Rooted And Built Up

Introduction

So we begin this new year and thankfully not just turn the pages in our calendars, but shred, burn, and destroy last year’s calendar. Are you the type of people who do the New Year’s resolutions that are common? Anybody? I got a few, got a few. Those who said yes, and maybe you just said no because you quit doing them. Did you do a New Year’s resolution for 2020? Did anybody do New Year’s? Tough question. Did you write those down and at the end of the year review them to see how you did? Okay. Only two of us did that. I keep New Year’s resolutions. I make New Year’s resolutions and I write them down, and at the end of the year or the beginning of the new year, I like to review those to see how I did.

And I’m going to let you in to see how I did this year. Here are my 2020 New Year’s resolutions. Spend more time at home. A lot more. Well, that’s good. That’s good. Wash my hands more often. I did good. Start a new fashion trend. Mask question mark. I think I did pretty good. But if I’m honest with you, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. But I do think that the turning of the calendar causes us to do two things. It causes us to reflect, doesn’t it? Because we deal in time. And we can look back upon this last year. And as I encourage you in our online Bible classes, I would encourage you to look back on this last year and to reflect upon some blessings of 2020.

It’s easy for us to complain about all that went wrong in 2020. But I think if you’re honest and introspective, that you can actually look back on this year and find some blessings. Some things that you can rejoice over that took place in 2020. And I encourage you to do that. As we turn the calendar, we are also forced to look forward. And again, we’re not New Year’s resolutions people. That was obvious by the poll we took this morning, but you still kind of have to look forward, don’t you? And think about this next year and what’s coming up, and maybe some goals. We won’t call them resolutions, but some goals or some objectives to accomplish in this year. And so it’s traditional for the first Sunday sermon to kind of do that.

To reflect and look forward.

We’ve done that by doing an annual theme. And we’re doing that this year. Our annual theme that the shepherds have set for us is found in the book of Colossians, chapter 2. And so I invite you to get your Bibles, your New Testaments in hand, and go with us to Colossians chapter 2 as we look at this theme for 2021. And rather than calling it just an annual theme that seems kind of cold and almost clinical, we call it a family focus. So it’s our 2021 family focus from Colossians 2, verses 6 and 7, is going to be rooted and built up. So we want to introduce that theme and make that really the basis for not just this whole year, but the basis for our lesson this morning.

Let’s look at that text from which our focus is going to be derived this year. Are you in Colossians chapter 2? The Apostle Paul says in verses 6 and 7, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith if you as been, if you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. He says to these Colossian Christians and to us today that you have become a Christian. Or as he says, as you’ve received Christ Jesus our Lord, and now he says there’s an obligation to that commitment. Walk in Him. And that walk is going to be furthered by being rooted and built up. And thankfully, Paul helps us. We’re going to talk about those two concepts, rooted and built up this morning.

But we don’t have to look any further than our text this morning to know what those two concepts mean. Look with me there again in verses 6 and 7. What does it mean to be rooted in Him? He goes on to say, established in the faith. Paul defines, I believe, defines these terms. Rooted in Him, he goes on to say is you be established in Him. And we’ll talk about that. What it means and how we can be established in Him. Then the second part of our theme is you be built up in Him. And again, Paul defines that term, I believe, by going on further in verse 7 by saying, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Established and abounding. We could have made that our theme, and it would have been the same thing.

Established and abounded, or as Paul says, rooted and built up. What maybe at first glance seems almost to be contradictory terms are not contradictory at all. They’re complementary. When the idea of rooted means to set down roots, we use that expression, don’t we? To put roots. That means you’re going to stay there a while. That you’re established, that it’s not a temporary thing, that it is going to be a permanent place for you. And so rooted and established means that there is that firmness that is there. There is that permanency as we sing the song, I shall not be moved. But then built up.

And again, those are not contradictory, those are complementary. That we are to be established and abounding in the Lord. The first thing I want us to notice about this focus, and Paul’s statement here in Colossians chapter 2, is that Paul is writing this to the church at Colossae because he is concerned about their spiritual condition. Read that verse with me again. Verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. He says you started, and I want you to continue. Paul was concerned about their spiritual condition. That’s why he lays before them what will be our family focus this year, that you be rooted and built up. And that’s the way it ought to be. There ought to be people concerned about one another’s spiritual condition.

