Colossians 1:1-8 Thankful for the Unshakable Gospel

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. All right.

Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church. My name is Ben Wainwright. I'm the Associate Pastor of Student Ministries here.

Hope that everybody's been enjoying your Labor Day weekend so far. Weather's been pretty great and football's back.

All right. That's good. Yeah. Excitement for that. So, today we're going to be taking a one -week pause from the

Book of Titus to closely look at the first eight verses of the first chapter of the

Book of Colossians. Before getting a text from Don just eight days ago,

I got a text from him last Saturday night. He asked me to preach this week.

He had a busy week coming up with memorial service and wedding all packed into one weekend.

So, he asked me to preach. So, before hearing from him, I had no idea that it was

God's plan for me to be up here this morning, but I am very, very thankful and grateful for the opportunity, especially because of the journey that God has had me on through this passage.

So, back in the summer of 2022, so just a little over two years ago now is when

God first laid this passage on my heart. So, what had happened was is there was a preacher training course that Don decided he wanted to start up for any men in this church who might be interested in proclaiming

God's word through a sermon. So, that was the first time that I had the opportunity to study this passage closely.

The cool thing about it was is that I was actually able to preach this sermon for the first time, my very first sermon ever, into one of the rooms back there to a small group of guys, about six or eight guys on my birthday.

So, of all things, the first sermon I ever preached was on November 1st of 2022, the small room of guys.

If you know me, I'm not a morning person. It was 7 AM to try to get the guys together before everybody went off to work for the day.

So, yeah, so that was something. That was quite something. But yeah, it's cool to see that when

I went back through the version history of Google Docs, that it showed me that, yeah, that God had me first start writing this sermon back on October 18th of 2022.

Then, as I mentioned, yeah, two weeks later, I was able to preach it. Received some great feedback, some very good feedback from Don and the other guys present there.

Then, actually, six months later, after making some revisions and some changes,

I was given the opportunity to actually preach it again. Went through that course a second time.

In fact, the course is in its third session now. If you're a man in this church, be interested in knowing more about that, you weren't aware of it, contact me or Don, and we'll get you plugged into the next one.

But all in all, it is my hope that our time spent together here this morning will be led by the

Holy Spirit, and that my words will accurately explain God's intended message for each and every one of us here from Colossians 1, 1 -8.

To introduce Colossians a little bit, this book is an epistle or a letter written to the church at Colossae between AD 61 and 62.

In verse 1, Paul and Timothy are explicitly stated as the authors of Colossians.

Many scholars believe that Paul's words comprise this book, which was then transcribed, written by Timothy.

Paul wrote this letter in response to the news he received from his disciple Epaphras, a fellow missionary, telling and finding out that false teaching was spreading throughout the city of Colossae.

The book of Colossians was written during Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, roughly around the same time that he wrote

Philemon and Ephesians. Paul sent all three of these letters that he had written with Tychicus and Onesimus, some fun names, he sent these books or these letters with them to deliver to them to the churches to which he addressed them.

This letter to the Colossians is a plea for Christian unity and the exaltation of Christ.

Paul's primary goals in this letter are to ensure that the Christians in Colossae remain securely established in their faith and that they continue to grow in their faith as well.

Paul begins and ends this letter with a very intense focus on Jesus Christ as the foundation of the believer's existence.

Colossians is a very Christocentric or Christ -centered book. Throughout the entire book,

Paul teaches of the preeminence or superiority of Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the truth that Christ alone is sufficient for salvation.

Paul proves this to them by pointing out that Christ's work in creation and redemption should be seen as a reminder to the

Colossians that they need not look elsewhere for salvation besides in Christ alone.

We see a common theme throughout Colossians of Paul passionately proclaiming the centrality of Christ and the finality of his authority.

Paul has a strong desire for the Colossian Christians to understand that what they believe about Christ must not affect only what they do, but also who they are as well.

So with that in mind, I'd like you to ask yourself, do my beliefs about Christ affect not just my actions, but my entire identity as well?

