The Branch Church
Colossians 1:9-14
I hope that just echoes in your life, starting like right now, forever, and it never stops. And it's good to be together. It's, you know, this last, anybody here last weekend? And it's pretty awesome. If you weren't here, you missed it. We'll do it again in 10 years. Our church just celebrated being a church for 10 years last weekend. And, you know, it's one of those days that was very full, you know, it was full for my family. It was full for your family. And, like, I laid down on Sunday night just with an enormous amount of gratitude and thanksgiving. And I know that sounds super cheesy Christian, but I mean it. I mean, I have never been more thankful to be in a place than I am to be here. And I try to tell you that as often as I can. My name is Stephen, by the way, if you're new here, I work at the branch and it's my job to stand up here. So I hope we get to know each other well. But if you noticed, we decided as staff to kill announcements from our church gathering, for a handful of reasons. One, they're just, they became like a lot of announcements. And two, no one wants to go down as the pastor of announcements. And so we just decided, you know what, we're just going to mix those. So get on our email list, follow us on something and we'll tell you all the things. But then it's my job then to make sure that you guys know what's going on, right? So all they did was add time to my sermon. So just, it's not on me, Curtis, it's like, yes, Curtis is always like, man, you could have gone like 15 more minutes. And so I'm banking that, you know, I'm banking that for later on in Colossians. So just get ready. But one of the things I do want you to be aware of, and this is, it's specifically two parents with middle and high school age students. But it's also to our whole church because this is like, this is a big deal for us. We just hired a youth pastor. We introduced him to you guys like a month ago, Gabe Jolly. And he's hosting a parents meeting, like parents information meeting right after the service. And so once the trailer's packed, they're going to meet. And I say that to all of you because as you leave today, would you pray for that time? Would you pray for these parents who like, we haven't been a church that's really had a lot of middle and high school age students. We've had a lot of college students, heard, but we haven't had a lot of families in that kind of the teenage years. And so it's a big step for our church, it's a big step for Gabe and Faith. And so pray that you would just pray for them as they meet today. And then right after the service, for those of you who've been asking, I want to get connected. That's the best question a Christian can ask. It's also the most dangerous when you're at a church plant. But we're doing a ministry connect similar to what we did with family groups at the beginning of the semester. So if you want to learn more about worship or tech or serving in kids or family groups or prayer, all the things that we do are deacons and some of our other people who lead, they're going to be over on this side of the stage right after the gathering. So you can go over there, you can meet them, you can learn about how some needs that they may have in their different areas. But I would encourage you to do that. So if you've emailed me about how I can serve, I'm answering your email right now. It's over here. Okay? I'm just joking. I'm very good at sort of responding to email. So anyways, and then lastly, we've got core tonight, which is our very strategic intentional discipleship. And so Andrew's going to be teaching on sanctification. If you missed the last month, we probably should record those, frankly. It was fantastic. Anyway, so he'll be teaching on sanctification tonight, but I just want to say welcome. I know that there's probably some parents in the room who are here to visit their student this weekend because of the family day yesterday at UNG. I like to do this every time I know that there's parents in the room, but it's also a good reminder for all of us is like, parents, I want you to hear that we love your child. Your adult child. Okay? But we love them. It's not that they just come and take up a seat in our gym. It's not our gym. It's the counties. But you know what I'm saying? Our prayer for them is that they would grow in their walk with Jesus and that we would somehow be a part of that. And so we're going to push them to serve. We're going to push them to live in biblical community. We're going to preach the gospel to them week after week after week and our covenant to you. So if you're here, we're going to love them with everything that we've got inside of us. And so that's why we're here. That's what we're doing and I think God has used that desire and that passion to sustain us for 10 years. Okay? So we mean it when we say that. So we're glad that you're here. All right. Moving on. Jumping in. All right. We're going to pray for Taiwan today. We've made a rhythm of praying for unreached people group and we used a guide to help us catalyze that at the beginning of the year. And so Taiwan's got about 24 million people where less than 4% of that 24 million are evangelical Christian. This is a country and this is why we do this. I got excited this week learning about Taiwan for two reasons. One, we have a church