Don’t we hope, and maybe even assume that these Colossian brethren were thankful that they had someone like Paul looking out for their spiritual condition. Someone like Paul who would say, in another context, that he had constantly upon him the weight or the burden of all the churches. Weren’t they concerned? Weren’t they thankful? That somebody worried about them. That someone was concerned about their spiritual condition. That’s the way it ought to be. And I want to tell you this morning, that’s the way it is. You do not live on an island. There are people concerned. Hold your finger here or put your bookmark in Colossians chapter 2. We’ll come back to the book of Colossians. But let’s establish that this is not only the way it ought to be, it’s the way it is.

Look in Acts chapter 20 with me. There are people, just like Paul was concerned about the Colossians’ spiritual condition. There are people who are concerned about your spiritual condition. In Acts chapter 20, this same apostle Paul was speaking to the elders, to the shepherds in Ephesus, and notice what he says in Acts chapter 20. Begin reading with me in verse 26. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. Paul’s there. Paul again is saying, I was concerned about your spiritual welfare. But now look in verse 27, or verse 28, excuse me. Therefore, take heed to yourselves, speaking to these shepherds, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch. And remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Paul says, I was concerned about your spiritual condition. Now I am departing, and shepherds, it’s up to you. You watch the flock. You shepherd these souls. God has built a system. A system for our spiritual benefit. And that system includes shepherds who would watch for the flock, who would be concerned about the spiritual condition. Look over in the book of 1 Timothy, or 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4.

There are others who are concerned about your spiritual condition, who want you to so walk in the Lord, and want you to be rooted and built up. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Look what Paul, this same author, says to the young evangelist Timothy. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure a sound doctrine. But according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

Before a different departure than the one spoken of in Acts chapter 20. This departure is going to be his death. Paul says to another person and really to a whole nother class of individuals, you be concerned about the spiritual welfare of others. And so to Timothy the evangelist, he says, preach the word. You see, there’s people concerned about your spiritual condition. There are shepherds overseeing the flock. There are evangelists given the charge to preach the word of God. And then look in Hebrews chapter 10 at a familiar passage of Scripture.

It’s everybody who wants you to walk in the Lord. It’s all of your brothers and sisters who want you to be rooted and built up. Hebrews chapter 10, you probably know this passage by heart, verses 24 and 25. Let us consider one another. This ad that’s everybody. Let’s consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some, but exhorting one another so much more as you see the day approaching. Consider one another. Stir up unto love and good works. There are myriads of people, just like the Apostle Paul, who are concerned about your spiritual welfare. And so we have this focus. Because it’s as it should be, there are people concerned. And so let’s be rooted and built up in Him.

1. Rooted and Established in Christ

Let’s just look at those two concepts. Rooted and built up. It’s a real simple two-point outline we’re looking at this morning. First of all, we need to be rooted, as Paul goes on to say in verse 7 of Colossians chapter 2, established in Christ. I like this theme, this focus, because number one, it’s simple. Makes it easier for me. We all know these concepts. We know these concepts because on their very face they’re simple, but they’re also because they’re so thematic of the New Testament principle. You see, Paul has, as he often does, is kind of mixing metaphors here, isn’t he? In rooted and built up. He doesn’t say rooted and grown up. That would be a strictly agricultural metaphor. And he doesn’t say grounded or established and built up.

That would be a strictly architectural metaphor. But he mixes those. Agriculture and architecture. And Paul does that a lot. Let’s look at a couple other passages, places where he does that. Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, the familiarity of this kind of blending of themes helps us to really understand what Paul is talking about. 1 Corinthians 3, look in verse 5, where he asks these questions. Who then is Paul? And who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believe? This is the Lord gave to each one. I planted, here we go with the agricultural metaphor. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

And so he concludes in verse 9 we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, and you are God’s building. And from there, he goes on to talk about the wise master builder and the foundation that was laid. There’s that blending of metaphors. Agricultural, planting, being rooted, and the architectural, the laying the foundation and being a building of God. Look over in the book of Ephesians, chapter 3. Where we see this same combination in Ephesians chapter 3. Look at verse 17. Here’s a prayer that Paul says that he had prayed for the Ephesian Christians. Ephesians 3, verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. The word rooted, there’s the same root word here, the idea of being planted, rooted, agricultural.