In a book called Living the Cross -Centered Life, one of my favorite books, I'd strongly recommend it to you if you haven't read it.

It's actually a short read. I think it's maybe like 140 pages, but the pages are also small.

So it's a pretty quick read. Author C .J. Mahaney, he tells of a time when he responded to the classic question that we've all asked and we've all heard, how are you today?

And here's what he says. His phrase that he replies with is this. He says, better than I deserve.

I was moved the first time I read that. It's a powerful truth that I firmly believe, and it comes from Romans 6 .23,

right? Why am I better than I deserve? Because Romans 6 .23 tells us, for the wages of sin is death.

That's what each and every one of us deserve. We all deserve that, myself included. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Amen. So for those of you who have put your faith in Jesus, if someone asks you how you're doing this week,

I encourage you to respond with the answer, better than I deserve. And it might spark some questions, and that's great.

Maybe God will use this as a way to open the door for you to share the gospel with someone. So moving back to our text, a little bit of background information.

Colossae was a city of Phrygia in the valley of the river Lycus, 100 miles east of Ephesus.

And basically, just to give you, it's now in modern day Turkey. Colossae was often thought of as an insignificant city, but despite it being considered a city of insignificance by many people,

God had a great plan for the people of Colossae. I think we might be a little early on that one, but that's all right.

Or maybe I highlighted it, or I don't know. The church of Colossae got its start during Paul's three -year ministry in Ephesus, around AD 52 to 55.

During this time, God led a Colossian man named Epaphras to the city of Ephesus to hear Paul proclaim the gospel.

Epaphras responded to his hearing of the gospel by returning to Colossae and starting the Colossian church.

Even though Paul wasn't the founder of the church of Colossae, nor had he actually ever even visited there before, there's no doubt that this church was founded as a result of his three years of evangelizing in Ephesus.

What I find interesting about Paul's writing of this letter is not just the fact that he had never been to the church before, but that it was composed mostly of Gentiles.

Well, Jews consider Gentiles to be outsiders. So as a devout

Jew, why would Paul write a letter of thanksgiving, prayer, and encouragement to the church at Colossae?

And you kind of got a little sneak peek preview, but my question is, with football starting back up this weekend, let me ask all of you a question, especially, got a significant amount of Michigan fans in the room here.

Would Michigan fans who have put their faith in Christ go to the shoe in Columbus to share the gospel with their archrival

Buckeye fans and vice versa, right? I hope so. I hope so, right?

And I guess I could kind of put that on Notre Dame fans to Michigan fans, some rivalry there, right?

I mean, you get it, right? Sports rivals. Can we set those things aside?

We should, right? Well, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul feels a pastoral responsibility for this church.

Later on in the book of Colossians, in chapter three, verse 11, Paul says this. He says, Here there is not

Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave free, but Christ is all and in all.

Paul is urging the Colossians that they have nothing to gain from anything the Jewish contenders might offer them.

Even today, many false teachers do not seem to deny the message of the gospel. Instead, what they do is they slightly change it.

Often they teach extra things or add rules or stipulations to the gospel. Heresy or false teaching can be deceptive and come in many different forms.

Paul wrote to the Christians at Colossae to remind them about the unshakable truth of the gospel.

The fact that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

And we hear that, that's scripture, that's Acts 4 .12, tells us that truth. So now

I'm gonna ask that you please open up your Bible or your device at this time and you find the New Testament book of Colossians towards the end of your

Bible. And please follow along as I read the first eight verses of chapter one, starting with verse one.

Recast, this is God's holy and precious word. I love that Don says that just about every week. It is an immense privilege and an honor and a blessing that we have to be able to hear directly from God this morning.

So let's, I ask that you follow along as I read Colossians 1 .1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, in the word of the truth, the gospel. Which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit.

Please bow with me, church, as we pray. Dear God, thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you for bringing us together here to hear the unshakable truth of your gospel,

Lord. That you sent your son Jesus to the earth to die on the cross for all of our sins,

Lord. And you rose him from the grave to conquer sin and death, Lord. And we thank you for this truth.

