Don't Be Deceived Pt 1

you this morning to Calvary Chapel and those of you who are joining us online we welcome you would you join me in prayer father we thank you for this opportunity to come and worship in song and to study your word father we come just as we are however we're feeling whatever's going on Lord by faith we want to worship you in song and to study your word of course in all the other areas of our life that we would serve you because you first loved us we love you Lord and we want to serve you in that frame of mind as you love us we love you Lord not legalistically but because of who you are because what you've done for us or we thank you father God just bless our time or as we come to you you begin to transform not like you're reforming us but you're

transforming us it's like that caterpillar the butterfly thing innovation is taking place we're becoming day-to-day and then there'll be a day we know that we'll go to be with you I have a we'll get a new body and all that kind of stuff Lord come this morning we want to worship you Lord we want to look to you one want to trust you we may not feel real worshipful we may feel real worshipful but by faith this morning we pour our hearts out to you Lord our good good father to send your son Jesus to die on that cross for us Lord and as he rose from the dead spent those 40 days making himself known they seeing his risen body it wasn't a ghost as he said because go some have bodies

and that body of his could just kind of go through walls and enter it any or into a room but they saw him eat when he restored Peter and Peters denial oil fish and they ate and they fellowshiped oh lord you're so good to us oh you're so good to us can trust you in this world which seems to be chaotic but behind the scenes you are in control as a W Tozer said as I'm pairing or phrasing paraphrasing his quote but you are does it mean we don't go through rough times does it mean that as you are in control and we're living in this world we're living in a fallen world Lord we know that we need your strength Lord we need your help to face all that goes on times of being weary we'll have times of being joyful when

there's in the road that's marked for suffering and there's pain in the offering Lord you're there and we thank you Lord yes Lord Jesus thank you would you all stand with let's try that again sorry and sings my what joy shelf we praise you we thank you Lord and now bless our time in your word pastor Ryan by the power of your Holy Spirit to bring forth your word to teach your word give us listening ears to hear loyal and hearts just to take hold and nice to see and that willingness to obey so to walk with you day by day because you first loved us we love you Lord we thank you in Jesus name Amen let's have some fellowship good morning if you could begin to locate your seat grab your bulletin we'll get ready to go

over some announcements welcome to Calvary Chapel I'm glad that you have joined us this morning a few things to take note of actually they're all in the middle section of your bulletin and they all surround pretty much one thing again this week is vacation Bible school so if you are helping out with VBS and you were not able to attend the quick stand up meeting right after church last Sunday in between services you might track my wife down so that she can give you the the necessary information that you need there is still time to get your kids signed up we've got a good number signed up already so I think 60 some kids we have signed up already so that's pretty good if you are able to come on

Tuesday from 9 to 3 we will be doing all of the setup I'm just going to read you what Lauren wrote here help us transform the church into the streets of Nazareth so they these ladies always do such a fantastic job of putting everything together if there are some fellows there is a little bit with a screw gun that needs to be done so otherwise I have to do all that myself and it would be fun to have a buddy so just keep that in mind as well also there is no Wednesday night service this week because of VBS going on other well you can come Wednesday night but we're putting you to work so there's gonna be a lot of kids in here and we'll be putting you to work doing something and

then next Sunday just so that you all know kind of what's going on with Sunday school stuff next Sunday or no the Sunday the 30th so in two weeks is going to be the Sunday school promotion so we may see some other kids that are moving out of fifth grade into sixth grade that are going to be joining us here in the sanctuary and then they will be doing a missions kickoff okay are you gonna come up make an announcement about that I didn't see you okay good enough did I give the info necessary good perfect yeah I was scanning and I'm like I don't see her anywhere I'm just gonna go ahead and do this so and then last but certainly not least we're gonna start theángel

okay so we'll be back in a little bit of a second and then if you did I would just like to say what we're going to be doing next Tuesday is a service that is called the study of the Lord in the church we're gonna be doing a special and it's a service that is called the study of the Lord in the church we're going to be doing a special and it's a service that is called the study of the step up. And we have dads that step up for kids that aren't even their kids sometimes, right? Like you're just stepping up for, you know, maybe there's some kids in the church and that don't have a dad with them all the time. And you're stepping up to show them some love too. And I

just appreciate that. And we at Calvary really appreciate that. And we want to show you that we appreciate that. So we've got a little something for you. See the ushers afterwards, spoiler alert, it's a Brahms gift card. So go snag that from the ushers, get yourself some ice cream later, right? Amen. All right. Nothing says happy father's day, like a shake. So, um,

or, or whatever ice cream you feel like you need to go get. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning, uh, we are in Psalm 46, Psalm 46, looking at the new American standard for this part. So we all sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a 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 in my world slash state traveling friend is back with me. 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 Cora set to Alamoth, a song God is our refuge and strength, a very present, help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth should change. And though the

mountains slip into the heart of the sea, though it's waters roar and foam. And though the mountains quake at its swelling pride, say law, there is a river whose streams make the 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 kingdom. Stoddard. 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 the spear into he burns the chariots with fire. See 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 do praise you Lord. As it says in the beginning of that song that you are our refuge and strength Lord always present in time of trouble. And so father, we do find our refuge in you. And father, as we get into your word this morning, as always, may we

see you more clearly. Father, um, I want to lift up our, uh, family, our brothers and sisters in Israel. And Lord, I just pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I just feel heavy on my heart to pray for that today. And so Lord be with, uh, be with your people and, um, preserve them and keep them safe. And father, we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated.

