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But ultimately, anything that's not the gospel of Jesus Christ,

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anything that's not the Word of God,

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is going to eventually fall apart and not hold up.

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All right, we're continuing our study of the book of Colossians

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using Colossians 3.17 as our guide.

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Whatever you do, do it for Him. Point to Jesus.

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So today we're in Colossians 2, starting in verse 6.

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We're going to go through verse 15.

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So let's start by reading this passage, and then we'll get into it.

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Colossians 2, verse 6 says,

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In Him, also, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands

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by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

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Having been buried with Him in baptism,

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in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God,

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who raised Him from the dead in you,

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who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh,

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God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

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By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands,

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this He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

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He disarmed the rulers and authorities

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and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him.

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So if you look at this passage as I was studying this passage,

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it kind of naturally breaks into three sections.

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And so the first being verse 6-7,

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then you have verse 8, and then you have 9-15.

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And what's cool is they all really weave together,

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and you can understand if you look at the context of this passage

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why Paul wrote in this way.

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And so he starts in verse 6-7, he's saying,

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walk in Him, rooted and built up.

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Walk in Him, rooted and built up.

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And what we see here is kind of a fun mix of metaphors that Paul's using, right?

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You hear these words, walk, you know, we use that word a lot,

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the Christian walk, rooted, right?

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You want to be rooted and grounded and then also built up.

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But you don't always often see them mixed like this.

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He's saying, walk in Him, rooted and built up.

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And so it's kind of like a fun picture

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if you try to imagine somebody doing all three of those, right?

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So you're walking forward, but you also have roots that go down,

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and you're also being built up.

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You're kind of moving in three different directions,

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forward, upward, and downward.

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And these are all good things, right?

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Walking, we talk about the Christian walk.

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We also, as believers, talk about roots.

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Ephesians 3 says being rooted and grounded in love.

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And then also built up, you want to be built up in the faith,

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and also be building each other up, right?

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As blood, sand, and allies, as community,

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you want to be building each other up.

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But again, looking at all three at the same time

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is kind of an interesting picture,

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moving forward, downward, and upward.

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But what you notice is the only direction Paul doesn't mention

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is moving backwards.

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He says moving forward, he says built up,

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and he says roots that go down.

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So he's not saying backwards, and I think that's intentional, right?

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We shouldn't be moving backwards as believers.

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We should be moving forwards.

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Roots that go down deep, built up in the faith,

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and walking forward.

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And all of them, though, point to this idea of growth,

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that we as believers should be growing, right?

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We should be growing by moving forward in our faith.

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We should be growing by growing our roots down deep

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in the truth of the word.

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We should be growing our faith by being built up

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and building up each other.

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We should be growing.

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You should not be in the same place spiritually today

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as you were when you got saved,

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unless you got saved today, right?

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You should always be moving,

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you should always be moving forward and growing.

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And Hebrews talks about this

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with the idea of moving from milk to solid food, right?

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And I've got a couple kids,

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and I remember when each one of my kids

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ate solid food for the first time,

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and it's kind of a fun moment,

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and they enjoy it.

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They're usually confused by it at first,

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then they enjoy it and love food,

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and all of our kids love food.

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That's a fun moment when they eat solid food

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for the first time,

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but they're not ready for solid food

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when they're two weeks old.

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It happens in stages,

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and the same is true of our Christian faith, right?

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When we're saved, we're on milk,

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but we shouldn't keep drinking milk, right?

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If my six-year-old son is still drinking milk

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and has never had solid food, that's a problem.

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There's gonna be a problem with our faith

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if we never move off of milk,

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and so we should be progressing and growing.

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And the other thing I wanna say about growth,

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while it's good, and it should be happening,

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it's necessary, doesn't mean it's easy, right?

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Growth can be uncomfortable,

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and we can feel stretched,

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we can feel growing pains, right?

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Every so often, one of our kids will wake up

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in the middle of the night with crying, right?

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And there's different reasons for the crying.

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Sometimes they're sick, sometimes they're scared,

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but a lot of times, they feel pain, right?

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And these growing pains in their legs

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as kids grow fast, and it's uncomfortable.

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is true of growth in our own lives. Sometimes it's uncomfortable, and

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sometimes the Lord is stretching us, and it's going to be uncomfortable. But I

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think that's important, and if we aren't willing to leave our comfort zone, we're

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not going to see growth in our lives. We're not going to grow if we're not

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willing to stretch and to be uncomfortable, right? And so that's part

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of the process, and I think it's important to recognize that. So walk in

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him, Paul's saying, establishing the faith, abounding with thanksgiving. And he uses

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these first two verses to set up verse 8. And so verse 8, there comes a warning.

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And so Paul, before he gets to the warning, he's saying, you got to be

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walking with him, you got to be rooted, and you got to be built up because of

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verse 8. So let's look at verse 8 again. He says, see to it that no one takes you

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captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, elemental

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spirits of this world. And so here comes his warning. He's saying, make sure no one

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takes you captive. Other translations say, cheat you or lead you away as prey.

