Tonight we're going to be studying on Colossians, just a short little book. And tonight as we've been going through the Bible, how to study the Bible. We've been taking books. And so now we're in the New Testament and you can see Ryan did acts last week and Dan did Mark the week before.
And so I'm continuing on. We decided to take one of these little epistles. And so you have your notes. Hopefully you have them there.
And as I was thinking about this, we just had our general counsel. The family's a guy just had a general counsel out in California. And it's probably about a month or two before they had that. They sent all the ministers.
It's a book. And it was about 20 pages and saw the resolutions. Things that need to be changed in the assemblies of God that they want to bring. So it could be that they just sometimes that we just need to change the wording on something.
So the resolution will be whereas the wording is not good. Therefore, this is what we want to do and we change it. And it could be that we want to start some group within our organization. We want to do something.
And so it is whereas we want to change this. Therefore, we resolve that. So then they go through, if you ever sit in these meetings, the pastor and I have and don and some of the pastors. Sometimes it's good and sometimes well.
It's just boring. So, and this is one thing I've always found. The things that are really important, I think man, it should take a few hours. Five minutes go by and let's pass it and let's go.
Those things that I think are so trivial, oh, it should take five minutes, two hours later and we're amending it and everything else. But it's the therefore that's important. It's the therefore that's important. And so tonight you'll see as I finish up, the therefore is important.
The historical context of the book of Colossians. The setting, it's the city of Colossa was a city by Fraga located about 120 miles east of Ephesus in Asia Minor. Today we would know it is Turkey. And so if you get out of map and you look where Turkey is, that's where you would find Colossa.
And the inhabitants at that time were mostly Greeks and Hebrews, but there were some other nationalities that would come in. This was a big commercial area where there was a lot of commerce and those kinds of things that were taking place. And if you also look at that map, you'll see a number of other places around other cities. And I'll talk about that in just a second.
But it was a place where wool was and they had all these different things to bring money into that area where they had rivers and so they had a lot of commerce that were coming through there. Also, you'll find in there Philadelphia, Laetesia, Sardis, you guys are catching on where I'm going. And the other four cities that are mentioned in Revelation when we find the letter two, Philadelphia and Sardis and Laetesia, those areas are right around where Colossa is. So it was really interesting as I was looking at that.
The author is Paul and he is the author of Colossians. You can see that in verses one and two, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossa. Grace to you in peace from God, our Father. So he tells us who is writing it and he tells who is writing it too.
And he also throws Timothy's name in there that Timothy happens to be with him at this time. The letter was written while Paul was in prison in Rome in the years between 60 and 62 AD. Many scholars don't believe that Paul had visited though Colossa at that time. And so he had never been there and we will see that it's because of Epiphras, had brought him word that everything was going good but there was a few things that they needed to talk about.
He needed some wisdom from Paul and so he comes and talks to Paul about it and that is why the letter is written. So that this letter can be sent back to the church to help them with the things that they're dealing with. It's called the prison epistle. Paul also wrote Philippians, Ephesians and Philemon in the same time period.
So I kind of thought about it, if you're in prison you really don't have a whole lot to do. So Paul has these people that have come to him and he's writing back to try and help them out. And we also believe that Ephesians and Colossians were written very close together because if you look at two scriptures that I have down there are Ephesians chapter 6 verse 21. But that you also may know about my circumstances how I am doing, Tecusus.
And beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will make everything known to you. And if you go over to Colossians 4, 7. As to all my affairs, Tecusus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond servant in the Lord will bring you information. It's almost the same verse that this gentleman is going to be bringing the word back to them at this time.
Philemon was also part of this that you can see because we'll get to it in a minute also onissimus is going also with him at the end. Remember that Paul has the time to write this in prison. You remember writing letters when you were a kid? How many of you were writing?
We don't do it anymore. Does he do it anymore? A couple on the back. Good for you.
Yeah, I remember the letters that I wrote the most were two cousins of mine. We were the same age. And growing up we'd write a letter and I'd send it to them and probably about a month later I'd get a letter back. That just wouldn't work today would it?
