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Getting the Right Image

Sermon by Rev. Doug Pratt — June 22, 2008
 

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Introduction
This message marks the halfway point in our study of the rich and powerful book of Colossians in the New Testament. The members of our pastoral team are taking turns guiding you through the four chapters of this letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian church in the ancient city of Colosse. We are entitling these messages THE COLOSSAL GOSPEL—not only because of the word-play on the name of the city to which it was addressed, but also because of the tremendous, “colossal” impact these words can have upon anyone who truly understands and applies them. The message contained here and throughout the Bible has proven to be life-altering and world-changing. In the early parts of this book [letter] Paul focuses on reviewing the basic truths of the Christian Gospel. Then he moves on to explaining in detail the ways in which faith in Jesus Christ can impact every single area of life. And that is our dual emphasis for this morning: what we believe, and how that belief changes us.

Our Scripture text for today is Colossians 2:6-10 (New Living Translation):

⁶And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to Him. ⁷Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all He has done.
      ⁸Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. ⁹For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, ¹⁰and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.

American sports fans are fascinated by athletes and teams who reach the highest levels of excellence. Revered above all in our memories are those who achieved the status of being athletic “dynasties,” who dominated their competition for an extended period of time. NASCAR fans have cheered Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon and their Cup championships; golf fans were amazed by Tiger Woods winning four majors in a row; NFL fans have seen dynasties with the 49ers and the Patriots. My own personal favorite, of course, is the Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of four Super Bowls in the 1970’s.

One of the keys to the success of the Steelers in those years was their dominating defense. One of the local sportswriters coined the term “The Steel Curtain” to describe that defense in the years of its first championship, and the defensive coaches picked up on the term and used it to motivate their players for the next several years. “Picture yourselves as a mighty Steel Curtain,” they urged their players in locker room pep talks. “You may flex and bend, but you will not break. Your opponents will come at you and you will repel them.” Several of the players acknowledged that the mental image of themselves as a Steel Curtain was fixed in their minds, and inspired and energized them in their games. That’s the power of a mental image: it helps us to see who we are and how we are to act.

Images from the Psalms
There are two powerful and memorable images found in the Book of Psalms in the Bible that have served believers for thousands of years. These images or mental pictures help us to visualize what it means to live a life pleasing to God and in close relationship with Him. Here are the two images from the Psalms that have inspired Christians through the centuries the way the “Steel Curtain” image inspired some football players.

The first is found, appropriately, in Psalm 1 (verses 1-3): Oh, the joys of those … who delight in doing everything the LORD wants. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper.

The mental picture is of a flourishing and fruitful tree, planted next to a river, with its roots drawing deeply of the moisture of the river and its branches bearing abundant fruit. Here in Florida—especially in the rainy season—trees can flourish anywhere. But in the dry, near-desert ecosystem of the Middle East, with very sparse rainfall, the only place where trees could be found flourishing would be near a constant water source like the Jordan River. That’s the picture. The spiritual message is clear: God is our life-giving and sustaining River. As we remain close to Him and sink our roots into Him, He gives us spiritual and eternal life.

The second great word-picture or image of the God-pleasing life in the Psalms is found in that best-known and most-beloved of all, the 23rd Psalm: The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

The picture here is, of course, a Shepherd leading, guiding and protecting his sheep. We are the sheep. Like those not-so-bright and comparatively helpless animals, we face lots of dangers in life and lots of uncertain choices about the path to take. The one sure strategy for finding success in life is to faithfully follow our Shepherd, God, and trust Him to guide us and protect us, leading us away from the wrong paths and into the right way.

Images Echoed
When we turn to the New Testament and the First century A.D. we find that the Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians in Colosse, uses these same two images to help them see what a life of faith is to look like:

Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. (Colossians 2:7)

This is an echo of Psalm 1, the picture of the tree sending its roots deep into the life-giving moisture in order to flourish and bear fruit.

Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ … He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe. (Colossians 2:8-10)

This is an obvious echo of the 23rd Psalm. It is the Lord, our Shepherd, who leads us in the right paths, but others would lead us astray if we foolishly followed them.

What are the right images for us to have in our minds? Paul, our spiritual coach, gives us these two biblical images in this locker room talk (the way the coaches of the Steelers told their players to imagine themselves as a Steel Curtain). We should picture ourselves as trees sinking our roots deep into the moisture of the Lord to sustain us, and also picture ourselves as obedient sheep who follow their Shepherd’s leading and refuse to be distracted and led astray by other voices.

Paul’s Warning
With those mental pictures hung on our inner walls, let’s zoom in a bit closer to what Paul is saying to us. He preceded these images with words of warning in verse 4: “I am telling you this so that no one will be able to deceive you with persuasive arguments.” The Christians of the First century were living in an environment where all kinds of philosophies and values and approaches to life were competing with God’s teaching. In fact, their society was filled with confusing voices and noise, spouting dangerous wrong ideas that could easily lead believers astray. “Don’t listen to those lies,” Paul says. “Shut your ears to the noise.”

Philosophy sounds like an abstract and irrelevant pursuit, limited only to egg-headed intellectuals who live far removed from the real world. But actually it impacts us more than we realize. Ideas matter. How we think and what we believe about life and morality, about values and meaning, about why we’re here and how we should treat others, lead directly to words and actions and lifestyles. Even if we’ve never read a book of philosophy, we have formed our own conscious or unconscious conclusions and attitudes.

