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As a church family. We’re about to start a new series together called Be Complete from the book of Colossians. So if you have your Bible with you this morning, I’m going to go ahead and invite you to turn to the book of Colossians. If you’re using a Bible out of the pew. Um, at our church, it’s on page 157, in the New Testament portion of the Bible. You’ll be able to find it there. And I just want to say, as as a church, I have been looking for an opportunity to use that song. I don’t know why. It’s the weirdest song I ever have. All these songs to make introduction videos. I’m glad I got a chance to use it, so I’m excited about that. You want to where the video comes from, it’s it’s it’s my wonderful creativity at work at its best there. Right. So if that kind of music freaks you out, I was happy to do it this morning. I’m looking forward to it. The book of Colossians is an interesting book found in really towards the middle of the New Testament. Colosse was an interesting city. It was once a city of mass amounts of people. By the time the Apostle Paul showed up on the scene, it had gone to a fallen to a much smaller city than the typical cities that we saw Paul visit. In fact, you will find within scriptures we study together. Many people believe that Paul didn’t actually ever visit the city of Colosse, but nonetheless, because Paul journeyed across on his missionary journeys when on three separate missionary journeys that we know of through the book of acts.
What we find in the book of Colossians is a church that was established through the work of Paul as he began to preach the to the gospel in surrounding cities around the area of Colossae. What happened to the city was that it was changed. It was changed for the glory of God by the power of the gospel, as it was made known to the people there. What I find about interesting about the early church people and the followers of Jesus is that when they sought to administer the gospel, to share the truth that God had accomplished in their life, and to give the experience that Jesus brought into their own world with other people. It came at a sacrifice. This morning, we could begin by asking ourselves, when we think about the idea of truth and the significance of truth in our lives, and understanding what it means to be complete in Christ. Asking ourselves, how far are you willing to go for the sake of truth? We read about the life of Jesus when Jesus showed up on the scene in the first century. What he was interested in is finding people who wanted to be radically different for the sake of his kingdom. He tells us in Luke 923, and he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.
The cross creating a picture in their mind of something that’s not simply overlooked, but understanding to follow after Jesus was going to take sacrifice. So again, I ask this morning, for the sake of truth, how far are you willing to sacrifice? Jesus even went on to say in Matthew chapter ten and verse 38, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. We read about the life of Paul and the man that was instrumental in being used to help spread Christianity throughout the entire known Roman Empire at the time, began his journey with God as an enemy directly opposing his kingdom and his work against God’s people. In fact, if you were to turn open to the book of acts and read chapter eight and verse verse one, it would say that Paul was consenting unto his death. He was excited about the death of the church as he sought out to wreak havoc upon the Christians. In acts nine, what we discover is that as Paul began his journey against God as a foe, eventually he became God’s friend, and on the way to Damascus on a journey to punish Christians and throw them in jail for following after Jesus. Paul experienced his conversion and accepted Christ, and it was on that moment that very quickly in the Apostle Paul’s life that he began, for the sake of truth, a life of sacrifice, a life that’s about change, a change that would be carried into the cities around this world and into the region of Colossae, that the people may know Jesus.
It says in first Corinthians 1123 more imprisonments, talking about his own life, countless beatings, often near death. Five times I received the hand of the Jews, the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked a night and a day I was adrift at sea. On frequent journeys in danger from rivers and danger from robbers. And dangers from my own people. Danger from Gentiles. Dangers in the cities. Dangers in the wilderness. Danger at sea. Danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night and hunger and thirst, often without food in cold and exposure. And perhaps the most shocking verse I find out of the whole passage is Paul talks about his suffering for the Lord. He says, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. If you were to read a commentary on the portion of Scripture as Paul describes the physical abuse that he went through, it says within most commentaries that in verse 28, as Paul desires his anxiety, and he has the anxiety towards the churches, that it’s a greater anxiety for the sake of the church than what he’s experiencing in his own physical punishment as a believer.
