“Trials” by Aaron Milosch
This past Sunday, senior Aaron Milosch brought us a great message from the Word on “Trials.”
Listen to the sermon.
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Trials involve:
Why Are There Trials?
Endurance
James 2:1–4 tell us that they produce endurance in us. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we are running race that requires endurance.
Sanctification
James 1:4 – Trials come into our lives so that we will result in a perfect person, a person who looks like Christ. God uses trials to form us into the image of his Son.
For God’s Glory (Job 42:10)
God had completely humbled Job through all the trials that he experienced. Yet through these trials, God reminded Job that God was the one who gets the glory because he is the one who gives life and deliverance.
How Do I Respond To Trials
- Count it all JOY (James 1:2). We may only feel suffering, but God brings joy in the midst of it all.
- Hold fast to our faith (Eph 6:10–19)
- Submit (1 Peter 5:6–7; Matt 26:39, 42)
Pre, Pro, and Post–Trial Training
- Fervent in prayer (Matt 26)
- Consistent in the Word (Eph 6:17; Matt 4)
- Bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:2)
- Know that we have a great High Priest (Heb 4:14–16)
The Importance of Walking In Christ
Message given: 26 February 2012
Text: Colossians 2:6–15
Introduction
Have you ever missed something that was right in front of your face?
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson go on a camping trip, set up their tent, and fall asleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes his faithful friend. “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.” Watson replies, “I see millions of stars.” “What does that tell you?” asks Holmes Watson ponders for a minute. “Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Horologically, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, it’s evident the Lord is all-powerful and we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.”
After a pause, Watson says: “Well, Holmes, What does it tell you?” Holmes is silent for a moment and then he speaks. “Watson, you imbecile,can’t you see that someone has stolen our tent.”
Isn’t it easy to miss the important thing that is right in front of us? The scary thing is that we can be Christians here this morning and yet be missing the most important thing. We could be missing Christ.
Have you been missing Christ? Are you trying to learn to do this Christian thing, doing a bunch of things and feeling guilty for all things you aren’t doing? Or are you simply seeking to know and walk with Christ?
Walking in Christ is not just a good idea, or a smart move — it’s of utmost importance.
Three Steps to seeing the importance of walking in Christ
1. Know your Calling: Walk in Christ (v. 6–7)
The Christian life in each of us begins by receiving a gift. And that gift is Christ. He was taught to us.
Paul is not talking about “receiving Jesus into my life.” That idea of “accepting Jesus in your heart” is not a helpful way of talking about belief. The emphasis here is not so much on what you did, but on what was given to you. Christianity is a message that is passed down.
Also, Christianity isn’t primarily a body of doctrines or set of ideas, it is a person, who is unlike anyone else (1:15-20; 2:2-3). It is simply Jesus, who is the Christ (the source of all spiritual blessing) and the Lord (the one who we submit to).
Our Christian life then sprouts out of the message that we received for the rest of our lives. It’s like a seed that is given to us and planted in our hearts that continues to blossom.
We are not walking for ourselves, but walking for Christ. This means that we are submitted to Christ. He is the one (and no other) who is to shape all our character and behavior. Christian growth will not occur in richer soil or on some stronger foundation than the Lord Jesus Christ. All the treasures are to be found in him (2:3). He is the source of our growth and the foundation we are built on. Do not be deceived into looking elsewhere.
2. Heed the Warning: Ideas take you captive (v. 8)
No one likes hearing warnings. Like when your mom warns you to watch out to not walk too close to the edge. It’s mildly insulting, right? You realize that she thinks you are not able to manage yourself on your own.
Well, Paul gives us a warning here. And I know my knee-jerk reaction is to rationalize it away. “Well, that’s not for me.” But we each need to consider this warning, the threat that is before us.
Why? Because Christ is that important. If we are going to see the importance of walking in Christ, then we need to hear this warning loud and clear this morning.
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Col 2:8)
“Taking captive” is a word used to describe kidnapping, the carrying off a person as in the slave trade. How does he kidnap? The captivity comes from any set of ides or man-made system of beliefs that deceives you and leaves you empty. It promises, but doesn’t deliver. These ideas are worldly and “not according to Christ.” Any ideology that leads away from Christ will ultimately fail you.
Philosophies that we can be attracted by:
We can tend to think that the gap is really big between these “philosophy” and Christ, but Paul is warning us that it is a fine line. The scary thing is that one who is being taken captive by these things thinks that they are walking and growing in Christ, but they are deceived. This means that you could be here this morning and think that you are on the right track, but you may not be.
