An Introduction

I invite you to stand with us, and we'll get started. We thank you for the day, and we give you praise. Lord God, just for who you are, for how much you love us. Hearts to receive from you this morning, God. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you, and just to be receptive to your word this morning. God, we just want to glorify you. And we also want to take a moment, Lord, and just continue to pray for Israel, Lord God, just their safety.

Lord God, I pray that you protect them, and that you would just open their spiritual eyes to the truth of your son, Jesus. We ask these things in your precious and holy name. Amen. You guys can go ahead and have a seat, if you like, and we'll continue on. Thank you. We praise you. We just want to take a moment here, Lord God, just to tell you just how thankful we are for what you've done for us, Lord God.

We willingly take our place on that cross, God, and just the price that we deserve. Lord, which is death for our sin. But, Lord God, we thank you that you did what you did, and that death was arrested. Amen. For us in the new life we have in you. Amen.

Bless them, my soul, my soul. I worship you. Again, just praise you, God. We have so many reasons to praise you. God, there is no reason that praise should not be coming from our lips right now, Lord God. You are so good to us, and so kind. And for what you've done for us, Lord. And for what you're going to do. God, we have more than enough reasons to praise you.

God, forgive us for... Forgive me for when I complain about little things in life, Lord God. I have more than enough reasons, more than enough reasons to praise you, God.

And Lord, this morning, God, as we continue into this last song, I just pray that we would just position our hearts rightly. And I pray before you, so that you can do your mighty work.

Just go ahead and stand with me for this last song.

It's too long to bear your son. I just thank you again.

First, Lord God, this earth only has so many solutions for the problems that we have, Lord. But we should be running to you first. We should be running to you first with our sin, with our struggles. Lord God, with all the problems that we encounter in life. Lord God, help us to run to you. Run to the Father. I pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, God, that you would just speak mightily through him, Lord.

Overflow him with your Holy Spirit.

Give us hearts to receive that word.

Help us to leave different today. Don't let us leave the same person. Help us to leave different, changed, and on fire for you, Lord. God, that is our desire this morning, God. We love you and we praise you. In your precious and holy name, all God's people said, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Bulletin, we'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Quite a few things, actually, this morning to take note of in your bulletin. On the left-hand side of the things that go on throughout the week, I would encourage you to take note of those. One minor change to what's going on the left-hand side is that the prophecy and the scripture, the first study that will take place on Thursday, May the 30th.

No, will be meeting on Thursday, May the 30th, instead of June the 6th because of the conference in Emporia. So take note of that. I'll announce that again next week as well. And then in the middle section of your bulletin, some things to take note of. We do have a couple of conferences coming up. One is June the 1st over in Wellington at Grace Calvary Fellowship over in Wellington.

And, of course, the other one is in Emporia. June 6th through the 8th. Ladies, there's a new Joyful Life Women's Study beginning on May the 30th in Galatians. All the sign-ups are out there in the lobby. Also, a reminder that we have Vacation Bible School coming up one month from today. So it'll be, yeah, I know that's kind of my thought too. June the 19th through the, I'm excited.

There's just a lot to do in one month. June 19th through the 21st. That being said, we still need lots of help. So there's some sign-up sheets in the lobby by where you picked up your bulletin. If you can help in any of those ways, please get signed up for that. And then also for that, we have a workday coming up this Wednesday, the 22nd. So please join us for that if you are able.

And if you want to start, this is active now, right, this QR code. If you want to start getting some of your little ones registered, there is a QR code that will take you to the link to get them registered. Also, a couple of things that are not in your bulletin is that we put out a T-shirt order for them a few weeks ago. And those T-shirts are in. You can see Sandra after the service for that.

Also, we're doing a little landscaping project over on the east side of the building over here. Jeff Bryant's getting that put together for us. And I think, what time are we going to do that on Saturday? Nine? Okay. Nine o'clock. This coming Saturday, we need some fellows with some strong backs and some weak minds, and I know you'll pull through for me, to help unload some rock and things like that.

So if you are available on Saturday at nine o'clock, that would be great as well. Bring a shovel. Somebody needs to lean on something, right?

So also, one thing that's not in your bulletin, but before we get to, those are the things that are going on, but something that's not in your bulletin, but something that I want us to be aware of is that we are in the process of putting together, hopefully, some more small group fellowships, Bible studies, if you will. And so I've put a couple of folks in charge of that, Rick Hawkins and Daniel Palmer. So I would like to invite them to come up and share a little bit about their heart and their vision and kind of what that looks like. So come on up, guys.

Good morning. Good morning. We're hoping to, as the Lord leads, to be able to start some new home fellowships in the city. We're hoping to be able to start some new home fellowships in the surrounding area, Arc City, Winfield, Dexter, and Kay County. And these home fellowships will give you an opportunity to get to know each other better and also to be able to encourage and build each other up in Christ.

These home fellowships will also be involved in reaching in and ministering to the body of Christ here at Calvary. And also, every three or four months, these home fellowships will be involved in reaching out to people who don't know Christ in the surrounding area. So we're pretty excited about it. Right now, what we're looking for are people. People who are interested in maybe hosting a home fellowship in their home

and people who are interested in possibly leading a home fellowship. Now, maybe you're interested in leading, but you're kind of nervous about it. Maybe you've never done it before. If you're interested, just pray about it, and we're going to do some equipping and give you some support so that down the road, as the Lord leads, you'll be able to lead a home fellowship.