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter two, Colossians chapter two, Paul did a fantastic job in the second half of the first chapter of Colossians. Introductory statement in his prayer for the people did a fantastic job of turning our eyes back on Jesus. And now that he has turned our eyes back on Jesus, the one place where we can find, uh, the, uh, the help that we need from the issues that they're facing. He now starts to get into the issues. Chapter two, uh, I have entitled don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. And there's going to

be two or three different parts of this. I haven't fully discovered how far it'll break down, but the, the subheading of today's is a conflict for the people, a conflict for the people. So we'll be looking at the first seven verses of chapter two. So follow along with me as I read 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 treasures 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 established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. Now, in those first seven verses, Paul gives us the idea that we're going to be able to walk in him. We're going to be able to walk in and that's the deception. And so as we look at his conflict for the people, there's three things that we're going to see. We're going to see the struggle, we're going to see the warning, and then

we're going to see the walk. The first thing that we start off with is the struggle. So again, I would remind you to look at verse two. It says, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face. Paul says, I have a great struggle for you. That word struggle can also be translated conflict.

I have a great conflict on behalf of you. And that word is an athletic term and it carries with it the idea of wrestling or agonizing. And the idea is that Paul is wrestling for and agonizing on behalf of this group of people in Colossae, as well as those that are in Laodicea, a region very close to Colossae, and anyone else who hasn't seen his face. Anyone who may be finding themselves in a place where deception is beginning to creep in. He has

this struggle, this agonizing. And I think that that's an important thing for us to start with, is the struggle that Paul has, the agonizing that Paul has, because Paul had a great love for the people of Colossae, as he did for all of the churches that he had any sort of contact with. His only contact was with their pastor who had brought to him some issues that were going on. But he had a great love for the people of Colossae. And he had a great love for the people of Colossae.

And he had such a great struggle for all of these churches because he had such a love for them. Paul allowed that love to get deep down into the inside of him. And then he did something about it. And what he did about it was to struggle inside. And it led him both to pray for them, which is what we'll look at in just a moment, and to instruct them. But it caused me

to start thinking about something. What it caused me to think about is, what do I agonize over? Or what do I struggle with? Or what is the conflict that's inside of me? And it made me think the same thing about all of us that are here this morning. What should our conflict be? What should we be struggling in? Who should we be struggling on behalf of? What should we be struggling on behalf of? Because I think it's way too easy for us in

the church today to sit back, put our heads in the sand, and pretend that none of the things in the world are going on. And so, as I thought about this and prayed about this, there are four things that I should have had, I should have highlighted those. So, if you have a chance to throw them up, great. If you have a chance to throw them up, great. If you have a chance to throw them up,

if not, don't worry about it. Four things that I think that we as the church today should be struggling for, conflict for, wrestling for in our lives. Number one, we should be struggling for the truth. We should be fighting for the truth. Do you know that one of the greatest things that is under attack right now, in general, is just the truth? Because it's so hard to come across.

And it's going to get harder. And we need to know that it's going to get harder. You know, it's going to start making truth harder? AI. Do you know that artists, musicians are very, very concerned about the current AI trend? Because there's going to come a point in time where their voice can be mimicked. And no longer do you have to pay for their music. They might end up getting

robbed because of the AI culture that's going on with music today. I actually think AI is one of the great threats to our freedom today. I actually, I heard, and I've shared this before, I think, but I heard a phone call, listen to the Glenn Beck program. This has been quite a while back now, but I've heard this lady other times besides this, this program. And this was not the only time that this happened. And this lady said,

I got a phone call and it was from a man claiming to have my daughter. He said he had kidnapped my daughter and he needed money. He would only give her back if I sent him money. She said, how do I know that you have my daughter? And so he put her on the phone and she talked and said, mommy, I'm scared. Please give him what he wants. And so she's absolutely freaked out.

All she could think was something doesn't feel right about this. Something feels off about this. And so she hung up the phone because he'd given her the instruction. She hung up the phone and she called her husband and told him what was going on. And he said, what are you talking about? Our daughters with me, they had used AI to generate her voice and someone was trying to

scam her out of some money. You know why? Because truth is hard to come across right now because deception is hard to come across. And so she hung up the phone and she called her husband and she is getting so great. And one of the things that we need to struggle for is the truth. It needs to be important to us. It has to be important to us. Not only the truth of the gospel, but even natural

truth and natural law. There's a great teaching. You guys need to go back and listen to if you didn't already. Uh, Jack Hibbs had Frank Turek, uh, teaching Wednesday night. So if you have a chance, uh, go to Jack Hibbs, you can either Google him or look up real life network and you can go back on YouTube or, or any of his platforms and go back and watch the nie schon. And so he did. He

watch this because Frank Turek has written a book called correct, but not politically correct addressing the gender ideology issue of today. And he keeps coming back to the exact same thing. There is truth and we need to fight for truth. And so go back and listen to that because what he has to say is fantastic, but he tells us the exact same thing that we as the church need to agonize in our fight for the truth. Number two, we need to agonize in our fight for the lost.

