ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH

This is the fourth message in this series on discipleship and the third stage of our discipleship process. Once again, it is my desire in this messge series to be as personal as possible in the large group setting, and just to share my heart about being a more fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. If you can focus, not on checking things off a list of dos and don'ts but instead on a heart attitude that is growing in knolwedge and grace, this can be a beneficial process for you. When the Video: Footprints revisited comes up in the manuscript, feel free to go to sermonspice.com , search for Footprints revisited, and watch a preview of it for free. May God strengthen your heart as you follow Him and become established in the faith.


ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH

Please turn in your Bible to Colossians 2. In the Bible in front of you, it is page 1020 or 1046.

Every new year, we are reminded of those whose lives ended in 2007.
· Eddie Robinson died April 3 at the age of 88. He was established as the football coach at Grambling State University in Louisiana for 57 years!
· Jerry Falwell was 73 when he died on May 15th. He was established as the initiator of the Moral Majority movement, the pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and the leader of Liberty University.
· Dan Folgelberg died at age 56 on December 16th. He was established as a famous singer and songwriter.
· Lady Bird Johnson died at age 94 on July 11th. She was established as the First Lady with her husband, President Lyndon B. Johnson and as an environmentalist with many flower planting projects.
· On August 12th, Merv Griffin died at age 82. He was established as the host of the Merv Griffin show for more than 20 years and the creator of the popular games shows: Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
· Ernest Gallo was established as the man who took $5,900 and a wine recipe from a public library and turned it into, what was at one time, the world’s largest winemaking empire. He died on March 6th at age 97.
· This man had a quest to serve quality sausage to truckers who filled his 12-stool, 24-hour-a-day diner in southeast Ohio. He established himself and created a restaurant chain that bears his name. Bob Evans died on June 21 at age 89.

These people were fairly well known, and they were established in some things that produced a lot of profit, brought a lot of joy, and helped others in many ways. But, the real question, the more important question is this: Were they established in the faith? These people gained fame for something while they lived and they may be remembered for a long time. But, if they were not established in the faith, their influence is merely temporal and does not have an eternal, lasting, spiritual impact.

Another man died in 2007. On April 20th, at age 71, Dr. Jack Jacobs went home to be with the Lord. He was the senior pastor here for more than 17 years. I did not know him very long, but I knew him long enough to say this: From my observation, Dr. Jacobs was a man who was well established in his faith. I’m sure Nancy would tell you that he was not perfect; but I believe she and those who knew him best would back me up here: he was established in the faith; and leaves us a great example to follow.

Now, you might say, “well, I can’t be like Dr. Jacobs – I will never know as much Scripture as he did”. That might be true. I can certainly say I cannot be like Dr. Jacobs. I could never preach like he did. I also don’t have the depth of knowledge he did or the ability to communicate it the way he did. But, you know what? Here is the biblical truth. You can be like Dr. Jacobs in this one way: You also can be established in the faith. Yes you can.

In our brief message series on discipleship, we are using Colossians 2:6,7 as our theme verses:

Colossians 2:6,7 - –“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

This series is geared towards those of you who have already decided to follow Jesus Christ. It is your desire to live for Him. If you have not made that decision, you can certainly listen in and hopefully gain something, but until you take that step to come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and become His follower, there is no way to grow in a discipleship process of which you are not a part.

Let’s review for a few moments, using these banners hanging above. We are looking at a discipleship process, using these phrases from Colossians 2:6,7. And this pictures the growth of a tree and compares it to the Christian life. The first stage is being “rooted in Christ”. When you come to Jesus Christ for salvation and trust in Him alone for it, you become rooted in Christ. However, the idea here is that just like a tree that needs a strong root system to grow, so we need to grow deeper and stronger in Jesus Christ. And using our church theme verse of II Peter 3:18, we are using the phrases: Growing in Knowledge and Growing in Grace to apply these descriptions of growth.

[on the screen]
For Rooted in Christ, these may be some signs of growth:
Growing in Knowledge:
· Learning basic truths
· Having assurance of salvation

Growing in Grace:
· Reading the Bible
· Praying
· Baptism

After being rooted in Christ, the next phrase is: “built up in Him”, that is, Christ. Our roots are going down, and now we need to come up out of the ground and begin to grow, showing some signs of more growth in our relationship with Christ. Some of those signs might be:

Growing in Knowledge:
· Learning personal Bible study
· Understanding what to believe and why

Growing in Grace:
· Giving
· Serving
· Applying truth to life (asking the SO WHAT? question personally, taking what you hear and read from the Word of God and make it real in daily living)

This morning, we are focused on the next phrase in Colossians 2: “established in the faith”. And then, next week, we conclude with the word: “abounding”. I have asked one of our members, Phil Dawson, to help me out with my message next week. I normally try to illustrate the message, to help communicate it to the listeners. Next week, Phil, the place kicker for the Cleveland Browns, is going to share with us some of his experiences from this past football season; and we are going to talk about how those experiences relate to our process of discipleship. I mention this not only so that you can be relieved that you won’t have to listen to my voice the whole time, or excited that we are going to talk a little football; but primarily for this reason: you may have a friend or family member that would not want to come to our church. However, if they knew that a professional athlete, especially one of our own Cleveland Browns was going to talk some football, they might come. If you want to use that in inviting someone for next Sunday, feel free.

