An Introduction

Good morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I just invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started. Father, we thank you for the day, God. We give you praise. We just ask your blessing upon this time, Lord. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you and position our hearts rightly before you this morning. And we also want to take a moment, Lord, and just lift up Israel

and Jerusalem and just ask that you would protect them, Lord God, and just make them victorious and just open their eyes to the truth of your son, Jesus, Lord. And we just 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. We just thank you, Lord, for what you've done for us, for all that you've done for us, Lord, for the new life that you've given us

and your son, Jesus, and all the blessings, Lord God, that come along. And this morning, God, we just want to continue to praise you, God, again, just for what you've done for taking our place that we rightfully deserve on that cross, Lord. The price. Lord God, we just thank you and we praise you.

Not just because of what you've done for us, Lord, but the blessings, all the ways you take care of us, Lord God. We have more than enough reasons to praise you.

Jesus, go ahead and stand with me for this last one. Everything down at your feet where we should have placed it in the first place, Lord God, instead of running elsewhere, Lord, just to find solutions to the problems, to find solutions to the sin in our lives, Lord, to the struggles, or anything that we might be going through, Lord, just to lay it down at your feet. Let you take care of it. Help us to run to you each and every time, Lord. This morning, I pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, I pray that you just speak

mightily through him, Lord God, for us to receive it. Lord God, just don't let us leave the same. Let us leave changed and on fire for you, Lord God. Lord, we ask your blessing upon this time and upon the kids at the other end of the hall, Lord. We love you, Lord. We praise you and we thank you. And all God's people said, amen. Let's go ahead and take some time and greet one another. Calvary Chapel, I'm glad that you've joined us this morning.

Handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin are the things that go on throughout the week. There's only one minor change that needs to take place, and that is that, I'm going to try to read it. I read this wrong in the first service. So, Prophecy and the Scriptures will be meeting on Thursday, May the 30th, instead of on June the 6th, because of the conference in Emporia. So,

I'll announce that again next week, but just know that. In the middle section of your bulletin, just a reminder that there's a couple of different conferences coming up. There is June 1st is the one in Wellington, and then June 6th through 8th is the one in Emporia. Great conferences to check out and get plugged into. Ladies, there's a new Galatians study starting for the Joyful Life Women's Bible Studies. All the sign-ups are in the lobby for

that. And if you cannot attend either the Thursday or the Monday, but you would still like to receive the Bible studies so that you can kind of work along with them, you can also sign up to just receive those on the media table. A couple of other things that are going on. We had a t-shirt order not long ago, and those are now available out in the hallway. Afterwards, just find Sandra Davis. Why did I write work? Oh, I remember. Okay, so also we've got

a little landscape project going on over here. I think he has the cross up maybe already. Is the cross up out there? I didn't come in the front door. The cross is up out there already, and there's some stonework that's going to go on around that. And so, we need some fellows with some strong backs and weak minds, and I know you're going to come through for me on this. So,

next Saturday at 9 a.m. We're going to be working on that. And then the other thing that's coming up is we have VBS, and it starts one month from today, June the 19th. Now, it doesn't start on a Sunday. Don't get me wrong, but it starts June the 19th, and we have a need for volunteers for that. Again, there's a sign-up sheet out there, and we also have a workday coming up this Wednesday,

May the 22nd from 9 to noon here at the church. So, we're doing some decorating, and I'm probably not decorating it, building decorations. Is that what we're doing for that? Okay, very good. I just know I'm going to be here. So, if you can come help us with that, that would be great. And then there's also a little QR code in here that you can start getting your kids registered for VBS. So, check that out. There was other information

I was supposed to say about that, and I forgot my list that my wife gave me. I'll correct it later. I'll send it out on a flock note or something. Those are the things that are going on, but there is one other thing before we get into things. We are trying to get some more small groups started and kind of have a vision for like an entire ministry that goes along with small groups here at the church. So, I'm going to

invite up Rick and Joe and Danielle to come up and share about that because I've kind of put them in charge of making this happen. So, they're going to come up and share kind of their vision for what that is. Good morning. We're hoping as the Lord is going to be able to start some more home fellowships later on this summer throughout this area, some in Ark City, Winfield, Dexter, and down in Kay County. And these home fellowships are an

opportunity for you to get to know each other better and to build each other up and encourage each other in Christ. And also, these home fellowships are going to be involved in reaching in and ministering to the body here at Calvary. And also, once every three or four months, they're going to be involved in reaching out to those who don't know them. So, I'm going to be excited about what's taking place. But right now, what we're doing is we're trying to find out who

would be interested in hosting a home fellowship in their home and who would be interested in leading a home fellowship. And we have a sign-up sheet out in the hallway. It'll be out there for three weeks. And I just want you to pray about it. If you've never led a home fellowship before and it's something new to you and you're kind of nervous about it, we want to equip you and give

you support. And we want to help you. So, we're going to be out there for three weeks. And we're going to include a sign-up sheet so that you'll be comfortable down the road to be able to do something like that. And so, let's see, what else is it going to share? After June 2nd, after the sign-up sheet is done, those of you who sign up, we'd like to meet with you for the last four

Sundays in June, probably after the second service is over. And we may provide lunch for us so we could have a little meal together and share. This would give those of you interested in hosting and those of you interested in leading a home fellowship, to get to know each other and a chance for us to equip you and share with you kind of the vision that we have so that we could all have one mind in Christ as we start to do this. We're kind of excited about it because it's a neat opportunity for us to get to function as a body and to reach people that don't know Christ and at the same time reach into the body and minister here.

