Responsive Reading Colossians 2:1-10
Text Colossians 2:6,7 NASV, “Therefore
as you 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.
Sermon
We are told that even as we have received Christ
we are to walk in Him. So in order to
obey this passage of Scripture we must first
have received Christ. Before we are saved we
are dead in our trespasses and sins.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.” We are all universally
sinners. ‘There is none righteous, no not one.’
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin brings forth
death. Before we are saved, we are spiritually
dead. Romans 5:12 “Therefore as sin
came into the world through one man and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men
because all men sinned.” Before salvation we
are totally depraved. We are dead.
We have the inability to do anything that pleases God.
Heb 11:6 says that ‘Without faith it is impossible
to please God.’ There is a truth that we
must realize to walking in Christ is that
a dead man can’t walk. It is impossible for a dead
man to walk. Why? Because his
body is lifeless. He has not the power or the ability to
do anything. So in order to be able
to walk the dead have to be brought to life. That is an
impossible thing to ever happen. A dead
man can’t be made alive or can he? The Bible
says, that the things which are impossible
to man are possible to God. Matthew 19:26b
“With God all things are possible.”
Ephesians 2:4,5 “But God, being rich in mercy,
because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved)” Jesus
Christ is the one who has the power to raise
the dead. Ephesians 2:8,9 We are saved ‘by
grace through faith and not of ourselves it
is the gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast’
Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
is the first step in our walk with Christ,
but it definitely is not our last. We
are to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We
are saved by grace through faith. We
must come to the realization we are a sinner, lost in
our trespasses and sins and that there is
nothing we can do to save ourselves. It is only
what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us
that can save us. We must place our faith in
Jesus. He died on the cross for our
sin, He was buried and rose again on the third day.
He ascended to heaven and lives forever more.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life.” When we repent
of our sins and place our faith in the free gift of
salvation that Jesus purchased for us on the
cross and give our lives to Him, then we are
saved eternally. We are made alive.
We are new creatures in Christ Jesus, old things pass
away behold all things become new. Romans
6:1,6 say that we are not to continue in sin
that grace may about...how shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer there in. After
salvation we are dead to sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ is what makes us alive.
The miracle of Salvation hinges on saving
faith in Jesus. Salvation isn’t us,
but the power of God. Salvation hinges on God and not
man. Jesus is the one who raised us
from the dead unto life. So the first step in walking
with Jesus is salvation which is by faith.
John MacArthur, “Just as Christ is received
by faith, we are to walk by faith and not by
sight.”
Walking involves doing something. In
order to walk we must take steps. If I just stand in
one spot without ever taking a step, then
I will never walk. But as I extend my foot
forward and then shift my body weight to that
foot, I begin to walk. Shifting the weight
to that foot involves faith. I am trusting
my foot and leg to hold me up. I am trusting the
floor underneath my foot and leg to support
my body weight. So not only do I have to
move out, I have to shift my weight to trust
in this new thing. Just putting my foot
forward with out ever putting my weight on
it isn’t walking either. I must take a step and
put my weight on it. And then I continue
to repeat that action. We walked in here today
by faith and not by sight. None of us
crawled up under the church to see if there were
enough support beams and such to support our
weight, we merely trusted the floor to hold
us. In Christ we don’t questions His
ability to support us, we trust Him. Walking is a
series of motions moving us from where we
are towards where we are going. Romans
8:29 says that we are “predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son.” We
are being conformed to Christ. We are
to have our eyes focused on Him.
Matthew 14:22-34 is the where Peter walked
on the water. Peter was able to walk on the
water because he put His faith in what Jesus
told him to do. Notice that out of the twelve
in the boat only one trusted Christ enough
to step out. That is true of many people. Many
people here the Gospel and are asked to step
out and do what Jesus tells them to do, but
too many just stay in their boats. The
pew is your boat this morning. Will you step our of
your boat and fix your eyes on Jesus.
Will you accept Him as your personal Lord and
Savior?
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Peter stepped out of the boat with his eyes
fixated on Christ. Stepping out of a perfectly
good boat onto water took faith. When
Jesus said “Come” Peter went. When God tells
you to come are you going to go immediately
or just sit in the boat? Peter stepped out of
the boat and walked on the water towards Christ.
He was able to walk on the water as
long as he kept his eyes fixated on Jesus.
When he got his eyes off of Jesus is when he
began to sink, but Jesus didn’t let him drowned.
Peter cried out “Lord, save me!” And
Jesus did just that.
In order to walk by faith our eyes must be
on Jesus. We must not look at the things of
this world, otherwise we will sink.
We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:7 “for we walk by faith,
not by sight.” We don’t look at numbers,
or problems, or anything we keep our eyes on
things above as Colossians 3:1,2 tell us to
and we don’t focus on the things of this world.
As we focus on Christ we are able to do the
impossible we will walk on the stormy waters
of life. We just have to trust God.
Faith is trusting God to do what He has said He will
do. It is impossible for God to lie.
Thy Word, oh Lord is truth. God cannot lie, so we
can trust Him. There is a bumper sticker
that says, “God said it, I believe it and that
settles it.” We must truly trust God
in all areas of our lives in order to walk by faith.
Finances, relationships, our careers, our
time, etc. all must be laid at the foot of the cross.
He is in control of it all. We must
surrender our lives to Christ and let Him have control.
