Podcasts about colossians chapter

The whole resurrection of Jesus thing – can be a bit hard to swallow. I mean – did it really happen? And if it did, what does it mean for us here and now?   A Crazy Morning Let me paint you a picture. Just the other day, someone you love has passed away. You really admired and trusted this person. I mean, you'd seen them in operation and now they're gone. It's a shock. It shouldn't have happened. They were so young and so full of potential and promise; they had a future. And now that person's gone. It takes some time to come to grips with that sort of a loss. The shock, the sadness, even anger – we go through all sorts of different stages in that grieving process. You wake up with that dull headache in your head … what's it about? And then you remember your loss. But the phone rings and it's another friend and they're ranting and they're raving that this person who was dead, they're saying, "He's alive! He's alive! I've seen him!" Hang on a minute, what sort of a crackpot is this. What's going on? Is this some sick joke? But your friend's adamant. "He's alive!" Now what? How do you react to that? I mean, it's an incredible claim, an incredulous claim. Mad. You saw him die with your own eyes – arrested, crucified, buried and defiantly very, very dead. You know, in one sense it's almost easy to believe if you read it in the Bible. You know, it's something that happened a couple of thousand years ago to Jesus, I mean, long enough ago to make it safe. You know what I mean. Sure God could do anything, God could do that way back then, it was 2000 years ago. The question is, if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead again lets just transpose that into today, here and now. You get a phone call tomorrow morning, ‘Jesus is alive!' You saw him die … he's alive. Today we're going to put ourselves back in the shoes of the Disciples right there in that place in Jerusalem. This is the second message in a series of four that I've called, “The Price He Paid for You”. And it's about that part of the Easter story that involves the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What was that about? Did it happen, and if it did, what does it mean to you and me, here and now? Now, if we put ourselves back in the shoes of those Disciples, right there in that Jerusalem 2000 years ago with the Jesus they knew, all of a sudden it gets a whole lot harder to believe. It was a bit like that for Mary Magdalene: She went down to the tomb to embalm the body of Jesus and Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept she bent over to look inside the tomb and she saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been – one at the head and the other at the foot. And they asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?' ‘They've taken Jesus, my Lord away,' she said, ‘and I don't know where they've put him'. At this she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realise it was Him. ‘Woman,' He said, ‘why are you crying? What are you looking for?' Thinking that He was the gardener she says, ‘Sir, if you've carried Him away, tell me where you've put Him and I'll go and get Him.' And Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.' And she turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic ‘Rabonni' which means ‘teacher'. Jesus said, ‘Don't hold onto me as I haven't yet returned to the Father, go instead to my brothers, the Disciples and tell them I'm returning to my Father and your Father and to my God and to your God.' And Mary Magdalene went to the Disciples with the news. ‘I've seen the Lord,' she told them.” He had said these things to her. See it wasn't only Mary. I mean, I love the fact that even though Jesus had told them time and time and time again He would rise from the dead, she looked at Jesus and it's so incredible to think that He could possibly be alive, she mistakes Him for the gardener. Do you know the joke in that? The Son of God has risen from the grave and Mary, I mean the humour here is just something else, Mary looks at Him and thinks he's the gardener – the guy that mows the lawns and weeds the garden and does the edges. But she wasn't the only one: After that Thomas, sometime they call him doubting Thomas now Thomas was one of the Twelve and he wasn't with the Disciples first came to them after He'd risen from the dead, and so the other Disciples said to him, ‘Thomas, we've seen the Lord, He's alive'. But Thomas said, ‘Come on, unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my fingers where the nails were and put my hand into His side where they pierced Him, I am not going to believe this rubbish.' Now work that out. Jesus' Disciples were in a house together and this time Thomas was with them, and though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you, Shalom.' And then He said to Thomas, ‘Tom, come on, put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and start believing.' And Thomas just said, ‘My Lord and My God.' Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me you believe and are blessed. But blessed are those who have not yet seen but they believe'. Now I don't know but I think I'm with Thomas. This is hard to believe when you're close to it. What do you believe? Maybe it's an uncomfortable question. Maybe it's easy to consign this resurrection of Jesus thing back into the past. Kind of like a fable that we give some moderate level of intellectual assent to; a kind of vague, half-believing insurance policy thing. But the Apostle Paul takes it very seriously. In Romans Chapter 10 verse 9 he says: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead then you'll be saved. 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 verse 17: If Christ has not been raised than your faith is futile. So for Paul the resurrection wasn't some optional extra; it wasn't some kind of distant myth; not something we can just kind of half believe, maybe. And we can say, "Look, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead." But see what Paul says here, "If you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead then you'll be saved and if you don't believe from the heart that God has raised Him from the dead then you're wasting your time." What do you believe in your heart about the resurrection of Jesus? The resurrection can seem completely incongruous amidst the day-to-day realities of our lives. I mean, we get up and we go to work and we do all the stuff and we sit in meetings and we take the kids to school and we do all those day-to-day things. And you look around and you think, "Could Jesus in the midst of all this normality, could He have risen from the dead?" Now stick the resurrection right in the middle of your day-to-day reality and ask me, "Berni, in the middle of all this, do you actually believe that this Jesus was raised from the dead? I mean, it seems incongruous, it's an outrageous notion; it just doesn't fit. Come on Berni, do you really believe this stuff?" And my answer to you is, "Absolutely. I do. I believe in my heart that Jesus was raised from the dead." That's me. What about you? What do you believe, and if Jesus did rise from the dead, so what? What does it mean to you here and now, today?   