We need to agonize in our fight for the lost. Again, I think it's all too easy for us to be on the good ship lollipop sailing to heaven, forgetting that all around us, people are dying and drowning in their sin. You know why? Because currently the people dying and drowning in our sin don't look like the people we want in our church. And so we say, oh, let's just pretend that's not

going on, forgetting that they may be right on the brink of needing someone to say, let me tell you about Jesus who can set you free from what you've done. And so we say, let's just pretend that's not what you're going through right now, because you don't know at what point in the conflict they're in, but we need to have a heart for the lost. You know why? Because Jesus had a heart for the lost.

The apostles had a heart for the lost. Paul had a heart for the lost. Every time we see a great movement, we see a heart for the lost. And we need to have that in our church today. And you need to have that in your heart today. It can't just be the pastor's job. It can't just be the youth pastor's job. It can't just be the elder's job. All of the disciples, they're going to have a heart for the

lost. It can't just be the pastor's job. It can't just be the youth pastor's job. It can't just be the disciples of Jesus Christ were commissioned. Go out and be witnesses. I just read it in Acts again this week, right? Jesus is getting ready to ascend into heaven. And they say, Lord, are you going to establish the kingdom now? And he goes, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the

father has put into motion. In other words, none of us knows the day Jesus is coming back. What I need you to do is to wait on the power of the Holy Spirit. And then once you've received that power of the Holy Spirit, go out and be witnesses. In Judea, and then in Jerusalem, and then in Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth. Because he wanted them to agonize over the lost. Number three, you should agonize over your

church. And what I mean by that is this. You need to know that there are people that show up to the church every single week and they hurt. And they hurt and they don't tell anybody about it. Their marriage is hurting and they haven't told anybody about it. They're struggling in their career and they haven't told anybody about it. They're struggling in their faith and they haven't told

anybody about it. And you need to agonize over your church, which means sometimes you got to have your eyes open to the people whose eyes are a little more downcast than usual so that you can reach into their life and speak into their life. Sometimes you need to allow that Holy Spirit of discernment. And listen, the Holy Spirit's good at doing this. The Holy Spirit's good at

telling you, you need to minister to them. And you're going, I've never talked to them before in my life. They sit on the other side of the sanctuary. Duh, right? And it's like, no, no, you need to go minister to them because they need it. Why? I'm not going to tell you, have them tell you, but just know you need to do that. You should agonize over the people in your church and you

should agonize over those who have left the church. Now, listen, if somebody goes and they're going to another church and they're being fed in another church, and it's a church that teaches the Bible, I will send them with my arms wide open saying, I love you. If that's where you're being fed, be fed there. We're not social clubs. We're the church. And if that's the church they need to be

a part of, I have no problem with that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people that have left to go to churches that aren't teaching the Bible or people that have left, had not go to church at all because they're just disconcerted in their faith. And they've decided maybe this whole church thing just isn't for them. And we should agonize

over that. And we should agonize over those who are trying to split the church. I'm not saying anybody's doing that right now, but this is what was happening in Colossae. Doctrine was coming in that was false. And when you start hearing false doctrine, you need to address it. I don't know enough to address it. Then tell me about it because you should agonize over the church because

this is your body, right? This is your family, which brings me to number four. The fourth thing that we need to agonize over that we need to wrestle on behalf of is our families. And in particular, I love you dads. I'm talking to you right now. Keep up the work you're doing. Don't give up. Don't give up on how you're fighting for your family. Don't give up on how you're fighting

for your kids. Don't give up on how you're continuing to pour into your, to your families in the way that God has shown you to do so. Don't give up. Keep agonizing over your family. You say, my kids keep me up at night. Great. Pray for them because that's why you're up at night. That's why they're keeping you up at night. They don't ever want to listen. Neither did you keep talking,

right? Keep talking. Keep, keep ministering. Keep lecturing. Every time it comes up, keep talking, keep sharing, keep loving. They don't want anything to do with me. That's okay. Keep doing it because at the end of the day, one of the biggest lessons I learned as a youth pastor is that the greatest influence in the lives of teenagers are their parents. What? They think their parents are stupid. Maybe still the biggest influence in their life.