member who's in Taiwan right now and we'll be back soon. But Willie Allen, if you guys pray for him, he's over there. But Taiwan is a place where the gospel is primed for explosion. There's no, there's not really persecution. There's access to get there. The Bible can go like and no one's going to steal you or put you in prison because you brought a Bible into Taiwan. But it's just not there. Like there's still 4% evangelical Christians. So like to me that just speaks and shouts like we need gospel workers. We need bold people who will read this letter of Colossians and be like, I want to go do that there and we have someone who's there. And so I want to pray for Willie today and pray that healthy churches would rise up. Gospel movement would take place in Taiwan. And lastly, you guys know this if you've been around or alive in the world, but just the conflict between Taiwan and China. I think we should pray over that and pray for freedom of God's people to follow Jesus and to do that in community. So let's pray now. And then we'll jump into Colossians, Shetra 1. Father, we're thankful that we have a place to gather this morning, a place to meet and to worship, my prayer every week is that Christ would be magnified just as we sung. So would that be true for us today? Would you just open our hearts and our minds to receive from you the gift of your word? And God, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Taiwan. I pray for the 4% that boldness and endurance and perseverance would bring true for them. I pray for Willie today. Just a sweet soul. And God, I just pray that you would encourage him, just even maybe rally some of us to reach out to Willie today or this week. God, we're grateful that you are doing a work around the world that is bigger than the Branch Church. And so I pray that you would always have us to be mindful of that. And so we want to be missionaries, but we want to be worshipers first. And so would you just stir our hearts today to worship you as we study this letter to the Colossian Church. We love you. We trust you. We pray in Jesus' name. All God's people said. Amen. Okay. So last week we kicked off Colossians. I felt like an appropriate time as we celebrate and we gather together. We're doing this thing. We dive into this letter that was written to a church that was struggling with believing and acting on the truth of God's work. Ultimately, this is why Paul writes the letter to the church in Colossae. And so last week we dove into the first chunk of Paul's prayer where he was praying about the church, the Colossian Church. And now we're going to continue that prayer where he moves from praying about them to praying for them. And so this past week I had the opportunity to go speak at the BCM. And I was teaching from Acts chapter 4, specifically the prayer of the apostles as they were, they had been arrested and then the release and the first thing they do is they go back to work and they're praying for boldness. Like they're not praying for safety. They're not praying for comfort. They're not praying for the things that I pray for daily. Okay. They're boldness. They're praying for endurance. They're praying that the spirit would continue to press on them to do the work of gospel ministry in the world. And the whole emphasis on Acts chapter 4 is like our prayers are driven by the sovereignty of God. Because God is in control of all things and I trust him to be who he says he is, I'm going to depend on him to do the things that he's promised to do. That's ultimately what we're doing in prayer. And so I know this. I've been in the church for a long time, like my whole life. I've been working in the church for a long time. I have more conversations about prayerlessness than I have anything else. Like if I have, if I could narrow down like pastoral counseling to one specific topic, it is prayer. We even talked about this last week, just briefly, right, is I don't know how to pray. And what we're saying is we know, we know whether or not to pray. We just don't know what to pray. Anybody? Yes. I think it's all of us. Like it doesn't. It's what we don't exclude people. I think all of us will wrestle. Maybe it's seasonal. It's long seasons of like hard work, like prayer is hard. And sometimes just the act of praying can remind us of our dependence on who God is and what he has done and what he's promised to do. And so today as we study this prayer, this continuation of the prayer, I pray that you would be invigorated to be a people of prayer. I'm convinced that a church is only as healthy as the church prays together. And so why do we pray for and reach people groups? Because we don't want to reach people groups. We want them to hear the gospel. That's why we pray for them every week. Why do we have a prayer team? Because we should be a people who are praying together. Why do we pray at the beginning of the service? Because we need to commune with the Father who loves us deeply. And so my prayer today is as we dive in to understanding what Paul's doing here in this prayer that it would spark in us a deep conviction and a desire to grow. And he lays out, like, I mean, my job today is just to read the text. Okay? And I'm going to read it a lot. You might be like, man, like all he did was read the Bible. Like, I did my job good though. Right? Same page there. If we don't