Colossians: Real Power, Real Help, Real Change

In someways it is simple: Know God's will and then do it... but once I know it I need power to do it. Paul knows; listen to his answer in this companion prayer to our study in Colossians.

Colossians 1:9-11
Ephesians 1:15-21,2:4-6,6:10
Romans 1:16
1 Corinthians 1:18
Philippians 4:13
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What is the outline of Paul's prayer so far in our study?
• What does he pray for?
• What does each of the requests mean?
• What does he pray about power in the life of the believer?
• Whose prayer is it, and how was it displayed in history?
• How do we get this power?
• Why do we have to make sure we really want it?
• Do we believe all of this to be true for us individually?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

Colossians: A Full Orbed Life

Paul's prayers in Colossians are so important to study because they show us what God wants us to be like and how to live a full orbed life of fruitfulness.

Colossians 1:1-12,3:12-4:1
Isaiah 6:5
Matthew 5:21-22,5:27-28
James 1:19-20
1 Peter 3:7

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• What attitude did Paul assume his hearers had about their salvation?
• What are the things Paul is praying for?
• What does it mean and how does it look in a person's life when they are filled with a knowledge of His will?
• What are the practical ways this was illustrated, and what are ways this should work out in our lives?

Pastor Todd Jaussen
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA

A Prayer of God's Peace, God's Work

This simple prayer reveals a lot about God and our relationship with Him.

Hebrews 13,2:3,3:12,4:7,6:1,12:24
Philippians 4:7,3:12
Acts 11:36,4:28
Romans 5:1
John 10:11
Titus 2:13
Jeremiah 13:31
Ephesians 2:10

Yes, blood is always a ghastly and a terrible thing. It is so, I suppose, because we recognize in it the destruction of life. Is it not so, also, - though we may not be able to define the emotion, - because we are compelled, in our consciences, to admit the effect of sin, and we are staggered as we see what our sin has done. All through the great school of the Jewish law, blood was constantly used to instruct the Israelite in the guilt of sin, and in the greatness of the atonement necessary for putting it away. Charles Spurgeon The Blood of the Testament

This is an "everlasting one"; it commenced from everlasting, as appears from the everlasting love of God, which is the rise and foundation of it; from the counsels of God of old, which issued in it; from Christ's being set up from everlasting, as the Mediator of it; from the promises of it which were made before the world began; and from the spiritual blessings of grace in it, which were given to God's elect in Christ before the foundation of it: moreover, it will endure for ever; nor will it be succeeded by any other covenant: and the blood of Christ may be called the blood of it, because the shedding of it is a principal article in it; by it the covenant is ratified and confirmed; and all the blessings of it come through it, as redemption, peace, pardon, justification, and even admission into heaven itself; and Christ, through it, was brought again from the dead, because by it he fulfilled his covenant engagements, satisfied divine justice, and abolished sin, yea, death itself. John Gill John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Sermon discussion topics for parents to use with their children:

• Why does the author offer this prayer?
• How do we obtain God's peace?
• How powerful is God?
• Why was it necessary for the shedding of blood?
• Why is God considered a covenantal God?
• What heart aches have you experienced that drew you closer to God?
• How may God be working in you through your difficulties to fit you perfectly together to do His will?

Matt Courtney
Crossroads Christian Fellowship Church
Greenville, PA