Anyway, you know that you are in the University of the Philippines, Los Baños. Did you know that there was a time that UTLB was the prime university in agriculture in the whole of Asia? It still is one of the prime universities, though other universities in Asian countries have caught up. But do you know that there are many officials in Asian countries of agriculture or even secretaries or ministers of their agriculture department who studied here and graduated here in UPLB and that is to show how supreme this university is in matters of agriculture. I say that because you may be sitting beside someone who is an expert in agriculture and that is something that should remind us You know, agriculture is a favorite metaphor used in the Bible to speak of God's dealing with his people. Whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament, we can see that agriculture is often a metaphor Yahweh uses about his dealing with Israel. And then even in the New Testament, we find that many agricultural metaphor to describe a Christian life. In setting forth a Christian life in terms of this agricultural metaphor, marami tayong magamit ng mga kalata. Ito ang ginamit na tema sa ating Bible Teachers' Retreat ngayon. And I hope that it will truly be something to challenge us as we examine ourselves about our lives. You see, we are now in our same teacher's life, following things in the previous years like the teacher's mind, the teacher's heart. I think it's only logical that we look at the whole life of the teacher. The teacher's life in terms of Bible teaching is an important component. I'm sure, or I will presume that no one among you is questioning that. You can teach other areas or other subjects without any regard for your life. You can be a teacher in mathematics and live an immoral life and yet be a genius in math. A genius like him. You know that portrait? That's Albert Einstein in his youth. May kono rin alam namin. Alun ko. Pero meron mo na ganyan. Genius sila sa kanilang field of teaching. but life may not be consistent with morality, but it doesn't matter. But when it comes to Bible teaching, it does matter and it is vital that we have a life that is consistent with what we teach from the scriptures, and therefore since when we are that those who heal the world will bear fruit. Well, the first question to ask is, am I bearing fruit? Am I rooted in the Word of God? And with that thought, I invite you to turn your Bibles with me to Colossians Chapter 2. And we will read from verse 1 to verse 10. Colossians chapter 2 verses 1 to 10. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Verse 6, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority." Now, the Apostle Paul is not the founder of the church in Colossae. In fact, there is no record that he ever visited Colossae at all in his visionary journey. So, why this concern? By all that he writes in a letter to the church in Colossae, well, the best reconstruction by scholars is must have profited from and converted under the ministry of Paul in Ephesus, a neighboring city. So Epaphras must have been converted under Ephesian ministry of Paul. And when he returned to Colossae, he brought the gospel to the city of Colossae and a church was born. And later on, the church began to have problems with false teachings and heresies. And what the pastors did is to visit Paul, who at this time of writing was in prison. So ngayon, nagkasasangguni siya kay Apostle Pablo para malaman ang nagagawin sa mga kagatulosas. of many teachings from Jews, from pagans, and from other groups. So that is basically the summary of the Colossian heresy that Jesus Christ is good. It is good to have Christ in your life, but he is not enough. And it, therefore, Apostle Paul, in addressing the issue, dwelt on what the theme God has revealed. He is opposing the heretics of Colossians by saying that we have complete wisdom in Jesus Christ and he shows in chapter 1, for example, the superlative nature of Christ in that he himself is a creator of the whole creation. Siya ang pinagalingan, siya ang pinagnulan ng lahat ng medikha. Yan ang kanyang emphasis, Colossians 1, 15 and 16, and then the next verses show that it is not only the creation that is ascribed to the power of Christ, he speaks also of the new creation. That is, that creation which was inaugurated when Jesus came in his first coming and is represented by the Church. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. He is preeminent in the Church. And so he is trying to say that You are complete in Christ. You are complete in Christ. And in chapter 2, he draws the implications of that completeness in Jesus Christ. And so even us, to live, we are talking of wisdom. How does the believer, how should the believer live according to the way of God? We hear so many things that people tell us we should live. In fact, we can even be thankful for some of the good things that people and can even make you feel the depth of emotion and passion in what they are saying. But be that as it may, Paul is saying, it's not that that we get to know the way of living that God wants. It is through Jesus Christ. It is by seeing with the fulfilled. The message is that the teacher's root must feed on Christ-fulfilled wisdom. Anyone who plants plants, even without an agricultural degree, knows that the root must be fed. Actually, he is mixing metaphors here. Rooted is an agricultural metaphor. Grounded and established is a metaphor from construction. But the theme is about rooted in the world. So I concentrate on that. That we are to be rooted, and we are to be rooted in that wisdom. to look at the revelation of God in terms of redemptive history. of salvation. And he had the complete fulfillment of Jesus Christ. And now, he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord, and he will inherit his kingdom. He has complete knowledge of Jesus Christ. He needs to receive from Jesus Christ the knowledge that will tell him how to live. First, reject any mood that does not lead to Christ. Instruct every truth to instruct every truth to make one wise in Christ. So, those two things. First, there's a negative. Reject every mode that does not lead to Christ. That's what heretics do. They have a philosophy, they have traditions, they have even the claim of elemental spirits, those who claim that they have angelic visions. In other words, these teachers were saying Now, that is true of your own feeding. as a preacher and even as a Christian without any teaching ministry. And that is also true when you engage in teaching ministry, you must reject any mode that does not lead to Jesus Christ. Why? Because any such mode is not going to be uniquely Christian. And when we are teaching the Word of God, So you begin with yourself. Begin with your root. Are you rooted in the Word? And when you approach the Word, are you using any mode that does not lead to Jesus Christ? Now, you see this heretics in Colossae were also using the scriptures. But they were using the scriptures in order to whether based upon tradition, or philosophy, or even some spiritual, spectacular experience, they will still be able to write. But it will not reach Jesus Christ. Because what they want to do is to move away from Jesus Christ, to add to Jesus Christ. But in that future, and many are doing that, this should not be accepted. You may be very popular as a teacher, and it may be that your teaching is awaited by many, but in your teaching, popular as it is, eloquent as it is, because any motivational speaker can do that. And so we are here saying your own feeding and then your own teaching should be Jesus, and languages, and history. That's what we do in GMA. We have subjects now, for example, like Biblical chronology, Christian history, to increase our knowledge. But you see, when you begin to teach for a way of living, it must be a teaching that leads to Christ. Otherwise, it is not wisdom. For example, a bus driver, He knows everything about his bus, engine, how to fix it if it's broken. He knows everything, except that he doesn't know the direction to the destination that's on his sideboard. Let's say Baguio. He doesn't know how to get to Baguio. He doesn't want to be a passenger of a bus like that. You want a driver, he's good at driving a bus, but he doesn't know the direction. That is why the challenge here is that we must watch against teaching wisdom that is not fulfilled in Christ. If you are taught how to live, surely you will be able to reach Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ will be able to reach your teaching. That's why the Bible was written. The Bible was written so that what we will see will progress. In the post-resurrection of Jesus, in the Gospel of Luke 24, we read how he met two disciples going to Emmaus. And we are told in Luke 24-27 that he made them understand all the scriptures concerning Christ dying and rising again. And then later he met the eleven disciples who were hiding in a room And he suddenly appeared and again Luke 24, 44 records that from the law and the prophets and the Psalms or the writings, that is the category of the Old Testament. And what he said is, everything concerning himself, that is the right way of using the scriptures or any modes that may inspire and make it emotionally tickling to others, but does not lead to Christ, that is not Christian. Christian teaching. So that's what we have to challenge ourselves. And it can happen that what you bring is just one thing that is also being taught by others, that is not Christian. And maybe it's better to teach. The difference between Christian teaching and non-Christian teaching is that in his life, first, before he confesses to others, When he was converted, he attempted to become a missionary. He went to America from England and he was a miserable failure. That only shows what mere worldly wisdom will do. And that is what happens when you are going to say simply, be honest, be industrious, be diligent, and you say nothing more, those things are saying who are not Christians at all. So, why bother? Just teach them to those who are better at teaching about unbelief. There are many like that. What will happen in the future is more a lesson. They