Don't Be Deceived Pt 1

to Calvary Chapel this morning who are joining us online. Would y'all stand? Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this morning, this Sunday morning, beginning of another week, this resurrection is in mind when we think of Sunday morning, the first day of the week, as that's what the believers did. They began to worship on that resurrection, first day of the

week, every week, well, throughout the week too, of course. We too come this morning to worship you in song, to study your word, to fellowship with you and one another. We ask that you would be glorified, Lord. We ask that ministry would take place amongst us, Lord, that we would put you first, others, and then ourselves, Lord, that you would be glorified. I search the words,

thing you may be seated we come to your Lord just as we are Lord as we've said before warts and all you take it's just the way we are and then you begin to mold and make it says we yield ourselves to you it's your work you're working at us both to will and do of your good pleasure and as we're working out that salvation I'm not working to be saved but we're living out day to day in sanctification being set apart by you to live out this Christian walk until the day you take us to glory we'll experience that glory of our salvation that completion of living in glory of our praise Lord I think I said you may be seated I'll tell you is about a ship I'll place my crown at your feet should be deaths I'll place my crown worship you place my cool

ship yes and I will worship it's gonna be that day we worship you now as we see through a glass dimly Lord we don't see it all clearly but you keep revealing more and more to us as we yield ourselves to you you speak to us you teach us but there will be a day that we'll see clearly we worship you Lord of our worship worth worth worth ship we worship you lord because you're so good to us lord lord it's it's this opportunity that we take each sunday morning and wednesday night any other time that you're in that position we're on your own or somewhere else to just take time to worship you as we worship you in song as we worship you and as we give as we worship you as we work in our jobs as we do that which we do every day it's

because you first loved us that we love you lord and story it's who i answers it's who i it's who i it's who i yes that's who we are as you sent your only begotten son to die on that cross for us to raise from the dead and to ascend up into the heavens at the right hand of god the father making intercession for you and me thank you lord we give you praise i want to lift up those who lord may be experiencing grief those who may be going through a trial those who may be struggling those who may be feeling joyful whatever the condition your heart lord i ask that you move by your holy spirit in this place today that you would fill us a fresh lord that we would trust you and look to you that we would know that you are the author and finisher

of our faith and they were living day to day because you give us the breath of life and we'll live on top this earth until you say come home my child amen oh trust god today lord that we would trust you and everything lord who are thirst and the soul fill us afresh lord today yes lord by your holy spirit would you all stand we thank you that you're here because we know you are because you're everywhere you're all present and we thank you we trust you we look to you lord okay guys i'm going to encourage you to sing this song for us and we'll be back tomorrow morning so we'll see you then bye-bye right out first service I kind of went blank and I was so blessed wouldn't people get those words up so be ready you never know about this old man you

know these brain praise your Lord either stars display say the giant a shell praise your Lord we just now want to say we love you and thank you in Jesus name father did bless our service now as we have a little time of fellowship and as pastor Ryan comes up to teach your word please anointing by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word with your power and give us listening ears Lord give us hearts to take in and the willingness to let you work it out in our lives as we live from day to day and we thank you in Jesus name Amen Lord bless y'all let's have some fellowship getting your seat we'll get ready to go over some announcements here we Calvary Chapel I am glad that you have

joined us today and we're going to be talking about the new chapter of the church this morning a few things to take note of here in the middle section of your bulletin that are going on this week well it's mainly just one thing going on this week vacation Bible school so lots of things happening this week with that there is still time to register we have a good number of kids registered so far which is really awesome but but we still have time for that we also have a VBS workday slash set up day on Tuesday from 9 to 10 a.m. to 3 working on getting I'll just read you what Lauren wrote help us transform the church into the streets of Nazareth so that's what we're going to be doing

and so if you can make it out for that great and we need lots of help with it but it should be a lot of fun and then I think I need my wife to come up and make some sort of an announcement okay VBS is this Wednesday so it's almost my last time up here it's not too late though to register for yes you need to register today if you want to get a t-shirt so if you've got a four-year-old through fifth grade and get on that today the QR code is in the bulletin workday was already covered that's Tuesday from is it did you say nine till we finish till three all right if you want to be in there for the long haul let's see if you haven't made a meeting and you volunteered to help come find me I have an info sheet for you so you'll

know what to do and if you're volunteering in crafts or story games or snack I have a tunic for you so you can really get into Nazareth so if you want to come grab that for me you can pick your tunic I have a variety and you can jazz it up and make it your own so I think that is it okay very good and then a quick Sunday School announcement from mrs. Davis okay this month this couple weeks are pretty busy for your little kiddos in addition to vbs this week the last sunday of this month which will be the fifth sunday the 30th we're gonna do our promotion sunday which what that means is as kids finish their school year and they get ready to move into a new grade at

their school we do the same here but we're doing it a little bit earlier so we could kind of transition over the summer instead of a little bit more chaos in the fall so we're going to do it early so i know parents sometimes you have your kids check in your kids but for the next couple weeks or after promotion sunday you're going to have to pick a new class for your kids and you do that when you check them in you'll have to adjust their classroom now because of because we group the ages together we have preschool and kindergarten first and second you know etc but because of the age of the kids we're going to have to adjust the classrooms this coming year so um instead of