So this isn't a big rush thing. It's something we're just trying to do as the Lord leads. So if God's laying on your home, you're going to be able to lead a home fellowship. It's not hard to want to help lead one. There's a sign-up sheet out in the hallway. The sign-up sheet will be out there for three weeks. And just put your name and your phone number. And the last four weeks, June 2nd will be the last time to sign up for it.

And then the last four weeks of June, we're going to probably try and meet with everybody who has signed the sheets right after the second service. We may provide a little luncheon so we can get together and have a meal together. And that way, those interested in hosting and those interested in leading will get a chance to do that. We'll get a chance to know each other.

And we can do some equipping and share with you the vision that we have. And so we can all be of one mind in Christ in what we're doing. So we're pretty excited about just to see what the Lord's going to do through these home fellowships. Danielle's going to share a little bit to those that are hosting. And Joe's going to share a little bit to those that are leading.

So like Rick said, the sign-up sheet is not signing your life away. It is if you are interested, right? Because until we all sit down and talk and get on the same page, there's no way. There's no way that you're going to get the full picture of what you're getting into and what we're trying to do. But I just had a couple verses that just came to me last night.

I'm going to try not to preach for 10 minutes here. But just a couple verses that I was reading, and I just wanted to read to you guys. It says, this is in 1 Corinthians. It says, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no division among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind, and in the same judgment.

And in Galatians, it says, Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore one another in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too may not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and therefore fulfill the law of Christ. And in John, it says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, for if you love one another.

So just as I was thinking about these verses, a lot of these things are difficult to achieve in a setting like this, right? And so the goal is here is to put us into smaller groups, where we can each be able to exercise our spiritual gifts. And one of those spiritual gifts that we're looking for is leadership. And in Romans, when it's talking about different spiritual gift, kind of the initiative that's given with leadership, it says, lead with diligence.

So diligence, I mean, diligence just means like, you are the constant driving force. If these home fellowships and small groups are going to be successful, we need people to be able to do that. We need people to be able to do that. We need people to be able to do that. We need people to be able to do that. We need people to be able to do that. We need people that will just be there,

that will always be there, and that can take this vision that Rick has, and that we've been trying to very prayerfully put together and drive this thing forward. Some of the other things that go along with diligence, if you just look at how it's used in the Bible, is with haste, driving forward, earnestness, striving, promoting, carefully promoting. It's like, that's, that's, that's who we're looking for. And that's who we've been praying, praying for.

And we know that some of you have that gift out there and maybe you're using it. Maybe you're not using it, but if you're not, this is your opportunity to be able to pull people together in our body. And if you, maybe you already have a group that you're, that you're finding that community and where you can be there for each other and bear each other's burdens and all be on the same page.

And if you have experienced, that in the past, then it'll be easy for you to get on board with what we're trying to do. You see the value in that. It's difficult. If you haven't ever experienced that deep level of community. So we're just encouraging you. If you feel like God is laying it on your heart in any way, sign your name on, on the line, come, come in here,

kind of what the vision is so that if, if we're aligned on that, you can help drive, this thing forward.

I'm the spiritual gift of teaching or leadership. But I was asked if I would come and talk about the spiritual gift of hosting. To me, it looks like being willing to open your home and be real. A lot of you have shown the spiritual gift of hospitality to me here at the church. And so I know there's a lot of, a lot of people here with that gift. And, and I think we've talked about there.

We could definitely have groups that have leadership from a different family or a different, a different leader, and then a family willing to host in their home. So it doesn't necessarily look like leading the fellowship. If you are interested in hosting to me, I think it is just being real. Being willing. It doesn't have to be perfect. If you ask anyone who's been to our small group or been to our home ever,

it definitely doesn't look perfect, but it looks real and it looks comfortable. And I think a lot more people are looking for that than they are for the perfection. So if you are interested in hosting as well, there is a sign up out there for you. All right. Thanks guys. So please be praying about that. And like he said, that those sheets will be out there.

You said for the next three weeks. So if you have any questions afterwards, you can visit with these guys. So, okay. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 79. Psalm 79, as always looking at the new American standard. So we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 79,

if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses, Psalm 79, a Psalm of Asaph. Oh God, the nations have invaded your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the dead bodies of your servants for food to the birds of the heavens,

the flesh of your godly ones to the beasts of the earth. They have poured out their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those around us. How long, oh Lord, will you keep us in your presence? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out your wrath upon the nations which do not know you, and upon the kingdoms which do not call upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Do not remember the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your compassion come quickly to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, oh God of our salvation, for the glory of your name,

and deliver us from the darkness of the night. And deliver us from the darkness of the night. And deliver us from the darkness of the night. And deliver us from the darkness of the night. And deliver us from the darkness of the night. And deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake. Why should the nations say, where is their God? Let there be known among the nations in our sight

vengeance for the blood of your servants, which has been shed. Let the groaning of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are doomed to die. And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosoms the reproach which they have reproached you for. And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosoms the reproach which they have reproached you for.