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And so what is being cheated from you? What's being taken away? Well, the riches

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and the promises of God's kingdom, righteousness, peace, and joy. And so Paul

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knows if you're walking in him, if you're rooted, if you're built up, then you

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won't be able to be taken captive or cheated. And Paul also knew that the

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church of Colossae was under attack from a few different angles. You had early

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Gnosticism taking root, you had Greek philosophy, you had Jewish mysticism. And

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what was especially dangerous about these ideas is that they sounded highly

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intelligent, and they made sense at first. But ultimately, anything that's not the

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gospel of Jesus Christ, anything that's not the Word of God, is going to

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eventually fall apart and not hold up. But if you aren't careful, they sound

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good and they could lead you astray. And so that's what Paul's warning the church

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of Colossae against. Watch out for these ideas that are out there. And guess what?

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This warning is still relevant to us today. Philosophy, tradition, some of these

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things that are out there, they're not necessarily bad on its face, right?

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Philosophy means a love of wisdom. Tradition, you know, people like to rely

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on tradition. But if those things become the main thing, then that's a

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problem, and they're ultimately going to crumble and not last. And all of that

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stuff, too, is man-made, right? The things that Paul lists here. Philosophy, empty

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deceit, human tradition, they're man-made. And anything that's man-made, again, is

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not going to last. It's not going to stand the test of time. But God does. God's

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beyond time. His Word lasts beyond the test of time. So we need to follow things

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that were created by God, not man. And so ultimately, no matter how clever and

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smart-sounding these things are, they're going to unravel and fall apart. And

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that's why Paul is warning against them. And so what's cool about this third

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section, 9 through 15, is Paul goes at these myths and these lies and these

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deceits that are out there. And he goes at them really quickly. So if you

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look at verse 9, he says,

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And this is really cool because that goes after these Gnostic and mystic ideas

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that were in Colossae and other parts of the world at the time, which believed

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things like, well, God doesn't actually physically contact Earth. God doesn't, you

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know, he probably didn't even create the world himself. It was probably one of his

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angels. Or God doesn't talk specifically or interact with man. You know, those are

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some of the ideas that were floating around there. And so Paul, in a brief

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verse, like half a sentence, he attacked those ideas because he's saying, you know,

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he goes right after these lies. He says,

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God sent his son Jesus, who was fully man, fully God, walked this earth and

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interacted with people. That is God interacting with the physical world, as

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much as you possibly can. I can't even think of another way that you could do

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that as much as that, right? That was it. So he's saying, no, the fullness of deity

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dwells by the fullness of deity. The fullness of God walked around this earth

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as man. And so he's saying, and then he's all, he takes it a step further in verse

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10 and says, and you have been filled in him. Okay, so that means Jesus is still on

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this earth, still interacting with people today through each one of us, right?

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Through Jesus, his interaction on earth as man, and the fact that he

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didn't stay dead, now we can still interact with him and he can reside in

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us. We can be filled with him, right? And so he goes after these lies right away.

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And then Paul keeps going in verse 11, he talks about circumcision and he says,

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you know, it's no longer made, he says, made without hands, right? And so he's

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talking about circumcision coming from a physical act to now a spiritual act. And

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how we do that is by getting rid of the old flesh, the old sinful ways, and

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walking in a new life. And so then he moves from that to talking about baptism

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in verse 12. And baptism is a powerful symbolic act that Christians should

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partake in. And it symbolizes being buried and raised as Christ was. And we're

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raised with him through faith in the power of a working God, as it says in

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verse 13. And he says we were dead and then God made us, or verse 12, sorry, and

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then in verse 13 he says we were made, we

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dead and then God made alive. God made us alive and that's what we get to

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demonstrate through the act of baptism and make that public. That physical act

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of leaving away, leaving behind the old sinful way and walking in newness of

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life and then getting filled with the Holy Spirit and doing ministry. Actually

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Jesus demonstrated that with his own baptism when he went to John the

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Baptist in the Jordan River and he was baptized and the dove descended on him

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filled with the Holy Spirit and go do ministry, right? And so we should use that

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model in our own lives. But Paul keeps going and he writes that Jesus canceled

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the record of debt that stood against us and set it aside and nailed it to the

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cross and he triumphed over the rulers and authorities and that is what Jesus

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did. He was fully God. He was fully man. He chose to walk this earth. He chose to

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bear our sin, our shame, our pain on that cross and to cancel the record of sin

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and death and triumph when he rose again and I think that's a powerful thing to

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meditate on and you can think back in your own life to your own sin and your

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own shame and your own pain and it's often hard to recall those things but I

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think it can often be an important exercise because when we think about the

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pain in our life and maybe you're currently experiencing pain in your life

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Jesus knows exactly what that pain feels like because he felt it when he was on

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the cross. So we serve a God who can relate because he chose to be fully man

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because he chose to bear those things on the cross and feel it he can

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relate when we're walking through it. But he didn't just feel it he conquered it

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right and so Jesus conquered all of that sin and shame and pain by raising from

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the dead and now reigns over all of it and that's what Jesus did our Savior and

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our King and so I think there's a lot of stuff in this passage from the Apostle

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Paul and Colossians too that we can that we can kind of respond to right so I'm

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going to encourage each one of you to walk in him to stay rooted and built up

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to be careful not to be taken captive or led astray by it by deceit to be filled

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in him filled with the Holy Spirit to walk with the Holy Spirit and to

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recognize how great Jesus is and what he did for us and finally whatever we do do

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it for him because he deserves it and because we were created to glorify him