So we're kind of excited about it. Joe's going to share a little bit to those who are leading, and Danielle is going to share a little bit to those who are interested in hosting. So like Rick said, if you are interested, please sign up in the foyer out there. You're not signing your life away at this point, right? You don't have a clue of what the whole vision is and what we have in mind.

So please just, if the Lord is laying it on your heart in any way, shape, or form, just to come and kind of see what the whole thing is about, what we're thinking. I just want to share like a very small piece of that vision that we have in mind. So I'm going to share that vision just through a couple of scriptures that just came to me over the last couple of days. So in 1 Corinthians, it says, Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and the same judgment.

And in Galatians, it says, Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore some of the things that you have done in the past. You are such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each one looking to yourself so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. And in John, it says, A new commandment I will 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, if you have loved one another. If you have loved one another, if you have love for one another. And just as I was reading these verses, it just became apparent to me that I can't love all of you. I can't bear all of your burdens, and neither can Rick and neither can Pastor Ryan. Like Pastor Ryan's job, it speaks about in Ephesians 4,

when it talks about a pastor's job is to equip us, as the body, the body of Christ, and then we are supposed to carry that forward. And really what, that's what we're looking for in the leadership and the leaders, potential leaders for small groups is to take the equipping that Ryan is giving us and trying to pull together groups and smaller groups where we can hold each other accountable and we can know each other on a deep level to know what we're struggling with and know how we can be there for each other. And if we, if you're already part of a group in Calvary that's doing something like that, that's awesome. But I know that there are a lot in here that haven't found that yet.

And that's what we're trying to, trying to pull together is that the goal is for no one in this sanctuary to feel like you're walking your walk alone. And just giving, giving the opportunity for us to be pulled together and know each other's spiritual gifts and know how, how we can minister outside of this church and how we can minister to the people inside of this church. In Romans 12, it says when it's talking about different spiritual gifts and kind of how you go about using them. When it talks about leadership, it says lead with diligence.

What we're looking for in leaders is just somebody that can diligently always be there to keep these groups together, to pull us together as the body of Christ. And part of, part of that definition of diligence is earnest, caring, striving, promoting, trying to build each other up. We have a lot of great teachers in this church. There's one right here. And if you have,

there's multiple on the stage right now. And if you have that gift of leadership and you also want to be a leader, awesome. But you don't have to be a teacher to be a leader. You just have to be there to encourage everybody in your group to find the calling and to use their gifts in the way that God has, has made them to use them. So, um, like I said, that's just a kind of a small piece of what we're thinking.

If you're interested in trying to make this thing happen and be a leader that can pull together the body of Christ so that we can be the body of Christ and encourage each other and bury each other. Put your name out on the line out there with your phone number and we'll meet together and kind of keep working on this vision together. As Joe said, we are all members of the body with different giftings. My gifting is not in teaching or leading or public speaking in any way.

So bear with me and my scattered brain. But I was asked to talk on the gift of hosting. Um, I, we host a small group in our home and this is something we've been working on for a few years. And the thing that I really, um, would like to impress upon you guys is that we don't want perfect. Um, none of us are perfect. And I think in our society we've gotten so distracted by that.

We're so easily discouraged, um, looking around and thinking that we need to live up to the standard of perfection. And I think more people are looking for real. Um, than perfection. And so, um, with hosting, if you're interested, I've had, I've met so many of you and so many of you have shown, um, the gift gift of hospitality, um, to our family specifically.

So I know we have a lot of, um, people with the gift of hospitality out there. And if you are interested, you do not have to be in the leadership role. If you're interesting in hosting, we can definitely have two different families or two different people. Um, one hosting and one leading. Um, but if you're interested in opening up your home in whatever real way that

looks like, um, you can ask anyone who's been to my home and to our, um, small group, it's real. There are days that my gals are like, Hey, you want us to come 30 minutes early? And I'm like, absolutely. I'm in Wichita still. So, um, it just needs to be real. And I think, um, I think that's important to remember. So, um, if you are interested in hosting, there's a separate form,

um, out there that you guys can sign up on.

All right. Thanks guys.

Okay. So those are the things that are going on. If you could make sure that your mobile device is silenced and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 79 looking at the new American standard so that we can sound the same. If you need to copy, you should be wanting to roll 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, and 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 servant for food to the birds of heaven

and the flesh, 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, a scoffing and derision to those around us. How long, oh Lord, 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 compassions come quickly to meet us. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. For we are brought very low. Help us, oh God of our salvation for the glory of your name and deliver us and forgive our sins for your name's sake.