No. We have emails, texts, we have smartphones, we have planes and everything else. And the thing is is these letters had to be taken by hand. You know, it wasn't easy to travel at that time.
So these were letters that were very important held onto and held very close to the heart for the importance that they were. This letter was also to go to Laodicea after it was read at Colossa. It's in Colossians 4 verse 16. It says, when this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of Laodiceans.
And you for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. So Paul had sent letters to both of these places and he wanted them to switch so to take it to understand what was going on. Like I said, they were close in proximity and probably had similar issues that they were dealing with within the church. The grand narrative is redemption and also it's kind of leaning towards new creation.
I was talking to Ryan about that this morning because we can see that he shares about Christ in the first two chapters of Colossians. And talking about Christ talks about what Jesus Christ has done and yet also what Christ is about to do. The literary style, it's an epistle and that is not an apostles wife, okay? It's not.
An epistle is a pastoral letter and I'm going to take some of what Ryan had shared with us earlier. Letters were a way for a pastor from a distance to help another church viewed as an authoritative substitute for the actual presence of the author. Some of the formal, the Romans, Ephesians, Hebrews, James and 1 Peter and then some of the less formal, the Phyneemian, 2nd and 3rd John. Letters are also situational meaning that they were written to a specific church dealing with a specific issue.
It could be doctrine issues, lifestyle things or other issues that the church was going through. Many letters were written by a scribe as the apostle dictates and you'll see that with Colossians. All letters were written to a Christian audience also, all these epistles and basically it's just a small letter to help a church deal with the issues that they're going through. Regarding the interpretation, it's very beneficial to think of it as you're reading this in paragraphs and not verse by verse.
It's a letter. When you write a letter, you didn't just write one sentence and then next line, write another sentence and no, we write in paragraphs. So as you're reading Colossians and some of these that are epistles, read them as paragraphs, read them as a letter from someone to somebody else and understand the heart of the person writing it. Next, we have the structure and that's the general structure of the book is twofold.
Chapters 1 and 2 are focused on theology and chapter 3 and 4 are the practical uses of that theology. So that's a big part of it and let me break it down a little bit more. The outline in Colossians, chapter 1, verse 1 and 2 is Paul's greeting to those in Colossa verses 3 through chapter 2, 23 is the good news of Christ. Chapter 3 through chapter 4 verse 6, living the new life in Christ.
Chapter 4 through, I'm sorry, 7 through 18 is Paul's final instructions and his greetings at the end. His greetings at the end. So when I was in Bible college, I had to take a class on how to study the Bible and one of the things that we had to do, a lot of things that we've already learned on Wednesday nights I was taught. One of the other things that they would tell you is to read, if you, you know, let's take this book, is to read it a number of times and then you kind of bring it down.
So find some themes, you kind of find some overarching thoughts that are in here and then you go back and read it again, okay, bring it down a little bit smaller to maybe a couple of sentences and then you bring it down even further to where you can put it down to a one sentence of what, you know, a book is all about or what you're studying. And it was interesting because then we had to do it and the teacher would always kind of give us, you can pick from these books. And of course you want, you know, you're in Bible college, you know, Colossians would have been a good one. He never gave us small books like this.
No, you got to pick one of the gospels. So, so tonight what I decided to do and we've kind of done a little bit is because this book is so small that I thought, well, let's just, let's just go through the book. Let's go through the book and we will study it tonight. And hopefully as you have learned these tools that you will use them.
So through the book tonight, number one, Paul addressed the issues in a systematic way by telling them who Christ is and what he has done. And that's what the beginning of this book is. First two chapters as I've talked about. At this time there were some false teachers who would come in and they were kind of disturbing the church.
They were trying to teach on some other things. And we can also see that some, anytime you get into doctrine, people will want to put their slant on it. They want to bring their own thoughts into it. And we need to take a word for what it is, the word for what it is.
And be very careful how we divide it and how we look at it. And make sure that we're allowing the Holy Spirit to also help us to really read it and understand it. And we can even see in different versions of the Bibles how people will interpret that. How people interpret it.
