talking about here is that a church should not let things slip. Now, there are certain things in the Old Testament that I think everybody ought to, I mean, they ought to have them marked in their Bible so they can find them easily. the first three chapters of Genesis. Things like Exodus chapter 20 the law, the 10 commandments are. Things like Psalm 1, the blessed man passage. Things like Psalm 119, the great 176 verses on the word of God. I mean, all 31 chapters of Proverbs. I think just, they ought to be high on your list. Things like Isaiah 53. Some of those great things, we ought to know them, we ought to learn them, we ought to absolutely absorb them in our being. You say, why? So we'll get ourselves rooted right. When you get to the New Testament, I recommend that you get a hold of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. I recommend that you get John chapter 1 down really solidly, that great, great chapter about in the beginning was the word. I recommend John chapter 3 and Acts chapter 2 and 1 Corinthians 15 the entirety of 1st and 2nd Timothy and all of the book of Revelation. If you get those things down, I mean just underline them and learn them from your heart, you say, why should I do that? Why should I do that? Because it is important It is important, the beguilers are coming, the beguilers are on their way, the storms are brewing, and if you and I do not root ourselves right, and if we do not ground ourselves as we ought to be grounded, some of those storms will effect casualties. You'll say, well, that person? That person, they've been in the church for 20 years, they're as solid as the rock of Gibraltar, but some beguiler comes, some devil shows up, some agitator comes, something that just uproots them in their Christian life and ministry. And the result of that is catastrophic. It is catastrophic for them, it is catastrophic for their family, it is catastrophic for their circle of influence, and it is catastrophic for the work of the Lord. Now, if I'm going to get myself rooted as I ought to be rooted, and get myself grounded as I ought to be grounded, so nothing will shake me, so nothing will rattle me, so that no intimidation will take root, so that no discouragement will bind me. If I'm going to get thusly rooted and grounded, I back up and I take a look and I learn a lot from this passage and the surrounding material in Colossians and Galatians. and Ephesians and Philippians. Foundations are necessary if you want to build a skyscraper. If you want to put up a pup tent, you've even got to do a little bit of work on that. But most folks would rather own a skyscraper than a pup tent. And if you want a skyscraper, you gotta have foundations. And if you wanna grow redwoods, redwoods, if you wanna grow tall oaks, you're gonna have to put some roots down. And this verse, chapter two, verse seven says, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. Philippians chapter two in verse 15 says, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world. So what's that verse saying? It's saying you get yourself set so that you will be blameless, so that you can be the son of God without any kind of accusatory rebuke, and even though the world has gone crazy and crooked and is perverse, you still will shine like a light in that old wicked world. Verses 14 and 15 of Ephesians chapter 4 says that we henceforth be no more children. We're always God's children after we're saved, but he's saying here, don't stay in preschool. Don't stay in the kindergarten. Don't stay in the spiritual nursery. Be henceforth no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love may grow up unto him in all things which is the head, even Christ. Again, just drawing out of this body of scripture here, I'd like to give you a little handful of things tonight that I think are absolutely essential to getting rooted and grounded. Number one of which is to settle, I mean to determine I mean, to get your mind focused on the primacy, the primacy of Scripture. You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking about Scripture has to be first. You pick up a newspaper, pick up any newspaper, including ours. And if it does not lend itself to the Word of God, if it does not build off of what the Word of God says, then that paper or that book or that advertisement or that program, whatever it may be, if it is not built upon, I mean thoroughly predicated upon the Word of God, then you and I have to look at it and we have to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You say, where are we going here? The Bible says all scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. It is. That's all of the Bible, all of the scripture. Verse 12 of Hebrews 4 says, the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. And so you and I thinking about building our families and building our businesses and building a church and whatever else that we dream of doing, the first thing we must settle is, what is our rule book? What is our guidebook? What are we gonna go by? We had an issue come up in my church where I was pastor a long time ago. And it was one of those volatile issues in the whole community. And I had a deacon in my church that everybody knew, everybody knew that he wasn't thinking straight on that issue and he had said so aloud. He came to me one night, and he said, Pastor, what are we gonna do about, and he mentioned the issue. And I looked at him, and you know, sometimes, I was a young man then, younger man then, and you know, sometimes when we're green, the Lord helps us anyway, you know? And Pastor, what are we gonna do about this? And it was a little confrontation I hadn't faced before, but the Lord gave me the answer. And I looked at him and I said, well, I said, I tell you what, it depends on what we're going by. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, if we're going by the Bible, then I think I know what we'll do. But I said, if we're not going by the Bible, I said, man, anybody can guess where we may land on this. Well, he didn't particularly like that it appeared at the moment, but he went on. A couple weeks later, we had a deacon's meeting. And one of the other deacons had said to me, Pastor, I think I need to bring this up. He said, now he's the only man in the group, but he said we need to air this. And I agreed to it, because I knew he was right. And so the deacon who wanted to kind of air it brought it up, and before anybody else could speak, the man about whom we were all concerned, who had confronted me on the sidewalk about whom I had said, all depends on what we're going by, all depends on what we're going by. He was the first one who spoke up, and you know what he said? He said, well guys, he said, let me tell you something. He said, it all depends on what we're going by. Now, he was as wrong about the issue, he was as wrong about that as anybody can be wrong, but when I flagged him on it, He set aside his prejudice. He set aside his bias. He set aside what he had been taught from his youth. And he said to those men, to the deacons, he said, it all depends on what we're going, he made my speech verbatim. He said, if we're going by the Bible, we know what we'll do. If we're not going by the Bible, he said, nobody knows what'll happen. He made my very speech to the deacons. Let me tell you something, I learned something about him that day. To start with, he, like any of us, could be wrong about something once in a while. But I learned something about him because what I learned was that even if he had something stirring in him that wasn't quite right, when the word of God was presented to him, he yielded to it. And I respected him for that. Now, that's the kind of thing that every one of us I mean, any one of us on any given day can confront, I mean, you can have things come running at you that you've never faced before. What do you do? Just plug in the Bible, the primacy of Scripture. Let the Scripture be the guide. Second thing, talking about getting us rooted, getting us grounded so that we'll not stumble, so that we'll not fall when the storms blow intensely. Second principle. First one, primacy of scripture. Second principle is the premise of origins. The premise of origins. You go to almost any, no, no, let me back up. You go to any secular university, any place in the country, go to their philosophy department, and they are still kicking around the basic questions. Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going? and the liberals haven't figured it out yet. And a part of it is, is because they bought into Darwinian evolution. They bought it hook, line, and sinker. You say, why did they buy that? Because of their religion. Their religion is atheism. And atheism at least has eyes and it looks around and it says, well, we're all here. But now, if they should say, well, I guess we were created. Oh, a creation, that means there's a creator. We can't have that. That messes up our atheism. So they had to figure out something. And this dude named Darwin came along, published that famous book in 1859 called Origin of Species that is poorly written, I think. If you get an unabridged edition of it, it's as poorly written as anything you ever saw. but it impacted the world. And people wholesale, I mean, by the millions, they have bought into this, why my relatives, they'd never tell you this, but what they're saying is, my relatives were pollywogs in the creek. That pollywog right there, he'll be somebody's uncle after a while. I've said to any number of evolutionists, Well, tell me your theory. Some of them go with the big bang. They think there's a big cosmic bang out there that just created all of this nice order we've got. And I've said, wait a minute, in a cosmic bang, what do you got to have to have one of those? Well, you've got to have chemicals, you've got to have fire. I mean, you got, I said, oh, you're starting with a lot of stuff. Where'd you get all that stuff you started with? You know, you got others who, they're the ones who go to the creek and they say, well, it all started with a little protozoa in the creek. I say, protozoa, you got water, you got dirt, you got grime, you got germs, where did all of that come from? They start, every version of evolution has to have stuff to start. And I just simply say the only plausible explanation for how you and I got here is that God created the heavens and the earth. So if I settle, if I settle that issue, In my thinking, if I settle it, and if I say, no, I did not evolve, I'm not the product of evolution, but instead, I am a product of divine creation. God created, that's how everything began. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If I get that settled, then nobody will talk me, see, evolution is not only a biological thing, but they wanna plug it into the social order as well. They want everything to be evolving and changing because if evolution is true, then there's no higher order than man. And man, in any generation, in any culture, can just make decisions about, well, I think this ought to be that way, and somebody else, well, it's been that way for a long time, but now we want it different. And so everything hinges on what is truth and what is not truth. And if you let them sell you on that evolutionary hypothesis, I'm telling you, there is no telling what you'll believe in 20 years. I mean, who would have imagined that last year in June, we all at once decided to redefine marriage? Who would have imagined? I mean, even at Christmas last year, who would have imagined that 2016 would become the year of the bathroom? I mean, who would have imagined that that would be a national debate? You say, well, how can that possibly