And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosoms the reproach which they have reproached you for. And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosoms the reproach which they have reproached you for. And read verse 13 with me. So we, your people, and the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever. To all generations, we will tell of your praise.

Now, I chose Psalm 79 specifically because of what it says here. Because today, May 19th, is churches all over the nation have made it a day that they are going to take a portion of the service to pray for the nation of Israel specifically. Uh, based upon the attack that happened on October 7th, the fact that they are still in the middle of a war, the fact that there are still hostages that have not been returned, the fact that it seems as though the rest of the world is slowly but surely beginning to turn against the nation of Israel. And so, while we're standing, we did this on the day after the October 7th attack, and I want to do it again today.

Israel is to the east of us, and so I want us all to put our hand out to the east, and we are going to pray for the nation of Israel. And so, Father, we come before you, Lord, Father, I want to pray that you would be with our brothers and sisters in the nation of Israel, Lord, the people of the name of God, Lord, the people that you have chosen for yourself. Father, your word tells us that you will bless those who bless you, and you will curse those who curse you. And so, Lord, we want to pray for the peace of Jerusalem right now.

Father, we want to pray for the protection of Israel. Father, we want to pray for the deliverance of those that are still held hostage. Father, we want to pray for the defeat of the enemies that are around them. And, Father, more than anything, we want to pray for the salvation of your people, Lord, that they would come to a place of realizing that their Messiah came.

Their Messiah has come and given his life for them and that he's coming again to make them once again your chosen people. And so, Lord, do your work in that land. And, Father, may we as a nation not foolishly turn our backs against them, but, Lord, may we always stand in solidarity with our friends and our brothers and sisters in Israel. And so, Father, we lift up Jerusalem and we pray for the peace of Jerusalem today.

In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1.

I spent some time praying this week about where to go next. And Colossians is what I landed on. Simply for the fact that it glorifies Christ in the way that it does. That Paul, when writing to these, Colossian believers, spends so much time talking about the supremacy of Christ because in the world that we're in today, the spiritual battles that we're fighting today, I think the best thing that we can do is continue to look to Christ and continue to glorify and magnify him.

And so, as we come to this letter to the Colossians, we're going to cover the first eight verses today, which is simply the introduction. So I have entitled these first eight verses an introduction. And so, starting in verse 1 of Colossians, chapter 1, it says this. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God, our Father.

We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all of us. Because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world also, it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you since the day that you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. And he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

And so these first eight verses form for us the introduction to what's going to be a fantastic book that looks at the supremacy of Christ. And so as I kind of like to do with these, I'm going to give a little background information, but I'm going to give the background information based upon how it flows in the scripture. So the first thing that we want to look at, when we look at the background, is we want to look at the writer. We're told that the writer is Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother.

So we're told that Paul is the one who is writing the book. Now, we spent a great deal of time at the beginning of Philippians laying out how Paul came to a place where he was the one writing these letters to these individuals, writing these letters to these cities. This is what's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. And it is considered another prison epistle.

It was written in a similar time to both Ephesians and Philippians. Of course, Colossians is a prison epistle, and the fourth prison epistle is Philemon. So as Paul writes this, once again, just like in Philippians, he was sitting chained to a Roman guard as he is writing this letter. And he refers to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. An apostle of Jesus Christ.

It's so fascinating to know that Paul, who referred to himself as the chief of sinners, who is an individual who is saved by grace, can now refer to himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. There's been a thing floating around on Instagram here lately on some of the Christian things that I follow, and I found it to be kind of fascinating. I happened to read it last night right before I went to bed after I had done quite a bit of studying, and it said, Paul entered heaven to the cheers of those whom he martyred, because that's the power of the gospel. Isn't that great? Because here you have Paul, who

knew who he was, and I think Paul spent a great portion of his life feeling like he was not worthy to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, feeling like he was not worthy to be named with the other apostles of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, so much so that he referred to himself as the chief of sinners, and yet by God's grace, because the gospel is so powerful, because Jesus Christ is so amazing, Paul is now considered to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Of course, an apostle means a sent out one, and it carries with it two different ideas. A lot of us can be apostles because we can be sent out by God to do a mission, but we are not apostles in the way that Paul refers to himself here, because the reference here to the word,

apostle, speaks of a specific authority, apostolic authority, that Paul and the other 11 apostles had in order to set the doctrine for the early church. It's important that we understand that there are no more apostles today, because the doctrine of the early church has been set, and it has been sealed. That last letter given to us, called Revelation, was the sealing of the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's why Revelation is referred to as, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's because it was his final revelation to us, and then after that,

we have no further revelation given to us, as far as scripture is concerned. And so he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, and he names himself that, because he's going to have to deal with some issues within the church in Colossae. And so he mentions the fact that he has this apostolic authority. Paul's writing this somewhere around AD 63, like I said, along with other letters that will be delivered to different churches. But I want you to notice, once again,

who's with Paul. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. Isn't that great that Timothy's kind of always with Paul, right? But do you know what Timothy's not referred to as? Timothy is not referred to as an apostle, and I think that's really important for us to pay attention to, because there is a teaching out there called,