Grounded really is the idea of the foundation of being established in love. And so that’s a common theme throughout the New Testament. And so it’s one for us very easy for us to pick up on and understand. But we understand what it means to be rooted, don’t we? We understand that that probably fits with even a greater overarching theme in the New Testament, the idea of the seed being the word of God. And that seed, just like a literal seed, for it to do anything, must be planted. And for it to do anything worthwhile must be planted in good soil. Remember the parable of the sower. And it must establish and take root. Or nothing good. Or maybe just nothing at all is going to happen.

And so it is spiritually speaking. The seed is the word of God. It must be, as James says in James chapter 1 and verse 21, it must be implanted within us. And as Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13, it’s got to be planted in good and honest hearts. That’s the soil in which the seed is to be planted. And as he goes on to say in that parable that it’s not to be a shallow root system like that rocky ground. There needs to be some firm, established roots. That this isn’t just some passing fancy, some fad that we’re playing around with, that this means something. That there’s a commitment there.

Let’s be well established. Let’s make a commitment. But it’s yet another thing, and maybe the greater challenge is to ask ourselves, how does that happen? How do I set down those roots? How do I become rooted and established in Christ and in my faith? Here’s some tips. The first one is so obvious. First of all, become a Christian. Get in Christ. Go back with me to the book of Colossians. We’re going to establish all these points in the same book in which we find this focus. Be rooted and built up in Him. Look in the book of Colossians, chapter 2. First, the seed has to find that good and honest soil and germinate. And that happens by becoming a Christian. Colossians 2, look with me in verse 11.

In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven all your trespasses. He said in our text in Colossians 2, verse 6, that they had received Christ Jesus as Lord. I want you to think about that phrase in verse 6 of chapter 2. As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord.

Receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior. We hear that expression a lot, don’t we?

And I guess, in a sense, that’s what’s Paul said here. As you’ve received Christ Jes that mean? What does it mean to receive Jesus as our Savior or as our Lord? Just here’s the tip always, when you have a biblical question about what a phrase or word means, just keep reading. The Holy Spirit will tell you. What does it mean when he says you’ve received Christ Jesus? How did they receive Jesus? We just read. Buried with him in baptism, in which you were raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. How and when did they receive him? When they were buried with him in baptism. And so if you haven’t made that commitment, then there’s not going to be any roots.

There’s not going to be building up. And so start there. Become a Christian. Get in Christ. Secondly, don’t be lured away. Remember again the parable of the sower, the seed that doesn’t establish those roots is quickly taken away by the devil. Same in the book of Colossians and in chapter 2, and back up to verses 4, begin. Verse 4 beginning. Colossians 2, verse 4 says, Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I’m absent in the flesh, I’m with you in the spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. As you’ve been taught, abounding in him in thanksgiving.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Do you see the context of our text this morning for our theme? Is he says, don’t be Lord away. Don’t let Satan come and take the seed, the saving power, and take it away from you. There’s so much vying for our attention and our allegiance and our very souls. That when we accept Jesus as our Lord and we are buried with him in baptism, as Paul says here, we understand that Satan doesn’t just walk away defeated and say, Well, I lost another one. He comes to snatch that seed away. And Paul says in our context here, one way he can do that is through deceit and persuasive words and philosophies of men.

So one of the reasons you need to be rooted and established in your faith is because it’s harder for you to be uprooted. The third thing that we need to do if we want to become rooted in our faith is to become more spiritually minded. Look with me in the book of Colossians in chapter 3. He says, if then you were raised with Christ, Paul’s again. When were they raised with Christ? Back to chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. In their baptism, they were buried with him and raised to walk a new life. If you were raised, chapter 3, verse 1 says, with Christ, then seek those things which are above. Where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above and not on things of the earth, for you died.

And your life is hidden with Christ in God. If you’ve been raised, if you’ve been raised in baptism, if you’ve become a Christian, he’s saying, then act like it. Seek those things which are above, not those things here. You’ve been raised. Live in that raised mindset. Be spiritually minded, not worldly and carnally minded. Lastly, how do we become rooted in Christ? Let your Christianity rule your life and every aspect of your life. Turn over to chapter 3. We won’t read this section, but I want you to notice. Turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3, and notice what he says beginning in verse 17. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to the Father through him.