Let’s look again at Colossians 2:6 and the phrase: “established in the faith.” The word “established”, here, means to make something stable or to confirm something. In our spiritual analogy of a tree, we are looking at a tree that has a strong root system and is showing itself to be a stronger tree, with fuller branches. It doesn’t look like a tree that is going to fall over in a strong wind. It is stable, confirmed, established. This is a stage of growth by which we can evaluate ourselves.

We are to be established, stable, confirmed. Certainly, some of the things that we talked about last week can lead to that. But, first, we have to make sure we know what we are to be established in. It says here in Colossians 2:6 that we are to be “established in our faith.” This word faith refers to our trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation and then the constancy of that belief in any circumstance. Trusting fully in Christ allows us to have faith in Him, in any circumstance, including when life is over. But, you probably know this doesn’t happen automatically or easily.

We are talking about a stage of spiritual growth, where you no longer are fully dependent on someone else to tell you what to believe. You are not completely confused and deceived if someone were to tell you something that is biblically untrue. You could discern that something is wrong and you are not tempted to abandon your faith. You still sin and you still struggle and you still deal with doubts, but you are firmly established in your faith. Because of the Holy Spirit that lives in you, and the work of His Word in your life, your faith is not going anywhere. It is not divided. It is strong.

Please turn back 3 books to the book of Galatians, and chapter 1.

Before I list for you this morning some of the signs of growing in grace and knowledge in this stage, let me make sure something is very clear. The work of being established in the faith begins and end with one person, and its not you…and its not me. Let’s read some crucial passages of Scripture together to be reminded of who really does this work of establishing and strengthening our faith. Please read in unison the sections that are bold lettering (highlighted):

Jude 24,25 – “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

I Peter 5:10 – “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

II Thessalonians 2:16,17 – “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.”

Romans 16:25-27 – “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith. To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.”

These passages of Scripture and many more tie the establishing and strengthening of our faith to the person of Jesus Christ. It is God who establishes us in our faith. He is the One who makes us strong in faith. This is the work of God, and yet we are told to respond. With this last passage in Romans, it begins with God being the one who can strengthen us, but at the end, it says: “to bring about obedience of faith.” That is our part – to live out our faith in obedience. This is what shows that we are being established, by God, in our faith.

Are you familiar with the Footprints poem? Some years ago it was very popular and you might have it hanging up somewhere today. The poem talks about two sets of footprints in the sand, seeing it as walking the journey with Jesus. Then, all of a sudden, there are only one set of footprints in the sand, and the person wonders why Jesus left his side- especially during a tough time. Then, the poem ends by Jesus saying that He didn’t leave him, but carried him through the tough time, leaving only one set of prints. Let’s take another look at that poem together:

VIDEO: FOOTPRINTS REVISITED

Sorry for you footprint poem fans out there if that ruined it for you. This was not blasphemy. It is just a poem. I liked this video because it demonstrates the both/and aspect of responsibility in walking with God. God does carry us, yes. But, He also expects us to walk; and when need be, He might drop us on our butt to wake us up and teach us how to follow Him.

Let me share with you some of the signs of a person who is growing in knowledge and grace as they are being established it the faith:

Growing in Knowledge:
· Discovering life vision and goals

At some point, in the stage of spiritual growth as a follower of Christ, you make the call of God very personal. You begin to take personal responsibility for fulfilling the vision, the plan, God has your life. If you read the Scriptures, you know that God called particular people for particular tasks. He called Moses to lead the people of Israel to the promised land. He called Abraham to father a child that would begin the nation of Israel. He called people to be prophets, kings or priests. He called Paul to give his life sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. You are turned to Galatians 1. Please look at what Paul said in:

Galatians 1:15,16 – “But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…”

God had given Paul a particular vision for the rest of His life.
Although there are things that all believers need to pursue, God has a particular vision for your life, even if you would never consider yourself to be like the people He called in the Bible. The fact is that you are saved by His grace, called by His grace, and the plan He has for you is carried out by grace. This is still God’s work, but He wants you to recognize what he has given you to do, and to go after it with all of your heart.

