Sermon Nuggets Mon Nov 9
Theme CHRIST AND THE CULTS
Verses- Col 2:1-9
1 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
Believer, Beware
All around us there are voices of deception. I am shocked by the ways people are mislead into believing all kinds of things under the pretence religious meaning. On national news recently was exposed the violence and coercion of the Scientology church made more popular by followers, John Travolta and Tom Cruise. Even some of the leaders have now left the organization to the threat of personal attack by the craze leader, David Miscavige.
The 50th anniversary of Rev Sun Myung Moon of the Church of Unification brought 1000s of couples in a united arranged marriage that was made public recently. He has been teaching for years he is the Messiah.
Within the Christian tradition many churches and pastors have sprung off into cult like teachings where their insights, and visions, and special interpretations lead folks away from Biblical teaching, including established groups like Jehovah Witnesses, and Mormons.
The health and wealth TV preachers who bilk 1000s out of their offerings allowing them to live lavish life styles resulted in many people reject all religion and give up on the Christian church.
Someone can might say, "What a minute, Christians believe in a man who came back from the dead. He ascended to heaven. He claimed to be the Son of God. He invites me to leave everything and even my family if necessary to follow him and join a community of believers. He invites me to take up my cross. The Lord tells us not to be surprised when people make fun of us or think we are foolish. He calls me to die so that I might live. And then he tells me he is coming back for me so I can join him in paradise the next level.”
I can ask how can so many New Age teachers and followers be so foolish? But there are people asking that of those who take the following of Jesus Christ seriously. We need to look at the differences of the claims of Christ and compare them to the claims of other voices saying there is a different way.
From the beginning of time people have been deceived from the truth. Satan did what he does best which is to lead people into lies. He takes the word of God and the relationship that people have with Him and distorts and confuses people into focusing their faith into other things than what is revealed. We have had members of our church visited by cult members who promise them personal attention and Bible study. With a certain amount of Bible twisting they are very good as taking new or uninformed Christians and winning them over to their group which denies the divinity of Jesus Christ.
The Bible even tells us in the last days there will be a multitude of deceivers who will do everything to keep people from faith in Jesus
Throughout the next three weeks as we study from chapter 2 we will be looking at many of the warnings from the Bible that cause people to be held captive with lies. Just because someone says they are teaching from the Bible do not believe it. Read it in context for yourself. I have said many time do not take my word for things, also check them out in the Bible.
This last weekend while I was at the Minnesota Baptist Conference Annual meeting in Duluth, the Hispanic church planter gave his testimony. He said some that although I didn’t like, it was true. He said, “Most people will seldom read the Bible. Instead they will find out and believe what the Bible says through their pastors.”
I frankly stopped listening to him since I spend my time pondering those words. People seek truth more through other people than through looking at the Scriptures themselves. If they follow a leaders who teachings something is from the Bible, they seldom check it out. Most do not feel confident enough to understand the Bible so leave it up to those who are better trained. But unfortunately it leads folks to follow those who are more articulate and have charismatic personalities.
Paul warns the Colossians about deceptive authority that misleads them from the truth of Christ.
Believer, Beware! If something seems fishy, check it out!
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Nov 10
Verses- Col 2: 1 I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.
2 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Beware of the Emotions of Experience
Paul wants his reader to be encouraged in their hearts and united in love. Those are emotional parts of our being. When we worship God we do worship Him in spirit and in truth. Many Christians are afraid of emotion. They are afraid of expressing their love or praise to God from their heart lest they be looked upon in our setting as out of control.
Our area, with strong Swedish roots, folks tend not to show much emotion. But of course that is changing as our culture changes. Our older churches and folks have a harder time showing their feelings in worship, whither by crying or laughing, or shouting, or clapping. That is not so in the South, or Latin American countries, or among some other ethnic groups. The showing of emotions can be a cultural thing.
It can also be a doctrinal thing. We are not what people call a charismatic church. Nor are we a liturgical church where every prayer and all responses are carefully scripted out before any service begins. A charismatic service generally implies lots of emotion which can include shouting, hand raising, clapping, and usually speaking in tongues. Sometimes it can include healings and anointing, fainting, dancing, visions and prophecies they say are from impressions from the Lord. Each church and pastor may handle those manifestations differently.
