All right, if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter two this morning as we continue our sermon series through the Book of Colossians. And if you are a man who has children and whose wife has been on the Women's Retreat all weekend and you're here, you win, bro. Thank you. Good job. You did it. And I'm one of you and running on fumes just like you, but the Lord will get us through this. I'm going to read Colossians chapter two six through 15 this morning. It is on page 1252 if you're going to use one of the big blue Bibles that we have underneath the chair in front of you. Here now God's holy, true, and life giving word. Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted, and built up in Him, and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See too it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised Him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of death that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame by triumphant over them in Him. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together. Our Father, we do thank You so much that You continue to speak to us through Your Word and Spirit. We thank You that You continue to show us Your glory and the glory of Your Son, the glory of Your Holy Spirit. And we pray now that You would use this time as we look at this passage that You would help us to grow, that You would deepen our faith, that You would strengthen our beliefs in You, that You would shape us, that You would equip us to do Your will, that You would equip us to continue to make disciples here in East Orlando and in places around the world as well. So we ask for Your blessing on this time in Your Word, in Jesus' name, amen. Some of you might remember, in 1961 there was a very special moment in professional football. It was the first day of training camp for the Green Bay Packers, and they were coming off for the off season, getting ready to get back into the swing on things. In the season prior, they had a great season, but they lost the championship game to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a devastating loss, 13 to 17. So in 1961, when training camp came, they were excited to get going. They wanted to have their best season ever, and so they were all gathered there, the Green Bay Packers and Coach Vince Lombardi kicked off training camp in a kind of interesting way. He gave a speech that's now somewhat famous. He did, as he held up a football, and he said to his team, gentlemen, this is a football. And then he went on to explain things about the football, and simple things like how you hold a football, and how you throw a football, and how you catch a football. And he talked about simple things like blocking and tackling these basic fundamental things. You see, his strategy was to help his team become masters of what most people in the league were taking for granted. These simple, fundamental elements of what makes a great football team mastering the basics. And so that was his strategy, and it worked for them six months later, the Green Bay Packers did beat the New York Giants 37-0 in the NFL championship. And so now, people look back on that and remember that the importance of getting back to the simple basics of something. And sticking to those basics, those fundamental, fundamental elements. And that's really what's happening here, as we are approaching this part of the book of Colossians. Paul, the apostle Paul, once again, is calling the Colossian Christians to look back to Christ, to be focused on Christ, and he's going to be talking about the importance of faith and how they need to continue in their faith the way that they began, by trusting in the Lord Jesus. And we've been talking in this series about how we want to grow and want to flourish spiritually and how that happens. We've been talking about how the Colossians were under pressure to get their eyes off of Christ and do other things, to experience growth, to experience the fullness of God. And here Paul, once again, gets our eyes back on Christ. And calls us really to believe that we flourish spiritually the same way we became Christians by faith. And so we're going to talk about faith this morning. And in three ways, we'll talk about how faith is the way we live. Paul calls us to walk in faith the same way that we became Christians. Then we'll talk about faith as the sign of new life. It's really powerful the way that he shows us that if we have faith and we can know for sure that something permanent has happened in us. And then third, faith as the proof of forgiveness. I think a lot of times, a lot of the reason why we can't seem to grow and really experience more joy in flourishing in our faith is because we're not convinced that we're forgiven. Paul does something really powerful here in this passage. So we'll talk about those three things. So keep your bottles open. Look at verses six through ten. Let's talk about faith as the way we live. And here's the point. If our faith is in Christ, we have complete access to God and his fullness. And so the more we live by faith, the more we will experience and enjoy what we already have through faith in Christ. And that is God Himself. You're going to see here that He's calling the Colossians and now God is calling us as well to continue in faith, to see that through faith. We already have full access to God. Look at what He says. Therefore, verse six, as you received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, walk in Him is another way of saying live. This is how we're to live. Okay. