R1651 Introduction to Colossians, Pt.1

God has been Encouraging Word for you and me today.

The Bible-based teaching of Dr. Donald getting a study of the book of Colossians as we open the word zero but it 866-899-WORD talk of prayer. Connect with resources, 866-899-9673 now Dr. Don Wilton Bianco were coming together depraved people of every persuasion, every, every walk of life we joining with the Billy Graham evangelistic Association all over the world and praying for Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan were praying especially for Christian people were facing unmitigated persecution and then especially especially for women and girls were praying for Haiti were praying for people in our community worshiping live streaming on television people at home people away people in hospital people grieving people struggling with praying for believers. Those of us who know and love Jesus, that we would be so strong in our faith because the anchor holds Lord Jesus, oh God, Holy Spirit, come down upon these people, Lord Jesus, I ask you I ask you, I'm just one drop in the bucket. I lost you to come down upon my people.

We ask you to come down upon all people speak to us by your spirit through your word and we pray this prayer in Jesus name, amen. You going to need your Bibles. Sometimes I'm inclined to say like never before. Long before I was privileged to become your pasta. There was established in this church.

Generations ago the fact that nothing matters outside of God and his word. How serious are we about that today church is that open to debate. Do we as believers find our strength get our instructions know how to live, what to say how to behave.

Is there any meeting in this church that is necessary outside of Jesus is that any believer in this church who knows better than God. Is there any believer in this church who has been appointed by God to be the policeman of this church. Is there any pasta do I have that. Do you have that. Is there any believer here who thinks that you can behave badly in the church. Is there any believer who has a question about our world and then wants to know the onset would we go to any other place other than to the word of God, where are we going to take our stand church maybe on the Democratic Party may be the Republican Party, maybe on an individual in this church who seems to know better than anybody else. Maybe the school board. Maybe me. Who are we, what are we facing so my precious people for the next several weeks church strong we going to be in the book of Colossians. All of that is to say, please open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1 we got to hear what God has to say. I'm going to show you a map and a map is going to appear for all of us to see. You can see if there and you see very easily. The map of Europe as we know it self-explanatory.

I don't want to take anything for granted and see if Lee over there and systole the football that's about to be kicked off the season accepting that one going to stay in the same place and the you can look over on the on my right or you're right.

I guess some facing backwards. Right now you can see the Middle East.

They can even see Nazareth in the picture. See Nazareth will know about Nazareth: Samaria and Judea Samaria got a little further up into Syria. There's so much conflict going on there today and Turkey Cypress Creek in the course over in the middle of the picture, but Greece you know today they suffering from a lot of fires, like we all in California and other parts of a just terrible fires going on down in the lower part down we see currency that's where a lot of those files on then all around Athens which is the major city in Greece and we need to pray for friends and the people of Greece. They facing a lot of that this picture here is a picture in the time that this letter was written and it was written to the people at Colossus I you can see Ephesus Rado wrong on the CV on the Aegean Sea. Ephesus quite a place.

Today, like some of you being the plot a number of times in in in Paul's day and age you can see some of the towns there for the pyrite up at the top in the province of Macedonia and what what book in the Bible was written to Philip the later to Philippians Cypress to those people to the church. They you can see Corinth. We brought first and second Corinthians in the New Testament that was written to that group of people, this timeless truth. God's word was given to those believers and see Thessalonica.

I love first and second Thessalonians infects Steve Skinner will tell you my many conversations. I was that close to suitable wondering if the Lord wanted me to be in first and second Thessalonians Lot of eschatology and I will. We may go there next but the Lord said just told by the way good.

One of our wonderful women's Bible studies using first and second that we could Bible studies everywhere in our church be a part of those we got some incredible teachers teaching men and women's Bible study so colossi want you to see where colossi is by the way, as the crow flies.