We thank you that we can study these words this morning. I pray that as the worship team gets ready to lead us here in lifting your name high and praising you,

Lord, I ask that you will block out any distractions that we have. Anything that's been going on in our lives, that's been stressing us out or whatever it is, let's release that.

Let's surrender that to you at this time, Lord. And I ask that you'll help our hearts and our minds to be focused on you and you alone during this time of singing.

And we just thank you so much for all that you've done for us and who you are.

You are a gracious and a merciful father. And we love you so very much. We pray all these things in your heavenly name.

Amen. Thank you, Jesse, for your prayer. Thank you, worship team, for leading us and praising our father and our savior this morning.

I'm gonna ask that you please get comfortable and reopen your Bibles or open back up your apps to Colossians chapter one.

If you are new or newer here, please feel free at any time during the sermon to get up.

And if you need to use the restrooms, you can go right out the double barn doors there down that hallway, and then you'll see them on your left -hand side.

You can do that at any time. If you also would like to get some more donuts, while supplies last,

I got some donut holes still in the back there and then also some coffee or juice and water in the back.

And you won't bother or disrupt me at any time. Feel free to get up and get those if you'd like. So before we go through our text this morning, verse by verse,

I wanna give you our sermon outline for today. It is broken up into three different parts.

And so I'll read them off for you and give you a chance to jot those down if you're a note taker. Part one,

I've titled greeting to those in Christ. And that covers verses one through two. Part one is greeting to those in Christ for the first two verses.

Part two is effects of hearing the gospel. And that covers verses three through five.

Part two is effects of hearing the gospel from three to five. And then the last one, part three is the power of the gospel.

And that covers verses six through eight. Part three, the power of the gospel, six through eight.

So we'll start with part one, greeting to those in Christ from verses one through two.

And as we look at the beginning of verse one, we see the words, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.

The book of Colossians starts with Paul mentioning his title as an apostle of Christ Jesus.

For a very specific reason, the word apostle means one who is sent out by God.

Therefore, if anyone was wondering what authority

Paul has to write this letter, his credibility as a teacher is explicitly stated as his status as a messenger who was specifically chosen by God.

Christ called and empowered him to carry on a divine task that was entrusted only to a few.

And just to clarify, apostles no longer exist today. Christians, believers in Christ, we are now referred to as disciples, given the great commandment.

And the end of Matthew, go and make disciples of all nations. So here in verse one,

Paul has made it clear that his position as an ambassador of Christ gives him the right to send this letter to the

Colossians. Paul did not decide on his own to go into the apostolic ministry, right?

He didn't just, you know, wasn't growing up as a kid saying, I want to be an apostle. No, instead he understood himself to have been set apart by the will of God to carry the gospel that was given to him by the

Lord to all the nations. Now you might be thinking, what is the will of God that Paul is referring to here?

Well, we can find the answer in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse three, when he says this, for this is the will of God, your sanctification.

So God desires for all believers to daily grow in holiness by living their lives for him.

Paul mentions Timothy, our brother. We also see that mentioned in the text.

Timothy is noted not as a part author, but strictly as the scribe of the book of Colossians, right?

So he's given credit for being the one who didn't come up with the words and the message of it, but was the one who penned it.

Now, please take a look with me at verse two. Let's look at verse two. Here we see that Paul is addressing the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae.

The two most important words there in that verse really stand out. Who are the saints that he is referring to here?

He's referring to the believers of Christ who have received God's gift of salvation at Colossae.

Here, Paul is reminding the Christian Colossians of their status as those who have been transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son.

And as I mentioned earlier, Paul had never been to the church at Colossae before.

Yet because of the common bond of faith that they share as brothers and sisters in Christ, we see the power of Christian love right away.

Notice that Paul didn't address this letter to the church in Colossae as he did in his earlier letters.

Here, he addressed this letter directly to the saints and the faithful brothers in Christ.

Let's also observe that Paul addresses the saints and faithful brothers in two different dimensions.

First, their spiritual status with God when he says, in Christ.

