Jacob's Well Church

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Brian and Shua discuss how we respond to pain and suffering, and what it looks like for faith to endure through it. 

Being in Christ, standing on the hope of the gospel, often requires struggle, suffering and loss. Paul embraced suffering as part of the job in being an ambassador of the Gospel. Paul embraced struggle as a necessary step to spiritual growth and service. Paul embraced struggle, as a means, to deepening the disciple’s journey to know and become like Christ. If being in Christ and standing on the hope of the Gospel, requires suffering, struggle and even loss, are you willing to follow?  

In a world filled with plausible arguments, how do we find a place to stand? We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did!

Colossians is an invitation to live in Christ. To do this, we must understand that we will face opposition. False teachers who will want to use the Gospel for some other agenda or purpose. Those who feel they have outgrown the simple message of Christ and have lost hope in the simple Gospel. Those who will come with “plausible” arguments based on human philosophy and materialistic wisdom. At times the opposition will come as ridicule, isolation and loss of influence. At other times it will come as threat of violence, slander and shame. There will be pressure to conform to the pattern and philosophy of the culture and the current age. In seasons like this it can become easy to try to compromise our commitment to Christ and the Gospel to win favor with those who oppose us, only to find that we are trying to appease people who will never like us. With so much cultural change it can be difficult to find a place to stand. As followers we find that we can stand in Christ on the Gospel of peace. As followers we stand in Christ on the Gospel of peace, hope and love. The way of Jesus stands in opposition to the wisdom of the world. When we are feeling overwhelmed with attacks on the Gospel we return to the simple Gospel.

How can we experience a deep assurance that our faith will stand the test of time?

Colossians is an invitation to live In Christ. It is a warning to those who would want to add to Christ, move on from Christ or be tempted to lose hope in the Gospel which is the mystery of Christ in you. To live in Christ is to Give him preeminence in all things. To be defined by Christ who becomes our life. Those in Christ continue in the faith!

Colossians is an invitation to live in Christ. It is a warning to those who would want to add to Christ or move on from Christ. Or those who are tempted to lose hope in the Gospel, which is the mystery of Christ in us. To live in Christ is to give Him preeminence in all things. To be defined by Christ, who becomes our life. Push the Gospel into every corner of your life.

To be in Christ means we also have full access to all the privileges associated with being part of His new Kingdom. In this message we will dive into those privileges and see how we can be enhancing our day-to-day lives with them. As we learn to live in the light and embrace our freedom in Christ we can also become a light of hope to others, showing them that the Gospel really does work!

God defines who we are, what matters and how we should live and love. Walk worthy.

What are we known for? How big is the contrast between Christianity today and the early Church?