Following after Jesus, he carries the pressure of every church that he’s helped to establish in knowing that they need to get closer to God and growing with him to experience that change. I can relate to that. As a pastor, you wake up in the middle of the night, you pray for your church. You think throughout the day how to pray for your church. You seek to establish and deepen everyone’s relationship with the church, to understand what it means to follow after Jesus, to the point where when Paul wrote the book of Colossians in chapter one and verse 24, he says to us, well, this is dramatic. Pause. Now rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. I mean, it’s almost as if Paul is saying, I’m enjoying the opportunity, even if it’s costing me anything to stand for you because of the sake of truth and the freedom that it brings, and knowing Jesus as something that completes you as a person. And for that, I’m willing to forsake all things. For your sake that I do this. See, Paul understood as he began to sacrifice and minister to the churches, he understood that life was at stake and there was a battle at hand for truth. Paul, as he wrote the book of Colossians to the church of Colossae.
He also wrote other books during this time period. The book of Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon were all taking place within this same time that he wrote the book of Colossians in Ephesians chapter five and verse 16. He writes to the Christians, make the most of your time, because the days are evil. He goes on to say, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers, and against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And as Paul writes these books to the believers Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, he tells us in the book of acts, in chapter 28 of the story of Paul’s life, that that Paul is now sitting in a Roman prison, sharing with them the need that they have to get closer to Christ in their life, that they may experience what it means to be complete as people in the middle of prison. Paul writes books like Philippians on joy in the middle of the moments, literally standing in bondage for Christ’s sake. He tells the Colossians that in verse 24, for your sake I’m enjoying this suffering that you, whatever’s lacking in you, in Christ, may be filled in your life. That’s how much it’s important for you to understand Jesus and give everything in your life to him. As Paul sits in this prison in Rome, he’s visited by a man named Epaphras. Epaphras comes from the town of Colossae.
It’s a town just 100 miles east of Ephesus. It was a beautiful place that’s described throughout history, one of the largest cities, we said, that has slowly died down. If you were to read the Book of Revelation in chapter two and chapter three, you’ll see that as John wrote that book, there’s churches that he describes seven churches within those two chapters of revelation, all of which surround the town and the city of Colossae. It was a town of several different beliefs, a town that believed in religion for salvation. A town that denied the deity of Christ. A town that taught in spiritual mysticism. Angelic worship in a town that was in crisis for truth. And as Paul visits or excuse me, Epaphras visits Paul in the Roman prison. He he goes there for a specific purpose, and that’s to share with Paul the immediate crisis in which the church is facing in Colossae. And he says to Paul, Paul, remember the church that we started? Well, it’s facing some problems now, even to the point that you realize in these moments you’re in bondage because you have given everything for our sake that we might know Jesus. While this church in which we’re talking about to you facing some hardships and truth. There are people entering our church, and they’re beginning to teach a truth that’s opposed to God. Opposed to what you taught us. Opposed to everything Jesus would want us to know. And our church isn’t found itself complete in Christ.
Will you help us? Could you imagine those moments being the Apostle Paul sitting in a prison saying to God, God, I have given you everything, and yet your children continue to struggle in truth. God, they continue to struggle to find who you are and live for you, even as they’ve discovered truth in their own lives and have given their lives to you. God, they’re not committed. What in the world do you want me to say to this group of people? I know how I would respond, you kidding me? I’ve given my life for this. I’ve given everything for you all to know Jesus and the best that you can do, as I sit in prison for your sake is to give up on him. Question we ask is how would Paul respond to this situation? See, Paul was a man of vision, both in goal and understanding his life and practically living it out. He knew exactly what Jesus desired for him to accomplish, and regardless of what other people choose in their life, Paul was a man after Christ. Tells us in chapter one and verse 28, the very purpose for which Paul, as he composes the book of Ephesians and Colossians, what he wants to accomplish in the life of the believers there he says to them, we proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. Be complete.
The word complete in this passage literally means mature. When it talks about your spiritual life, you’re not lacking in anything meaning to grow with Christ. You don’t have to depend on any man, though. It’s good to fellowship with believers. You are mature in Jesus, able to minister for him in this world. As it says in Hebrews chapter five and verse 12. Not lacking anything, not having to relearn what’s already been taught because you haven’t applied the Scripture to your life. Paul here is seeking to mature the body of believers. And in fact, as you read on in the book of Ephesians in the very last chapter, it’s the same vision that Epaphras has for the church in Colossae. He says, Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers that you may stand perfect. It’s the same Greek word mature, not lacking in anything, and fully assured of what the will of God is in your life. When we talk about being complete this morning, the idea and the truth that we want to carry with us is that we have an understanding of who Jesus is. We as believers are going to be mature in Christ. That’s what it means to be complete. And the battle that rages, that tears us away from following after Jesus is a battle over truth. And we’ll see. As Paul begins to emphasize the need for truth and the life of believers.