Why should the nation say, where is their God? Let there be known among the nations in our sight. Vengeance for the blood of your servants 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 bosom, the reproach which they have reproached you,

oh Lord. 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 specifically chose Psalm 79 this morning because I feel like it very aptly points out everything that's taken place since October. And maybe even before that with the nation of Israel. And May 19th,

which is today, uh, churches all over the country are dedicating a portion of their service to pray for the nation of Israel. And so I want to join in with that. I want our church wanted to be known that our church supports Israel. And so we did this on the day after the October 7th attack, and we're going to do it again today. Israel is to the east of us. And so I want you to take your hand and hold it out to the east,

and we're going to pray over the nation of Israel. And so father, we come to you now and father, these are your chosen people. Lord, these are the people that you have called by your, by their name. Lord, not because they are the biggest, not because they are the strongest, but simply because you love them. And father, I know that you have brought them back into their land by your sovereign hand and Lord,

the enemy is all around them literally and father slowly, but surely more and more of the nations of the world are turning against them. And so father, we pray for the protection of Israel. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We pray for the safety of their soldiers. We pray for the wisdom of their leaders. We pray for the protection of their homeland and we pray for the,

the prosperity of them as a nation. Father, we join with believers all over the country right now who are lifting up your name and Lord lifting up the nation of Israel in prayer. And so father, we ask that you would once again pour out your spirit on your chosen people. Father, our desire ultimately is to see them come to know you as their Lord and savior, that their eyes would be open to see that they have a messiah in his name is Jesus.

And so father, we just lift up the nation of Israel to you today. Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter one. Well, last week we finished up Philippians and as always, I start praying about where to go next and the Lord would not let me get away from Colossians and we'll probably just continue going through the New Testament.

It seems like that's what the Lord has laid on my heart, but specifically this book of Colossians I think is really important right now because Colossians really points out the supremacy of Christ, the, the sufficiency of Christ and the preeminence of Christ in the world and in our lives. And I think that we need that at this time in an even greater degree. And so we'll begin this book of Colossians. And this morning we're going to look at the first eight verses of Colossians and I've simply entitled it an introduction.

And so we look at verses one through eight of Colossians starting in chapter one, verse one. It says this Paul and 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 in 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 the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. Let's pray.

Let's pray. Let's pray when weúa seeing the gospel which has come to you. Just as in all the world. Also. It is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even it has been doing in you. Since the day you heard of it. And understood the grace of God in truth just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. Who's a faithful servant of Christ on your behalf on our behalf and he also informed us of your love.

Now, we're going to look at it a little bit by way of introduction as far as some background information, and then we'll get into the message that he has about the gospel. But first of all, a little bit of background. It starts off in verse 1 by giving us the writer. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother. Now, I'm not going to spend an incredible amount of time talking to us about Paul because

I did a long study on that at the very beginning of the book of Philippians. And if you want a little background information on Paul, the apostle, I would encourage you to go back to the book of Acts chapter 9 and start reading about not only his conversion, but if you go on from there, it will also tell about his ministry. So perhaps in the margin of your Bible, if you're newer and don't know as much about Paul, you might just write Acts chapter 9 so that you can remember to go back and look that up. But Paul was an interesting character because he referred to himself as the chief of sinners.

I actually think... Paul was somebody who really struggled with the fact that he was used by God because of who he was before he came to Christ. I think he struggled a lot with the fact that he was born again, not believing that he was born again, but believing that God was willing to make him born again because of the fact that he was oftentimes guilt-ridden over what he had done in the past. He, first of all, referred to himself as the least of the apostles, and then he refers to himself as the least of the saints.

And then finally, he refers to himself as... as the chief of sinners. And I think, and I don't know this for sure, but I think Paul battled a little bit with really grasping on to the fact that his sin truly was done away with simply because of who he was before Christ. And I tell you that because I'm not sure that there's not some people in here this morning that have a hard time really grasping who they are in Christ because of what they've done in the past.

Who perhaps because of sins that they have committed can find themselves saying, I am the chief of all sinners. I have a hard time really resting in the fact that I belong to Jesus, finding peace in the fact that I belong to Jesus because I know what I've done in the past. And I want you to know right now that if Paul the Apostle can find himself finally resting in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in the ministry that God gave him as an apostle of Jesus Christ, then God can do that same work in you. Too many of us run around feeling unworthy of the grace of God.

But listen, the fact that you are unworthy is what qualifies you for the grace of God. And so Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, the chief of sinners saved by grace. Again, he gives himself a title, a title that ultimately was given to him by Jesus, but he claims here in this epistle, and that's he refers to himself as an apostle. Now, that was a title that carried a great deal of authority.

Now, if you just simply look at the word apostle, it means a sent out one, one who is sent out. On a mission in that way, you and I are all apostles, but we're not apostles in the way that he claims it right here, because there is an apostolic authority that Paul and the other 11 apostles that we refer to often as the 12 disciples had about them. And it was because they had seen Jesus and they had the authority to set the tone, to set the doctrine for the church. Listen, I don't think there's apostles anymore.

People aren't setting new doctrine for the church anymore. They're trying to, but we don't set new. Doctrine for the church anymore. The word of God is sealed. We find that in the book of revelation. That was the final revelation of Jesus Christ that was given to John the apostle. And we find that it's now sealed. There are no more apostles giving out new revelation of Jesus Christ,

but Paul was given this authority to do so because he had seen the risen Christ. And so he uses that apostolic authority because he's going to have to correct an issue within the church of Colossae. And we'll get to that as we get to the recipient of the letter. But it says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. But I want you to notice the next thing that it says.

It says by the will of God, by the will of God, this is what God had called him to do. It was God's will for him to be this apostle to the Gentiles, this apostle that would write these letters to churches like Colossae in order to explain to them more fully the truth of what God had for him, had for them. Now, a lot of people want to know what is God's will for my life. What does God want me to do?