land, we're Paul intended us to land. Shame on me. Okay. I don't want to say this is an easy one. But like, it's all here. What are the points from your sermon? It's here. It's in this text. And so let's read it now. Just to keep it in context, Paul's writing this letter from prison. And it seems to me that his time in prison has magnified his desire to be a person of prayer. Okay? So we're going to pick up in verse nine, chapter one, if you don't have a Bible, there's a black one on the end of the row or somewhere. There might be some in the bleachers. We can chunky one. If you need one, that's on page nine, 24. I know the little letters are hard to find sometimes. So grab it and I want you to see the word of the Lord today. Okay? This is Colossians chapter one, verse nine, it says, and so continuing from before, 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 in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 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, verse 11, with all power, according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, notice the nuance there. Verse 12, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen. We talk about a powerful prayer, right? So you want to learn to pray, pray this prayer, like just pick it up and read it, learn it, memorize it, figure out the rhythms and the texture and understand like, what does it mean to be patient with joy? There's a, being patient is hard by itself. Being patient with joy can only be a work of God in your life. Any parents in the room, you know this to be true, okay? So Paul's prayer for the Colossian church, sorry kids, it's just the reality, you'll figure it out one day, okay? Paul's prayer for the Colossian church, as we see it here in verses 9 and 10, kind of lays out these ideas. What is he praying for them? The first thing he's praying is that they would be filled with the knowledge of whose will of God's will, praying that the church, that the people, that the followers of Jesus, the one who claimed to be Christian, would be filled with the knowledge of God's will. And God has disclosed his will to his people, that is good news for us. His will is not a secret and it's not hidden, not anymore. From Christ's life, death, burial and his resurrection, his will has been revealed to us, it's right here in his word. This is it. God's will for your life is found right here and you can discern it. And this is why I tell you, every week, like my prayer, my greatest hope as a pastor of this church is that you learn to read your Bible for yourself. And as you learn to read your Bible for yourself, in biblical community, you're growing in Christ's likeness because you're discovering God's purpose and his intention for your life. Anybody else ever wonder, like, man, I don't know what God's will for my life is. Have you ever asked that question? Have you asked it yet today, okay? This is the reality of walking in the world as a human, particularly as a human who claims to follow Jesus. It's like, God, I don't understand why I'm here in the hills of North Georgia. What is your will for my life? And he gives us very clear discernment as we follow Christ. The second thing that Paul prays for the church in Colossae is that they would be filled with God's knowledge or the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. So his great desire is for basically, here's the redneck version, okay? Sorry, parents, this is how we talk around here, okay? Paul's greatest desire is for them to know God's will for life, right? And that's it. Like, that's what Paul is praying, is that the Colossian church would understand and realize and have this deep conviction of God's will for the life so that they would be worshipers, so that they would be missionaries. And so if you ever find yourself wanting to know God's will for your life, I've got good news. You can know God's will for your life today, like right now, and he's given us his word to be able to do that. And I think that as we walk through life together, as we live in community, as we seek the face of God, he reveals to himself the more you understand who God is, the more you understand what he cares about. Here's what I know to be true, okay, vulnerable moment, okay? I am afraid that the more you get to know me, the more you want like me. How does that make you feel? That's got cuts deep. The more you get to know me, the more you probably don't want to come to this church. The more I get to know you, the more I probably not going to like you. That's humanity, but that's not true of God. That may be true of me and it may be true of you. I know it to be true of both ways, okay? If the more we get to know about who God is, the more we love him. Because he is not only just the giver of good gifts, he's the fulfiler of good gifts. He doesn't just make a promise and let you linger on a promise. He fulfills the promise. He's the guarantor of the promise. And so while as we live in biblical community, we're going to have hardship, we can walk in faithfulness because God is who he says he is. Yes? Hello? It's... Hi. You good? The primary way, the primary way that God's going to speak to you is through his word. This is one of the things I got to share with the BCM through this prayer from Acts 4. It talks about signs and wonders all over Acts, doesn't