I guess my sister is a couple of years ago, she's a CPI. I said, I have a question for you. I said help me out. And she goes, well, let me go and do some research.
So she came back and she says, this is what it says. It says, you should, so on and so on and so forth. I said, that's not helping me. She goes, no, that's the exact wording in the law that you should.
That means that I don't necessarily have to. Am I correct? And she goes, yes. But you should.
So people can do it or they can't do it. And we went back and forth for about 20 minutes. And I said, so I don't have to do it. And she goes, no, you don't have to do it.
But you should. Can I get another CPA? No, they're going to say the same thing. Be very careful when people come in and they tell you certain things.
And that's sometimes even in the church. We struggle within the church ourselves even as advances we are with all that we have to understand the word of God. Sometimes we can be persuaded. This past week we had an eclipse.
And there's some that would put end times to that eclipse and some that would say that's absolutely ridiculous. And then a lot of people fall in between. I'm not going to get into that tonight. Sometimes, yeah, there you go.
You're welcome. They're trying to persuade them that they should eat and what the holidays that they should celebrate and the new moon ceremonies and all these different things. That's what was going on. And sometimes they had people have good motives.
Remember that Jesus Christ died on a cross and grace was given. So no more sacrifices. But my grandfather sacrificed and my father sacrificed and you're telling me now I don't have to sacrifice. This is this.
I kind of say sometimes this was a hard left turn to understand this is what has happened. All the way back hundreds and hundreds of years ago they've sacrificed animals for sins and going forth and all the way up even to Jesus to where we can see in the temple and all these things the animals were taken in and now we don't. Sometimes it's hard for us to give up our traditions. So there were some people who were coming in and some people who were not Christians and some who were in the church and are trying to work all this stuff out.
It's still true today. We're still trying to work things out in the church. They were preoccupied with following the various rules, especially those pertaining to the body. And lastly the teaching of false teachers did not have Christ as the center of it.
Any time that we hear any kind of teaching of Jesus Christ is not in the center of it, be very careful. Be very careful. So in chapters one and two we find that Paul is now laying the foundation just like we are on Sunday mornings when it comes to the beatitudes. We have said it over and over again.
The beatitudes help us with our attitudes. We say this is kind of a foundation that we are laying because we are going in on Wednesday nights into the Sermon on the Mount and as we continue on we need to have a good foundation. Number two Paul gives thanks for the Christian life that they are living in chapter one versus two through fourteen. He had heard about their faith in Christ and their love for God's people.
The good news that they had heard and they had accepted him into their hearts and that they were doing well. It's always nice to have that. Paul uses the phrase we pray three times in just this couple paragraphs here. Again it goes back to that as I said.
Find sometimes those things that words pop out over and over again and he has said this time three times we pray which shows Paul's love for the church, a church that he's never seen. Because if you're going to pray for somebody most times you love what you're praying for. That's the way we are going to pray for that situation. To remember them in prayer as you read the Bible look at those types of things when you see something over and over and over again.
Really though it was two prayers one for Thanksgiving of what they have done and number two was an intercessory prayer that Paul was going to be praying for them. Number three Paul writes a poem and this was interesting. We're going to read it tonight. Verse 15 through 20 chapter one and he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.
He is also head of the body the church and he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself might come to have first place in everything for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to him having made peace through the blood of his cross through him I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. So I was trying to study this a little bit this poem it's kind of like a song I heard some say it's kind of a little song it's a little poem and what I glean from it is this was a way for them to remember and we've all done this. We learn songs when we were kids and we turned around we taught them to our kids didn't we? Jesus loves me this I know come on for the Bible tells me so little ones to him belong hey are we but he is strong see you all know that and what is it that is some Bible that you were taught and you probably taught to your kids to sing that song and it's similar to that that this was something that they could take with them and they could remember this is the story of Jesus Christ what he's done it talks about the cross talks about the blood and we see a great little thing that they could take out of this letter and remember and pass on to the next generations.
