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I've noticed that this microphone is real hot.

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Let's turn that down.

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What I have noticed is that plants can be deceiving and I've picked up on that after a couple

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years of gardening now.

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For instance, there's this little weed that grows in my garden and it's got a really

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spiky stem and some spiky leaves.

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Gene probably knows the name of it, I'm sure.

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But it's in the garden and it looks really flimsy.

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So it looks like you could walk over to this thing and just easily uproot the whole thing

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out of the ground and you would be wrong.

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Because you go over and you pick at that thing and not only does it prick your fingers, but

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you might only pull off a leaf or a little bit of the stem, but you're not getting out

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of the ground.

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It's because even though it looks flimsy, that plant has some really deep roots.

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So you actually have to get in there and shovel it out.

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Now you compare that to something like a squash plant.

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I think you all know what a squash plant looks like, look familiar?

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Yeah?

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Look good, everybody think about fried squash now, right?

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So yeah, squash plants are deceiving because they grow to be this huge plant and they spread

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out really far and you can see there that the branches are pretty thick, right?

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So when you look at a squash plant, you would think, man, I bet that thing is super sturdy

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and you would be wrong.

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I think everybody in here who's ever grown squash can tell you that they've plucked

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up the entire plant just by trying to get one squash off of it before.

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That's what happens.

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It's because it has these really weak shallow roots.

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And so when my son, Judah, wants to come out and pick the garden with me, he has free

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rain over the whole garden except the squash plants because I know that if he's not careful,

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he can easily uproot the whole thing.

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And it's interesting that when we come to this passage in Colossians, Paul is greatly

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concerned that people are going to be coming into the Colossian church and plucking up the

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Colossian Christians.

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He is worried that there's going to be some false teachers who are going to come into

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their midst and pluck them up.

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And you have to keep in mind, Paul has never met the Colossians.

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Paul is in prison at the time that he is writing this.

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He's never even visited Colossae that we know of.

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And yet he has this great concern for them.

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In fact, he's so concerned for them.

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It's almost like he's losing sleep over this situation.

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He's keeping him up at night.

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And he even says very plainly in verse four, I say this in order that no one may delude

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you with plausible arguments.

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So you see, that's what he's concerned about.

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He's worried that there's some false teachers who are going to come in and delude the Christians

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with plausible arguments and pluck them up.

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And I can relate to Paul here because I've told you all before, I really have no fear

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that a Muslim or a Hindu or Sikh or anything like that is going to lead you astray.

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I really have no concern about that whatsoever.

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But I do get real anxious when you text me and say, hey pastor, Jehovah's Witness came

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to the door today.

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I love those conversations.

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Those are my favorite ones to have.

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But I get worried when they come to your house because I'm worried that Jehovah's Witnesses

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sound just enough like Christians to lead true Christians astray or to lead people down

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a path that is actually false teaching.

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I mean, this is the same kind of concern that Christian parents have when they send their

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kids off to college too, right?

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You raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

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You train them up in the ways of the Lord.

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They're in church their whole lives.

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And then when you send them off to college, you're concerned that they're going to get

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around some academic atheists and they're going to lead your children astray.

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And that's the same kind of concern Paul has here.

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And so what he's doing is he's checking the Colossians' roots.

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He wants to see how firm their roots are.

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And the point he's making here is that disciples with deep roots aren't easily plucked.

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Disciples with deep roots aren't easily plucked.

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And he desperately wants all Christians to have these deep roots in Christ.

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That's why he even says in verses six and seven, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus,

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the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just

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as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving.

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Now, listen, it's one thing for me to stand up here this morning and say that as a Christian,

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you should have deep roots in Christ.

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But the problem is we all know of people who claim to have deep roots in Christ at one

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point who've walked away from the faith.

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They seemed like they were deeply rooted in Christ, right?

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They seemed like they were a strong Christian and now they don't even claim to be a Christian.

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We know of other people that we thought were deeply rooted.

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And then something happened to them in their life.

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They had a great tragedy happen to them and it was enough not only just to shake their

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faith but it was enough to completely uproot their faith.

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You see, we all know that there will be storms in our lives that will test our roots but

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you want to make sure that your faith is going to be firm before the storm gets there, right?

