Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, June 9. Spiritual growth and development can only take place when you have Jesus. But there's more to it than just being saved.
Here's today's podcast to explain. One of the biggest challenges that you and I face as a believer is this. Even having received the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and having been taught that Jesus Christ is sufficient to meet all of our needs, the world infiltrates the mind of the believer. The world infiltrates the church and convinces and persuades us that it takes more than Jesus Christ to satisfy our needs. Now all of us have needs and there are all types of needs.
We have material needs, physical needs, emotional needs, mental needs, sexual needs, all kinds of needs, and the world says if you're going to get your needs met, this is the way you get them met. God says that He will meet every single need that we have in His own way and in His own time. And in Colossians chapter 2, if you'll turn there beginning in verses 6 through 10, here is a tremendously important admonition, something for us to remember, something for us to be aware of that Paul the apostle says, writing to those Colossians that is so apropos for us today. And I want you to notice something very important that Paul says in this chapter concerning the believer.
He says three things here that I want you to get a hold of and I want you parents to listen very, very, very carefully to what I'm going to say because it is not only applicable to you, but it is so applicable for you and your children as you prepare them to live in the society in which we live. Listen to what Paul says. He says, as you therefore 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, the first thing he reminds us here in this passage is this, and that is that the Christian life should be pictured here as one of progress.
That is, you and I should be making progress in our spiritual life. And notice how he says it. He says, as you are in the same manner in which you received Christ, and that word in the Greek there is an Aries tense.
That's something that happened one time. In one particular moment in your life you received, you placed your trust in Jesus Christ and made Him your Savior. He says, now you did that in what fashion? Just as you did that, He said, so walk ye in Him.
So here's what happened. When you and I were saved, we were out here in the world living in sin. The Bible says we took a step. It was a step of faith whereby you and I trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior. He says as you received Jesus Christ, we did that by a step of faith, so what?
Walk ye in Him. How am I to walk in the Christian life? I am to walk by faith.
I am not to try to please God by doing better and getting better. I am to walk in faith by faith. Just as I received the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm to walk in Him. Now, to walk means and speaks of and refers to our conduct, our behavior, our lifestyle, and the word is to walk about. That is, as you go about your daily life, we are to walk about in our daily life in the same fashion by which we received Jesus Christ, which is by faith. That is, our life should be an unfolding of continuous expressions of trust in Jesus Christ. That's the way we entered into this life. And notice what this next verse says. He says, so walk ye in Him, having been firmly rooted and now built up in Him.
Now, here's what I want you to notice. Paul is picturing the Christian life as a progressive life, as a growing life, and I want to ask you a question about your life. Let's say, for example, the people who knew you five years ago. The folks who knew you as a young believer five years ago. Can they look at you today and tell that you have grown in your Christian life? I mean, is there outward external evidence that something has happened in your life in the last few years? You're not what you were five years ago, even though you are a believer.
But there's something about you today that was not present then. Do they see the evidence of spiritual growth in your life? Listen to what Paul said. This should be typical of all of us.
This is what you and I should expect of ourselves. This is the way we are to be what? Walking about, he says, just as you trusted him to save you, so walk ye in Him.
Listen to what he says. Having been firmly rooted. Now, he's talking about the character of our growth.
Notice the terms he uses. First of all, he says, having been perfect passive tense, which means something happened in the past and the evidence of it is very clear. Having been rooted and grounded in Him. That is, there came a time when you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And the Bible says in the in the in Colossians chapter two in the Living Bible translations, let your roots grow down into Him. That is, having received Jesus Christ as our Savior, spiritually, our roots took hold of a firm foundation. And as a result of that, we began to grow rooted and grounded in faith, we began to grow. Is your life a picture of a tree that is bearing fruit, having been planted, growing strong, growing firm, and now there is fruit bearing, because you were firmly rooted in the person of Jesus Christ.
He says, there's one evidence of our growth. Secondly, he says, not only having been rooted, he says now in the present tense, he puts these next to having been rooted in Christ Jesus, now being present tense built up in Him. Can anyone look at your spiritual life today and say, My goodness, I don't know about me, but there's something happening to that gal, something happened to that fella, I can see the levels of spiritual growth, I can see something happening in their life, I just see something about their spiritual life that makes me so convinced that there is real growth within them. He says rooted and grounded in Him and listen, being built up, then he uses another word in the present tense, he says established.
And that also is in the present tense. And what it means is becoming listen, more and more, we are becoming stronger and stronger. Are you stronger in your faith today than you were two years ago? Are you more convinced and persuaded and convicted about the authenticity of the Word of God? Are you more persuaded today about God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises to your life? Are you are you stronger in your witness?