Apostolic Succession, that if you knew an apostle, you had that same kind of an authority, because you had that apostolic succession. And yet, Timothy is referred to as a brother in the faith, not an apostle of Jesus Christ. Even though if anybody would have been considered that, it would have been Timothy, who is not only led to Christ by Paul, circumcised by Paul, baptized by Paul, but also trained by the apostle Paul. He is a brother. But I want you to notice,

Timothy is referred to as a brother in Christ. Timothy always seemed to be there as that faithful companion to Paul, because here Paul sits in prison, and who's with him? Timothy. Timothy was always there. Timothy was always a faithful friend to Paul, no matter what was going on in his life. Paul picked up Timothy on that second missionary journey, and from that point on, Timothy became

Paul's faithful companion. One who he could really trust. One who he could really rely on. One who brought him encouragement in some of the most difficult times. And so I have a question for you this morning, as we kind of get into this introduction. Who is your Timothy, and who are you a Timothy to? Who is the one who is alongside you always? Someone that you can truly count on. Someone

who is a faithful companion. Someone who, when things are not going well, you always have someone to count on. And so I want you to notice that Timothy is a faithful companion. You always know that they're going to come alongside you. They're always going to be there for you. They're always going to offer that encouragement to keep you going, even in the most

difficult times. Because I'm here to tell you right now, sometimes in our Western culture, we can be a little bit of a cowboy, right? Like, I can just do this on my own, and we need a Timothy in our lives. We need someone who is going to be alongside us, continuing to encourage us. But again, who are you a Timothy for? Who are you a faithful friend to? Who do you come alongside in the most difficult of times to

remind them God's still in control? Because everyone needs a Timothy, and we need to be that for the people that are around us. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. The last phrase in that verse that I want to point out to you is that Paul said he was an apostle by the will of God. By the will of God. A lot of people want to know,

a lot of people want to know what God's will is in their life. A lot of people want to know what God wants for them to do in their life. And I would tell you the only way that you can know God's will for your life is twofold. Number one, get to know God. Number two, start taking steps of faith. Start taking steps of faith. Take steps in the direction that you think that God might be leading

you to, and you never can tell. Sometimes God's going to tell you no. Paul experienced that in his life, didn't he? Paul really wanted to be an apostle to the Jews. Did you ever notice that? He really wanted to minister to the Jews. But that wasn't what God called him to. He was an apostle to the Gentiles. And yet he was an apostle by the will of God. And it took God telling him no a whole lot of times to being the apostle

to the Jews before he finally realized, I'm actually supposed to minister to the Gentiles. You need to figure out what God's will is in your life. But the only way that you can know what God's will is, is number one, if you get to know the God who has a will for your life. But number two, if you start taking steps of faith, we've given you another great opportunity to take a step of faith. Maybe God's calling you to do something like,

what these guys were talking about up here, leading or hosting a small group. Maybe that is God's will for you. You won't know until you start to take the step of faith. Maybe God's will is for you to get really, really involved in vacation Bible school to where you're really ministering to kids. And who knows, maybe you'll find yourself going, I think I might want to teach

a children's church class. I think I might want to do that. By the way, we could use some of those right now. Now, just because you want to doesn't mean we're going to let you, but we do need some and you should come talk to us about it. I say that because crazy, people are out there, right? I want to teach children's church. No, you need to clean the toilets, right? I don't know. What is God's will for you? The only way you're going to know is

to take steps of faith. And Paul knew what God's will was for him because he started taking steps of faith. He heard God say no, and he absolutely heard God say yes. And so he says, Paul, the apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother. So that's the writer. The second thing that we find is the recipient to the saints and the faithful brethren who are

in Christ, who are at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God, our father. Now the city of Colossae is located in Asia minor. It's what we would modern day refer to as Turkey. It's really not too far from Laodicea. It's actually right between Laodicea and Hierapolis. And it's in that region churches that all end up getting addressed with a letter in the beginning of the book of

Revelation. It's very, very close in proximity, proximity to all of those churches. Now the city of Colossae was at one point in time known for its wealth and prestige. Some say that's even where it got its name from Colossus, meaning very prestigious or very big. And so at one point in time, it was, it was a major city, but by the time of the, of Paul writing a letter to the Colossians,

it was in great decline. As a matter of fact, if I remember correctly, within 10 years after him writing this letter, the entire city of Colossae was destroyed by an earthquake. So it was a city that was in decline at the time, but it lay in an area of Asia minor, which by the way, was an important area at this point in time, because Asia minor is where the East met the West. It's where all of the strength of the West and all of the philosophy of the East and the mysticism of the East came together.