The fear of being emotional can also cause some people to quench the movement of the Spirit of God. There are many verses which speak of raising hands as expressions of praise to God. But you should see the looks on some faces when some people desire to raise their hands or clap with the music! True praise can exhibit itself in many forms. It can include musical instruments and also be without instruments; with organ or with drums. God wants to have people tell him they love him.
But there is also a warning that we need to take to heart. For some emotions of experiences take precedent over the revealed truth of God. He speaks about this also further v.(18-19) I will be writing on this later, but there are people who are having emotional experiences who take their trust and faith in the experience over the truth. Personal visions or tongues speaking become more important than being grounded in the Bible. Worship of angels apparently became an issue in Colossae. Their new messages based on those experiences were lead some astray.
Some people judge spiritual reality based on feelings or emotions. Some people question others salvation if they haven’t experienced tongues or some other feeling or emotion or revelation. Some people do not feel forgiven or not feel that God loves them, which goes against what the Bible says. If you are sincere in confession of your sins God is faithful and will forgive you. That is a faith based on fact not feeling. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ to save you that is fact, not feeling.
When Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration, who wouldn't have enjoyed that experience of special revelation of Elijah and Moses and Jesus? Peter wanted to stay there all the time. "Let’s erect shelters for each and stay here" Jesus was not a made up story. The transfiguration was not a cleverly devised tale. But notice what Peter said in 2 Peter 1:19-21 he spoke of something being made “more sure”. What could be more sure than something he had witnessed in person? Nothing could be any more sure than what he personally experienced. Yet Peter said, “so we are even more confident of the message proclaimed by the prophets.”
In others words Peter was saying there is something even more trustworthy that what he saw and heard himself-namely the words written by men who were guided by the Holy Spirit of God. Then he says the Bible is not a matter of private interpretation. It is not a matter of human will. It is God breathed as men recorded it.
Apparently in Colossians some people had experiences of worshiping angels. Maybe someone met an angel and that experience is causing everyone to want to experience angels. There are supernatural things that happen beyond other explanations you know. Some want that same experience. We see crowds running all over to see a vision of the Madonna; people going to the other side of the globe to some water or some miracle rock or some woman who saw a vision. There are people wanting the experiences of speaking in tongues, or jumping in the spirit or laughing in the spirit or ecstatic behavior. Whether people worship angels, or take pride in some special revelation. There is the problem. It actually diverts one away from Christ, the rightful "Head of the body" - Co 2:19 The apostles saw it as wrong to be worshiped and so did the angels. Only God is to be worshiped. Only God is to be prayed to, not saints or angels.
There is a danger of emotional experiences that lead us away from truth to trust many spiritual leaders who claim God spoke to them in a vision, dream or even in a personal manifestation. Their faith is in the experience and not in facts of what Jesus Christ did and believing in Him.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Nov 11- Happy Veteran’s Day.
Verse- Col 2: 4 I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.
The Lures of Liberalism
Paul gives another warning again addressing man made philosophies. He warns them against fine sounding arguments. There are many who move the attention from Scriptures to use for one’s basis of authority what makes sense. I want to look at the Lure of Liberalism as one example. It is the philosophy of man, that is, man centered and filled with intellect. Whatever does not make sense according to the sciences and man’s view is simply discarded. There are many religious leaders that take the fine sounding principles that appeal to the sense of mankind but take away all the miracles, all the wonder of the eternal. Since it doesn't make sense that Jesus can be both God and man they have fine sounding arguments how he was a good prophet.
The lure of liberalism is that we recreate the Bible and the stories of Jesus to fit our preconceived ideas of what is true. We are the judges.
I was in a seminar with one well respected minister who was liberal. He presented various views how it makes sense that everyone is saved. I asked him about the Bible teachings on Hell. He simply dismissed them without any qualms as being myths. Why? He explained it doesn't fit with a loving God. When challenging him about the consistency of Paul's teaching how a loving God is also just God he simply writes Paul off as misguided Rabbi.
Many people determine to make their intellect their fine sounding human authority. Common sense becomes the final means of authority for religious beliefs. If it seems logical to me, then I will believe it.
Many love to argue the philosophies of atheism and evolution theories as if they are facts. How can anyone know there is no God? That seems to be an extreme position of pride that their wisdom and intellect is so superior it is above spiritual insight they know there is not God.
The entire history of human race is a reminder that man continually
uses poor judgment. Mankind seldom has the ability to make right decisions.