just preschool this coming year we're going to have preschool and kindergarten and then we'll have first and second grade we'll have third and fourth grade and then no just third grade you and then fourth and fifth right just third thank you uh just third grade because we have that many kids and then fourth and fifth so uh after promotion sunday uh you check in your kids and you'll select a new classroom i'll have all that adjusted perfectly by then and um and then after you adjust it you make the new one then it'll be fine and it'll be set up and your kids can check in um and then also on that sunday what we're going to do is um we're going to try and start getting the kids

a little bit more missions minded a little bit more uh out reaching out um and it can't start too soon so we've got a couple teachers that are super motivated uh have done missions and so what we're going to do is we're also it's not only promotion sunday but we're going to do what we're going to call a missions sunday and we're going to do a mission sunday and we're going to do a mission sunday and we're going to kind of kick off a um where the kids can do uh their offerings and we'll do all that when we do our um our songs and our singing uh our praise and worship and what we're hoping to do is uh we'll figure out how much money that the kids can accumulate between now and christmas and then we're hopefully gonna buy a goat or a chicken if

that's all the money that we have for uh but let the kids be um more involved and engaged in reaching out as the body of christ and helping others so that'll happen on um the last sunday the 30th this month so if you have any questions see me i'm around um but uh your kids are great we love them they're we love what you guys are doing in their hearts it's very evident that what you guys do at home and uh we just want to support that so thank you all right okay and then last but absolutely not well no wait second to last there's no wednesday night service this week because of uh because of the uh vbs i mean you can come to wednesday night we're just you're gonna put you

to work this is all there's to it um so if you came for church oh church is happening it's just not gonna be the same kind of church right you've been a bunch of tiny people running around um okay now last but certainly not least today is father's day and we are so thankful for all of the fathers in this church and and i said this to first service i'm gonna tell you guys too i genuinely am thankful for the men that we have in this church that are fathers you guys do a phenomenal job with your kids and i see you do a phenomenal job of reaching out to kids that aren't yours i know sometimes we have some kids whose dads aren't around for various reasons and i see a lot of you reaching out to some of those kids too and it's just it's it's

great and so i'm really thankful for all of you as fathers so ladies can we give all of these men a hand for the work that they do i think being a father is a little bit of an unsung job in our uh culture today and so we want to tell you how much we appreciate you so see the ushers afterwards they've got a little something for you um spoiler alert it's a brahms gift card so go get yourself some ice cream because nothing says happy father's day like a shake right um okay that being said if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced for our responsive reading we're going to be in psalm 46 looking at the new american standard for the responsive reading part so we all sound that way

if you need a copy should be one in the row around you and as you are turning to psalm 46 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's word and i have my world traveling bicycle riding buddy back today so um so uh i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses psalm 46 for the choir director a psalm of the sons of korah set to the song god is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble therefore we do not fear though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea though the waters roar and foam though the mountains quake at its swelling pride say law there is a river whose streams

make glad the city of god the holy dwelling places of the most high god is in the midst of her she will not be moved god will help her when morning dawns the nations made an uproar the kingdoms tottered he raised his voice the earth melted the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold say law come behold the works of the lord who has wrought desolations in the earth he makes wars to cease to the end of the earth he breaks the bow and cuts its spear in two he burns the chariots with fire cease striving and know that i am god i will be exalted among the nations i will be exalted in the earth and read verse 11 with me the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our stronghold

say law and father we come to you now and father i do praise you that your word promises to be our refuge in a very present help in time of trouble and so father i just want to pray that you would continue to do that work of God and that you would continue to do that work of God and that you would continue to do that work of understanding in our hearts father i want to lift up the nation of israel to you today they've been heavy on my heart and so lord i just pray that you would be with your people lord would you bring about peace in jerusalem and father just protect them from the attacks that come all around them and we pray for their salvation as well and father

additionally my my heart is burdened because i feel like there's people carrying some some heaviness in here today i just feel heavy lord that that um that people have come in with with their lives but you do lord and so i just want to pray for whoever that is that they would be able to cast their cares upon you lord that they would know that those cares belong to you and that they would experience your peace and so father we thank and we praise you in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bible oh man i got really nervous for a second open up in your bible so the book of i didn't see this and i'm going well that's not good um open up your

bible so the book of colossians jesus is the book of jesus is the book of jesus is the book of jesus chapter two colossians chapter two so paul has introduced jesus to us he's put our eyes back on jesus because we said that that was the issue really at the heart of what was going on with the colossian people is that uh things had come in false doctrine had come in and had sort of pulled their focus away from jesus and so paul has at the end of chapter one the that last half of chapter one causes to look back again at the incomparable christ well in chapter two he starts dealing with the real doctrinal issues that they're having in the church of colossi and so as he does so there

will be several different studies that we do over chapter two but they will all fall under the heading of don't be deceived don't be deceived and so this first one that we'll look at this morning the first seven verses will put the subheading of a conflict for the people and so starting in chapter two verse one it says this for i want you to know how great a struggle i have on your behalf and for those who are at laodicea and for all who have not personally seen my face that their hearts may be encouraged having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of god's mystery that is christ himself in whom

are hidden all the secrets of god's mystery and that is christ himself in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge i say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument for even though i am absent in body nevertheless i am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in christ therefore as you have received christ jesus the lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him and attending to the gospel of christ and the gospel of christ and the gospel of christ and the established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. And so as we look at those first seven verses under that heading of a conflict for the people,

there's three things I want to point out to you. He's going to talk about the struggle. He's going to give them a warning and he's going to talk to them about their walk. The first thing we'll look at is the struggle. I'd point your attention once again to verse one, where it says, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf. And for those who are at

