One of my daughters has Type 1 diabetes. Her regular clinic visits always focus on one number, her HbA1c. The lower the better. If it’s lower, the medical staff ask her “What did you do differently to make this improvement?” The basic idea is, “Whatever you’ve been doing, let’s keep doing it. As you’ve begun, so continue.”

The same idea applies to progress in our spiritual lives. We want to ask, “How did I begin to know Jesus?” so that we then say, “As I began, so let me continue.” So, how did we begin with Jesus? With the Apostle Paul’s help in Colossians 2:6-7, today we’re going to look at how we began with Christ in order to learn how to go on with Christ.

Listen here.

From time to time, we hear and read warnings about scammers in our area. The police or consumer protection groups alert us to the danger, tell us what to look out for, and how to avoid being scammed. But spiritual scamming is much more widespread and much more dangerous. Many have been taken in and taken away by various spiritual errors in doctrine, worship, and practice. How do we avoid being scammed? 

In Colossians 2:1-5, the Apostle Paul provides us with two pre-emptive measures that can defend us from spiritual scammers. Some spiritual scammers (the Gnostics) had infiltrated the Colossian church. In chapter one he’s already buttressed the Colossians with the Gospel and in chapter two adds two further lines of defense.

Listen here.

I’ve had panic attacks a few times in my life, usually after times of prolonged stress. The first time it happened, I was sure I was dying and went to ER. As some of you also know, it’s so embarrassing to walk in, warning, “I’m having a heart attack,” and to walk out with a nurse saying, “It’s just stress.”

Since then, I’ve had other panic attacks, but I saved myself the embarrassment and the money by pausing and praying until peace returned. Prayer is much cheaper than healthcare, and also less embarrassing. How do we pray ourselves from panic to peace? In Psalm 3, David provides us with a pattern prayer that shows us how to move from panic to prayer to peace to praise.

Sermon Notes
Kids Notes
Quote Graphics

Why do we do what we do? What’s our motivation in life? Anyone who’s studied people will tell you that our primary motivation is happiness, pleasure, joy. The French Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal, said, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end…This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” The Puritan Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, said much the same.

And yet Pascal, Henry, and all other students of the human race also tell us that happiness is unattainable. We want to be happy but we cannot be happy.

So are we wrong in making happiness our primary aim or are we seeking happiness in the wrong way and the wrong places? Is happiness a right goal and are we shooting into the right net? John 2:1-12 answers that question for us.

Sermon Notes
Kids’ Notes
Quote Graphics

Is your Christian service Bible-shaped or culture-shaped? When we are shaped by the culture more than by the Word of God, we will have wrong expectations, the wrong message, the wrong aims, and the wrong power source. What does Bible-shaped Gospel service look like? The Apostle Paul gives us his model in Colossians 1:24-29.

Listen here.

Do you fear giving up the Gospel because of hostile opposition to it and to believers?  We are living in times of increasing opposition to the Gospel, causing many pressing Christians to give up parts of the Christian faith or even abandon the Gospel altogether. Which makes us ask, how can I persevere when I am so weak and the opposition is so strong?

In Colossians 1:21-23 Paul removes this demoralizing and destabilizing fear and replaces it with a confident expectation of perseverance.

Listen here.