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In the second chapter, ten years ago today we were stunned as we watched the

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space shuttle Challenger go throttles up and explode right on live television. And

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our minds immediately asked the question, how did this happen? Why did this happen?

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Now we have learned that there were two engineers at the corporation responsible

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for making the rockets that did everything possible the night before to

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delay the launch. They predicted exactly what happened, but unfortunately their

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pleas went unheeded, resulting in disaster. I draw a certain corollary from

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that tragedy to what Paul writes to the Colossians in the text before us. The

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church at Colossae had been successfully launched. Everything seemed to go, but the

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Apostle saw a menacing danger, a threat to the church's well-being. And so he

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writes in these words to warn them that their belief system, their theological

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integrity, was being subtly attacked by a heresy that would cause them to

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disintegrate as a faithful and flourishing body of believers. Paul was

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concerned, I think we can say Paul was worried, for the well-being of the church

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at Colossae. He does not describe for us in this book in some systematic fashion

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exactly what the heresy was, but we infer from what Paul does say that the danger

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there involved a cult-like teaching that exalted human thinking and human

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knowledge and human ideas above the divine revelation as final authority. They

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were not satisfied with what God had said to them. Those in this false

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teaching were looking for some superior knowledge, and part of their cult

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involved man-made rules and regulations, including asceticism or self-abasement

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and self-denial. As part of the requirements for being righteous and for

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being able to please God, it seems also that this cult sought some sort of

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mystical experience with angels or spiritual beings, even worshipping them.

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And they said that in order to communicate with God, in order to commune

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with God, you had to go through these ranks of angels or these emanations from

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God, and their idea was that Jesus Christ was on the first rank of

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these angels. Now if you've listened to what I've said, you can understand why

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Paul was worried because this cult degraded Jesus Christ. The revelation

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from God that came in Christ, according to the cult, was insufficient. They sought

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some reasoning from man's mind or some gaining of knowledge above Christ.

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Christ's sacrifice on the cross and the righteousness that he gives to believers

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as a free gift through justification by faith was not enough. It was important to

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keep rules and regulations and to abase oneself. Jesus Christ to them was but a

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created being, one of these angels or emanations descending from God to man.

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God was pure spirit and therefore in order to communicate with pure spirit, one

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had to go through these levels of angels to finally commune with God. And Jesus

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Christ was but one of them, a superior one to be sure, but one of the

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created angels. And so they degraded Jesus Christ in his person and in his

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work. Paul's intent in writing this book is to correct this Christ denying heresy

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before the church's ministry and its fellowship exploded into futility. And so

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as he writes he is reminding these believers of true doctrine so that they

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will adhere or continue on in it. I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. Please

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follow along in your Bible. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have

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on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not

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personally seen my face. Paul is writing to some people he had never met. He did

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not personally found the church in Colossae. Probably a team from the church

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in Ephesus that Paul did found went to the city of Colossae and witnessed and

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founded a church. There was also a church in Laodicea which was nearby and in the

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city of Hierapolis which was only about 10 or 11 miles away. Laodicea, Hierapolis,

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and Colossae were sort of a Tri-Cities area in Asia Minor. And the work of Jesus

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Christ was going on there but Paul had never been there personally. He writes to

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them now. He writes that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together

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in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of

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understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is

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Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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And I say this in order that no one may delude you, that is may cheat you, may

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deceive you with persuasive arguments. For even though I am absent in body,

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nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and

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the stability of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ

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Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built

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up in him and established in your faith just as you were instructed and

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overflowing with thanksgiving or gratitude. See to it that no one takes

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you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of

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men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than

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according to Christ. Now Paul weaves into this text some of the very language of

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the cultists, wisdom, knowledge, elementary principles of the world. These

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were some of the words and phrases that they themselves use. Now Paul takes these

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phrases and fights back at them with them. What he tells us in these verses is

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that Jesus Christ is supreme over all human ideas. Human reason is a wonderful

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gift, but a woeful God. We live in a day when human reason has been exalted as

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God. In the period of the Enlightenment, which was a reaction to the Reformation,