Still the biggest influence in their life. Because I can tell you a whole, I can give you names of kids that were solid in their walk with Jesus Christ and their parents, nothing to do with the church. And now they want nothing to do with the church. And I can also tell you about some of the biggest knuckleheads I've ever seen in my life who did not want anything to do with God, who only wanted to smoke weed. And now they're getting baptized because the greatest

influence in your family's life is the parents. And so fight for your families. And so Paul says, I want you to know the great, struggle that I have for you, the agonizing that I'm doing on your behalf. And as he agonizes over them, this is almost like a prayer that Paul gives for the people. Notice what it says in verse two, that their hearts may be knit together, or excuse me, that their hearts may be encouraged,

having been knit together in love, attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of the mystery that is Christ himself. And whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Four things that as he is praying and agonizing for the people, four things he wants for them. Number one, that their hearts might be encouraged, that their hearts might be encouraged. The root of this word encourage is

the same root that Jesus gives when he talks about a helper of sending the Holy Spirit. And the idea is to come alongside or literally to call to one side. That's what the word means, but it carries with it a little bit of a deeper meaning than that, because the word means to confirm, to establish, or to make strong. You see, he prays that their hearts would be encouraged, but that doesn't just mean a sweet doily that you gave to somebody that says encouragement. It means to make their hearts strong, to be confirmed in what they know, to be

established in what they know. Why? Because deception is coming, and the only way that they can stand against deception is if their heart is strong. Is if their heart is ready to handle the deception that's coming their way. And if your heart's not ready for it, you'll be deceived by it. But you need to have a strong heart, and your heart needs to be encouraged. And listen, the only way that your heart can truly be encouraged is with that

work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Making you strong. Making you strong to handle these things. And so he prays, first of all, that their hearts would be encouraged. Number two, that their hearts would be knit together in love. Knit together in love. I tried to look up everything about these words, knit together in love, to find some deeper meaning, and there was zero deeper meaning. It just means

knit together in love, right? Why? Why is it important? Because you know what, Father? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. False doctrine always creates, false doctrine always creates division. Have you ever noticed that? That's what happens. When you start seeing someone introduce a doctrine that begins to be divisive, that starts dividing people, you go, hmm, that seems strange. Why is it so divisive?

Why is it so complicated? Well, because it's probably false. And so he prays that their hearts will be knit together in love, because as their hearts will be knit together in love, that will be the opposite. The opposite of the division that the false doctrine will create. But what does it mean to be knit together in love? Well, first of all, they need to be knit together in their

love for Christ. They need to be knit together in their love for Christ. In other words, there needs to be a single thing that they are pursuing in their lives. And the single thing that they're to pursue in their lives as the church is Christ. We talked about this last week. It's going to be something we talk about a lot. The single thing that they were to pursue is Christ. And so their hearts being knit together in their love for Christ,

but not only are their hearts to be knit together in their love for Christ, their hearts are to be knit together in their love for each other and their love for each other, because a bond of love that we have for each other is really hard to break. Therefore, when false doctrine comes in, if everybody's knit together in love, it's a really hard thing to break, right? One of the cool things that Roman soldiers used to do, and they may have even learned it from the Greeks, is they would form with their big shields that they would carry, they would form a wall around themselves if they were surrounded. And the wall that they would form would be that their shields would all link together. And as their shields would all link

together, they would become a force that could not be destroyed because they were knit together, because they were linked together. Nothing could come between them because they were linked together. And listen, Paul prays that we would be knit together in love because this isn't just the church in Colossae that's facing these things. It's the church in Colossae that's facing these things. This is us that's facing these things. And if we're going to face the difficulties of the

world out there, then we'd better be knit together in love. Well, how can our hearts be knit together in love? Well, it starts with our pursuit of Christ, right? I always use this in marriages. I've probably shared this lots of times before. I always use this when I'm doing premarital counseling. And now when I do post-marital counseling, like, hey, we're married and our

marriage is struggling, I get back to the heart of things. And at the heart of things usually is that we stopped pursuing Christ. I always draw what I call the love triangle. And you put Jesus up here at the top and each person down here at the bottom. And I say, now, if you both are pursuing Christ, what naturally is going to happen in your relationship with each other? And they

always look at me with that, oh, this is cheesy. We're going to get closer to each other. Exactly. Because if you're all pursuing Christ, then you're automatically going to be drawn closer together. Because listen, you have a central point that you're all getting to. It's no different in a church. If we're all pursuing the same thing, if we're all after the same means, if we're all

pursuing the same ends, then ultimately we're going to end up in the same place. Am I right? Every other year we go to family camp with some really good friends of ours, right? And they live in a couple of different locations in Kansas City. And we live here, right? Way down in Southern Kansas. And we have one central meeting spot. You know what that central meeting

spot is? Sky Ranch. Sky Ranch in Westcliff, Colorado. And we take different roads to get there. We take different routes to get there, but we all get to the same place. Ultimately, why? Because we are pursuing the same end. And it's no different in the church. If we want to be a strong church, we have to be knit together in love. And listen, if you want to be a strong

family or you want to have a strong marriage, you need to be knit together in love. And so Paul prays first that their hearts would be encouraged. Second, that their hearts would be knit together in love. Third, that they would attain the full understanding and knowledge. Notice what he says. Middle of verse two, and attaining to all the wealth. I love that he uses that word. The wealth

that comes from a full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ himself. Attaining a full wealth of understanding. I love that he puts it that way. Because our understanding of Jesus Christ and his mystery, which is the church that he is in us as the hope of glory, is truly one of the greatest wealths that we will have.