It was a, it was a real melting pot. And so because it was a real melting pot, the entire area of Asia minor was known for its culture. It was known for its philosophy, but it was also known for its paganism and its immorality. And so that's the city of Colossae. Now he writes to them and refers to them as the saints and the faithful brethren, the saints. We talked about this last

week, so I won't go into it too much, but all of us as believers in Jesus Christ are saints, and if we are continuing to live in a faithful way, we are also those faithful brethren, but that's the people that he's writing to. Interestingly enough, Paul did not actually start the church in Colossae. Most believe that it was started by Epaphras, who at this point in time was the pastor of the church in Colossae, that Epaphras was actually the one that started that church. And most believe, most teach that Epaphras started this church around the time that Paul was preaching in Colossae. Now remember that when Paul first went to Ephesus, which is also in that area of Asia

minor, when Paul first went to Ephesus to preach, he had a handful of Sundays inside of the synagogue, and then they kicked him out of the synagogue, and so he set up camp in what was known as the school of Tyrannus. When those philosophy majors would take their afternoon break, Paul would come in and sort of take over the pulpit, if you will, and he would begin to teach, and he would begin to teach all of the truth of God's word, showing how throughout the Old Testament, Jesus, was always the point. And it says people from everywhere would come to hear him, and his ministry there was so successful that we're told everyone in Asia heard the word of God. Not because Paul was going around teaching to everyone in Asia, but because guys like

Epaphras would come, and they would hear the word of God, and they would get saved. And then they would take that knowledge that they had of God's word that they had received from Paul in the school of Tyrannus, and they would go back to their hometown, and when they'd go back, they would preach the gospel to the people that were around them. And as they preached the gospel to the people that were around them, people started getting saved, and so they would establish a church. That's how everyone in the area of Asia at that point in time heard the word of God.

Sometimes I think we take the spread of the gospel and make it much more complicated than it needs to be. We think that we need some major program, and we need some major funding, and we need all this kind of stuff in order to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is spread by one individual whose heart is changed by the truth, and then they take that truth to the people that are around them. Every day you carry the truth of God. You carry a treasure in an earthen vessel. That's your body. And as you carry that treasure

in an earthen vessel, you emanate, you spread, you diffuse the fragrance of Christ to everyone that is around you. And then sometimes people get the truth, and they spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. That fragrance on them and their hearts get changed as well. That's the gospel cycle. And that's what took place with Paul in Ephesus. And so Epaphras goes, and he starts this church

in Colossae, and it's going really great. As a matter of fact, so much so that there's now saints and faithful brethren there. However, there was an issue that had arisen within the church in Colossae, which is the purpose of Paul writing the book. As a matter of fact, we understand that Epaphras went to Paul. While he was in Rome and said, we have a problem. There's a heresy that's beginning to form

in my area, and it's even creeping into my church. Most biblical scholars simply refer to it as the Colossian heresy. Now, the Colossian heresy is a little bit difficult to identify because it was, again, a blending together of a lot of different things. Remember, we said that this was a real melting pot sort of an area. So let me read this to you. The Colossian heresy was

an early church in the early 20th century. It was a church that was a little bit more religious. It was a church that was a little bit more Christian. It was a church that was a little more Christian. It was a church that was a little bit more Christian. It was a church that was a of Gnosticism. It combined Christian truth, Jewish legalism, Greek philosophy, and Eastern

mysticism. In that day, there were a lot of mixing of different religious ideas. You see, Gnosticism is this idea that there is a higher truth that you attain, but it also denies the deity of Christ. They actually refer to Christ as just another created being. Kind of sound familiar to you? It's almost like some of our false teaching today came, from that same idea, right? They refer to Christ as a created being who is in a long line

of created beings. Now, Gnosticism usually would begin to take two, maybe three different forms. On one end, you had people that gave into what's called asceticism. In other words, extreme self-denial in order to try to be as good as you could possibly, as Christian that you could possibly be. And so they'd follow this asceticism sort of a thing. That's where the monks got some

of their ideas from. But then on the other hand, you had a group of people that believed in indulgence. They said, listen, all matter is evil. So it doesn't really matter what I do with my body because my body's evil anyway. So as long as my spirit is pure, it doesn't matter what I do on the outside. And so they would live in a licentious sort of way. And then you had a group that was

kind of somewhere in the middle that believed that the best thing that you could do is legalistically follow all of the traditions. Of the Jewish people in order to be the best Christian that you could possibly be. Gosh, it's like some things never change, right? And a blending of all of these things was taking place within the city of Colossae, but it also was starting to creep into the church because asceticism had started to creep into the church. Licentiousness had started to creep into the

church. Jewish legalism had started to creep into the church and they needed it to be dealt with. You see, the danger is that it strips Jesus of his power and his preeminence and his sufficiency. He was becoming another in a long line of created beings and not the one in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. Like many other times, the danger is that it will become Jesus and fill in the blank. Jesus

and asceticism. Jesus and licentiousness. Jesus, and tradition. And as we add anything to Jesus, we always strip the purity of who Jesus really is. And so whatever the Colossian heresy was, because again, there's lots of different ideas about this depending on the commentator that you read. Whatever the Colossian heresy was, the cure was a return to the preeminent Christ. The cure was to return to everything that Christ is and

the sufficiency that he holds. And that's exactly what Paul will do throughout the entire book of Colossians. As always, Colossians splits in half really well. The first half is very doctrinal in nature. The second half is very practical in nature, but it'll take us a couple of weeks to get to the part that gets really doctrinal. But that's the recipient. And I want you to notice he says, to the saints,

verse two, and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you, and peace to you. Peace from God, our father. Paul brings those two Siamese twins of the New Testament together once again. And as he greets them, he says, hey, listen, grace and peace to you. And we're reminded we're both grace and peace come from, and they come directly from God.

