Rooted and Built up in Jesus
Scripture Reading: Colossians 2: 6 - 8
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Message: Rooted and Built up in Jesus
Love
We are who we are because of the love of God through Jesus!
Our God is love, and we are only capable of love because we were made in God’s image!
I recently heard the story of a woman with serious mental health issues
She suffered from split personality disorder
She was part of a church community where she felt that she belonged and felt loved
Her condition would ebb and flow
She would have bad episodes where she would be dominated by the destructive personality coming to the fore
During one of these bad spells, she ended up in a mental health hospital to receive intensive treatment
But the treatment only made it worse
A week later, her pastor visited her, only to find her curled up in a bundle in the fetal position
Her psychiatrist discharged her a few days later saying that it would be better for her to return to her church, because they could not do anything more to help her
At her church is where she feels loved and that she belongs
This is an extreme story that describes the impact of love
We are all impacted by love
We long to be loved - for the love of God and the love of those around us
Not feeling loved and not feeling that we belong, might just bring out the worst in us
Today’s message is to remind us of the impact of love in our lives
Paul describes our connection to Jesus by saying that we live our lives in Jesus… rooted in Jesus and built up by Jesus
Rooted
We are rooted in Jesus
We are reminded today that everything we are in this life comes from God in Jesus
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are created in the image of God
We are created with the potential to love and inherent need to be loved
We are relationship beings - we live in relationships
We live to be loved
And in Jesus, we are loved
Jesus is where a life of being loved begins
All our life is built on the love of Jesus
That’s why Paul says we are all rooted in Jesus
Take it in today - you are rooted in Jesus!
Built up
We are also built up in Jesus
The effect of our connection to Jesus continues
We need the love of Jesus every day of our lives
Things go bad when we turn away from the love of Jesus
The love of Jesus builds us up day by day
That’s why we need to make the effort to keep growing in our faith
So that we can be built up by the love of Jesus every day
Know today that you are built up by Jesus
Know today that you need Jesus in your life
No to lovelessness
Now, I have included verse 8 in our reading today, because I think it so easily happens that we forget our roots and that we still need to be built up
Paul warns: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ
Be careful, because you might just get drawn in by other ideas that take you away from your roots in Jesus
Watch out not to get involved in philosophies that keep you from being built up in Jesus
The other day at Camp Kintail at the breakfast table, the volunteer camp doctor asked me: “Did you have any profound existential questions yet?” (I said to myself in my head - no, but I’m pretty sure one is coming…)
And sure enough, she came out with it: “How do you reconcile being called a Christian with all that is going on in the States?”
In the moment, I answered that being called a Christian and saying that you are a Christian, is different from living as a Christian in a secular world
I referred to the words of Jesus when He said in Matthew 7: 21 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”
I also reminded her that Jesus said in Matthew 7: 16 that false prophets will be known by their fruit
We discussed what it means to stay true to your beliefs and what it means to make a difference where you live every day
But her question stayed with me…
I wondered about the discomfort she and I have with evangelical Christians’ involvement in aggressive and exclusive politics
And, after thinking about this for more than a week, I think the discomfort from the absence of love
Perhaps the doctor’s question was about how to reconcile being called Christian with loveless behaviour?
And then I was struck by the realization that our world desperately needs the love of Jesus - the real love of Jesus!
It brings us back to the story of the woman with a split personality…
A psychiatrist recognized in a mental health hospital what difference the love of Jesus makes in a woman’s life
My shared discomfort with the doctor made me realize how much the world needs the real love of Jesus
And today we are reminded: we are deeply rooted in Jesus
And in Jesus we are built up in life
Let us then stay true to our roots and build up the world around us with the love of Jesus!
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