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reason was exalted above revelation. That heresy, that human reason can be

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exalted above the revelation of God in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, has grown

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fruit that is poisoning our culture 300 years later at the end of the 20th

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century. Out of this heresy of exalting human reason above the Bible have come

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humanism, which says man himself is the measure of all things, not the Bible, not

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God's revelation. Man is the center of all and the measure of all. Along with

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humanism has come secularism, a denial of the supernatural, a denial that there is

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a God in heaven who intervenes in the affairs of men. Along with humanism and

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secularism has come relativism, which says there are no absolutes. Everything is

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relative. It depends. No one can say. Who are you to say that that's right or

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that's wrong? All of these are but the fruits of the heresy that has plagued

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the Western civilization for the last 300 years. Now let me be clear that God

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designed man to think and Christians above all people should value the

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intellectual capability of man. Ravi Zacharias is one of my favorite preachers

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and writers. He is an intellectual which puts him on a little different level

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than me but I try to keep up with him and he has a radio broadcast that he has

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cleverly entitled, Let My People Think. God designed us to think but when man

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forgets God, when he exalts his own ability to reason above what God has said

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in his word, his ability to reason will quickly lead him to error and to

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delusion. My friend that's what Romans chapter 1 is all about. When they

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willfully turn away from the knowledge of the Creator and exalt themselves above

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God, they're turned to foolishness and moral degradation and that is exactly

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where we are at the end of this century.

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Along with the other false isms that I've mentioned from the exaltation of

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human reason, there is another heresy that is taught in our schools that is

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assumed in our cultural values that is dominant in science as well as in

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liberal theology and that is the heresy of evolutionism. Evolution has become

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the religion of our day. It has permeated all of our society until we live in a

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time when if you dare question it, you are immediately denounced and ridiculed.

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Witness some of the conversation that took place when a person who's a member

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of our church talked about the possibility of talking about creationism

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in the public school classrooms in one of our school districts and the kind of

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response and reaction from some in our community about that. I'm telling you

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evolution is the modern theology of America. It is foolishness. Our recent

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trip to California it was a real privilege for us to visit the Institute

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for Creation Research in El Cajon. They have their marvelous museum and if you

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ever get out to San Diego area I encourage you to go to the Institute

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for Creation Research Museum. In this museum they show the first 11 chapters

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of Genesis from a scientific viewpoint and argue for its truthfulness against

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the false teaching, the false idea of evolutionism in our day. It's a great

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place. It'll be helpful to you as well as to your children. And the church today,

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the Church of Jesus Christ is as vulnerable to heresy as was the first

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century church in Colossi. The thinking of our culture denigrates the supreme

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place of Jesus Christ and the unique revelation of God in him and that can

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subtly filter into the church. I think that there is cause for alarm today as

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much as there was in Paul's heart when he wrote the Colossians. God's revelation

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in his Son and in his Word take precedence over. They become the judge and

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the standard for all human thinking.

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Isaiah 820 says, to the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to

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this word it is because there is no light in them. My friend, God's revelation in

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Jesus Christ is supreme over all human thinking and human thinking that does

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not put him first and put God's revelation supreme is human thinking

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that is damned and doomed to delusion and judgment.

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Paul gives a warning about that in verse 8. He writes to us as well as to the

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Colossians and he says see to it that no one takes you captive through

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philosophy and empty deception. His first warning is that a Christian can be

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abducted and carried away from the truth and enslaved to error. A Christian

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is no less vulnerable or susceptible to lies than the non-Christian if he doesn't

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listen to the Holy Spirit and arm his mind with the truth of God. A Christian is

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just as susceptible. You look at the contemporary movements that have

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captured so many who profess Christ. The prosperity gospel with its heretical

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ideas regarding materialism. Some of the extremes of the charismatic movement.

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This holy laughter that we hear about, I'm convinced is from the pit. It is not

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from God. It is but another excess of those who are seeking to base their

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faith on experience rather than upon the revelation of God.

