What Hope can do

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Colossians  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  33:43
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What the Prince Gave up

Have you ever wished you were a prince, a royal?
If you were a prince, you would probably have a lot of nice things.
You probably would have great toys.
Great Food.
Rich friends.
Can you think of any reason you would want to give up being a prince and live with poor people?
What if you were adopted, but fully accepted in the family?
Would it be an easy choice to give up palace life for living as a commoner?
. . . .
There was a man in the Bible who was adopted.
He was raised as a royal
He had everything a royal would have: education, wealth, lifestyle,
but
he believed the God of his first family was the one to worship
not the God’s of the kingdom.
Hebrews 11:24–26 NIV
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
So Moses hope for heaven as a Hebrew, was enough to make him leave his coushy life.
Knowing we will go to heaven some day can help us make hard decissions too.
Like giving up some pleasures not to get a better prize in the future.
Let me pray for you.

Introduction to Colossians

Colossians was written by Paul in about 60 AD while he was in prison in Rome.
At that time, he had never been to Colossae, at least
had never preached the Gospel there.
On Paul’s 3rd missionary journey, he came to Ephesus in the spring of 52 AD, which is about 100 miles from Colossae.
Paul preached there for 2 years and 3 months and many people were saved there.
One of them was Epaphras, who became a trained minister of the Gospel under Paul’s leadership, before returning to Colossae, where he was from.
Epaphras began the work in Colossae and a church was started.
Later he visits Paul and tells him how the work at Colossae was going. It started off well but others have come in and taught some disturbing things.
So, those conversations lead to Paul writing this letter to to the Colossians.
By the way, Philemon is said to be a church leader in that town and have a church meeting in his house.
Let’s begin reading in Colossians chapter 1
Colossians 1:1–2 NIV
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Paul consistently begins his letters announcing who he is, his credentials and who he is writing too.
So this letter is from Paul
He is an Apostle of Christ Jesus
someone sent as a messenger, an ambassador.
And he didn’t choose to make himself an ambassador for Christ.
Can you imagine Paul, the enemy of the Christian church,
just waking up one day and saying to himself
I think I am going to stop persecuting this church and
become it’s ambassador!
It’s a laughable thought!
Nor did Paul,
after being converted, spend years in study and then deciding to take his knowledge on the road.
Paul didn’t self appoint himself in that way either.
His calling happened this way, Paul was on his way to Damascus to haul away the Christians when he was struct down and blinded.
A few days later, the Lord called Ananias of Damascus to go heal Paul and tell him what he should do.
Acts 9:10–16 NIV
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
So it was God’s will to send Paul to speak to Gentiles, and Kings and to the people of Israel.
The letter was also from Timothy, who must have been with Paul at the time.
Who was the letter to?
Colossians 1:2 NIV
2 To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
So we know who the letter is to,
the church is Colossae.
But he doesn’t leave it at that, he calls them
the gathered people, who are faithful brothers and sisters.
So the letter is to both men and women
the letter is to the faithful
which would be a little encouragment to be a faithful follower of Christ.
And then finally his greeting

Grace and peace to you from God our Father. e

Grace and peace from God.
Paul doesn’t have any grace
Paul doesn’t have any peace to give away
Only God can give grace,
Grace, his unmerited favor
Only God can give peace in our hearts.
Now let’s look at the main body of our text
Colossians 1:3–8 NIV
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
I am so impressed by Paul’s thankfulness and prayerfulness for everyone he writes his letters to.
He is always thankful for them, even when his letters are dealing with problems in the church!
He has learned from Epaphras, about their faith in Christ Jesus.
Paul and Timothy, have learned from him about the love the Colossians have expressed toward all of God’s people
and Paul truly believes this comes from their hope in heaven.
Are you encouraged by your hope in heaven?
. . .
You should be!
Randy Alcorn wrote a very encouraging book about heaven, based on scripture to encourage our hope in heaven.
Paul wrote something too in 1 Corinthians 2.9
1 Corinthians 2:9 The Message
9 That’s why we have this Scripture text: No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it— What God has arranged for those who love him.
And those are good things!
That God has arranged for you and I
If we Love Him!
Amen?
Paul says some good things about Epaphras:
Dear fellow servant
Faithful Minister
That high praise tells me that the gospel message Epaphras taught was an accurate one.
Paul will address some heresies that have been circulating since the church first came to Christ but regarding our hope in heaven

What can you do for God, when your hope in heaven is secure?

The author of Hebrews wrote this to his readers
Hebrews 10:32–35 NIV
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
To identify with:
`the outcasts,
the enemies,
the poor,
when it’s the right thing to do speaks of an awesome hope in heaven.
To have the conviction that no mater what we endure
it will be worth it all,
when we get to heaven,
is a strong belief
a strong statement of faith.
We have all heard of some people so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.
But this kind of looking forward to heaven,
enables us to make a difference in this world
no matter the cost.
What does this kind of faith and hope spring from
Colossians 1:5 NIV
5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel
What else does Paul do for them, before addressing the errors that are trying to creap in?
Colossians 1:9 NIV
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,
He prays for them to have two kinds of knowledge,
the secret knowledge of the Gnostics but
Knowledge of God’s Will through wisdom
knowledge of God’s will through the understanding that the spirit gives.
As we gain head and heart knowledge
as we spend time in prayer
and learn to hear His voice
We will follow Jesus
we will surender to His will
more and more
and that is the goal
Colossians 1:10 NIV
10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
What kind of fruit does he talk about
Good Works
Colossians 1:11 NIV
11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,
Sitting with the persecuted,
knowing your stuff will be taken too
that would take great endurance.
To do it with Joy thanks, would just astound your enemies,
and some of them would come over.
Colossians 1:12 NIV
12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
I’ll ask, to see if you were paying attention
Who qualifies you for Heaven?
WHO QUAILFIES YOU FOR HEAVEN?
CAN YOUR WORKS
CAN YOUR FAMILY
CAN CHURCH ATTENDANCE?
ONLY THROUGH CHRIST JESUS CAN YOU OR i BE QUALIFIED
CERTIFIED
HEAVEN BOUND.
We can walk off the Bible bus!
But nothing can pull us off,
Nothing can separate us from the love of God
If we are in His family.
In his bus, going to heaven.
Qualified:
When I went to work for the state, they had a retirement systems in place
It took six months to be qualified, and by that they meant, there were starting to put money asside for you, in case you get vested.
It took 5 years to get vested and now you had a right to that money
when you retired
or when you died.
How soon can we be qualified for heaven?
.......
repent of our sins
ask Jesus forgiveness
ask Jesus in our hearts and guess what???????
Boom!!! you are qualified,
But He wants you and I to walk worthy of our calling.
To to earn our salvation but
to show the world that our heart has changed
We are not the same man
or same women we were before coming to Christ.
And we have to watch out of
herises, bad teaching about how to get to heaven.
Because if you get of the bus
and start doing your own thing
to get to heaven
Well Heaven Help You, is all I can say.
Because
Colossians 1:13–14 NIV
13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So, what shall we do.
Shall we stick with God’s plan
God’s GPS system
Or go finding heaven on our own?
I say, let’s
Learn the basis
stick to the basis
and Grow beyond the Basis
Percerverring for God?
Walking right.
Amen?
Let’s pray.
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