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I mean, imagine that you were going on a beach vacation and you were staying in a newly built

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house in this hurricane season and you go and you talk to the homeowner and you say,

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hey, there's a hurricane on the way.

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How do you think she'll hold up?

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And he says, we'll see.

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How are you feeling at that point?

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Pretty good.

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You feel comfortable?

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No, right?

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You want to know before the storm hits that the house is going to stand, right?

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And in the same way, you want to know that your faith is going to be able to withstand

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the storms of life before the storms get there.

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And so this is what Paul is addressing here in this passage and the question I want us

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to consider is what are the signs that we are deeply rooted disciples?

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If we do want to make sure that our faith is going to hold up, that our roots are deep,

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that the foundation is sure, then what are the signs that we are deeply rooted disciples?

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I want you to see what the word says here in verses one through three.

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Paul writes, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those that

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lay out to see it and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may

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be encouraged, be in knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance

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of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ in whom are hidden

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all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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So you notice here what is Paul's aim as he's writing to these Christians?

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He's writing to encourage them and specifically he is wanting to encourage them to knit themselves

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together in love.

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Did you notice that there?

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I want you to be knit together in love.

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Now the question is, why would this be the first thing that Paul mentions?

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If he knows that false teachers are coming into this church and he knows that heresy

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is starting to be spread in this church, why wouldn't he just jump straight into sound

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doctrine?

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Why wouldn't he just jump straight into addressing all of the problems?

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Why start here?

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I think the answer is because Paul understands that the church's strength lies not in individuals

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but in the community that God has placed us in.

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You see a house may be made of some incredibly strong materials, but unless those materials

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are put together correctly, it doesn't matter how strong they are, the whole house is going

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to fall, right?

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That's exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 12, 25.

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He said this before Abraham Lincoln by the way, every kingdom divided against itself

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is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

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In other words, the church rises together and the church falls together.

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The church succeeds together and the church fails together.

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The church's strength does not come from a few standout Christians.

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It comes from the whole community that God has placed us in.

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And it's really interesting that God in his wisdom has given us some examples of this

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in creation.

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So for instance, here's a picture of a California redwood tree.

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We don't have any trees that big around here, but you can see this is a huge tree, right?

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And some of you have probably seen them in person.

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I never have.

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That'd be cool to see one day, but these are some of the biggest trees in America and in

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the world, California redwoods and sequoias.

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They can grow to be about 350 feet tall.

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I mean, they're just massive.

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And so you would look at these trees and you would think that in order for a tree to be

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this tall, it must have some pretty deep roots in order to be able to grow to this height.

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But in actuality, California redwoods and sequoias, their roots typically only go about

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five to six feet deep.

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And as you can see here, what actually gives them their strength is that even though their

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roots only go about five to six feet deep, they go about 150 feet outward.

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And what they do is they start intertwining their roots with the roots of all the other

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trees in the area and all their roots start to fuse together.

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And so when this happens, these trees become an almost immovable object that the tree does

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not get its strength from its own root system.

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It starts depending on all the roots of all the other trees.

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And so that the entirety of that groove is strung together.

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Now we can look at this picture and pictures of California redwoods and we can appreciate

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God's creation, right?

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We can appreciate the beauty of his design.

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But when I look at this picture, I see a picture of the church.

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I see a picture of what God is calling us to do here because like the redwood trees,

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we get our strength from other believers from being rooted not only in Christ, but rooted

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together with other believers.

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Like these trees, we're called to intertwine our roots with the roots of other believers.

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And when we do this, when we are rooted together in Christ and rooted with one another, it's

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in the faith, then the gates of hell can do nothing against the church of Jesus Christ.

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We are strong because of God's design.

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And so the point that Paul's making here is that deeply rooted disciples are deeply rooted

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with other disciples.

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Deeply rooted disciples are deeply rooted with other disciples.

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In other words, church, you were never meant to do life alone.

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You were never meant to live out the faith alone.

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God did not call a single person.

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He called and collected a people.

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And that is the church.

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We are called and collected by God to knit ourselves together in love, to intertwine our

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roots with the roots of other believers and stay in firm against anything and everything

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that we will face from the world.

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I love the way the great German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it.

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He said, it is grace and nothing but grace that we are allowed to live in community

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with Christian brethren.