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in Thanksgiving. Keep in mind that at the beginning of this book, the first thing that He points out about the Colossians was their faith, that He knew about their faith. And so now He's saying, just as you received Christ by faith, continue in Him, continue the Christian life by faith, faith in Christ. And what's happening is people in Colossae were encouraging or influencing the Colossian Christians to begin now, to continue their walk in Christianity by trusting in certain things they were doing. And these things were taking their eyes off of Christ. That's why He says, don't be taken captive. Look at verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. And what He's saying there is, don't be driven away from a focus on Christ by the seeming appearance of wisdom, by people who are calling you to do things and focus on doing those things rather than remain focused on Christ. When He talks about human tradition and the elemental spirits of the world, He's referring to the fact that in our fallen nature, we are anti-grace, we're pro-marit. We naturally think that if I'm going to be able to approach God, I'm going to have to do these things. I'm going to have to be able to accomplish certain things. And that was what was happening in Colossae. People were calling them to rely more on the things that they were doing. The Paul saying, no, don't get taken captive by that stuff. Don't get taken captive by anything that takes your focus off of Christ. And He's not saying that we don't do things, but anything that we do should flow out of our faith in Christ. And because look at verse nine, here's a key thing that He's talking about. He says, for in Him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority. This is a very big point, because what He's saying is that we already have everything there is to have in God through faith in Christ. We have full access. God came fully to us in Christ, and if we have faith in Him, then we've been filled, He said, we've been complete in Him. One author says this. It means, about verse nine, it means simply that Christ, in Christ, they have been granted completeness and fulfillment, which they could not find or achieve anywhere else. The Colossian Christians already had all that is necessary for fullness of life. In other words, the second our faith is in Christ, we have full access to God, who's the creator and sustainer of all things, the one who's powerful over all things. Another author says this, our understanding of salvation may grow, and the appropriation of the blessings of salvation may increase, but in Christ, we already have all there is the fullness of salvation. This is something that it's easy for us to begin to think, no, if I'm really going to grow spiritually, it's going to be through the things that I do. I've got to do this, and I've got to avoid that. It's because of that old nature we have, that's very pro-marit and anti-grace. The question is, do we realize that we already have full access to God through faith in Christ? Here's a way to think about this. Jerry Bridges has a way of helping us think about this. He says, imagine two different days. Imagine one day, you get up early, you read your Bible for a little bit, you pray for a little bit, you're having a great day, you go to work, and you're able to share your faith with somebody, and it's just like, wow, what an amazing day. Then day two, a different day, you get up, you're late, you don't have time to read your Bible, you don't have time to pray, you kick the dog on the way out, it's just bad. And the question is, on which day do you feel more welcome in the presence of God? Because the reality is, it's the same for both. Because our access to God, the fullness of God, is right available to us at all times, not based on things that we're doing, but based on what Christ has done for us. And so we already have the fullness of God at the full access to Him, and so what limits us is not that we're not doing the right things, it's that we need more faith. We need to trust Him more. You know, there's this iconic picture of John F. Kennedy Jr. playing under the desk of John F. Kennedy. Isn't that? It's an amazing picture, and you have John F. Kennedy sitting on his desk, and he's smiling, and then there's a little door in the desk in the Oval Office, and that door is open, and you can see little John F. Kennedy Jr. sitting there. Because he used to go and play under the desk of his father, while his father was president. And here's what's interesting. He was asked one time about that, about playing under the desk, under the Oval Office. And he says this. I can remember playing under the big wooden desk in his office. My mother didn't like us to chew gum, so we'd go into his office, and he'd feed us gum under the desk. How awesome is that, right? Feed us gum under the desk. Now think about that. Here's the president of the world, or president, not the world's title, it's ridiculous. President of the United States, okay. President of the United States, one of the most powerful people in the world is what I'm inside. And he can just walk into his office anytime he wants, so he can chew gum, and hide from his mom, okay. That type of access is something that you and I aren't used to, because in the way the world works, we don't get access to important people or powerful people, right? If one of us wanted to access a sitting president, we'd have to go through who knows how many steps, and maybe it wouldn't even be possible. But if you're his kid, and you want to chew some gum, he's just walk right in, and go onto the desk, and he gives you the gum. That's what Paul is trying to communicate to us here, that through faith in Christ, we can walk right in, we have full access to God. There's not some steps or barriers to us being in God's presence, we are in his presence. We've been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son. And so faith then is a way of life. And what's inhibiting us from experiencing more of God is not that we're not doing all the right things, it's that we aren't believing as deeply. So we want a way of life in which we are seeking to believe these things more and more, to believe what God has revealed to us in the Scriptures. The more we believe, the more we see that we really do have full access to the God who's created and sustained all things, a little faith gets you the whole God. So he not only shows us that faith is really the way we live, it's the way we do life now, but then he says faith is the sign of new life. Look at verses 11 through 13, first part of verse 13, faith is the sign of new life. It's the sign that God has raised you from the dead spiritually and growth comes through believing more deeply. So if there's a slogan for Christians, it should not be try harder, it should be trust more. We tend to think it's try harder, try harder, but it's actually trust more. It's believe more deeply the things that have taken place that have led up to us actually having