Laodicea and all who have not seen my face personally, that word struggle can also be translated conflict. He says, I have a great conflict on behalf of you. The word conflict or struggle is an athletic term, and it means to agonize or to wrestle with. In other words, Paul says, I am fighting on behalf of you. And it's going to cause him to do two things. One,

express his prayer for the people, but two, also to instruct the people. And so as he is talking about this, we sense in Paul that he knows what's going on in Colossae because Epaphras had come and reported what had been taking place, that there was false doctrine beginning to work its way into the church and nothing lit his biscuits more than false doctrine coming into the church, right? And so as he knew that that's what was going on, he said, I have this great struggle for you. I have this great agonizing for you, this conflict for you. I'm

ready to fight on behalf of you. Well, that caused me to start thinking about something because Paul as a leader and as a man heard that there was an issue. And so his first reaction was to agonize or to struggle or to fight for the people who were in need. And so it made me think, what kind of things do we need to be fighting for? What kind of things do we need to be agonizing over? What kind of conflicts do we

need to have in our life in a positive sort of way? So I wrote down four things, four things that we should be agonizing over, struggling for, conflict. Number one is for truth. We need to fight for truth in the world that we live in today because truth is under attack in just about every way possible. Truth is under attack as far as religion is concerned because we have a culture that wants to hold everything up that if it's

good for you, then it's true. If it's true for you, then it's true. If it's working for you, then it must be truth. And truth is now this entity that can be expressed however it wants to be expressed, forgetting that there is only one truth. But it's not even just in the religious world. It's in every aspect of our world. I'm really concerned about what AI is

doing right now. And you know who else is really concerned about what AI is doing right now? Music artists. They're very concerned about AI and what might be able to take place with the production of their songs. Models are concerned about AI because of what it might do with their images. Anybody in the public sector right now is concerned about what AI is doing with their images. And so I wrote down four things. One,

is going to do because it's not truth. It's a false reality, right? And so that's what's taking place in our culture today. And we as believers in Jesus Christ need to stand for truth. We need to stand for truth in natural law. And we need to stand for truth in God's law and what God's word has to say. There was a phenomenal teaching that I listened to this last week. Jack Hibbs

out at Chino Hills had Frank Turek come and speak. And Frank Turek's written a new book called Correct, but not politically correct. And it's a fascinating book where he goes through what's going on with the gender ideology right now and truth and how we have to get back to natural law and what is basic truth and get back to defending truth as believers in Jesus Christ. I would highly encourage you to either look up Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills on YouTube or go to Real Life Network, which is what Jack Hibbs' website is, or just Google him and look for that teaching by Frank Turek because it was fascinating.

I didn't stick around and listen to all of the question and answer, mainly because I had taken in more information than my brain could take in at that point in time and I had to stop. So I may go back later and listen to the question and answer period because it probably would have been pretty fascinating. But I would highly encourage you to do that because one of the things that he points out is we as Christians have the truth. Therefore, the thing that we need to do is defend the truth and be willing to stand up and fight for the truth. And when people start promoting

lies, standing up and saying, but that's not. True. And it's an important thing for us to do. We should have that conflict on the inside of us. The second thing that we need to have a conflict for is we need to have a conflict for the lost. We need to struggle and strive and agonize over the world around us that's dying right now because too many of us as Christians are content to be on the good ship lollipop on our way to

heaven, forgetting that somebody pulled us out of the fire and it's time for us to start pulling other people out of the fire. But the problem in our culture today is the lost oftentimes don't look like the people we want in our church. And so we say, I don't want to reach out to the loss. They might kind of disrupt things in the church. Well, you know what? Maybe it's time to disrupt

things a little bit in the church. Maybe it's time to have somebody sitting next to you that doesn't look like you that sometimes has some struggles in their life because you know what? You have some struggles in your life and it's time that we start reaching out and having a burden for the lost. Jesus had a burden for the lost. The apostles had a burden for the lost.

Paul had a burden for the lost. Jesus had a burden for the lost. The apostles had a burden for the lost. And if we are to be the followers of Jesus Christ, we need that same burden. You know why? Because when Jesus was addressing, not just the 12, but when he was addressing his disciples before he ascended into heaven, they, they asked him, we read this in access last week.

If you're following along with our reading plan, which BT dubs, this is my little plug for this BT dubs. If you've not been following along with our reading plan, you can start this week. And here it is right here. You can start in the book of Nehemiah and then also in the book of Acts. But it's great because in the book of Acts chapter one, the disciples asked Jesus something. They're

like, are you at this time going to set up your kingdom? Just kind of checking on a timeframe situation here. And Jesus goes, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the father split into motion. That's not, that's not your job to know. You go and wait for the power of the Holy spirit. And then once the power of the Holy spirit has come upon you, go out and be

witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And so we should, we should have that heart for the lost to be witnesses of what Jesus has done in our lives. The third thing that we need to have an agonizing conflict for is our church. And I'm not just talking about our church. I'm talking about the church, right? Because the

church is under attack right now. The real church that is standing with Jesus Christ and believes that the word of God is the word of God. And that sin is still sin and hell is still hot and heaven is still real. That real church is under attack right now from just about everywhere. And we need to defend the church. We need to stand up and say, but this is what the church is