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This means that if you're an isolated Christian, you are in danger because it means that you

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were not rooted together with other believers, which means you are depending on the strength

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of your own faith to withstand all the storms that you will face in life.

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It means that you are depending on yourself and your own strength and your own wisdom

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to make it through everything.

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And listen, you might have done it up to this point.

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But what happens when a bigger storm comes?

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What happens when a tragedy comes that you didn't expect?

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Are you certain that you are still going to be standing even then?

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You know, I think one of my favorite parts of our church service together is our time

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of fellowship.

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Because by the way, that's not something we put in there because we have to.

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There's not like a Baptist manual that says, here's the order.

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There might be actually, that sounds like something Baptist would do.

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Now if it exists, I don't have it.

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I don't know about it.

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So, but that's not why we put that in there.

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We didn't put that in there because we have to.

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We put it in there because the Bible says in Acts chapter two that Christians are to

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be as devoted to fellowship as they are to the teaching of the apostles.

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And so we take fellowship very seriously here.

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And we put that in there and this is beautiful time because there's no time constraints.

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It doesn't say like we're going to talk to each other for two minutes or three minutes.

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I mean, we could do that or we could talk to each other for 15.

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Doesn't matter.

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Like there's no time constraints.

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But it's a beautiful time when we can go around and talk to other brothers and sisters

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in Christ and connect with them.

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And we can start to intertwine our roots together with other believers.

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So let me just give you a warning here.

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The absolute worst thing that you can do during the time of fellowship, and I should have

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preached this before we had it.

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The worst thing that you can do is sit there at your pew or stand there at your pew and

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not move at all.

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That's the worst thing you could do is just stay right where you are and cross your fingers

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and hope that someone comes and talks to you or the opposite.

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Cross your finger and hope someone doesn't come talk to you and they just leave you alone.

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That's the worst thing you could do.

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The best thing that you can do during that time is leave your pew.

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That's the first thing you should do.

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Whenever Jordan stands up and says time of fellowship, first thing you do is leave your

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pew.

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You force yourself to go and talk to other people.

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Introduce yourself to other people.

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Go talk to people that you haven't talked to before.

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Go talk to people that you don't typically talk to.

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Talk to connect with other believers and intertwine your roots with them so that you can be built

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up and knit together in love.

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That's how we form this Christian community that God has placed us in.

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So one question I think everybody should be asking themselves right now is whose roots

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have I intertwined with?

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Who's going to help me withstand the storms of life?

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I'm personally very thankful for my gospel group because I can say right now that we

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have truly intertwined our roots together because we've got this group chat and I can't

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tell you how often during the week that goes off 24-7 all the time and all throughout the

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week people are texting saying that they need help or they're struggling or they're asking

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for prayer and without fail everybody rushes in to encourage, to help, to build each other

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up, to pray for one another.

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If someone's struggling we rush in to do everything we can to help them.

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I mean we are not a group of individual trees.

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We are a grove that God has knit together in love and rooted together in love.

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And listen Paul is saying here that's what the entire church is supposed to look like.

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It's not just individual groups within the church, the entire church is supposed to be

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like this.

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So listen we can't stand firm against the storms of life and all that is coming our way if

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we're busy chopping down the trees and roots of other believers.

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How are we supposed to stand firm and be knit together in love if we're constantly hacking

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at other believers?

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The world is going to do enough damage to us.

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Let's not help them and make their job easier by hurting ourselves.

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The church will only be as strong as our love for one another.

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Paul knows this which is why he starts here but notice his other aim in verses two and

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three.

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He says not only that but to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding

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and the knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures

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of wisdom and knowledge.

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Now I want you to notice something interesting here.

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Paul is keeping his focus entirely on Jesus.

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So before he's getting into all the different heresies that he's heard about and all the

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ways false teaching has come into this church he is pointing people to Jesus and setting

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their focus on him.

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And the question is well why would he do that?

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It's very simple it's because Paul understands that if the Colossians can just know Jesus

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for who he truly is and how he has revealed himself to us then they will easily be able

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to spot every single counterfeit Christ that might come their way.

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This is exactly how the FBI dealt with the problem of counterfeit checks.

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Back in the 70s and 80s check fraud and counterfeit checks were rampant because checks were one

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of the primary methods of payment right?

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And so the FBI wanted to do something about this and they were training people on how

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to spot counterfeits.

