[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so Bibles open Colossians chapter one, but I want to start off here with a bit of a story.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you know the story, some of you don't, but we moved me, my wife, Amber, she led worship, lit up lesson worship, Sam Morgan, Louis, Melissa.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had my sister was out here, Caleb, Leslie, anyways, these are people like who are they.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we all came out from Tucson, Arizona, to plant this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the whole reason we moved across the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we moved here, me, Sam and Caleb, many of you know, Sam is one of the pastors here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you probably don't know Caleb.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a founding member of the Furvent Church, was out here for two to three years to help us get this thing started.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we took some trips out to Austin, Texas, before we...
[SPEAKER_00]: like we're sure of like this is where we're going.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was either December of 2018 or December of 2019.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we came out here, we visited, we had lunch and coffee with a few different people.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of them was a pastor in the Austin area.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we asked him a very simple question.
[SPEAKER_00]: My heart, my like, I wanted to know like, does Austin need another church?
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I know,
[SPEAKER_00]: So some of you're like, well, yeah, of course, everywhere needs more churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to me and Sam is just like, we want to know and want to make sure, like, hey, God, you're calling us here.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a need, all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it does Austin need another church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember he said that, yes, absolutely, right, that Austin needs more churches.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he said something that I'll never forget.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said that Austin is a very spiritual city.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now some of you might be like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But honestly, I agree with them now that I've seen all of this and lived here for almost six years.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then he added this phrase.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said that Austin is Athens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now some of you, you know what that means and you're thinking Acts chapter 17, which is what Paul, he walks into Athens, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you're like, I don't know what that means.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Paul, the apostle Paul, he walks into Athens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us that the city was full of idols, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Idol worship, and then everywhere Paul would look.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's, there's altars to false gods, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: There's spiritualness, I don't know, philosophies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he even said that he found an altar and it said on it to the unknown God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's fascinating is that the
[SPEAKER_00]: And the people of Athens and Paul's day, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't reject Paul when he brought the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And right, tell them of Jesus, they were actually intrigued, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're interested, curious, willing to listen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they even invited him to speak at a popular place there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they wanted to hear more about this Jesus or this new teaching about Jesus in the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there was a line that they didn't want crossed, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They were fine with talking about Jesus and spirituality, and they almost saw Jesus and other gods like another notch on the belt or another thing to add to the resume.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess this is good, things we can know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But once they at Paul would say that he is the only way, the only truth, the only life, well, that was where the line would be drawn.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're cool with another idea, another God, another option on the spiritual shelf, but when Paul declared that Jesus is not just a God, but is God himself, the one and only, that's when the tone changed in Athens.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people mocked him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're out of your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's guys, you know, he's nuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people dismiss him, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't, I don't
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I would say going back to my story when it came out here, the guy said Austin is Athens.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have a culture today, because we look at Scripture and I would go, that was back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now this is very much the world today, so that there's this tension that we see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our world today, we live in a culture and I would say in a world that is deeply spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you guys agree in, you don't have to, but I encourage you to look around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most people will say they're spiritual, even if they don't know or care about Jesus or the Bible or they never, they don't even believe in God, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Go talk to an agnostic person who thinks that there's something out there, but they don't know what it is, but there's a higher power, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: They're very spiritual or people who almost worship nature, it's like, you might think, well, they're just a treehugger, but it's like, the bottom line is like, they are very spiritual, and we are spiritual,
[SPEAKER_00]: Beans, and our culture today is no different than the one Paul encountered in Athens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we have today a culture that celebrates like, you know, hey, let's hear more ideas, more philosophies, but we resist or the world resist authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had a culture that's open to Jesus as long as he doesn't impede on our lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_00]: As long as he doesn't want to be the one and only exclusive God, that's kind of our world today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the similar
[SPEAKER_00]: world and set up for the book of Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, I'm trying to give you kind of some insight, so we can understand this message before we receive the message.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be the world that Paul is writing to this church in Colossae, this letter called Colossians in the Bible.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a similar setting, a similar culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: The church in Colossae, they weren't
[SPEAKER_00]: There weren't being pressured to abandon Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wasn't like, hey, you guys are a wrong and you need to get rid of Jesus altogether.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what they were tempted by the world around him was to redefine Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, there were false teachers in those days as there is today and I'd even say they're multiplying today.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's false teachers in that day when Paul writes this, telling them that, hey, faith in Jesus, that's a good start.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's cute, that's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: You got your first baby steps in, but that's not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's something deeper, there's something more, there's something more spiritual you need to add to your faith in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this teaching later became known as Nosticism to use a fancy word, which really just means like these people that say, I'm a Nostick.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I know some things that you don't, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like this, I'm better than you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a privilege to have this information that you don't have, but I would love to share it with you because I know things, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of the idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are these teachers that would start to teach and lead these people.
