Colossians 1:1-8 - Thankfulness in Trials
Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Pastor Bryon Self, Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, Maryland. We hope that this podcast will help you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to others.
This is a legacy episode of Tabernacle Talk.
These are episodes that are taken from the past five years of my life and different times that I've hosted different podcasts like Bible Babbles with my friend, Carlos Farias, or Strength for the Day that I hosted with my friend Pastor Dennis
Fountain of Moses Lake Baptist Church in Moses Lake, Washington. Fountain of Moses Lake Baptist Church in Moses Lake, Washington.
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/strength-for-the-day-a-devotional-bible-podcast/id1547987576
And hope that these episodes will be an encouragement to you. Right now, I'm on a Tabernacle Talk specific sabbatical, but we've uploaded some of these audio episodes to hopefully help you as you are seeking to walk with the Lord.
We'll be resuming some regular Tabernacle Talk episodes in February or March, so please be on the lookout for those. Let's dive right in. Welcome back to Strength for the Day.
I am here with Pastor Dennis Fountain and welcome back. It has been about two years from this exact week that we concluded our first season of Strength for the Day.
Has it really been two years?
It has. Have you done anything in the past two years?
That means you're older. I stayed the same age.
You did, actually.
And I still look good.
It's true. I no longer look good. I did two years ago and I just have really kind of myself go, what has happened?
I wasn't going to say anything, but since you mentioned it, I did want to talk to you about that.
Thank you.
I appreciate that. Faithful are the wounds of a friend and I'm here to be wounded.
And I'm not kissing you, so.
There you go. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And I just wanted to throw that in there for anyone in our audience that didn't know that proverb and was just really concerned about what was happening.
So good.
I'm glad you cleared that up for us.
Yep. So anything happened to you in the past two years?
Man, there's been a lot that's happened in the last two years. Honestly, a lot of it's been challenging, challenging in the last couple of years, but God's been good to us. Stayed faithful.
Church is doing good. Family, kids are all older. Let's see.
Dennis will be a senior and Lino will be a junior. Micah is going into his freshman year, so it's nuts. Three teenagers.
Yeah.
You got three high schoolers, and yet I'm apparently the old one.
You, well, you're older looking. That's all it is. Oh, that is you look astute.
You look astute.
Well, see, I don't have what Pastor Robert's benefit is of whenever he puts on his glasses. He looks, he looks a little bit like a professor. He looks like he's a person that should be taken seriously.
And I just don't have that. No one looks at me and goes, Oh, I haven't seen you with glasses.
Maybe you should try it.
I have 2020 eyesight in one eye and 2015 in the other. It was a good year. It was the year I graduated.
2015 was a good year.
Yeah.
What year did you graduate?
Don't worry about that. Okay.
Yeah. All right.
So let me ask you what you asked me. Anything important happened in your life the last couple of years?
Well, last September, my wife and I had our baby girl, Evelyn, and she is an absolute delight. She robbed us last night of a little bit of sleep, so that was a little bit sad.
But other than that, she is chubby and smiley, has just the fullest head of hair, and so she makes up for any downsides or any bad things that she could possibly do with her cuteness. And her brother loves her very, very much.
And he, you know, he's not the world's greatest toddler, but I do think he's probably one of the world's greatest toddler brothers. And so love seeing them interact. And so-
Yeah, watching them grow up the last couple years has been awesome.
Yeah.
Cute kids.
I think some of our Strength of the Day viewers from back in the day of Facebook Live might remember my son.
He made a guest appearance in a couple of episodes.
A couple of episodes, yeah. He's an all-star. Yep.
And so he gets some honorable mentions on those tracks.
But we're going to be jumping in today to a great book of the Bible, one that people from Moses League Baptist might remember if they have just a phenomenal memory from, is it five years ago now?
Yeah, it's been five years ago. We did a series called Rooted, and it was 18 messages through the Book of Colossians. So it's a great book.
I love the Book of Colossians. I love all of Paul's letters, but Colossians and Ephesians kind of stand out to me. I love those.
Yeah.
Now, you have been doing something special in your Bible reading that kind of reminded you again of the Book of Colossians. And what is that special thing that you've kind of been doing with some of your Bible reading?
So you're talking about a book a month? Yes. Yeah.
So a couple of years ago, I started reading one book every day for a whole month. And currently, I'm in the Book of Proverbs. That's a bit challenging because it's 31 chapters.
I'm actually doing like 10 or 11 chapters a day and try to do it 10 times this month. But yeah, a few months ago, I was in Colossians and read through it that month. I think I read through it like 40, 45 times, something like that.
And just so rich, it's so full. So I'm looking forward to it. So let's get going with it.
All right.
Let's dive right in. Who is Colossians about? Who's it from?
Who's it to?