And second, he refers to them in their spatial earthly location, their place here on earth by saying at Colossae.

You could see how their status in Christ comes first.

There's significance. There's importance to that, right? As humans here on earth, we might move several times.

In fact, I'm curious. Let's just get a little participation here. Raise your hand if you have moved five or more times in your life.

Five or more moves. Okay. I know of a couple people who they're gonna be able to keep their hand up decent amount through this time.

Keep your hand if you've moved at least 10 or more times. This is kind of getting up there. All right.

Keep it up for at least 15 or more. 15 or more. Yeah. Okay. Well, my parents, they're here today.

They have moved a total of 16 times. I did see a few others though. So I'm wondering, are there any 20s?

Are there any 20s? People, that'd be just crazy. All right. Well, there was a few, still 15 is wild, but 16 for my mom and dad, which

I just, I think, I can't fathom it. That's wild. But the point of me bringing that in is that no matter how many times we change our address, no matter how many times we move locations here on this earth, true

Christians will always remain in Christ. This is the unshakable truth of the gospel.

Paul concludes verse two by saying, grace to you and peace from God, our

Father. Once again, the end of that statement is what brings true value and credibility to Paul's heartfelt greeting.

From God, our Father. Grace is a free gift from God, church, which will bring about the peace that Paul speaks of.

What good is grace from Paul or from any human being, right? It's insignificant.

All offerings of grace given by men pale in comparison to the amazing grace that comes to us from our

Father in heaven. Now we'll move on to part two, effects of hearing the gospel from verses three through five.

And as we get into this section here, we arrive at the heart of today's passage.

This entire section of scripture, it leads up to its climax in verse five.

But before we get there, please look with me at verse three. Paul says, we always thank

God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. I can't emphasize enough the incredible power of Christian love for those who are in Christ that is demonstrated here in this verse.

The Colossian Christians, who once again, I'll say it, Paul had never actually met in person before, they are on his regular prayer list.

How incredible is that? Think of how often we can get so internally focused on ourselves or our immediate friends and family that we only pray for those who we have a close relationship with.

I know I'm guilty of that sometimes as well. Well, Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2, verse one, and says this, first of all then,

I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.

Church prayer is an important part of a believer's walk with Christ. Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and to serve as, to be our mediator with God so that we can freely talk to God anytime, anywhere.

How incredible is that? Anywhere we're at, any time of the day, we can turn to him in prayer and he is listening because of what

Christ has done for us. So if you're encouraged by Paul's selfless prayer for the Colossians and you wanna get some prayer requests here within the church, maybe you're just like,

I would love that, but I don't really know how to, and you wanna start praying for others, there is a

Recast Church prayer group on Facebook that you can join. We also have a

CCB group that'll send you through the Lead app, you can get some email notifications of prayers.

So talk to myself or Linda or Don or really anybody who you know that's on staff and we'd be glad to get you linked up with that.

Or I'd even encourage you, I know of a few people who have prayer group, there's a prayer group I see,

I think, show up of some moms, I think, maybe they gather together at the Modern Well on Wednesday mornings.

I mean, I encourage you within the community here to even start a prayer group.

So as we look on to verses four and five, these are pretty much the meat and potatoes of today's texts.

In these two verses, we see Paul speak of three Christian virtues that he regularly speaks of throughout

Scripture, faith, hope, and love. These three virtues are considered as foundational to the

Christian life. Many of you have probably heard Paul's famous words from 1

Corinthians 13, 13. So now faith, hope, and love remain, but the greatest of these is love.

Here in the beginning of Colossians chapter one, faith and love are based on hope.

Epaphras told Paul and Timothy of their faith in Christ Jesus and the love they have for all the saints.

Well, why were they able to have faith and demonstrate their love? Well, first off, because God gave it to them, but they were able to sustain that because of the hope laid up for them in heaven.

The hope that Paul is referring to is the Christian Colossians as well as our eternal life that has been secured for us in heaven due to the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for their sins.