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And when you do that you have to keep finding some new experience because

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experience wears out after a while. It gets old. A few days ago I heard about

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the most recent sign now that you're filled with the Holy Spirit. It's gone

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from holy laughter, now get a hold of yourself, it's gone from holy laughter to

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projectile vomiting. Now I heard about this ten years ago when we visited in

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Indonesia but now it's come to the United States. I would like to be the

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janitor crew in that church. And then the New Age kind of thinking that creeps in.

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And there are many churches today quote-unquote who have forsaken the

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revelation of God for a heresy that is very close and in some respects to what

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was taking place in Colossus. And the worship of angels, channeling angels,

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finding the God within you, etc. ad nauseum. Listen a Christian can be

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abducted. That's why Paul says see to it that no one kidnaps you. If you're going

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to keep from being kidnapped you have to guard yourself and that's what Paul

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wants us to do. The second warning he says false teachers use human thinking

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that is devoid of God. It's hollow, it's powerless, these deceive, these align he

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says with what one generation passes on to another. He speaks about philosophy,

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an empty deception according to the traditions of men. For 300 years we've

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had this idea that human reason is superior to what God has said in the

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Bible. It's been passed down from one generation to another and it has proven

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itself empty and hollow. It has proven itself damning the cultures and yet it is

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being touted and praised. Too often when we think about false teaching in the

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Bible we think about some televangelists or we think about the cult that that is a

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classical sort of a cult. I want you to know that false teachers refers to anyone

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who knowingly or unknowingly passes on information to others that is false and

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leads them away from the truth of God. Anyone and I'm including educators,

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philosophers, cosmologists, that's not cosmetologists that's cosmologists,

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psychologists, religious scholars and and teachers, the media, entertainment stars,

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writers, columnists, anyone who knowingly or unknowingly passes on lies to others

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that leads them away from God as a false teacher as far as the Bible is concerned.

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Sometimes we think in order for it to be false it's got to be rank with lies. In

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fact the most dangerous false teaching is the one that is only slightly less

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than the truth or which incorporates some of the truth along with the false.

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The third thing Paul says in his warning to believers is it is this that the

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ultimate source of error is what he terms the elementary principles of the

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world, it's not Christ. What does he mean by this rather difficult statement the

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elementary principles of the world? Literally it means the basic components

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of things. As you would think of language or of words the basic components would

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be the letters, the ABCs. He's breaking things down to the most simple element.

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I think that there's a very strong argument, at least one that I accept, that

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what Paul is referring to here is that are those cosmic spirits, those demonic

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forces that are behind all lies and false teaching. Where did this idea of

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Descartes and Locke and others arise that says that human reason is to be

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exalted above the Bible? Ultimately says Paul it comes from demons whose purpose

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it is to lead people away from the truth of God. That's the ultimate source of

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false teaching. Hence Paul's warning to you and to me don't be captured by false

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teaching. How then do we defend ourselves? Paul gives us not only a warning but he

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gives us a reminder that we have a defense system against false human

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thinking. We must learn to use it. I think he begins underscoring our defense system

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in verse 1 when he tells about his own experience. He says I want you to know

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how great a struggle I have on your behalf. The word Paul uses here is the

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word Agone and if you listen to that you can hear our word Agony. He is talking

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about pain in the soul. It is a word from the arena. It refers to a wrestling match

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that requires the best that one has in all of his strength to the point of

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agony. I want you to know how great a wrestling I have on your behalf and for

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all of those who've not seen me. Paul is talking here about his prayer life and

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so the defense of false teaching for us is first prayer. Prayer. There are

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different kinds of prayer of course. There's worship, there's Thanksgiving,

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there's confession, but there is also intercession and warfare praying. That's

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what Paul is talking about here. Now no praying is easy but the hardest kind of

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praying is warfare praying in which you are praying for others and for yourself

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to be delivered from demonic forces and the lies and the tricks and the snares

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that are placed out there to trip us up and to take us captive. Prayer is like

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wrestling. We're not so much wrestling with God as we are wrestling with the

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enemy in our prayer life. We need to pray for those whose thinking is being

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undermined by false human reasoning that doesn't put God in his right place. I

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know I share a burden with all of you who have children who are in school on

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any level including college. We need to pray for our kids. We need to pray

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for the youth in our student ministry. That God will help them to think

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correctly. That God will guard their minds. We parents need to exemplify that.

