Colossians Chapter 2 — Colossians 1-2

0:00 Good morning, everybody. Nice to be back here. We were gone the last two Sundays. I was asked to speak at the Grace Gospel Chapel in Erie, Pennsylvania. They have a heart for the The Philippines as they've commended Dave and Ruth Harvey there and a young lady by the name of Holly Lucas.

0:20 And so they asked if we would share what's going on in preparation to return to The Philippines. We do leave and just four weeks from tomorrow, so please pray for us as these days are passing by so fast, have a lot to do in the meantime. Last week we had the privilege of being down in Cincinnati, Ohio where we were able to worship with the folks at Grace... No. Sorry.

0:42 Northern Hills Bible Chapel and we would send our greetings from both of those assemblies and I would also encourage you that if you're traveling around the country this summer that ask some of the folks that have been around the assemblies for a while and most likely there's going to be an assembly nearby where you're probably doing your vacation. I hear we've got someone heading down to Houston, Texas pretty soon. My son Daniel's here from Houston and he's been able to find an assembly actually in his new hometown of Pearland, Texas. So we are so grateful for the believers around the country who opened their hearts and their lives to us as we travel around. Let's pray please.

1:25 Heavenly Father, I just ask your blessing now upon your word. I thank you so much for what you've taught us in the past and I pray that today would, we would continue to dig deeply and that we would, be open to your Holy Spirit's, instruction, guidance, and even exhortation. Father, may we be touched, may we be changed from what you would teach us even today. We just give the glory to Jesus Christ and we pray in his name. Amen.

1:52 If you could open your Bibles please to Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. It's been three weeks since we've been here. It's also been three weeks since we continued with this study in the Epistle to the Church in Colossae. And mister Pyle was the last one to speak and he took chapter one very...

2:15 And did a fantastic job with it. I wanted to quickly review the last couple verses of first sorry, Colossians chapter one just because the idea that Paul's presented in the end of Colossians one is a continuation in chapter two in spite of the chapter break. So we're gonna start reading at Colossians chapter one verse 28. And I will be reading through chapter two verse 10. So Colossians one twenty eight.

2:44 And we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in Christ. And for this purpose also I labor striving according to his power which mightily works within me. Chapter two. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for all those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face 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.

3:25 In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with persuasive argument. 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. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 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. 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.

4:09 For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in Him you have been made complete and He is the head over all rule and authority. This passage of scripture is filled with a lot of very powerful verses that maybe some of us have even had the privilege of memorizing and has been the subject of many sermons. But today I wanted to kind of break down each of the verses and dig a little deeper in some of these 12 verses that we've just read to see what we might benefit as a body and as individuals. So going back to 28, Paul explains what his God given ministry is. And again, remember this is the the same man who earlier in his life had been trained as a lawyer, had been trained to keep the law kind of like like a Pharisee.

5:36 We have his conversion experience on the road to Damascus and this man went from imprisoning Christians to being saved, his life being changed, and that he took that same zeal, that same vigor and energy and passion and placed it in his faith in Jesus Christ and then acted upon it. To the point that he's writing this letter to the church in Colossae from a Roman prison cell. And so with that all that context in mind, we we want to read this and say, how does this apply to us? There's no one here in this room that is presently in prison. But the question is, do we still look at life as intensely?

6:26 Do we still look at God's word as as with as much value as Paul is encouraging us to do? So I like you to kind of filter everything we read through today with that in mind. Paul says in verse 28 of chapter one that his purpose is to proclaim Jesus Christ. Proclaim him. Just prior to that, he says that Jesus Christ is was a fulfillment of the mystery of the Gentiles.

6:48 That Christ could actually live in you, the hope of glory. And now he's saying we proclaim him. We admonish every man and we teach every man with all wisdom. For what purpose? It says that we may present every man complete in Christ.

7:06 Now we're we're entering the summer for some of the students here around Ohio. I think most schools are out by now and there's been there have been a lot there's been a lot of money spent on education this past year. I mean if you just even counted the the local school districts, we're probably talking multi millions. We talk about the nation, we're talking billions. And then we get to upper education with college degrees, we're we're surely in in the billions.