If we are going to see the importance of walking in Christ, then we need to heed the warning.
3. Cling to your Defense: Meditate on the gospel (v. 9–15)
Because the attack can come from all sides, Paul gives us a defense that centralizes us on the core.
Your defense is three-fold:
1. The nature of Christ (v. 9–10)
All deity is found in Christ. There is not one ounce of deity found anywhere else. He does not share it with anyone or anything. It dwells in him bodily. This is an amazing reality of the incarnation. Because Christ’s fullness of deity, we have been filled. We are on the side of the Lord of the universe and he fills us.
2. Your Union with Christ (v. 11–14)
3. The victory of Christ (v. 15)
He showed that these rulers have no power or authority. They are scams.
Conclusion
Let’s not miss the obvious. Walking with Christ is of life and death importance. We can’t afford to be kidnapped.
Further Up & Further In
Message given on 19 February 2012
Text: Colossians 2:1–5
In the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, as the kids are making their way into the final frontier, they cry out to one another, “Further up and further in!”
They had entered the real Narnia and now they were exhorting one another to press on still more. They didn’t want to stop. In fact, C.S. Lewis describes them as running, but never growing tired, so they had no desire to stop.
In the same way, Paul in this passage is calling us to go further up and further into Christ. God is telling us, through the apostle Paul that we must strive and press on to know Christ.
He says that he wants the hearts of the believers to be encouraged “to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ.”
So we can see several components of Paul’s desire here.
1. The Encouragement
He wants our hearts to not only be commanded, but to be encouraged. We can so often get into this way of thinking that only sees Christianity as things that we have to do. And when we realize how far we have to go still, we can get discouraged and guilty.
Paul is coming to us who are sitting on the curb with our face in our hands and encouraging us to look up and see the greatness and richness of Christ.I’ve heard it said that people need to be encouraged more than we need to be commanded. When we are encouraged, we are motivated by joy to press on.
2. The Reaching
The ESV has “to reach.” The NASB has “attaining.” These words are trying to describe this active reality that needs to be a part of the Christian life.
But what are we reaching for in our lives?
3. The Riches
“all the riches of full assurance of understanding and knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ.”
Here we see Paul’s full desire. He wants to give us confidence in our faith in Christ. The Colossians were tempted to think that maybe they didn’t choose the right road, that maybe there was a better option out there than Christ. But Paul makes it clear there there is full assurance in Christ.
We do not have doubt that Christ is all we need. Guys, you can have full assurane in him. I encourage you to reach for all those riches. If you are wavering in doubt-land. It’s okay, but let me encourage you to press on to Christ more intimately and more fully.
Paul’s greatest desire is that we would press on, further up and further in to who Christ is. He does not just mean to know more facts about him—unsaved scholars know many facts about him, but don’t believe a lick of it.
The point of all Christianity is to know Christ. If you don’t have Christ, then you have nothing. In your heart of hearts, you have to want Christ.
Everything we do is for the purpose of knowing Christ.
IT’S ALL ABOUT CHRIST!! We can’t miss this.
All we do here in ONE28 is not to make you look like good Christians, if that was the only goal, then I would quit my job. That’s not why I’m here. The ONE28 staff and myself are here because we want to see all of you know Christ and begin a life-long pursuit of him, reaching into all the riches and treasures of who he is in the gospel.
Building Conviction
On Sunday night at ONE28, we talked about the need to live by conviction.
What are convictions?
A conviction is
a strongly held belief or opinion.
or
a truth that the heart, not just the head, believes.
Convictions are truths that drive us. They grab our hearts and they constrain us as we make decisions. These are truths that we submit ourselves to. A conviction is not just a fact that we know in our head, but it’s a truth that we believe deep in the depth of our being. Convictions grab a person and do not let him go.
It’s been said that
“Men hold opinions, but convictions hold the man.”
Examples of people who had conviction
The Bible and world history is replete with examples of men and women who had conviction.
Testing of conviction
The question we need to ask ourselves is: What will happen when my beliefs/convictions get tested?
Our true colors show when we get tested. Cassie Bernall, a high schooler in Colombine, CO, was asked, with a gun point at her head, if she believed in Jesus. She said, “Yes,” and she was shot. Cassie’s convictions were tested that day. By God’s grace, the truth about Jesus was not just something that she knew about, but something that gripped her heart and dictated her decision in that moment.
