“Blooming In Christ”
Text: Colossians 2:1-10
Objective: Every Believer must be rooted, built up, & strengthened in the Faith and can begin this process through genuine repentance.
HAVE JOHN READ THIS TEXT DURING OPENING
1I 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. 2My 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, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. 5For 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.
6So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8See 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.
9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority
INTRO:
I have been led by the Holy Spirit to bring a series of messages designed to lead this church into a period of great Spiritual growth and revival.
I do believe that we are on the right path here at CHBC.
As I look back over the past couple of years, I can clearly see signs of flowers beginning to bud, trees beginning to put little shoots out, and I believe that the time is coming when many, many here will blast into full bloom in their faith.
A few men have begun to get serious with God, here at CHBC.
A few women have desired to understand their role in God’s Kingdom.
Seeds have been planted, and early spring-time signs have begun to sprout.
Church, be encouraged, the signs are clear that we are on the brink of revival!
With that said, I also believe that satan does not want to see that happen here.
He does not want to see this church effectively bringing people into God’s Kingdom.
And, I believe that he is working overtime to keep us depressed, discouraged, and afraid to succeed.
So, this morning, I’d like to talk with about blooming where we are planted.
I want to share with you how we can grow right here at 49 Bingham Road.
Much has been discussed in the past about our need to move out of this building.
Previous pastors, outside consultants, and even some here have suggested that if we move to a more visible location, more people will come.
Listen, that may be true, who knows for sure?
But let me tell you clearly where I stand on that issue.
The principle of Shiloh Christian School in the movie FTG told the coach of the football team that God had opened a door for him to serve at the school.
In spite of all of the critics, and a losing season, the principle made it clear that coach had an open door at the school, and encouraged him to “bloom where God has planted you”.
Friends, let me be clear. The time may come when out of necessity we move out of this building. But, until that time comes, I want to bloom where God has planted me.
I want to build the kingdom of God right here, right now.
Critics have said that our building is too old – I agree.
Critics have said that it is falling apart – I agree.
Critics have said that we are not visible enough – I agree.
Critics have said that our driveway is horrible – I agree.
I think that all of those things are true – but listen – we have an open door here.
We have a group of men who have allowed this church family full access to this building and this property.
I want this church to bloom right here.
We have spent the past two years examining different ways to help our church grow.
We have discussed planting a new church, adding services, bringing in this younger pastor.
We have done a lot to try and grow.
What I want to say this morning is this: It is time for us to stop trying. I think we can all admit that we have failed.
Every single one of our attempts at church growth have failed.
I believe that God has allowed us to go through this process so that when He causes this church to grow, there will be no question as to who did it!
It’s time for us to stop trying to make CHBC grow, and its time for us to allow God to cause our church to grow so that He gets all the Glory.
I’d like to discuss three aspects of our Christian life that need to be in place in order for us to truly bloom where we are planted. And once we begin to bloom, we can certainly expect that our church will grow.
We will look at:
1. God’s Promise
2. God’s Provision
3. God’s Process
Let’s turn to Matthew 7:7-11 and look at God’s promise to his believers.
7"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Jesus is nearing the end of His sermon on the mount in this passage.
He has previously given us many teachings on how to live a Godly life – and now he turns to something a little deeper.
Jesus makes it clear in verse 7 that there is something to be said about the old adage: God helps those who help themselves.
He laid down the truth that we as His followers have a responsibility to pray.
Earlier in his sermon, he tells us to seek first the kingdom of God, then everything that we need will be added to us.
Jesus further explains this promise in verse 8 by saying: if you ask God, you will receive, if you seek God, you’ll find Him, if you knock, I’ll open the door.
What a promise to His followers! This is an amazing new way of thinking about God, isn’t it?
Jesus gave us a picture of a God that not many people know about!
A God who will give to me when I ask, one who will allow Himself to be found, one who will open doors for me?
This is an entirely new concept of God to so many people who think of Him as some angry, vengeful, hateful being.