faith. Faith is the evidence that God has done something prior. Okay, let's look at what he says. Verse 11, in him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. So he's talking about spiritual things here by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. Now I know how much we would love to start talking about what does this tell us about baptism and mode of baptism, but that's not what Paul's teaching here. So we're not going to go there because I want to stay focused on what he is telling the Colossians and what God is telling us through this. Notice he's making some connections here. He's talking about the spiritual reality of what circumcision points to, the spiritual reality of what baptism points to. And here's what he's doing. He's connecting some things. He's connecting circumcision which was from the Old Testament as death and that what he's talking about is through faith and Christ we are united to Christ in his death. He has died a death that not only pays for our sins but also breaks the power of our sin. And then he's talking about baptism and burial and think about burial. If you have died, burial is what shows you that it's final. That life is done now. That old life of being under the power of sin is done now. We've been buried through faith and Christ. And then through faith we've been raised from the dead. In other words, faith is the sign or the evidence that something has taken place. If you have faith, it is because God has raised you from the dead spiritually. We were dead at the bottom of the ocean, not at the top reaching our hand out for help. We were dead at the bottom of the ocean. And God raised us to life. That's what he's saying in verse 13, look. He says, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him. He's wanting them to realize that their faith even is something that God has given to them as a gift. He's risen them from the dead. He's given them new life. And this new life that they have is just that. It's a new life. And it's different from the life of the domain of darkness. It's life in the kingdom where we can truly know God and we can trust Him and we can see Him through the eyes of faith. You know, Irenaeus was famous for saying that the glory of God is man-fully alive. You've heard that before. Well, that's not actually all he said. There's a comma and the rest of the sentence. What he really said was for the glory of God's man-fully alive and the life of man is the vision of God. In other words, what he's saying is God has seen fit to make people come alive through the work of his spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, to bring people to new life. And then the life that they have where that life and fullness and glory and joy comes from is seeing Him, is knowing Him more and more and more. So he wants us to feel that we are fully alive. Why do we not feel fully alive then? The reason that we struggle to feel fully alive is because we're like the disciples. We are of little faith. Think about the amount of times that Jesus said to the disciples, oh, you of little faith. He did not say to them, you guys don't believe it all. But many, many times in Matthew 6, Matthew 8, Matthew 14, Matthew 16, Matthew 17, he would say, you of little faith. And that's what we're being called to then is to believe these things more deeply, to know that if we have faith, then it's because God has raised us from the dead. He's raised us from the dead spiritually so we can know Him. So we can live in that full access that we have to Him and the power that comes through a real relationship with Him. So that leads to our lives really changing through His power. And a lot of us just think we can't change. We think that we're just stuck where we are. You know, it's interesting, in India, they tie up elephants with just a little piece of twine that the elephant could break it if he wanted to. But the reason that an elephant doesn't break the twine and stays tied to the post or the tree or whatnot is because it's been conditioned from when it was very little to believe that if there's something around my ankle, I can't get away. And the way that they do that is when the elephants are really little, they tie them up to a post or a tree with a big heavy chain. And it can't break that. And it gets used to the idea that if there's something around my ankle, I'm stuck. So when it's a big, huge elephant that could knock a house over, they actually only need to tie it up with something very light and easy to carry because all it needs to feel is something around its ankle and it will not try to get away. It's been conditioned. And see, in our fallen nature and in the domain of darkness in the world, we are conditioned to think that we can't grow, that we can't flourish, that we can't know God more and more and find tremendous joy in Him. That's what we think. The Paul is saying here that we've been made fully alive. If we have faith, we've been made fully alive and we have access to God and His power. And so experiencing more of that comes through more faith, trusting more and more and more. Here's, let's get real practical on this. You know, a number of men in our country, many men in our country, struggle with looking at inappropriate content on the internet, magazines, it's a huge problem, okay. It's from ISAB. Now I don't have that problem anymore and many men that I know have seen real victory in this area. But it doesn't come from just trying harder. It comes from trusting more and here's what that looks like. In that situation, whatever it is, whether it's pornography or whether it's any particular sin, when that temptation comes, our old self says to us, you can't help it. You're a slave. But the Bible says, no, we have been made alive. We are new. We're a new creation. We're no longer under sin's domineering power. And as you believe that more and more, no, I'm a new person. I don't have to do that. I'm not enslaved to that anymore. That's what, over time, through continued trust, repentance and faith, breaks the power completely of that old sin. The power that the sin has over you is a lot weaker than you think. You've been conditioned to think you're stuck. Here, the word of God says, no, you are alive. You've been made alive in Christ through faith. And so if you have