This is who Paul was by the will of God. But who am I by the will of God? And I want to tell you something. If you want to know the will of God for your life, you need to do two things. First of all, you need to know the God who has a will for your life. But second of all, you need to start taking steps of faith. You will not know God's will for your life until you start to take a step of faith.

You need to step out. And sometimes, God's going to say, that wasn't what I meant. I don't want you to go there. And you step back and you step out the other direction. And he says, that's where I wanted you to go. But you don't know that until you take a step of faith. You don't know that until you step out in faith. Paul did this all the time. Do you know what Paul wanted to be?

Paul wanted to be the apostle to the Jewish people because that's who he was in his DNA. He was Jewish and he always wanted to be an apostle to the Jewish people. You know how I know that? I know that because every city that he went to when he preached the gospel, the first place that he went to was what? It was a synagogue. Why? Because that's where the Jewish people were.

And he wanted to be the apostle to the Jewish people. But he wasn't called to be the apostle to the Jewish people. He was called to be the apostle to the Gentiles by the will of God. But he didn't know that if he didn't take a step of faith. And you won't know what God's will is for your life until you take a step of faith. Too many of us, either through fear or laziness,

will not step in faith into what God may have for us. I've done this before. I've taken a step and said Lord is this where you want me to go and so I start to walk into it and the door is so clearly closed that I have knots on my forehead from running into it and it was like nope that wasn't where God wanted me to be and then when I finally see the open door I walk through it and I'm like no blood on my head this must be the right one right by the will of God here's the interesting thing about the will of God for Paul Paul's going to write this letter just like Philippians from a prison cell he's going to write it while he is chained to a Roman soldier because this is also one of the prison epistles if you're taking notes there's four prison epistles

there's Ephesians Philippians Colossians and the little book of Philemon four different messengers all left Rome very secretly carrying a letter that was really really important that we refer to as the prison epistles and somewhere around AD 63 Paul writes this epistle to the Colossians people by the will of God but I want you to notice who's with him it says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother now the first thing I want to point out to you about Timothy is this Timothy is referred to as a brother not an apostle did you notice that because Timothy did not have the same apostolic authority that Paul did was he still used greatly by God absolutely but he was not an apostle you say but but

didn't an apostle speak to him yes but that doesn't mean he has the authority of an apostle it was just those 12 right and so he's referred to as a brother now Timothy is such a great character in scripture because Timothy was picked up by Paul on his second missionary journey he was a young man late teens early 20s when Paul picked him up and he had been led to Christ by his mother and his grandmother and he was circumcised and baptized and discipled by Paul Paul said why don't you join us on this missionary journey and Paul became or Timothy became one of the most faithful friends to Paul that he had in his entire life he was a faithful companion to Paul in every aspect of his ministry listen when things were going really great and when things

were going really bad when Paul was leading lots of people to Christ and when Paul is sitting in a prison cell Timothy was his faithful companion his encourager in everything that he did I have a question for you this morning because you see I think everybody needs a Timothy in their life and they need to be a Timothy to someone else so I have a question for you first of all who's the Timothy that you have in your life you see who you are will help will be determined to a certain extent by the people that you surround yourself with because you need to surround yourself with the right kind of people and you need to surround yourself with somebody like a Timothy you need that faithful friend in your life

that no matter what's going on they're always going to be there praying for you they're always going to be there encouraging you they're always going to be telling you to keep going even when the going gets tough even when fear is what dominates your mind you've got that Timothy alongside of you saying yeah but don't forget Jesus is still good and I'm here with you no matter what you need a Timothy in your life and listen if you don't have somebody like that you need to find somebody like that because we all need a friend the Christian life is not meant to be a lone ranger cowboy sort of a life where we don't need anybody else it's intended to be lived with other people and you need to find a Timothy in your life but you

know what else you need to be that for somebody else you need to be the Timothy in someone else's life you need to find someone that you can be the encourager to now listen they should want you to encourage them okay you can't just find a random guy on the street and be like I'm your Timothy let's go right because that gets creepy that's where restraining orders come from but but you should find somebody within the body of Christ that you know you can come alongside and encourage and you're just always there for them you need to find those people and you need to be those people in life Timothy our brother and so Timothy was with him there sending this letter to the Colossian

people now that was the writer the second thing that we see is the recipient notice what it says in verse two to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae grace to you and peace from God our father first thing I want to do is I want to tell you a little bit about the Colossian area the the actual city of Colossae it was located in Asia Minor what we would refer to as modern-day Turkey right so there was a group of seven churches that letters were all written to in the book of Revelation you know Philadelphia Laodicea different ones like that it was sort of nestled in that same area it was located somewhere between Laodicea and Hierapolis if you have a

map then later this afternoon you should turn back to your Bible map and find missionary journeys of Paul and you'll see somewhere in there the city of Colossae now when it was originally formed it was a major location it was known for its wealth and its prestige that's where the idea of Colossus actually comes from is that it was known for its wealth and prestige however by the time of Paul writing this letter to the Colossians it was a city in decline there was economic decline there was prestigious decline it was not the city that it was at one point in time so it was a city that was actually kind of going downhill interestingly enough somewhere about 10 years