The point is this: God wants to bless us!
Our master teacher continues His lesson by giving us a pretty clear analogy from our lives.
He says:
9"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Not many people who have at least a little bit of compassion would give their child a stone for bread, or a snake instead of fish.
Jesus makes a deep, theological statement in verse 11. “If you, then, though you are evil”,
Stop there for a minute. Jesus makes the depravity and sinfulness, and utter lostness of mankind abundantly clear in this teaching.
Jesus does not say, If you then, being evil in the moment, or being evil because of your circumstances, or being evil because somebody else caused you to be that way…”
No, Jesus said, If you, then, though you are evil… - in other words, we are evil to the core, we are evil by choice, we are evil by nature.
So many news commentators are trying to figure out what caused the massacre at Virginia Tech last week.
They are trying to find out some cause for this young man’s murderous rampage.
Maybe the professors fostered a rebellious class atmosphere, maybe people made fun of him, maybe this, maybe that.
The gunman at VT chose to murder those people, because he was evil.
All have sinned, and fall short of the Glory of God – evil does exist – and we, Jesus said, are evil without Him.
And yet, because we were created in the image of God, have some bit of compassion, and general kindness toward our children and would never give them something harmful when they ask for food.
Jesus uses an old Rabbincal form of teaching when he continues to say, “How much more, will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him.”
A stark and clear distinction is made here between the sinfulness of man and the goodness of God.
If we who are evil and sinful know how to be good to some, sometimes, how much more will God, who IS love know how to give His children good things.
Friends, there is a promise in these verses.
God will always give you His best if you’ll ask him.
God is Good all the time.
You can trust Him that even when we can’t see His motive, or see the outcome…
You can trust that He is good, and His plans are always to prosper you and never to harm you.
Jesus gives us a little more insight into how this promise works in Luke 11:9-12. You see, we could easily mis-interpret what is being said here and come away with the idea that Jesus just obligated himself to granting our every wish.
Some might read the passage and picture God as a genie in a bottle that we go to ever now and then for a couple of wishes. Not So.
Let’s look at Luke 11:9-12 and see God’s Provision for His Promise.
9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
Looks almost identical except for the ending, right.
In the Matthew passage, Jesus says God knows how to give “good gifts” to those who ask Him.
In this passage, he says that our father in heaven will give “the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”
When I was studying these passages, the difference kind of startled me, so I checked out a few commentaries to see if I could get a clearer picture of what was going on here.
Most commentaries say that Jesus was laying out a broad promise in matthew, and then Lukes passage was a narrowing of God’s promise to us.
I really thought about that idea for a while. I believe they have it exactly wrong.
Matthew’s passage was a broad promise to say that God will give us good gifts, but Luke’s passage was certainly NOT a narrowing of that promise by saying that He would give us the Holy Spirit!
What are some of the things that Christians typically ask God for:
Wisdom, peace, love, strength, courage, growth, salvation for others, etc…
Jesus Promised us in Matthew’s passage that God will absolutely give us those things as we persistently ask him.
That promise would be wonderful enough….
But, how much more awesome is it to know that when we pray for wisdom, God doesn’t just give us a little bit to get through the moment, and then leave us high and dry for the future…
When we ask for peace, God doesn’t just calm our nerves for a particular time and then leave us to our anxiety until the next problem occurs…
When we ask for the ability to love others, He doesn’t just give us the heart to love one unlovable person and allow us to be hateful to everybody else…
NO…the passage in Luke was NOT a narrowing of God’s promise in Matthew, but rather it was a broadening of His promise…
In fact it was the PROVISION for the Promise.
You see, the way God provides for our needs is like this:
You ask for wisdom – He gives you the wisdom giver- the Holy Spirit…
You ask for Peace – He gives you the peace Giver – the Holy Spirit…
You ask for Love – He gives you Love itself – the Holy Spirit…
You ask for Comfort – He gives you the Comforter – the Holy Spirit…
God is SO awesome that He not only promised us that He would give us anything that we could possibly need, but He gives us even more – He gives us Himself!