7:33 It's amazing how much money can be spent on education and yet the question comes down to, well what are you learning? What are you learning? And Paul is saying here that all this teaching, all this admonishing is for a purpose that's incredibly important. And that is to present every man complete in Christ. Well, then he says in verse 29, how he goes about doing this.

7:59 He says, I labor. I strive. Now I look this up. This word strive actually is the same root word as the military would use for combat. Now we have a few folks in the room whose sons are right now in the military.

8:16 And it just happens to be they are all in the room right now. And you very well know that your sons have learned in their training how to use a gun. How to face off the enemy and how to survive that encounter and hopefully remove the enemy. Well that's combat. And in our country right now there are people that are doing that for a living.

8:40 We can go back only sixty nine short years, three days ago, and the most famous day and I think our military history took place. For those without a driver's license, anybody know what that day was? Sixty nine years and three days ago? Starts with a D. Yes sir.

9:01 D Day. There you go. D Day. Alright. Now these soldiers that were on those transport ships and those personnel carriers had been trained.

9:11 Had been trained to do a job and many of them did not see the outcome of their training. They were killed at the beach. But many of them pressed on. Some of them were in a parachute troop that landed behind the lines and the one hundred and first airborne is probably one of the most famous groups. It's the only only military, I don't want to use the word squadron, I'm gonna use the wrong term so I'll just say group because I don't know what the actual...

9:39 That was honored as a complete entity. The entire group was given a presidential award after World War two for what their exploits were in the D Day invasion and then all the way to having the privilege of taking the Eagle's Nest which was Hitler's mountain paradise. So they very very famous group there. But they were trained. They were trained in a very challenging environment down in Georgia.

10:09 They were trained to go through so much difficulty so that when they got out in the field, when the bullets were flying at them and the shells were exploding around them just like it happened at the Battle of the Bulge because they were there too, they survived and they pressed on and they held the line. And this is the terminology that I would like. I I actually had some more videos that I was gonna show you. I thought that that it'll take too much time. So and some of you actually probably don't like more videos.

10:36 But I would just imagine, you know, the the ships come on to see the bullets flying all over the place and of course in in our modern movies there'll be a lot of blood. But the old ones they're just black and white no one gets killed when they get watching. But this is the mentality that Paul has as he now exhorts the church in Colossae. Now when these soldiers were going ashore they knew there was an enemy because they were shooting at them. The question I think Paul wants to remind us of, the question he wants us to think about is, do...

11:43 If you were a spy in another country you would be dead if you were caught. And the same thing is here. Paul wants the the church here to be so sensitive, not necessary to look at spies and not talk about that, but to realize that there's a struggle, a spiritual struggle that's going on. Let's continue on in chapter two. We see this word again.

12:03 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. Well, that same where their struggle, it's again combat. And he's saying not just for the church in Colossae but this neighboring church in Laodicea, another one in Hierapolis which is talked about elsewhere in Colossians. And so that's why it was kind of interesting to be able to talk to you today after having been to two different assemblies in the last two weeks who are located five four and a half hours south of here and two hours east of here, and to tell you that the truth of God's word is going forth all around us. And the truth of God's word is going forth all around the world.

12:42 And we whether it's in our time zone or a very different one. And we can be encouraged by that and yet we could also intercede for those. This soldier going to battle was not just battling for himself. He was battling for his country, his buddies next door to... Walking right next to him carrying their guns, and for his family back home, his country back home.

13:11 And we have to keep in mind that the battle that we face in our spiritual lives is not just about us. It's about our family. It's about our church. It's about our community and it's about our nation and it's about our world. For the Lord needs his people to be soldiers for him to go into that battle.