And our entire life. After all, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, right? Spiritually, our bank account is overflowing because of the wealth that we have in Christ. But that wealth begins with our understanding of who we are in him. Not only that, not only is it the wealth of understanding, but the understanding of the mystery

of the knowledge. The mystery of the knowledge of Christ, right? It all comes back to the same thing. A deeper, a deeper understanding of Christ. A deeper understanding of Christ. The words he uses there, understanding, knowledge, mystery, he uses those words for specific purposes. Because again, the false doctrine that was going around had Gnosticism at its root.

And Gnosticism spoke of a higher knowledge, a greater mystery, and a deeper understanding. Those were the things that you were supposed to be able to achieve once you had gotten into their doctrine. Once you, really understood, you could find all of those things, a deeper knowledge, greater understanding, and a mystery, right? And Paul says, you don't need all that. You need Jesus. Because that's

ultimately what it all comes back to, is a deeper knowledge of Christ, a deeper understanding of Christ. In the book of 2 Peter chapter one, he tells us, his divine power has given to us everything that we need for life and godliness through the same word, knowledge of him who calls us. A deeper knowledge of Christ will always change everything. And so that we would attain to that full understanding. And then he goes on to describe Christ. That is Christ himself into

verse two. And then into verse three, it says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He says, in Christ are hidden all of the treasures, right? Now, the word hidden doesn't mean, I can't find it. The word hidden means stored, stored away for protection, right? That's what that word hidden means. And so all of these things are hidden in Christ. The only way that we can

find them is if they are, is if we find them in Christ. And what are the things that are hidden in Christ? Well, first of all, all true knowledge is hidden in Christ. Do you remember what Jesus told? His disciples, he said, I am the way and the truth and the life because true knowledge is found in Jesus Christ. The word, the word knowledge speaks of the understanding of truth. That's what the

word knowledge at its base understanding means. The, the understanding of truth, and it's all found in Jesus Christ. And the word wisdom means the ability to apply the truth. And that's found in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, when we get to the book of Ephesians, we get to the book of Proverbs in our daily readings, you're going to find that wisdom is often personified, right? Wisdom

is personified. Why? Because where is wisdom found? Wisdom is ultimately found in Christ. Wisdom is ultimately crying in the streets, come to me, right? Like it says in the book of Proverbs, because in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so he says, that's my greatest desire for you is to go deeper in your understanding, understanding of Christ, because as you get deeper into your understanding of Christ,

you will really understand truth. And as you get deeper in your understanding of Christ, you will be able to apply that truth. And so he goes on from there now to give a warning. He tells them why these things are so important. He says, I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in the body, nevertheless, I am not absent in the body. I am not absent in the body. I am not absent in the body.

I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Don't let anyone delude you. That word delude means to cheat or to deceive by false reasoning, to cheat or to deceive by false reasoning. This is the work of the enemy. The enemy has always been the enemy. The enemy has always been the enemy. The enemy has always been

a deceiver. He's been a deceiver from the day one, from day one, right? First of all, he deceived himself into believing that he could be like God. Then he deceived a third of the angels to say, I am actually going to rule and reign. And he took them with him when he was cast down, cast out of heaven. And then he deceived Eve into saying, you can be like God,

knowing good from evil. And he has been deceiving people ever, ever since. That's why scripture refers to him as the father of lies. And so Paul says, the reason why I have this great struggle for you, the reason why I want your hearts to be encouraged and to be knit together in love, and that you would attain the full understanding and knowledge of Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge is because I do not want you to be deluded. I do not want you to be deceived.

So a couple of weeks ago, a week ago, whenever with the prophecy conference, when I had the opportunity to teach on, uh, second Peter chapter two, and it was about false prophets, false prophets that come in looking like they're going to do good things, but they come in secretly and deceptively. And one of the things that I felt like the Lord wanted me to bring out is that we need to be warned about these things for a couple of main reasons. Number one, so that we won't be deceived, right? I think there are so many warnings about this in scripture because of our tendency to want to believe things because of our tendency to be deceived. And I've known some amazing people who are incredibly smart and love the Lord and end up

getting deceived, deceived by the enemy. They get deluded by false doctrine. They get deluded by either legalism or licentiousness or some other higher knowledge that they have. And so I think they have thought to achieve and they've gotten deceived by that. And you go, how did that happen? You were sitting in a really good church, hearing really good teaching when that was going on.