An important note about the connection between these two verses is that just like Frank Sinatra says in his song,

Love and Marriage, you can't have one without the other. I wasn't gonna sing it, but I thought you looked maybe a little drowsy this morning on the holiday weekend.

So maybe like a raspy kind of cat dying voice would wake you guys up. So clearly

I'm gonna just stick to the day job because singing is not it. In fact, this isn't in my notes, my mom was told by one of the doctors,

I don't even know how or why he thought when I was born, this child, he will be a great singer one day.

No, sorry, not it. Not at all. Not the case. But the

Colossians, they couldn't have love or faith because of their hope if it wasn't for one thing.

And that is the word of truth, the gospel, right? That is what gives them the ability to have those things because of what

Christ had done for them. If God didn't send his one and only son to die on the cross so that we could be saved from our sins, we would have nothing to put our faith in, no hope for the future, which would deprive us of the desire to love others.

I don't know about you, but I sure am thankful for the fantastic truth that is found in Romans 8, verse one, that says this, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Amen for that. Let's look at part three. Part three, the power of the gospel.

And this comes from verses six through eight. As we move on to the final three verses of our passage today,

I want to remind all of you that at the time of Paul writing this letter to the

Colossians, right, the church at Colossae, it had been about 30 years since Christ's death and resurrection.

And during this time, the gospel had indeed spread from Jerusalem into Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and likely even into Egypt, North Africa, and Persia.

That's according to the footnote in my ESV Bible, right? So it had spread wide and far.

So Paul was very accurate in his words when he said that the gospel was bearing fruit and increasing in the whole world, right?

We see that in the text there, and this was true. Well, we're now close to about 2 ,000 years since Jesus's death and resurrection.

And in that time, parts of the Bible, these statistics, when I read them, they were just so, so encouraging, and praise

God for these stats. Parts of the Bible have been translated into over 3 ,500 different languages.

Amen. And then a statistic from Wycliffe Global Alliance's website also says that as September of 2022, so this was even a couple years ago, so the number's probably up since then, there are full, full, complete

Bible translations in 724 different languages available to nearly 6 billion people throughout the world.

So praise God for spreading the truth of the gospel throughout the world.

The Bible is also the most widely sold book of all time with over 5 billion copies sold to date.

And in fact, this is something that many of you probably know and are aware of, but governments in certain countries have even made it illegal to own a

Bible because of the radical transformation that it brings about in people's lives. Well, following those staggering statistics, what is it that makes the gospel so powerful, right?

The power of the gospel. Well, Paul gives us a wonderful answer in Romans 1 -16 when he says this.

He says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. Church, the truth of the gospel is so powerful because it saves us from our sins and completely changes lives.

Paul acknowledges in verse 6 of our passage today that the power of the gospel is in full effect in the

Colossian believers' lives since the day they heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

When embraced by genuine faith, the gospel also produces godly character within believers.

These attributes, many of you probably know where I'm going with here, they are known as the fruit of the spirit. They're found in Galatians chapter 5.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control.

Against such things there is no law, that's what it says. Notice two key words in our verse from Colossians.

The two key words I want us to look at for a second are fruit and then the word is.

So fruit, singular, is, singular. Both words are singular, they're not plural.

So that means that God doesn't just give those who put His faith in Him. He doesn't just give believers and Christians eight of those fruit of the spirit or eight of those fruits of the spirit and then withhold one from us, right?

In a conversation with Pastor Don a couple years ago, he told me that all nine of those attributes, all nine of those fruit of the spirit have been given to Christians.

He gave me a great analogy. He said, think of them as a big bundle of fruit from God, right?

Like a kind of a thing of bananas, for example. And he pointed out to me that while certain fruit can indeed be smaller or less ripe than others,

God equips every believer with the ability to grow in these different areas of their faith.

I really, really like thinking about that because, man, there are some times where I feel as though patience is absent from me, right?

Sometimes, and you can maybe relate to any one of those where you're like, man, I just don't have that. Just God, please give that to me.

He has given us all of those things. Some of them need more growth and more prayerful strengthening, right?