supposed to be. And this is what the church is supposed to teach. And I'm not letting that garbage in here. I'm not letting those ideas in here, but you know what else it means to have that agonizing struggle for the church. It means you should have an agonizing struggle for the person sitting next to you because the person sitting next to you may have brought some things in here

today that they need some help with, that they need some, some prayer for. And as you're sitting next to them, you're going to have a lot of trouble. And you're going to have a lot of trouble. And allow the Holy spirit to show you that their eyes are a little more downcast than usual, that there's something different about them than usual. Again, I think that there's some people

that are carrying some heavy burdens in here this morning. I was sitting here during worship. This didn't happen during first service, but during second service, I was in the middle of the songs and I couldn't stop crying. I just, I'm just crying over there. I'm like, Lord, what's going on? And he said, somebody's carrying something and it's hard for them and they, they, they can't let

go. And you're feeling that burden that they feel right now. And that's why you can't stop crying. That's why I prayed the way that I did. But you know what? Maybe the Holy spirit's going to reveal it to me and I'll go, are you okay? No, I'm not. Okay. Can, can we talk? Can you pray with me? Well, listen, I can't, I can't get to everybody in this room, right? But you can, you can get to

the person next to you and you should have that agonizing conflict for your church. Because listen, brothers and sisters, this isn't a social club. This isn't a group that you belong to. This is your family. This is your family. These are the people that gather themselves to you who believe the same way you do. And you should have that agonizing struggle for your church. And then number four,

and this is because it's father's day. You should have that agonizing conflict for your family. Dads. I think we have some wonderful dads in this church, but don't stop. Don't, don't stop fighting for your family. Don't, don't stop fighting to give them the truth. Don't stop fighting to be the right kind of father and don't stop fighting in telling them what they need to, to, to hear to what, what needs to be said. Well,

they don't listen to me. Yes, they do more than you think that they do. Not when you tell them to do the dishes, they never hear that, but they hear the other stuff, right? Chores. No Jesus. Yes. They hear all that other stuff. I have always said one of the biggest lessons I learned as a youth pastor is that the most influential people in the lives of kids are their parents. They don't listen to me. They think I'm stupid.

They do. You're still the biggest influence in their life. You are still the one who influences them more than anything else in the world. Because I had kids show up to my youth group that from all intents and purposes on the outside were absolutely fired up for Jesus. And their parents thought it was stupid. And you know what ended up happening to a lot of those

kids? They're not walking with Jesus now. Why? Because their parents were the biggest influence in their lives. And then I had some kids that come whose lives were a train wreck, but they had parents that believed in Jesus. And now, one of them that I know is getting baptized, maybe even today. Because that's what Jesus does. And you have that influence. Don't stop fighting for your family. Don't stop fighting to pray with

them and to love them and to lead them because you should have that agonizing struggle for your families. And so Paul says, I have this conflict on behalf of you. And because he has this conflict, this is his prayerful desire for the people. This is his prayer for the Colossians. Notice what it says in verse two, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together

in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. That is Christ himself. Four things, four things I want to point out to you about that verse. He says, number one, that their hearts may be encouraged, that their hearts may be encouraged. You and I think of the word, encouraged, and we think about sending someone an encouraging message. That's a good way to look

at it, but that's not what this word means. This word has that same root word that Jesus uses when he tells the disciples he's going to send them another helper. The idea is to come alongside. And this particular word literally means to call to one's side. Well, when you dig a little bit deeper into the usage here and how it's used in other places, the idea is this, not only to come

alongside, but to confirm, to establish, or to make strong. So Paul's prayer for the Colossian people is that their hearts would be made strong, that their hearts would be confirmed in the faith, that they would be established in the faith. Why do they need a strong heart? Because they're about to face deception, because they're about to face a battle. And the only way they can be ready for the battle

is if their heart is strong going into it, is if their heart is strong when they get into the battle. And so they need a heart that is strengthened in the things of the Lord, a heart that is, firmed up in the things of the Lord so that they will be prepared for the things that are coming, for the conflict that might be coming. So he prays, first of all, that their hearts would be encouraged. The second thing he prays is that their hearts would be knit together in love.

And I tried with everything in me. I read every Bible translation I could in every word study to find something fascinating about the phrase knit together in love. And you know what I found out that means? Knit together in love, right? That's the depth that I learned. But I did do some thinking about it and some other reading on it. Why did their hearts need to be knit together? Because you know what false doctrine always does? False

doctrine always divides us. You ever notice that? How do churches split? Churches split because somebody has an idea. And the idea is a little bit different than what the pastor's talking about. And somebody pulls aside a following and says, listen, I don't think he really knows what he's talking about. I've reached a little bit more knowledge. I have a little deeper understanding.

I feel like the Holy Spirit speaks directly to me. And it brings about division in the church. Therefore, Paul says, the greatest thing you can do is be knit together in love. Let me give you an image that I think he's kind of talking about. And this image will show up again in just a little bit. Roman soldiers, when they were facing an enemy and the enemy was coming against them with a strong battle, they would take those long,

tall shields, you know, and they would link them together and they would become one long force so that nothing could get between them. And they would link them together and they would become one long force so that nothing could get between them. That's the idea of what he's telling them about being knit together in love. You're knit together in love, first of all, in your love for Christ, because ultimately the greatest pursuit that we have is our love of Jesus Christ. The

common bond that we all have as believers in Jesus Christ is that ultimately we love Jesus with all of our heart. So that knits us together in love, but it's not just our love for Jesus Christ. It's also our love for each other. A church that comes together and loves each other is a church that cannot be broken, is a church that cannot be divided. It's a church that cannot be destroyed because they are knit together in love.