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Here's what they didn't do.

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They did not make people study thousands of images of all the possible ways that you can

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forge a check and make a counterfeit check.

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Instead what it was really interesting what they did is they formed this task force and

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they gave them all authentic checks and they made them spend hundreds and hundreds and

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hundreds of hours studying what real checks look like because they knew if they understood

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and could recognize the real thing then they'd easily be able to spot the counterfeit.

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And Paul is saying the same thing here.

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He's saying that deeply rooted disciples focus on knowing the real Jesus so they can easily

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spot counterfeits.

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In other words church if you will know the true Jesus and how God has revealed him in

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Scripture you don't have to know the ins and outs of every possible heresy.

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You have to just know Jesus as God has revealed him to us.

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So for instance let's go back to Jehovah's Witnesses.

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Let's say you're at your house and a Jehovah's Witness comes to your house and you're talking

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to a Jehovah's Witness and you're talking to a Jehovah's Witness and you're talking

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to a Jehovah's Witness and you're talking to me and you say pastor typically here's

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what I do.

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I just shut the door in their face and tell them to try the next house or I give them your

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address because I don't want to deal with them.

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So you're missing a great witnessing opportunity there but let's just say you say pastor I

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don't really know what Jehovah's Witnesses believe.

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I don't know their theology and so I don't feel like I can have a productive conversation

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with them.

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Well here's the thing you don't actually have to know everything they believe.

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Because if a Jehovah's Witness comes to your door and they say hey we just want to talk

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to you about the kingdom of God make sure you understand that Jesus is not God.

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He never claimed to be God and that he is actually the first thing that God created.

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You could pause right there if you know the real Jesus.

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It's very easy for you to say hold on brother I don't know where you're getting that but

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that's not the Jesus of the Bible.

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That is not what we read in the scripture.

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We read in scripture that nothing was created apart from Jesus and everything that was created

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was created by Jesus.

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So if Jesus was created how could he create himself?

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Doesn't work that way.

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We read in the Bible that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and

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the Word was God.

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The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is God in the flesh.

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And so you don't have to understand and know everything about Jehovah's Witnesses.

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You just have to know what the Bible says about Jesus.

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And if you know what the Bible says about Jesus you can have that conversation.

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I'd say the same is true for Mormons.

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We don't have a lot of them around our area but if you ever go to Utah or Arizona you'll

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start seeing a lot more of them.

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You might say well pastor I don't really know what Mormons believe.

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I don't understand Mormon theology.

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That's okay.

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I don't think they do either.

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I don't think they know what they believe.

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But let's say you're having a conversation with one and they say hey the Bible doesn't

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teach that there's a Trinity and the Bible says that not only is Jesus not God he is

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the brother of Satan.

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I think you all know enough Bible to go hold on a second.

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Once again I don't know where you're getting that from but that is not what the Bible

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says about Jesus.

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We're talking about two different Jesuses here.

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The Jesus of the Bible has no brother.

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It's certainly not Satan who is the enemy of God whom Jesus crushes under his foot.

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That is not what the Bible teaches.

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So the point I'm trying to make to you here is that I know that we typically believe we

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can't have productive conversations with people unless we know everything that they believe

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in all the possible heresies.

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But listen to me.

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As Christians we are not called to be experts in everything.

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We are called to be experts in one thing and that one thing is Jesus.

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And Paul is saying here if you will just know Jesus for how he has been revealed in Scripture

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you're going to be equipped to spot every possible heresy that you could ever come

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across.

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And this is what he says in verses four through seven.

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I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.

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For though I am absent in body yet I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good order

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in the firmness of your faith in Christ.

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Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in

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him and established in the faith just as you were told.

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Abounding in thanksgiving.

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Now I want you to notice this phrase here plausible arguments.

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In the Greek this was used in the ancient world to describe arguments in which lawyers

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would try to cloud the mind of jurors by basically getting them to contradict or give a verdict

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that contradicted all the evidence.

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So basically these lawyers were coming in and they didn't have a credible argument.

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They just used fancy language and they used catchy phrases to try to sow a seed of doubt

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into the minds of jurors to get them to give a verdict they agreed with.

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So if you want a modern example of what this would have looked like back then it's the

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ancient equivalent of if it doesn't fit you must equip.

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Only three people got that.

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Okay that's fine.