be? It's the evolving of the social order. The evolving of the social order that is depending upon an evolving culture, that is depending upon an evolution biologically that says man is who he is because he evolved out of the ooze in the creek. And there's nobody to whom he's accountable. But if you and I say God created the heavens and the earth, we have the creation, therefore a creator. And if we have a creator, it just might be that he has said another thing or two that we ought to listen to, amen. So if we're going to get rooted and grounded, we've got to put scripture in place. We've got to adopt the premise of origins that is right. And number three, let me make note of the provision of salvation. John 3.16 makes that pretty clear, as does a lot of other things, a lot of other passages. Now, the provision of salvation is an important part of this. There are some, even professedly Christian groups, who offer nothing more than reformation, because it's all about human doing. Or they will say, you come and you sign in and you become a member of our church. But I'm telling you, the herd is thinning of the organizations and the churches that are preaching a conversion for sinners. I mean, places that at one time could be counted upon, they're not preaching that anymore. You could go to a lot of places for years and years and years and never hear hell mentioned or heaven mentioned, never hear anybody call sin by name. And never make the appeal, never make an appeal for people to get themselves converted. You know, the Bible talks about being born again, getting a new nature, being justified, being atoned, being regenerated. Well, that's not just a sign and a card. That's not just joining up. That's the kind of yieldedness in faith that effects something that only God can do. And whenever we meet what he says do and put our trust in the crucified and risen Christ, heaven and earth is moved as God regenerates the human heart and we're converted. It's not enough for you to be a church member. You can get baptized in church after church up and down the freeway. Still die and go to hell. So, get rooted, get grounded. Solidify yourself on the primacy of scripture and the premise of origins and the provision of salvation. And fourthly, let me suggest to you a philosophy of life and living. that is expressed, I mean, it is expressed powerfully, and it is expressed succinctly in Philippians chapter four and verse number eight, when he says, finally, brethren. Finally, brethren, he's talking to these folks, we want to get grounded, we want them to get rooted. He said, whatsoever things are, watch it, true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on those things. Now, that is a mission statement right there. That is a philosophy for life and living. You say, what are the elements? True, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and virtuous. Think on those things he said. So we're gonna get ourselves rooted and grounded. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, things that are true and things that are right and things that are, all of that. Oh, oh, but listen, listen now, listen, you, you Baptist, you, I mean, come on, it really doesn't hurt if you drink a little wine, it doesn't hurt if you have a beer once in a while. I'm telling you, we got churches all over the place that are making those kinds of advocacies and practicing that. Church is now getting beer license so they can serve it on the premises. You say, well, I'm just telling you, when they come at you, when they come at you, turn your cup upside down, turn your glass upside down. I was on an airplane, packed. Lady with a child came on. The flight attendant was begging for somebody to give up their seat so that the lady with her child could sit together, and nobody was budging. And very frankly, I didn't want to, because I've got a seat I sat on that airplane in Southwest Airlines, and every flight I sat on that same seat. I'm early on the flight because I fly so much, and I know where I want to sit, and I sit in my seat. I don't want to give it up. But nobody else was giving it up, Said to the flight attendant, I said, I'll move. I mean, I just love sitting in middle seats, you know, so I wound up with a middle seat. I got resettled and the flight attendant came and she said, when we get airborne, she said, I'll come to you and I'll serve you first. And she said, you may have anything to drink that you want on the airplane. I said, that'd be great, thank you very much, that's so kind of you. And sure enough, we got up above 10,000 feet. Here she came. She leaned across the other person to my middle seat and she said, sir, she said, what would you like to have to drink? I said, a Diet Coke will be fine. She said, oh, no, no, no. And she started naming off stuff that I never even heard of. You know? And I said, no, no, no. She said, oh, come on. She said, you were so good to do that. She said, I want to fix you something, whatever you want. And I did like this. And she came close. And I said, you know, young lady, and I told her how old I was at the time. It's been four or five years ago. I was about 29, I think. But I told her how old I was. And I said, you know, I've come this far in my life. without even one time tasting that stuff, and I said, I think I will pass it today as well. And I'll never forget, she looked at me and smiled. She said, well, bless your heart, I'll get you a Diet Coke. Now, hey, it's just what you gotta do. It's what you gotta do. You say, well, man, you got backbone. No, no, we signed on to the primacy of scripture. We signed on to a philosophy of life and living and we took in the provision of salvation and we know because we got the right premise of origins, we know that we're not some evolved animal out of the ooze. But we're a special creation of God and we