We know we all feel the emotions of gratitude, but do we actually express them? Do we show our gratitude tangibly? Nick Kimmet takes us through Colossians 3:15-17 and compares thankfulness to God with the story of the healing of the 10 lepers in the gospel of Luke. “One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet giving him thanks.” “Free To Be Grateful”

This week of our series Free To Be, we dive into Colossians 3:16-17 and look at the main thoughts of verse 16, "Let the word dwell richly in you." Brad unpacks what the Apostle Paul is really trying to get across to the early church in this phrase as well as our call as the church to sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs unto the Lord. "Free To Be Spiritual."

In Colossians 3:11-15, we see the Apostle Paul was encouraging the church in Colossae, to forget race, status, and exterior things that were dividing them and instead, love and forgive as Christ does. Jesus established his church to make a difference in the world, for us to be different in the world. Jesus set us free to be be "We", one body, set apart.

We look at Colossians 3:5-10 where Paul challenges the early church to, "Put to death what is earthly in you." Is that just behavior modification or is it choosing to put on a new self, being renewed after the image of our Creator? But this is a process, we are daily in process of taking off the old and putting on the new... we are "Free To Be In Process."

Colossians 3:1-4 encourages us to set our minds on things above, not on things of this earth. This idea creates a tension of being fully present here on earth with people and real issues of life, and focusing beyond the here and now, on Christ. We look at this tension through the lens of setting our minds on things above and allowing that to shape the direction of our lives. Jesus came not to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive. - "Free To Be Present."

In Colossians 2 we see that the church was getting distracted with the rules and regulations of "religion." Religion is about restrictions and striving to be "good enough", Jesus is about relationship and freedom. Jesus died so all the rules and guilt would be taken away; we're not hungry for religion, we're hungry for relationship.