Walking with Christ 23MAR2014

No Creed but Christ:

“Walking in Christ” Colossians 2:6-8

©Good News Community Fellowship; Marikina City, Philippines

Proposition:

“Walking in Christ is the natural way Christians should make progress and following in His footsteps is the way to be like Him.”


Introduction

Walking in Christ is the only way to make progress in our spiritual development. We cannot run the race until we learn to walk with Christ. And, if we will not walk we will stagnate and begin to sink down like in a quicksand.


As we walk in Him we will grow in Him and become established in our faith. It is Christ who must be the very sphere of our spiritual growth and development. We are to walk where he walked and what he walked. And we are to walk in complete dependence upon Him.


In fact, walking speaks of the normal pattern of living. It suggests the steady progress of the one who is patiently going with life in all its facets without quitting even in times of life’s storms.


Again, our creed is Christ – He’s all we need to know to belong to His church. “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.”


Our entrance to the Church (people of God and not the building) is our faith in Christ. At that very moment, the Holy Spirit put us in union (join us) with the body of Christ. Thus we belong to His Church.


Then we are commanded to “continue to live in him.” Meaning, when we received Christ in our life, that’s only the beginning of our life in Christ. It does not stop there but it starts a new life of living and walking in and with Christ.


In other words, we begin in Christ and we will continue in Christ. In effect, Christ is both the center and circumference of our life. Therefore, our life must revolve in Christ.


The Four Anchors - that describe the growing plant and the rising building to give a full illustration of the developing Christian life:


1. Rooted in Him

This suggests the thought of something which took place in the past, but whose effects persist in the present. The “rooting by faith” meant an organic union with Christ. So that now there is a permanent source of life for the growth of the spiritual plant.


In other words, our life in anchored in Christ and our root is connected with Christ the very source of our spiritual nourishment and strength.


2. Built up in Him

This speaks of the steady growth of the structure built in Christ as foundation and rising steady from the ground up to the first floor and then to the next and higher and still higher.


In these two metaphors, there is a common feature in both of them. Christ is the life and strength of the plant and he is the binding force of the building.


3. Strengthen in the faith

They know what they believe and understand their beliefs and become strong in their conviction and committed in Christ’s teaching. And so they will not be blown to and fro with every wind of doctrine.


They are established in their faith (body of beliefs) and no one can lead them astray for they are anchored on the Word of God taught by Paul.


4. Overflowing with thankfulness

Believers who are rooted, built up, and strengthened in the faith, they become more grateful and are overflowing with thankfulness.


Gratitude is a joyful response whereby blessings that drop down into our lives return to the Giver in the form of unending, loving and spontaneous adoration.


In life, there are two choices that we make: a choice between gratitude or grumbling. Grumbling overlooks blessings while gratitude finds blessings everywhere, even in the most unlikely places and situations.


Summary

a) As we walk in Christ we are deeply rooted.

b) As we walk in Christ we are being built up in Him – that connotes the process of being more like Christ.


c) As we walk in Christ we are being established in our faith (body of beliefs).

d) As we walk in Christ we will overflow in gratitude to God.


Conclusion

Let our life continue to be in harmony with the fact that we are Christians who have accepted Christ Jesus the Lord. We embraced Him with a living faith and we must continue to walk and live in Him.


Song: “Walking with Jesus”

Walking everyday, all along the way

Walking with Jesus

Walking with Jesus along.

Walking in the sunrise

Walking in the shadow

Walking everyday, all along the way

Walking with Jesus

Walking with Jesus along.


Walking with Christ 23MAR2014

Spiritual