preach-itSermon Archive

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October 2023

Put On Christ

At the heart of these verses is the command to put off the old self and to put on the new.  That sort of talk from Paul raises questions in my mind. Like, how would one do that precisely? And, why does Paul use the analogy of putting on new clothes to describe our transformation in Christ? Wouldn’t there be better ways of describing the transformation of our inner world than to speak of clothes which only adorn our outward appearance? I mean, if I put on a dress it would not make me a woman. Can we “put on” the new self while remaining, deep down, our old self?



Things Above

I remember a time when Sarah and I moved out of a crummy apartment and into a better one. While we were living in the old apartment, we had been full of energy, ideas and enthusiasm to improve the place, but once the decision had been made (or even nearly made) to move into a new apartment I stopped seeing the place as it might possibly be some day and began to see it only as it was. My mind became full of the new place and its potential, and it wasn’t that it made me look on the old apartm



September 2023

The Siren Song of False Teaching

In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, the sirens were creatures who would sing in such an alluring way that sailors would be lured in and become shipwrecked on the rocks. In Homer’s Iliad, Odysseus saved his ship and crew by plugging his sailors’ ears with beeswax and giving instructions for them to tie him securely to the mast. Thus, restrained and deafened they were able to avoid being shipwrecked. However, in The Argonautica, written several hundred years later, a character named Orpheus



Learning to Walk

The Colossian church to whom Paul wrote the letter that we find in our New Testaments would have been comprised almost entirely of new believers. Most of them were likely recent gentile converts who were probably not even very familiar with the Old Testament scriptures of Judaism. In the language of Colossians 2:6, they had received Christ, but were just learning to walk in Him. They were rooted in Christ but had not yet been built up into maturity. This represented a vulnerable time for th



Christ’s Afflictions

During my recent vacation I read through the book of Colossians in my personal devotions. On July 31, I made the following entry in a journal of sorts that I keep, “This morning I spent time with God in Colossians. I struggled to concentrate though. I had to read portions over and over again because my mind kept drifting. I had no excuse. There were no distractions. How is it that I can read while simultaneously thinking about other things? I might marvel at the capacity of the human brain



August 2023

Thoughts To Make Your Heart Sing

The portion of scripture that we’ll be studying, Colossians 1:15-23, contains lyrics (verses 15-20) from what was probably an early hymn of the church. Peppered throughout the New Testament we find fragmentary evidence of the church’s earliest hymns. John 1:1-5, Philippians 2:6-11, Ephesians 2:14-16, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 2:11-13, Hebrews 1:3, and 1 Peter 3:18-22 are commonly cited as other examples of early hymn lyrics that are quoted in scripture. Around AD 111, the Roman Governor Pli



Colossians

Unlike Corinth, Thessalonica, Rome, Phillipi or Ephesus which were large cities, Colossae was a small town. By the time Paul wrote his letter to the church in Colossae during the first century AD, the town had become a small and insignificant place located on the road between larger population centers. Today Colossae exists only as a heap of ruins near the modern-day Turkish town of Honaz. It w



Living On Purpose

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime according to Andrew Naber, (industrial-organizational psychologist and data scientist). That is roughly 10.3 years. Greg Moody shared with us a couple weeks ago that the jobs we work and businesses of our employ, have a mission statement that directs the efforts of its employees. For roughly 90,000 hours of our lifetimes we are working under the purpose and mission of our occupation, but what would happen if you worked with



Carrying The Family Name

From a historic perspective it’s fascinating to think of ourselves as the people of time who are between Christ’s first coming and his second. When we read through the Bible from a top down perspective we see that God has been at work through the ages and eras of time. From the great flood, to the land of Canaan, to the exile of Israel, we see God’s hand at work throughout the scripture – culminating in the coming of his Son, Jesus. But now, Jesus has ascended, the Bible is completed, and w



July 2023

Our Christian Walk

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians has always been a popular one for believers. It offered to the early Christians necessary guidance on Christian thought and devotion. We continue to need truth about the role of grace and unity, devotion and daily living in a culture that would try to disable our commitment to Kingdom principles. We’ll turn our attention to chapter 5 this Sunday and explore this all-important idea of our “Christian walk.” How do we manage all aspects of our lives and s





 
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