Liberal teaching may have some religious activities of helping others and working for peace and justice, but much of Scriptures are only considered an anthropological and sociological commentary on the uneducated and un-enlightened people of that day.
The Lord Jesus himself had to cope with this kind of thinking. In Mark 12 the Sadducees refused to believe in the resurrection based on reason. v. 24 Jesus analyzed their reasoning. They were wrong because they knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. Were they really searching for truth when they came to Jesus? No. They were asking Jesus questions so they could display their superior knowledge.
Liberals today have denied the deity of Jesus, the resurrection. They have eliminated much of Scripture as being fables and stories that cannot be believed as literally true.
Paul knew that the proclamation of Jesus would be a message that is nonsense to liberals. For what seems to be God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and what seems to be God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Now Christian faith that is honestly explored is definitely not anti-intellectual. Far from it. Paul had the most brilliant and highly educated minds of his century. He accused mankind not of having too much wisdom, but rather too little. He taught if they had enough wisdom they would not have crucified Jesus. If the Spirit of God understands the thoughts of God He is the only way to understand them.
Have you received the Spirit of God? It is impossible for a person to find God through his own intellect it comes down to a matter of the will.
While in Russia I read a most interesting book by Dr. Greg Boyd, Letters to a Skeptic. This was a series of letters back and forth between his father who had completely rejected Christianity, and Greg. Greg has a great mind and attended Ivy League schools and his father could not believe he could be a Christian and an intellectual. So the book was the correspondence of all the questions that his father had as to why he did not believe. Each one was answered by his son.
Finally Greg challenge his day, "It is like being in a house and someone outside house fire. You can choose to believe him or not to believe him-and you weigh the evidence carefully (do you smell smoke? Do you see flames? etc. ) You can choose to believe and risk looking foolish for running out of your house if it's a joke, or you can choose not to believe and risk being burned up. If you choose to suspend judgment you risk the same thing.”
God gave to us wisdom that is from above. To ignore it is to decide against Jesus. Satan is sly and wants to lure people into liberalism. Beware of how it moves it focus from Jesus to self.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thur Nov 12
Verses- Col 2: 5 For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
The Trappings of Traditions.
There is a firmness in faith that delights Paul when he thinks of the church at Colossae. He gives them a further challenge to continue to live in Christ. Be rooted and built up in him. There were teachings that they needed to hang onto.
We have heard of struggles, especially recently between traditional and contemporary ways of doing things. There is cartoon where leaders of a contemporary church were discussing decisions for the following week and one objected, ”We never did it that way last week.”
One of the strengths of Stanchfield is it’s stability. When new ideas or thoughts emerge folks are not exactly going to give up what is tried and true to take on a new doctrine, teaching of spiritual fad. That is to the compliment of maturity.
Traditions based on truth of what we believe and how things are laid down orderly and firm is strength of church when it is Biblically based. The goal is developing strong roots so when opposition comes the plant or tree with strong roots is not blown away. That illustration is true for Christians. Knowing what you believe will prevent cult leaders from persuading someone to jump from doctrine to doctrine, church to church, and idea to idea.
But in verse 8 Paul warns against the hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. It is to be our warning that we need to look at what is the core of things that are of Christ and what are the things which we hang onto that need to discarded or through repeated practice start getting in the way of the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Not only do some people trust their experiences over Scripture and their own intellect with liberal leanings, Paul also warns against the traditions of men. Traditions can be very meaningful. Someone in the past decided that a particular teaching or custom or ceremony should be repeated again and again. For that person, that teaching, or custom or ceremony was extremely important. It had to be preserved. It must not be forgotten.
Often, however the deep heart-meaning of the tradition can get lost. Or it what also happens is the form becomes more important than the substance. It is observed as dead ritual and calls for no real heart commitment.
I am told of one true story of a church in Europe where for years people would come into the church and pause before a west wall. When asked why people did not know why? It was a custom, a tradition. Many people tried to reflect as to the original meaning but it was something people had done for years. When the church was to be renovated they scrapped off paint from the wall and discovered a painting of the Madonna with child. For 25 years before people would genuflect in front of the picture, but when the picture was covered with paint people still kept coming to the wall until folks forgot why.
In the Bible days there were lots of illustrations of traditions that get in the way of truth. The disciples broke traditions by failing to wash their hands in a certain customary way before eating bread. But Jesus pointed out they were ignoring a more important matter of breaking one the 10 commandments of not honoring their parents.