I don't always know. I can't always explain it. I just know that it's a danger for us that we need to pay attention to it. And if you're sitting here right now going, somebody needs to hear this, but it's not me. Then I would say you're probably in trouble. I would say that you are probably in danger of being deceived because if we are not always having our ears open, if we are not always having our eyes open,

if we are not always having a heart that is aware that that potential is there for me, then we're probably in a place we're about to be deceived. But the second reason why I think it's important is because we don't want to become the deceivers, right? I'm never going to become a deceiver. I bet every false teacher starts off saying the exact same thing. I bet none of them

woke up one morning and said, today I'll become a false prophet, right? Ultimately they got deceived, they started believing their own press, and they started teaching everybody else, right? Why? How do these things happen? Notice what it says through persuasive arguments, that you would not be deluded by persuasive arguments. I can't remember which translation. I think it was the English

Standard Version called them plausible arguments. I thought that was a great word, right? Because persuasive arguments are just that, they're plausible. We're like, I mean, that could make sense, right? We've all done it. You hear the, weird conspiracy theory on YouTube or something, and you go, I mean, they could be onto something there. Now that kind of makes sense, right? And we all start doing it. And it's one thing when it's

some fun thing out there in the world. It's a whole other thing when it's scripture, right? Because they seem plausible. Not only are they plausible, but I think it was the Amplified, no, no, it was the New Living Translation that said this, well-crafted. Ooh, that's dangerous, isn't it? Really well-crafted. Because remember, when the false comes in, they don't come in saying, I'm false, but you should believe me,

right? It's well-crafted. False reasoning was one of the other ones that I'd seen. It's always well-crafted. And it's always like, there's just something that's not quite right, but you can't figure out what it is. Gosh, it sure seems plausible. Sure seems like it kind of makes sense. And then you start to dive into it a little bit. And you know what I have always found about people

that lead you into false things? They always start off by saying, what I think most people don't understand is you should step back and go, so what is all of history not understood? What does every Bible teacher in the world not really understand that you're about to tell me? What does every commentator in the world not understand that you're about to tell me? I listened to a guy on an Instagram reel the other

day say, what I think a lot of people don't understand about this is, and I'm like, pass, right? Because I'm like, no, you're just going to say a bunch of things. And you're going to use some well-crafted argument to tell me that what I'm hearing is not really what I'm hearing. You know why? Because a lot of times when it's false, they will use the same words that we use. And I loved what J. Vernon McGee had to say about this. He said, my friends,

they have our vocabulary, but they don't use our dictionary. Isn't that great? Because that's what the false is. It's all of the same things that we would say, but they mean something different. And so you go, that's how it happened, right? And my favorite thing is to know that something's wrong, try to figure out why it's wrong. I'm going, Lord, everything on the inside of me, it's like,

there's just buzzers going off, right? There's confetti shooting up saying, that's not right. And I'm like, I don't know why, what's off. And then somebody will explain one thing. I'm like, oh, that's what it was. Same words, different dictionary, right? And so he says, I don't want you to be, to be deluded through persuasive arguments. Listen, there's one thing that we need to know

about Jesus and the gospel. It's always simple. Jesus in the gospel is always simple. Are there hard things to understand in here? Absolutely there are, but at the root, they're always simple. And once they become complicated, you need to ask yourself, why, why is that so complicated? I had a guy run through one time, what he believed with me. And I was like, man, I don't think I carried the one somewhere. I think I lost you

somewhere in there because that just, that's really like you. That's really how you try to live your life. Yeah. That's what the Bible says. No, it's not. It's absolutely not what that might be what your Bible says, but I think you use your black highlighter, right? That is not what the Bible says. Or they'll say, I'll say, they'll say, but, but tradition, I'm like, but not the Bible.

Yeah, but tradition. I'm like, yeah, but traditions are wrong. Stick with the Bible. It's just fascinating how it ends up happening. He says, I don't want you to be deluded by persuasive arguments. And this is the warning that he gives instead. What does he want to be able to see? He says for even though verse five, I am absent in the body. Nevertheless, I am with you in spirit, but we got to camp there one quick second. I'm absent from the body,

but I'm with you in spirit. I think this is important for us to know. And I like to point out every time it comes up, just because you're not there. Doesn't mean you can't be involved just because you're not there. It doesn't mean you can't have influence, right? And this is one of the great things that you learn, especially with missionaries like, like, uh, several weeks ago when our crew was down in Guatemala, you weren't there,

but you were there. You were there because you were praying every day. That's why I love that they gave us that prayer guy. I thought that was awesome. So that every day we can be like, this is where they are and I'm going to join in with them by praying. I can't actually be the one that's there handing out the food or, you know, I can't actually be the one that's there handing out

or putting on the skid or doing the, whatever it is that they were doing, but I can still be there by praying because spiritually speaking, I can be anywhere as I am praying for those people. Though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit rejoicing to see, and this is what Paul wants to see, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith. Instead of being deluded, what I really want to see is I want to see two things, your good discipline and your stability of faith. Those are both military terms. Again, the word good discipline means

orderly rank, orderly. I want to see your orderly rank. Let me read it to you out of the amplified Bible. I thought this was great. Your good discipline, the ability of you to stand shoulder to shoulder, putting up a solid front. It's the same imagery he used when he talked about being knit together in love. It's the imagery of the Roman soldiers who stand together, linking their shields together, shoulder to shoulder in orderly rank,

putting up a unified, solid front. He doesn't want to see them deluded. What does he want to do? Want to see them do instead? Stand strong together against the deception that's coming against you. Stand strong together against the deception that is wanting to come into the church. And that's why brothers and sisters, we need to have an agonizing, conflict for the church. And you need to have that agonizing conflict for your family,