13:34 Now one of the things if you've talked to a veteran who's been in combat, they'll say there's a unique bond that takes place when they're in combat. You've seen these American Legion posts around the country when you drive around or maybe the Elks Lodge or the Moose Lodge. Well most of those came out of World War two where these veterans who had experienced combat together had that camaraderie and then they were just sent their ways when the war was over And they kinda didn't know what to do with themselves. And then they found out they met other guys that had a similar experience maybe even on the other side of the world. One was in Europe, one was in The Pacific.

14:13 And yet they were able to gather together and share stories and reattach with that camaraderie. They were knit together if I could use that term. They were knit together in unity. Well this again is what Paul uses in verse two. He says that their hearts, talk about the church, their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attained 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.

14:42 I had a friend that I actually stayed with, he was my landlord for about nine months down in Chillicothe, Ohio and he was a veteran of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest battles in American military history and he would not talk about it. I wanted to be sensitive to him and he just said you know I just don't want to talk about it But he would always go down to that hall and he'd he'd spend some time there with his buddies and every once in while he might share just a little tidbit about some of the stuff he went through but he'd he'd always weep and so he he couldn't he couldn't talk about it without crying. And so he said, I just don't like to talk about it. Well I just know that when it comes down to the body of Christ, the Lord wants us to be knit together.

15:28 That we would have that same love and when we are in the battle sometimes we weep together and we also rejoice together. And that knitting together in love brings about an intimacy that allows us to press on through some of the challenges. Well, what what does the Lord promise us here in the second half of verse two? Hey, according here's this wealth. It says that we would attain the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding.

16:06 Well, to be able to read God's word and understand it. To to not just say, well I'm reading a bunch of words and you know that's for the old people down the road or those people that hang out in that big brick building down the street on the corner, But to actually be able to read God's word and it opens up to us and we would understand the word of God. Of course, first thing has to happen there is you have to know Christ as your savior, that the holy spirit will then abide in you, will live in you, and show you and teach you these words. It also requires you to sit under the teaching of God's word which going to talk about a little bit later, but to have that full assurance of understanding that's great wealth. You can read about it all throughout the scriptures.

16:45 How what the incredible benefit is to have understanding of the word of God. Also it says resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. Well, what is God's mystery we read about back in chapter one, the end of last three verses? The mystery among the Gentiles was Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, let's just take a peek at that back again.

17:08 One twenty seven of Colossians says that Christ in you. That's the mystery. So you have the whole Old Testament and everything that happens in the Old Testament, read about that, we have the sacrificial system, we have the prophets, we have the the Hebrew people, and as they grow and God communes with them, And then there's this big hiatus, this big pause in human history when it comes down to the Bible. We we we're left with the the prophet Malachi who prophesies in the future. And then here we have the Anointed One, the Messiah, the baby born to a virgin.

17:46 Fulfills that prophecy and lives a life that teaches about God, teaches about God's love. But this is where the mystery is solved. The mystery is solved if he just didn't come to live, spend thirty three years on earth, die, and disappear. He came and did all that, taught about God's love, it displayed God's love, and then showed the power of God by rising again from the dead and says I will abide in you. We're gonna look at that a little bit too.

18:13 So Christ abides in you. Now what's that mean then? If you as a believer in Jesus Christ have Christ abiding in you, then you then in turn can display that incredible love that he displayed. You can display that incredible power that he displayed in your human weakness. Let's take a look at some verses in the Old Testament that talk about wisdom and knowledge.

18:36 Let's look at Proverbs two please. Proverbs two and how about verses two to 11? Proverbs two verses two to 11, wonderful section of scripture talking about wisdom. Proverbs two verses two to 11. Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding.

18:59 For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you'll discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice.

19:22 He preserves the way of his godly ones then you will discern righteousness and justice and equity in every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will guard you, understanding will watch over you. And how about a little bit further in scripture, Jeremiah chapter nine. Jeremiah chapter nine two verses twenty three and twenty four also speak of wisdom.

