Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Greenville, Mississippi. I’ve been doing a lot of a study in my own personal time of the book of Colossians, and I’ve been really intrigued. There are a number of passages in the book that have been life-changing passages to me. But one of the things that I found, and I want to encourage you all to do as well, is when I study the context around those verses, I find that it causes those verses to become even more rich. and such is the case with the text that I want to look at here today with you. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 6 is a verse that I think a lot of you are very familiar with who are listening to the Thee Generation Podcast. If you’ve attended one of our youth summits, you have probably heard Dr. Jim speak about stepping out of the boat or God’s theological continental divide. And I want you to know every time I hear him preach those messages, which I get a chance to hear him probably more than many do, I’m stirred. Just the thought that Peter had to use muscles to do something that muscles could never do, but he stepped out in dependence upon Jesus to do what was completely impossible to do in his own strength. And Colossians 2.6 is all about that. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. And there’s a simple comparison. Just like you received Jesus as your Savior, in the same way you are to take every subsequent step of your Christian life in him. Now, we know verse 6, but I don’t know that we always know what’s going on in verse 7. I don’t know if you’ve ever read this before, but in Colossians 2, right in the heels of this incredible truth about walking in dependence upon Jesus, it actually continues the very same sentence, and it says, Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. You know, one of the things that I’ve been, as I’ve been just restudying this verse particularly, was that verse 7 is an application of, it’s an expansion of verse 6, I believe. And again, I don’t want to get overly technical here. Grammatically, it is related to the command, walk ye in him. But as far as sense is concerned, I think it’s almost summarizing, expanding upon giving us an insight into what it looks like to walk in him. I just want to look at verse 7 here with you, and I trust some of what I’ve studied will be a help to you in even further understanding what the walk of faith looks like. Now, the very first word in verse 7 is the word rooted. When we think of that word, you probably think of what I thought about, which isn’t too far off of the idea of a plant that is rooted in the ground. Now, what’s interesting about this word, and again, I don’t want to get over complicated here, but in the Greek, it is a perfect passive participle here. And the idea of perfect means that it’s something that happened in the past that has continuing results. The fact that it was passive means you don’t do it. Someone does it to you. So putting all of those things together, I think what he’s saying there is, Okay, in the walk of faith, you got to recognize there’s something that happened to you that still affects you to this day. What happened to you, I believe, is you were rooted in Jesus Christ. I don’t think this is something you need to yet do or something that continues to happen to you, but it’s something that happened to you the moment you got saved. You were planted in the soil of Jesus Christ himself. As you walk, remember that you have been planted in him by faith. Now, the next verb, and built up in him, there’s some ways in which it shifts the analogy just a little bit, but I think it still fits with the agricultural idea here. The word for build up, it literally means to take something from nothing and turn it into something, to construct something, to erect something, to make it bigger than it was before. And if you think about something that’s rooted like a seed that’s been planted in the soil, one of the things that happens to that seed is it grows. And one of the things that God wants to happen to every one of us is he wants for us to grow in him. Now, there’s a lot of different people in theology that mean a lot of different things when they talk about growth and Christian growth. And there are some ways in which we day by day, moment by moment, improve ourselves in the growth of the Christian life. We improve our understanding of the Bible. We improve our Bible memory. We improve in maturity. We improve physically as we, well, some of us too, as we exercise and as we practice. and we grow in character in learning to consistently make the right decision on a regular basis. But the kind of growing that he says here is in him. Now, there’s one other thing I want to point out about this word built up in him, and that’s this. This is a present passive participle. Present means it’s something that is happening. Passive, here’s the tricky part, means that you don’t do it. It’s done unto you. So whatever this growth is that he’s talking about, you’re not the one who does it. It’s something that happens to you as you’re walking in him. Now, what I think he’s saying here is the responsibility of us is to walk, to take steps of faith, of dependence upon Jesus, recognizing the fact that we have been planted in the soil of Jesus and up out of that soil of who we are in Christ, of our union with Jesus, of a position of depending upon him for our sustenance, what happens is we grow. Now, how do we grow? This is something I’ve been thinking about. I’ve got two guys with me. Some of you know them, Thomas and Hunter, and they’re traveling with me here on the war. And one of the things that I’m burdened for for them is for them to grow in faith in their recruiting. Now, growing in recruiting is not just about learning how to talk to young people. It’s not just about learning the different kinds of places in a town that young people might be. It’s not just growing and learning to go up to people you don’t know and talk to them. My greatest burden is for them to grow in their faith, to grow in learning that as I see these young people, I can depend on Jesus to give me the grace, strength, boldness, courage, confidence to go up and talk to them. And not only to talk to them and to initiate a conversation, but to get a name and number, to get a semi-commitment for them to come out to the war. So there is growth in learning to depend on Jesus. Now, it’s one thing to learn how to depend on Jesus. That’s what I think he’s talking about here in Built Up in Him. But it’s another thing to be confident in depending on Jesus. That’s what I think the next phrase is talking about. And established in the faith. Now that word established, according to a lexicon I use regularly, it says to increase in inner strength with the implication of greater firmness of character or attitude. To go back to the plant illustration that I think Paul is using here. When you got saved, you got anchored in Jesus. You were rooted, planted in him. What happens after something is planted? Well, it begins to grow. You see a sapling that comes up out of a ground, a small, delicate green plant. But you know what? That little delicate green plant, if it’s stepped on, can get absolutely trashed, destroyed, twisted, torn, perhaps. And I think what he’s saying here is in the process of learning to depend on Jesus, sometimes at the beginning, our faith is fragile. Sometimes at the beginning, we’re stepping out with a tentative faith. All right, Lord, help me do this. I haven’t ever seen you do this before, but help me out. All right, here I go. I’m stepping in faith. And oh, boy. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I’ve seen that with my guys. I’ve seen that with many of my team members. They step out in faith and that’s good. That’s a part of growing in him. It’s a part of the walk of faith. But what happens is as you begin to take those steps of faith, God begins to come through for you. You begin to see God work through your steps of faith. As far as my team captains are concerned, they step out in faith and recruit somebody. Boy, that was a step of growth for them. But what happens is when they see God bring them out and when they see them get saved, it strengthens them to think of the the idea of a sapling it thickens them you know what happens to a plant it grows up and the trunk gets thicker and thicker and thicker and when a plant reaches a certain size it doesn’t matter how much you kick at that thing it ain’t going over and in the same way, God wants to grow us in our steps of faith so that we are resilient in our faith. At the beginning, God knows we can’t handle a whole lot of pushback. He gives us what we’re capable of handling in his strength. But what happens is, as we continue to take steps of faith and steps of faith, we get established. Notice what it says, in the faith. I don’t think he’s talking about the body of doctrine. I think there he’s talking about in your exercise of faith, you become stronger. You become more and more confident. You have a resolve in your faith. He says, as you’ve been taught, this is what I’m leading you to do. Now I want you to notice, and I’m running out of time here. At the end here, he says, abounding therein with thanksgiving. One interesting thing about that word abounding is it’s present, but this one’s not passive. By the way, established was passive. God thickens you, but abounding is active. I was talking to Dr. Jim about this not too long ago, and he said, wow, it’s very interesting that that is the only participle following the verb walk that is in the active voice. And that means this is something that you do. The other ones are done to you. You have been rooted the day you got saved. As you take steps of faith, you grow in your As you continue to take steps of faith and grow in your faith, God establishes your faith. You get more and more confidence in your faith. And I think the height of it all is when you are able to abound. It says abounding therein. Now, again, I don’t want to get overly technical, but the therein is objectively, it is referring to faith, abounding in your faith with thanksgiving. See, abounding is what my goal is for every one of the guys that travel with me. See, at the beginning of a tour, typically there’s a little bit of a growth period as they’re learning to take baby steps of faith and recruiting as God gives them confidence. Wow, God can use me. Oh, wow. God can use me. Hey, God’s going to use me this week. And there comes a point where, and if you’ve traveled, you know what I’m talking about, where you just walk into a week, not confident in yourself, but you are confident. you know what to do now but i don’t mean that in a self-dependent kind of a way thinking i’ve got this under control but you know how the laws of god work you are confident in the sowing and reaping principle you’re confident that as you take steps of faith god is going to keep you floating on top of the water you know he’s going to do it and so as you go and do what god wants you to do, you’re soaring. You are able to not just step out of the boat. You’re able to leap out of the boat, not just take a few hesitant steps and get overrun by the wind and the waves, but you’re able to run where Jesus wants you to run with absolute confidence that he’s going to hold you up. You know, I don’t, I know this is what every one of us is aspiring towards, But young people, I want you to know, if you don’t take those baby steps of faith, you’ll never get to the place where you are abounding in faith. If you don’t recognize the time factor, yes, God does need to thicken me. God is going to send difficulty my way so that he can overcome those difficulties and give me a confidence in my faith. But all of it is leading to the point where we can, forgive me, fly high in our faith, stepping into any situation that God brings across your path. any soul winning opportunity, any prayer challenge, any kind of ministry endeavor, and no, God’s going to do this. He’s going to do this. Well, I’ve certainly not arrived. There’s one area that I feel like I can abound in, and that’s preaching the gospel to a room full of teenagers. I’ve been doing this now going on eight years. And one of the things that I love about what I do is I don’t have to worry and wonder whether God’s going to work in hearts. I’ve seen God strengthen my feeble faith when it comes to preaching the gospel to teenagers enough that I know that if I present myself to the Lord and if I depend on him, he’s going to do it. I don’t come into war nights fretting and worrying whether God’s going to do it. I come into war nights knowing while we might have some challenges here and there with different things, when you let me preach, God’s going to do something great. Not because there’s anything special about me, but I’ve learned how to abound in my faith in that area. When you are able to abound, you can look at even the hardest of circumstances and you can give thanks that God is going to do something great. Now, young people, this has been a little bit more on the exegetical side of things, walking through talking about the nuts and bolts of this passage. But listen, the fact of the matter still goes back to this. Just like you receive Jesus by faith, that’s how you walk in him. As you walk in him, you will grow in your faith to the point that you can walk confidently forward, knowing that God is going to do something great. And isn’t that what the V generation is all about? Total surrender, yielding to his will. Total dependence, counting upon him to deliver every step of the way, as you and I seek to turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks for joining us.

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