To ask the Lord to help build you in that area. So I can humbly stand before you. I kind of already spoiled it a little bit, but I can humbly stand before you and admit that I often pray for God to ripen my green bananas of patience and self -control.

Definitely asking for those. Well, at the close of our passage in verses seven through eight,

Paul gives credit and praise to Epaphras for spreading the gospel to the

Colossians. Listen to Paul's endearing words about him in verse seven and take a look at what he says.

He says, our beloved fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ.

Epaphras had served with Paul on some of his missionary journeys. Here we see that Paul isn't shy in lavishing words of encouragement upon his fellow brother in Christ, Epaphras.

Paul speaks of him as a faithful minister of Christ. Why does he speak of him that way?

He speaks of him that way because despite the false teachings that were swirling around and running rampant in Colossae at the time,

Epaphras continued to preach the truth of Christ and him crucified as the only way to receive salvation.

The life of Epaphras was not self -centered or boastful, but clearly a life lived out to bring glory to God alone in all things.

I think that it is important for us to recognize the brothers and sisters of Christ in our lives who

God has put there for us to help us grow in our faith.

It is possible for God to cause us to stumble upon a Bible by ourselves, right?

Maybe that's how it happened to you. I don't know how you, if you weren't raised in the faith, but maybe you just, oh, what is this big book, right?

I mean, God can have it happen in many, many different ways that we stumble upon the truth of his words, but more often than not, the amazing truth of the gospel is presented to us in the form of whether it be a personal testimony, potentially a sermon, or over a cup of coffee, or in my case, maybe like a hot chocolate or a tea, because if you know me,

I'm generally energetic enough and don't need caffeine, but maybe get there one day.

Starting to creep there a little bit now that we've got a crazy two -year -old running around the house, but anyways.

So yeah, the situation that was facing the Colossians is very similar to ours today, church.

And how is that? Well, it's because they faced opponents who challenged and belittled the sufficiency of Christ and their hope for the future.

Christians today, we live in a secular society which regularly scoffs, mocks, ridicules the

Christian faith. Well, many believers in the West have become increasingly uncertain of their faith, and sadly, a lot of people hold it with uncertainty.

When followers of Christ don't fully understand their faith, they are likely to water down the gospel and accommodate it to meet current cultural expectations.

And when Christians have little confidence in their faith, they'll often be overly tentative in their claims, and they can often be easily shaken by challenges.

Well, in his letter, Paul hoped to fortify the Colossians in their assurance of the hope that they had in Christ.

When Christians don't live with a deep sense of gratitude for what God has done for them in Christ, they are at risk of becoming engulfed in the many anxieties that surround us in this world.

And they can even be tempted to look for security in something other than Christ.

Paul repeatedly urged the Colossians to be thankful for the victory already won for them through the cross and Christ's resurrection.

Church, salvation can only be found in Christ alone.

We are saved by his grace through our faith, period. Full stop.

That's it. I love the quote that Don used several weeks ago when he said this.

He said, Jesus plus anything equals nothing, but Jesus plus nothing equals everything.

I love that. I think he said he couldn't remember who he got that from, but that's just a fantastic quote. Jesus plus anything.

So trying to add something else to the gospel. No, that equals nothing. But Jesus, the gospel, plus nothing, that equals everything.

That equals salvation. That equals eternal life spent with him forever.

Every believer is justified in God's sight when placed under the complete truth of Christ alone.

All the spiritual ills of our world find their only cure in him.

And we will see all throughout Colossians, all throughout the book of Colossians. If I'm ever given the opportunity,

I'm sure at some point to get into the second half of chapter one, we'll see throughout this book that Paul continually urges

Christians in Colossae to be solidly grounded in their faith. So at this time,

I want to get into some application points to leave with you. And the very first one is immerse yourself in God's word.

We need to know God's unshakable truth before we can recognize what false teaching really is.

So how do we know what is false if we don't really know what is true? Well, we have the truth here for us, right?

How amazing is that? How blessed are we, church, that thankfully we don't need to search around for the truth?