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That we're thinking rightly that Christ is above all. We need to pray for one

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another. Pray for ourselves. Second line of defense is found in verse 2. That

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their hearts may be encouraged. Their hearts may be admonished or exhorted

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having been knit together in love. Paul seems to be saying here that the second

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line of defense is association. Being knit together with others. He is praying

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he says that the believers that he's not seen may become united together, may be

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associated together. That their hearts may be welded together in love. Sometimes

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truth divides but love unites. And he prays that we as believers may not

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isolate ourselves, may not pull back, but may be knit together. There is such a

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line of thinking in the church today. In fact I was talking with someone about it

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this last week. The migration of people from church to church. You know they

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disagree with something at this church and so they migrate to this church. And

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they're there for a year or two or ten and they disagree with something and

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then they migrate to this church. My friend that is not of God. God wants us

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to be welded together in love. And love covers a multitude of sins. When there's

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a difference, love looks over that. The weld is there. And Paul says there is

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strength, there is defense against false teaching in associating with other

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believers. Of course there's a great benefit that we watch out for one

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another as we're associated in the church. And then there's a third line of

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defense. Verse 2 he goes on to say attaining to all the wealth that comes

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from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's

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mystery. And God's mystery he says is Christ. He says that there are riches

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that we ought to enjoy. Riches of understanding and that's what I believe

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is the defense. It's understanding. It's gaining understanding that comes through

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Jesus Christ and through the Word of God. That's our defense against false

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teaching. All knowledge and wisdom relates to the person of Jesus Christ. He

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is the source of it all. And he says that we need to become rich in our firm

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conviction, our full assurance of understanding regarding the true

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knowledge, the rich spiritual insights that are in Jesus Christ and whom are

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hidden, in whom are stored away all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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Remember these are the words the cultists are using. They're saying you

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need to have some knowledge. You need to gain this knowledge and here's how you

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do it. Paul says look Jesus Christ is the storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge.

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You don't need more than him.

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When it says that Jesus Christ is the storehouse it doesn't mean that he is

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hiding them in himself. It means that they are deposited in him for all to

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receive and to enjoy. To grasp how Christ is the Creator, how that he called into

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existence all things and by him everything holds together. To grasp that

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is to have a rich source of knowledge so that when you begin to read about how

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science is discovering this and that you can put it into place. If you don't have

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the knowledge, the rich insight that Jesus Christ is the Creator you can fall

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for the lies of evolution. You can fall for the assumptions that are based upon

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untruths that most people in our society just accept. These rich spiritual

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insights that we gain in Jesus Christ then become the measuring stick for

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everything else that we think and we hear. Now if this sort of thing intrigues

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you, if you have a desire to investigate more about how the Christian worldview,

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the Christian mindset is different from the humanists and the evolutionists and

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certainly the Marxists mindset. I want to commend to you a book by David Noble

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called Understanding the Times. You may need to save a couple of weeks to buy it.

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It's a thick book and it's not the sort of book that most of us will sit down

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and read through before we go to bed. It's rich with content. It's a wonderful

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resource though showing you how the Christian mind approaches everything

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from biology to ethics to theology and politics. Understanding the Times by

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David Noble of Summit Ministries. Paul says if you want to be on guard against

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false teaching then you must gain understanding that comes through Jesus

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Christ who is the source of all wisdom and knowledge. The fourth line of defense

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is found in verses 5, 6, and 7. He says, I rejoice to see your good discipline and

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the stability of your faith in Christ. Paul as a wise leader is writing to

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commend them as he warns them and so he commends them for their good discipline

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and for their stability. Both of these are military terms suggesting to us that

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Paul sees this whole issue as a warfare for the mind. He says your good

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discipline that means your order that you're keeping rank and for your

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stability of faith the word stability means a solid front, firmness, a solid

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front, a phalanx of soldiers that give no ground. He says as you therefore have

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received Christ walk in him and so it seems to me that the fourth line of

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defense is continuance. He says you've received Christ now go on and grow on.