They are linking arms, standing together, and nothing can get in. But did you notice that those two things seem to work together, loving Jesus and loving other people? I've shared this before, but when I do premarital counseling with couples, and quite frankly, now when I do counseling, with couples after they've gotten married and they need a little bit of help, I always bring them back to the same thing. You're in a love triangle, right? Jesus is up at the top of the

triangle. You two are down here at the bottom. And the more that you pursue your walk with Jesus Christ, the more you are seeking to love Jesus Christ with everything in you, you can't help it. Automatically, you're going to be drawn closer together because, listen, you're both pursuing the same end, right? So if you're having some trouble in your marriage, maybe you both need

to start pursuing Jesus a little bit more. But the second thing is that that works in the body of Christ, too. If we are all pursuing Jesus Christ together, if we are seeking to love Jesus Christ together, we are all going to the same end. Therefore, we automatically are all drawing closer to each other because ultimately we have the same end in mind, right? Every other summer, we go on vacation with some people we used to do ministry

with up in Kansas City. They live in two different parts of Kansas City, and of course, we live in our Kansas City, right? And so we go and we meet at this camp just outside of Westcliff, Colorado. Now, we probably all take different routes. We leave from different places, but we all have one singular end, camp. That's where we're getting to. And so even though our lives look a little bit different getting there,

we automatically are drawn closer together because we each are pursuing the same end. Well, if you are knit together in love, in your love for Jesus Christ, it's automatically going to draw you closer to everybody else in here. Because why? You're pursuing the same end. And what we need right now in the church is a church that is knit together in love, not just in Calvary Chapel of Arc City, but in all of the churches in Arc City

and all of the churches in the world. We need to learn to be knit together in love. Are we going to have some differences? Are we taking some different roads in some ways? Yes, but we're pursuing the same end. If we're doing that, then we will be knit together in love. Number three, that we may attain full understanding and knowledge. Look at this again. Notice what he

says, middle of verse two, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding. Isn't that great? I love that he uses that word wealth because I'm reminded of what he told the Ephesian believers when he said, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places. In other words, as far as God is concerned, you're as wealthy as can possibly be.

As far as this world is concerned, but spiritually speaking, your bank account is overflowing the wealth of understanding and not only the wealth of understanding, but also resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. That is Christ himself. Now, the second thing he reminds them of is the mystery, but there were three interesting words in there. You should pay attention to understanding, knowledge, and mystery, because those are three specifically chosen words, the issue that they were dealing with in Colossae was the Gnostic heresy, which was moving in.

And the Gnostic heresy boasted of a higher knowledge. They said, we have a deeper understanding, we have a higher knowledge, and we have a depth of a mystery. Those are the words that they use. And so Paul said, you don't need all that. In Christ, you have all of your understanding. In Christ, you have all of your knowledge. And in Christ, you find out the secret to the mystery.

And they're all fascinating. There is zero issue in your life that cannot be solved without knowing Christ more. Jesus and knowing him more will always be the key to everything that you have going on in your life. And so he tells them that his desire is that they would attain full understanding and knowledge, a deeper understanding of Christ. And of course, that brings us to the fourth thing,

because Paul can't mention Christ without getting a little bit distracted. And it's the point of the book. And this is what he says. The knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ himself, verse three, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The word hidden is not hidden like, oh my gosh, I just can't find it. The word hidden carries with the idea of being stored up. All of the treasures of wisdom and

knowledge are stored in Christ. Those two words, knowledge and wisdom, are really important. The word knowledge means understanding of truth, the understanding of truth. And it's interesting because Jesus told his disciples that he was what? Do you remember? He is the way and the truth and the life. Because in him are found all of the treasures of knowledge. Everything that you need to know

finds its basis in Jesus Christ. But not only that, in him are also hidden all the treasures of wisdom. So if knowledge is the understanding of truth, then wisdom is the ability to apply truth, the ability to apply truth. And in Christ is found all of the ability to apply truth. All of those things are found in Christ. And all of those things are found in a deeper knowledge of who Jesus is. And so that's Paul's desire

for the people. But now we come, second of all, to the warning. The warning. Notice what it says in verse 4. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. He says, I tell you this so that no one will delude you. Don't let

anyone delude you. Don't let anyone delude you. Don't let anyone delude you. Don't let anyone delude you. The word delude means to cheat or deceive by false reasoning. To cheat or to deceive by false reasoning. The work of the enemy always has been and always will be deception. Satan deceived himself into believing that he could become like God, that he could rule like God. Satan deceived

a third of the angelic host into believing that he was ultimately the one to follow. Satan was the one who deceived Eve that she was the one to follow. Satan was the one who deceived Eve that she could be like God. And Satan is the one that has been deceiving people with the exact same thought ever since. So deception is always the work of the enemy. Do not be deceived.