And so now we get into him giving thanks for the work of the gospel in their life. Notice what it says in verse three. He says, we give thanks to God, the father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Now, quickly, I just want to draw a quick point of this because next week we'll get into prayer because Paul's going to have a prayer for the Colossian people. And we'll spend more time talking about prayer, but I feel like every time

it comes up in scripture, you should probably mention it. And that's the prayer life of Paul and that Paul's prayer life was coupled with thanksgiving and request. It was thanksgiving and prayer. I point that out because last week, we talked quite a bit about contentment. And do you know what the greatest enemy of discontentment is? Being thankful. Because when you can be thankful, contentment naturally flows

from that. Discontentment is never thankful for anything. You just want more. Well, I don't like what I've got. I need something else. So if you want to really, truly feed contentment in your life, the best way to do it is to give thanks. To give thanks for everything that God has given you. And listen, even sometimes to give thanks for the things that God has not given to you, right? There was a song back in the 90s. You know,

I like to quote song lyrics. And I especially like to quote country lyrics because it's my favorite kind of music. And there was a song, and I disagree with the theology of it, but I really like the idea behind it. And it says, sometimes God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. But we know that God always answers prayers. It's either yes, wait, or no, right? And,

and so, but, but sometimes God tells us no to things. And, and sometimes we can be really thankful for what God has not given to us because sometimes God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers, right? So sometimes God's greatest gift is when he tells us no, and we can be incredibly thankful for that. And so he says, I give thanks for you and I pray for you. And how

is he giving thanks for them? Notice what it says in verse four, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love of God, we give thanks for you and I pray for you. And how is he giving thanks for the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. Did you pick out those three words, those three words? Let me read it to us again. It says, since we heard of your faith in

Christ Jesus and your love, which you have for all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you, faith, hope, and love. He does them a little bit of a different order, but I want to spend a few minutes talking about those words because this is why he's thankful for these Colossian people, because in their lives is displayed faith and love and hope. Faith, according to the Amplified Bible, and I love the way it translated this, means to lean on him with absolute confidence in his power. Isn't that great? To lean on him with absolute confidence in his power.

Faith, as I've mentioned before, is a word that I think gets thrown around a little loosey-goosey sometimes. Because we don't always view it to be as powerful as it really is. Well, you just got to have faith, right? There was a song in the 80s, you just got to have faith, right? And so everybody's like, well, you just got to have faith. I remember, I think it was when I was in college, early 2000s,

Superman, Christopher Reeve, was that his name, was in the wheelchair, and he had this whole commercial about the importance of having faith, and you just have to have faith. And that guy wasn't saved. And I remember being so frustrated. I'm like, what? What is faith if there's nothing to put your faith in? What is faith? It's not just some philosophical idea. Faith has a purpose, because faith has a point, because faith has a contact.

And that contact is Jesus. Your faith is only as good as the thing that you put it in. And I always like to use this illustration, because I think it's the best illustration of faith that I can possibly have, right? Quite a few years back now, matter of fact, it's been 20, my wife and I went on a cruise after we got married. Now, I don't know if I'd go on a cruise anymore. I probably would now.

I don't know. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. So we went on this cruise, and it was always fun. I love looking at the stars. I love being outside at night. So we'd go up on the top deck and walk around. And I remember going right to the edge of the top deck. And man, it's so dark out there at night. There's just nothing. And it's almost like overwhelmingly dark, right?

And that's really beautiful. But it's like you look out, and you can't see anything. Maybe the moon shining off the water. And I remember thinking, you know, as I did that, side note, there is a reel going around Instagram right now where somebody took all of the famous clips from Titanic. And instead of Kate being there, it's a cat. And it is absolutely the

funniest thing I have watched on the internet recently. If you come across that, please just take a minute, soak it in, because it's amazingly funny. Anyway, so I'm standing there at the edge of the railing. And all I could think was, if I fell off here, there's no coming back from that, right? Like, oh, right? Nobody's even going to hear that. Aaron would notice. But nobody else is going to hear that. You look at you,

and you're saying, ah, right? That's it. That's it at that point in time. Now, if I did that, and somebody did take notice, and they threw me a life preserver, right? They threw me a life jacket. I looked at that life jacket. I'm like, you know, I've read a lot about that life jacket. Matter of fact, I have life jacket weekly. And I've been reading a lot about that. That's the

absolute best life jacket in the world. I'm so glad that if you're going to save me, that's what you're going to throw at me is that life jacket. And I can sit there, and I can quote all the truth about the life jacket. And I can tell you everything there is to know about the life jacket. I can tell you all of the stats, how many people that life jacket has saved. It still will do me absolutely no good until when? Until I grab the life jacket, right?

