His Grace Is Enough Series

"HIS Grace Is Enough!"

Jesus Is Enough Part One

Colossians 1:1-8

Today we are going to begin a new series on the book of Colossians. We will spend the next seven Sundays digging into this book.

Question; Have you ever wondered -- IS Jesus enough?

Listen; We live in a world - much like that of the Colossian Christians. A world where a lot of people and groups - though they aren’t necessarily against Jesus - they don’t feel that Jesus is enough.

What they told the Colossian Christians and what they tell us is that we need Jesus PLUS something else: Jesus plus ‘their’ teachings (book of Mormon; Watch Tower; New age books...etc); OR THEY tell us, we need Jesus PLUS the right ritual; Jesus PLUS pagan astrology; Jesus PLUS our own effort; Jesus PLUS oriental ‘new age’ mysticism.... Jesus PLUS the American Dream.

Paul under the direct inspiration of THE Holy Spirit - wrote this letter to let the Colossian Christians know, and to let every generation and culture since the first century, know in no uncertain terms - that Jesus Christ is enough!!!! Jesus, is ALL we will ever NEED!!!

Now we need to understand; that these heresies; that these false teachings at their root, are BOTH dethroning Christ and denying his finished work on the cross and that is why they need to be stopped...

Now I think there were 2 factors that made the Colossian Christian’s particularly susceptible to these types of heresies; #1; the Colossian church was made up for the most part, gentiles who had very little background & knowledge of God and who just recently left a religion, that could best be describes as ‘blended paganism;’ and second; the Colossian Christians, were people from a small declining town (feeling unimportant) and people who feel unimportant are usually prey to teaching that promises

The theme text for this study is Col 2:10;

"YOU have been given FULLNESS In Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority..."

As Paul writes this letter he spends the first 2 chapters exalting Jesus, telling us how His grace, His Lordship, His Word is enough! And then as is customary in most of Paul’s letters, after hitting us with God’s truth - He then challenges us to put that truth into practice in our everyday lives.....

Today, we want to talk about How His grace is enough.

Colossians 1: 1-8

PRAYER

Have you ever watched something or heard about something and either thought to yourself or said out loud (as your bottom jaw dropped) , "THAT’S AMAZING" Things like: a gymnast or figure skater performing for the gold, Michael Jordan airing it to the basket, The space shuttle returning to earth, Someone flossing their nose, And How about computers, e-mail and fax machines, they just blow me away....

You know, there was a time when people were Amazed with things that we now take for granted, things that are not a big deal anymore.... Television, automobiles, microwaves, air conditioning, radio 8 track stereos (believe it or not)...etc.

You see the life-span of something being considered amazing is often very short lived... But there is something; that is truly Amazing... perpetually Amazing... Something that has not faded in it’s brilliance in nearly 2,000 years -- And that Something is, God’s Amazing Grace.

In the verses we read this morning -- a phrase in verse 6 literally jumps out at me and grabs by the heart and it has done so for years.....

"All over the world this Gospel is Bearing Fruit and Growing, just as it has been doing among you, since the day You HEARD and UNDERSTOOD God’s GRACE in ALL it’s truth..."

Circle; "bearing fruit" "growing" "hear" "Understood" "In all it’s truth"

Underline; "the day"

Listen; This verse should put us on a quest, a quest to understand God’s grace in a greater way -- to have it mean more to us then just the definitions we’ve been taught ("God’s unmerited favor" - "getting what we don’t deserve") -- Those words should motivate us to take Grace from the theoritcal and theological -- into the experiential and practical...

One popular author has written a book -- I haven’t read the book but I’ve heard the title and I really like it -- A GRACE AWAKENING. That’s what I want us to do today -- begin to awaken to the grace of God in all it’s truth and all it’s power....

And when we do, it will change our lives & ‘our’ church, like it changed those it Colosse.

But before we talk about what God’s grace can do, I want us to talk about;

What God’s Grace Has Already Done

To do that let’s read a couple of passages;

"When we were UNABLE to Help ourselves, at the moment of our NEED, Christ died for us, although we were living against God. Very few people will die to save the life of someone else. Although perhaps for a GOOD person someone might possibly die. But GOD shows HIS Great Love for us in THIS way: Christ died for US while we were still sinners." Rm 5:6-8 (NCV)