after this letter was written it was actually destroyed through an earthquake and so it was a city that was sort of on its way down but the entire region of Asia Minor was a fascinating region at this point in time because it was sort of where east meets west right where all of the and power of the west or vice versa and so um so it was a real melting pot of ideas it was a real melting pot of of uh of philosophy it was actually known for its culture its philosophy as well as its paganism and its immorality so a kind of a fascinating area to be at this point in time now he refers to these people at Colossae as saints we won't get into that too much we talked about that a little bit last week but if you're here this morning

and you're a believer in Jesus Christ you're a saint saints and faithful brethren who are at Colossae now the church there these saints and faithful brethren was not actually started by Paul matter of fact most believe that Paul never even visited this city this church was actually started by a guy named Epaphras we read his name a little bit further down in the introduction most believe that when Epaphras started this church Paul was having a great ministry in Ephesus if you were to continue on reading in the book of Acts after the conversion of Paul you will find that he has a great ministry in Ephesus he once again started in a synagogue he got kicked out of the synagogue and so he found

himself establishing a headquarters in what was called the school of Tyrannus. Tyrannus was a philosopher and when they were out of session if you will in the school Paul would set up camp there and people from all over Asia were coming to hear the word of God and as they were coming to hear the word of God they would then take the word of God to the city that was a place where they were around them and so this Epaphras just happened to show up to a meeting that Paul was having there in the school of Tyrannus and as Paul was preaching the gospel and giving out the truth of the word of God showing Jesus throughout the old testament the gospel took its hold on the heart of Epaphras

and so what he did is he took that message and he went all the way back to Colossae with it and he began to preach that message to the other people that were around him and as he did a church form there we're actually told in the book of Acts that because of Paul's teaching in Ephesus every city in all of Asia heard the word of God isn't that amazing no social media no church growth programs no funding no no backing by anybody just a simple word of mouth spreading of the gospel and so Epaphras goes and he starts this church in Colossae and it was a fantastic church we're going to find out that these these guys had a lot going for them but there was also a little bit of an issue which brings us to the purpose of Paul's teaching in Ephesus and it's

writing this book there was a heresy in Colossae in general that had begun to sneak its way into the church because that's what false teaching always does it always starts to find its way into the church remember we said that this area was a melting pot of ideas and religious ideas were one of those things that would come about and so he wrote this to address what commentators simply refer to as the Colossian heresy and it's a little hard to describe so let me read this to the Colossian heresy was an early form of Gnosticism it combined Christian truth Jewish legalism Greek philosophy and Eastern mysticism in that day there was often a mixing of different

religious ideas Gnosticism is the idea that there is a higher learning or a higher knowledge that we can achieve and that Jesus was simply one in a long line of created beings of God so in this long line of created beings of God shows up Jesus Christ and so they couldn't believe that he was actually God himself they actually believed that the God consciousness the Christ consciousness came upon Jesus at his baptism and left him at his resurrection pretty strange idea right that's not what we want to pay the most attention to what we want to pay the most attention to are two or three of the main ways that Gnostics exercise their religion because there were

different sects of it one end of it they practice what they call the Christian religion and the Christian what's called asceticism. That's extreme self-denial for the purpose of achieving this higher knowledge. And so they would deny themselves of everything. Think monks in the second and third century, right? That would be like asceticism, right? So that was one way that they would look

at it. Then there was a whole other group that practiced licentiousness to every degree because their philosophy was this. If everything material is evil, because that's what Gnostics believed, then it doesn't matter what I do with my body because my body is evil. And so as long as my soul is pure, it doesn't matter. I just need to meet all of my body needs. Kind of sound familiar?

And so that's the idea that would go out that was licentious. And then there was a group that was kind of somewhere in the middle that followed a mixture of Jewish traditionalism and ceremony because they believe that the way to reach this higher knowledge was through a form of tradition, ceremony, and legalism. Talk about being confused, right? And so all of that's kind of mixing together, creating this Colossian heresy. And so Paul, you can imagine Epaphras showing up to Paul and being

like, it's a little hard to explain. Follow me. I've got a flow chart. I've got a Venn diagram here to show you how it all fits together, right? And so Paul goes, oh geez, those people need a letter, which always brings me to an interesting point. I think if Paul knew what was going on in the church in America today, we'd be getting a letter. Amen, right? So these are the recipients,

these Colossians. People. Now, whatever issue it truly was that the Colossian people dealt with, there was always a danger because the danger of any heresy is that it strips Jesus of his power. It strips Jesus of his preeminence and his sufficiency. He was in danger of becoming just one in a long line of religious ideas. There's always the danger of Jesus and. And the only cure for that kind of heresy

is the same cure for any kind of false idea. And that's a deeper and greater understanding of who Jesus really is. And that's what Paul is going to give us in the book of Colossians. And so he says to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, and Paul gives his famous greeting, grace to you and peace from God, our father. His grace and peace are the things that we need to live this life. And the only source of grace

and peace that we truly have in this world today is in none other, but God, the father himself. And so that's the writer. That's kind of the background. And so now we come into the rest of the introduction in which he gives thanks for the work of the gospel. 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, I don't want to labor on this verse very much because next week we'll get into Paul's story. But I want to get into Paul's story. And I want to get into Paul's story. Paul's prayer here in Colossians. But I think it's interesting to point out that every letter that Paul sends, these two things, him giving thanks and him praying seem to always come out

