Tag: church

Published October 13, 2015

Who Is Jesus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMzKHFnD29E

Who is Jesus? As you just saw, you can find a wide variety of answers to that question. We talked two weeks ago about counterfeits and how tragic it is when people get duped – not just out of their hard-earned money – but in matters of eternal consequences. And judging by the wide variety of responses in this video, it’s clear that many people are getting duped about Jesus Christ. They’ve been deceived about who He really is.

And that’s not just in the secular world. If I were to ask that same question – “Who is Jesus” to a room full of people who have gone to church for years, there would probably be many people who could not give a full and accurate answer of who Jesus is and what He’s done.

And this was the exact problem that the church in Colosse was facing in 60 AD. There were people in the church who were being confused and deceived about who Jesus Christ is. False teachers were spreading counterfeit beliefs about Jesus. And so that’s one of the main reasons that Paul writes this letter (what we call the book of Colossians) to the church in Colosse. To address this issue, Paul’s gives them – what I’ve called Christianity in a Nutshell – and he spells out for them in this book, in no uncertain terms, the truth about Jesus Christ.

And so that’s exactly what we want to look at today, because quite frankly, I don’t want to get duped. I don’t know about you, but I want to know the truth – especially when my eternal future is on the line. What does the Bible say? Who is Jesus Christ? And what difference, if any, does He make to my life today? So that’s what we’re going to look at this morning.

We want to pick up today where we left off last Sunday – Colossians chapter 1, today starting at verse 15.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

Colossians 1:15

I think we’ve got to stop right there. That is a profound statement. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites had not visibly seen God. Because God is spirit, they were not able to physically see him. However, the Israelites had certainly experienced his presence. God was not hiding from them. He had revealed His presence on many occasions. One of the most vivid times when God made his presence known was on Mount Sinai – just before he gave the law to Moses. Let’s take a look at that passage for a minute.

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published October 6, 2015

Knowing God

What did you accomplish this week? Did you manage to check off a few things on your to-do list? I know I did! My wife & I moved into new house this week – and we are completely exhausted – but that’s one huge check mark on this past week’s to do list for us. Of course because of our move, we’ve also also created hundreds of new items to add to future to-do lists. We have boxes to unpack, a basement to finish, a kitchen to renovate, a fence to build, sheds to repair, etc…

It’s seems there’s never an end to the to-do list, is there? No matter how much you accomplish one week – there is always more to do next week. And so with an endless list of things to do, we’ve really got to prioritize. You can’t do everything that needs to be done – so you’ve got to start by doing the most important things first.

For example, on Friday when we moved in, the most important thing on that day was to get the boxes inside the house. I didn’t spend my time trimming my new hedges or mowing the lawn. That was not what was important that day. The rain and snow were coming – the most important thing was to get everything inside.

I’d be pretty foolish to spend my time trimming the hedges while the trucks sat there full of boxes waiting to come inside.

But I think sometimes we do that with our to-do lists in life. We often neglect the most important things. We do lots of stuff – but not always the most important stuff.

So maybe the question shouldn’t be “What did you accomplish this week?” – but rather – “Did you accomplish the most important things this week?”

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published September 27, 2015

Christianity Is About Changed Lives

Over the years, banks have made it increasingly difficult to counterfeit money. And the reason for that is that, over the years, counterfeiters have become quite skilled at creating counterfeits and these counterfeits dupe banks, businesses, and ordinary people out of their hard earned cash.

Thankfully, probably because of these security features or ones like it, I’ve never experienced getting stuck with counterfeit cash and I hope I never do. But I have had experience with counterfeits.

Last summer I took up the hobby of collecting silver. I bought some collectors coins from the Canadian mint. I bought some “junk” silver from eBay – that is, old Canadian or American coins that 50 years ago had actually had some silver in them. And I also bought some silver coins and silver bars from various mints all over the world.

I was fairly naive at the time and didn’t do my research as well as I should have. To make a long story short, I spent some of my hard earned cash on some counterfeit silver. I have one here – I keep it to remind myself to be a little bit wiser in future eBay purchases.

To just look at it – it seems like the real thing. It’s the right size, right shape, the design matches the real thing. But underneath the thin silver coating, is a bar of copper. It is not a pure silver bar as advertised. It was a fake. It was a counterfeit – I had been duped.

If you have ever been duped by counterfeits, you know the feeling. You’re mad the other guy for taking your money! You’re mad at yourself for falling for their deception.

It stinks. No body likes getting duped.