listen when he tells us how to live our life. And then there's a fifth principle that I call the principle of success and failure. Even in our church circles, a lot of times success becomes the measure of itself. And it becomes success at any price. willing to do anything to succeed. But God's got a principle in the Bible that I call the principle of success and failure, and it's in Joshua 1.8, where he says, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good Success. You notice the qualifier on that word success? I mean, not all success is good. Guys goes out to rob a bank and gets away with it. Was he successful? Yes. Was it good success? No. A lot of folks say, man, look, man, I'm just, I'm doing great. But they're not doing great because it's not good success. And if you and I want to get ourselves rooted and grounded right, we need to get adopted the principle by which we do business, by which we do whatever we do. Whether it's conducting church, or conducting business, or conducting family, the principle of success and failure ought to be implemented. Let me give you another one. It's what I call the priority of ministry. See, the Bible says in Acts 1.8, you'll receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost part of the earth. You back up and look at that very carefully. It doesn't say, it doesn't say you'll receive power and then you can go do whatever you please. When Jesus said in Matthew 4.19, follow me, sometimes we put in there parenthetically, we slip in a little something. We kinda read like, follow me and I'm going to pray and see if I wanna be a fisher of men. No, that would be foolish praying because Jesus said, you follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. That's what I'll have you doing. And when he said, you'll receive power, you'll receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, that doesn't mean that you're gonna jabber some unintelligible utterance. Not at all. But it does mean, I mean, read the text, Acts 1A. He said, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. So there we have it, the priority of ministry. You and I are not an island to ourself. We're not to just say, man, we got the gospel. Man, it's me and my wife, my son John, his wife, us four no more. That's not the way it's supposed to be. You and I are supposed to go down Main Street. We're supposed to go down the back alley. We're supposed to go to the ghetto. We're supposed to go to the mansions. We're supposed to go everywhere where there are people taking the gospel and telling people about the Savior. You want to get rooted in ground? I'm telling you, a lot of folks grow stale in church because they're like the Dead Sea. They're taking in all the time and no outlet. You and I need to be more like the Sea of Galilee where we're taking in on the top and feeding out on the south. One more. Number seven in this list. I'm normally getting you rooted and grounded. The primacy of scripture, the premise of origins, the provision of salvation, the philosophy of life and living, the principle of success and failure, and the priorities of ministry, but number seven is what I call the prominence of position and disposition. And the verse here is 1 Corinthians 15, 58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now that is both position and disposition. Get yourself set right, get yourself positioned right, and then operate in an abounding way. Operate, verse 57 says, from victory. and whenever you and I get that victorious spirit about us, all at once, the witness that we bear has just a little more, it has a little more oomph to it, it has a little more excitement about it than what it did have. The prominence of both position and disposition. You get yourself positioned wrong on a bunch of stuff, and none of this is gonna work. that you can get yourself totally positioned right. And if you're just a grouch and a grump and just grossing and grousing about everything, nobody's gonna listen to you about your position. So along with getting yourself solid, get yourself in the frame of mind I think that the Lord would have us to be in You know, our country's in such a dire state right now, and I'm concerned, I'm concerned about so many of our people. So many of our people have lost hearts, so many of our people. It's like, well, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. It does matter. It does matter. You know. That's why when November rolls around, don't you even think about staying home. I had a man in New Jersey say to me the other day, he said, I just not going to vote for anybody. I said, you just did. He said, what do you mean? I said, you just voted for the worst candidate because you stayed home. Now, I'm just saying, folks, it matters. It matters what we do. It matters who we are. It matters whether we rise to the occasion. It matters whether we go and pull the lever. It matters whether we go and drop a gospel tract. It matters if we run our bus route. It matters whether or not the choir's full. It matters whether or not that we go out and talk about the Savior and about Calvary Baptist Church. It does matter. And I believe these principles that I've given you tonight will help you, help me to be rooted and to be grounded and to make the kind of impact that'll make a difference wherever you and I go. He said rooted and grounded. There'll be the storms coming, the beguilers will come, they'll put pressure on. There'll be those who'll come and they'll try to smooze you into things. But even with storms brewing on the horizon, If you and I get ourselves rooted and grounded when the storms pass by, we'll still be standing where we ought to stand. I don't want to see you uprooted. I don't want to see you lose your footing. So let's work at being rooted and grounded. Amen. Stand up with me, please. Thank you so much for your