Living the Resurrection Okay, if Jesus did rise from the dead, what does it mean to you and me, here and now? What relevance is there in all of that for our lives? Can the resurrection of Jesus Christ have any impact on your life and mine today? I think they're the right questions to ask. I mean, why have a resurrection at all? Why did God plan it that way, and why did He make it central to believing in Jesus? Earlier we saw how the Apostle Paul said it was essential that without faith in this resurrection there was no point: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” “And if Christ wasn't raised then your faith is futile." Okay, that's the theology if you like. Take that at face value. But why is it so important? Why does God put it right at the centre of believing in Jesus? It's not an optional extra, it's central. So I'm a pesky bloke; I keep asking these questions because truthfully, people never explained this stuff when I became a Christian at first, in terms that I could really understand and lay hold of. All these Christians were talking about the resurrection and the blood of the Lamb and all this sort of stuff, like it was really important. Well, great, but why? Believing in Jesus for me is a process; it's a lifelong thing that happens. And at some point I took the step of faith to believe in Him but what I discovered was there were lots of different parts of my life that didn't fit with Him – selfishness, anger, judgement – and I'm a really judgemental person naturally in the flesh, all stuff that actually stunted my growth. It's crazy how we want to hold onto the rubbish in our lives for dear life, but we do. And it turns out to rob us of life. You know, I used to spend most of my time being angry with people because they didn't measure up to my standards. They didn't see the world the way I did. And you know what, that robbed me of life. So instead of peace and joy, I was always angry. There was always resentment in my heart. Not rocket science is it. Its one thing to believe with our head or our heart in Jesus and to live it out authentically requires change and that's where the resurrection comes in. Again, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans Chapter 8: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you. Let's unpack that. You have the crucifixion, the death of Jesus, where Jesus paid for all our sins. You know, we turned away from God, we missed the whole point of creation, that's what sin is (we looked at that last week) but God is loving and just. We've all fallen short and so Jesus died for us, and when we believe in that, our slate is wiped clean. We're forgiven and we have a fresh start. Like a prisoner coming out of gaol having served his sentence. It's fantastic. But you and I know that getting rid of that rubbish in our lives that God calls sin, it's a life-long process. Come on, we're all naturally selfish. At least I am. Someone does us wrong somehow and we want anger and revenge and payback time. But Jesus turns around and says, "Do you want to believe in Me with your life? Well show me, go on. Go out and love your enemy, in fact pray for them." I don't know about you but that way of living just didn't come naturally to me. So the process of changing we discover changing those things is really hard. I mean, it's very hard, and in fact in some areas it's downright impossible. I was just talking recently with some friends and I know I'm a very outcome-oriented person and I expect everyone else to be the same. They're not. Some people are wonderfully relationship-oriented, much more so than I am. Now those people aren't outcome-oriented but we need them too. So what am I going to do? Do I spend my whole life getting angry with them? Do I spend my whole life complaining about people who are different to me and they don't fit with my way of thinking and behaving? I mean, Paul bemoans this reality in Romans Chapter 7 when he says: I can will to do what's right I just can't seem to do it. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection is learning to live again. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through that same Spirit. God wants to bring life back to our bodies, colour into our cheeks. How many people need that in their lives right now, and they're looking in all sorts of strange places. There a people who are broken and hurt inside; there are people who are suffering from low self-esteem; there are people addicted to anger like I was; and we go looking for solutions in all these wrong places when the solution is staring us in the face. This isn't some theory, its actuality. The same Holy Spirit who breathed life back into the dead body of Jesus is the Spirit that wants to give us victory over the sin of our humanity and breathe life back into our mortal bodies. That's what the resurrection is about here and now. The Spirit wants to give us victory and a new life. Come on, this is great stuff, this is a great plan, this is good news. It's fantastic news! God wants to do for you and for me, here and now and every moment of every day for the rest of our lives here on earth, to keep changing us and setting us free and filling us with fresh new life what He did for Jesus when He brought Jesus back to life after the crucifixion on the Cross. God wants to give us a new life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isn't that awesome? In a moment we're going to take a deeper look at that, because Jesus, as it turns out, has something very, very special for you and me.   A Certain Hope for Tomorrow Have you ever been in a place where you've lost all hope? Hope, as it turns out is a very precious commodity. We all need it in our lives to look forward to; to hope in the deep sense that I have future, I know where I'm going. And when there is no future it's tragic. When we lose hope it feels like our life is over, and that's the problem with death. We all die at some point physically. Some die young; others watch their bodies progressively give up the ghost. If God is God though, if He loves us the way the Bible says He does, then hope will be very, very high on His list, because the last thing that would do or He would want for us is to experience hopelessness and it turns out that hope is very high on His list indeed. That's what the whole resurrection thing is about. It's a funny thing, but when things are going bad in our lives, isn't it funny how hope breaks really quickly. Have you noticed that? Look at the Disciples: over and over again Jesus told them, ‘Guys, I'm going to be crucified but I'm going to rise again. Come on!' He told them lots of times, but when it happened, when He died, they were fearful, they were devastated, they were scattered to the four winds. They deserted Him; they completely lost sight of His promise of the resurrection, the thing that would give them hope. Actually most of them, as we saw before, needed convincing that Jesus was alive again. Bit like us. Life takes a turn for the worst, the first thing you do is you throw hope out the window. It's kind of natural. 1 Chronicles Chapter 29 verse 15 says: Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. And let me get right in your face now for a bit, because we need some good teaching on hope. It's not ‘hope that it rains tomorrow' or ‘hope that it doesn't rain tomorrow', I mean the certain hope that faith in Jesus Christ brings. When we put our trust in Jesus in the good times and we lay down our lives and we love Him and we adore Him and we worship Him and we follow Him with our lives, I tell you what happens: when the storm clouds start to roll in, something strange and new and wonderful happens in our hearts. It's like that hope shines and won't go out. Peter the Apostle writes in His first letter, Chapter 1 verse 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … It's a beautiful passage, if you have a Bible grab it, and have a look: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I love that) “a new birth into a living hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that's imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for us who are being protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this we rejoice, even though now for a while we've had to suffer various trials. Boy that's an understatement. The people Peter was writing to, the Christians, were being tarred and feathered, burnt at the stake, fed to the lions, killed and Peter writes to them and says, “… but you know something, when you look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have a certain hope for the future.” Over and over again the New Testament talks about Jesus being the firstborn from among the dead. In other words, it points back to His resurrection. Jesus took all of our sin, He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. So He died because of our sin and He's the first of many to rise again. He's the firstborn, the first one in this resurrection cycle and we put our hope in that because we too when we believe in Jesus, will rise again and have eternal life. One day when my body gives up the ghost, one day I'll stand before Jesus for ever and ever and ever. It's a historical fact that death couldn't hold Jesus down, and when we put our trust in Him, that's where we put our hope. Our problem is, we spend so much time hoping for the next pay rise, hoping for some temporal bauble here on earth that we lose sight of the living hope we have through Jesus Christ, through His resurrection. Let's do it again: By His great mercy He has given us a new birth. We are born again into a living hope, not an uncertain hope, not a hope that's fleeting and fading but a certain hope – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading that is there for you, that is there for me, if we put our faith in Jesus. And if we're able to say before God in our hearts, ‘Jesus is your son, He died for me, He rose again', it's rock solid. And do you know the basis of that promise – it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look at your life for the moment, the things that aren't going too well for you at the moment; the things that you might want to change. The reality is that we can't change some of them. Maybe God will change some of them, I don't know, but in the meantime He wants us to live life in the certain hope that we have a future, an eternal future. And we know that because we can look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He defeated sin on the Cross – the wages of our sin became His death. But Jesus defeated that. He paid for my sin, He paid for my sin on the Cross and still He rose again even though He bore all that sin. And that's what awaits us. That doesn't compare to anything you and I can have on earth here. It just doesn't compare. That certain hope of eternal life with Jesus far outweighs it far eclipses anything we could have here and now. John writes in the book of Revelation Chapter 21; he gives us a glimpse, like a crack opens up in heaven and he's able to see inside: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City – the New Jerusalem – coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning of crying or pain for the old things have passed away. Nothing, nothing comes anywhere close to that. We wander around down here in the weeds and the murky mire and we try to get hope and satisfaction out of all sorts of things that are going to pass away. What things on this earth be able to take with us when we breathe our last, come on? That's why God wants us to put our faith in Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is God's call to set our eyes and our hearts and everything we are and all our hopes and dreams on heavenly things because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the first among many. That's where we are going when we trust in Jesus. Paul writes in Colossians Chapter 3 verse 1: If you have been raised with Christ, set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things on the earth because you have died to them. It is time my friend for you and me to start living our lives from an eternal perspective. When the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central truth, central to what we believe in our hearts, two things change. Firstly, the Holy Spirit starts taking away the rubbish that God calls sin and giving us life here and now – vibrant and abundant life. And secondly, no matter what happens, no matter how sick we get, how poor we get, we know that one day we will stand before Jesus Christ. Cry Hallelujah!