In chapter one, he’s facing an issue of legalism, Jewish legalism, mysticism, Gnosticism which teaches you don’t have to live for God. You just have to know about God. This book is intended for the local church. It’s written to the local church. It’s an opportunity for us as people, as Paul writes to the church of Colossae, to examine ourselves and apply it to our lives and be changed by God’s power and therefore be complete. Together, we’re going to discover and know what’s important and why. It’s important to believe what’s false and understanding of Jesus. How to challenge false teaching as it’s presented to us, and how to know and live in truth. Paul says within this book as he identifies, for us there is truth and there is the opposition to truth, and we as people need to live for it. Oftentimes within American society, we’ll hear repeated among people, it’s okay in what you believe, whatever you believe, it’s okay as long as you’re a good person. Can I tell you that has that has no standing or bearing in the life of Jesus and everything that he taught. What you believe is extremely important because what you believe as a person dictates how you live your life, and without truth, you will never live the way that God intends for you in this world. You think about organizations like Nazi Germany. They didn’t wake up one day and decide to massacre millions of people.
It started with a belief. And that belief was wrong. And it became late in which when people stood up to finally declare this belief is wrong, brought us all the way to a world war to stop it. Think of people as such as the Klu Klux Klan. They follow a belief, and that belief is wrong. To say it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as it’s good. The only thing that comes in this world that is good comes from God. And unless you believe according to God’s truth, you’re not believing what is good. It matters what you believe. Think of the area of 911, how important it would be for Christians in that time period, just to be able to find those individuals before they ram those planes in the building and say, listen, you’re about to do something that’s stupid, and it’s because your belief is wrong. Paul begins to combat the truth, and we’ll discover this through the four chapters that are in the book of Colossians. In chapter one, he simply outlines for us the belief, Who is Jesus and what has he done for us? He begins to declare to us that legalism isn’t the way to go in life and mysticism. Loving God without living for him isn’t the way to life. And in chapter three, he he then talks to Christians who are living according to their own strength, not trusting in God. How do we trust in Jesus now that we know him? What does it mean to practically live that out in our lives and be complete as we demonstrate Jesus to this world? In chapter four even begins to address Christians who act foolish among their friends, Christians who are saying stupid things and offensive things to their non-Christian friends that are actually detracting them away from the name of Christ rather than bringing them in.
If we believe truth is relative, as people only do we deny the truth that God desires for us to teach others. We also push a false doctrine. It’s impossible in this world not to stand for something and not to push some belief on somebody. By carrying a belief that says, you know, whatever you say, whatever you believe, as long as you do good, it’s okay is a belief in itself, and there’s no way not to push a belief on somebody. And if you’re going to demonstrate a belief to someone, it might as well be truth. And so what we discover in Colossians is that what God wants from you as Christians, he first wants your head, the knowledge. He wants you to have a right understanding. As you’ll see in chapter one of what it is we need to believe in this world and stand for. Second, he wants your heart. So God isn’t intended just to pack your your brain with all these Bible verses and stories that exist within Scripture. But as you begin to learn the truth of God, it begins to to direct your heart towards him.
And as we gather together and we sing songs to worship God, it isn’t something that just happens on Sunday, but it comes from the joy of our life because we are certain in knowing him. God wants your hands to live that for him to display that to others. Could you imagine these moments, what it was like for the Apostle Paul to see his precious friends experience a struggle, a struggle? Excuse me for truth. How would he address them? Knowing their temptation, knowing the adversity that they face, experiences that not only the Colossian Christians were going through, but all the churches that the Apostle Paul had ministered Administered to. Everyone seemed to want to get their hands in it and begin to change it and manipulate the truth in which they stood for. And it was important for the Christians to understand the truth in which they possessed. When Paul starts this journey not in a way of chastisement, but a way of recalling the change that came to them because of the power of Christ in their lives. Paul says in the very first chapter in verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, who was with Paul, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our father. You think about those opening words of endearment expression towards the believers.