The message I shared with you on December 30th was all about this. The recognition of God’s Chazown (vision) for you leads to goals being set and a focus for your life, when there are so many things vying for your attention and trying to distract you – even good things! I won’t say much else about this today, since I talked a lot about it on December 30th. However, I do think this is a sign of growth. You are looking for what specifically God has given you to do for Him, and you are willing to sacrifice in order to pursue it.

Please turn in your Bible to Mark 12. If you are using the Bible in front of you, it is page 879 or 897.

Growing in Knowledge:
· Understanding the discipleship process

There is something that takes place in the thinking of a person who has grown to be established in the faith. In the beginning, he is completely dependent on others for his spiritual growth. He really doesn’t know where to begin or how to grow. Others come alongside of him to help, to teach Him how to study the Word of God and much more. There is a lot of focus, in the beginning stages of growth, with receiving instruction, getting help and appreciating what others can do in building into his spiritual life.

But, at some point, the attention and focus goes from inward to outward. It goes from receiving to giving. It goes from learning to leading, from seeing the general calling to seeing the personal calling of where you fit into God’s plan. And, this person can see the bigger picture of discipleship rather than just how it relates to their salvation. They understand more of how a person can go from a new believer to a more fully developed, mature follower of Christ.

In fact, this believer is thinking about others, how to bring others to Jesus Christ, and then how to help them grow in their faith. Let’s move on now to:

Growing in Grace:
· Giving sacrificially

In the stage of being “built up in Him”, we introduced the issue of giving. A person growing as a follower of Jesus Christ begins to give to God from what God has given her. In this stage, everything goes to a new level. This is not the person who is just giving the required 10% of what they earn each week; but this person is sacrificially giving more in tithes and offerings.

One of the stories about Jesus’ view of giving is here in Mark 12. Look at:
Mark 12:41-44 – “And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had all she had to live on.”

This illustrates sacrificial giving, doesn’t it? Jesus was not concentrating on the particular amount that was given, but how sacrificial that amount was to the giver. This widow who didn’t give very much at all, had given more than those who put in a lot of money. Why did God view it that way? Because the widow gave money that she could have used for other comforts and needs in life. The others gave the extra money they had lying around – no discomfort, no sacrifice.

This is a tough lesson for most of us. If I have an extra dollar sitting around, it is not difficult for me to give it to God through the offering. However, if the dollar I have was set aside for me to have a dessert or to buy something else for myself, it would be a sacrifice for me to give it to God instead. It would be a sacrifice, even a small one.

The person growing in grace is thinking about how she can impact the lives of others with what God has already given her. She is thinking of using her resources, primarily, to benefit others and promote the gospel of Jesus Christ. She fully believes that God will meet her needs, and as God brings a need to her mind and heart, she responds generously, with joy.

But, this is not only about our money. The growing believer who is established in the faith, is going to give sacrificially of their time and their talents. He is now thinking about how to invest in the lives of others rather than his own comfortable future. So, he volunteers his time and whatever abilities he has to serve God and others while most of us think he might be wasting his time and abilities – thinking he could use those abilities to make more money and use his time enjoying himself more. Well, the fact is: the growing follower of Christ begins to find that some of the most enjoying times he has is when he is giving to others of himself – not much different than Christ, is it?

Hebrews 12:2 – “Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus was able to give completely of Himself with joy because He could see beyond the sacrifice to the incredible blessings of salvation for us and eternity with the Father. The growing follower of Christ, established in the faith, has this type of eternal perspective that allows him to look beyond the temporal. No, you don’t have to be perfect or think you’re holier than everyone else to be established in the faith. But, you do have to be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Please turn back one book to the book of Matthew and chapter 28.

Growing in Grace:
· Leading in ministry

In the previous stage of “built up in Him”, we mentioned that the growing believer will start to serve. But, at some point in spiritual growth, the person will continue to serve in a greater way by leading others in serving. This doesn’t mean that just because you are in a leadership position that you are established in the faith or if you don’t have a particular leadership position that you can’t be established in the faith. It means that as you grow in Christ, you will find yourself leading others toward Christ in some way. This can happen in your family, in your work place and in the church.

You are no longer satisfied with just serving yourself, but you are interested in leading others to serve as well. Do you see the pattern here? The emphasis starts becoming a great concern about others spiritual development and not just your own. If you think about the first disciples of Christ, you can see that it was a process for them as well. At first, it was all about their own development as they learned from Christ Himself, began to think differently, grow and serve. But, eventually, Christ left them the Holy Spirit and sent them out to disciple others and change the world. They were still the struggling, sinful, followers of Christ – but they were growing, maturing as His followers.