The theme of the poem is Christ probably to them to memorize it and for them to share and in verse 15 through 17 it's from before creation in his power 18 and to 20 shows the new creation that comes from him dying on a cross and what it brings to us. Aren't you happy for that? Number four the good news of Jesus Christ and Paul has suffering for it verses 21 through chapter 2 and 5 in our video tonight to talk about the word of God and being shared and hearing that word Paul admonishes them that they need to hear the good news that they need to hear the good news because the good news is the promise of eternity if you have Jesus Christ in your heart you have eternity you think about that something we should think about that older we get the more you're gonna think about it. Paul also talks about his personal suffering for them and for Christ in verse 24 of chapter 1 not on the PowerPoint it says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body which is the church in filling up what is lacking in Christ's affections.
Can you say that? I now rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and then also in chapter 2 verse 1 it says, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf for those who are at Laodicea and for all those who have not personally seen my face. I want you to know how I rejoice in the suffering. Paul rejoices in the suffering.
He helps them to understand that it's not always easy. That should convict us even more, to share more, to do more, that people would come at us. I don't think that we share enough. I don't think that we witness enough.
At least I know I don't. I know I don't. And here in the United States we have freedom of speech. We can go and we can share with somebody if they don't like it they can walk away.
We can see over in China that you can be thrown in jail. Certain places for sharing the gospel. And I think that's one of the reasons I was listening to a message just past week that is one of the reasons why the gospel is spreading like wildfire over there. They understand the persecution.
There's people even at this time who are in prison for sharing the gospel with people. We don't even think about that. If I would go outside these four walls and go to the pizza ranch and sit down next to somebody and open up my Bible and start sharing with them, the only thing that can happen is they're going to call the police and please tell me to move on. That's it.
I'm not going to jail here in this country. I'm not going to suffer. Do I think it's coming? I think it's coming though.
That's my opinion. That's my opinion. But to suffer for Christ's sake. Paul understood that.
He was in prison a lot. And he did it. And the thing is when he was released, he didn't just leave. Say, okay, I'm not going to do that again.
No, he went back out. When he was beaten, he went back out. When he was stoned, he went back out. And he preached the gospel.
He preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Number five. The next part we see freedom from rules and a new life in Christ. This is chapter two, verse six through two, 24.
Paul tells us the reason for his writing. And it's in verses four and five of chapter two. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. Paul is writing this letter to help them that they would stand firm, no matter what they heard from others, no matter what was being done, no matter what others were trying to persuade him to do.
That's what that verse says. That's the crux to this letter. If I can nail it down to one sentence that comes down to this, I say this. I say this so that no one would delude you with persuasive argument.
For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. And your faith in Christ. He's trying to help them to stand firm to have this foundation. And then secondly, Paul has a warning in verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty decisions.
I'm sorry, deception. According to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ, rather than according to Christ. So he tells the reason and then he kind of gives a warning, be careful. Be careful because these things are going to happen.
They're going to come in. They're going to try and persuade you. The Colossians had a belief in polytheism, which he talks about many gods at this time. And it wasn't the Christian church.
It was those of that area. Many of those also were wanting to follow the Old Testament, not following grace. It's in this section that we see the words don't let or don't many times go through and read six through 24. You'll see don't and don't let over and over and over again.
It's interesting that Paul is telling them that they are set free from the bondage of this world, but yet he is in bondage while he's writing this. Well, he's writing this. Paul helps them in verse 20. The first part of it says, if you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to the crease?
He says, you've accepted Jesus Christ, you're free, and yet you're being bound up by the philosophies of this world. He's trying to help them to be free, to be set free from those things. Paul now turns to the practical matters. Chapter one, chapter two.
Now we move on to three and four. Living the new life in Christ. What does that new life look like? Let's take out the Bible again.
First, I'm going to read all these, if you don't mind, verses one through seventeen. He says, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on the things above, not the things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden in Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life and revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you will also, once, sorry, in them you once also walked when you were living in them. But now, you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander and abuse of speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self and evil and its evil practices, then have put on the new self who is being renewed to you, I'm sorry, to a new, to a true knowledge according to the image of one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised by barbarian and serferniche.
