08.18.2013 Colossians 2 - True or Counterfeit Spirituality

20130818 - Colossians 2 - True or Counterfeit Spirituality - by Mike Marette from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

20130818 - Colossians 2 - True or Counterfeit Spirituality - by Mike Marette from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

20130818Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

20130818Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

SermonAudioSermon Audio^^^^^^
We’ve been promoting the different small groups over the last and next few weeks.
Colossians – from here to the middle of September, we will be pushing through.
Colossians 2: 1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. 5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.

6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head [j]over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
There are false teachers who are trying to lead the Colossians astray. These two aspects of false teaching were true then and are true today – 1) the heresy – the false teaching – that distorts the person of Christ. That is the biggest one. It most often goes after the person of Christ – typically to lower Him to a different position than the one He possesses. It lowers the supremacy of Christ. Paul uses all these great words about Jesus – there are those who are coming in who are putting Jesus at a lower level – and making Him average. Paul shows that He is the Creator of all things! The same things happen today – you have a religious groups who are very close to biblical Christianity, but they remove the deity of Christ. They will say He is a prophet or a great teacher, but not only is he the Son of God, He is God the Son. There are those who remove His deity, but there are also those who remove His humanity. 2) The nature of our salvation. How we are saved. Most false teaching – they attempt to add something to our salvation – it is Jesus, but it is Jesus PLUS circumcision – or other rituals – You’ve got Jesus, but you need THIS – the same thing happens today. It might be good deeds or works – or ritual – or religious activity – or baptism and Jesus – or communion and Jesus – there is something always being added. We will look at counterfeit spirituality or true spirituality. Is it true or counterfeit? You can tell by what they say about Jesus.
Back to 2: 2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf …
Paul focuses on this mystery of Christ in us – we need to focus on holding proper doctrine when it comes to Christ and our salvation. You might say, they are really good people – but we have to believe the truth about Jesus and our salvation.
A lot of times you will find people in groups that are off in how they proclaim Jesus – and you might find those individuals who came to Christ – and were a young Christian – who got pulled in. It is important that we conmmunicate the truth because there are persuasive people out there who are communicating lies. In Him, all the fullness of deity dwells!
5 For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing [c]to see [d]your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so [e]walk in Him,
You are doing well – but I want you to understand that you need to live in Christ – to aspire to be like Christ. This is the challenge and the focus of the remainder of the text. As you have received Him – so live that way. The way you received it – the understanding of your salvation has been clearly given – you have a firm foundation – they have developed this foundation because the gospel has been preached – and that foundation is like an enormous stone that they stand on. You need to believe it and live it, because it is easy to be led astray or deceived. Stick to that truth – don’t get off of it! Know it and know it clearly – how clearly do I understand the faith? How well do you stand against false teaching? We all have that responsibility.
We have these four gospels – how long after Jesus died do you think they were written? 10, 20 years – the earliest was probably 30 years and the latest as late as 60 years after Jesus died.
What happened? The disciples went out telling the stories of Jesus. All of those stories in our gospels – they would go out and tell them – and these sayings of Jesus would be communicated. The same thing happened with the Colossians – and all that truth became the foundation. It was communicated over and over again.
Luke says – there are all kinds of writers – I’m going to be deliberate about it! He probably thought he was the best – but John might argue with him!
Paul takes a lesson from horticulture – ROOTED in the gospel:
7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established [f]in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing [g]with gratitude.
Your roots need to go deep into the soil of the gospel if you are going to live in Christ.
Go to the picture – There are tehse tiny flowers – but the roots go so deep – we nee dot find ways to go that deep in our spiritual lives – in our relationship with God – in our inner being in relationship with God. It is our responsibility to make sure we are going deep into the truth. It happens over time. These roots are growing slowly over years – and these flowers can live in the harshest climate because the roots are so deep. If your roots are deep, you can get through the most difficult trials.
The Rocky Mountains are very rocky – there will be a crack in the rock – and a tree will be growing there. The root has gotten to the soil through that crack – and Paul is saying – as long as you can get your roots to the soil – you will grow.
In order to be built up – first he talks about plants – then about buildings – to grow up, you must first grow down. Even buildings today – the higher the building – the stronger the foundation must be.
How is your soul? Are you going deep? How is your inner life? What is your spiritual condition like? So often we focus on our achievements and activities.

“We create spiritual activity to hide or ignore areas in our lives that God wants to transform”
I know this is true. It is not hard to do lots of STUFF – it is really hard to go in and look at ourselves and see what God is pointing out and wants to change.
We have a false self we project to others. Matt Cramer is watching that series on the Bible – Samson – the way they depicted it – he had dreadlocks – Matt was saying – Samson wouldn’t cut his hair or eat certain foods because he was a Nazirite – but he had stuff on the inside that was taking hold of his life. What we really need is time to examine what lies beneath the surface – we need to let God examine us – to not be the Nazirite.
When God reveals it, we need to surrender to the truth. Confession. Transofrmation starts with a new vision of God – Like Isaiah – seeing the glory of God, recognized his sinfulness – like Peter.
Search me and know me and see if there is any hurtful way in me!
For me – I have been working on this – my friend – Mark – Mike – you have the gift of dread – not a gift you want, but he was right. I have this concept of something is going to go wrong – and what I have discovered over the past five or so years (and my wife has been saying for 20 or so years) – I have a fear of emotional pain and sorrow. I struggle with even thinking about the possibility. It is probably from a bunch of stuff earlier in my life – but it has caused a deep fear of the experience of loss. I am afraid of losing things.
Anytime there are emotional circumstances, there is the possibility of loss. And it has caused me to not be open in my emotions – and it has caused me to not recognize others’ emotional pain. You don’t have to do this – but for me – I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago – I am writing a lament. A lament is something you do whne you have have experienced great loss. There are about 20 psalms that are laments – I am reading them and writing down my own psalm of lament. These are filled with emotion. I encourage you – not necessarily to write a song of lament – but to go into your deep parts –
Augustine – How can you draw close to God when you are far from your own self. Grant Lord that I may know myself that I may know me.
Calvin – Our wisdom consists of entirely two parts – our knowledge of God and our knowledge of ourselves.
A simple way of doing this – Monday night – 5 in the morning – I hear what sounds like someone tearing the siding off our house! Cindy woke up a bit later – maybe it is an animal in the gutter – I close the window – then I go out – I have an LED flashlight – what am I doing out here looking for something that sounds like it is tearing off my siding?!
We need an LED flashlight on our souls – let God shine his LED flashlight on your soul! Try me – Test me – Lket God search.



8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, [h]rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made [i]complete, and He is the head [j]over all rule and authority; 11 and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead [k]in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had [l]disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through [m]Him.



13 When you were dead [k]in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had [l]disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through [m]Him.