Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 8/13/14

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 8/13/14

Col 2:1  For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

‘Conflict’ here comes from a Greek word that translates to ‘earnest and tender loving care’.  I would that you knew what earnest and tender loving care I have for you.

Teddy Roosevelt made the statement, “No one really cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” 

Paul was saying this here, “Dear ones in Colosse.”  They struggled with those that were always trying to sow the seed of, “I know more than all of you, I have been visiting with the angels, and you need to listen to me.” 

Paul had a love for them though he had never seen their face. 

You and I know people that we have never seen.  We sang, ‘I’ll Follow Jesus’, written by Brother Henry.  I know Brother Henry by his testimony.  He wrote, “I cannot be idle for Jesus says go and work in my harvest today.” 

He and his wife had been led astray by the one cleansing teaching; they went off and were in a mess.  God didn’t give up on them.  He kept working and working with them.  The evening light Hymnal has a lot of songs written by him. 

He left the testimony, “I am not going to stray.  I’ve come home.  I have found it at last.”  He labored whole heartedly and was not bound by the failure of his past.

Colosse was buried in an earthquake 100 years after this epistle was written to them. 

Col 2:2  That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;

Paul went on to say, “That their hearts might be comforted.”  There are times when the saints really need comforted.  There is a comfort that comes from God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God.  It is a comfort that nothing else can give.

Being knit together in love:  I picked up a little book that told how love is the most powerful and precious thing in all this world.  There are a lot of things that can bind us together: bound together in a storm, bound together in that we are poor, etc.  It is wonderful that we can be knit together in the love of God.

Col 2:3  In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Don’t put much stock in nickels and dimes.  Make sure that your heart is set on the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When our mother and father forsake us, the Lord will take us up.  He is an everlasting Father. 

I was thinking recently that it is pretty interesting how we can get so lonesome for a place that we haven’t seen yet.  “I’m homesick for heaven.”  We identify with that.

Think of Christ, He bore our sin.  The very son of God from eternity came into this world that you and I might be delivered from this world and hid forever in Him.

There are some things that God will only tell you in secret.  There are many places that we could call our secret place.  For Moses it was on top of Mount Sinai.  It is labor for me to get there; it is discipline for me to get there, but I have to get there. 

He said, Not only do I want you to not see anyone, I don’t want any material things around you.

Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Wisdom and knowledge: how we need the wisdom of God every day, in the planning of everything, in the decisions that you are making.

Col 2:4  And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

There were those that were trying to draw them away, “We have a better way.  You don’t have to worry so much about that.”  No.  Walk in the light of the word.

Col 2:5  For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.

Col 2:6  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

Col 2:7  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Those roots have to go down deep.  We have to let them go down deep.  The way to be established is to face the storm, the temptations, the trial, and say: “The roots have to go deeper because I am going to triumph in this.”  As you triumph, your roots go down deeper.