Yes, serferniche. I knew I was going to get that one wrong. But even Freeman, but Christ is all in all. And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
And beyond all things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing thankfulness in their hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Did you get all that?
There's a little bit of practical stuff in there, isn't there? Yes. Take that, read that list over and over and over again and see if you fall into any one of those categories. And if you do, then you need to go back and reach chapter one and two.
Then reach chapter three again, if you see yourself in any of those, then go back and reach chapter one and two again. You get it? One and two helps us with three and four. And the thing is, I'm just going through the public reading.
Did you see the video? It helps us to get the sin out of our life. It helps us to get the sin out of our life. As they read the scriptures, then the people would draw closer to God.
And when the scriptures were no longer around, they kind of fell away from God. We need to have the scripture in our life, and the scripture tells us what to do. It's because of Christ that we are set free from the sin of the world. The world is the one who keeps us in bound.
Even though Paul was in prison writing this, he was free on the inside knowing that he was doing the will of God. Now, I've never had handcuffs on. I've never been bound up except for my sisters when we were kids and, you know, those kinds of things. But I have been in prisons.
I have been in jails. Not because I've done something wrong because I'm on the good side of the bars. And to go into some of these places when I was in the Philippines, went to a prison that there were probably about 40, 45 guys in a room about the size of our community room. Absolutely no beds.
Just concrete on the floor, and that was it. And it was about 110 degrees every single day, and there was absolutely no air conditioning in there. It took us about an hour to get used to the smell, and we were there to minister to these guys. And that was nice compared to what Paul was in.
Paul was bound up in some hole in the ground that had probably been dug out or some cave and chained to the wall or whatever it happened to be. And yet he was still free on the inside. Don't let the world bind us up. Number seven, he then turns to relationships in specific areas in chapter three verse 18-4-1.
The first is to the household. Wives to their husbands to be subject to them. Husbands to your wives. To love them.
Children to parents. To obey them. Slaves to masters. To obey them.
Masters to slaves. To be fair. I think we covered everybody in here. Haven't we?
You're either a husband, your wife, or your child. Could be that you're a master, could be that you're a slave. He's given instructions to each and every one of us. The last instruction is to pray in chapter four verses two through six.
Again, let me read this. It says, the vote yourself the prayer keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Praying at the same time for us as well. The God may open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak for the mystery of Christ.
Now, wait a second. I had to go back and read this again. And I've read this a number of times in the last week or so. And it wasn't until the day that I read this.
And he says, pray at the same time for us as well that God may open up a door for us. He's in prison. And he's not necessarily wanting to prison door to open up though that would be good. He said, when we get out of here, we want a door to go.
We want a place to go. We can share the gospel. He's already looking at the next place. He's not bound up by the chains of this world.
He's set free by what God wanted him to do. He says, pray the same time for us as well that God may open up a door for us to share the word so that we may speak for the mystery of Christ for which I have also been in prison. In order that I may make it clear in the way that I'll speak. He tells us to pray.
He tells us to pray. As you go through a book and as you read it, there's so much meat in each and every one, even if you just read a paragraph. All of you can probably agree with me that there's times when you've read a scripture, I've read it 40 times. I don't know what it is about this time, but this just really jumped off the page.
It's because lots of times that's where God knows he needs to speak it into your life at this point. Sometimes you've read it over and maybe God hasn't revealed what you need at that point. Maybe he has. I know that happens to me all the time.
I've read that and I've read that and I've read that just like that scripture. I've never seen that. Paul asked for a door to be open so that he could continue to go on. He was getting close to the end of his life, but he still wanted to go.
He was going to go until his last breath as he was murdered. Paul now concludes this letter with a greeting and instruction in four verse seven through 18. And he is a man named Tikik. Tikik.
Yeah, Tikikikus. That will be the one who will deliver the letters to the Colossian church. He was one that Paul had said, listen, I want you to do this. He was close.