because your family has to be all of you standing together, shoulder to shoulder as a unified front against all of the evil that's coming against it every single day. And especially those of you raising kids right now, you know, there's a lot of evil coming in every day from places you didn't even think it was possible for it to come in, right? And you got to stand shoulder to shoulder. And the same is true with the church. We have to stand

shoulder to shoulder. We have got to start learning that we are family, that we are family, and we are only as strong as we are together in an orderly rank, standing shoulder to shoulder, side by side, loving each other, supporting each other. Listen, letting the little things go, letting the little arguments go, they become petty, forgiving one another, not holding bitterness against each other. And that's why we have to stand shoulder to shoulder. And the same is true with

each other, but looking at each other as my greatest ally in the war against the evil that is in the world. And when God adds another one, that's just another ally on the war, right? He says, what I want to see instead is you, is your good discipline, standing shoulder to shoulder, putting up a solid front and a stability of your faith. The word stability means steadfast reliance and an unwavering confidence.

Steadfast reliance and unwavering confidence. Let me give you an example. Again, I like to watch war movies. I watched one the other day, Black Hawk Down. Again, don't watch it if you have a hard time with war movies. A fascinating story. It's a story about Mogadishu back in the early nineties when the Delta Force guys were over there. And there is this one guy on this movie

that's just fascinating. They're in the middle of a battle and bullets are just raining down everywhere. And this great big guy is just walking around like nothing's going to happen. And he's like, nothing's happening. I mean, he's, he's serious about the situation. Everybody else is doing this. And this guy gets out of the Jeep and he walks up and he's like, come on guys, we're getting

out of here. Bullets flying everywhere. Why? Because he has an unwavering confidence, an unwavering confidence in his ability to survive the battle. And listen, that's what Paul wants to see in us. And it's what he wanted to see in the Colossian people, an unwavering confidence. Quit ducking your head because there's bad things going on. Around you start standing up because you know the truth, have an unwavering confidence. But the only

way that can happen is if your heart is encouraged, as if you are knit together in love. And if you are constantly growing in your knowledge of Christ, it creates an unwavering confidence so that every time there's another attack, you don't put your head down and start running around like a chicken with his head cut off, but you just continue steady. I keep bringing this message because God keeps telling me to bring this message because I don't think the world's going to get a lot better between now and the time that Jesus comes back. And what the world needs to see are believers in Jesus Christ with an unwavering confidence. Amen. And so he says, that's what I

want. I don't want you to be deceived. Instead, I want you to stand strong and have an unwavering confidence. And so he's told us about the struggle. He's told us about the warning. And the third thing he tells us is the walk. For in light of everything he said, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. Well, I got to thinking about this

and there's all these commentaries that give you the, the tenses of the words and all this kind of stuff. I cut all that stuff out and I just said, how did I receive the Lord? Well, number one, I heard a message of truth, right? I heard a true gospel message, not the, false gospel message we hear in the world today, but I heard a true gospel message. You're a sinner. Jesus is a savior. Follow him. I heard the true gospel message. And then after I

heard the true gospel message, you know what I did? I put all of my reliance on Christ because all I could do is cry out and say, Lord, they're 100% right. You're 100% right. I am absolutely a sinner. The only hope that I have is you. And so I need 100% you in my life. And so how did I hear the message or how did I receive the message? I heard the truth. I fully

relied on Christ and it was through faith alone. There was nothing I did to make myself saved. The only thing I did was show up to church the next day and finally start taking notes. Why? Because I had put all of my faith in Christ because I had put trust in Christ. And now I was born again. I was alive in Christ. And the moment that I was alive in Christ, no one had to tell me to

bring my Bible to church. No one had to tell me to get out a pen and paper to start taking notes. You know why? Because I knew that's where I would learn about Jesus. And that's what I wanted to do. I knew that the pastor was talking to me about Jesus. And that's what I wanted to learn. And nobody had to tell me why because I'd heard the truth and I fully put all of my faith in Jesus Christ. As you have received

the message, so walk in him. The word walk means the way that you order your life. So how do we now order our life? We have to walk in him. We have to walk in him. We have to walk in him. We have to walk lives. Well, the same way that I received him. How did I receive him? Well, now I live my life according to truth. The truth of what God's word has to say, which by the way, continues to tell

me that I need a savior. Isn't it amazing that the gospel message doesn't stop the day that you got saved? The gospel message was just getting going. It's like the gospel message went, let's roll, right? Because he was ready to move. And now the gospel is changing every aspect of my life because you know that the same restoration that God brought in my relationship with Jesus Christ,

he now brings in all of my other relationships. The same forgiveness that he brought into my life is now what I take into all of my other relationships. The same purity that he created inside of me is now what I should live out in every aspect of my life. The same holiness that I was called into is now the holiness that I walk in. You see, how do we walk the same way that we

received? According to truth. And then the second way that we walk is the way that we're received it by faith, by faith in Jesus Christ. That's what it tells us in scripture, right? Is now that I walk by faith every day. We're told in Galatians four, we walk by faith, not by sight. So every day we walk by faith. And the third thing is that every day we walk fully

reliant on him. Not that any of this is of my own, but this one thing I do for getting what's behind I press on. Why? Because I'm fully reliant on him. And if I want to not be deceived by the things that are around me, I need to walk in the same way that I received in truth, in faith, and in complete dependence on Christ. And so he goes on to describe this solid walk. And we'll wrap up

here with verse seven, where he says, having been firmly rooted and now being built up, established, and now being built up, and now being built up, and now being built up, and now being built up, established in faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. He uses a couple of different metaphors, sort of mixes his metaphors, but that's okay. He's writing the Bible. It's good stuff. First thing he says is having been firmly rooted. Again, I would like to lean on the New