Why are we warned about this? Because it's our tendency to be deceived. It's our tendency to, to end up falling for deception. You say, Ryan, that'll never happen to me. Be careful. A week or so ago, I had the opportunity to teach at the Prophecy Conference up in Emporia. Taught two chapters, 2 Peter chapters 2 and 3. And in 2 Peter chapter 2, he talks about false

prophets. And as I studied all of the things and made all of my notes, I always ask myself the question, why? Why do I care? Why do I care about all of these false prophets? And I really felt the Lord impressed two reasons on me why it was important for us to pay attention to the deception in the world. The first reason is so that we won't be deceived. Because the moment that you think I can't be

deceived is the moment that you need to watch out for yourself. Because I have known a lot of people who are godly people, who are smart people that end up being deceived, end up being deceived by the things of the world, end up being deceived by false doctrine. And they fall into it. They, they fall into those things. And the moment, like I said, that you think you can't be deceived is

the moment that you end up falling into it. Because you've let your guard down. But not only do we need to be aware of it so that we won't be deceived, but we need to be aware of it so that we don't become deceivers. Oh, right. I would never do that to anybody. I bet every false prophet started off saying the exact same thing. I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning one day and goes, I think today I'm going to be a false

prophet, right? No, they start believing the deception themselves. And then they start convincing everybody else to go for it. Usually because they know it's not right, but they're convincing themselves that it is by getting other people to follow them. And we need to be aware of these things. You need to pay attention to what's going on. He says, I don't want you to be deceived.

And I want you to notice what he does not want them to be deluded by persuasive arguments, persuasive arguments. I found it interesting. Some of the words that are used for persuasive here. I think the English standard version, it was used the word plausible. And I really liked that a lot. That you would not be deceived with plausible arguments because those are the arguments that

cause you to sit back and go, I mean, I guess that kind of makes sense, right? You ever found yourself doing that. And the more you find out, you're like, that's crazy stuff. But the minute you heard it, you were like, Oh man, you know, a lot of conspiracy theories are like this. You start off and they start plugging all of the different things in. And you're like, I guess that kind of

does make sense. Doesn't it? Right. Seems plausible. That's why you end up falling for it. It's persuasive. The second word that I love about it is persuasive. It's persuasive. It's persuasive. And I think the new living translation provided this one was well-crafted. And is that not what good arguments are? They are well-crafted. They are false reasoning. You know what I find is that

most people that believe something false and they try to defend it, you know how they usually start off? A lot of people think this, but that's not actually true. It's actually this. I came across one of these on Instagram the other day. I was like, nope. Cause I knew what he was going to say because that's how they defend themselves is they go, a lot of people have a real big misunderstanding of this. No, they don't misunderstand it. You just

aren't putting it out there correctly. And this is again, what you find with people that are false teachers, people that are false prophets trying to bring about deceptive things is that they'll use all the same words that we do, but they don't have the same meaning. J. Vernon McGee put it perfectly in his commentary. And when he said they have the same vocabulary, but they don't

have the same dictionary. And I think that's something you have to pay attention to. That's what makes them plausible. Persuasive words is you go, but it sounds just like what we talk about. Well, I don't think that's what they mean. I don't think that's what he's actually talking about. Right. It's, it's usually that aching feeling that you have on the inside of you. When you

hear somebody start to talk about this new idea that they found and I'm skeptical of everything in the world, right? I hate everything at first because I'm like, I remember one of my favorite singing groups when they first came out and everybody in the world loved them. And this is usually what makes me hate things. Everybody, I know, I'm sorry. I'm just a heap of crazy.

Got to deal with me. Everybody in the world loved them. And I was like, they're dumb. And then I started listening to some of their songs. I'm like, they're awesome. Right? And so I'm always skeptical about things at first, but then, then you start going, okay, why am I skeptical? What's wrong? What's off? Hmm. And the more you think about it, the more you're like, something just doesn't seem

right. And then you realize how they're using a word wrong. And you're like, that's what it is. That's what it is right there. And so when these things happen, you have to pay attention. And so he says, they want to delude you with persuasive words. So don't be deluded with persuasive, well-crafted, plausible arguments. Instead, what should we do? Notice what he says in verse five,

for even though I'm absent in the body, nevertheless, I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. He says, rather than that, even though, I'm absent in the body and, uh, or, but president spirit, I'm rejoicing. When I think about something, when I think about two things, number one, you're good discipline, good discipline. That's a military term. Military term means orderly rank amplified Bible translates it like

this to stand shoulder to shoulder, putting up a solid front to stand shoulder to shoulder, putting up a solid front, same idea of being knit together in love. The idea is of Roman soldiers who linked their shields together, standing shoulder to shoulder in orderly rank, presenting a solid front against the enemy. Friends. I don't like to spend a whole lot of time talking about the false things in the world. I'd rather tell you about the true things

in the world, but occasionally if something's false, I got to tell you about it. I got to be honest with you because that's part of standing shoulder to shoulder, holding onto what's true and not let anything false in. And sometimes it makes me feel like I'm standing shoulder to shoulder and it makes me a little bit unpopular at first. It's okay. I'm used to it, but eventually

people go, I understand why the, why you said that was a big deal. And I'm like, I don't jump up and down about things that I haven't figured out for myself or the Jesus hasn't been like, you should jump up and down about that one, but we have to stand in that good orderly discipline. The second thing he says is not only good orderly discipline, but also the stability of your faith, the stability of your faith. That word stability means steadfast reliance and unwavering confidence. Steadfast reliance

and unwavering confidence. Let me paint a little picture here for you. Again, I like to watch war movies and my kids were watching something I absolutely did not want to watch the other day. And so I have Hulu on my phone. And so I was like, okay, well, let's see what's on Hulu. And Black Hawk Down was on there. And I was like, that looks way more interesting than what they're

watching right now. So, so I'm watching it and I just love those old war movies. They're just great. Right. And, and if you don't, if you've never seen it, it's the story of, it's a true story about what took place in Mogadishu in the early nineties when the, when Delta force was in there and just a battle went really wrong. And there was, but, but there's this one guy in there that really stuck out to me.