[SPEAKER_00]: A stray, the core belief of these nostics was that this is one of the ideas around it is that all matter,
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, talking about like science, physical matter was evil, or is evil, and that only spiritual things could be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, on a basic level, we look at that argument, you might say, yeah, well, that's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: The world is falling to prey, and everything is evil, and spiritual is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this belief, right, if you go down the rabbit hole, and you got a little semester of philosophy, and your mind's all messed up, and you go down this rabbit hole,
[SPEAKER_00]: then God couldn't really be involved in creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because He created everything and God is good and He can't create evil things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if God could not be involved in creation, this would be their theory or their false belief, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that then Jesus could not really take on human form.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see where this really gets to be a problem, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if Jesus can't take on human form, that means that he didn't come as a man, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't die for our sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was just, what was that then, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the Nostix, they believe that, well, Jesus, he was just spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't actually come in bodily form and then deeper,
[SPEAKER_00]: more liberal nostics would say that that this means that Christ He's not the creator.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't be because matter is evil and he doesn't create evil things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's not the creator of the world that we know.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's no longer God and man because he can't be because those two can't exist and essentially their conclusion would be, well, then God or Jesus specifically is not sufficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You need some Jesus, but you need more.
[SPEAKER_00]: That would be what they're trying to sell these people to church at Colosset.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus would just be to these Nostics, a spiritual step in their maturity to, you know, whatever you want to call it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They made faith a lot more complicated and complex than it needed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had layers, they ruled rituals that they would try to sell these people and philosophies that they would try to get them to believe that they needed more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is a good start, but you need more than Jesus if you really want to be saved or a good person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul later warns the church in Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: about this when he says he speaks of philosophy and empty deceit.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see this in a few minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he says he warns him about self-made religion.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says that it has the appearance of wisdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They sound smart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it's of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, it sounds good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know they got fancy words they're using, but it's of no value.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not gonna help you out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul's response to all of this going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not panic, it's not fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what he does in this letter, it's so beautiful is that he lifts Jesus higher so that people can see, know and understand that Jesus is in fact all you need
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm not talking about pizza, I'm talking about he's supreme like he's above it all and so another fancy way we could describe Colossians, it's the supremacy of Christ and that's a fancy word, but what it means is that Jesus is above all he created all and he sustains it all would you can't get a man if you agree?
[SPEAKER_00]: These are good things.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Paul's writing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, hey, you don't need anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just need to set your mind on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they sound smart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've talked with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've debated with them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's no value.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to set your mind on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the things that are above.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he is the one who sits above it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He created it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we'll see in a few moments, it's like, we are created by him and for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this message, it's written to the Church of Colosse, and a little background context.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's written by Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you may be very familiar with Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you, like, I don't really know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard of Paul who is he.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it comes to this man who I would say he's probably the most unlikely person to preach Jesus from his background.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know his background, we won't go in a super in-depth study on Paul today, but a little bit about him is that he used to persecute the church, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, wait, like the apostle Paul, the guy who wrote half of the new testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: That guy used to be an enemy of the church, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So much so that he would imprison Christians, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we were 2,000 years ago in Paul's day and when he was saw, if he came in here, saw us worshiping Jesus, he would drag us out and try to put us in prison or to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he did that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see that in Acts chapter as it's six or seven with the stony of Stephen there at the feet of Saul, who is Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: He dragged Christians out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He approved of their desk, maybe even killed some himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't know, but he was an enemy of the church to be sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was not searching for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't trying to preach Jesus, but he was
[SPEAKER_00]: a pretty text book, Jewish man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just didn't believe in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't know it all, yet or the answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul, he has this radical conversion, right, where he's struck blind on the road to was a Damascus, I believe, maybe I'm wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, struck blind and Jesus has this encounter with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you kick against the Goats, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Paul says, like, who are you Lord?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he has this, this, this,
[SPEAKER_00]: God moments, say it's simply, and then a little while later, God sends this guy to go pray for Saul, Paul, to give him his vision back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this guy, I mean, just imagine being him, and I think it's Anis or that Anis's house.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they, he goes, I imagine being him, how like terrified you be like, wait, it's like this dude's gonna kill me yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: You wanted to put me in prison last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: You want me to go pray for him, and so he goes and prays for him, Paul can then see, and then from then on, out, Paul has this radical change.
