The Dawn Of Abundant Life Series

[Statements in brackets are for the preacher not the preaching. These notes express ideas based on the homiletics recommended in "Preach with No Pants" (https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/preach-with-no-pants-john-allen-sermon-on-inductive-250167) which proposes an inductive-deductive outline with five points: Trip, Tension, Twist, Truth, Triumph.]

[EXEGETICAL IDEA: Paul thanks God for the Colossians' faith, love, and hope which they have because of their reception of the gospel through Epaphras.]

[HOMILETICAL IDEA: The gospel supernaturally changes you.

These verses, part of the customary greeting of the time, highlight specifics Paul thought significant with the Colossians. Obviously, we should have the same virtues today, but it's not enough to make every sermon say: "You should be something or do something." Consequently, this homiletical idea is based on the Twist.]

[TWIST: The gospel makes real changes in you.

Or, the gospel changes who you are and how you live your life.

Or, the gospel makes positional and experiential changes.

The most startling idea in my mind is the expected, necessary, even inevitable effect of the gospel on a person. That impact first is positional but should also overflow into an experiential. The contrary idea would be, "I prayed the prayer to accept Jesus, but nothing in my life is different."]

[TRIP—Upset: Are you really a Christian?]

Someone walking down the sidewalk one day stopped in front of a funeral home. A sign in the window said, "Why walk around half dead? We can bury you for $2000." Probably no one here will jump at the offer. Some of you might say, "But I know of someone..."

We don't like to talk about death or even to think about it. But at the end of our life on earth we face a huge question. Like many Christians, you may wonder, "Am I really saved from sin and on my way to heaven or do I just think I am?"

If you are sure of your salvation, you may wonder, "Am I really living for the Lord? I don't have that abundant life he said I should have."

[TENSION—Provoking the Questions, Opposites of the Truth]

A pastor friend of mine has heard more than once, "I just hope I've believed enough or done enough." That's one of the saddest things I've ever heard because he heard it at the bedside of dying church members.

Someone might say, "Well, sure I believe, but so does the devil! Remember what it says in James (2:19)?"

You believe that God is one; well and good.

Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear.

Some of you may say, "To be honest, lately my heart is filled with a lot more anger than love." Or you might finish most days feeling hopeless, discouraged, like God is no where to be found, especially not in your life. "He is real, but he doesn't seem very real in my life."

Maybe you're feeling spiritually dry. You have no sense of the Lord's presence. You might even be actively serving the Lord, doing good ministry. But inside you feel empty. "If Jesus promised abundant life, why don't I have it?"

Where is that abundant life Jesus promised to give us?

[TWIST—The Most Startling Idea]

First, realize that "abundant life" is not either/or but more or less. It's not a matter of having it or not, it's having more or less of it. So the real question is, How do I get more of that abundant life, enough to feel it?

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, it's a little bit out of your control. The good news it, the first step is supernatural. The first step has God's supernatural power behind it! It depends on God performing a MIRACLE ON YOU!

[TRUTH—Preaching the Bible's Solution]

Turn to Colossians 1:1 where Paul describes that miracle. If the book of Colossians tells us the secret to the abundant life, this is the gate, the dawning, the beginning step of that journey into the abundant life that Jesus promised us.

[Read 1:1-8.]

Can you name the person who brought you the gospel? Will there be some in heaven that will name you as that special person? So who is Epaphras? Acts 19:9-10 says when Paul was kicked out of the synagogue in Ephesus, he left them and took the disciples with him, addressing them every day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all who lived in the province of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord. Colosse was about 100 miles east of Ephesus, and Epaphras evidently traveled to Ephesus, heard Paul speak, and then went back and started churches in the three sister cities, Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse.

Let me tell you the good news of these verses. If you are a genuine believer, at some point in your life, "you have heard about the message of truth, the gospel...and understood the grace of God in truth," verses 5-6. In other words, you accepted the ABC's of salvation: you acknowledged your sin, you believed Jesus paid your penalty on the cross, and you confessed it, asking God to make you his child.