it? Signs, wonders, dreams, mysteries, miracles. In a lot of times, we desire that, don't we? Man, if God would just speak super clear to me, I'll know if this is the right person to marry or not, or if this is the right major to have or not, or if I should move somewhere else or not, show me a sign, if the sun sets over this tree, right? And the reality is, God's never going to tell you something that is contrary to what's in his word. He is never going to speak to you, now can God speak to you in any... Like, can he speak to you in a sunset over a certain tree? Absolutely. Okay, I believe God is powerful enough to do that. Does he? I don't know. Okay? We good there? But I know that he speaks to you through his word. I know that to be true. I've seen it my entire life. And so if God's spoken to you through something else, I mean, think about our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters who come to Jesus, and what do they say? Like, I had a dream that Jesus is the Son of God. Well, let me tell you about Jesus being the Son of God. Go flip over to the Gospels. It's right here in the Word. And that dream is being fulfilled, it's being confirmed by the Word of God. If they came and said, "Hey, I had this dream that Jesus was not a human. He was just a spirit." I'm pretty sure you didn't hear from God because the Word said he was fully human. He was a hundred percent man and a hundred percent God. Now I know your mind is blown by that, but it doesn't mean your dream was real. Are we okay there? So I think a lot of times we go seeking the Word of God apart from the Word of God. Our commitment, our devotion should be to be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Everybody okay? Listen to Ephesians chapter 6. This is the scary part of like, "Well, God told me." Okay? Listen to what it says in Ephesians 6. You do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil. The spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. I think we should desire to seek God's will for our lives in spiritual wisdom and understanding and we do that by going to his Word. Why? Why should we seek wisdom and understanding? Why should we crave God's Word? Why should we do all this? People keep going. Thankfully, he gives us the answer, we don't have to search for it. So you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord so that you can walk in a manner worthy of the gospel so that if the gospel is that God saves sinners, you can declare, "I was once dead and now I'm not." There is a suffering servant, the song we just sang, who came and he died. It was my death that was deserved, but he took my death. It was me who put the nails in his hands and in his feet. I was the one rooting crucified him. All of us were. That's the reality of sin in the world, but the good news is that he died anyways, but he didn't stay dead. He was resurrected. And now our job, our responsibility is to walk in a way worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him. So oftentimes we want to get in Christian community because it's pleasing to us. That's a wrong motivation. That's a good fruit. I want you to be friends with people who are here. I want you to have deep, robust, vibrant relationships among each other. That is a great prayer of mine. But if that is the sole reason you come, you're not fully pleasing to him. That is the desire of Christian community. Ultimately, God's will for your life is to live out the gospel. That's it. That's hard. Okay? It's not simple. It's a simple answer. It's not simple in practice. But we desire to know and understand what God wants me to do. He wants you to be the light of the world. That's what he wants. And as you're the light of the world through worship and through mission, doing the work that he's called us to do, he's fully pleased. And here's the great news. Okay? Any recovering legalists in the room, we have a meeting after church on Sundays together. There's alcohol. I'm just kidding. You're legalists. No better. Right? You're legalists. No better. He's like, no, he wouldn't do that. Right? Here's the good news. There's nothing that you can do. There's nothing that you can do to for him to be fully pleasing you. There's no amount of church attendance. There's no amount of devotion. There's no amount of Bible studies. There's no amount of anything. Like, if you raise your hands here or here, he doesn't care. He doesn't care. What he desires for you is Christ's likeness. If Christ is in you, he is fully pleased in you. Here's the best news. Like, when we come to the gates of heaven, he doesn't sit there and, you know, Peter's going to be right over it. He's like, hey, man, do you know who this guy is? Like, you don't want him in here. Because that's what Peter's like, that's his job, right? That's his role. But he's not going to say, I need your resume. Pretty Scott for that. I mean, if I had to give my resume to God the Father, I would do it on my knees weeping and being like, you should tear this up and put it in the shredder. And I think all of us are that way. But he's not going to come. You're not going to enter his presence and he's going to say, well, I need the list of things that you did in my name. And he's going to say, are you with Jesus? Is Jesus with you? Come on in. And now we're going to spend eternity singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was