[SPEAKER_00]: He starts to see things the way they actually are.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sees that the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and that he is, in fact, the Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everything is world's flipped upside down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was a brilliant man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He spoke multiple languages.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know the Harvard of that day, I suppose.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was well respected in the religious realm.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when he gave his life to Jesus, he says this in Philippians, he's like, I counted all his rubbish.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he wasn't a guy when he's writing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not a guy with power or prestige anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's really to the religious elite that he was used to be a part of.
[SPEAKER_00]: He now he's a crazy man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul, he's crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's off his rocker.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and how he's preaching Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's so he doesn't have power, prestige.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not wealthy that we know of with all bunch of money and resources.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't have, he's nobody in a sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what makes his message so,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, enticing, not only is God speaking to him and through him, but it's just the fact that he was an enemy of the church, and now that he's preaching Jesus, well, something had to have changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was pretty significant in his life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then Paul already on his kind of journey, at first, you know, he's getting his
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, learning to walk, I guess we could say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's times in the book of Acts, we see like Paul kind of comes on the scene, and I don't know, we can imagine what it would be, like very uncomfortable, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, the guy that came here with an army last week trying to kill us and imprison us, he's interbibal study today, is it okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's the undercover cop for them, like what's going on, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then little by little, like he'd start to probably serve, like, hey, can, you know, maybe the pastor of that gathering, like, hey, Paul, why don't you pray for us today?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul said, okay, that's all close our eyes and we'll bow on him and we're like, yeah, right, I found for that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: But little by little, he proved his faithfulness that he's the real deal and right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he goes on to write numerous books of the Bible, their letters really to different churches and church groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul writes this letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is many years after he's given his life
[SPEAKER_00]: to what we know is that he's actually in chains.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the end of the letter, he says, remember my chains, so this would be, consider it a prison, a pistol, or a prison letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: of Paul's, which I think also is good for context when we're reading this.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're in prison, I've had friends in prison and jail.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I get a letter from Mom, it's not usually like Nick, I'm just praying for you so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope God blesses you and everything's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And make sure you stay close to Jesus and keep him at the center of your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually it's like, hey man, what's up?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you put some money on my books?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if a Paul, he spends his time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Riding to this church and what's interesting about as far as we know Paul has never been to this church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's also worth noting, but he writes this letter to the church of Colosseus who's going through this world, this culture with this temptation to believe and follow the world's philosophies, things that sound intelligent, they sound right or good, but he's telling them that there are no value.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that Jesus is supreme and He is everything that you need.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today what we're gonna do for the remainder of our time here is we're going to read the book of Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the book of Colossians, we call it a book, but it's an epistle which means a letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: This would be a letter that Paul would write and we'll see as we read through this towards the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that what a letter was meant to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is probably a common sense, but it's meant to be read.
[SPEAKER_00]: but read to the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if we're the first century church in Paul's day or were the church at Colosseum, we received this letter, well then me or pastor or a leader, we'd get this letter, we got a letter from Paul and he says that we need to read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we'd get together.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we would read it.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, they would read it just as it's written.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, there wasn't this, let's break it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what does this word mean in the Hebrew and the Greek?
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, it's like, of course, they spoke those Paul did anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they didn't do all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They read the word, and they received it as from the Lord, and then they would respond to that reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today in light of that is that we're gonna read through this letter, just as it's written.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this might be different for some of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why I said earlier, if you have a Bible, open the Colossians, get a pencil, a pen, a highlighter, and we have some pens on the back table if you want, and we also have some Bibles, and if they're gone, the Bibles, we have more somewhere we can get more for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: or download the U version Bible app, blue letter Bible app, have something that you can highlight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what we're going to do is I'm just going to simply read through Colossians and I'm going to pause.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll read through a section.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for instance, the first section, verse 1 through 14, and after I read verse 14, we're going to pause.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is just going to be a moment of silence.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's for you and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to just consider what we've read.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to break it down and make sense of everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I believe God speaks through his word, and so if he speaks something to you, or just kind of pops out like, what is that?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I never saw that before, underline it, highlight it and just kind of market.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not trying to process it all right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: but we want to acknowledge it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after about a minute or so, I'll read the next chunk, my pause will highlight, and then we're gonna go on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then after we're done reading through the four chapters, I'm gonna pray, we'll end in worship and in communion.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna pray, we're gonna read through this as I said as the early church would do.
