Living A God-Pleasing Life Series

JESUS CHRIST IS LORD: SERIOUSLY!

Living a God-Pleasing Life

Colossians 1:9-14

(Some of the information in this sermon was gleaned from other sermons found on Sermoncentral.)

INTRODUCTION:

It’s good have to have Jerry and Debra Snavely and their family with us today, as well as a group from the Eastpointe Christian Church

For those of you that may not know, Jerry is the son of Lyle and Donna Snavely. He ministered here about 5 or 6 years with our youth

ILL> I was reminiscing this week about some of the opportunities that Jerry and I were able to go golfing together. Now, most golfers have kind of a favorite club in their bag. Some really feel comfortable with their driver. Others with their putter. For me, it’s my 5 wood. I don’t know why, but I generally hit a pretty decent shot with that club.

Now Jerry’s favorite club is what is commonly known as the “foot wedge.” Whenever he gets behind a tree, the foot wedge is his choice of club. When he gets under some low branches or his ball rolls over into a bit of high grass–the foot wedge is there for the rescue.

ILL> One of golf’s immortal moments came in the 1870’s when a Scotsman demonstrated the new game to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the President’s beard and the surrounding vicinity, while the ball waited placidly on the tee. Again the Scotsman swung and again he missed. Our president waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”

Do you ever feel like your life is like that ball–stuck on the tee, waiting for something to happen?

At times you may feel like that in your walk with God where you’re kind of walking around without any real purpose

ILL> Maybe you feel like the young man that Rick Warren wrote about–a man in his twenties who said, "I feel like a failure because I am struggling to become something, and I don’t even know what it is. All I know to do is get by. Someday, if I discover my purpose, I’ll feel I’m beginning to live."

God doesn’t expect us to run around all our lives without direction or purpose

God wants you to surrender to Him and to His Son Jesus Christ

To truly allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life

And to take your faith seriously–to quit playing the church game and allow Him to make an impact in your life.

This church will never be what it ought to be until we, as members of Christ’s body, become what we should be.

Last week I began a new series of messages from the book of Colossians–Paul’s letter to the Christians in the city of Colosse

I invite you to turn with me to that book–Colossians 1

Over the next 6-8 weeks I want to challenge you to put Jesus Christ first in your life

To humble yourself before God and to allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of your life–Seriously!

This morning I want to concentrate on the question, “How Can I Live a God-Pleasing Life?”

READ: Colossians 1:9-14

I have to admit that this is a hard passage to grasp the first time you read it through

One of the reasons it’s so hard to understand is because verses 10-12 are one long sentence–a total 78 words

Now if you were to write a paper in school with a sentence that long you probably wouldn’t score very high

Secondly, there are no less than 14 different ideas expressed in these 6 verses

A preacher could spend several weeks teaching on this short passage

I really believe that Paul was so excited–that he had so much that he wanted to say that he just kept going and going and going

Wouldn’t it be great if everybody was that excited about their relationship with God that they just couldn’t shut up?

SERIOUS PRAYER

The first thing that we notice in the passage we read this morning is that Paul took his prayer life seriously

VS 3 & 9

I would like to ask that you pray seriously

I know that we have a lot of prayer warriors

Here are some specific things I would like to ask you to pray for

Pray for Jon and I that God would guide

Pray for all leaders: ministers, elders, deacons, that God would let us see and clear vision for His Church here in Mt. Gilead

Pray for the ministry of MGCC that we would be a shining light in this community