It’s like, when you face an impossible situation, you go to God and say, Hey God, I can’t do this, can you just come down and live in me, and do it for me – and He does!
That’s His provision for fulfilling His promise – The Holy Spirit.
Well, what is the process that God has outlined in order to access His wonderful promise and provision?
Let’s turn to James 4:1-10:
1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
This church has for, at least two years, claimed to have wanted something from God.
We have claimed that we want to grow.
We understand that it is our mission to reach the world for Christ.
As I stated earlier, we have tried many, many different things in order to see CHBC grow.
It seems to me that James wrote this passage of scripture directly to us…
Verse 2 – you want something, but don’t get it…you do not have, because you do not ask God.
Verse 3 – When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…
The two passages that we looked at dealt with persistent prayer. Go back and read the verses again in the context of each chapter and you’ll see what I mean.
How persistently do we ask God to build this church?
I can’t even get five people to pray for five minutes in our Wed. night prayer meeting!
Why don’t we pray – maybe because we don’t believe that He is the God who can really meet our needs yet.
Maybe we need to try a few more techniques, or borrow a little more money, or ask a few more friends how to solve our problems before we finally break down and cry our to God for help.
The process that God has laid out for us to follow in order to open up the flood-gates of blessing is clear:
Verse 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
7Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
The process to obtain God’s favor and blessings is right there!
God is not interested in our attempts at anything! He opposes the proud!
Church, we must humble ourselves before Him!
Is it legalistic to say submit yourself to God?
Is it legalistic to command you to resist the devil?
Is it legalistic to teach this church that you must wash your hands, and purify your hearts?
Is it legalistic for me to tell this church that we must humbly repent of our sin – whatever it might be?
God’s word paints a very clear picture here regarding the nature of repentance:
It says Grieve, mourn, and wail! This is new testament stuff here!
Grieve over our sin of pridefulness and leaving God out of this place!
Mourn over the wasted years of rebellion against letting God be the God of the impossible.
Wail over our feeble efforts of church growth.
Change our laughter to morning because so many have developed a sense of apathy and have all but given up trusting that God can bless us, and cause us to bloom right here.
Church – we need to humble ourselves before our God today and repent of our sins!
We need to repent as a body of all of the thinking that says we can do anything without God – We can’t.
We need to repent as individuals for living lives that are not pleasing and holy before God.
Many of us have never truly repented of past sins in our lives. Oh, our circumstances may have changed, and we may not be continuing in a particular sin – but we have never truly repented of our sin.
EXAMPLE ALCOHOLIC.
Oh, how we need to repent.
God’s Promise of meeting our every need and the Provision of His Holy Spirit, are obtained by following His Process that he laid out in Scripture.
I am not saying that we need to do any work in order to get God to bless us – not at all.
In fact its just the opposite – we have to be humble and repent.
Listen to II Chronicles 7:14:
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
We have a clear problem here at CHBC – our land is sick.
God has made it so clear that he wants to make us grow – he wants to bless you in your lives.
But he has also made it clear that He has a way that we can prevent Him from doing that.
He says that we must humble ourselves and pray.
Seek His face…
And here is the part that so many decide is just too much for God to ask of me:
“Turn from our wicked ways…”
Church – don’t expect God’s blessing here if we continue to think certain sins are cute.
Don’t think that we can just continue in sin and thumb our noses at God and expect Him to bless us.
It doesn’t work that way.
Turn from your wicked ways! THEN God will hear from heaven and forgive our sins, and heal our land.
Once we let God be God, and repent from our sins, turn from our wicked ways, His word promises that:
We will begin to Bloom, right where He has planted us.
some thoughts came from a radio broadcast I heard by John MacArthur.
(almost entire church responded to an alter call for repentance following this sermon. Praise God, revival is coming!)