[SPEAKER_00]: and let God's words speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, Father again, we look to your word this morning and to the book of Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray that you'd give us your Holy Spirit, give us insight, give us wisdom, give us knowledge and understanding so that we could grasp what it is that you're saying, not only to Paul and to the Church of Colossae, but what you were saying to us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, go before us, speak to us in Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colossians.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul, in a possible of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse, grace to you and peace from God, our Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: 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 the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of this you have heard before in the Word of the truth,
[SPEAKER_00]: which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it does also among you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from a path for us, 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.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to
[SPEAKER_00]: in patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualifies you to share and the inheritance of the saints in light.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to pause here and this is a moment to highlight, note, circle, anything that
[SPEAKER_00]: verse 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: For by him all things were created in heaven, in on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: and Jew, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death.
[SPEAKER_00]: In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith,
[SPEAKER_00]: stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven in of which I, Paul, became a minister.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, pause.
[SPEAKER_00]: Highlight, underline anything that may be standing out to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 24.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the Word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Him, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this Itoil,
[SPEAKER_00]: Struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
[SPEAKER_00]: For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those at Leodicea, and for all.
[SPEAKER_00]: who have not seen me face to face that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance, of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments,
[SPEAKER_00]: For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll pause here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter two, verse six.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, two of that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition.
[SPEAKER_00]: According to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.
[SPEAKER_00]: In him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism.
[SPEAKER_00]: in which you are also raised with them through faith and the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you who were dead in trespasses and the uncertain decision of your flesh, God made a live together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands.
[SPEAKER_00]: This, he set aside nailing it to the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumfying over them in him, pause here.
[SPEAKER_00]: 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let no one disqualify you in sistine on a set of system and worship of angels going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding
[SPEAKER_00]: nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: If with Christ you die to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations?
[SPEAKER_00]: do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings.
[SPEAKER_00]: These have indeed, in appearance of wisdom and promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but there are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: chapter 3 verse 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
[SPEAKER_00]: On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: In these two, these, you two once walked,
[SPEAKER_00]: When you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians sent the enslaved free, but Christ is all and in all, and we'll pause here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 3, verse 12.
[SPEAKER_00]: put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if one has a complaint against another, forgive any other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
[SPEAKER_00]: And above all, these put on love,
[SPEAKER_00]: which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body and be thankful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching in it and in modern-sheen, one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And whatever you do in Word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll pause here.
[SPEAKER_00]: chapter 3, verse 18, wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord, husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fathers do not provoke your children, unless they become discouraged.
[SPEAKER_00]: bond servants obey and everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleases, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are serving the Lord Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 4 verse 1, Master's treat your bond servants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven, we'll pause there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 4 verse 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time pray also for us that God may open to us adore for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak, walk in wisdom towards outsiders,
[SPEAKER_00]: making the best use of the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll pause here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 4-7.
[SPEAKER_00]: Titicus will tell you about all my activities.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and with him onissimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Aristicus, my fellow prisoner, greets you in Mark the cousin of Barnabes, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, who is called justice, these are the only man of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: A path for us, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Leodicea in in higher opolis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Luke, the beloved physician, greets you as does deemous, give my greetings to the brothers at Leodicea into Nympha and the church in her house.
[SPEAKER_00]: When this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Leodiceens, and see that you also read the letter from Leodicea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And say to Archipus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have been
[SPEAKER_00]: see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I Paul right this greeting with my own hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember my chains grace be with you and this is the word of Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, we
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your word that you speak to us that you don't leave us alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't abandon us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you that you've promised that if we draw near to you, you'll draw near to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I pray this morning that that is exactly what has happened and we've experienced it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you speak to us, your church, Lord, and that's you would encourage us, filling us with knowledge and in spiritual wisdom and understanding so that we may, as Paul said,
[SPEAKER_00]: of you, Lord, that would be fully pleasing to you, that we would bear fruit and be filled with your spirit and your work, that we would lead a life that honors and glorifies you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, so as we've read your word, I pray that you would bring to light things that we need to deal with.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you'd encourage those of us who need encouragement, that you'd rebuke us, who need a rebuke, and I pray that you'd do the heart work in us and through us Lord and what as we continue to dive into this study over the next few months, pray Lord that your word would just come alive.
[SPEAKER_00]: like we've never seen or experienced before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that it would lead us in guide us in ways that we just know without a shadow of a doubt what you're calling us to do and that we would see and understand that you are what life is all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are supreme, you are above it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hold it all together and we just thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we said, amen.