will get a passage, let's say, The Good Samaritan, and then it becomes a lesson on benevolence. Well, anyone can teach that, who is not a Christian. At a meeting of the Good Samaritan, when Jesus, in fact, turned a question to him by the lawyer, the lawyer asked, who is my neighbor? And after telling the story of the Good Samaritan, And the message becomes, look at him and be like him. That's a model approach. This would not have been complete without us. Because with us, we now have Christ. So the lesson is not look at Him and be like Him. Rather, look at Him, whether it's Abel or Moses or Noah, look at Him and be better because you have Jesus Christ now. You see how different the message becomes when it comes in the end to Jesus Christ. So, reject any mode that does not lead to Christ. And then the second is, instruct every truth to make one wise in Christ. If all of our katukuhane, to name positive, so that wisdom can be absorbed, so that we can live. But we can live because of the teaching of Jesus Christ. That is the teaching of the Church. The truth fulfilled in Christ is the true wisdom for believing and preaching. What the Apostle Paul is saying here is If you look at what happened in the old city, there are people we can get to know there. And there are a lot of people we can get to know, but not all of them are complete. The best example is Solomon. He was the man of wisdom. That's the one thing that you will associate with Solomon was wisdom. And here, this man to whom we attribute much of the book of proverbs which is wisdom literature yet this man we know went astray because of wrong relations which later led him to idolatry Lugos-lugos ay sa Jesucristo. Kahit dapat kang makarating kay Jesucristo. Ano mang katotohanan ang inyong pinuturo. At ano mang katotohanan ang personal mong pinag-aaralan para sa inyong buhay. Dapat kang makarating sa Paminuong Jesucristo. At ang kini mo na kapag ikaw ay pinag-puro ng katotohanan ni Jesucristo. Napakalaking prebeleyo nito. Napakalaking responsibilidad. Pero dahil sa kung sino si Eso Cristo, buong-buong tatanggapin ang may kadalakan. Just imagine if a fan of Taylor Swift receives a message from Taylor Swift herself asking him or her to help in the circulation of the event of But who is Taylor Swift? I'm not a fan, I must confess. But I know many are. But when compared to Jesus Christ, who is she? She is nothing. You put Pear and all other celebrities on the weighing balances. You put all celebrities on one scale and then Jesus Christ on the other scale. This other scale on which contains all celebrities in the world will be thrown away because of the sheer weight of glory of Jesus Christ. So I don't care about Taylor Swift, even if she gives me an email or a message. That will not excite me. But Jesus Christ, the one to whom all So my challenge to you is keep and grow. In other words, you choose to follow the example of Jesus Christ. How do you use the Bible? It's good if you don't reverse, but if you do reverse and you don't have a fork of Asia, So, every time I think of you, I remember. I'm telling you, I'm reminded of John 4 18. So the woman was so excited and looked at John 4 18 and there Jesus was telling that Samaritan woman, you have five husbands and all you're living with is not your husband. Busted. But that's the point, you're just using that if you're just using the Bible for good memory verses and quotations, that you're not coming to Jesus. that leads to Jesus Christ. When Puritan Thomas Goodwin died, the friends of Thomas Goodwin compiled his writings in a short publication, and they entitled the publication, A Habitual Sight of Him, Christ-Centered Piety. foreign foreign Let's close in prayer. Thank you. Karunungan na kompleto kay Esu Kristo. Napapaligirat kami ng mga iba't ibang karunungan ng mga tao. At maring ang mga karunungan ito ay maganda sa kanilang sarili. Ngunit ang dapat na ikabukod ng kristyano, I am to reject any method that does not lead to Jesus Christ. Instead, we should use the truth that we have learned in order to lead to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many methods now that the Bible can use for moral lessons or model patterns ngunit ang tamang pag-unawa, tamang pag-ubulan, at tamang pagtuturo ng iyong salita ay ang makarabating sa kakumplitohan ng karunungan kay Eso Cristo. Indeed, Your Word says that all knowledge and wisdom are hid in Christ. So grant us, Lord, that commitment to gain knowledge of a world that will truly become wisdom for life, and that is only in Jesus Christ. Be with those who are still outside of Christ, even tonight, that the world may have a gospel challenge to them, that to rest on human wisdom is going to lead to damnation and only in Christ is there salvation. And for those of us who have the favor of your salvation, make it our habit to have a sight of Christ in our breathing. in our meditating, even in our memorizing of the scriptures, make us see the completeness of Jesus Christ. And now, may the love of the Father, the grace of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore, in Jesus' name. Amen.