Whatever you do. And then he begins in verse 18, talking to the wives. And in verse 19, the husbands, verse 20, children, verse 21, fathers, verse 22, bond servants, chapter 4, verse 1, masters. And so he says, every aspect of your life, every relationship of your life, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. He’s saying your Christianity pervades and in a good way invade every aspect of your life. You ever tried to pull up a plant or remove a tree from your yard. Plant a tree in your yard. Tomorrow.

And then Tuesday, try to pull it up. It’s easy, isn’t it? Plant a tree tomorrow. And ten years from Tuesday. Try to remove it. It’s a much harder task, not just because the tree is bigger and heavier. That’s just what you see above the ground. Those roots do what roots do. They pervade and invade that ground, and their tentacles reached out everywhere, and they grow and they wrap around things and they spread out left and right. They spread, they go down to the deep rooted. Paul says that’s what it means to be rooted in Him. That whatever you do, if you’re a wife, if you’re a husband, a father, a mother, a bondservant, a master, whatever you do, these roots are going to have an effect.

2. Built Up and Abounding in the Faith

Because you’re seeking those things which are above. Because you were buried with him and died with him. And so we become rooted in him, and we are to be built up and abounding in the faith. This is the second step. And we’re going to talk so much about this in this coming year. About the idea of being rooted and then being built up. That’s the idea of not just setting down roots, that which is beneath the surface that is so important, but it’s about the idea of growing. And becoming that building that God has intended you to be. And a building, by the way, that this same apostle would tell the Corinthian brethren that is supposed to house the very Spirit of God Himself. So would you join us on this journey this year?

To be rooted in Christ and to be built up and abounding in the faith. How do we build up that faith? First of all, you need to commit to it and tenaciously commit to it. Don’t just say, yes, I commit to that, the way you committed to your 2020 New Year’s resolutions. But tenaciously commit to that, to something that you will not turn loose from. Seek out others who are committed to the same things as you. We do that in so many facets of life, don’t we?

If we’re committed to something, if it’s a diet plan, if it’s learning to play some musical instrument, instrument of music, we’ll find somebody else who can help us with that. They help me just be encouraging. Hey, I’m trying the same thing. Let’s try it together. It may be somebody who’s already done that. And you can learn from the path that they’ve taken. Lastly, use everything that God has equipped you with to accomplish that task. God hasn’t just said be rooted and built up and good luck with it. He’s given us the tools that we need. He’s given us his word. Insert shameless plug of advertising. We’re doing our Bible reading. God’s given you that opportunity to be able to be rooted and built up in Him.

Join us in our Bible. It begins today. It begins this week. Would you read Romans chapter 1 and 2 with us? Not just read it, but study it. Spend some time, meditate, pray about God’s word. And by the way, we’ve got some tools to help you with that. We don’t just have a nice colorful, pretty little chart here. But on our website, if you’ll go to our website, Bumby.org and click on resources and go to Bible reading plan. You can look at that chart. If you’re watching us online, you can look at that, download it, print it, whatever you want to do with that chart. We’ll have audio recordings of every week’s reading will pop up there that you can listen to it as well as reading it.

Conclusion

If you’re a member of the congregation here, our Facebook talk page, we’ll be talking about that week’s readings. And asking questions and pointing out what we noticed that helped and encouraged us in that week’s reading. And would you join that? God’s given us these opportunities to sharpen and help one another so that we could be built up in our faith. The question is, do you want to be built up? As you’ve been established in Him. Rooted and built up in Him. I hope as I stand before you, first of all, I hope I’m standing before you in January of 2022. And we reflect back on 2021. Mask free.

And I’m more built up in Him than I was a year ago. Would you join us on that journey? Would you do what Paul says here is the first step of that journey? Do you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord? I don’t know what that’s like. That same chapter he says, buried with him in baptism. Would you be buried with him in baptism this morning? Would you let that seed take root in your heart and be implanted within you and be rooted and built up in him? If we could help you in that journey, why not come as together we stand and as we sing?