19:49 Jeremiah nine twenty three-twenty four. Thank you for all those pages flipping. Some of you are just flipping through your smartphone I know too but I love that flip sound. Alright, Jeremiah nine twenty three and twenty four, Thus says the Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches but let him who boast boast of this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord who exercise the loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth for I delight in these things, declares the Lord. So even when we have this incredible wisdom that we receive from the Lord, we're not to boast in it.

20:37 It's not something, well look at me, I'm all this, I know all this Bible stuff, I can memorize scripture. I mean I'm not saying it's not incredibly important, it's very important. But it says don't boast of that instead boast in this that the Lord who exercises loving kindness justice and righteous on earth, that's the one that you know and he knows you. Says and he knows me. Alright.

20:58 So be grateful, be appreciative, be thankful that God is in you as a believer in Jesus Christ and if you do not know him as your savior, I challenge you today to put your faith and trust in him. To humble yourself, to recognize that you cannot attain salvation on your own. It's only through Jesus Christ. Let's move on to verse verses four and five. Verses four and five Paul gives us a caution here.

21:50 Now if you haven't had this experience of someone that you have met or have had a relationship with or someone even who's walked in through our doors who has a very very very very strong opinion about something in scripture and you hear them share it and you go, woah, I've never heard that before. And then they might be so so solid in it that they could start to argue with you about it. That's what Paul is talking about. Because we as we were reminded many a few weeks ago, I guess it was when when Ray Gonzales gave us a summary of Colossians to start us off here. There were many different arguments going on in the culture of the community of Colossae And some of those had infiltrated the church.

22:35 We're going to get into that a little bit more detail. But I would like to kind of go back to this combat idea. This combat idea. We here in The United States hear about every once in a while that there are people who daily try to infiltrate our country by crossing the borders illegally. We know about that.

22:54 We hear about that. But there are also people that are coming into our country legally with still an intent to harm our nation. And our government has set up organizations called counter terrorism that these specialists are trained to combat such invasion. Well Paul is saying here, he is exhorting us as God's Church to combat any false teaching. And even if it's with a persuasive argument, we need to be so solid in God's word that we could first of all be sensitive to what this false teaching would be, and second of all that we would not allow that false teaching to infiltrate the church with persuasive arguments.

23:39 He's gonna hit this again in a few more verses. Now Paul in verse five said, even though I'm not absent with you in body. Remember where we said he was when he wrote this? He's writing this from what? A Roman prison.

23:51 So he's saying, I'm not with you. I would like to be that soldier that I would like I would like to be there with you right now defending this young church from any invasion of false teaching. But instead I can't thereby I am with you in spirit. Now this is one of those things where you gotta be really careful not to go too far with something that what has been said in scripture. Some might say, woah, you're in spirit.

24:19 That means people are everywhere. Oh, I'm with you in spirit. Now Paul is talking about that he is able to rejoice with someone when he hears about what's going on in their life. He's able to encourage them and to speak and favor them in what way? By prayer and by talking with other believers that might be visiting him.

24:39 And he sends messages back. Look at this letter itself. This is a letter of exhortation, a letter of encouragement. Even though Paul's not there, he's been able to get this letter to the church in Colossae. Later on he says, don't just read it here but make sure you read it in in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

24:55 And the letter that I wrote to Laodicea make sure that gets read in the church in Colossae. And so he's saying I'm with you in spirit. I'm not there physically to be with you but in all spiritual warfare I can be with you in spirit and thereby I can encourage you, I can rejoice and I like this word he has here that I can see, I rejoice to see your good discipline. So what's he actually seeing? Is he seeing them?

25:22 No, he's seeing evidence. He's seeing evidence of their good discipline and the stability of their faith in Jesus Christ. I have a question for you. Are people seeing in you good discipline? Now this is not just a bodily discipline, this would be spiritual discipline.

25:42 Are you spending time with the Lord in his word every day? I challenge my kids a lot. There's a battle that's all going on in our house all the time and they could tell you exactly what it is and that's the technology versus dad and mom. She's on my side. Alright.

