Download... November 6, 2011. Sunday Morning Service. Bro. Dave Goble.
TEXT: COLOSSIANS 1:21-23
21 And you, that were sometimes alienated and enemies in [your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and umblameable and unreprovable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [be] not removed away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, [and] which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
We need to be grounded and settled in the Truth of the Gospel. We want to be grounded and settled! We need to remember that day of spiritual “occupation”…but even more, endeavor to become rooted and settled in the foundation of God’s Word.
In light of that, it is important to support the ongoing works in the different congregations God has led us to. It is a part that comes with becoming increasingly grounded and settled in the faith God has benevolently bestowed on all the redeemed.
Grounded,..Settled,..Unmovable! One thing to be grounded today, tomorrow, the next day, but to be grounded ‘And Settled,’ is even a better spiritual security. God can transform our beings, but if not settled, other things will cause us later to be …moved. We have been so wicked in our prior sinful state, to be so unsettled in the flesh, and not living after the spirit. You in your fleshly pursuits, are your own worst enemy. Thank God, He can bring us to a settled place, rooted in His Holy Word. To know what you believe, and believe what you know. Our minds have been so affected by our background of beliefs, teachings, environment, etc. Our own ways of thinking, will influence our ability to become grounded and settled. For some, it might take lesser effort, to become settled, depending on their reaping from past habits. But God has a way to help us, if we let Him, and are patient with ourselves.
I Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord. God’s admonitions to us through the apostle Paul.
Genesis 17:7,8 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy see after thee. 8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy see after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Here the account of what it meant to be grounded and settled for Israel, and it is the same need today for spiritual Israel, which consist of all the redeemed. Genesis 17:6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. Today as these prior biblical times, God’s promise is the same for those who have become His people, endeavoring to become grounded and settled.
If you think of all things it takes to be literally grounded and settled in a new land, you can see the analogy spiritually, to the literal people of Old Testament Israel. God wanted Israel to settle in the land of Canaan. He wanted them to cease their wanderings, to build cities of refuge, and to conquer the inhabitants of that place. For God led them to not be tenants, but to tend the land. To be merely a tenant, is to not be settled, for the land could be sold at any time. God wants us to occupy, ..know it’s borders, and no longer be wandering past it, even if it “looks” good. The grass is not always “greener on the other side.” Those “places” outside the borders God has set for us, are usually “just as brown,” as what "we think" we have, regardless how it “appears” to us. Even in the times of the prophesying of Isaiah, Israel had been wanderers, but God had called them back to the land He gave. All these incidents have spiritual meanings.
Today when God gives a spiritual land, it is giving us spiritual Israel, for He does not want us just to be occupants, …but possessors. Today, many live in a city, and have to get their food from another location. But somebody has worked the land where that produce comes from. So it is, that many of us have a different perspective of how to procure our sustenance. In those biblical times, you either raised your own crops, and animals for food, or you died. And these were also fully dependent on the elements. So they looked to the land, ..of need to occupy. But God made His covenant with them, with the promise ..to possess.. the land. Possess the land so they would have a permanence, to be grounded and settled.
Spiritually today, we must also be grounded, and settled in the faith of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The “land” is where we and “offspring” are settled in spiritual prosperity, and not wandering from place to place, unsettled and as a “peddler” only. Some seem to have an allegiance to being a wanderer. Your first goal needs to be grounded and settled in the Salvation God has given you. Otherwise dissatisfaction will come, causing you to be again, a wanderer. God wants you to “put your stakes in”….to be grounded and settled.
Wandering beyond our God given borders, will lead us to settle in the lands of sinfulness. We find in the 13th chapter of Genesis, that Lot when given the choice, chose the western plains, near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The relative example found in here, is where Lot had wandered and camped close to those sinful cities, so that it was not too long, before he just moved in and settled there. He was then settled and grounded where God did not want him to be. It came about only because of Lot’s selfish thinking, which led him to pitch his tent there. This example characterizes that not every “spiritual land” is God’s church as it might claim.