in his letters that he writes to the different churches. And that should tell us something about our life of thanksgiving and our life of praise or our life of prayer. And that those two things should be pretty predominant in our lives. Last week, we talked a lot about contentment, that if we're going to win the battle of the mind, that we have to, we have to learn to be content. And can I tell you that the greatest enemy of discontentment

is thanksgiving? And I would tell you that the greatest enemy of contentment is a heart that has no thanks in it, that won't give thanks. Because the more that I thank God for what I have, the more I think a lot less about what I don't have. And so he says, I give thanks for you. And then I also pray for you. And this is what he thanks God for. He says, I give thanks and I pray

for you. Why? Since the day we heard of your faith, in Jesus, and the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven, of which previously you heard in the word of truth, the gospel. Now, did you notice three important words in there? Three really good Sunday school answer Bible words in there. Let me read it to you again. It says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, the love which you

have for all the saints, because of the hope that is laid up for you in heaven. Three of Paul's favorite words, faith, hope, and faith. And he says, I give thanks to you, because of the love and love, right? And so I want to spend just a few minutes talking about these three words, because I'm so, he says, I'm so thankful that these are true of you. Number one, that you have

a faith in Christ, a faith in Christ. The word faith as translated by the Amplified Bible, I found to be just awesome. It says, to lean on him with absolute confidence in his power, to lean on him with absolute confidence in his power. And so I want to spend just a few minutes talking about these three words, faith, hope, and faith. Now, I find that faith is a difficult thing to explain to people,

because, well, sometimes you just got to have faith, right? Faith can be kind of a difficult thing to explain to people, but also faith is one of those overused, misunderstood words. I remember when I was in my early 20s, I was either in Bible college or fresh out of Bible college. I saw this commercial with Christopher Reeve in it, and he's in this wheelchair. He's talking about his

experience, and he just kept saying, you just have to have faith. You just have to have faith, right? And then, of course, there was that famous song from the 80s, because you got to have faith, right? And so everybody talks about it, but the question is, what's your faith in? Because your faith is only as good as the thing that you put it in, and you can't just know about it. You have

to do something with it, right? So this is the best illustration I've ever been able to come up with about faith. So a long time ago, 20 years ago, actually, my wife and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon after we got married. So we go on this cruise, and we go up on the top deck at night, and I just, I loved it. I love going out on a cruise. I love going out on a cruise. I love going out on a cruise.

I love going outside at night. I love when there's no, you know, light distortion or anything like that that prevents you from seeing the stars. So we go up on this top deck. I'm looking at the stars. It's just amazing, and we walk out near the edge where there's like a railing, you know, and it's fascinating in a situation like that, because you look down at the water, and you just can't see

anything. Everything's just black, right? And it's almost kind of overwhelming to look and see that, and so I stand at the edge, and I kind of went, that's not true. It'd be funny if it was, but it's not. Sidebar. There's a great Instagram reel running around right now that did all of the scenes from Titanic, only they replaced Kate with a cat, and it is the best thing you will watch all day. It is so,

I've seen it like 10 times now. I giggle every bit as hard every time. I start laughing, and Aaron's like, is it a fail video or the cat? I'm like, oh, it's the cat, right? Because it's so funny. Anyway, sidebar. Back to the study. So as I'm standing there at the edge, I think, man, what would happen if I fell off this boat? Because that's what my brain does in those situations.

I'd just be like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Right? You just hear me hit the, no one would hear me hit the water. Aaron would hear me hit the water, and she would go. That was a bummer, right? And so what do you do at that point in time? Well, I would hope that what they would do is if anybody realized that I hit the waters, that

they'd throw a lifesaver in or a life jacket or something. Can you imagine? They throw me a life jacket, right? And I see the brand of the life jacket. I'm like, that's a really good life jacket right there. That's what that is. That's this brand of life jacket. Let me tell you all the stats. I know who manufactured that life jacket. I can tell you everything there is to know about that

life jacket. That life jacket has saved 579,000 lives in its existence. I can't, that's the best life jacket ever. So amazing. As I'm drowning, right? Because a lot of knowledge about the life jacket won't do me any good until I what? Grab onto the life jacket, right? Until I lean on it with absolute confidence in its power. You see, that's faith. The moment that I put that life,

life jacket on and go, keep me above the water, right? That's how I know I have faith in the life jacket. And that's the way it is with us in Jesus. How did you come to faith? Well, because I needed a life jacket. I was drowning in my sin. I was drowning in my shame and somebody threw me a life jacket. And I didn't just say, you know, I grew up learning a lot of verses about that. I grew up

learning a lot of things about Jesus. I just finally said, I just need the life jacket. I just finally cried out to Jesus. And listen, there's a lot of people sitting in here right now who can tell me a lot about the Bible, but have you actually put the life jacket on? And some of you have put the life jacket on to keep you from going to hell, but you still aren't walking by faith. Every day is still you putting your hope in your own wisdom

and your own ability. Meanwhile, what Jesus wants you to do is to lean on him with absolute confidence in his power. And Paul looks and he says, man, I'm so thankful for you guys because you have faith in Christ because you have truly put your faith in the one thing that will always be there. The unshakable truth of Jesus Christ. Not only that, he says, I'm also thankful for your