And it saves me from sinking into the water until I finally lean with absolute confidence on the power of that life jacket's ability to keep me above the water. Up until then, it's just a bunch of head knowledge about a life jacket. But as soon as I grab it and it saves me, I've got my faith in it. And there are too many people that can run around church, and they can tell you the facts about Jesus. They can quote some Bible verses to you. They can, in their minds, carry the best Bible

that you can possibly carry. They can do all those things, but they've never put the life jacket on. Paul says, I'm so thankful for you because of your faith in Christ, because you have leaned on him with absolute confidence in his power. And if that's you this morning, and maybe you have initially come to Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and to that extent, yes, you're leaning on him, but you're not living by faith. You're still living every day.

day like you know all the facts about what Jesus is able to do, but you never live it out for yourself. You never live out the fact that he's able to do that in you. He says, I'm so thankful for you because you have faith in Christ. The second thing he says he's thankful for them about is that they have love for all the saints. You all know that there's multiple words in the Greek for

love. There's the eros, which is more of a self-satisfying physical attraction sort of love. There is Philadelphian love or phileo love, which is the friendship sort of love, which is what is most common amongst human beings, right? But then there's that third word for love, what the Greeks referred to as the absolute highest form of love, and that's agape. And agape love, as translated by

the Kenneth Weiss translation, is a divine sacrificial love. And so Paul, as he's writing to these Colossian people, and I love this because remember he's going to have to correct a heresy going on there. But he still says, I'm thankful because you have sacrificial love for all the saints. Brothers and sisters, faith produces love. And that's an important thing for us to pay

attention to because sometimes we think faith produces perfection. Faith produces a lack of sin. Faith produces the fact that I'm out of hell. But what faith produces is love. As a matter of fact, if you don't believe me, you should go back to the book of Galatians. Where it gives the fruits of the spirit because the fruit of the spirit is love. There are actually

some that go so far as to say that is the one fruit of the spirit and that all the rest of those are an offshoot of love. The joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all offshoots of that one fruit, which is love. He said, I'm so thankful because love for the saints encapsulates who you are. And can I just tell us as a church, right now, that if we really want to make a difference in our city, if we want to make a difference in Cali County, if you want to make a difference in your workplace, then love needs to be the fruit that is constantly produced in your life. Now, we can't have love without knowledge

because we still need the truth and truth needs to be spoken. But truth without love is cruelty, right? Love without truth is license, but truth without love is cruelty. And so we need to speak the truth. We need to speak the truth. We need to speak the truth. We need to speak the truth. But love needs to be the greatest fruit that comes forth from our lives. After all, we are

all told that what was it that led us to repentance? It was his kindness that led us to repentance, right? We need to be the type of believers that when the people around us find themselves falling into sin and all of their world falling apart, they can know that they can come to you because you're not going to say, I told you so. You're just going to say, how can I help? How can I be there for you? Because love is what's being

produced in your life. Listen within the church and outside of the church. He says, I'm so thankful for you because of your agape love for all the saints. And then notice what he says. And for your hope, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven. I want to give you a, what I found was a pretty good definition of hope. Hope is a

desire of some good with the expectation of obtaining it. That last part is what I want you to really pay attention to an expectation of obtaining it, right? We, we have a reality of our hope. I like to point this out all the time. There's a difference between wish and hope, right? Like most of us say, we hope for things like, like I, I hope I win the lottery someday. I don't play it, but I hope I win it someday,

right? I, I, I hope that somebody can do something nice for, but those are actually wishes, right? Let me tell you what my two greatest hopes in life are that are actually wishes. I've shared this lots of times, but one, one day I'd really like to dunk a basketball. I think that would be amazing. I'm hope. I hope that when I get to heaven, like I'm just straight Michael

Jordan, right? Or any of those kinds of guys. But I know that that's more of a wish than a hope. You know, my other hope is I hope that someday I get to be a lead singer in a band, right? That's all I want to be able to do. I grew up in an incredibly musical family with people that can sing. Like you've heard my dad. And, and so I grew up around people that can sing. My sister can sing really

good too. And, and I just have a real love and appreciation for music. And I remember going to concerts when I was a kid and the lead singer would stand up and say, Hey everybody, clap your hands. Right. And everybody does everything that the lead singer says. And then he gets to pour out all of his emotions into a song. And I hope one day I can do that, but that's more of a wish than

a hope, right? Because a hope is an expectation of obtaining it. I have no expectation of obtaining that. I've shared with you before what happens when I tried to dunk a basketball and I'm too old for now. I'll break when I fall backwards now. Right. I just, I don't land as well as I used to. And I know that I can't sing because to this day, my daughters still say, dad, right? When, when they

were little, they were like, daddy, please stop. And now they're like, dad, shut up. Right. It's just, it's not as nice as it used to be. And then they roll their eyes at me and their mother joins them. Right. Those are wishes, not hopes because they're not based on a true expectation of obtaining it. But the reality of our hope is that we do have an expectation of obtaining it

because God's always proven him, proven himself faithful and eternity is what we're always hoping for. Right. We have an expectation of knowing that this place is in our home. And Paul says, I thank God for you because you have faith in Christ. You have love for each other and you have a hope in God. Why? Because of, and this is the last point, the gospel. He said,

end of verse five, which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel, the gospel, good news. That's exactly what the word gospel means. It means good news. And of course the gospel is way more simple. I think even than, than we like to think that it is sometimes. How many of you have ever thought, what if I could share the gospel with somebody? And then

you get yourself in theological circles, trying to figure out how to share the gospel with somebody. Anybody ever done that? I've done that before. And I realized that the gospel is so simple. It could be put into two phrases. You're a great center. Jesus is a great savior. That's the gospel. The gospel is a good news, bad news or a bad news, good news situation. Bad news is you're a really great center. You're good

at it. Matter of fact, you're a professional. We were all professional centers, meaning that we then had to deal with the consequences of sin, which Jesus tells us is death because the great Jesus, Jesus took death for us. That's the really narrow minded statement of being a Christian, right? It is that Jesus took death for us. And all I have to do is believe what he's done for me.