and is and is to come. That's the beauty of following Jesus. And so for the illegalists in the room, you can lay down the burden that you've been carrying because Christ has already taken it. Now the flip side, the other half of the room, for those who are lazy in the gospel, it's time to go to work, it is. This is the whole idea of sovereignty and man's responsibility in preaching the same sermon that I preached on Monday. We have a job. We have a duty. And so to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, we do this because he already loves us not in order to earn his love. And that is the good news. So should we do good works? Yes. Why do we do them? Because he has first loved us. He has first loved us. And so if you're trying to earn more of God's love, it's already been earned. It's already, he said it is finished. It is. And so you can lay down those works and now put it in the right place. We work, we live in a manner worthy of the gospel because we have received the greatest work of the gospel, which is life. So the next thing, verses 10 through 12, so what does this look like? Well, again, let's learn to read, okay? Go back to verse 10. It says, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Those are the first two things that he says. So what is bearing fruit in every good work? Well, I mean the fruit of the spirit, right? It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. All of those things should be, they should be part of our life. Go back and listen to the scripture of reading from this morning, Matthew chapter 7. Healthy trees bear good fruit. Bad trees don't. It seems pretty simple. So what does it look like? We should see these types of fruit. We should see the fruit of love. We should see the fruit of joy and peace and patience. We should see those things in our community and around us. We should see them in our, when we look in the mirror, even though it's the hardest place to see it when you look in the mirror. I know that. But why do we do it? As we, it's in order to increase in the knowledge of God. Now here's a very touchy subject. Your guy likes to read a lot, okay? I love, I love a systematic theology book. It does something weird inside of me, okay? I get goosebumps reading like Herman Bovingk, okay? His books are like this big. It doesn't make me a better follower of Jesus. It doesn't. But theology matters, and I think we've had this weird pendulum shift in the church where it was very doctrinally based and it was very feelings-based, and now I hope we find our place somewhere in the middle, right? But theology matters. What is theology? It's a study of God. It's a study of God, simply. I had a seminary professor who said, "You're here," and he was, I can't remember how the conversation started, but somebody was like, "I'm not really interested in theology. I just want to know God more," and the guy was like, "You just said the same thing in different directions, right? So we do stuff like core to teach you doctrine, but it's not so that your brain gets bigger, so that your heart changes. The more you know about God, the more you begin to love Him and worship Him. We should desire to pursue theology in community, to increase our knowledge of God, so that our love for God would continue to increase. But here's what I know. I know that I know this to be true, because I've been trying for a long time to know God fully. I can't. I can't know God fully. Like every time I come to a systematic theology, I'm learning something new. I'm like, "Huh, now I know everything there is to know about God." Well, then I pick up another one and I'm like, "Huh, now I know everything." No, you will never know everything there is to know about God. That's the beauty of His wonder. You can know Him truthfully. You can know the true God, the one true God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. You can know Him truthfully. You may not know Him fully, not until you enter His presence, and that's okay. We should be okay with that. Like this is the, like, I don't know how a microwave wave works. Does anybody like, I know how to hit the button, the popcorn button, and then I add a minute, because I'm weird, right? But I don't know how it works. Like, I know you're not supposed to look through the glass. But what is going on inside of that little box? Like, if I don't understand how a microwave works, what makes me think that I would understand how God works? Okay? Like the creator of the universe, the cosmic king, he's better than the microwave. I'm pretty sure. Okay? I feel very convicted about that. The next thing is that he's being, we are being strengthened with all power. So the question is, who does the strengthening? It's God that does the strengthening. Let's go back and look at it. Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God being strengthened, so something is happening to you with all power. So how is he going to do that? Well, he tells us right here in this letter, he says, according to God's glorious might, he gives us the answer, you're going to be strengthened with all power according to God's will, according to his glorious might. And the good news for us is like, I don't know how much you bench press, but like, there's no amount of working out that's going to get you into his glorious might. You know, and if you're like me, like, I don't like to like bench press things. I know you're like, what? But it's true. I don't like it. But every time I do it, I think I can do more than I actually can. Anybody else? And it never goes well. And I'm the guy who's like, I don't ask for help. I just let the thing go like, you know, and then I try to get up and hope it doesn't hit me in the mouth. Am I the only one in the room? Okay. Well, I'm fine, I guess with that, but I'm not going to change the way I've been doing it. That's why I don't go very often to do it. I picked up running. But the idea that we can somehow strong arm the gospel is such a false lie in our world. And if there's one thing that we could all rest in, it is the completed finished work of Jesus. And I know you're like, you've already said that. It's like, I know, I told you, this is a sermon on repeat because we need to be reminded that Jesus is enough. Christ is sufficient. This is the whole point of this letter. But why? Why is he going to strengthen me with all power according to his glorious mind? So he continues and gives us the answer, for a purpose for all endurance and patience with joy. As we live a life pleasing to God, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, you will be strengthened. This is how we read the Bible. You don't make yourself stronger. It's a work of God in your life. You are being strengthened according to his glorious mind for endurance. For patience with joy. Have you ever wondered when Christ was coming back to make all things new? I literally, every day, every day, it's today, the day, is it going to be tomorrow? Did I miss it? I'm just joking. It's okay. I'm very confident in where I stand with Jesus. Praise God for that. I don't deserve it, but I'm confident. The reality is patience with joy is that enduring longing for Christ to come back and to make all things new. I don't think anybody in here would disagree that we live in a very broken world. And here's the conviction that I have. It's not new. And shame on us for thinking the world's more broken in our time period than it ever has been. No, the world has been broken since we got kicked out of the garden. And so for us, we pray and we work according to God's will, and we pray that he would give us endurance and patience with joy. The last thing that Paul prays and then he gives us in gospel reminders is giving thanks to God. Now, if we could be a people marked by just, like, what is your church, dude, man? I don't know. But we give thanks to God every time we're together, like, that's probably enough in our family groups. What do you guys do when you get there? I don't know. They feed us, which is cool, but we just give thanks to God. That should be our posture. If the gospel really is what we think it is. If it is what we proclaim week after week, that it is good news, then we have so much to be thankful for, giving thanks to the Father. And then Paul gives us, we're going to move on to these three gospel promise or gospel reminders, if you will. The first one is this, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you. He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. You haven't qualified yourself. God has qualified you in Christ Jesus. And now you get to share in an inheritance that you, it's like sitting at the big kids table. Right? You look around, like, I remember the first time in my family, because we, like, my family was big. And we had a bona fide, we had a separate room for the adults, it had carpet. The kids table was on, like, something that wasn't carpet. It was easy to clean, koroks, you just, like, wipe it up and then you move on. But I remember the first time, we were like, hey, you're going to come into the carpeted room. And it was like, well, do I need to change my shirt? You feel like this were like, I did nothing to qualify to sit at a different table. I just kind of got older and they invited me in. That's not how this works. You have been invited in because Christ has redeemed you. This is the great promise that's right here at the end. Redemption is the key to the Christian story. The second gospel reminder we have is that God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. We were once dead in our trespasses, but, but now we are made alive in Christ. When you, like, when you have this awareness, and some, for some people, it's like instant and for some people, it's like, it takes time, but when you have this awareness, like, man, my life was marked by darkness, and I don't see darkness anymore. You are full of the spirit and living in the ways of Jesus, like, your life looks differently and everyone else knows it. This reminder, though, that God has delivered, he does the delivering. He does the qualifying and he does the delivering. There's a key distinction from darkness to light. So how is, how is that? Like, how does it work? Well, it works simply like this, go back to the text in Colossians. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, verse 14, in whom we have redemption. We have it. It is ours. Put that on your resume. I've been saved by Christ. Like, God has saved me. I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it, but he saved me anyways for the forgiveness of sins, like, my sins, I, my slate is clean. I am now a new creation because the Bible says that all have fallen short, right? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The consequence of that is death. Christ comes, he takes the death, he gives life. That's what it means to sit at his table. It's now, it's not just like, I haven't been resuscitated. I was dead. I was like the, like, dry bones on the side of the road. I have a new life. And here's the reality. I don't do this often. I don't know why. I just don't. It's just part of, like, the rhythm of, maybe it's church background, baggage. And I think this might make sense here in just a second, but, like, I'm firmly, like, our church is getting to a place where, like, I know that some of you are here today because you want to know who God is. Like, you're just wondering, you're kind of floating through life and you have no idea. You've never heard the gospel before. And so, if you're outside of Christ, here's the reality. And this is what the text says. You're in the domain of darkness. And I don't mean that to scare you. I don't mean that to shame you. I was. Oh, everyone around you was. And some might still be. But the reality is that apart from Christ, you're never going to enter the presence of God. That's a reality that I wrestle with daily. As I look at the world, as I look at our church. And so my prayer is that maybe today the spirit would move in your life and today would be the day that you put your faith in Jesus. You trust the gospel to be true. And if you're like, I don't know what that means yet. You said it 100 times, but I don't understand. I know I'm not good at it. But it's still true. And I would love to talk to you. I would love to just pray for you. Even if you're like, I don't think I'm here for this. That's okay. I want to walk with you. And there are other people around you who want to do that as well. And so at the end of our service, there's going to be people all around the room. Like, find somebody. Seek them out. They want to pray for you. But here's the flip side of this coin for the Christians in the room. Take a deep conviction to seek to know God's will through his word. But again, this is the text. So that we can live a life worthy of the call of God in our lives, bearing fruit, increasing in knowledge, being strengthened and giving thanks because God's someone who's qualified me to walk with Jesus. He has redeemed me and forgiven me of my sin that I've gone from darkness to light. Psalm 103, verse 12 says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us." So the reality is, when you stand before God one day, if you're in Jesus, you're not even going to be thinking about your resume. You're going to be like, "I see the glory of God, and I've never been more full. I've never been more alive, and I'm guessing I've never been more grateful." That's my prayer for us as a body. And so as we respond today to the gospel, for the Christians in the room, the tables are open, we've already shredded some bread for you, but the idea is that this is the body of Christ broken for you, and as you take the bread and you dip it in the cup, it is his blood spilled for you for the forgiveness of sin. Whatever it is, it's the forgiveness of sin you have been redeemed to walk with Jesus. And so I pray that you would respond well today. We're going to continue to worship. I'm going to pray, and if you would like to pray with me or with one of our elders or one of our staff members, we'll be behind one of those signs back there. Come seek us out. Don't leave without doing that. If you feel the conviction on your heart to pray today, I would love to do that with you. And so let's pray now, and we'll respond to communion and worship. By the way, thank you for your word today. We thank you for the consistency of your character, the consistency of your integrity. But each time we come to the word, we learn more about who you are and what you're about and why you've chosen to use people like me for your purposes in the world. And so I pray that for everyone in the room that Christ would be magnified in their life, not just in these moments as we respond and worship, but in every moment, would you teach us to pray this prayer for the rest of our lives, that we would be a people marked by thanksgiving and petitions that you would grow us. We don't want to stay where we are. We want to grow in Christ's likeness, and we need you to move in our lives in order to be able to do that. So would you move now among us? We know that prayer is simply coming to you to ask you for the things that you've already promised. You have promised to make all things new. You've promised to renew, to restore, to redeem. And so as some of my brothers and sisters in the room are struggling with the life of prayer, God, I pray that you would come alongside them and comfort them and take the burden of like, we don't perform in prayer, we just plead in petition and help us to use your word to grow our prayer life as a body. I pray that we would do it in community. We do it in family groups. I pray for our kids who are learning the rhythms of prayer in their classrooms and in here. God, most of all, I pray that we would continue to follow and chase after Jesus and all that we do. We love you. We trust you. We are incredibly grateful for all that you've done in our lives. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Colossians 1:9-14 by The Branch Church