Grace and peace is the only thing that is guaranteed to a Christian that cannot be guaranteed to any other religion in the world. You think about the beliefs that people carry in this world hoping and attempting to live a religious lifestyle that pleases God with some sort of work, hoping that God accepts him one day. But to be a Christian means that automatically, as you’ve accepted what Christ has done in your life, you have given to you by the by the mercy of God, his grace and peace. And he starts with the chains that existed, recalling the chains that existed in Colossae by by reflecting on the grace and peace that is brought to them by Jesus alone. The reformers in the 15th century would often remark, it’s by grace alone, through faith alone, that you’re saved. But we know that grace doesn’t need the word alone. Grace by itself is always alone. Otherwise it’s not grace. God has given you his favor. In Christ we have. People have done nothing to deserve it because Jesus desired a relationship with you. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And if we’ve accepted him, We’ve begun to experience that grace. But not just grace. Also, along with grace, we begin to have the peace of a relationship with God. It’s been said that peace consists not in the absence of danger, but in the presence of God. You think about people in this world who may have lives of peace.
They may have financial security. They may have all all their needs met. There is some sort of tranquility there, but within their soul they find no rest. They find no peace because they have no presence of God. But yet, in the midst of prison, Paul can write the book of Philippians on joy, and he can express to the believers in Colossae grace and peace, because he’s experiencing within his life, even in the midst of trouble, the presence of God. The peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but rather it’s the confidence that he is there with you always. So it’s when relationships begin to experience that peace that God promises to us. That we begin to hear and live the way that God desires to teach us and direct us. Because when we have a lack of peace in our relationship with God, it robs us from experiencing heaven’s joy in our lives here today. And apart from grace and peace, we become no different than any religion in the world. But because we know Jesus, we can experience it. Paul goes on to say, these Colossians were able to change their city because they had the grace and peace of God. But also in verse three he goes on to say, 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.
There’s the word of truth, the gospel. Colossians. How have you been able to live for Jesus thus far? First, you understood grace and peace. Secondly, you’ve been able to share the the hope that you have for Jesus because your hope is placed in the right, in the right place which is in heaven. It tells us in verse five, grace and peace to you in the hope of heaven, for you changed. Colossians and the book Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis remarks about heaven a few times throughout the book. He says, if you read history, you will find that Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next. Since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that’s why they have become so ineffective in this one. If I find myself, he goes on to say, with a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy. The most probable explanation is that I have been made for another world. These colossian Christians live like God’s kingdom is the only thing worth living for. What you truly believe to be true, you will follow. What you believe. You will obey. And if you believe heaven has the greatest opportunity for you, far more than anything this world could offer. If you truly believe that you will live for God’s Kingdom, what you really hope in determines how you’ll really live.
Said another way if you have a stock portfolio that seems more attractive than your heaven portfolio, it tells you what you’re living for in this world. If you’re interested in making an impact for God’s kingdom and living in this world according to the way God desires, your hope has to be directed towards heaven. If you feel like you’re not loving God’s people rightly, maybe it’s because you really don’t have a hope heavenly plan for it. Make your home there. Live for it. Enhance your sweet by and by. By living for others in the nasty. Now and now. That’s good. Read that in a book this week I like it. Nasty. Now? Now who can say the word nasty and be godly? We can. Right. There is a story about the idea of heaven and the significance it brings in the life of a child. It came out of a book written by a hospice nurse, and she was living and staying in this home, taking care of this young five year old child who who had lung cancer. Lung cancer is a horrible thing to have as you begin to deteriorate from that in your body. Eventually, your body fills with lungs until literally you suffer. Or your, excuse me, your lungs fill with fluid until literally you begin to suffocate. This hospice nurse wrote within this book, on this occasion, about this mother who would come in and visit her young son.