And once I've believed, I'm saved. You say, Ryan, is it really as simple as faith? Well, that's what Jesus said. What, what work do you want us to do? We'll believe on the one whom he has sent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved for God. So love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever would, believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. I don't know if you've

noticed this or not, but the word believe is used in all of those, right? Because that's what it requires. It requires faith, faith in Jesus Christ. That's the good news of the gospel. And I want you to notice what he says the gospel is doing. He says in verse six, which has come to you just as in all the world, it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been

doing in you. You may not realize this or not, but the gospel is doing powerful work throughout the world right now. We look and we say, everything's going wrong, right? Like the kicker for the chief's can't even get up and give out biblical values without absolutely getting crucified by the media, which by the way, his jersey is the number one selling jersey in America right now. Not only

among men, but it's sold out among women. Isn't that great? Because you can't change the gospel. You can't hold back God's word. That's just all that there is to it. And it's bearing fruit everywhere in the world. It was bearing fruit then and it's bearing fruit now. I watched a great movie a while back now. Matter of fact, we should do a church movie night with this one sometime. Woodlawn,

have you guys ever seen this movie? What a fantastic. The only problem with the movie Woodlawn is I blubber like a baby every time I watched that. I'm just like, first time I showed it to my class, I showed it to my class in school. So I bought, I'd seen it once, made me ball like a baby. So I bought it and I'm like, okay, I'm going to sit down and watch it with Aaron. So we

sat down and watched it together. And my wife doesn't really cry very much in the movie. She does a little bit more now that she's had kids. Um, but, but she cries a little bit and I've rubbed off on her too. She tells me that all the time. Um, but when I'm sitting there watching this movie and she looks over at me, tears streaming down her face and I got tears streaming down. She goes, it's a good thing you're watching this now.

Maybe you can get all this out. I'm like, yeah, this is a good idea. So I show it in class in front of a bunch of high school kids. And I'm like, you know, like when you're trying not to about bit my lip off, trying not to cry. Didn't work. I blubbered like a baby. Anyway, it's a great movie, but it's basically, remember the Titans, only the Jesus edition, right?

And it tells the story of oddly enough, a guy who runs an FCA and he goes in and talks to this school in Alabama that is dealing with all kinds of racial issues. And he gives out the gospel and the whole ding dong team gets saved, right? And God does a major work in this high school because of the work of the gospel in a time where nobody thought anything could change these kids in a time where no one thought anything could in racism, because the great, equalizer is always the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a great equalizer of everything because it bears fruit everywhere that it goes. You can try to chain it, but you can't. It's impossible.

He said, it's bearing fruit in you and in all of the world. Just like when you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. And he has informed us of your love in the spirit. I'm going to close with this. Epaphras was the guy that spread the gospel to the people of Colossae. He started the Colossian church. He was one man with one message.

I think this is pretty cool to point out because we don't always think we can make any kind of a difference in the world that's around us, but you carry a light inside of you. You have that treasure in an earthen vessel. The opening scene of the movie, Woodlawn, not to get into too much detail, but it's a very interesting scene. It's a very interesting scene. I don't want to give the whole thing away, but the opening scene of the movie, Woodlawn,

they show a historical clip from Explo 72, I think is what it was, which was the Billy Graham crusade, which a lot of people say really helped start the Jesus movement. And at Explo 72, they turned off all the lights. I think it was at a stadium in Dallas. They turned off all the lights. When they turned off all the lights, everything went black and they lit one candle.

Everybody had a candle and they went all throughout that stadium lighting everyone's candles to where by the time it was done, that one candle had lit every candle in the stadium. And now the whole stadium was illuminated. And Billy Graham said, this is what God wants to do with the gospel. One man with one message that had the boldness to go and share it. He took his message and it

lit up the church in Colossae. So much so that Paul said, we've heard about you guys. We've heard about your faith. We've heard about your love. We've heard about your hope because one man carried one message with the boldness of Christ to change the people in the city of Colossae. You're one person, but you have one message. And that one message can light up the world. If you will allow God to use you in the way that he sees fit. Amen.

Let's all stand. We have lots of opportunities right now, friends, to get that gospel out. We've got the opportunity with VBS. We've got the opportunity with being a small group leader. We have opportunities to take that light and light up the world around us. And so my prayer is that that's exactly what we're going to do. Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you

and I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you that truly the cure that we need for all of the false things in the world, all of the lies that the enemy would want to tell us is just Jesus. Just Jesus. Lord, sanctify us by your truth because your word is truth. And so, Father, be with us as we go out from here. And Lord, may the message of who you are sink deeply into our hearts. And may that light,

may that fragrance of Christ go out to the world that is around us. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

Help us to worship you, Lord, not just in song, but in every aspect of our lives, Lord God, in the way we walk and we talk every day, in our interactions with other people, in our work, God, and all the things that we do. Forgive us for whatever we've made it when it's when it truly is all about you, Lord. It's all about you. Help us to worship you all the time. We love you, Lord. We praise you. We thank you in

Jesus name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.