Tychicus was a minister used of the Lord much in the life of Paul. No higher compliment can be given to a minister than that given to Tychicus--a faithful minister. He was also used of the Lord to comfort the hearts of the saints at Colosse.

We should remember that each person that we meet is an encounter by the providence of the Lord and our liftstyle and conversation should we conducted with wisdom and a godliness.

Pastor John Knapp teaching out of the Book of Colossians Chapter 3.

A study of Colossians Chapter 1 by Dr. Darrell Tate.

Not only are we to pray continually but tragedy and trials in the lives of others should encorage us to have a spirit of prayer.

Pastor John Knapp teaching out of the Book of Colossians Chapter 2.

Theree are often unjustices in life regardless if one is a wife, husband, child, parent, servant, or master. All injustices (as well as just services) will be acknowledged and receive their proper evaluation at the judgment. The believer will receive his at the judgment seat of Christ and the unbeliever at the great white throne judgment. The important thing is that regardless of our place of service we must be faithful as the Lord would have us to live.

Join us as we gather for our Sunday Service. Today we hear from Michael Presley as he continues the series "Paul's letter to the Colossian's"; finalizing in Chapter 4. We look forward to gathering with you virtually and hearing your thoughts and prayers. We believe in Loving Jesus, Loving People, and seeing Jesus transform lives. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncov

Pastor John Knapp teaching out of the Book of Colossians Chapter 1.

This subject is one of a most sensitive matter in the day in which we live; however, we cannot ignore the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures of the Lord. I realize that the majority of society have been so indoctrinated that they are totally prejudiced concerning what the Bible says. Everyone is a servant or slave to something or someone.

Join us as we gather for our Sunday Service. Today we hear from Michael Presley as he continues the series "Paul's letter to the Colossian's"; beginning our journey through Chapter 3. We look forward to gathering with you virtually and hearing your thoughts and prayers. We believe in Loving Jesus, Loving People, and seeing Jesus transform lives. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncov

Join us as we gather for our Sunday Service. Today we hear from Michael Presley as he continues the series "Paul's letter to the Colossian's"; finishing our journey through Chapter 3. We look forward to gathering with you virtually and hearing your thoughts and prayers. We believe in Loving Jesus, Loving People, and seeing Jesus transform lives. For more information on our church, click on the following links: Website: junctioncovenant.com/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/junctioncov... Facebook: www.facebook.com/JunctionCove... To support Junction Church, click here: pushpay.com/g/junctioncov

It is evident in society today that children as a whole have no respect for their parents. This appears to be another sign of the judgment of God on our nation today.

While wives portray the authority in the home, it is the responsibility of the husbands to instill love. Equally, the husband is commanded not to be bitter or picky of the wife.

The authority and structure in society is foundational in the home. The idea of submission to authority is lost in our culture today and is evident by the chaos, confusion, disorder, and pandemonium that is overflowing in every circle.

We are to be filled with the Word of Christ (the Holy Scriptures) as we worship the Lord in singing so that we may not only honor and glorify Him but edify one another. This is not a suggestion; it is a Divine imperative. Our singing first and foremost is to the glory of God but also teaching and admonishing each other whether it be by a psalm, a hymn, or a spiritual song.

The Christian lifestyle is one of putting off old sinful practices and habits and replacing them with Christian virtues. This is the constant struggle of each child of grace as long as he lives in this world. This too is living by faith.

