INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• I cannot imagine the horror a family faces when a loved one is abducted. If you have been following the news you have heard of one the most recent cases out of Cleveland where three girls had been missing for over ten years.
• They were given up for dead only to be found alive, they have been abducted and were subjected so unspeakable horrors for the duration of their captivity.
• According to Parents.com a child is abducted every 40 seconds. That translates to over 2,000 children per day (under 18 years of age) or 800,000 per year.
• According to recently published FBI statistics that city is Phoenix Arizona. You read that right. According to the FBI you stand a greater chance of being kidnapped in this American city than you do in Baghdad, Iraq or Kabul, Afghanistan. (http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/us-city-world-kidnapping-capital-separating-fact-from-fiction-154762.htm)
• Mexico had by far has been the biggest location for kidnappings" followed by Honduras, Venezuela, Nigeria and the Philippines.
• But according to a 2012, October article Nigeria now gets that honor.
• They account of over 25% of the world’s kidnapping. (http://www.bellanaija.com/2012/10/04/nigeria-is-now-the-kidnap-for-ransom-capital-of-the-world-accounting-for-25-of-global-kidnappings-aio/)
• I have seen the shows on TV where a guy gets abducted and ends up living in a box for months until a ransom can be met.
• I found that there are companies that sell “kidnapping” insurance that companies can purchase to cover their workers in case of a kidnapping. The insurance company will pay a ransom to get you back.
• How many of you would do all you could to protect you and your family from being kidnapped?
• Think for a moment about how difficult it would be to have a loved one taken from you.
• Now we are going to turn in a little different direction. Imagine for a moment a loved one who belongs to Jesus being spiritually abducted away from God.
• In our text we are Paul is trying to warn his readers of the danger. No one can snatch us away from the love of God, but we can allow ourselves to be taken away into captivity.
• What are you doing to protect yourself from being spiritually kidnapped?
• Let’s look at our text together
• SLIDE #2
• Colossians 2:8 (ESV) See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The clear and present danger of spiritual abduction.
• It is so easy to be going about your business only to realize that one day you have been taken captive spiritually.
• Paul has been speaking on the subject of making sure your walk is solid now he speaks of the danger of being taken captive.
• In verse 8 he starts out by saying that we are to see to it that no one takes you captive.
• The implication here is that we have to do something to make sure we are not taken captive. We are responsible for what happens to us spiritually.
• The word translated “captive” was used of taking captives of war and leading them away as plunder. It has the idea of being kidnapped, the idea of being taken against ones will.
• As we ponder this though we need to understand what Romans 8:35 tells us.
• SLIDE #4
• Romans 8:35 (ESV) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
• But with that thought in mind, which says GOD will not quit loving us, we need ot realize that WE can reject God’s love. We can walk away.
• SLIDE #5
• Hebrews 6:4–6 (ESV) For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
• We see in Galatians 1 where Paul was worried about the Christians in Galatia going back to the old ways or falling prey to those who would come in and try to take them away from the faith.
• SLIDE #6
• Galatians 5:1 (ESV) For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
• The words used by Paul in the original text indicate that the danger he is speaking of is a real and present danger, not some hypothetical or imagined danger.
• Peter also warns us.
• SLIDE #7
• 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV) Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
• This passage gives us a similar warning, be ready, be prepared, be alert. If you are not careful to guard your faith, you could find yourself taken captive.
• We must take the time to make sure that our faith is on solid ground.
• The poor girls the man in Cleveland abducted made a statement the news reports blaming the girls for their abductions because they got into his car.
• Kind of twisted, but we have been hearing on the news in I believe Tucson some guy was trying to lure kids into his car and they were able to get away.
• We must be on alert lest we fall prey to Satan who is looking to abduct you!
• Let’s take some time to examine another aspect of spiritual abduction.
• SLIDE #8
II. Baits that can lure you into being spiritually abducted.
• If we are serving such a powerful God, then how can we be spiritually kidnapped from Him?
• What could possibly lure us into getting into the car with Satan?
• Verse 8 lists two different subtle baits that re used.
• SLIDE #9
A. The bait of bad philosophy.
• Paul is not condemning philosophy, Paul himself was a philosopher.
• The word “philosophy” means “a lover of wisdom.” Usually this is a good thing, but the context of the passage denotes that in this usage, it is not good. This is the only place in the New Testament in which this word is used.
• Historian Adolf Schlatter noted that “everything that had to do with theories about God and the world and the meaning of human life was called ‘philosophy’ at that time, not only in pagan schools, but also in the Jewish schools of the Greek cities” (The Church in the New Testament Period [reprint, London: SPCK, 1955], pp. 150-54). (MacArthur’s Commentary)
• We develop our worldview based on our philosophy concerning God. Many people will not give their lives to Jesus because they have a warped philosophy concerning God. They do not want to live for Him, yet they want to blame Him for everything that goes bad in their lives, from losing jobs to loved ones dying.