Paul was clearly a brilliant thinker and philosopher, able to see with 20/20 intellectual vision not only the different ideas and lifestyles in the world around him but also their underlying thoughts. We’re grateful that God raised up a brilliant man like Paul, who could cut through the lies and half-truths of his time. And in subsequent generations the Lord has also brought forward clear and brilliant thinkers. One for our own times is a Presbyterian pastor in New York City named Tim Keller. He’s the author of a New York Times bestseller called The Reason for God. Tim is one of the smartest, most logical thinkers I’ve ever met. A philosophy major in college, he was uniquely equipped to start a ministry in the heart of Manhattan that has reached thousands of people who were thoroughly caught up in—and led astray by—the various false philosophies of our day.

If you have a friend or family member who’s been led astray by the confused thinking of our times, maybe The Reason for God will break through their confusion and get them moving back towards the Lord. In his book, and in his pastoral ministry, Tim is able to skillfully analyze, expose and refute all the current doubts and objections to the truth of Christianity. He has helped many to not only change their thinking but transform their lives, becoming men and women who exemplify the “flourishing tree” planted by the life-giving river of God and the “faithful sheep” following the lead of their Good Shepherd.

But most of us, very frankly, don’t have the ability of a Tim Keller to understand and answer the false philosophies of our day. God hasn’t gifted us with that kind of logical mind. How can we protect ourselves and keep ourselves firmly rooted in the Lord and faithfully following the lead of our Shepherd? Without a philosophy degree is there any possibility that we’ll be able to keep ourselves pure and uncorrupted and solidly following the Lord’s way?

Filling Your Mind with Truth
Yes. There is another way. This is what Paul shows us in his letter to the Colossians. It’s what we try to do here at First Church every Sunday, and in our programs and ministries throughout the week. Rather than directing our minds to analyzing, understanding, critiquing and refuting all the wrong and misleading philosophies and values in our world, we can fill them with the right stuff—the teachings of God’s Word and their practical application in daily life. If you fill yourself with the good and clean stuff, there’s less room for that which is toxic and poisonous.

Let me describe the process to you from my own recent experience. I brewed a pot of strong coffee to keep me energized while I worked on a writing project. Now my method of brewing is to take the bag of ground coffee and dump it into the basket until the filter is full. I’ve never been into the “careful-measuring” approach the way my wife is. For her, there must be exactly 3½ measured scoops of coffee per pot—never more, never less. But for me, “fill it to the top” is my preferred method. And sometimes I get a bit too much coffee in the filter.

On this particular day the grounds apparently flowed out of the filter basket and down into the pot during the brewing. It was strong coffee—even a bit crunchy! After downing a couple mugs, I let my third mugful get cold for about an hour while I was distracted at my computer screen. As my project drew to its conclusion, I looked inside my mug and it was pretty disgusting. I took a taste and spit it out: lukewarm coffee, as thick as 6-month-old motor oil and with a film of grounds floating on the surface, is not very appetizing. I took it to the sink, put it under the faucet, and turned on the tap. Out poured a steady stream of pure, clean water straight down into my filthy mug. As I watched, the more the clean water went in, the more the awful, sludgy, toxic stuff flowed out. Pretty soon the mug was clean again—all because of the effect of putting plenty of pure water into it.

That experience came back to my memory as I’ve been studying Colossians. I think it’s a picture of what Paul wants us to do: fill our minds with the pure, cleansing truths of God and allow our lives to be conformed to His plan for us. Though we may not have the education and mental faculties to slice and dice all the wrong philosophies scattered around our world, if we learn God’s ways that will shove the bad stuff out.

There are certainly many wrong and dangerous, even potentially destructive, attitudes and values surrounding us. Go to the multiplex and settle in for a couple hours of Sex and the City and you will notice some lifestyles and beliefs that are not exactly consistent with scripture. Watch an evening of TV commercials and your mind will be bombarded with the philosophy of materialism and the lie that getting more things will make you happy. Surf the internet for awhile and you’ll stumble into nearly every imaginable value system that could, in the words of Colossians, “lead you astray.”

It’s good for us to be on our guard. It’s good for us to notice and be armed against these enemies of our souls. It’s good to talk with our children and grandchildren about the values and worldviews and morality lurking behind their favorite shows, movies, video games and music. But as important and helpful as it may be to stand against those things that are wrong in our world, it’s even more important that in our own lives we think and act in positive ways, as people who are pleasing to the Lord.

Conclusion
The Christian life, after all, is not primarily defined by what we’re against and what we don’t do. Sometimes in history churches and groups of Christians have fallen into that negative attitude. The Puritans, the Amish, and some of the medieval monks became defined by that: reacting negatively to what they didn’t like in the world around them. But I believe the best approach is not to dwell on the negative, but to live a positive and fulfilling life as a witness and example to others.

The more we become like the great mental images of the Book of Psalms, the more we “sink our roots” into a personal relationship with God by praying regularly, worshiping weekly, reading His Word and other good books, the more we will “flourish” and bear positive fruit. The closer we stick to our Good Shepherd and follow Him, the more lush and green our pastures will be. Following God’s way results in healthier relationships with others, deep personal satisfaction and fulfillment, greater strength to overcome life’s challenges, and an inner peace, knowing we are secure with the Lord forever. I hope that’s an appealing image to you of what you want your life to be. It is for me.