If you would attract from colossi they had to roll him see Rome up in the top corner there. Poll wrote what God wanted him to say God's words to these people at the church this this church. It was literally a church like ours. It was a gathering of believers and poll wrote to them while he was imprisoned in colossi and in Rome about 1300 miles any of you are. That's as the crow flies okay if I was to get on my cotton flyover. The probably is the crow flies about 1300 but there's a lot of Wharton to negotiate course you can get the buy land. By the way, accepting for a little slither that you have to get in the canoe to get the crossover which is not a problem today because of big bridges built.

You can do that you can crossover from Asia Minor to Macedonia on land affected you know about and what this is going to do without Bible study, you can go from England all the way to southern Africa now by land you know that I mean it's just like old bridges and connections in but back in Paul's day it was. It was an interesting journey.

And Paul wrote this letter to this group of people who were in this town you may be interested to know just by the way that he probably helped to establish the church at colossi when he was in Ephesus he was there for three years.

If you remember, on one of these missionary journeys, but he didn't stop the church, a fella called up for us did so he started the church, and the fact we were told that brought the inverse 12 Bible tells us about numbers 12 in verse seven, you learned from First.

Now, dear fellow servant is a faithful minister of the gospel. So let's just I want to put on before us old today something very important. And then I want to share something very important with you, which is read the first two verses now this is all sitting in prison near the enemy's life and God speaking through his servant. This is the inspired, infallible, inherent word of the living God. God used an instrument just as he's right now if I please beg my pardon. I'm not asking you look at me, but right now you listening to me and I'm an instrument that's all I have.

I'm just an instrument God uses us as instruments.

You and I as the church we ought instruments in the hands of God, your God's missionary, not because God cannot share that word will feed those people go to that city, but he chooses to use you and me and what he told of the rich man who was already an eternal hell. He said the good Moses and the prophets, let them hear them that you that's me. So this is poll in prison very shortly before he is executed just before he was at the tell a man was on his front doorstep, his life was about to be given for the sake of Christ.

God spoke through him, and he wrote God's word to those people in that place to the church.

But this is eternal. This is timeless. So this is what he saved in the first two verses, Paul and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother to the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ and the church at colossi. Grace and peace to you from God our father that a beautiful way to begin something so critical.

God told him that he gone had something eternal, nonnegotiable to say to these people to the church designed to strengthen them. This was the anchor that would hold them despite the storms just a word about them. The church at colossi had not yet succumb to the world around them and I'm gonna tell you what they were facing. They went on they were under threat, they were surrounded by paganism. They will was very troubled and these were faithful and holy by the way, I'm not even going to get into that today holy which one of us if I was to awesome all of us to vanquish.

Whichever one of you is holy right now.

Would you please stand. None of us would want to stand that designation comes because of warnings about to say concerning the sufficiency of Christ and the indwelling presence of Christ is because of MPs, the anchor the is that anchor and we study God's word as a means to help us stay more connected to the anchor don't go away. Dr. Wilson will be back with the rest of today's message but he wants to know where here for you 24 hours a day on our website@twonline.org that's TE W online.org sign up for the daily devotional from Dr. Wilton. He pops in your email at 6 o'clock every morning and it's guaranteed to encourage you that's online@twonline.org about today's great teaching with Dr. Don take him out of the equation church you going to be anything but holy uvula looked like the wound that you living in you take Jesus out of it. Take God out of church you take God out of it. When I discussed that you pay lip service to God like you dusty morph just on a Sunday morning and you will behavior does not mirror what it means to trust in God, you will be rendered unholy and unfaithful, which is where that's all around us, the world is not on the unholy but unfaithful. That's what Cindy does. Sin separates people from a holy and a righteous God, be talking about these things for several weeks so this church it at colossi they were facing serious challenges. They were coming to church on Sunday morning and Wednesday and whenever it might be, and the people were bringing with them the raging wildfires that were going on into the world they came and set they prayed together study God's word together and they were dealing at the same time with pain with agony with unbelievable ugliness with bad behavior and and most of all with a world that was increasing the sign are you kidding me, Jesus. The church at colossi was being squeezed and I hadn't yet succumb I'm I'm I'm saying this is this is a daunting statement. I wouldn't be surprised if the word had gotten to poll that they would church is folding like dominoes all across this region. They will succumbing left and right because the devil infiltrated them and it'll come through one person in this congregation, one it'll take one of you. He was licking his chops. It never happens through the pew pews done give you trouble. Pews never threatened God, it's always people and people's biggest problem is we always know better than God, and we living in a world today where we've setup a monument to our own glory and the world wants the church to mirror the world instead of the church wanting the wound to mirror the Lord Jesus and any essentially at colossi in their world.