Man's activities cannot become the final source of truth.
As an outsider in the Russian Baptist Church it was interesting to see the richness of choir and fervency of prayer. The preaching had something to be desired. It was tradition that 3 men of the church be asked that day to speak in 10, 20 and 30 minutes sermons. With lack of preparation and trainer that tradition in my opinion weakened the effectiveness of communicating the word of God.
I was talking to one young man trained by the Americans in preaching. He tried to preach in a more understanding manner using illustrations and objects to get the Bible message across. In the privacy of his home he told me he was called before the deacon board who forbid him to do that. They said there are some privileges granted to the Bishop that is not granted to the preacher and some privileges granted to older preachers that are not granted to younger preachers and privileges granted to Americans that are not granted to Russians. Traditionalism says you must follow our custom and our style.
The songs, the style, the 2 hour service an even the way they are allowed to speak has nothing to do with effective communication, or meaningful worship. They are guided by traditions that have and will hamper the effectiveness in a society that so alienates the society from outward observations that many unsaved will not want to listen to the message. The trappings of traditions can get in the way with Gods’ movements. What we do and how we do that needs to be examined based on the Scriptures, not man’s traditions.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 13
Verses- Col 2: 6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him,7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Completeness in Christ.
The false prophets of this world claim they have the answers. They have the answers in the psychic hotlines. They have the answers in alcohol and drugs. They have the answers in money and material possessions. They have the answers in illicit sex with many partners. They have the answers in empty rituals, in idols. In times of trouble, these false prophets of this world are nowhere to be found. Jesus Christ claims to be the way, the truth, the life. He claims to be God. Jesus proved His claims. They were validated by God Almighty when He rose from the dead on that glorious Sunday morning!! Know Jesus, grow in Jesus. May He be your teacher, your friend, your power, your wisdom your life.
If there is one main clear and simple way to see if most religions are on target or off target is get right their teachings about Jesus. Is salvation found only in Jesus or other ways to God? Is their teaching that Jesus is the Son of God fully human and fully divine, or do they teach he was a good prophet or teacher? Is their understanding of Jesus that he died on the cross to redeem mankind from their sins or is their other teachings of what Jesus Christ came to do and say? Do they see his works as fables or believe in the reality of his works and teachings. Are his words authoritative for faith and for practice?
I am so glad that the Bible was given to us by God to become the plumb line by which we can judge truth from falsehood. I have heard lots of arguments that people can prove whatever they want through different Bible verses. Look at all the different teachings by Christian churches. How is anyone able to know what is right?
I have found most people who say such things to me do not read the Bible or they would know better. There are major differences and minor differences. Most of the differences fall into the minor categories not the major ones. If you want to determine which camp people fall into basically ask this question. "How does one find salvation with God?" You will get basically three answers.
One it is by good works. Another is by baptism into the church; or thirdly it is because of faith that is placed in the works of Jesus Christ.
Now the Bible is again very clear about those things. Eph 2:5,6 It is by grace that you are saved through faith it is a gift of God lest anyone should boast, 1 Cor says simples if God did not call me to baptism but to preach the gospel. If salvation is found in baptism certainly God called him to baptize and not preach the gospel. But every book in the new testimony except 2 and 3rd John speak of faith, Most books in the New Testament do not say anything about baptism. You figure it out.
When you read the Bible, read it in context, what goes before what goes afterwards and what do all the verses teach when you are looking at a subject. Many times the writing of one letter or one teaching is addressing a particular point and not give you full understanding of that passage. And let the clear and plain passages help you understand the difficult ones and not the other way around. What is said repeatedly and plainly believe strongly and where there is one verse or confusing ideas form an opinion but allow for freedom of various interpretations.
Paul is saying don't look to other people for your authority, look to Jesus and His word alone. There will be people who will want you to follow emotional experiences, Beware. There are people who will want you to follow the lures of liberalism, beware, and there are people who will want you to be trapped by traditions, beware. Focus on Jesus Christ. Be firm in your faith so false authorities will not betray you. Know what you believe.
Though these "philosophies" and "traditions of men" may possess a lot of truth, it is the error in them that can lead one away from the pure and simple doctrine of Jesus Christ! We need to keep in mind that in "Jesus Christ" are found ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge - and in "Jesus Christ" is to be found the FULLNESS of the Godhead bodily - Co 2:9
Just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in Him.
Pastor Dale
