Q&A Colossians 2:1-8

Hey everyone, thanks again for listening to another Q&A with a pastor. I'm Asher Griffin, sitting down with Keith Goad, asking him questions about his most previous sermon on Colossians 2, verses 1 through 8. Now Keith, in talking about our spiritual well-being and our assurance of the faith, how did this section of chapter 2 fit in with the previous sections that you've preached through in the book of Colossians? Paul, in chapter 1, verse 9, had already been praying that they would be full of the knowledge of God and the will of God, which would lead to perseverance. And so we've already heard about perseverance, which is the other side of the coin of assurance. And more particularly, Paul had just finished talking about how he struggled and toiled for the church in terms of what he was doing in terms of caring for the church and the burden he carried for the church, and now he's really specifically laying out, you know, the end for which he was toiling. And really interesting here, I mean, that's something that's going to continue to pop up through Ephesians as doctrine and practice, whereas that Christ, we're going to see him repeat some phrases this next week. He continues to exalt Christ in order to make his point. It's all about bringing Christ to the forefront and making his point. So, a lot of this is still just logically flowing out of that great Christ to him. He is the head of the church. He is the creator. He's preeminent. And so, he's just slowly getting into the particular Colossians problem. And we really see it head-on for the first time in 4 and then 8 more particularly. So with the Christ-town, is he basically setting the bar and then using the rest of Colossians to lift the Colossian church up to that standard and just kind of redirect their eyes of going, look at that, keep that to and alone? Yeah. I mean, you know, set your mind to the things above. You know, something obviously is going to be saying in chapter 3. Either that we could use the bar metaphor or really maybe the rule. The rule is Christ is where we find all we need in terms of knowledge. Knowledge is especially important here. They're looking for angels or other powers to find extra knowledge. One of the key things here is that they would know the will of God. and that will has been revealed in Jesus Christ. So, yeah, I would say it's more of a rule. The bar is, I mean, the bar does fit the sense that he is exalted and, you know, we're, don't settle for an angel which is lower than Christ, so. Alright, and just talking about the spiritual well-being of ourselves and other people, what does it mean to strive for the spiritual well-being of yourself? And then also, does it mean to strive for the spiritual well-being of others within the community of Christ and within the church? Yeah, a lot of that point was just taken off the word there that he's struggling and really the better translation would be he's agonizing. The Greek word is actually the word we get agony from. He is agonizing for the church. And the way we do that is the way I think Paul has clearly done it for uh... the church in colossi and and other churches that he he struggles in prayer with him he toils wrestling with wrestling for them in prayer and then he also wrestles with the kind of words he needs to use so as a church you know we should be praying for another right now we're about to have a meeting tonight on uh... looking for additional pastoral help and uh... you know i'm praying i hope that the church has been praying for that and that's the way to wrestle as a church for the church. You know, you have to know people. You have to know other people in the body to know what's really going on so that you can really agonize over particular issues for them. You know, if you just pray through the directory generally every day, you know, let's say you're just praying directly. Generally, you don't know the people, you don't know what they're going through. It's not going to be as much of an agony, but if you know someone It was wrestling with the death of a relative, it was wrestling with job security, whatever it may be. You're really going to be agonizing on a whole different level for them if you know them well. So, you have to know the people. Paul didn't know them. That was kind of one of the points there. For us as a church, we agonize better when we know each other better. One of the things as a pastor, I agonize over how to communicate what needs to be communicated. I can say, here's the truth. And just saying the truth isn't always necessarily what... It's not just saying the truth, it's saying it in a way that's loving and corrective and warning and productive. It's not just hear the truth of God, you know. It's just chew on that. It's saying it in a way that will lead the believer to embrace that truth with repentance and faith. Now the word agonizing, it seems to have a connotation of having anxiety over something. But you're not talking about it that way. How are you using the sense of agonizing over someone's well-being or agonizing over you as the pastor examining the church's needs? What does that mean without... because you're placing your trust in Christ and hoping that he's leading you in a certain way. Yeah, it's intense and it's intentional. Okay. It's not casual. It's intense in the sense that these stakes are high. So I'm not doing this casually, and it's intentional in the sense that I'm doing it in a very orderly, focused, purposeful manner. And so, those are two words, maybe I should have spoken of that in the sermon more. But to really agonize for someone, it's intense and it's intentional. Those would be two words I would say would describe a real agonizing for other believers. No, it does not have anxiety. Yeah, Paul probably has some anxiety here. Believers are certain to trust in something other than Christ, and so he has enough worry to warn them, but he's also made it clear, I have every assurance, and