But you know, people get duped all the time. We live in a world where many people have been duped about God – about who He is and what He’s like – About the meaning of life and realities after death. Our world is full of counterfeit religions and counterfeit beliefs.

And getting duped in this way is far more serious than getting ripped off on eBay. I mean, we’re talking about life-changing, eternal consequences here. So it is absolutely imperative that we can sort out what is true and real and what is counterfeit when it comes to our beliefs about God.

And what makes it increasingly difficult is that many of these counterfeits are very convincing. I mean, that’s the nature of a counterfeit – it looks like the real thing. If it wasn’t convincing, no one would fall for it.

So with so many convincing, yet different beliefs about God and who He is and what life is all about, how do we make sure that we believe what is really true and real? How do we keep from being duped?

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published October 2, 2012

The Role of Community in Your Spiritual Journey

This morning I want to begin with a very interesting discussion question. And I trust that you’ll be eager to participate with me. The question I have for you today is this: What is the role of donuts in your spiritual journey? You might not have thought about this before, but that’s what I want you to discuss for a few minutes this morning. What is the role of donuts in your spiritual journey?

Now, to help you in your discussion, you’ll notice that there is a pile of donuts over here on this table. I invite you to come and have a donut – or if you’re a little more healthy minded, there are some clusters of grapes as well. But here is the rule: You must share your donut (or your grapes) with someone else. You can’t eat a whole donut by yourself – you must find someone to share it with. And don’t just cut it in half and leave half on the table – you MUST share that donut with someone else. So please, come and help yourself, and then take a couples minutes to discuss: What is the role of donuts (or grapes) in your spiritual journey?

As strange as that question might seem, there is a Biblical point to be made – and we’re going to get into that in just a few minutes. But first, let me remind you what we’ve been talking about.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been going though this little booklet entitled “Your Spiritual Journey”. We’ve been asking the question: Where are you in your spiritual journey?

Some of us are just beginning. We’re still trying to figure out all this “God” stuff. It’s all pretty new to us.
Others have been at this for a little while, and we’re at the point where we’ve started to personally get to know the God of Heaven. It’s pretty cool.
Still others have been followers of Jesus Christ for years now. And little by little, we’re starting to become more like Christ – but of course, there’s still a long way to go.

But where ever you are in your journey – our goal has been to help you take the next steps forward. We don’t want to see you stalled out in your spiritual journey – we want to see you moving forward.

And that’s what brings us to our message today. And our topic isn’t really about donuts, but about fellowship. About Community. About experiencing life together. Coffee & donuts seem to be the Canadian symbol of community, so I thought that would be an appropriate way to start.

So I guess the real question today is: What is the role of community in your spiritual journey?

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published November 30, 2010

Taking Care of Our Family

This morning we’re tackling a fairly large portion of Scripture – 27 verses in all. On average, we’ve usually been looking at about 8 verses on any given Sunday. So why such a huge portion today? The reason I decided to preach on all 27 verses is because all of these verses revolve around a single theme, although at first glance, you may not think so. Our sermon title for today is “Taking Care of the Family” because that’s exactly what Paul is telling us to in this passage today. Over the past month or so, we’ve been looking in 1 Timothy at our responsibilities as Christians – our “Call of Duty” if you will. And in these 27 verses, Paul lays out for Timothy and us, exactly what our responsibilities are towards others in our family – both our physical family and our spiritual family.

Now since we’ve already heard the whole passage once as read by our different readers, I won’t go through the whole thing again now. But I’ll try to hit some key verses and dig out four main lessons and then I’ll leave you to work through the rest this week at home.

Continue Reading This Article

1 Comment

Published November 28, 2010

God’s Design for Authority

This is now the fourth week of examining our Call of Duty. We’ve been looking at 1 Timothy to find out our responsibilities as Christians. So far, we’ve looked at our responsibility to help each other live a life of faith in God. We’ve looked at our responsibility to cling to our faith and keep our consciences clear so that we can fight well in the Lord’s battles. And just last week we looked at our responsibility to pray for all people.

And I hope many of you have been praying through our prayer calendar that we handed out last week and that you’ve been praying for your families, your church, and your neighbors. Don’t forget to come prepared to pray for our community next Sunday as we do our prayer walk through town following our morning service. This is going to be a great event and I think that both our community and our church will be blessed because of it.

Now today we want to carry on in looking at 1 Timothy chapter 2 – today verses 8 through 15. I want us to read that together this morning, but first let’s pray and ask God to show us what He would have us learn.

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment