Growth from God

Minister Joaquin 

Colossians 2:16-23

16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

Main points

-              Don’t judge others for following different traditions and disciplines than you

-              Let no one make you feel bad for following the disciplines you believe are necessary

-              Clinging to Christ will ensure you make the right choices

-              God will nourish and grow you 

-              Denying ourselves things will not make us holier

-              Developing our self-control will allow us to enjoy everything properly

Definition

do not handle, do not taste, do not touch These appear to represent regulations set by the false teachers, who were promoting ascetic practices (abstaining from worldly comforts and pleasures) as the means to holiness and salvation.

an appearance of wisdom The false teaching might have sounded convincing, but it ultimately was futile because it did not address the root of the problem: sin. In Christ, however, the worldly powers of sin have been defeated. Believers have been raised to new life and therefore have no need for man-made rules (Col 2:12–15, 20).

Growth God is doing is our connection to Him

Caring more for God

Receiving more of His love

Loving God, the way He likes to be loved

Cheat code: Love God and love others the way God shows you how to

Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 

Romans 13:8-10

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

God cares most about….

Marrying God over dating Him 

Becoming like-minded

Shared interests

Putting the other first 

Loving each other the way they like to be loved

Growing your family

Committed to each other

Receiving more of His love

Perfect love casts out all fears (1 John 4:18)

All things work out for those that love God (Romans 8:28)

Loving God first will allow God to bless us a hundredfold now Mark 10:30

We can comfort and share more love based on the comfort and love we have received (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Loving God, the way He likes to be loved

Do you weigh every choice based on how God honoring it is 

Asking Him for guidance first and to speak through direct communication, Bible, believers, outside sources

Try to do what Jesus would do in that situation (When in Rome do as the Romans do)

Final Takeaway: I don’t want you to miss out on the greatest love you can have and feel. It is a love worth pursuing and will become a love you can’t live without.

Applications

1.     Complete the love Bingo until you hit 5 in a row

2.     Read all of 1 John to help refocus on loving God 

3.     List out how you love others compared to God. Find ways to love God the way you like to love others. If you need ideas reach out for help.

Questions

1.     How would you feel if God told you he is too busy to help you as much as you tell him you are too busy for him?

2.     What would your relationships be like with your friends, family, romantic partners, if you spent as much effort to love them as you do with God?

3.     How do you think your life would change if you dedicated more of your time to love God more?

 1 John 2:3-6 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. 

2:7-10 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. 9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling

2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 

3:1-3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 

3:9-10 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 

3:11-24 11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 

16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 

4:7 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

4:18-20 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us.