you are going to persevere if you trust Christ. Yeah, it seems like that anxiety almost elevates his anxiousness to tell them and to teach them truth. Yeah, they're in danger, so there's some level of anxiety for their well-being. So, in seeing the urgency and the intentionality of trying to care for people within the church and caring for ourselves and our family, what if you don't know how to pray for the church at large? What if you don't know how to pray for the goal and the mission of the church? So, what should I do if I don't know how to pray for the church, as opposed to just saying, you know, Dear God, help Jefferson Park be wonderful? come to realize, even more so recently, that Wednesday night is a huge part of our life. We're praying congregationally, people are bringing up their prayer requests, we're praying for the purposes of the church there on Wednesday night. And so, if you're able, I would say the number one thing to do is to come on Wednesday night and be part of the announcements of what's going on in people's lives, what's going on in the body, and then we typically will be praying for the major events and upcomings of the church. If you're able to come on Wednesday nights, we try to, the prayers that we put in the evangel, you know, those are things that are typically prayed for on Wednesday night. We sometimes, we add to those on Wednesday night, but those are at least, you know, the minimum that we pray for on a Wednesday night. So, those are two clear ways that we publicly try to make sure everyone knows what's going on. The evangel especially, it's the big, broad stream of information. But, you know, there's a lot of things going on in the church that I don't even talk about on Wednesday night because they're so private and delicate. And that's where you just being involved in other people's lives, everyone has something we can be praying for them about. And so asking people. One of the things I would encourage you to do on Sunday after church, ask somebody, how can I pray for you? Home groups is a nice way of making that more intimate. Discipleship groups are. But you could just simply find one person a week. How can I pray for you this week? I know you've done this with praying for the directory at times. You'll contact people and say, I'm praying for you because your name is up in the directory. How can I pray for you? There's something more encouraging and humbling than to know that somebody has intentionally asked you what they can pray for and that they are praying for you. Okay, now moving from our spiritual well-being into our spiritual assurance and the hope we have in Christ. For those who don't feel like they have great assurance in their own salvation, how do they go about asking for help when it comes to deciphering and thinking through their own assurance? And should they be scared and should they be fearful of that? Who can they talk to if they just have a general question or really specific and deep-issued questions? Yeah, I would love to actually, you know, address this whenever I can in a sermon I do, you know, in the text it brings up. I think it's something that, you know, not having assurance is a horrible state to be in as a Christian. It is also very damaging and it keeps you from really being active and able in the body. So I actually would love to start addressing it more in other, you know, venues. Maybe have a home group that's focused on assurance. Maybe have a Wednesday night where we discuss it. But if someone is wrestling with assurance today, I would ask them to contact me. Talk to me. Talk to your deacon. Begin finding someone that you trust both to keep confidence and that you have confidence in that will lead you to the gospel. Start discussing it. Let's get to the root of it. One of the key things in wrestling with assurance is what kind of doubt are you having? Is it intellectual doubt? Is it emotional doubt? Intellectual doubt is I have some questions. How does Genesis fit in? We have people who can answer those questions. The intellectual doubt, those are questions that can be answered. We can get you reading or get you discussing it with someone who has answers. Emotional doubt, well, that's just making sure our feelings are lined up with what God has said. The most dangerous is kind of the volitional doubt. Are you engaging in sin? Are you loving other things of this world? And that's the one that really takes a long time to wrestle with. But yeah, if you're wrestling with doubt, read the Gospels, look to Jesus most precisely and particularly, and then find other brothers and sisters who are going to help point you to Jesus. Now, just as an aside, you told people that they can contact you. How can people contact you? I mean, do they call the office? What's your email? My email is keithatjpbc.org. You can find it on the website. You could call the church. My number's in the directory as well. So yeah, I hope I'm accessible. You're on Facebook? We can find you on Facebook? I am on the Facebook. There we go. You're so hip. So hip. Alright, now speaking of hip things in culture, you remarked in the sermon of how you intentionally don't like going to the mall because of temptations that it can bring on. Or you might choose to not watch certain movies or to leave a movie or to turn a movie off because you want to guard your heart. Can you guard your heart without being extreme though? You know, do you need to cut cable off so that you never watch certain channels? Or do you need to cut the internet off to avoid, you know, an addiction or something? Can you guard your heart without being really extreme? Or do you need to be extreme because the consequences are huge? Yeah, the way the question is phrased in terms of, you know, without being extreme, you know, I think you guard your heart to the extent of which you see the danger of sin. Is sin extremely dangerous? Yes. Is sin extremely prevalent? Yes. How do I discern good and evil