Those who live a life of sin shall received the wrath of God. Though Christians once lived in sins and deserved the wrath of God, thankfully we received mercy from the Lord. Equally, we are not to continue in sinful practices. If professing Christians practiced putting off sinful habits there would be no divisions in Christianity.

He sheweth where we should seek Christ...

Welcome to the message, “Chapter 3” in our series, “Collision with Colossians”.  In this message, Rose Schwartz leads us through the third chapter of Colossians! We hope that through this message you are impacted by God and you are able to grow closer to Him!   You can watch the message here: https://youtu.be/a0x2H8CVOOU

Welcome to the message, “Chapter 3” in our series, “Collision with Colossians”.  In this message, Rose Schwartz leads us through the third chapter of Colossians! We hope that through this message you are impacted by God and you are able to grow closer to Him!   You can watch the message here:https://youtu.be/55_in91E-90

Welcome to the message, “Chapter 1” in our series, “Collision with Colossians”.  In this message, Pastor Clint leads us through the second chapter of Colossians! We hope that through this message you are impacted by God and you are able to grow closer to Him!   You can watch the message here: https://youtu.be/Nq0RYautpjU

Colossians was the first book translated by J.B. Phillips. C.S. Lewis, after being sent a copy of his original translation of Colossians wrote a letter back saying, "thank you a hundred times... it was like seeing a familiar picture after it's been cleaned". Chapter 4. Read by Peter Croft, youngest grandson of the late J.B. Phillips.

Colossians was the first book translated by J.B. Phillips. C.S. Lewis, after being sent a copy of his original translation of Colossians wrote a letter back saying, "thank you a hundred times... it was like seeing a familiar picture after it's been cleaned". Chapter 3. Read by Peter Croft, youngest grandson of the late J.B. Phillips.

Colossians was the first book translated by J.B. Phillips. C.S. Lewis, after being sent a copy of his original translation of Colossians wrote a letter back saying, "thank you a hundred times... it was like seeing a familiar picture after it's been cleaned". Chapter 2. Read by Peter Croft, youngest grandson of the late J.B. Phillips.

Colossians was the first book translated by J.B. Phillips. C.S. Lewis, after being sent a copy of his original translation of Colossians wrote a letter back saying, "thank you a hundred times... it was like seeing a familiar picture after it's been cleaned". Chapter 1. Read by Peter Croft, youngest grandson of the late J.B. Phillips.

Guest Speaker Pastor Tim Thompson teaches from Colossians Chapter 1.