Now I'm going into their world. You have this collision between multiple anti-Christian philosophies became known as the colossi heresy. That's what it was known as an end, the church faced the danger, but I hadn't yet fallen to it. They face the danger of being pooled into it. If a fire starts in your house don't gun walked around it, put it if your children not dabbling in stock. If you part of the 1 foot club yet. 1 foot in the world and 1 foot in God's kingdom. Take your foot out of the world. That's what Paul is about site. Chapter 1 verse 23 verse 23 we will read will get there. If you continue in your faith established and firm. You will not be moved from the hope held out in the gospel's, did you hear what he said if you continue your you will not be moved from all the joy and the promise the blessing that comes from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ because he's old sufficient. So what about the Clawson Colossian heresy. So just to try and help us understand that briefly they were really two worlds that were colliding in this in this town watch mean archivists are trying to explain it very something on the one hand, there was Greek philosophy rank paganism would result based on knowledge and philosophy.

They Greek philosophers believed that the gospel of Jesus. Just far too simplistic. I'm in get a life. Give your heart to Jesus and you will be forgiven and go to heaven half stupidly simplistic. The Greeks, they will overthink as they were philosophers. I had superior knowledge so you can go and read about that for example in first Corinthians is replete with the challenges presented by this brand of paganism like is there anything more ridiculous than being a Christian and they found any reason to brand Christians to associate Christians. I just looked around the filmmaker Michael Moore. Just this week said you know he equated the behavior of the Caliban to conservative Christians in America give me a break. It's like groping at something to bring down Christians.

That's what the Greeks did they they belittled when when they kids went to school it was like house amine or you lost your mind. Are you in church on Sunday, you realize you could be at the beach right now worship God's man so you can summarize Greek philosophy and three denials and I'm just giving this to first of all, they denied the humanity of Christ. They denied the humanity of Christ, you know, how could a perfect God take up human matter, which was overtly evil can't happen.

So they denied the humanity of Christ. In other words, Jesus could never have taken on flesh, and that whole thing about becoming sin for us, even though he knew no sin.

That's just godly gobbling nonsense.

Secondly, they denied the deity of Christ.

One thing to deny the humanity of Christ. But secondly they denied the deity of Christ, and to deny the deity of Christ literally made.

There was no way that God ever could become man member. They had plenty of guards made statues of them temples directed to them everywhere they brand of worship was a Mardi Gras brand of worship is live today because tomorrow you die. And certainly they denied the sufficiency of Christ. What is the sufficiency of Christ. It's the sufficiency of Christ for salvation.

Such powerful teaching and preaching from the pulpit of Dr. Don Wilton.

Now, as he steps in the studio. Open your heart to what he wants to share next are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to pray this prayer with me right now they are gone.

I know that Arneson and I know that Jesus died for me across today. I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus name, my friend. I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news. Welcome to the family of God. Some of you perhaps just given your life to Christ for the very first time praying along with Dr. Wilton others re-dedicating your life you need to know we have resources free resource we want you to have if you call us at 866-899-WORD 866-899-6734. Join us online at tewonline.org. He will find great resources like this you can make the words of encouragement written by Dr. John will bring his words of encouragement you done everything right and left ministry are we continuing our study of the book of Colossians between now and then. Let's stay connected and were on our website 24 seven and tewonline.org large that's tewonline.org large