Oh, man, I've been looking and I think I found, I think I found a little bit of what God wants to tell me over here in this book and a little bit of that.

No, it's here. It is right here for us, right? And or on your device, the

Bible app, right? And make sure you get the right one. I'm sure there's like, I mean, there's,

I think if you're concerned about, you know, which, I mean, you version that's got different translations of the

Bible. I mean, there's, I haven't really perused, but I'm assuming there may be some apps out there that are claiming to be the word that might not be.

So if you're ever in question about that, you know, seek out one of us, but God's word is here for us.

We do not need to search elsewhere. Well, looking ahead to the second half of Colossians chapter one, we'll see in verse nine, just the very next verse that we would pick up on that Paul says, he has not ceased to pray for the

Colossians. He asks that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Well, it is my hope and great prayer for every single one of us here that we listen to Paul's words and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

And so I encourage you as today is September 1st. I encourage you to talk with your friends here and ask them, hey, what have you been?

Maybe you're in a Bible plan already and that's fantastic. But as we enter into a new month and if maybe you've hit a little bit of a summer lull on getting into God's word, maybe chat with someone before you leave here today.

Say, hey, today is the first day of a new month, kind of getting into the swing of fall and all that stuff.

What are you reading or what should we read? Let's dive into a book together, right? Was there 30 days in September?

Let's find a book of the Bible that's got 30 chapters. I encourage you guys,

I encourage all of you in that. Now, point number two, rely on the

Holy Spirit for strength. Well, the very last verse of our section, verse eight, it talks about the

Colossians love in the spirit. As fallen human beings, we will always be drawn to pleasing ourselves before others.

That's just how we're naturally hardwired from birth, right? It's our natural born tendency as selfish sinners, each and every one of us.

However, if we have truly placed a saving faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and it will allow

God's love to flow through us and from us. Loving people many times is no easy task.

And some people might make it much harder than others. Don't look around the room. Don't be eyeballing anybody.

But the Holy Spirit will use the reading of God's word to purify our hearts and to empower us to selflessly put the needs of others before our own.

So it's my encouragement to you to ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen your faith and to help you live out

Paul's words in verse 10 of chapter one. So again, I'm kind of stealing a little bit from the next sermon, but this is just some great stuff.

He says for us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So pray to God and ask him to strengthen you through the power of the

Holy Spirit. Point number three is love others by sharing the gospel with them.

I gave you that encouragement earlier. You're probably, I mean, if you imagine yourself out, especially if you have a job or maybe you are out and about and in public quite a bit, the amount of times that, you know, we just kind of go on autopilot as human beings.

Hey, how are you doing today? Oh, good. You know, like we get so caught up into that.

That's just an instinctual habit that I think so many of us have. But I encouraged you earlier and I want to encourage you again to throw out that phrase better than I deserve.

And then I think in the book, actually, I think C .J. Mahaney, like had like a guy be like, well, what are you, like a convict or something?

Like, what do you mean? Like, why would you, why would you say it? And no, it's like, no, like I am a sinner and the wages of sin is death.

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Right. That gives you an opportunity to share the gospel.

So Paul offered the saints and faithful brothers grace and peace from God, our

Father. That's what it says in verse two. We went over that. So as disciples of Christ, we cannot actually give grace and peace to others.

Sure, there are many ways that we can love others earnestly from a pure heart, but there's only one thing that we can offer them that has eternal value.

That's the gospel. So I encourage all of you to share the powerful truth of the cross with others this week.

And also, if you even want to take it one step further. Well, one step further. Yeah, I mean, that's the most powerful thing.

But if you want to go and invite them to church where they can hear biblical truths directly from God's word every

Sunday, invite them to church. I ask them, ask them to come here and hear

God's word proclaimed and to grow in faith, community and service. What a blessing. Got the things that God's doing here at Recast.

And I know that it might seem like a daunting task to invite someone to church. In fact,

I will just share. We have a couple of minutes. I'll just share one quick. It won't be a couple of minutes, but my wife, Erica, when we first started dating,

I was very hesitant and reluctant for whatever reason, just an immature teenager in my faith to invite her to church.