So today we're starting a new sermon series that's gonna go on for the next six weeks, and the title of the series is: “We Are Cities Church.” The goal is simply to tell you who we are.The reason we wanna do that is because, going back to last year, the pastors recognized that God was bringing our church into a new season, and so we took that as an opportunity to hit pause and begin a process of re-clarifying our mission and vision as a church. We wanted to get down to the foundations and ask, in a fresh way, who has Jesus called us to be and what does he want us to do?So this series is about that — and if you've been around Cities for a while, I don't expect that you're gonna be surprised by anything you hear … if you're brand-new, I'm excited for you to meet our church … and if you're semi-new, I hope this might fill in some gaps for you. Today I'm talking about our mission and we're gonna be looking at Colossians Chapter 1, verse 28. We're gonna focus on just this one verse, and I'd like to ask you to do whatever you gotta do to get this verse in front of your eyes. Father in heaven, thank you for the Holy Scriptures, and thank you that we have them! In our hands, we have your very word to us, breathed out by you. Your word is “more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb” — and we know that your word is for our good. So, by your Holy Spirit, we ask, speak to us, in Jesus's name, amen. Colossians Chapter 1, verse 28. Everybody look at verse 28.Verse 28 starts with the word “him” — Paul is talking about Jesus:“[Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”Now when it comes to the mission of our local church, there are at least three things we learn here from the apostle Paul, and #1 is this …1. Know the play you're running. So when I was a kid I played a little football — I didn't play a lot of football, just a little — I pretty much peaked in 8th grade. But that's when I played for the Four Oaks Middle School Cardinals, and I was the starting quarterback (and the only reason I was the quarterback, I think, is because I could say “down, set, hut” in the deepest voice). Because it really didn't matter who the quarterback was. We ran an I-Formation and every play I was either giving the ball to Melvin, my tailback, or to Jason, my fullback.We ran a true smash-mouth offense and it worked. All we had to do was get at least 2½ yards every carry, and we did most of the time. We were pretty good, but we were good not because we had the best talent, but because we knew our game. We knew the play we were running.And I think we see the same thing in the example of Paul in verse 28. We're gonna look closely at verse 28, but first let me back up a second and show you how we get there.Paul's Mission StrategyBefore verse 28, in verses 24–27, Paul says that God has given him an assignment for the sake of the church. God has called Paul to make “the word of God fully known” (verse 25). What used to be a mystery is now out in the open (verse 27) — and it's “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Now remember Paul is saying this to the church at Colossae. Paul is saying to this Gentile church that an amazing thing has happened: It's that Christ is in you, Gentiles! Christ, the Jewish Messiah, is a global Savior. He's not just the hope of Israel, but he is the hope of all nations — Jesus is for everybody from anywhere who trusts in him.And when you trust him, you become united to him — His Spirit lives inside of you and you become so joined to Jesus that all of his benefits as the Son of God become your benefits: you are declared righteous before God; you are forgiven for all your sins, you are adopted as a child of God with a future. And you have the hope of glory, which means, you will be with God in his joy forever.God has sent Paul on a mission to make that known! That's verses 24–27, and then in verse 28, Paul tells us what he does because of this mission. I think we can call verse 28 Paul's mission strategy. And if you'll bear with me for a minute, I want to explain a little distinction between the idea of “mission” and “mission strategy.” Think about it like this: A mission is what you're sent to do; and a mission strategy gets into how you do it.Now we know as a church that our mission is to make disciples of Jesus. This is what Jesus has sent us to do. He tells us this in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, that because he has all authority over all things, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” That's what we're called to do as a local church and it's non-negotiable.And now when it comes to how we do that — when it comes to our strategy — we're supposed to learn from the apostle Paul. This is how the New Testament is set up: in the Gospels we have the life of Jesus and his commission to us; in Acts we see that commission happening and the gospel advancing; and then in the letters we get into the details of gospel transformation and practice.“Christ Clear for Christlikeness”Look again at what Paul says in verse 28. Because of Paul's mission to make the word of God fully known — to witness to Jesus and make disciples — he has a simple strategy. It's a straightforward action-purpose. He does an action for a desired purpose.ACTION: Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom.PURPOSE: So that we may present everyone mature in Christ.Do you see that? Action-purpose. Paul is saying I preach Jesus for the purpose of making mature Christians.Or another way I think we could summarize Paul's mission strategy is to say: Make Christ clear for Christlikeness. Now there are more details and tactics when it comes to how we work this out, but I want you to see that this is the basic strategy — for Paul and for us. For our mission to make disciples of Jesus, the most important thing we can do is show people Jesus, and the highest goal we could aim for is that everyone become like Jesus. And it's not complicated. One of the things I love about this strategy is that we don't have to be superstars to do it. All we need is 2½ yards every carry — we just need to know the play we're running. It's been the same play we've been running since the very beginning. Back on January 18, 2015, in our very first church service together, I preached this verse, Colossians 1:28.In that first sermon, I highlighted two things: I called it our work and our goal. I said our work is to proclaim Christ and our goal is for us and others to be complete in Christ.Christ clear for Christlikeness — same thing. That's the play we've been running, that's the play we're going to keep running. Church, know the play. Here's the second lesson from Colossians 1:28 …2. Remember Jesus is the ultimate difference-maker.1928 was a rough year for the St. Louis Cardinals (we got swept by the Yankees in the World Series and we've had hard feelings ever since), but '28 was a great year for moms.Because in July of 1928, a man named Otto Rohwedder from Iowa, finally debuted this machine he had spent years inventing. It was a power-driven, multi-bladed bread slicer. And it was shocking. It could take an entire loaf of bread, and in seconds, it could make a beautiful block of perfectly identical bread slices each about an inch thick. It was incredible, and of course what do you do with bread like that? You bag it, distribute it, and sell it.Within two years, bags of pre-sliced bread were in grocery stores all over the country, and the first major brand to do this called itself Wonder Bread. And there's no doubt how big a deal this was. You may not realize this, but your life has been impacted by the bread-slicer. You have never had an experience with bread that was not affected by this machine. This doesn't mean that you always eat pre-sliced bread, but it means that if you're not, you know you're not. Like, if you want unsliced bread, you intentionally have to go out of your way to make that happen. The bread-slicer was a difference maker. Centered on JesusAnd in the same way, but on a more cosmic, ultimate level, Jesus is a difference-maker. Here's what I mean: ever since Jesus came into this world two-thousand years ago, nobody has been able to think about God or this world the same way. Now this doesn't mean that everybody believes in Jesus, but it does mean that you cannot ignore him. You either believe Jesus to be who he says he is, OR you have to come up with some theory that denies him (and those theories have been attempted since he was actually on the ground here). So there have always been only two options: you