Catch & Release God’s Way
Praying Your Family & Friends To Christ Series (4 of 5)
Colossians 1.13 October 31, 2004
Chester FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, speaker
Introduction:
1 Probably one of the most famous "curses" in modern history revolves around baseball great Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth, before he was a New York Yankee was a member of the Boston Red Sox. He was their best player. Not only was he their best hitter but he was also their best pitcher. He led to the Red Sox to becoming the world champs.
A After the 1919 season, the owner of the Red Sox Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees to help finance a Broadway musical he was involved in.
a The Red Sox have not won the World Series since that trade. In fact, the Red Sox have been the most hard luck team over the past 83 years, repeatedly finding new and inventive ways to lose the big game.
b It’s been said that they are under the "curse of the Bambino"of Babe Ruth.
c We too, are under a curse due to our sin. We will never win. We will never be right with God as long as we are under our sin.
B When you asked Jesus into your heart, you were released from the curse!
a We’re continue our series Praying Your Family & Friends To Christ Series with the message Catch & Release God’s Way.
b So far we’ve learned these three ways to pray for our lost friends & family.
H Pray that their heart would be receptive to the Gospel.
E Pray that they would see with their spiritual eyes.
A Pray that they would have God’s attitude toward sin.
R . . . I’ll be teaching you today. We should pray our lost friends & family will be released to believe. (ESS)
2 Col. 1.13 NASB "For He has delivered us fro the dominion of darkness, and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son,"
A Only God have released those at Collose from the devil’s dungeon. (ETS)
a We should pray our lost friends & family will be released to believe. (ESS)
b I hope you’ll pray that God would release your lost friends/family to believe the gospel. (Objective)
B Who are you praying for to be released from the devil’s dominion of darkness? (Probing Question)
a Let’s look at the two parts that are involved when God releases a lost friend/family to believe the gospel. (Transitional Sentence)
b Pray
I The first part that is involved when God releases a lost friend/family to believe the gospel is . . .DELIVERANCE.
"For He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness, . . ." Col. 1.13a NASB
1 Paul explained God’s successful rescue operation to those at Collosse.
A He delivered us!
a "He" is Jesus. (The lamb of God, Lion of Judah, Alpha & Omega, First & Last)
b Delivered literally means rescued from danger, saved, liberated.
(IL.) The word picture is that of a slave being set free from a Roman slave market. (Emancipation!)
B From the dominion of darkness. (The devil is the prince of this dominion. cf. Eph. 5.8; 6.12; 1 Peter 2.9)
a A major heresy in Colosse (Gnosticism) believed that the fractured relationship with God, which sin had destroyed, was restored in two ways:
1 Heavenly Visions (Col 2.18)
2 Earthly Asceticism (Co. 2.20-23)
*Basically Satan was holding the Collosian captive by getting them to refuse God’s grace! Not only was he (Devil) getting them to sin: he was making them commit the unpardonable sin!
b Paul was saying it wasn’t heavenly visions or earthly asceticism, but rather it’s Jesus!! FOR HE DELIVERED US!!!!
2 The rescue operation that occurred that 2,000 years ago is still setting people captives free 2,004 years later.
A In a sense, every time a lost person puts their faith in Christ, the saving result of Christ’s death reoccurs.
a Before we were released to believe, we were in danger of spending eternity as sinful captives in a devil’s hell, the sword of God’s Judgement was hanging over our heads.
b We couldn’t (lost friends/family can’t) deliver ourselves (themselves) fro the guilt & penalty of sin, but, . . . Jesus can and did deliver us!
B Jesus is the ONLY ONE who can set our lost friends/family free.
a The devil wants them to believe there’s other saviors, ways, roads. (Lie)
b There is no other name given under haven by which men are saved.
(Not Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, . . . Jesus!!)
3 George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
A In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
a Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
b Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message—the most important in your life—and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"
B Jesus has set you free . . . he wants to set your lost friends & family free, too!
T.S.: God’s action on behalf of his people doesn’t end with deliverance from the dominion of darkness: he has also "brought" them into the Kingdom of his beloved Son!