And he was one of the, one of the army ranger leaders and he's driving a Humvee and, and he pulls in. And I mean, there's literally just bullets flying everywhere and everybody else is ducking. And this guy gets out. Slams his door and walks just straight up and down like this and goes rides here. Let's go. And he walks back and bullets just everywhere, pinging off of everything. And he's not worried

about it. Why? Because he has an unwavering confidence. One of the guys after first service who had, who was in Vietnam pulled me aside and he said, you know what they call that Ryan bulletproof mentality. And I thought that is a great phrase because that's what we're supposed to have as Christians. As believers, we can have a bulletproof mentality. Why? Because we will be here as long as Jesus wants us here. Don't be idiots. Don't throw

yourself in front of buses, but you can have confidence because your confidence rests firmly in Jesus Christ and unwavering confidence. He says, rather than being diluted by persuasive arguments, have good discipline and a stability of faith. Well, now he's told us about the struggle. He's given us the warning. And now we talk, about the walk. He says, uh, in verse six, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus,

the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him established in your faith, just as you were instructed over flowing with gratitude. He says, as you have received Christ. So walk in him. Well, I did some studying on this and did some word studies and they tell you the tense of the Greek and all this kind of stuff. And I was like, okay, all that just seems way

more complicated than I needed. What does it simply mean? How did I receive Christ? Well, I put down three things for the way that I received Christ. Number one, I heard the message of truth. I heard the truth of the gospel and the truth of the gospel says, God is holy and I am not. I am a wicked sinner who is lost in my sin and will die in my sin. But there's good news. Jesus

took that penalty for me. And all I got to do is put all my faith in him. And my penalty is taken care of. I heard the truth of the gospel. And then I responded to the gospel and it was a beautiful thing. I was telling first service, the only, the only thing I did, I'm jumping ahead on my points here. I shouldn't actually get to fully rely on Christ and by faith alone. But the only thing that

I did when I heard that truth of the gospel was I, I just believed it. And then I came to church the next morning and I actually brought my Bible and I actually opened my Bible and I took notes and it was fascinating. Nobody had to tell me to do it. Nobody had to tell me, Ryan, you should take notes today. Nobody had to say, Ryan, you should follow along in your Bible

today. Nobody should, nobody had to say, Ryan, you should pay attention to what the pastor's saying today. Because all I knew was Jesus had just saved me. And I wanted to learn as much as I could about him. Cause I'm like, I knew who I was. And apparently I'm not that anymore. I'm made brand new in Christ. Tell me more. And I just want to know. And quite frankly, nobody's had to tell me to read it ever

since. Nobody's had to tell me to take notes ever since. All I do is read it because I just know this is where I can learn about Jesus. And so I heard the truth of the gospel. And the second thing I did is I became fully reliant on Christ because I'm here to tell you right now, all I brought to Jesus was a whole heap of drama, right? I was just like, you're going to have to take care

of that. And I just became fully reliant on Christ because I'm here to tell you right now, all I brought to Jesus was a whole heap of drama, right? I was just like, you're going to have to take care of that. I said, Lord, it's going to have to be your, your righteousness. Cause all I got is a bunch of gar, right? All I got, all I got is a bunch of junk. So I'm just going to bring you all my junk.

And he's like, no problem. Wear this. Right? And so I was fully reliant on Christ. And then the third thing is it was completely by faith alone. I just believed, like I said, I reacted. My reaction was tell me more, but it was by faith alone. That was how I received Christ. And so if I am to walk in him the same way that I received Christ, what does that mean? Well, it means that I

need to walk according to truth. I need to walk according to truth. You know, I think one of the problems that we can sometimes have in the church is we need that the gospel is for unsaved people, not for saved people. But I'm here to tell you right now, the gospel keeps doing its work in all of us. As long as you walk with Jesus, because listen, the gospel that restored my

relationship with Jesus Christ is the gospel that restores my faith. And so I'm here to tell you right now, the gospel that showed me my relationship with people when it's broken, the gospel that showed me my impurity and gave me the purity of Christ is the same gospel that is keeping me pure now and teaching me the importance of purity in my life. The gospel of Jesus Christ that told me that my mouth was too foul and that needed to change is the same gospel that has been changing the way that I speak for the last 25 years, right? That's what the gospel does. And the gospel doesn't stop

working in you when you get saved. It's not like, well, you're saved. You're on your own. No, you still need to walk according to the truth, the truth of the gospel. Number two, now walk fully reliant on Christ, fully relying on him. Listen, too many people out there trying way too hard. You're stuck on the treadmill, right? Ran on the treadmill again yesterday, been going to the gym

with my daughter. So I've been running outside as much. And there's days where the right dog's muscles just don't work anymore. I'm like, the only thing I can do today is run because I can't lift anything else because I'm old. And so, so I'm running on the treadmill and there's nothing more frustrating running on a treadmill, right? You know why? Because you don't get anywhere. Stupid Lifetime movies on. I don't know why Lifetime was on. I

didn't have the remote. I didn't want to change it. But I was like, she can't treat him like that. You know, she's going to make it. Give her her baby back. Sorry, I won't go off on Lifetime. But you're just stuck on this treadmill because you're not going anywhere, right? And too many people are doing that because you're relying on yourself. If you really want to get somewhere,