Growing in Grace:
· Experiencing Missions

This may sound strange to you, to put this in this stage; but I think it fits with the changing emphasis of a growing follower of Christ who is being established in her faith. Of course, she may have gotten involved in missions to some degree as a new believer and hopefully did. However, as she grows in Christ, she, once again, will be thinking outside of herself and her own salvation, to the spiritual needs that others have.

She will begin to be deeply concerned for the salvation of her friends, family and others. She will start to think of the need for discipleship in her own family, church, community, and throughout the world. This will lead her to go on missions trips, perhaps support missionaries outside of the ones her church supports (or give more than her church gives), and pray that if God wants her to be a missionary outside of where she is now, she is willing to go where He leads.

The last thing Jesus said to His followers before He left to go back to Heaven was this. You are there in Matthew 28. Please look at:

Matthew 28: 19,20 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You might think that every believer would do this, but the reality is that very few come to the place of being established enough in faith that they completely surrender themselves to being missionaries of the gospel where they are, getting involved in the missions of their church, the missionaries lives themselves, experiencing all kinds of different mission opportunities, and praying that God would lead them. But, all of us, who are disciples, followers of Christ, are to be all about making other followers of Christ.

I remember surrendering my life to God for whatever He wanted me to do, including missions. Now, mission leaders might tell you as they told me that if you are willing to go, you should just go and be a career missionary. I understand why they said that, because it is a part of their heart passion. But, it is important that each of us, experiencing missions here and abroad, are always open to where God is calling us. That person is a growing follower of Christ, established in the faith.

[go back to the banners] – Each week, as we have walked through these stages, I have shared with you one ministry emphasis that we offer as a church to correspond to the different stages of spiritual growth. Of course, this is not a perfect fit. These ministries can be great helps to people at all different stages of spiritual development. However, it helps us in leadership to know where to put our resources and efforts, as well as work hard at making our programs and ministries fit into a discipleship process rather than the other way around. And we emphasize just one ministry to keep everything simple – and doable!

For Rooted in Christ, we have the ministry emphasis of our Sunday morning worship service. It is a large group setting with people of all physical ages and all stages of spiritual development, including those who have not yet made a commitment to Christ. Although everyone can worship in our services in a variety of ways, we want to make sure that those who are new to Christ or are in their first stage of spiritual development can fully understand everything that we are doing in our service and that it assists them in their growth process.
For Built Up in Him, our ministry emphasis is our Sunday school. Rather than a large group setting, this is a mid-size group setting, with a teacher and student relationship. This gives everyone, normally with people at their same stage of life, an opportunity to interact with a teacher and learn how to apply the deeper teachings of the Word of God.

For this stage, Established in the faith, it gets even more personal. The ministry emphasis we have is not a large group or a mid-size group, but now a small group. Our ministry emphasis is our Life Groups. This doesn’t mean that we won’t have people uncommitted to Christ in life groups or people who are still in the beginning stages. But, it does mean that we are focused on helping people become established in the faith. That is why our life groups have to remain small, 12 people or less. This is why if you go to one of our life groups, the emphasis is not on sharing your deep knowledge of the intricacies of the Scriptures, but being accountable for what you already know.

This is why when you go to a life group, we are not asking questions about Greek and Hebrew words or what everyone thinks a particular passage of Scripture means. This is not a Bible study. This is a group for those committed to applying the Word of God to real life, to the point where they are willing to have some tough, personal, penetrating questions asked of them. This is about transparency, humbly evaluating in a group setting, where we are with God and how to take another step toward Him.

The ideal scenario is this: You come and listen to the Sunday morning message. That night, you go to life group. Hopefully, before you ever get to life group, you have thought about what the Word of God had to say that morning, and you have asked God to help you apply it. You may even know what that specific application ought to be. In life group, questions are asked to make you interact with the message and consider how to apply it. At some point, you share with the group how your life matches up with that particular topic or passage of Scripture. You also share how you want to grow in that area. They may even help you be very specific on what that might look like and what specific step you can take over the next couple of weeks. They then pray specifically for you about that. They continue to pray on their own for you over the next couple of weeks, perhaps even contacting you to check on your progress. And when you get back together two weeks later, they ask how it went for you and encourage you, whether you took the step or not.

This is also the greatest resource we have right now for personal care for you and your family. It is impossible for Steve and I to personally care for 200 plus people in their life issues. But, members of a life group can truly care for the other 6-8 people in their life group and their families. We have already seen that happening in some of our groups.

This is an environment, where we can see how God uses others to help us be established in our faith. Our Life Groups can certainly improve, but this is the ministry emphasis we offer for this stage. If you are not currently in a life group, they are always open to adding people; and all you have to do is let me know you are interested.

SO WHAT?
Based on these principles from God’s Word today, what is He asking you to do?
Let’s take a few moments to have silent prayer and talk to God about it.