COLOSSIANS Pt. 1: A Prescription for Growth
Colossians 1:1-10
This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. May God our Father give you grace and peace.
We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.
Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
Paul’s Five Point Prescription for Spiritual Growth / Christ Discipleship
#1. Receive Grace / Experience Christ’s Forgiveness
#2. Expect God to work in you, build your hope by recognizing HE does.
#3. Practice loving others by God’s Spirit (loving the unlovable)
#4. Keep asking God to reveal Himself and spiritual wisdom to you through others
#5. Live out what He is growing in you: Relational / Experiential Reality
Application Questions:
In your normal week how do you receive God’s grace and peace?
How does the Reality of Jesus Christ help you live with confident hope?
How is the Gospel ‘bearing fruit’ in your life? Are you continuing to change?
Who is an example to follow of someone with ‘Spirit Given’ love for others?
Who prays that God would make you more Spiritually Mature’? Who do U pray this 4?
Who could you approach to help you grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding?
What is an intentional change to the ‘way you live’ that will grow your discipleship?