get off the treadmill and start walking by faith, right? Because that's the third thing. Fully relying on God, according to the truth, walk by faith. As you received him, so walk in him. Keep ordering your life according to those things. And then notice what he says in verse seven, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him, established in your faith

as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. He kind of mixes up some metaphors here, but I love all of them. So there's, I'm going to point out the kind of four things that he says here. First thing he says is having been firmly rooted. Again, I'm going to borrow from the New Living Translation here real quick. Having your roots going down deep. I knew somebody who

did agriculture work with Kansas State University and they went out and they did digs of like the Kansas prairie west of Manhattan there. And it's kind of fascinating to know, you know, that prairie and how deep the roots go. Do you know that for most of the prairie grass, their roots go down at least 16 feet. Now I had always heard that it was because they were seeking water, but what they have come to find is that those roots aren't necessarily seeking water. The ones that go down

that deep, they're holding the plant in place because of the amount of wind that it's facing. It keeps the plants from being uprooted. In other words, it causes them to hold on. All the water is in the first 10 inches, but then you go, down that much farther. And those roots are holding tight so that that plant cannot be dislodged, right? Just like the dandelions in your yard. Firmly rooted. And that's what we're to be

in Christ. Firmly rooted. Our roots going down deep. Listen, so that when all of the wind starts to blow, we can still hold strong. We can still stand strong. Firmly rooted. Number two, built up. This is a construction analogy. I love this phrase. I looked this one, and this one does mean something kind of cool. The phrase built up means, or the word built means

to finish the structure of which the foundation has been laid. Oh, that's pretty cool. Let me read it to you one more time. To finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid. Now, if you don't know very much about construction, you've never been around construction, they're frustrating things to watch, right? Because you watch this job site for three

weeks and nothing happens as far as you're concerned, right? You just keep looking and there's just, you know, grass. You just keep looking and there's just grass. You just keep looking and there's just grass. You just keep looking and there's just grass. And you're like, what are these guys going to do something? Guys are there all day long, three weeks straight.

It just doesn't look like anything has happened. And then they pour concrete and you're still like, still looks the same, just about that much taller than it used to be, right? Well, that foundation is really important because they're putting all the mechanical work in there, making sure the rebar is right so that the foundation is set. Now imagine if they set the foundation and they never build any walls on it. And you're like, what was the point of

the foundation? And you're like, well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. If they're not going to build anything, too many believers in Jesus Christ are walking around doing the same thing. Jesus did all of that work to lay the foundation. He spent all that time convicting you of sin, pointing out righteousness, showing you the

judgment that was to come. And finally you came to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you've got a foundation. Well, now it's time for him to start building those walls. But there's too many foundations laying around here that aren't being built upon. And God wants to see your life built up, become who he wants you to be. And it's all about walking with Jesus and continuing to dig deeper into your walk with him, building up on the foundation that

has already been laid. So firmly rooted, built up, and then established. The word established means to confirm or to make firm, similar to the word that we talked about earlier. But I got to thinking about this. What do we call a restaurant that's been around for a long time? For a really long time, we call it an establishment, right? Why? Because it's been confirmed.

Everybody knows about it. People go there. It's already been built up. And now it's active in the community, right? Because it has been established. Well, that's the way we're supposed to be in our walk with Jesus Christ. And then number four, overflowing with gratitude. Overflowing with gratitude. I always love the imagery of overflowing, right? I do this sometimes when I pour myself

a cup of coffee and I'm not paying attention, especially first thing in the morning. While I'm a little bit sleepy, I overflow my cup. I'll start pouring and it's dark and I don't like turning lights on because I'm weird. I'm pouring and I'm going, oh, that's overflowing. And now the coffee is spilling out all over everything around me, right? Well, that's the same imagery

that we think about overflowing with Thanksgiving. In order to overflow, what already has to be in the cup? It's already got to be some coffee in there, right? It has to be something that's there to make it overflow. You know why a lot of people aren't overflowing with Thanksgiving? Because your cup's too empty. Because you think you can fill it with all the things of this world.

You think you can fill it up with all these things. I used to always say I love the Thanksgiving challenges that usually take place in November. But you know what I've noticed about most of the Thanksgiving challenges? What are most people thankful for? Most people are thankful for their things. Things of this world. We should be overflowing. With gratitude because of what Jesus has done for us. And if you want to overflow with gratitude,

you should probably be overflowing with Jesus and all the things of him. Brothers and sisters, Paul said, I have a great conflict for the church because I don't want them to be deceived. Instead, I want them to walk strong. And now starting next week, we'll talk about the things that we need to be aware of so that we won't be deceived and can continue to walk strong. Amen.

Let's all stand. Again, dad's happy Father's Day. As my old pastor up in Johnson County used to always tell us, remember on Mother's Day, mom gets to choose what to eat. And on Father's Day, mom gets to choose what we eat. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much. Thank you so much for who you are. I thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that you would continue to use it

in our lives. And Lord, may we continue to build on that beautiful foundation of Jesus Christ. And may we build on it with all of the things of faith. And so, Father, continue to move in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. God so lovely, son. God so, God so. Lord, for loving us so much that you sent your only begotten son to die on that cross, to raise from the dead and be right up there ascended to the right hand

of the Father, making intercession for us. Thank you, Jesus. Give us a blessed, blessed and safe week. Encourage us each in our walk and witness for you. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you. Have a great week.