You can listen to the full audio of this message here: Lives Hidden With Christ - The Spiral

When was the last time you learned something new? Maybe it was a skill, a hobby, or simply a new piece of knowledge. Whatever it was, you probably started with the basics—the fundamentals.

My son grew up playing baseball, and I quickly learned how important fundamentals are. Even as he advanced, practice always included hitting off a tee, fielding ground balls, and playing catch. What struck me is that professional athletes—the best in the world—still return to the fundamentals. They never move past them, but they also don’t stop there. The fundamentals are the foundation upon which the rest of the game is built.

That truth applies not only to sports, but to every area of life, including our spiritual lives.

Include and Transcend

There’s a phrase I’ve come to love: include and transcend. It sounds a little “woo-woo,” but it captures something vital about spiritual growth.

When we begin to follow Jesus, we start with the fundamentals: we pray, read the Bible, gather for worship, and serve others. These practices are the foundation of faith. But at some point, we are invited to transcend them—not by abandoning them, but by going deeper.

We move from simply reading the Bible to studying it. From praying only the Lord’s Prayer to developing a life of prayer in all kinds of circumstances. From showing up at church to living as the church in the world. We include the fundamentals, and then we transcend them.

Think of it like a spiral. You start with the basics, then move outward and upward, looping back in deeper and richer ways. The fundamentals remain, but they become part of a bigger picture.

Paul’s Spiral in Colossians

In Colossians 1:9–14, Paul prays for the believers in Colossae, and what he describes sounds a lot like this spiral of including and transcending:

“Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father…”

Paul begins with the foundational reality: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. That’s the bedrock truth. We didn’t escape on our own; we were rescued through Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. He prays that the Colossians would:

  • Grow in knowledge and wisdom through the Spirit.
  • Live lives worthy of the Lord, bearing fruit in every good work.
  • Grow stronger in endurance and patience.
  • Respond with joyful thanksgiving.

Do you see the spiral? Starting from the fundamental reality of rescue, Paul prays for growth that leads outward into deeper knowledge, Spirit-empowered endurance, and joyful gratitude—only to circle back again to the truth of who we are in Christ.

Bearing Fruit

So what does it mean to “bear fruit in every good work”?

It’s not about making churches bigger or tallying conversions. Those are things only God can do. Our responsibility is to live in such a way that the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—is left behind wherever we go.

When we leave a room, when we walk away from a conversation, when we finish a task—do people sense more of that fruit? If not, Paul reminds us to go back to the fundamentals: to seek again the Spirit’s wisdom, knowledge, and strength so that our lives truly reflect who we are in Christ.

Living the Spiral

The beauty of this spiral is that it never ends. We keep including the fundamentals and transcending them, moving outward and deeper until the day when we are fully united with Christ. Then, and only then, will the spiral be complete.

Until that day, Paul’s prayer for the Colossians becomes God’s invitation to us: to remember that we have been rescued, to keep growing in wisdom, to bear fruit, to endure with patience, and to give thanks with joy.

So here are the questions to wrestle with this week:

  • Do I grasp the foundational reality that I have been rescued by Christ?
  • Am I seeking the Spirit’s wisdom and understanding through practices like prayer, Scripture, and community?
  • What fruit am I leaving behind in the spaces I inhabit? Love, joy, peace—or something else?

May we be a people who live this spiral of including and transcending, leaving behind the fragrance of Christ in every place we go.