• I have seen believers fall from God because God did not fit in their box. By the way, death is a part of life, if you have been born, you will die, do not blame God, blame Adam.
• If you fall prey to bad philosophy concerning God, you can be carried away like a prize of war.
• We are seeing this bait being used to lure many Christians away. It can be subtle for instance ALL LOVE IS EQUAL philosophy.
• NO it really is not, no one believes that statement because I can give you instances where you would say that love is not equal. Yet Christians are throwing away Biblical principles and biblical standards for bad world philosophy.
• That philosophy may be the crack in the door Satan needs to get a foothold, not only that but if we believe that ALL LOVE IS EQUAL, we will not try to shine the light of the gospel on it and we will passively cheer people on as they miss the opportunity to belong to Jesus.
• A second bait that can lure us is…
• SLIDE #10
B. The bait of empty deception.
• This phrase describes the philosophy, it is empty deception.
• “Deception” means “a deceit, fraud, or trick.” The philosophy of the Colossian false teachers was not what it appeared to be. It sounded good and seduced the minds of those deceived by it, but it was a weak illusion. There is no value in such speculative human philosophy, no matter how deeply and profoundly religious it sounds.
• The DaVinci Code was an example of empty deception.
• Books and movies such as the DaVinci Code are nothing more that empty deception. Stuff like this is designed to try to discredit the Bible, Jesus and God.
• This particular movie and movies like the Last Temptation of Christ can really harm the faith of a person who cannot answer the questions raised in them.
• We fall for a lot of empty deception in life, like the one that says that life is about being happy.
• Life is about serving God and along the way, happiness will be achieved, but if you think life is about being happy, then it will affect how you do things in your life as well as what you seek from life.
• When we serve the Lord we will find the happiness we are so desperately seeking!
• Too many of us avoid things we need to deal with because we will not be happy doing it.
• Next let us examine…
• SLIDE #11
III. Reasons spiritual abduction is so harmful.
• Let us consider three reasons spiritual kidnapping is such a threat.
• SLIDE #12
A. Man’s traditions do not equal spiritual truth.
• The philosophy that is empty and deceptive is dangerous because it is based on man’s tradition instead of the truth of God.
• The traditions spoken of by Paul were most likely the pagan traditions of the day or the man-made additions the Jews added to the Law of Moses.
• Just because people have believed something and handed it down through the years does not make it true. Tradition usually serves merely to perpetuate error.
• Man’s traditions no matter how good and sacred do not equal spiritual truth.
• A study of the history of philosophy serves to illustrate that point.
• Most philosophers have built on the work of previous philosophers, either to refine their system, or to refute it.
• Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer remarked, “One man would draw a circle and say, ‘You can live within this circle.’ The next man would cross it out and would draw a different circle.
• The next man would come along and, crossing out the previous circle, draw his own—” (The God Who Is There [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1973], p. 17). THE CYCLE WOULD NEVER STOP.
• Any philosophy that is derived from the mind of man instead of the mind of God is going to lead to trouble; it will have holes and inconsistencies in it.
• SLIDE #13
B. Earthly philosophy has earthly root.
• The passage speaks of how this empty philosophy is according to the elementary principles of the world.
• There is nothing new to the false teachings that happened in Paul’s day and there is nothing new in the false teachings of today!
• SLIDE #14
• 1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV) The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
• The ways of God do not make sense to a person who is not in tune with God. It is easy for the world to come up with earthly solutions to the problems they face in life.
• It is so easy to just do whatever you think is right, but that will not benefit you in the long run.
• SLIDE #15
C. Real truth is not found outside of God.
• Real truth is found only in God and His word. God is the standard of truth, and the standard of right and wrong.
• SLIDE #16
• Galatians 1:6–9 (ESV) 6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
• Truth has consistency, the world does not. We tell a women others or the government does not have a right to tell a woman what to do with her body, yet we tell her she cannot be a prostitute we tell her in New York how much soda she can drink at one time and how much salt she can take.
• You will go to jail for eating or busting eagle eggs, yet we can abort children by the boat loads.
CONCLUSION
• No man-made religion can lead to the truth, for truth can be found only in Christ.
• In Christ are hidden “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3 nkjv). No one can come to God except through Christ (John 14:6).
• True philosophy will focus on Jesus Christ—it will not put Christ in any lower position, nor will it focus on human endeavor. (LAB)
• The way we protect ourselves from spiritual abduction is to be alert! And read the Word!
• SLIDE #17
• 2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV) We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