either believe Jesus OR you don't believe Jesus — and if you don't believe Jesus then you know you don't believe him. You intentionally do not believe him.Whatever you do, you can't ignore Jesus — the magnitude of his claims and reach of his impact are both too great. Nobody has changed the world like Jesus has and said the things that Jesus said. So you can't side-step him. Everybody must make a decision about Jesus.And because this is true, it makes sense that our mission strategy centers on him. It's him we proclaim.And look, I'll tell you, the pressure is always to make it about something else. We've felt that here at times over the last ten years. You've probably felt it in your relationships, with your friends and family and co-workers.I was having lunch with a friend last week over at Macalester and we were brainstorming the idea of starting a Bible study on campus, and he said Well, you know, the thing is with college students is that they just wanna talk about the issues. “The issues.” And I get it, but here's the thing: Jesus is real.We can get to the issues, but the question that every thinking person has to deal with first is Who is this man? Who is Jesus?So we talk about him. What we need is to see him and keep seeing him, and to show him and keep showing him — first and foremost, beginning, middle, end. Everything absolutely comes back to Jesus Christ. Who do you believe he is? Jesus is the ultimate difference-maker, and so Paul says, Him we proclaim. Sweeping and BuildingAnd then Paul explains more of what that means. He says it means that he warns everyone and he teaches everyone with all wisdom. Warning and teaching. That word for warning is sometimes translated “admonish.” It's the idea of putting things in order, or clearing things up. The word “teaching” is the idea of positive construction. It means we're building something. And there's an important dynamic between these two. It reminds me of when I was a kid … my dad used to bring me to his job sites and pay me to sweep the floor. And there was a little bit of a process involved. The first thing I had to do was get rid of all the big leftover material, and then I got the broom, and the whole idea was to make the place ready for the next subcontractor, so that construction could continue. Because, see, something was being built.And this happens when we proclaim Christ. Sometimes the reality of Jesus means that people (including us!) need to do some sweeping. I wrote an article for you two weeks ago called “The Vital Unmasking” and it was about the Holy Spirit's ministry to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It's that if we're trusting in false saviors, we need them to be exposed, right? No alternative to faith in Jesus ultimately works, and if you're not trusting in Jesus, you're trusting in an alternative. We need the Holy Spirit to convict us of that (which he can do even right now; you can ask him to do that). If you're here this morning and you know you're not a Christian, you are trusting in some kind of fake savior and that doesn't end well. The proclamation of Jesus warns you. He's the only way.Sometimes we're sweeping, but then we're also building. We're seeing Jesus, and then we're seeing all of life in the light of Jesus. We're learning how to build the house of our lives on the rock, because the rain will fall, the floods will come, and wind will blow, but our house will stand because it's founded on the rock. That's a big part of what we're doing in our Sunday morning classes and in The Cities Institute (mark your calendars, November 1). We're building, teaching. This is our strategy: Make Christ clear. It really does all come back to him. Jesus is the ultimate difference-maker. Third thing we learn from Paul for our mission strategy …3. Aim for Christlikeness from the heart.This is more on the purpose, the goal. Paul says we proclaim Christ “so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” That means to be complete in Christ, to be grown-up in Christ. Paul is talking about Christian maturity — true Christlikeness.And I wonder what you think when you hear the word Christlikeness? What does it mean to be Christlike?If you're like me, you probably think that to be Christlike means to act like Christ. It's about what we do, how we behave. I used to think that, and to give credit where credit is due, the writings of Dallas Willard have really helped me here. Willard pointed out something so obvious that it feels crazy to think we could miss this — He points out that Jesus teaches that the heart is the center of the human person. Jesus says that our sinful behaviors flow out of our hearts. That's the problem. So then, when we imagine Christlikeness, how can we imagine anything less than our hearts being transformed? Willard says conformity to Christ must arise out of an inner transformation. The main goal, then, of Christlikeness, is not that we act like Christ, but it's that our hearts become like Christ's heart. I don't want to just appear like Jesus, but I want my heart to be like Jesus's heart, which means my thoughts and my feelings and my dispositions and my choices become what Jesus's would be if he were in my shoes, because they're flowing from my heart which has been made like his. This is heaven. Does anybody want heaven? In heaven, we will be transformed to be like Jesus, not just in how we look, but in our truest self.And get this: how God effects that transformation is not by just zapping us and making it happen out of nowhere, but it's a work that he is doing now, a little bit at a time, by the Holy Spirit. And we want it. For this we toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within us. There is grace-fueled, Holy-Spirit empowered effort to reach this purpose, for all of us, for everyone. For me and for you. That's the purpose of making Christ clear. Christ clear for Christlikeness. It's like what the Scottish pastor Robert Murray M'Cheyne said (in his 20s). He prayed, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be.” We want to be as Christlike as is possible this side of heaven.” Christlikeness from the heart.Joyful Disciples of JesusNow imagine that … Take a second here and picture yourself being more Christlike from the heart. If you are that kind of Christlike, how are you? What are you like? … picture yourself.Now I would bet that a lot of you have just pictured yourself as having less fun and being more serious.Now why do we think that?Did you not know that God is happy?In his presence there is fullness of joy. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore. We have the glorious gospel of the happy God! And if we are made to be more like him, doesn't that mean that we will be happy, too?The Bible teaches that God in his essence is love, and therefore, joy. “This is the my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased!” — the Father says of Jesus, This is my eternal Son I love, in whom I delight! This means that joy is deeper than the universe. We came from joy, and headed back to joy, and that means the more Christlike we become, the more joyful we become. This is so fundamental to being a disciple of Jesus, and it's so important to our church, that we want to be more explicit about this in how we talk and what we do. We want to be and make joyful disciples of Jesus.What's New and ComingThis is a new way we want to start talking about our mission. Our mission has always been, and will always be, to make disciples of Jesus. That's what Jesus tells us to do. And when it comes to what we mean by making disciples, we want to make joyful disciples of Jesus who remember his realness in all of life. That's why we make Christ clear for Christlikeness. And over the next four sermons, we're going to tell you more about this. There are four aspects to being joyful disciples of Jesus. It means … We are Jesus worshipers.We are joyful servants.We are generous disciplers.We are welcoming witnesses. That is who Jesus has called us to be and then to multiply — That is Cities Church.Now we come to this Table.The TableThe Lord Jesus Christ is everything to us, and he has given us this Table to remember him together each week. The bread represents his body broken for us and the cup represents his blood shed for us, and when we come here to eat the bread and drink the cup, him we proclaim. We are making Christ clear to one another — we are saying that Jesus is our hope. We have been saved by him, and we adore him. And if that's your story this morning, we invite you to eat and drink with us.