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No one watched the OJ trial.

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That's crazy.

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But that's basically what these guys were doing.

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They were saying hey ignore all the evidence ignore everything you've heard before.

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Here's something new to consider and they wanted to put this new thing before them so

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that they would start questioning the roots of their faith and the foundation of their

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faith.

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And basically this is what was happening in the Colossian church.

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Some false teachers had started invading the Colossian church and they were seeking to

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corrupt all the believers there.

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What they were doing is they were touting something known as Gnosticism.

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If you want to know how to spell that you can just it's spelled like it sounds of course.

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G-N-O-T-I-C-I-N-S-I-S-M.

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So Gnosticism which just comes from the Greek word gnosis which means knowledge.

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And basically what they taught is that people needed this spiritual hidden knowledge in

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order to achieve true spiritual enlightenment and know God.

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And so they were basically saying hey I know you think you know God because you know Jesus

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but if you really want to know God and you really want to achieve spiritual enlightenment

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you need this secret hidden knowledge.

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And this was rooted in the philosophy of Plato.

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And Plato basically taught that everything physical was bad and everything immaterial

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or spiritual was good.

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And so what humans needed to do was they needed to get rid of the physical, embrace

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the spiritual and then you have spiritual enlightenment.

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This is why one of the first heresies the church ever encountered was people saying

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that Jesus didn't actually have a human body.

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They said of course God would never take on a human body that's physical.

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Everybody knows that's bad that's evil.

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And so they claimed that Jesus merely appeared to have a human body while he actually was

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just a spiritual being.

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And that contradicted the clear teaching of scripture.

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So this is what the Colossian church is up against and this is what Paul is addressing

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here and the way that he is countering this heresy is by telling them that they don't

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need to attain this secret knowledge they just need to know Jesus.

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Jesus said the same thing in John 819.

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They said to him therefore where's your father?

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And Jesus answered you know neither me nor my father.

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If you knew me you would know my father also.

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So how do you know the father?

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Through Jesus.

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Sunday school answer guys right?

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Yeah.

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How do you know the father?

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Through Jesus right?

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If you knew me you would know the father.

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He says the same thing in Matthew 1127.

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All things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the

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father.

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Listen no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to

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reveal him.

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That's the point that Paul is reiterating here.

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What he's doing is essentially warning against novelty in theology.

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These people are trying to introduce something new into classical Christianity and Paul is

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warning against that.

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The way that I always say to people is novelty in theology is heresy.

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Anytime you introduce something new into the old you will end up with heresy.

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You can see many examples of that in our day.

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Think of someone like Joseph Smith.

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He claimed to receive new revelation from God and so what he did was he introduced a

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bunch of new things into the faith and we end up with the heretical teachings of the Mormon

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church.

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Or you can think about someone like Charles Taz Russell.

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He also claimed to receive new revelation from God.

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He introduced all sorts of new things into theology and then we end up with the heretical

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teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

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If you want just a modern day example of someone who's still alive you can think of someone

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like Joseph Prince who's a well-known preacher and teacher.

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He's a false teacher.

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So you all got to stop sharing his quotes on Facebook because I see it and I take notes.

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So all right you all got to stop that.

425
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So no more Joseph Prince stuff.

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He is a false teacher and he is one of the leading voices in what's known as the hyper

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00:26:59,500 --> 00:27:01,580
grace movement.

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Now initially that sounds great right?

429
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We love grace at this church.

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We are all about grace so hyper grace just more of it.

431
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That sounds great.

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So basically what this movement teaches is that because of God's grace in Christ nobody

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needs to repent of their sins.

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And nobody needs to ask for God's forgiveness.

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Nobody needs to confess their sins.

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In fact this movement teaches that obedience to God is not even something that needs to

437
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be part of your life.

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You can obey him.

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You cannot obey him.

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You can go to church.

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You cannot go to church.

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You can sin or not sin.

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You live your life however you want to live.

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Basically they teach that all you have to do is acknowledge that God has done something

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in Christ by sending him to die on the cross and now you are free to live however you want

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and do whatever you want and you will still be saved and go to heaven.

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That's novelty in theology and it's led to heresy.

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Because I don't know if you remember but Jesus' first ever sermon back in Matthew chapter

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4 was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Jesus also if you remember in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation he told

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each of those churches that they needed to repent of what they were doing and turn again

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to him.

