Today we are celebrating our fourth anniversary as a church! In 2021, we believe that God is launching us into His mission more than ever before. Welcome to vision Sunday! Listen in to learn more about how we are called to live out our values of community, discipleship, and prayer!

In this passage, Paul begins to describe the life of a mature Christian with the understanding that our lives don’t automatically reflect Christ--it takes work. Strongly and simply put: we are to put to death the things that are out of alignment with Him and are sin against Him. Only then will we live free and fulfill our calling to love God and other people as mature Christians.

In today’s teaching, the Apostle Paul continues to warn the Colossians against false teachers—teachers who added Jewish mysticism and angelic Gnosticism to the Gospel of salvation though Jesus. The dangers of spiritual syncretism, specifically Christian mysticism, remain relevant for us today and are always detrimental to our faith in Christ alone.

For this year’s Christmas service, we focused on Matthew’s account of the birth of Christ. Instead of coming in strength to establish himself as king, Jesus came as an infant to identify with our weakness. He lived among the people and was known as Immanuel—God with us! An assurance we carry with us even and especially now!

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul combatted the prevailing religions of the day by reminding them that Jesus is Lord over all. Jesus is the one who saves and sustains all people. It’s an important admonishment to all of us—don’t veer off course! Remain steadfast in your pursuit of Christ alone!

In chapter 2, Paul described his hard work on behalf of the Colossians and his desire that no false teachers deceive them with plausible arguments. These arguments or heresies were particularly alarming because they were so closely associated with truth. Today, this can take the form of Christian Nationalism or even the Prosperity Gospel. Ultimately, adding any other contingencies to our faith and hope in Christ alone can result in plausible heresy.

Paul concludes Colossians 1 by reflecting on his ministry and sharing an important theology of suffering—something that is often overlooked in the body of Christ. Christ suffered and so will his followers. But if Christians share in his suffering, becoming mature disciples, they will also share in the riches of his glory! Listen in to learn more!

This week, one of our elders, David St. Jean, leads us through an understanding of what the Gospel means and challenges our conceptions of who is the Rescuer of humanity. Within the context of understanding the Gospel, we are led into what healthy fear looks like and how to examine if we actually do believe the Gospel.

This portion of Scripture is one of the most important Christological passages in the entire Bible. Our hope and prayer for you is the same as Paul’s was for the Colossians: may your thanksgiving to God be grounded in truth, not theory. May you increase in the knowledge of Jesus, allowing Him to shape your life and prayers. And may you fall more deeply in love with Him than ever before!

This is the second sermon in our series on the book of Colossians. In this portion of Scripture, Paul is praying that the church will grow spiritually in gratitude, in soul-winning, in obedience, and in intimacy with Christ. In doing so, they and we will represent God well to others. Listen in to learn more.