He was not in prison. I don't believe at that time. And so Paul knew that he was going to be writing this letter and he was going to send him and probably maybe send him on to lay out to see in church. And he says also with him on Isamis who was the runaway slave of Philemon.
He was also going. And if you want, go and read that story. Real quick, about Paul asking basically if Philemon would forgive the slave that he ran away. And I don't know if Tikik, yeah, why can't he be called Bob?
Tikikus. I didn't know if he had him on a rope or what, but if you're on Isamis and you know that Paul has written a letter, you've got to go back and face your master. You might take this letter that he's written to the Colossian church. You know where it says, masters, be fair to your slaves.
But on Isamis had his own letter that he was going to be taking back the Philemon. And it's interesting as you read these books, see the letters cross over, how the Bible crosses over. And one thing bleeds over into another and go and study that. He goes on and there's some that are with him in prison.
There's some that are just with him in that area. But Paul knows that he wants to help this church. He has sent this letter number one to set the theology to help them to understand. This is what it's all about, Jesus Christ.
Number two, here's some practical things that you need to be doing because we have heard from those who have come that you're struggling in this area. And then he goes and he greets, I'm not going to get into all the greetings and all those different things. This letter was probably dictated by Paul which so many times epistles were. Does somebody else describe or whatever?
But he does sign it in the end. One of the last few verses says, Paul, my writing, this greeting in the end. So tonight in conclusion, Paul urges the Colossians to examine the life of Christ and the meeting of cross. Therefore, therefore, they are to change what they're doing.
He tells them about Jesus Christ and the first two chapters and then between chapter two and chapter three is a therefore. Do these things. Christ has died for us. Therefore, what should we do?
We should look at our own lives and examine our own lives. One of the things that would challenge you to do this week is to take this book and to read it a couple of times. Now that we've gone through it tonight, hopefully I brought some insight to you. But go back and read it a couple of times and see if there isn't some things that pop off the page.
Understand the book, first two chapters theology, three and four, practical. That when you read another book that you look at these things, look at some things that are set over and over again. And see, why is he saying them over again? We've seen that in other scriptures where it says, very, very, he's really trying to get their attention.
And lots of times when things are written over again, it's to get our attention. Paul has written this great letter that is going to be sent now through his men who are going to travel. And as they travel, they're going to go to these churches. And how do you think the churches are going to respond?
When they get a letter from an apostle, one of the great apostles, Paul, who have written a letter of compassion to this church, I'm sure it was probably read over and over and over and over again. Every Sunday, this is how we're starting church, we're reading Paul's letter to us, telling us about the theology of what Jesus Christ has done, helping us to straighten up some of those things that we do on a practical, everyday occasion. So this week, read this great book, read this letter of love that he has given unto this church. And see if you see the theology and if there's something in there, maybe that you've breezed over sometime quickly.
And then go to practical, read that, those 17 verses. See if your name's in there somewhere. Stand with me if you will tonight. Heavenly Father, you're an awesome God.
Father, you sent a man who loved you to prison in Rome. And as he hears from this one coming and talking about the latest in church and the Colossa Church, he has compassion and he writes a letter. Tells them about what Jesus Christ has done, what it should mean to them to pray, to read the word, to read it again, to continue then to look in their own lives and Father examine their own lives and see, are we doing some of these things? Father I pray thousands of years later now, as we are in a nice building with air conditioning and lights, Father that we would take this love letter and not just say it's a letter written by an old man to a church.
But Father, understand that this is a letter that you wrote to us. Therefore, what should we do? Father, help us to resolve in our own lives that we are going to be Christ like no matter what. If it costs us to be thrown in prison, we're still free on the inside.
If it costs us to lose our life, eternity is the next step. Father, help us to live bold as Paul did. Father, help us to share your word, to read your word that sin would disappear. Father, I pray that you would help us.
Father, to be students of your word, lovers of the cross and shares of the life of Jesus Christ. In all that we do, in word and deed, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless you, thanks for coming. Have a great night.