25:57 And I've been to workshops in my school district would teach about bullying and cyber bullying and one of the instructors there said if you can do anything to keep the Internet out of your kids hands until they turn 20, do it. But of course we can't. But you can still monitor it. Right? You can still monitor it.

26:16 But when it comes down to discipline, I challenge my kids. I say, you're limited to this much time on technology today. How much time did you spend reading God's word? Are you still memorizing scripture even though Juan is not in session right now? And maybe you didn't have to learn it for for camp versus to go to camp.

26:37 But that challenge is always there and it's a little bit of a a battle. Maybe you have that in your home too. But I can tell you that Satan is really good at keeping us busy with things. And I'll speak for myself even at sometimes as you probably heard me say before, good things. Good things can prevent you from doing great things for the Lord, right?

27:01 And we can have our time wasted by doing a good thing. It's your personal experience with you and the Lord and you and your family. But I challenge you as Paul's challenging you, do you have good discipline? Are you living a life that has that discipline that is promoting the scriptures and teaching God's word to your children? And the second thing was the stability of their faith in Christ and rather than go into that, I'm gonna I'm gonna hit that a little bit later in verses six and seven, but that stability is also what he says.

27:32 I see this in you even though it's through contacts with other people. I'm not physically there and I'm rejoicing with this. I'm happy about that that you're growing in Christ. He talked about that later... A little bit later.

28:02 They live in Boston, so we we don't get to see him very often, but we saw him at Christmas and he was a cute little baby. But when we saw him, three weeks ago, he was now 13 old, and he could start making some noises that almost like he wanted to have a conversation with you. He had more of a of reaction to different things we did, but he was walking. And that was really neat. So we saw this growth and we saw him tolling around the room and we saw that he learned to walk.

28:28 Well, it's the same thing that Paul's talking about here. He in a way in verse six is like a spiritual parent. Alright. He says you need to walk in Christ. You've been saved.

28:38 Christ is now in your life, but you need to walk in him. Let's go to John please. John chapter 15. John chapter 15 this is a famous message where Jesus talking about a vineyard and he's talking about how these these grapes are growing on these branches, but there's this vine that has the roots in the ground that has to be healthy for these grapes to grow and so he speaks this in John 15 verse five. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches.

29:14 He who buys in me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. We are supposed to be in Christ. It says, so walk in him. How do you walk in Christ? Well, if you just go back a page in my bible, maybe maybe yours too, in Colossians one ten, we were told earlier in this letter that we would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, Colossians one ten.

29:43 How do we do that? To please him in all respects bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthen with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience and it continues on. So we're told how they would look if we are walking in a manner worthy of the Lord. How do we walk in Christ?

30:06 Well we have to remember the way we walk in Christ is that he is in us and we are in him. Once we receive the Lord Jesus as our savior, we are promised his presence at all times. Question. How much of the Lord Jesus are you letting walk through you? When you make a decision, do you check with the word of God first?

30:33 When you make a decision for your time, we talk about discipline a little bit. When you make a decision on a big important activity that your families may be considering or you personally considering. Do you check with scripture first? The greatest mistakes I've made in my life were when I made major decisions and didn't filter it through the word of God. You have some wonderful godly people in this assembly that would eagerly come along beside you and pray with you about decisions that you're making in life.

31:03 That's where that intimacy, that's where that knit together in love comes into play. You're not alone. The Holy Spirit abides in you but also you have brothers and sisters in Christ that are eagerly waiting to come along beside you to help you through some of the challenges of life. We have this incredible blessing of his presence with us and his presence in others to come along beside us too. Look at verse seven.

31:29 Verse seven has a three three fold description. This is really neat. He says, how how are we to walk in him? It says having been firmly rooted and now being build up in him and establishing your faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. Well first we're to be rooted in Christ.

31:48 And right when I think of a root, what do you think of? I think of a tree. And I think of an 83 foot tall pine tree that I got to see a lot of its roots that I didn't really want to see. Because it fell down in my backyard back on October 31 when super storm Sandy came through this area. '83 foot foot tall pine tree laying in my backyard took off the corner of our garage and landed in my driveway and missed my cars by about 10 feet.