faith, you're alive. You're alive to God. You can trust Him. You can access His power. And as you rely on Him more and more, you'll see that He's giving you the power for a transformed life. Because Jesus has not only delivered us on the cross from the penalty of our sins, but also from its power. And a lot of times we can fall prey to thinking that what will deliver me from the power of sin is if I do more. I need to do more stuff, but it's actually going to be through trusting more. And it's also going to come from really believing the good news of the gospel when it comes to forgiveness. Look at verses 13b through 15. Because not only is He told us that faith is the way of life, the way we live and faith is the evidence that we have this new life. We're a new person. Also He's showing us that faith is the proof of forgiveness. If our faith is in Christ, God has canceled our record of debt. And Christ has disarmed the demands that had power over us. Let me unpack that statement. Look at verse 13b through 15. He says, having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. So now in Colossae at this time, what is he thinking about as far as the rulers and authorities? He's really thinking about the way that they were influenced by Gentile polytheism and even some things from Judaism. And so there's a whole bunch of things that are influencing them on what they need to do. See they were afraid of some of the local so-called deities and they thought they were being told that they had to do certain things to appease them as well as do things for the God of the universe. And He wants them free from that. He wants them to see that Christ has disarmed all that stuff. Now you and I probably aren't bowing down to statues. We probably are free already from the idea of polytheism and things like that. But that doesn't mean that we're still not dominated by things in our lives, by thoughts and assumptions. And so this applies to us fully today as well. You see, there's a lot that happens when we struggle to believe that our record of debt really has been canceled. And what happens is we become dominated by what I call the how could I and the have-tos, the how could I and the have-tos, here's what I mean by that. When we think about our life and particularly whether or not we have access to God, we are going to remember that we are sinners. It comes to mind. In fact, you can probably name certain sins that every so often, it always, it comes back to your mind because you see something that's connected to it. And you experience that feeling, that powerful feeling of, how could I have done that? How could I have done that? How could I have done that? You know that feeling? That comes from feeling the guilt and the shame of our sin. And then what it does, the how could I often generate these, I have-tos in our lives, where we begin to think if I'm ever going to really be able to access God, or if I'm ever going to be worth anything, then I have to do this. I have to do that. I have to become a better mom, or I have to succeed at this venture in my life. I have to get better grades. I have to do this, you know that feeling. The how could I, as in the half to, is all flow out of that fear that we're not really forgiven? Which is why what Paul says here, in the imagery he uses, is life-changing because notice verse 15, he says, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphant over them in him. Let me tell you what he's saying there. The Colossians would have heard this, they would have known exactly what he's talking about. We have to do a little history. And here's what he's saying, in the Roman time, in Rome, when they conquered their enemies, they would very often come back to the city. And the person who led the army would be sort of paraded through the city to show their victory and to celebrate their victory. Out in front of this victorious ruler would be a whole bunch of people and almost always some enemy soldiers. And those enemy soldiers would be bound and they would be paraded all through the city so that the people could see that enemy that I used to be afraid of has no power over me anymore. Look, he's bound, he's destroyed, he's captured. That enemy that threatened us is now powerless. What Paul is saying is that when Christ was bound and paraded through the city on the way to the cross, he was actually bringing about the complete reversal. And then having died on the cross and set us free from sins that God cancels the record of debt against us, allows us to see all of those, how could I do that? How could I do that? Now, instead of having power over us and stealing our joy, we can see it as bound and being paraded in front of us, conquered by Christ. And those have tos, I have to do this, I have to do that, I'll never measure up unless I do this, I've got, I have to do this. Those two are now, those demands are bound and they're being paraded in front of us because they've been conquered by Christ, do you see what you're saying here? You're not under the power of that guilt anymore, it's bound. You're free, you're not under the demand of you have to do this or you have to do that. That too is bound, disarmed, it doesn't have power over you anymore, and in Christ we're not living a life of, I have to, we get to live a life of, I want to, I'm free, he's paraded my enemies in front of me, my guilt and my shame and the demands that I come up with, I'm free and you're free. If we'll believe more and more, we'll see more and more how free we really are. If we live by faith and see our faith as proof that we've been raised from the dead, we have full access to God and through the eyes of faith to see those old demands that once had power over us now, powerless. That changes your life, let's pray. Father, would you help us to name our, how could I's and have to's, help us talk about him in our community groups? Would you help us to believe, we, Christ has disarmed those old demands, he has fulfilled the law in our place, and he has died to pay for us in, canceling the record of debt. We want to feel free, and we need that to come from you, so help us keep our eyes fixed on Christ and to know that he has disarmed these old demands and powers. For your glory and for our joy, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.