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If you remember Peter's first sermon at Pentecost the crowd asked him what must we do to be saved

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and Peter said repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

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Repentance repentance repentance all throughout the Bible but this movement says we're grace

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or we're sin abounded grace abounded all the more and we want to say yes of course that's

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what the Bible says we're sin abounds grace abounds all the more but you can't stop reading

458
00:28:51,460 --> 00:28:56,980
there because Paul then goes on to say so should we keep on sinning so that grace shall abound

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and he said may genuita may it never be of course not.

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00:29:00,740 --> 00:29:06,860
We should not abuse the grace of God by our sin and so what's happened here is that this

461
00:29:06,860 --> 00:29:15,260
movement has sounded really appealing it's used church words it's referencing scripture

462
00:29:15,260 --> 00:29:23,100
but it's introduced enough novelty to lead people astray into heresy and so what Paul

463
00:29:23,100 --> 00:29:28,860
is doing here is he is saying deeply rooted disciples walk the old trodden paths not

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new enticing paths deeply rooted disciples walk the old trodden paths not new enticing

465
00:29:39,500 --> 00:29:48,060
paths you want to avoid anything that is novel now it can be original but it doesn't need

466
00:29:48,060 --> 00:29:53,820
to be novel and certainly you should avoid anything that says there is a new way to God

467
00:29:53,820 --> 00:29:57,580
other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

468
00:29:57,580 --> 00:30:04,220
Jesus says in John 10 one truly truly I say to you he who does not enter the sheepfold

469
00:30:04,220 --> 00:30:11,820
by the door but climbs in by another way that man is a thief and a robber and he clarifies

470
00:30:11,820 --> 00:30:20,100
just so there's no mistaking what he means in John 10 9 he says I am the door if anyone

471
00:30:20,100 --> 00:30:26,260
enters by me he will be saved and will go in and out and find pastor what is Jesus saying

472
00:30:26,260 --> 00:30:32,340
there he is saying there is no other way to God except through him there is no other way

473
00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:38,380
to eternal life except through him and if you hear someone say that there is that is

474
00:30:38,380 --> 00:30:45,060
a clear sign that that person is leading you astray we actually saw this happen recently

475
00:30:45,060 --> 00:30:52,420
with the pope the leader of the Catholic church he was on a panel discussing world religions

476
00:30:52,420 --> 00:30:56,820
he had people from other world religions they are leaders of those religions and at one

477
00:30:56,820 --> 00:31:02,780
point the pope the leader of the Catholic church said that all of these other religions

478
00:31:02,780 --> 00:31:10,100
were ways to God that all of these other people had legitimate ways to God and that they were

479
00:31:10,100 --> 00:31:18,260
all on their path to the same one true God folks I hope you can see that that is heresy

480
00:31:18,260 --> 00:31:25,020
all paths do not lead to God all religions do not lead to God I know that's not popular

481
00:31:25,020 --> 00:31:28,460
to say in our world where you're supposed to acknowledge that everyone has a legitimate

482
00:31:28,460 --> 00:31:33,620
path to God and you're okay I'm okay we're okay it doesn't work that way the Bible says

483
00:31:33,620 --> 00:31:40,580
there is one path to God and it is the Lord Jesus Christ and you cannot have another entrance

484
00:31:40,580 --> 00:31:47,620
to God in eternal life except through Jesus and so we walk the old trodham paths not the

485
00:31:47,620 --> 00:31:54,180
new enticing ways my point is you're going to hear many new theories about Jesus when

486
00:31:54,180 --> 00:31:58,740
you're going to encounter new ideas and new portraits of Jesus you're going to even encounter

487
00:31:58,740 --> 00:32:05,180
in our day new ways to be a Christian and new ideas about what it means to be a Christian

488
00:32:05,180 --> 00:32:10,140
and how to live the Christian life and I want to encourage you this morning to stick to

489
00:32:10,140 --> 00:32:16,620
the narrow way intertwine your roots with the roots of other believers familiarize yourself

490
00:32:16,620 --> 00:32:22,140
with the Jesus of the Bible stick to the old path stick to the way of the cross because

491
00:32:22,140 --> 00:32:49,700
the old hymn so beautifully says the way of the cross leads home amen.