Sermon Tone Analysis

Worship the Lord!

Colossians 1:1-18

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Twin Oaks Baptist Church - Sept. 14, 2015

BACKGROUND:

*As I was trying to find what the Lord wanted me to say tonight, I thought about a lot of things, but the thing that kept coming back to me was, "Worship the Lord".

So I would like to ask you to open your Bibles to Colossians 1, and as we read vs. 1-18, please think about why we should worship the Lord.

MESSAGE:

*Fourteen years ago last Friday, Islamic terrorists hijacked four passenger jets.

Two of those planes crashed into the World Trade Center Towers.

One plowed into the Pentagon across the river from Washington D.C.

And the fourth crashed nose first into a field in Pennsylvania.

It had been headed toward Washington D.C. but it was stopped by brave passengers, who gave their lives to keep that plane from hitting the White House or the Capitol Building.

*Three thousand people were killed that day.

But at first the news estimated that up to 50,000 people had been killed.

That's because on a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in those buildings, with another 200,000 passing through as visitors.

There were also 2,600 people working near the impact site at the Pentagon.

Only by God's grace was the death toll 3,000.

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*You know, our world surely changed that day.

Petty problems and frustrations were swept away by shock, grief and anger over that vicious attack.

Everybody pulled together (at first anyway).

We all wanted to do anything we could possibly do to help.

*Another thing I remember about those days was that the churches were full.

An unusual number of people gathered in churches to pray and worship the Lord.

Unfortunately, that only lasted about three or four weeks.

If everybody who could and should come to church did come to church, all of God's churches would overflow every week with people worshiping the Lord.

*For that matter, we ought to worship the Lord every day!

When we think about how gracious, kind and merciful, how awesome, mighty and holy our Lord is, we ought to worship the Lord Jesus Christ every day!

And tonight's Scripture helps us see why.

1. First: Worship the Lord, because He is our supplier.

*In Philippians 4:19, Paul tells us Christians: "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

And here in vs. 1-11, Paul shows us some of the great things the Lord wants to supply to you and me.

[1] The first is good friends.

*The Lord wants to give us friends we can count on, faithful friends like Paul and Timothy in vs. 1.

In vs. 3, our friends are eager to pray for us.

Paul said: "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you."

*Then in vs. 7, another great friend is Epaphras.

Paul said the Colossians had learned the truth of the gospel from Epaphras.

Now that's a good friend!

I will never forget the friends who shared the gospel to me! Paul also said Epaphras was a "dear fellow servant" and "a faithful minister of Christ" on the Colossians' behalf.

Plus in vs. 8, Epaphras encouraged Paul by telling him how much the Christians in Colosse loved him.

*Epaphras was a good friend to them all, and the Lord wants to supply us with good friends.

[2] He also wants to supply is with good fruit.

*In vs. 5-6, Paul spoke to the church about:

5. . . the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,

6. which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.

*The Lord wants to fill our lives with all kinds of good fruit from God.

Up in vs. 2, we see grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then in vs. 4, the Lord wants to fill our lives with faith and love.

In vs. 5, He supplies us with the sure hope of Heaven.

*And down in vs. 9-11, the Lord wants to supply us with godly knowledge, wisdom, understanding, strength, patience and joy.

As Paul said:

9.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10. that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11. strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

*God wants to supply us with all of these wonderful things that can change our lives.

Al Marchand's life was changed by the Lord.

He was full of the kind of fruit God wants to supply to us.

Al was on the second plane that hit the World Trade Center.

*His wife, Rebecca, saw it as a divine appointment.

She said, "I know it was no mistake he was on Flight 175.

You see, Al Marchand had heard about the Lord four years earlier.

At the time Al was a policeman, but he also worked as a bartender on his days off.

*God had no place in Al's life, but the morning cleaners who came in to clean the bar liked to listen to preaching tapes while they mopped.

Al was really annoyed by all of that preaching at first, but the idea of having a personal relationship with God began to fascinate him.

Eventually, both Al and Rebecca became Christians!

It was a total change, and he often shared his faith with old buddies from the bar.

*After retiring from the police department, Al started a new career as a flight attendant.

He felt like it was his life's calling and once told his wife, "What if there is a time when a flight is going down?

What if I am the only one who can share the gospel?"

*One month before 9-11, Al was talking to a passenger named Linda Links and he told her: "I became a flight attendant so if a plane went down I could have 30 to 40 seconds to speak the gospel to people so they could receive Christ."

*Al's wife is certain those passengers heard the gospel before they crashed, because nothing gave Al greater joy than speaking about the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

Al Marchand's life was totally transformed by the Lord.

Jesus supplied all of his needs, even when that plane was about to crash.

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*And Jesus will supply our needs too!

So worship the Lord because He is our supplier.

2. And worship the Lord because He is supreme.

*Jesus Christ is supreme!

This is the great truth that Paul proclaims to us down in vs. 15-17.

[1] And in vs. 15, Jesus is supreme, because He "is the image of the invisible God."

*This Scripture means that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

As John 1:18 says: "No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

*And no one can know God the Father except through God the Son Jesus Christ, because He is the image of the invisible God.

In John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been seriously ill for 38 years.

And some of the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus because He healed the man on the Sabbath day.

*But listen to what happened next from the New Living Translation:

17. . .

Jesus replied, "My Father never stops working, so why should I?"

18.

So the Jewish leaders tried all the more to kill him.

In addition to disobeying the Sabbath rules, he had spoken of God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

19.

Jesus replied, "I assure you, the Son can do nothing by himself.

He does only what he sees the Father doing.

Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.

20.

For the Father loves the Son and tells him everything he is doing, and the Son will do far greater things than healing this man.

You will be astonished at what he does.

21.

He will even raise from the dead anyone he wants to, just as the Father does.

22.

And the Father leaves all judgment to his Son,

23. so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

But if you refuse to honor the Son, then you are certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.

24.

I assure you, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life.