Colossians 1:1-8

“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. 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.”

In the book of Colossians we come face to face with a man who practiced both prayer and praise despite the difficulties that he faced. Paul starts out teaching thankfulness even though his present problems involved prison. Paul didn’t let his problems dictate his priorities. Instead of focusing on his trials he focused on thanks, teaching us a great truth about thanks giving, it is not tied to our circumstances but to Christ.  Our praise is a reflection of our priorities, and at the very start Paul’s priority was thankfulness. He makes thankfulness and praise his priority saying we “always” give thanks and that thanks goes to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul points His praise first to Christ and second to people. Our tendency is to use praise to serve self and not the Savior, but Paul doesn’t save praise for self he spends it serving others. Why do we point our praise to self, pride, a problem that is present in all people. On some level we all battle with boasting, pride wants to position and proclaim self. How do you know if you have a problem with pride, answer this question, how often does your ego have to eat, how often do you have to feed it? Paul’s praise points us to who should have priority in our lives, the Lord Jesus Christ. This triple name expresses the divinity, humanity, and sacrifice of the Savior. The title “Lord” refers to His deity, He is God and Lord of all. The name “Jesus” speaks of his incarnation, He was born into the human race and walked on this earth. “Christ” reminds us that He came and carried the cross, the Savior who sacrificed for our sins. So because thanksgiving is a priority Paul starts not with an ordinary greeting but a:

1. BLESSING

The greeting becomes a blessing. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” Grace to you and peace was the greeting Paul used to open all 13 of his letters. He chose “grace” God’s gift of unmerited favor, kindness from God we don’t deserve, His benevolence to the undeserving. Grace is God choosing to bless us and through Christ remove the curse of sin. Peace is what results when God’s grace is received. Grace is God’s provision for the Christian life, Peace is the enjoyment of those provisions. Grace always precedes peace and if someone does not have peace in their life, it may be because they’ve not yet experienced grace. Ultimately the Roman Empire that Paul lived in couldn’t deliver peace, Pax Romana, and neither will our Western society. Perfect and lasting peace comes when we are reconciled to God through Christ, not through culture. Peace is God’s provision; it doesn’t come through ‘powers and principalities’ which capture us through deceptive philosophy. It is here that we see the supremacy and sufficiency of our Savior. Paul is thankful for the:

2. BODY the church

Who is the church? The letter is addressed to those “in Christ,” a phrased used by Paul more than 160 times in various forms. It emphasizes the spiritual position of believers. They are “in Christ” meaning they are united with Christ, joined to Him as limbs are joined to the body. Which should cause us to ask several questions: First are you part of the body, are you in Christ, are you saved or separated? Second if you are saved and are part of the body are you allowing Christ to operate as the head? Third, are you thankful for the body of Christ? Do you look at the church as a blessing or a bother, is your perception of God’s people one of pain or privilege? As Paul focuses on the believers in Christ he expresses a triad of thanksgiving. Even though he had never visited the Christians at Colossae, he heard of their faith, their love, and their hope. This is very similar to what he wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:3: “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” While these three virtues are linked together in other passages, the phrase is not a faith formula, thrown in for effect, but a genuine statement in which each word is profoundly significant.

• FAITH

Faith is mentioned first because it is the starting place for everything else in the Christian life. Faith is our vertical connection and faith in Christ is the first mark of a mature fellowship. They weren’t commended because they had everything in common but because they had put their trust and confidence “in Christ Jesus.” It’s amazing to me that the testimony of their faith reached all the way to Paul in a Roman prison. I wonder how far is your faith reaching? The author of Hebrews tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Therefore, the church that gathers together without believing God is going to work will not experience renewal, revival, or blessing. Faith opens the door of the soul to receive the Savior; faith not only admits Him, but it also submits to Him. Faith isn’t just the start it’s the sustainer yet so often instead of walking by faith we are found withdrawing in fear. We are not called to a life of worry and fear but a walk of faith. Do you realize that a dense fog covering a cubic mile is composed of less than one gallon of water. When water is divided into billions of droplets a small amount can create a catastrophe of gloom, crippling an entire city and creating chaos. Worry and anxiety are like that, just a small amount can settle on you like a dense fog of gloom, keeping you from living the life the Lord intended you to live. Fear deteriorates the quality of our lives and can even destroy us physically. But faith breathes life and joy into our bruises and burdens, bringing healing to our hearts. Jesus called us to focus on faith and not fear when he said in Matthew 6:25-26: “Look at the birds of the air ….they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ….Who of you by worrying …. can add a single hour to your life?” Faith means to trust. Who do you trust? Whose hands are you really put your life in? Who do you turn to in the trials, is Jesus the Focus of your Faith? Are you pursuing a life of freedom through faith or living in the prison of fear? So many of us get caught in the trap of a thankless life because we focus on the fears and not faith. Are you thankful for the blessings and the body or have you let yourself become blind to the blessings and bitter with the body? Often this leads to living life on our own, we say that we have stopped “going” to church, the reality is that we have stopped doing life with the body. We claim that we still love Christ the problem is that while we are holding onto His head we are hating His body. Paul was passionate about the body despite the problems, look there are no perfect people just a perfect Savior at work within us. Paul chose to focus on the perfection of Christ not the problems of His children. Why are we disappointed and disillusioned with the church today, because we are placing our hope in the body and not the head. But when you have your hope in the head you can build up and believe in the body.

