Walking it Out

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Intro

“I have climbed the highest mountains I have run through the fields Only to be with you Only to be with you I have run, I have crawled I have scaled these city walls These city walls Only to be with you But I still haven't found What I'm looking for But I still haven't found What I'm looking for I have kissed honey lips Felt the healing in her fingertips It burned like fire This burning desire I have spoke with the tongue of angels I have held the hand of a devil It was warm in the night I was cold as a stone But I still haven't found What I'm looking for But I still haven't found What I'm looking for I believe in the Kingdom Come Then all the colours will bleed into one Bleed into one But yes, I'm still running You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains Carried the cross of my shame Of my shame You know I believe it But I still haven't found What I'm looking for”

-U2 (I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For)

It is human nature to center our lives on just about anything else besides God. Job wisely observed that people love to go through life giving God very little thought, and even disdaining him.

“Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful? Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes. Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them. Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry. They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about, singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute. They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace. Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?” But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!" -Job 21:7‭-16 CSB

Because we are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, the siren song of the world often seems reasonable to our warped and distorted faculties. In other words, it is all too easy to go along with what is popular rather than what is of God’s kingdom.

We think we are going to find life in all of these experiences, places, and things but in the end they are all dry wells. Only one well is perpetually full… Christ.

The NET Bible Chapter 2

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable. 2:5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Paul was encouraged because through the Spirit he saw the discipline of the Colossian believers as well as the stability of their faith amongst a shifting culture.

Truth

We are stable when Christ is at the center (Colossians 2:4-5).

There is always someone ready and willing to tell you that you need something or someone besides Jesus in order to be full and happy.

We are a culture which has sold out to the ideas of personal liberty and the right to pursue worldly pleasure.

People love to encourage others to walk down the path of sin, claiming one must find oneself or whatever.

No one ever found what they were looking for outside of Christ.

Paul was specifically encouraged by two things he saw in the Spirit.

The Colossians has supernatural discipline which revealed that the Spirit was indeed active in them.

The Colossians has a stable faith that was unwavering in a wavering culture.

They surely faced temptations but they were holding onto the gospel and that is a sign of grace.

We remain stable by continuing in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7).

We receive Christ as Lord by grace but we don’t stop at receiving.

Once we have received the Lord we continue in him and this is also by grace.

R.C. Sproul wrote that a Christian is moved forward not by guilt, but by thankfulness.

Consider that we have been firmly rooted in the faith.

This implies that our being planted into God’s garden was not our own doing but rather the work of the Spirit.

You were gifted a place in God’s family. You did not earn it. If you didn’t earn it then, you aren’t earning it now. If it remains a gift, then it is something to be thankful for rather than something to be prideful over.

Not only are we rooted by grace, but we are actively being built up and further established in Christ.

Christ is working in us by the Spirit to weed out what is left of our old human nature and replace it with holiness and truth.

The longer we continue to walk in Christ, the more native the Christian life feels and the more foreign the ways of this world feel.

As we grow in Christ gratitude replaces pride as our motivation for living.

People in the world want to look good and successful to themselves and others.

People in Christ only want to please Christ because we have all we need in him and through him.

All the motivation we need to live a holy life, is our gratitude for what Christ has done for us.

Many Christians continue to struggle with feeling like they have to prove themselves to God and others.

We don’t! Christ has proven us already. He declared us righteous and now all we need to do is live it out through his empowering work in us.

There is no stable center but Christ (Colossians 2:8-10).

Paul knew that there is always a part of us which feels like the world is more native than Christ.

Some people will always try to synthesize Christianity with worldliness. We must reject this soundly.

Others will try to discredit the Christian message and draw us back into humanism. None of it will do.

Only Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of God. Only in Christ is any person made complete. Only Christ is the head of all things.

All other philosophies are cheap imitations at best. Only an idiot would trade fools gold for true gold. We must be careful that we are never tricked out of our gold by the world.

Closing

The Spirit is enabling us to practice continuing in Christ together. I encourage all of us to be active in this pursuit rather than passive. It starts in our homes, moves into the church, and then from the church it spills out into the world.

How can we actively practice keeping Christ at the center of our homes? Our church? Our workplaces/schools/hobbies.etc?

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