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Don't allow yourself to become stagnant. Be disciplined like a soldier. Walk in

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him. The result of that will be that you will be built up and established in your

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faith. To walk means to conduct yourself to live out your life in relationship

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with the Lord. Walk in him. If you and I are going to protect ourselves from

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being taken captive by false thinking in our culture it must involve our walking

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in Christ as a continual habitual experience day after day. We have been

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rooted in him now let's be built up and established in our faith. The word faith

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here means our belief system. It means our understanding of theology. Be built

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up in that just as you were instructed and he says do this with an overflowing

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gratitude. Well if Paul were to write the church today I wonder how he would view

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the state of health in the church. Would he see any impending dangers and

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tragedies? Would he see any false human thinking that has taken

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captive God's people? Well I think the answer is yes he would. To be honest with

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you some of the attitudes found among God's people today amaze me. They amaze

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me. I recently read a statement where someone extrapolated if the decline of

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giving in the church continues at its present course unabated the last church

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will shut its door in the year 2048. It'll be all over because of the way

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that we think about money and giving. That's just one example. How do we think

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about sports? This is something to talk about on Super Bowl Sunday. What place

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do we give to that? How do we think about it? How do we think about what we see

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coming down from that marvelous instrument floating around the earth a

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Hubble telescope? I've gotten into the internet and seen some of the pictures

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and some of you have too. That most recent picture on the front page of the

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paper was absolutely spectacular. Reaching far far out into space close to

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the quote edge of the universe. How do we think about that? Does that come from a

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Big Bang which assumes that matter is eternal? Not that God created it but that

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matter is eternal. Is that how we interpret what we see? Or do we understand

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that that is one of the productions of Jesus Christ the Creator and his

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intelligence? What would Jesus Christ through the Apostle Paul write to you

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regarding the way you think? The attitudes that you harbor. What would he

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say has influenced your thinking? Has it been the Word of God and the revelation

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of Jesus Christ or is it human reasoning? What is it that's persuaded you to leave

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your walk with Christ and to go in another direction? We need to take strong

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remedial action in our lives about the sources of false thinking that easily

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influences. We need to commit ourselves to the defense system that suggested in

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this text. We need to devote at least some of our praying to the hard work of

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wrestling against false ideas. We need to commit some of our praying to

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interceding for the saints, for the young as well as the old. Then we need to take

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the step of associating with God's people in a local church fellowship where

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the Bible is taught, where Jesus Christ is honored. Some of you have been hanging

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on the fringe of church commitment and membership. The Apostle Paul prays for

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you that you might be knit together, be welded together in a local church family.

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We need to study the Word of God to discover the rich spiritual insights

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that are in Jesus Christ and to establish those as the measure for

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everything that we hear and agree to and live for. And we need to conduct our

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lives intentionally every day with Jesus Christ as the Lord. And if we will do

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that, then we will be protected against kidnap. We will not be abducted by the

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false thinking of our age. May God search our hearts and try our minds and find

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within us anything that is false and show that to us so that we can have our

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minds renewed. And not only believe but live out that Jesus Christ is supreme

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over human reasoning and thinking. Let's pray.

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Father, I ask that the Holy Spirit would do his work of convicting us where our

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minds have been deceived and we've accepted false thinking. And I pray that

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we will all put up the defense system that you've provided for us. God, I pray

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that none of us will allow ourselves anymore to be taken captive by philosophy

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and empty deception. The work of demonic spirits seeking to lead us away from you.

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But may our thinking be disciplined. May it be subjected to your revelation in

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Jesus Christ. And I pray that we will be a people unashamed to live out that

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truth in the world. And that we will stand for what is true and what is right

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despite the dominant religion of our day. May we be the people of God, exalting

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Jesus Christ as supreme at the end of the 20th century. In his name I pray, amen.