love for all the saints. Now there's several different words in the Greek language for love. The Bible mainly uses three. The first word, and we've gone over this before, but we'll go over it again really quickly for the new kids. The first one is the word eros. It's where we get our word erotic, and it's more of a physical sort of love. It's a physical attraction sort of love. Important in a marriage relationship, but it is the lowest form of love

because it is somewhat self-satisfying. The second word for love is the word phileo. It's where we get our word Philadelphia from. And it's a friendship type of love. I would say the most common amongst human beings is that friendship kind of love. But then there's a third word that's the Greek's considered the highest level of love, and that word is agape. And the word agape is a

divine sacrificial sort of love. A love that says, I will put you above me even if it costs me everything. That's the kind of love that he refers to. Paul says that you have agape love, listen, for all the saints. And we need to understand something. Real faith produces real love. Real faith, is real love. Because when I truly put my faith in Jesus Christ, when I have truly grabbed onto

the life jacket, all I want to do is show other people the life jacket because I love them so much. Not only all of us that are in here, because our love for each other should be a growing part of our lives, but even the people that are outside of these four walls. That love is what we are to be known for. We are told in scripture that we are to be known for our love, that they will know that you are my disciples by the love that you have for one another. And I do think that oftentimes

that's something that's missing in church culture today. Actually, there's usually two extremes. There's either truth or there's love. Truth without love is cruelty. Love without truth is license, right? And so we have to have the blending of the two together. I was actually listening to Sean McDowell teach on this. It's a fascinating teaching. It's a great book called The Beauty

of Intolerance. I would highly recommend that you get that. But he talks about the fact that there are so few believers that truly understand that truth and love have to work together. Because that agape love for all the saints always has to be based on truth, but your truth always has to be tempered with love. And I'm here to tell you right now, the world needs to see believers who truly love them today. And the church needs believers who

will truly love them today. Paul said, I'm so thankful for you. Because you have faith in Christ, that faith is producing real love for the saints. But notice the last thing he says, that you have a hope laid up for you. That word hope can be defined like this, a desire for some good with the expectation of obtaining it. A desire for some good with the expectation of obtaining it. That last part's what I want you to pay attention to, the expectation

of attaining it. That's what makes it hope, right? There's a difference between wishing for it and hoping for something, right? I have a lot of wishes in my life. I actually have a lot of wishes, but there's two that I know are not at all based in reality, right? Like the first wish that I have in my life is to be able to dunk a basketball someday. I do believe that in eternity, I'll be

able to do that because I think Jesus is gracious and he knows it's important to me. But I can't right now. And I don't even try anymore. I never really tried on a 10-foot goal, but I used to try on an eight-foot goal. And I just, my body doesn't handle that landing as well as it used to, right? Right? That on my back hurts worse than it used to when I was 25. So I don't even try that anymore,

right? Because that's not founded in reality. You know, the wish I really have in my life, the wish I really have in my life is to be able to sing. I want to be the lead singer of a band. It can be a worship band. I'm happy to worship Jesus with my voice, but I want to be able to sing. It's my wish that I have in my life. But here's what happens every time I begin to sing

is my girls look at me and they say the same thing every single time. Dad, stop. And then their mother says, yeah. They used to say it so nicely. Daddy, you shouldn't sing anymore. That was the way they said it when they were kids, right? But now I have a teen and a preteen. And now they're just like, dad, don't. That's embarrassing, right? And again, their mother's

right there the whole time going, they're not wrong, right? It's a wish that I have. It's not a hope that I have because there is no expectation of obtaining it. But too many of us view the hope that we have kind of like a wish, right? Is we say, you know what? I'm going to sing. I'm going to sing. Yes, there's this hope laid up for us. A hope, I think. But there's an expectation that we have

of obtaining it because there's a reality in our hope. And that reality of our hope is in Jesus. We have a future because of our hope. Paul says, I thank God for you, for your faith and your love and your hope. And all of those things are founded in, and this is my last point, all of those things are founded in the gospel. Notice what he says here, of which you, end of verse,

of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. Now, the gospel simply defined means good news, right? Now, I don't know about you, but there's been times in my life where I think, how would I ever explain the gospel to someone? You ever thought about that? It's kind of an intimidating thought to think about trying to explain the gospel to somebody. Do you know,

I can explain the gospel to you in two phrases, two simple phrases that absolutely explain the gospel. You're a great sinner. Christ is a great savior. That's the gospel. Your sin has separated you from God. Jesus has made a way back to God. So you're a great sinner, but Jesus is a great savior. Have you noticed that? Like, I'm a professional sinner. I used to be anyways. I'm recovering. I'm coming out of the profession.

I've retired, hopefully. But I was a professional sinner. But Jesus is a professional savior. And that's the good news. And there are people that still don't believe that good news. But they make it more complicated than they need to be. Paul said, these things are true because you have heard the word of the truth of the gospel. And notice what he says about this

gospel. This gospel is bearing fruit, verse six, and increasing. As it has been in you, so in the rest of the world. The gospel is always bearing fruit. Have you ever noticed that? Now, we don't always get to see the fruit because nobody on the news likes to report the fruit of the gospel. Have you noticed that? We'll report everything bad. We'll report things falsely.