She says as his time came near and he began to approach his eternity with God, she began to hold him and cradle him near. And he kept saying, mom, I hear the bells. I hear the bells, mom. Eventually, the nurse would get out of the room and she would come back in as the mother just continued to cradle her child and she would hear him say again, mom, I hear the bells. The nurse finally got fed up that it must be affecting or bothering the mom, that the son keeps repeating this statement over and over. And so she says to the mother, don’t worry. He’s just in the final stages. He’s about to go. He’s beginning to hallucinate because of the drugs and the cancer that’s affecting his body, of which the mother remarks, no, he’s not, because I told him when he gets close to the end, knowing that it was coming soon, if he gets scared and he can’t breathe in those moments, just be calm and listen for heaven’s bells coming to take you. The boy continued to reflect. Mama, I hear the bells. And later that evening he passed. Faith like a child. That’s the hope we lay to heaven. As people we tend to complicate things. But what God desires in our lives is knowing that he has brought us grace, and he has brought us peace. And that grace and peace will only get better as we begin to experience him more closely.
Until one day we intimately live with him in the hope of heaven. How could the Colossian Christians change this world? By understanding what God has brought into them and living for the world to come. I’m going to get rid of that. Six verse eight. Chapter six and verse eight. How did the Colossian Christians continue to work for God? Sorry. Remind me to cut that from. Chapter six and verse eight he says, which has come to you just as in all the world. Also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also 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 Bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and has also informed us of your love and the spirit. How was the Colossian Christians able to help change their areas because they allowed the gospel to work through them. It’s important for us to recognize Paul never visited visited the city of Colossae. Paul never visited there. But who did? It tells us in this passage scripture in verse seven, just as you learned it from Epaphras. It’s an understanding that Epaphras likely journeyed to the city of Ephesus, and while he was in Ephesus, he heard the Apostle Paul preach. Epaphras was just a regular guy. Epaphras then went back to the city of Colossae with an understanding of this gospel.
Once he heard the Apostle Paul preach, which transformed his life, and he began to serve the people through it. It tells us that this truth was preached by Epaphras the gospel. The man from Epaphras, from the city of Colossae administered the gospel to his people. And not only did does this stop with Epaphras, it began to to work within the city of the Colossian Christians. They, as they accepted Christ, began to share the gospel. It goes on to tell us even in the book of acts. Listen to this. Acts 19 and verse ten. This took place for two years, so that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Imagine the transformational power that took place through this gospel that they could say within a couple of years, people believed in Jesus so powerfully that they began to preach this message throughout all the region, until all of Asia heard the gospel through a regular guy. Epaphras. All of Asia was changed. It tells us in verse four and verse eight, we see it here. And he also informed us of your love in the spirit. Can I tell you, in the first eight verses of this chapter we find the Trinity mentioned both the father and the son in verse eight. The spirit talked about it’s the only time that all three are mentioned within this passage, but it’s their love and the spirit that Paul recognizes.
Meaning this. Here’s how you know when the gospel is working in your life, it begins to connect you to others. Not only does it reconcile you in relationship to God, it tells us it unites us as a body of believers in the gospel works on a playing field both vertically and horizontally among his church. The the gospel is present in the life of the believers, because the love that they are experiencing among one another is having accepted Christ. And it tells them in verse six, even, you know, as a body of believers that this, that this gospel is constantly bearing fruit and increasing among the whole world. The whole world is preaching it, and you’re not alone. The message to us, maybe as Christians, is stop living in fear of what people might think. If we share the gospel and start focusing on the love that we have for them. The Bible tells us perfect love casts out fear. And I believe as Christians, even though sometimes sharing your faith may be fearful if we just stop focusing on the fear and the love that we have for that person, just to know Jesus will begin to share that precious message more often. The gospel was a battle that was taking place for truth, and all we recognize throughout this portion of Scripture. And as we’ve continued to see throughout history that all the mediums and all the clever ways people have come to minister and share the gospel, there is nothing more powerful than the testimony you yourself carry about the power of Christ in your own life.