1 Timothy 6:6-16

“6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever.”

Second not only does an attitude of gratitude create contentment but an attitude of gratitude generates joy. One of the reasons we don’t rejoice is because we don’t take the time to recall all that God has done for us. Have you ever made a list of God’s goodness and grace, if you have when was the last time you stopped to look at your list?  That is what thanksgiving is all about, remembering and rejoicing. Thanksgiving takes our thoughts off of our wants and focuses them on God’s faithfulness. Thanksgiving gives us a reprieve from our labor as it redirects our lives into praise and praise has a way of putting our problems into perspective. Rejoicing is refreshing, where complaining only consumes. Do you spend more time cheering or complaining? One of the greatest killers to contentment is comparison. I am really content until I start looking through the catalogue surfing the web and seeing all the stuff. I liked my vehicle until I take a cruised through the new car lot. I am satisfied with what I wear until I stroll through the store. I love our home until I think of what it would be like to have a home by the beach or a  cabin up in the mountains. I am satisfied and content until I start comparing what I have with others. Most of us have enough of everything until we look at those who have more. Our tenancy is toward comparing not contentment, partly because we forget what we have and focus on what we don’t. Its so easy in our culture to get caught up and consumed by the comparison game. When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, many who came to hear him were moved by his words and wanted to know what they should do. When some Roman soldiers came, they also wanted to live out what John was preaching and so they asked: “What should we do?” to which John replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely, be content with your pay” Luke 3:14. John called them to be content with their current pay. These words spoken 2000 years ago are just as applicable to us today, learning to be content is every bit a struggle in our culture as it was in theirs. So many of us seem to think we would be content if we just had a little more money. But if we never learn to be content with where we are or what we have we will always be chasing more. Why are you waiting to be happy? So many of us postpone happiness because we believe that until our situation changes or we have acquired a certain thing, we just can’t be happy. But happiness isn’t based on your happenings, it’s not based on what you have, or where you are, it’s who you are and how you respond to life that matters. If you have been sitting on the sidelines buying into and believing that you will be happy when…,” then you will never be happy, because when that condition is met there will always be more ready to take its place. If you are not content with less you will never be content with more. Today there are many trying to live in a world of “IF onlys.” If only I had this…. If only this were different…. If only I could do that…. If only this had not happened in my life….but it’s not a change of heading that we need it’s a change of heart. A question we need to ask ourselves is: “if we are not happy now with what we have then why would we want more of it?” We are a society that is constantly comparing and never content. In Matthew 20:1-15 Jesus told a powerful story that proves this very point. The owner of a vineyard went out early in the morning looking to hire workers for the day. Later he went and hired others in the afternoon, and still more in the evening. Each group originally agreed to a set wage but then the bible says, “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ 13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?” The workers who went out in the morning were pleased to work for a denarius, which was the standard pay for a day’s work. It was only when they started comparing their wage to others that they felt cheated; instead of being content with what they had agreed to they became angry. Their joy was replaced with resentment, comparisons breed contention and conflict. Our hearts and heads get filled with envious thoughts; we end up trying to juggle our sense of justice and jealousy instead of joy. We harbor grudges in our hearts which rob us of rejoicing, instead of contentment we end up feeling cheated. Comparison left these men mad because they felt like they had missed out. Their focus was on how it affected them and not on others. They ended up being bitter with their boss because he was kind and blessed others. Are you caught up in the comparison game that leaves you trying to keeping up but never measuring up? Pride is often at root of our pursuit for prosperity, not only do we like pleasure but we like people’s approval. But what if you stopped comparing your life to others and started caring about the things that Christ does. What if instead of living a restless life, always running but never arriving, you stopped running and started rejoicing. What if you stopped and recognized God’s hand of grace, what if you took the time to recall and remember the goodness of God? Are you comparing and complaining or counting your blessings content