32:13 I was very grateful for that. But boy, you know I learned a lot about roots. We're to be rooted in Christ. Well, just like that tree has roots that stretch out all the way out underneath the the branches and they're out of sight though. They're out of sight.

32:28 What's their purpose? God designed them. To bring nourishment to the tree. Right? Draw forth nourishment.

32:33 It goes up the trunk and into the branches and the leaves and whatever's up there. Alright? So it draws nourishments. Also for strength. So when the winds come, the roots hold, and the tree doesn't do, unfortunately, that it did on that particular day.

32:47 We weren't the only ones that had pine trees that fell and what I heard from, I can't remember the source, but they said was because the winds came from the North and all the winds usually come from the West. And because that swirling super storm Sandy was coming around, all of a sudden we had these waves crashing into Lake Erie shore up by I-ninety, the shore way, and we had all kinds of destruction. We had trees going down everywhere, and they said it's because the roots were strengthened from the everyday storms of of life and so they were strengthened and the trees don't go down. All of a sudden got hit broadside and those roots were not as strong. Also, ground was completely saturated from all the rain that we had.

33:44 We don't see the roots and if we do see them there's trouble. Right? Okay. What happens behind the scenes when you're not here on a Sunday morning? We're not here on a Wednesday night prayer meeting?

33:54 When you're not here for fellowship? What's happening in your everyday life? Are you spending time with the word of God in your hand? And whatever method you choose to read it, are you spending time? Are you growing stronger?

34:07 Like these roots are growing stronger when the the trials of life come along. Are you going to God's word and saying how can I grow in Christ in this trial? How can I grow strongly rooted in him? His word is our personal defense. Back to that combat idea.

34:27 What happens when we fail to do this is when the storms come and we come crashing. And our roots are exposed and we say, you know what? I really don't know God's word that well. I really haven't studied it. My kids I take them to church and everything.

34:41 I think it's great for them, but personally I don't do much of that. I enjoyed spending my time doing other things. And when we find that the trials come, you say, wow, I wish I would have put more time and effort into strengthening those roots to be below ground. Let's take a look at first Peter please. First Peter chapter four.

34:59 A wonderful example of Peter writing to the persecuted church. First Peter four verses twelve and thirteen. Had a discussion with... About this with my wife this morning is, why do we as Christians think that life should be easy? Why are we surprised when things don't go well?

35:17 Especially if you think you're doing something for the Lord. Especially, well, I'm doing this for God. Doesn't he owe me something? You know what I'm talking about? You ever feel that way?

35:26 Well, look at first Peter four twelve and thirteen. He's speaking to the body as a whole. He says beloved. In other words, I love you folks and you need to listen to this. Don't be surprised at the fiery ordeals among you.

35:41 In other words, believers, don't be surprised when you have trials. What does he say? Which come upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also with the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exaltation. In other words, guess what?

36:05 If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, expect to suffer. Expect trials. You're entering in with the same... With all aspects of Christ. We rejoice in his resurrection.

36:18 We're part of that. We're also need to rejoice in his sufferings. We're part of that. It's a challenge isn't it? It's a huge challenge.

36:27 Our culture is no pain at whatever cost. I got a headache, pop a couple pills. Right? I got a pain in my back, surgery or the chiropractor. You know, you name it, there's something out there or somebody out there that wants to fix it.

36:42 And all it takes is money, usually, or some sacrifice another way. But what Paul what Paul's reminding us here and Peter's reminding us that we need to be rooted and make our faith strong so that when these trials come we shouldn't be surprised and we should be able to resist it. I used to be a civil engineer and I guarantee you when it was raining we weren't putting down concrete. Alright? When the storms are out there, they I need a truck in there right now.

37:14 Let's let's place that foundation for that four story building. No. I don't think so. Alright. Let's say, okay, we're canceling the floor this tomorrow because it's gonna rain and we'll have the trucks come in when the weather's better.