James 4:6-10. Once we have a correct
focus we are able to walk by faith.
In order to focus on Jesus, we must read the
Word of God. Psalms 119:105 “Thy Word is
a lamp unto my feet And a light unto my path.”
God’s Word is our light in this dark
world. We can see Christ through the
Bible. We must reading the Word, searching the
Scriptures daily to see if these things are
so. Check what I say with the Bible. If it is my
opinion, then it is nothing. But if
God’s Word says it, then it is pure 100% fact and
completely true. Check out what a pastor
says and see if it lines up with the Word of
God. If it doesn’t don’t believe the
pastor. Beware of false teachers. Colossians 2:4 “I
say this so that no one will delude you with
persuasive argument.” Colossians 2:8 “See to
it that no one takes you captive through philosophy
and empty deception, according to the
tradition of men, according to the elementary
principles of the world, rather than
according to Christ.” There are many
false teachers out there today. I encourage and
implore you to read the Word of God for yourself
and not listen to pastors and TV
evangelists whose teaching doesn’t line up
with the Word of God.
Walking by faith involves looking at Christ.
The Bible shows us our Lord Jesus. John
1:1-18 tells us that Jesus is the Word.
Verse 12 “But as many as received Him, to them
He gave the right to become the children of
God, even to those who believe in His name.”
‘There is no other name in heaven or earth
by which we are saved.’ Jesus is our Lord and
Savior. He is the Word! So we
need to be in the Word day and night. Psalms 1:2,3
Colossians 1:9,10 tell us to walk in
a manner worthy of the Lord. Reading His Word is
part of a manner that is worthy of Lord.
We need to have a hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
Walking by faith down the pathway of live,
works when we use the Light. Jesus is our
Light. In order to focus on Him, we
must be in the Word of God. Do yourself a favor
and enrich your walk with Christ, by spending
more time each day in the Word. If you
don’t read your Bible daily, you are depriving
yourself of so much more that God has for
you. Psalms 1 says the “blessed” or
happy Christian is in the Word day and night. More
than just 5 minutes a day.
Once you are using the light, you are able
to see the path of Christ. You then are able to
walk in Christ. Even are we are saved
by faith, we walk by faith.
We need to exercise our faith. As we
walk by faith we are using it. John Calvin Says that
“Prayer. The chief exercise of faith,
by which we daily receive God’s benefits” John
14:13-15, Matthew 7:7-11 We are to pray
and use our faith. When we ask God for
something, we need to be willing to do something
about it, if God tells us to. If we pray
for souls to be saved, we must be willing
to tell others about Jesus. If we pray for more
finances for the church, we must be willing
to tithe first and then if God tells us to give
more.
We must ask in faith. James 1:5,6
We are to ask in faith without doubting. What brings
doubt? Getting our eyes off of Jesus
Christ and on to this world. James 4:2b, 3 “You do
not have because you do not ask. You
ask and do not receive, because you ask with
wrong motives, so that you may spend it on
your pleasures.” Notice first, “You do not
have, because you do not ask.” If we
aren’t praying then we are receiving the blessings
God has for us. We need to be a praying
people. James 4:16b “The effective prayer of a
righteous man can accomplish much.”
The next part of the James passage is we ask and
do not receive because of wrong motives.
Selfishness is not a trait of Christ. Selflessness
is a trait of Christ. Jesus asked for
others and helped others. When we pray we need to
pray with proper motives. I used to
pray that God would make me rich, when I was a
teenager. God said no to that one.
Why? I had wrong motives. I wanted a Porsche, and
a bunch of worldly things. My focus
was off. Now with Godly focus, a person within the
Will of God can pray and see things happen.
John 14:13,14 “Whatever you ask in My
name; that will I do, so that the Father may
glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in
My name, I will do it.” What a powerful
promise. The thing that hinders our prayers
from being answered is sin or wrong motives.
Selfishness boils down to greed or the lust
of the flesh. God doesn’t bless sin.
Proper motives are essential to having a powerful
prayer life and walking by faith.
Our prayer life is the difference between a
defeated life and a victorious life in Christ. In
order to gain the promises of the Bible, we
must claim them. At salvation, we prayed and
asked Jesus to save us. We claimed the
promise that if we accepted Jesus as our Lord and
Savior we would be saved. We claimed
that promise in prayer. Is that where our claiming
of the promises in God’s Word ends?
No salvation is only the beginning. At salvation we
ask for forgiveness of sin and to be saved.
If ‘we have iniquity in our hearts, He will not
hear us.’ I John 1:9 Tells us
to confess our sins, literally we will be continually confessing
and forsaking sin. He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Get rid of the
defeat and make your walk in Christ upbeat. Ask God to
have mercy on you and pull you back up to
walking on the water. Get your eyes focused
back on Christ. Claim the promise in
I John 1:9, by using it. Hmmm, if John 3:16 works
by claiming it and using it, and so doesn
I John 1:9, I wonder if God’s other promises
might not just work the same way too.
All it takes is faith. Faith is trusting God to do
what He said He would do. Prayer is
an exercise of our faith.
In walking in Christ Jesus, we must first be
saved. Salvation is by faith. We must walk by
faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God.” So to increase our faith
we must be in the Word. We use faith
in prayer. And as we walk by faith, our joy in
Christ becomes full.
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