and what I'm putting into my brain and my heart? And so, you know, how we would define extreme, you know, that could, that could, that varies between, you know, immature to mature Christians. I think one pursues Christ and has to be willing to give up those things as Christ reveals them to you that need to be given up. You know, one of the things I want to do is not make rules and regulations. So, you know, I would never say, well, I didn't mean to boycott them all either. Let me make that clear. I did not mean to be a Southern Baptist boycotter or the Great Commission Baptist boycotter. We'll see. I do think if you're wanting to see what that street that the author of Proverbs is talking about where the prostitute is calling out, the mall is where it's at. That's where all the idols of Western culture are prominent and are calling out to you. So if you want to really experience what that street felt like in Proverbs, it's in the mall. If you go to the mall, you do need to be strategic in how you enter it and what you're going to see, and especially what your children are going to see. So anyway, I would never say you can't go to the mall if you're a real Christian. You can't go to movies if you're a real Christian. You want to make sure you're making what's clear in Scripture clear in application, but we have to realize there's a lot of stuff out there that just is not helpful for Christians to think about or desire. you have to balance between being a legalist and also giving clear, godly warning. So that's something that I've always wrestled with. I mean, my motto is, love God, do what you want. But the real issue there is, are you loving God? Because you are going to do what you want, no matter what. So it's hard to answer that question, because what is extreme? So the answer is yes and no. Well, you know, we as a church are not going to have absolute regulations and dismiss people if they end up walking to the mall or they end up going to an R-rated movie. That is not what is hopeful or godly. What I hope to do is warn and correct and proclaim Christ in such a way that people get more and more convicted by the Spirit to stop doing things. I think I avoided answering your question. I think you answered it. I think as your maturity grows, you can be more discerning of what is. As your thirst for God grows, your desire to taste worldly things surely should decrease. And that's why I addressed the children and the youth with Proverbs because I think that's what they need. They don't have the discernment naturally. Parents need to be leading them in the book of Proverbs especially. to have that kind of discernment. Alright, well, last question. What does it mean to walk in an orderly manner? Going along with assurance and protecting ourselves from extreme things. In pursuing Christ, what does it mean to walk in pursuance of Christ in an orderly manner? And what if you feel too broken or too sinful and wrong to even think about walking orderly? I mean, you're just a messed up person. Yeah, bring up the second question. The first one, really, there's a whole unpacking of a theology of orderliness. The whole Genesis account is written by Moses to show that God is a God of order. This world of chaos is not the way it's meant to be. God is a God of order. There's seven days. There's seven declarations that it's good. It's a good and orderly creation. It's us that have made it chaotic. So what we need to realize is our lives need to be ordered after God. And so one of those things that need to be ordered is our own thoughts. Are we thinking about the things that are most important? Have we properly, here the word more is trajectory. Are things prioritized well? In terms of what we think about, what we love, what we desire, what we do. Orderly also means that you're not a slouch and you're not sloppy and you work, you have a time you wake up, a time you go to bed, you have organization. and so forth, I believe Christians should strive to have as much of an order to their life as possible, because it needs to be intentional. Intentionality leads to orderliness. Now your second question, what do you do if you just lack order? You start organizing your life to, step by step, to try to bring order. Maybe it's just having order in how you eat and what you eat, and then it's order in where you sleep, and how you sleep, and when you go to bed, and when you wake up. It's all related to when you read your Bible, and when you make phone calls, and when you do business, and so forth. Step-by-step is trying to put each little piece of life in order. If you feel like you're a mess, and you can't do this, I would say look to Christ and ask Him for forgiveness, because peace from Christ will, I think, naturally lead to good order. You can talk to people, ask them how do you order these things in your life and get advice. Yeah, I actually think there's a great whole theology of order because all the commands of Israel, you know, having your rows in order, not having multiple different kinds of thread going different directions in your garments, all of that is meant to show that God is a God of order to the nations as they would come and look at Israel. was a former accounting student. I love the theology of order. I just love that it makes sense and God is not messy and therefore we shouldn't be with our sin either. Well, Keith, thanks so much. What do you plan on preaching this weekend? We're going to look back at the deception. I'm going to go back and cover verse 8 again because it leads naturally into that next section where Paul talks about baptism. We're actually going to have some baptismal Well, we're going to celebrate baptism with three folks, and we're very much looking forward to that. It's going to be a nice, united service around the doctrine and Paul's teaching on baptism. Very good. Very excited for it. Thanks again for answering our questions, and we look forward to the celebration of baptism this weekend.