We see all kinds of commercials today as people. Were those those people behind advertising are always interested in the new way of appealing to us, how to get us to buy their product. But what we know time and time again, that there’s nothing more powerful in getting someone to buy a product than the testimony of someone close to them that they love. There is nothing more powerful than seeing someone come to know Jesus than the testimony of someone that they love. The Colossian Christians were changed by by grace and peace. The Colossian Christians were changed by the hope of heaven. The Colossian Christians were changed by the power of the gospel and living that and sharing it as it was going through the whole world. Let me just get to the last point this morning. The Colossian Christians were changed through prayer. How many of you like to pray? Me. How many of you do pray? It doesn’t just like pray, right? Prayer is important. Prayer is powerful. If you believe it is, then you’ll pray. What I like about the Apostle Paul’s prayer when he thinks about the people of Colossae is just the content that’s possessed within this this portion of scripture as he mentions his prayer to the believers. So, so many times when we talk about the area of prayer as a church, what we pray for is my broken kidney or my hurt foot, right? Those things are good.
Physical elements of the body are good to pray for. We should pray for the needs that we have for all the saints, regardless of what it is, but what Paul tends to focus on again and again throughout all the Scripture isn’t the physical need that people possess. Though he sits in prison, though, the Colossians no doubt, are beginning to be persecuted for following after Jesus. He doesn’t pray for any of that. He prays for the spiritual need. Leading me to think that if we truly had the grace and peace being experienced in our lives and relationship with God, if we can just get that right, we can handle any adversity that comes in our lives as believers. He says in verse nine, for this reason, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. It’s as if Paul is saying, we want God to give you an understanding of what he wants you to do, and keep doing that in your life. In verse ten he says, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of of God. He’s saying, the believers, I want you to keep following after Jesus.
We’re going to bear fruit. You’re going to serve other people. And in doing that, you’re going to increase in your knowledge and understanding and relationship of of your own personal life and walk with God. Verse 11, be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously saying, I want God to empower you for the journey that he has before you, whether it’s joy or patience that you need to handle it. We want God to meet that need in any circumstance. Not to take the circumstance away, but experience his joy through it. Verse 12. Remembering always in Christians, giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Your prayer is important. When Paul says, for this reason, he prays for the body of believers that they may stand really for Jesus in the midst of any circumstance, walking in his will, growing in his knowledge, understanding what it means to be complete in him. God change Colossae because of the relationship that they experienced with him. And so Paul concludes the portion of Scripture in verse 13 and 14. And anytime we have adversity, in any time we have need, and anytime we have a challenge towards truth, the answer to all those circumstances, or push us closer to Christ and all things that we may understand what he wants to accomplish in our world. And so Paul says in verse 13 and 14, For Jesus, he rescued us from the domain of darkness, and he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus in this passage isn’t inviting us to another religion. Jesus in this passage is inviting us to himself. And Paul builds an understanding of the life of the believers that will go on and see throughout the rest of Scripture that it’s the supremacy of Christ and His glory in our lives through all things that complete us as believers. Jesus is inviting us to him. He wants you to elevate Christ and continue to be reminded that Jesus is the one that we need to press to for belief to reflect and display what he wants to accomplish in our lives. And so we leave with a final thought or concluding question. How far will you sacrifice for truth? If you look in your notes this morning. There’s just four ways of challenging that we’ve seen within the scriptures to be changed, to live, change and encourage others to experience the change in Christ, I will. Maybe as a believer this morning, you need to understand what it means to have the peace of God’s presence in your life, even in the midst of adversity. The absence of adversity doesn’t guarantee the presence of God, but in the presence of God we may find peace. How this week can you focus on him? Second, how can you arrange your life in such a way that declares not only to yourself, but those around you, that your hope is toward heaven? That your joy and world to come is what you’re living for.
What change can you make? What about the gospel? When’s the last time you shared that change that God has made in your life? Share the gospel with others that they may be changed and grow with Christ this week. You’ll do it when we talk about sharing the gospel. Who’s the first person that comes to mind in your head? What about prayer? We think about the Apostle Paul and how he prayed for the life of the other believers. When’s the last time you began to pray for the life of other believers? Maybe this morning is a challenge to you. Maybe not. Think of the whole church, but begin to think of individuals within your own church that they may begin to experience the spiritual joy of walking with God, though they may have physical needs. How can you begin to pray for them to meet their spiritual needs? And how can you begin to pray even for yourself? So the book of Colossians is about being complete. It’s not about just us as individuals being complete. It’s about finding completeness as a city, as a people, and following after Christ in our own lives. How can we find that completion in the lives of other people? The answer is by standing in truth and the change that Jesus has brought.