We will either be like a tree with roots that reach deep underground, or a tree that looks healthy, but has no roots. Which one will stand against the wind? If we want to be disciples of Jesus who will stand strong, then we need to dig down deep and build our foundation on the rock (Luke 6:46–49).
Self-Deceived
Many of us think that we have convictions, when, in fact, we may only have one of the following:
1. Pseudo-convictions: We have pseudo-convictions when we passionately hold to something that someone else is passionate about.
2. Pre-convictions: We have pre-convictions when we have a lot of knowledge, but it hasn’t sunk into our souls. We might get the answers right on the quiz, but we are not willing to put our lives on the line for those answers.
How to build convictions
We can build convictions by
1. Continuing to learn. We will not grow in our convictions about the gospel if we remain satisfied with our current knowledge about the gospel.
2. Learn with heart of humility. Knowledge puffs us up (1 Cor 8:1), but convictions humble us.
3. Pray what you are learning back to God. Our convictions are first and foremost before God. More importantly than anything else, we need to learn the Scriptures and build these convictions before the face of God.
4. Help one another. We need the community of believers to help us drive these truths deep into our hearts.
May God graciously mold us into men and women who are driven by their heart-level convictions about Jesus and the gospel.
Discussion: Religion & Abortion
This week in ONE28, we spent some time discussing some key current issues.
Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus
First, we watched a video that has gone viral in the past few weeks on YouTube. The video shows the 22 year old poet speaking truths about Jesus, religion, and the gospel.
We discussed the points of the video that were helpful, such as the emphasis on grace alone and faith alone in Christ alone for salvation. He emphasized the need for people to deal radically with sin through the cross of Christ and not try to cover it up with good works.
But we also talked about how there were somethings that were not as helpful. He used the term religion repeatedly throughout the poem, but not in the universally understood definition. He had a certain understanding of the word and used it as such. We talked about the need to not only say the right words, but make sure those words are understood by those who hear you. Religion is used several times in Scripture (e.g. James 1:26–27) and thus it is not helpful to use the term to refer to only false religion.
For a more detailed and gospel-centered critique, I’ll direct you to Pastor Kevin DeYoung’s post.
Sanctity of Life Sunday
We then briefly touched on the significance of today being Sanctity of Life Sunday. Thirty-nine years ago today, the decision of Roe v. Wade changed this nation. Abortion was legalized and since then, roughly 55 million lives have been lost as a result.
I believe this is important for teens to think about and discuss because of the frontline nature of this issue in today’s world. If they haven’t already, they will interact with someone who is contemplating or has had an abortion. They need to be ready with a biblical defense and loving counsel.
We looked at how God created life (Gen 1–2) and how the Scriptures describe special care given to those in the womb by God (Psalm 139:13–16). In light of this, God commands us not to take innocent life. Our ability to chose does not change God’s instruction.
We finished by praying for this massive evil that is taking place everyday in our country. The students were encouraged to further discuss these matters with their parents.
For information on abortion from a biblical perspective, visit Abort73.com.
Grace Remembered
Last night, we heard from Ryan Tanksley as he preached from Ephesians 2:1–10 & 4:17–32. With a full heart, he pleaded that we, who have been saved by God, should rejoice in that grace and give grace to others. He hung his words on four points.
1. Our Past (Eph. 2:1–3)
If we want to truly understand and appreciate grace, then we need to remember where we came from. We need to remember that we were once dead in our trespasses. Our sin held us captive as we committed great atrocities against our Creator.
2. Our Hope (Eph. 2:4–7)
In light our past, Paul shows us that we have hope because God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive. Our biggest problem has been solved. We have been given the greatest thing and we deserved none of it. It’s all grace.
The gospel should be the center of our lives and we need to reflect on it often.
3. Our Gift (Eph. 2:8–10)
In Christ, all that we’ve been given has been a result of grace. We often have a knee-jerk reaction to want to return a gift with a gift. In Christ, we can’t and shouldn’t try to repay the gift that we’ve been given. We need accept the gift and be thankful for it.
4. Our Challenge (Eph. 4:17–32)
Now that we’ve been changed by grace, we need to live differently. Our mouths should speak differently. We should be people who forgive because we’ve been forgiven so much. Grace does not change us and send us home; it sends us out to extend grace to others.