Living Translation on this because they give such a colorful interpretation of this verse. And that is that your roots are going down deep. It's fascinating to drive through Western Kansas and I know a lot of people are like, it's so boring. And listen, I know it's not the mountains, but prairie grass is pretty fascinating stuff. Do you know that underneath of that prairie grass, do you

know how deep the root system goes? For most of that prairie grass, it goes down 16 feet. That's how deeply rooted that stuff is. And they're now finding that that's not just so that they can find water. It's so that it can withstand all of the wind whipping across the prairie so that it can stand strong, even though the wind is continuing to blow. You see,

grass is firmly rooted. Its roots go down deep. Paul says that's what walking with Jesus looks like. Your walk should be firmly rooted. Your roots going down deep in Christ. The second thing he tells us is that our faith, our walk should be built up. The word built up is kind of interesting. It means to finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid. To finish the

structure of which the foundation has already been laid. Now, building is such a fascinating thing. And usually when people that don't know anything about construction, watch a building go up, the foundation takes forever, right? They're like, oh my gosh, what are they doing this whole time? Right? Why is it taking them so long? They've been working on this building forever

and there's nothing there. And then finally the foundation gets poured in. It feels like the building's done, right? Because foundation takes a long time. Foundation, you got to put all of the mechanical stuff in there. Plus the ground has to be just right. You got to set all the rebar in there. All the steel that needs to go in there. All the walls need to be proper. It has to have

the right kind of footing so that that foundation is firm. But once the foundation is firm, what would we all do if, if they just stopped building? We would be like, well, are they going to finish that? And too many Christians are walking around like that. You had a great foundation built and it took all of what Jesus did in your life of convicting you of sin, of bringing,

to the truth of showing you the gospel. And you came to Jesus Christ and you said, I believe in a foundation was laid and you stopped building. And you're going, what are you doing, man? Put the thing up, right? I'm super excited about another coffee shop coming to town. And I'm like, get it done. Right? Because when we get excited about that, we want to see the building keep going up.

And that's what we're to do. We are to be built up. Finish the structure of which the foundation has been laid. You know what that means? Your walk can't stop growing. You can't just stop growing in Jesus. You have to keep moving forward because God wants to do so much more in you than you can ever ask or think, right? Number three, he says that we would be established. The word established again is

similar to the word established. We would be established. We would be established. We would be to the word above where it means to confirm or to make firm, to confirm or to make firm. And then finally, our walk should be over flowing with gratitude, overflowing with gratitude. Now I want to point out something to you about that, that phrase, that phrase is overflowing.

You know what it means to be overflowing means you have to be full and then something continues to push it out. You know why most of us aren't overflowing with gratitude? Because we're not full of anything. We're not full of Jesus, and so we're not overflowing with gratitude. What are we full of? We're full of discontentment. We're full of frustration. We're full of anger.

We're full of all of those things. And what Jesus is telling us is, hey, put all those things off. Get yourself grounded. Get yourself rooted. Get yourself built up. And then allow me just to keep pouring all of my blessings into you. And then you can be overflowing with gratitude. You can say, Ryan, I'm not like one of those people that has all this stuff,

and so it's really hard for me to be thankful. And that's always the problem with thankfulness in the Western culture, is in the Western culture, our thankfulness is always based upon our stuff. And thankfulness should actually be based upon who we are in Christ. Because you strip it all away, you take it all away, and there's one thing that will always remain, and that's Jesus.

And that's Jesus. And so, my friends, don't be deceived. Keep growing, keep walking, and as you have received Christ, continue to walk. If you would stand with me.

Dads, don't forget to go see the ushers on the way out. Get yourself a little something. And appreciate all that you guys do. Pastor that I used to serve under said, remember, on Mother's Day, you get to eat where Mom wants to eat. And on Father's Day, you get to eat. Where Mom wants to eat. Father, we come before you, and I thank you so much for the time that we have together.

And, Lord, I thank you for your word, and just pray that you would bless it to our souls. Lord, may it go down deep, establish roots, and, Lord, build on that firm foundation. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. By the way, I was blessed the way those voices raised when I was blanking out a little bit there. Praise the Lord. Praise. And now, as we start into this new week, trusting in you, a day at a time, hour at a time, minute at a time, second, whatever, Lord.

May we allow you to order our life. May our manner of living be that which glorifies you. And we give you the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless y'all.

Amen.