And I remember it was about three or four weeks, almost a month and a half into us dating. And I invite her and she was like,

I wondered when you were going to ask. And I was like, oh, you know, like why didn't I ask sooner? But God had a great plan for that.

And thank the Lord that she was saved through hearing the gospel at Sister Lakes Community Church.

But yeah, it might be a daunting task, but I mean, find comfort, Christians.

If you're a believer and you're like, man, I want to do it. I just don't know if I'm going to know all the answers. Don't, listen to what it says in Second Timothy chapter one.

It says, God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self -control.

If you know the core principles, just the basics that God sent his one and only son,

Jesus, to come to the earth as a man, as a baby in a manger, and he lived a perfect life that we could not.

He died on the cross for our sins and by God's miraculous power, he rose from the grave to conquer sin and death.

All we need to do is put faith in that truth and you can be saved. Repent of your sins, right?

Turn from your sins and you can be saved. Well, as we come to a close now,

I'm so thankful that we get the opportunity to end every week with communion.

It is just a great blessing that I think we have here. It's a special time together where we get to reflect on what

Jesus has done for us on the cross. And many weeks,

I think it's incredible how, you know, Don can get some challenging passages and he will always find a way, led by the

Lord, to bring the text back to the gospel because that's what the whole Bible is pointing to and leading towards.

But this week's sermon especially is just a, it's kind of a layup, right? I mean, it's been very gospel -centered and I love that and I appreciate that that's what the

Lord had. So I pray that this weekly reminder that we get to share together through communion of what

Christ has endured for us, each and every one of us here on the cross. I pray that that further deepens our love and appreciation for Jesus.

And so at this time, I'm going to ask that you, you know, that you do please take some time to remember his body that was beaten and bruised for you.

His blood that was spilled out to atone for your sins. And I ask that you receive his forgiveness that he freely offers to you.

And so maybe you haven't, maybe this is one of the first times you're hearing it, maybe you've heard it for the 50th time today, but today is the day that the spirit is working on your heart and calling you to Jesus.

And if that's the case, receive his forgiveness, repent or turn from your sins to follow him and say, Jesus, I believe this truth.

I know that you did that for me. And if you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior already and you're at peace so far as it depends on you with everyone here,

I ask that you please get up, walk to one of the tables at the side or the back, and take the cracker and juice and you can bring that back to your seat.

And then after spending some time in prayer, you may eat the cracker and drink the juice while remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for you.

No matter what comes your way this week, church, as we have many people here in this room and I know a lot of us will endure some great, great blessings and encouragements, but many of us will go through trials and hardships.

So no matter what comes your way, I pray that you find peace in the amazing truth of the gospel this week, that through Jesus's perfect sacrifice and resurrection from the grave,

Christians have hope laid for us up in heaven that no one can take away from us. This week, church,

I urge you to daily be in awe at the unshakable truth of the gospel. Please bow and pray with me as we close.

Lord, thank you so much for who you are.

You are our creator. You are our sustainer. You daily provide for each and every one of us our needs.

And Lord, most importantly, you are our savior. You love each and every one of us here so much that you, out of the goodness, out of the kindness, out of the love that you have for us, you decided to send your son

Jesus down to earth to die for us. Another passage from Romans that you're bringing to my mind says, but while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. Lord, we didn't, there's nothing we can do. There's nothing any of us in here. There's no cleaning up our act.

And then, you know, there's no checklist. Thank goodness for that. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone,

Lord, as you tell us in Ephesians. Lord, we're thankful for that. Lord, I just, I pray that in this time of reflection, that we will pour out our hearts in appreciation for what you have done for us to save us of our sins and to give us eternal life,

Lord. And if we are, if anyone here is wanting to know more about taking that next step,

I pray that they will come talk to me, come talk to Don, come talk to Jesse, our elder, any one of us today to learn more about what that's like to take that next step for you,

Jesus. We love you so much and we thank you for this wonderful morning you've given to us. We pray all these things in your name.