Colossians Chapter 4 - Pastor Andrew DamazioThis week Pastor Andrew concludes our series going through the book of Colossians.Want to connect more with Rose Church? Find more information at https://www.rosechurch.org and give at - https://www.rosechurch.org/give Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss more incredible sermons like this one or previous series like “Breaking the Cycle” or “The Spiritual Realm” from Pastor Andrew Damazio, Dr. AJ Swoboda, Pastor Julia Damazio and many other incredible pastors!Thanks for listening!

Bible cover to cover

Bible cover to cover

Bible cover to cover

Colossians Chapter 3 - Pastor Andrew DamazioThis week Pastor Andrew continues our series going through the book of Colossians.Want to connect more with Rose Church? Find more information at https://www.rosechurch.org and give at - https://www.rosechurch.org/give Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss more incredible sermons like this one or previous series like “Breaking the Cycle” or “The Spiritual Realm” from Pastor Andrew Damazio, Dr. AJ Swoboda, Pastor Julia Damazio and many other incredible pastors!Thanks for listening!

Colossians Chapter 4: Paul closes out his letter to the Colossian church with 3 things that we can do to keep Christ preeminent in our everyday life. Learn what these 3 things are in this message. Enjoy! NEW HERE? We'd love to connect with you. Text "NEW" to 323-405-3232 SERMON NOTES: https://www.bible.com/organizations/f223efbf-80fd-44c9-a8fc-3297da42c26a - Or Text: "SERMON" To: 323-405-3232 CONNECT WITH US: Hopeland Website: http://www.hopelandla.com Hopeland Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/steinbot-519314947 Hopeland YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@hopelandchurch Hopeland Facebook: @hopelandla Hopeland Instagram: @hopeland.church To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people with the gospel click here: https://hopelandla.com/give Or, choose a giving option here: - Venmo: @Hopeland-Church - CashApp: $HopelandChurch - Zelle: shawn@hopelandla.com - Text "Hopeland" to 833-767-5698