37:24 You place the foundation when the weather's good. So when the storms hit, the foundation is solid. If life is good for you right now, praise the lord for it. Enjoy it. The trials will be coming.

37:35 I'm not trying to be morbid, but this is the time that you strengthen the foundation. Right? This is a time that you feed the roots. Put a little miracle grow on your bible study. Okay?

37:46 And make them stronger so that when the trials come and you go, I can handle that. These soldiers that were out in battle had gone through live bullets. They'd been shot at. They learned how to deal with it so when it happened they didn't go into shock. They didn't go into shock.

38:07 They didn't freeze. They were able to press on. The story that impacted me the most of course was the battle of the bulge. The job of this air airborne unit was just to stay there and they got to know the shovel and dirt very personally. All they did was dig one hole, get in it, stay there until they were told to either fall back or press on.

38:30 And they did that for a long period of time until the tanks came in and relieved them. They said we didn't ask for anybody to relieve us. We were there. But they saw their buddies blown up. They saw their buddies lose their legs.

38:42 They saw trees splintering around them as the Germans were just pounding them with artillery for a very long period of time. Is Satan taking shots at this chapel? I bet you asked the elders without asking any detail they say, uh-huh. Is Satan taking shots at your family? This is where you get strong.

39:02 Now, if the weather's good, build that foundation. The second thing it says, you'd be built up in Christ. And that's where we... You see things. This is where the evidence is visible to the world.

39:14 Just like the foundations there and you start building the building, the skyscraper goes up five, 10, a 100 stories and you see that. Where does that come from? Well that comes from our exterior spiritual walk. So when Paul says that you are now being build up in him and establishing your faith, we go back to the Word of God. If we are strong foundationally, we should be able to be strong and be an evidence, a testimony for Jesus Christ.

39:47 Now not just to hold our hold our line, but now to go forward. Now to be offensive, not offensive but offensive. To go forward with the gospel. And that's where the Lord will use us and our testimony to reach the lost for him. We have to have that solid foundation, but now we're building...

40:07 Being build up in him, we go forward, and we won't stumble in our faith. Sadly, there's another evidence of that. When the foundations are weak, when the roots are not strong, we get situations like what happened when Paul was talking about someone that had that happened to them to a man named Timothy. Can we go to first Timothy chapter one? First Timothy chapter one verses eighteen and nineteen.

40:37 Paul says, this command I entrust you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight. Keeping faith in a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. I'll repeat that last song. Keeping faith and a good conscience, verse 19, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Paul knew a lot about shipwrecks.

41:07 If you read, I'm not going to ask you to go there, but if you read in second Corinthians, he describes all the experiences of his being a believer and being on the front lines for the Lord. It says here in second Corinthians eleven twenty five, three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night in a day, I've spent in the deep. We're talking floating at sea for a day and a half.

41:34 We're talking being in a ship that went down three times. So did he know what having a shipwrecked faith was? Yeah. He saw someone who had a faith and they went down because it wasn't strong when they faced trials. In conclusion, verses eight, nine, and 10 remind us again of where our weakness could be.

42:20 Don't take this place for granted. Don't take your elders for granted. It's easy for me to say I'm leaving in four weeks. Right? No.

42:28 I'm serious. There are churches all around the world that are struggling. They love the Lord but they don't have the personnel. They don't have the experiences behind them. The Lord has blessed.

42:39 Let's take Bible fellowship and I I I kind of... I heard the amen over there from mister Gonzales. You've been in more assemblies than I probably have even visited and you preached them probably more and would you agree with that sir? Amen. And so I would just encourage you that you have been instructed.

42:55 Your children have been instructed. There are some ways all around the country that wish they could have some of the ministry that we have here. But don't rest in your laurels. When the when the Japanese attacked The Philippines, the men that they attacked worse on the Bataan death march were the big guys. They found joy in torturing the big guys.

43:24 Was it their fault that they were big? No. But they were targets. So they would be the first ones to get bayoneted. They'd be the first ones to be knocked down in front of a tank.

