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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: August 3, 2014 | 10:00am
We’re now in the second week in a series of messages entitled Becoming the Kind of Community Jesus Intends, where we’re studying Paul’s Letter to the Church at Colossae. In our first Sunday, what seems like an eternity ago, we read Paul’s opening prayer for this church, where he prayed that their faith be rooted in the knowledge of the gospel. Faith, for Paul, begins not so much when we have a certain feelings about God, as it does when we hear this Word and believe. Faith begins with knowledge, with hearing, and as the great theologian of the 20th century Karl Barth said, it comes when we realize that what is spoken in the words of Scripture are also true about me. When we hear it and we believe it.
Second, Paul prays that the people in Colossae would live a live that is worthy of Christ. He uses the word axius, or congruent. Our prayer is that you would live a life that is congruent with the gospel, a life worthy of Christ.
And lastly, he prays that their hope would be strengthened by endurance. And I told you about my experience of running a marathon, and how the most joyful moment in that entire race was not crossing the finish line, it was getting in my car to go home and having the engine start, and the wheels still be intact. Notice, Paul doesn’t pray that they would have joy, or that they would have a good experience of worship, or that they would feel a certain way; he prays that they would be strengthened with endurance, and with endurance comes joy, finishing the race, keeping the faith.
Now as we turn to our next section, I want to invite you to turn with me in your red pew Bibles, or the one you brought with you. Or if you are a technophile and have a smart phone or tablet where you read your Bible take that out and open to Colossians 1 beginning at verse 15, which can be found on page 184 of your red pew Bibles.
This is one of the most beautiful Christological (Christ-centered) hymns in the entire Bible.
Download the entire transcript here: Colossians 1 15-20 Seeing the Center