II The second part that is involved when God releases a lost friend/family to believe the gospel is . . .TRANSFERENCE.
" . . . and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son," Col. 1.13b
1 Paul taught the people at Collose that God had brought them out of the dominion of darkness so that he could bring them in to his Kingdom.
A God brought them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
a Transferred: In ancient times, the word was usage to describe the removing people from one country to settle them as colonists/citizens in another country. (Deported/reestablished)
b (IL.) Antiochus the Great transferred (deported) at least 2,000 Jews from Babylonia to Collose. (Paul’s audience understood what transferred meant!)
B God rescued them for His Kingdom by paying a ransom . . . himself.
a God’s Kingdom wasn’t on a map, wasn’t on the way . . . it was the rule & reign of Christ in the heart of the believer.
b The price was paid for their hearts through the blood the God’s beloved Son, Jesus!
2 Jesus didn’t set us free only to have wonder aimlessly.
A In the ancient world of Anitochus the Great, rulers transported the defeated people. (Losers)
a In God’s Kingdom were the last is first, strong are weak, greatest is least . . . The winners are transferred!
b The losers are still being held captive in defeat in the dominion of darkness.
B The grace of God we have seen has reestablished us in His Kingdom. (What the devil had blinded us against.)
a God grace brings the sinner from death to life, bad news to good news.
b Our lost friends/family are in peril and need to be transferred.
3 The headlines in the Savannah News were all about Baby Grace. Baby Grace was a newborn girl discovered in a dumpster by a garbage worker.
A Amidst the refuse of a ghetto area of Savannah, lying in pornography, in the green broken glass of discarded cheap wine bottles, in coffee grounds and rotting food, was a tiny little girl not over a week old.
a The garbage collector named her "Baby Grace." And the story of Grace is changing the hearts of that neighborhood like nothing before. There will be no problem finding parents for Baby Grace; couples are lining up to claim Grace as their own.
b I think what God is telling us in this passage is that the message of Grace—God’s Grace in Christ—is equally surprising and even disturbing. For on a garbage dump outside of a two-bit occupied country, on a Roman cross, Grace could be found.
B Grace is not found in the pretty religion of men, but in the garbage dump of our own lives. And those who find Grace, and tell it best, are not professional clergymen, but people who have lived close to the dumpster themselves, fellow refuse workers, if you will, who have discovered Grace.
a That is all I am. That is all you are. And if you have wandered in here today for a nice dose of religion, forget it. We’re just a bunch of sinners saved by grace, calling you, too, to admit your weakness and reach out for His Power—His Grace—which was demonstrated when Jesus died for us on the Cross.
b We’ve got to pray that our lost friends/family are released to believe! See Grace!
Conclusion:
Only God could have released those at Collose from the devil’s dungeon. (ETS) We should pray our lost friends & family will be released to believe. (ESS)
A We’ve looked at two parts that are involved when God releases a lost friend/family to believe the gospel.
a Deliverance: Escape, Save From Danger of the Dominion of the Devil.
b Transference: Deported from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
B I hope you’ll pray that God would release your lost friends/family to believe the gospel.
a You’re either in the dominion of darkness or the Kingdom of light right now.
b You’re either praying that God release your lost friends/family to believer . . . or your not.
C Who are you praying for to be released from the devil’s dominion of darkness?
1 Healthcare has gotten out of hand. Many of us get our medications via the internet from foreign countries to save money. Most popular: Canada, New Zealand and Australia…medicine from…down under.
A Healthcare insurance is so high that many people gravitate toward certain jobs mostly for the insurance benefit that goes along with the position.
a Corporations would rather offer time and a half to their employees than hire additional personnel because it is cheaper than paying an additional healthcare benefit.
b The fringe benefit of good insurance is a major factor in today’s economy.
B Many people show interest in the Gospel because of its fringe benefits: eternal life and deliverance from the wrath of God.
a But the main focus of the Gospel is a restored relationship with God through receiving the righteousness of Christ. (Lifting the curse, setting the captives free, deliverance/transferring us from the dominion of darkness to the Kingdom.)
b Everything else can be labeled, "fringe benefits," important as they are.