43:35 Terrible stuff. But just because they were big, Satan would have great joy in destroying this church. We gotta stand against it. It is it is battle folks and whether we know it or not, we're in it. And be grateful.

43:50 That's how seven ended. Do it with gratitude. Be grateful for what God has done here. Be grateful that you're here. Invite other people.

43:57 Come. See what we have here. It could change your life. I will not I will not take the time due due to it, but I would just encourage you, whoever's taken over after me, eight is huge. Verse eight is huge because this is how the enemy does it.

44:14 The enemy does it with philosophy, empty deception, traditions of men, and the elementary principle of the world. I just want to close with an experience I had just this week. One of my relatives died at the age of 76. I hadn't seen my cousins in twenty years, and I felt that I needed to go. I felt the...

44:39 Actually, I felt the Lord wanted me to go. I didn't wanna go, but I felt the Lord because it was an old day experience. And I knew that there had been teachings of God's word in the past on this side of my family, but I hadn't had any contact with them. Well, when I first saw them at the tent, gravesite, arrived there five minutes before it started, many of them came up to greet me. A man stood up next to the casket and he said, I'd like to tell you a little bit about this person.

45:13 And after about five sentences he says, that's all I know about her. Anybody else want to stand up and basically talk to us about her? Seven children were there. All adults, 28 and up, oldest 56. Only one spoke.

45:31 Talked about her stubbornness. Talked about her foul mouth, and talked about that she loved us and she was a great gardener. And he sat down. And I was like, Woah. And then my uncle got up, very godly man whose wife is dying of cancer.

45:50 I've asked some people to pray for her. Her name is Aunt Marjorie, very godly woman. And he said, Marjorie wrote this letter. And in that letter to the children was they say that I'm sorrowful, I'm sorry I couldn't be there, but my cancer prevents me from going anywhere and I just know that your mother's in heaven. And I was like, well that's encouraging.

46:12 And then there was silence after that letter was done. So the man stepped up again. He says, okay, well I'd like to read to you from this Chinese proverb. And now Ben Franklin said, and I'm like woah, Ben Franklin and a Chinese proverb. Do you want that said about you when you die?

46:39 Do you want the philosophies of men to describe your life? I would like to go back to a hymn if we could just take a peek at it. I know we're five minutes over but we don't have to sing it. This is five eighty five. Five eighty five fourth verse...

46:55 Third verse. Sing above the battle strife. Jesus saves. Can you imagine if you were on the beach in Normandy and you heard some guy who obviously was a believer and said, Jesus saves. As he's coming ashore with his gun blaring, trips over the sandal folds.

47:15 No, just kidding. You know, would that be interesting? But when you say, wow, there's a testimony. How about by his death an endless life? That's how it happened right?

47:27 For those of you don't know Jesus that's the only way it happens. By Jesus's death and his endless life is the only way we can be saved. Third line of that third verse says, sing it softly through the gloom when the heart or mercy craves. That's when life is tough. When life is not going well you can remind each other, remind yourself Jesus saves.

47:52 No matter what your trials are, Jesus saves. Sing in triumph over the tomb. I want that at my funeral. I want people at my funeral saying, Jesus saved. Here's a testimony.

48:11 This man we know is in heaven. I don't want any Chinese philosopher quote... Being quoted. Know the word of God, teach it to your kids, and be instructed and be grateful. Let's pray.

49:01 Kinda like Job. I know that my Redeemer liveth. So Lord today, send us out. We didn't get as far as I'd hoped to get through the scriptures, so I pray your blessing upon the next one that takes this passage. I pray that we would become aware of the attacks of the enemy.

49:20 I pray that we would defend, that would set up our defenses and that we would be solidly rooted in Christ. That we would be build up in him steadfast. That would be established in our faith just as we've been instructed and that we'd be grateful. So grateful for what the Lord Jesus has done for us and for the people that he's brought together in this place. We pray this now in Jesus name.

49:51 Amen.