Pastor Nate Brosher
Dec 12, 2024
Colossians 2:6-7 NLT - 6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
1. What are we following?
Follow/Walk – peripateō - to make one's way, progress.
■ What is trending in our lives?
Proverbs 26:11-12 ESV - 11 Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. 12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 23:12 NLT - 12 Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge.
Proverbs 14:12 NKJV - 12 There is a way [that seems] right to a man, But its end [is] the way of death.
Overflowing – perisseuō - to exceed a fixed number of measures.
Exodus 3:17 NLT - 17 I have promised to rescue you from your oppression in Egypt. I will lead you to a land flowing with milk and honey--the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live."'
Living in the Land of Overflow.
Ephesians 6:11 NLT - 11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
2. The enemy is always strategizing
Colossians 2:8-10 NLT - 8 Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Colossians 2:12-15 NLT - 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
3. Victory belongs to Jesus
Colossians 2:20-23 NLT - 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 "Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch!"? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires.
To conquer our evil desires, we must devote our lives to following Jesus.
Colossians 3:2 NLT - 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.