Are you stronger in your resistance toward the devil? Are you stronger in your in your service to the Lord? Are you more established in the faith? Are you really into the rooted and grounded in the Word of God? Are you growing so evident that people who know you know that there is something evident about Jesus Christ, it seems He's more real to you, you're more excited about Him, you're more committed to Him.
And when your witness, you're more bold in your witness, there's something going on in you that is absolutely undeniable. That is the normal Christian life. And you see, he says we're to be growing in the Word of God, rooted, founded and established in the Word of God instructed in the truth. Now listen, it is the pastor's responsibility to instruct his people in the truth of God's Word, not to stir up doubt, not to create because I'm going to show you what he warns about this very thing. But the pastor cannot do the Father's job, Daddy, listen, it is your responsibility in your home to instruct your children in the ways of God. And you do that, first of all, not by opening the Bible, but first of all, by the life that you live, then you open the Word of God, and then you begin to apply those principles.
It's one thing to know principles, it's something else to apply them to your heart. He says, if there's going to be growth, if we're going to be rooted in the truth established in our faith, he says, just as you were instructed, it is my responsibility, listen to allow God to instruct me, and to allow Him to instruct me through His Word and through other people, it is my responsibility to instruct you, it is your responsibility to instruct your family, it is your responsibility to take the same instruction and share it with other people who need to grow. Listen, where there is no instruction, there is not going to be any growth.
Would you take the time to plow up an acre for a garden, plant all the seed and do nothing else, no watering, no cultivating at all, no fertilizing, no nothing, just walk off and leave it, you wouldn't do it. Then my friend, how do you expect your family to grow in their faith if you do not instruct them? And Daddy, I'm going to tell you, you are responsible for getting your family in a Bible believing church where somebody believes the Word of God, who is not afraid to tell the truth, who will lay down the principles week after week after week until you see your children laying level upon level upon level upon level of their understanding and the truth of God's Word until Jesus becomes real in their life. That is your responsibility, Dad. And if there's no dad in the family, Mom, it's your responsibility.
It's a tough responsibility, but it is your responsibility. It is the pastor's to do all he can do, but at home, that's where the best instruction is given. And you see, if you fail there, then what Paul is about to say in the next two verses, which is a warning, he says, here is the progress that ought to be in the Christian's life. But he says, I'm going to tell you about a pitfall that can be your experience if you are not instructed, if you aren't, if you haven't received him, if you aren't rooted and grounded in the faith. Jesus taught and instructed for application, not just for the joy of hearing. And you see, if you're going to grow, you won't grow just listening.
You've got to get it on the inside. You've got to wrestle with difficulties and temptations and burdens and challenges that you have to face each day in your business life and your home life and apply the principles. He says, listen, this is normal, natural Christian living. This is normal. This isn't super normal. This is just normal. This isn't fanatical living.
This is just normal. Having received Jesus Christ by faith, so walk in him having been rooted and grounded, continuously growing, getting strong of what? Being instructed. And then he says, the result of that is that you are going to be overflowing with gratitude. You know why so many folks come to church with a long face? They come to church with no smile, no joy.
You know why? They're not grateful. They're not overflowing with gratitude. Listen, have you ever seen anybody who is overflowing with gratitude with a long face? People who are overflowing with gratitude, man, you've got to express it. You see it in their eyes, you see it in their smile, you see it in their body, you see it all overflowing with gratitude. A person who's full of gratitude, they've got to tell it, they've got to share it. They can't keep it to themselves. Why are they not overflowing with gratitude?
Because they're not being instructed, therefore they're not growing. And if you're not growing in your Christian life, you're not going to be overflowing with gratitude because you're going to have all kind of hangups about all kind of things. He says, man, this is just normal living. Now, if you neglect that, here's what's going to happen. Paul says, look at this next two verses. Verse 8, see to it. And that word in the Greek is blepite, which means a real danger is at hand. This isn't some false warning.
This is no false alarm. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy, empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. Now, he says there's a real danger here. If you're not rooted and grounded in the Word of God, if you're not growing, here's the real danger.
The real danger is that someone will come along and lead you into error. Listen, they will lead you into error, take you from the life of liberty and freedom you found in Jesus Christ. And that word means to rob, to kidnap, to capture. He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through what? He says the way they do that is through philosophy. That is through the reasonings of the world. Now, oh, I know what the Bible says, what your church believes, but let me tell you, and if you're really going to be intellectual in life, you've got to look at this thing intellectually.