We need to know the characteristics of God’s “lands and ways.” Both Abraham and Lot found themselves wandering over the lands, but only Abraham had the inheritance of God, through staying attached to God’s directions. God wants us to be owners,(grounded and settled), and not merely just “occupying.”
Ephesians 3:14-17 14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strenghened with might by his Spirit in the inner man: 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.
We need to be circumspect in what we mentally feed upon spiritually. It is noted, that there are, in the literal sense, weeds, one “called” a loco weed, that will actually cause a “loco mentality.” And so it is also, spiritually, illustrating our need to be rooted and grounded in the love of God. For to be merely "religious", is tantamount to being of an unsound mind spiritually. If your treasure is further out from where God has directed you, you will move away from where He has led you. Not in a literal sense, for God might send you to another geographical location. But the point is to be spiritually rooted and grounded in the scriptural word, and love that only God can give.
When you “love” something, you “root” there. That’s why you can be “swayed” from God’s leading. ‘That’ potential, should be heart breaking to any. If it’s too easy for you to decide to go “somewhere else,” you’re not settled. It should never be easy to “wander away.” If it is, you need to see that you’re not rooted and grounded in God’s leading to His promised inheritance. There is no other way then to be deeply rooted. If your “roots” are shallow, your love will also be shallow in God’s ways and covenants. Too often instead, souls become spiritual “peddlers” which wander and “pick-up” here and there, other than from the “promised lands” of God.
When God saves us He helps us to understand there is only a particular spiritual message that will ground and settle us. Some in error, think spiritually, God always is shared by many. But it is only those found on the straight and narrow. Matthew 7:13,14 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. It is God’s holy and pure instructions only, that will ground and settle spiritually. It is only there, that we should have roots.
The deeper the roots, the more likely it will find water, no matter how “desert like” the conditions. Bro Goble shared a fact about a tree in Africa, a "Wild Fig tree," in Echo Caves, near Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga, South Africa. It’s roots reach 400 feet, making it the deepest a tree’s roots have penetrated. That “plant” is finding a “well of water,” ..way down deep! And that is how it must be for us spiritually. That tree had to be unmovable, to have a source of life. With each year, our roots need to keep going deeper, to be grounded and settled, more than before.
Many things today cause souls to wander away from the inheritance God would give. There are many spiritually “hot and dry winds” that would effectively “blow away” the ability to become settled and grounded. God has the directions, if followed, to help us become so deeply rooted, to always withstand the opposition spiritually. 1 John4:1-3 1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. God gives His children a spirit to “try” other spirits. The faith that is produced, is given the ability to “try” (discern) with God’s judgment, to know what is, and what is not, of Him. Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Revelations 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. Those “lands of inheritance” (false religion) that are not from God, have spirits like a dragon, which have a great power to spiritually deceive. Many people are attracted to these spirits. We need to be grounded and settled in God’s Truth, truly rooted, and not superficially (surface only). Those that are still sinning and claim Christ applied blood in purification, are in deception, and not settled in His inheritance. If it walks like a duck, fox, dragon, etc., it IS a duck, fox, dragon, etc. If it talks and walks like a sinner, it IS a sinner, and not a Christian in truth. Being rooted and grounded in God’s way, helps to prevent being taken in by lies. We need to “run” from any religious teaching that does not have God’s judgment against any form of sin or evil.
Are you rooted, grounded, and settled, in the “land” He has given? We must be patient in the midst of the “rocks of obstacles.” If not, we will “think,” without faith, to attempt to overcome. This will discourage our ability to access the "water" of God’s Truth and Inheritance. In essence, thwarting our ability to spiritually become rooted, and settled. If truly possessing God’s land of inheritance, our characteristics will be much like having a spiritual zip code.
Only where you are hearing and learning the 'Truth' of God’s full inheritance, ..can you learn spiritually to become grounded and settled!
Where are you this morning?