Kind of like the Harrison Bucker situation this last week. We'll report things falsely. But they don't ever report what the gospel is actually doing. Do you know that the gospel is still spreading today? Easter weekend, there was a massive baptism down in Florida. Do you know the other night, they didn't want to do it in front of a whole bunch of people. We had a little

baptism here. It was great. I love what the gospel is continuing to do because the gospel can't be changed. There's a great movie. And hopefully we can put together a movie night when things slow down a little bit, like maybe late July. Something like that. This movie's called Woodlawn. You ever seen the movie Woodlawn? Fantastic movie, right? And so it's basically, remember the Titans, Jesus version, right? And so

it's set in Alabama in the time of reintegration when all that's taking place. And all of the racial tension that was taking place in the early 70s and everything that was happening and how a guy who was simply an FCA representative showed up at a high school. And told the coach, he goes, hey, I think you need me to come talk to your team. And finally, the coach is like, I don't care, whatever, go talk to my team. And so he goes and talks to the team

and the whole team gets saved. And then pretty soon, a whole lot of it, it's a true story. A whole lot of other people get saved. Why? Because the greatest cure for racial ills is the gospel. Because it puts everybody on the same plane. There's no white guys and black guys anymore. There's just sinners. Like J. Vernon McGee used to say, there's just saints and aints.

That's it. Right? And so we don't identify each other by our color anymore. Now we just say, well, do you love Jesus? And if so, then we're one in Christ. And that's exactly what the gospel is able to do. And so the gospel produces fruit and it's doing it all over the world. And God wants to do it here. God wants to do it in our community. God wants to do it in our county. He wants to do

it in our state because the gospel is continuing to produce fruit. We get too worried about whether or not we can defend the gospel. I tell you, just unleash the gospel and let it do what it's going to do. Because it's powerful. The power of God into salvation for everyone who believes. And then, and I'll close with this. And then he goes on to say, verse seven, just as you learned it from

Epaphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. And he has informed us of your love in the spirit. I love this because how did this all start? Because of Epaphras. It was one man with one message who took that one message and ended up starting a church with it. And that church began to be known for its love. And that church began to grow all because of one

man with one message. That, that movie Woodlawn starts off with a scene from Explo 72. What most people believe, and it was, they actually show footage from it. Most people believe that's actually when the Jesus movement started. It was a Billy Graham crusade and he was down at, in Dallas at the Cowboy Stadium. I think it might've been at a different place, but it was somewhere. It was in Dallas at a football stadium.

I know that. And there's this powerful scene they show at the beginning of the movie of them turning all of the lights off in this stadium, right? And everybody had a candle. So one person took and lit a candle for somebody else. And pretty soon throughout that entire stadium, everybody's lighting candles to where by the time the entire stadium is lit with candles,

it's glowing like daylight. Why? Because of one man and one message. You may be thinking to yourself, I don't have that in me. Yes, you do because you have the Holy Spirit living in you. And you are one person with one message, one message that is the power of God unto salvation, a message in an earthen vessel. And you have the opportunity to take that one message and impact as

people as you would want to with the power of the Holy Spirit working through you. You know how it'll start? Help out with VBS and take that one message to one little kid who maybe needs to hear the truth of the gospel. You say, how can I do that? Well, sign up to go host a small group in your home and see what God wants to do with that. Sign up to lead a small group in your home and see what

God wants to do with that. Help out with a Sunday school class because quite frankly, people, we got a ton of kids back there. They need some Sunday school teachers. Now, preface that with just because you want to doesn't mean I'm going to let you. But there's weird people sometimes. I got to tell people no every now and then, right? Maybe you need to start cleaning the toilet. I don't know. But maybe you

need to sign up and start giving out the truth to a bunch of little kids. Because I'm here to tell you right now, if you can preach the truth to a little kid and they get it, you can preach the truth to anybody and they'll get it. You're one person with one message. Take that message, and go out and light the world. Amen? Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you, and I thank you, Lord, for who you are. Lord, I thank you that you are the preeminent one. And I can't wait to get into all this stuff about Jesus in this. But Lord, we've already gotten into it. Lord, I thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thank you for the love of the saints. I thank you for the hope that we have. And so, Lord, I want to lift up every believer that's in here this morning

and just ask that you would pour out your spirit afresh upon them. Lord, that you would pour out your spirit in such a way that they know how to take that message into the world that's around them. Father, I want to lift up the people in here that haven't grabbed onto the life jacket yet. Lord, they may know a lot of information about you. Maybe they've even been coming here for a

little while, but they've never really given their heart to you. They've never really leaned on you. One hundred percent. One hundred percent for their life. And Lord, I want to pray that today would be the day that in the quietness of their heart, they would cry out to you and say, Lord, I'm a great sinner. You're a great savior. Come in and save me. And Lord, I want to lift up those who are feeling

that stirring, Lord, to do a little bit more. Father, fill them afresh. Father, be with us as we go out from here. Keep our eyes focused on you. We just pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. When music fades, and all is stripped away, I have simply come just to bring something that's a word that will bless your heart. A song, for a song in itself, is not one that's much deeper with

God. We just thank you for the day. Thank you for another opportunity to come and to worship you, Lord God. And Lord God, just help us to worship you, not just in song, Lord God, but just in every aspect of our lives. In the way we live, the way we walk and talk every day, in our dealings with people and in our jobs, Lord God, in our families. Lord God, just help us to worship you in everything that we do, Lord.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.