When somebody tells you that, let me tell you something. The folks who claim to look at life from an intellectual point of view, if you'll notice very carefully, they only want to talk about one viewpoint. The world's viewpoint, not God's viewpoint. When he says taken captive by philosophy, he says, what the world does is they offer you a new viewpoint. They're never new. It's always old. It may be new to you, but they want you to see it from the world's point of view.
Isn't that not what we said in the very beginning? What Satan does is to say to you and to me, look, if you want your needs met, let me show you how to meet them. Here's how you get your needs met.
It makes no difference what they are. And Satan always offers a quick fix for your needs. He wants you to get your needs met the way you want them. And Satan always appeals to the flesh.
He never appeals to the spirit through vain. But listen, through philosophy, you can be taken captive. That is, you can be led into error. Now, friend, if you're not instructed in the word of God, if you don't know the truth of the word of God, if you're not instructing your children and teaching them what to believe and why to believe it, they are going to be hoodwinked by some hoodlum who intellectually is going to approach them to give them a new alternative, as they say, another alternative to believing the word of God. And when somebody comes along to say, Well, but have you experienced this?
Have you had that? The truth is, is it what God teaches? And we send our children to schools, and you pay dearly. I mean, you sacrifice to send your children to school and pay somebody to lead them in to error that oftentimes wrecks and ruins their life and destroys and mutilates their faith. The only way to avoid that because you see you're gonna have to put them in school. They go into school somewhere everybody can't afford a Christian school. Be great if everybody could. But if you can't, let me tell you something, you had better teach them how to put on their spiritual armor by instructing them in the ways of God, lest someone lead them into error.
And it happens every single day. They only offer empty promises they cannot produce. There's not been anyone who has ever lived a life apart from this book, who experienced satisfaction and contentment and happiness and joy and fulfillment in life, because the devil cannot he cannot provide it is an empty promise. He says, Listen, if you aren't growing and teaching and instructing your family, he says what you're doing, you set yourself up to be deluded and deceived by what by the empty vein promises of a world that does not have any answers.
Listen, the philosophy of this day is that man is sufficient within himself with our all of our progress in science and medicine, all the rest, man is sufficient. He doesn't need God that comes straight from the devil. And the folks are telling you that you don't need God are so wrapped up in their own bondage and so captured in their own darkness. They wouldn't know light if they saw it.
They don't have any answers. He says, Listen, he says through what empty deception according to the tradition of men, and then he contrasts that, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. Now the world has a viewpoint about everything, every viewpoint about religion, science, medicine, you name it, they have a viewpoint.
But the question is this, does that viewpoint match the truth of Almighty God? If you're not rooted and grounded in the faith, what happens you say and looks pretty good. That sounds pretty good. I'd like to taste the thing.
I'll try that I'd like to have the expense. What about this? rooted and grounded in the truth growing in your spiritual life, or he says, they going to take you through vain, empty, deceitful philosophy. He says the traditions of men Now listen, Satan hadn't changed anything.
You think some of us that get smart after a while, he's using the same thing on us. Thousands of years later, he used on Adam and Eve, what did he say to them? He said, Eve, look, he said, Did God really tell you that he's going to meet all your needs? Is that really what he said?
Yeah, that's what he said. That is that really what he meant? He said, Look, would you like to be as smart as God? Would you like to know what he knows?
Here's what the devil says. He says, Would you like to experience what he's experienced? Would you like to feel what she's felt? Would you like to know the taste of what he's tasted?
Would you like to experience the same kind of success that he's experienced? It's the devil's lie. He said to her, it's delicious, appealing to her appetite, beautiful, appealing to her desire for beauty, make you wise appealing for her desire to know and to experience that is the very thing Satan's doing today.
Same thing and change anything. Not only the traditions of men, the traditions of men which have come from the devil, appealing to God given appetites, desire for beauty, and knowledge and understanding. Let me ask you something. How many of you don't raise your hand have learned by experience, you have gained some knowledge you wish to God you had never known. Experience some things you wish you had never experienced. Tasted of things in life experiences, whatever it might be that you wish you had never tasted.
The traditions of men pulled into error, captured, kidnapped, robbed. Listen, having moved from the liberty and the freedom that Jesus Christ gives and now captured by what the world had to offer, which was a big empty lying promise from the devil himself. He says that's what the world has to offer.
And he says there's a real danger here that unless you are growing in the Lord, you listen, you are a setup for Satan to knock you off with error, even sometimes from one of your friends. Oh, listen, I want you to go with me to so and so we had the most wonderful experience. What kind of experience?
Is it the experience of darkness that is clothed in light? Or it is the experience of truth according to the principles of Jesus Christ and not the principles of the world. Thank you for listening to When You Have Jesus. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24-7 station. And if you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