Yeah. So if you do a quick study, you can find, of course, verse number one, Paul wrote it. And Timothy was with him and helped him.
And then there was one other person, it's toward the end of the book. I forget who, but there's somebody else that I think was used. Well, Silvana Silas.
Is that be right? Betty, is that Colossians? Now I have to look.
Anyway, but mainly Paul and Timothy wrote it. And of course, to the believers at Colossi. But what's interesting about it is that Paul himself had never been to Colossi.
So there's a lot of theory out there, but it's really you could cross-reference it and find this to be true that probably when Paul was in Ephesus, Acts 18, I think it is, when Paul was in Ephesus preaching there, God used him in a great way.
But there would have been one man in particular that would have come across his path there, probably got saved there. His name was Epaphras.
And then he would go back and start a study and kind of an in-home study, if you will, a little house church there in Colossae. And then also from Colossae would be Philemon. I think Philemon's son would end up pastoring the church there.
We'll talk more about that down the road. So it's a great, great book.
Very cool. And so you mentioned Paul writes it. He's never been to Colossae, but he has some connections there.
What would you say would be kind of the overall theme or purpose of the Book of Colossians? So he's writing this. Is it just because, you know, Paul's got nothing better to do?
He's already sent letters to everywhere else. And so he's like, I guess I've got some extra time. I'll write it to hear what's going on at Colossae that Paul writes.
Well, what would you think?
What do you think the theme is?
Well, I think you could look at a lot of different phrases that might jump out to you from the Book of Colossians. The one that's always stuck with me or kind of resounded as far as the book is concerned would be the phrase rooted in Christ.
And so you have a lot of mention of alternate doctrines and isms and things that are coming out of the city there and that are kind of battering the believers.
You have some things of legalism and asceticism and Gnosticism and paganism and all of these things that are coming against them. And Paul deals a lot with who Christ is. And we'll see that, I believe, in two episodes from now in particular.
We'll dive into that. He deals with how they're supposed to interact with one another, how they're supposed to interact with some of these people that are placing some kind of additional rules or spiritual religious things onto them.
And Paul basically gives them, hey, it's supposed to be all about Christ and you're supposed to be rooted in Him and how you think about God and the world around you is supposed to stem from who Christ is, how you're supposed to interact with one
another stems from who Christ is. And so I think rooted in Christ would be the phrase that would jump out to me as far as what the Book of Colossians is about.
Yeah, I would totally agree with that. I mean, I think because of the isms that you mentioned, and we'll get into it down the road of what asceticism is and Gnosticism and pantheism and all of the isms. But really, I would totally agree.
Like I think the whole book is know what you believe, know that it's firm, and know it, stay grounded in it, stay rooted in it. I totally agree. I think that's a great theme for the whole book.
So you want to get started?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right, let's jump into the first eight verses. I'll just read through them real quick, and then let's both pull out a couple of things that stand out to us.
Sounds great.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossi. Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you, since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. As ye also learned of Epaphras, our
dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit. I love the opening, of course, of all of Paul's writing.
He always highlights like who he is, you know, Paul, and what I'm doing, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and why I'm writing by the will of God. And Timothy, our brother, hey, we're doing this together.
Who's it to the saints and faithful believers that are Colossi? And he often and most almost every one of his books, he says grace and peace at the beginning. Like I'm praying God's grace, God's peace in your life, just a simple greeting.
But what stands out to me is really verse number three, when he says we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. The reason that stands out to me is he's in a jail cell like Paul is in jail right now.
And I remember, I remember the first time I preached this passage and that jumped out of me because when I go through trials, I often don't want to tell other people I'm praying for them. I want to write and be like, hey, pray for me.
I'm in a hard time right now. And I think sometimes we miss out on opportunities to be a blessing to people realizing that everybody goes through trials and we're in one. One of the best ways to be encouraged is to try to be an encouragement.
And here's Paul in a jail cell writing, hey, I'm praying for you. I'm thankful for you. I'm praying for you.
And then he writes why he's thankful for him. What's something that stands out to you in these first eight verses?
Yeah, I'd say one thing that kind of stuck out to me as we were just reading through is the encouragement that he gives to these believers. As we'll read through, they've kind of been battered a little bit spiritually.
But the words they use is to describe them. Verse number two, he calls them saints. He calls them faithful brethren.
He reminds them that the truth that they've received is the same truth that's in everyone throughout the world. The word of the truth of the gospel, which is coming to you as it has also in all the world.
There's this reinforcement of we know you've been going through it spiritually, just like Paul had been going through it both spiritually and physically.
But he encourages them that he says, hey, like I know you all have, there's a reason that he tells them to be rooted in Christ later is because they have felt uprooted.
And so he writes to comfort them and go, hey, who you are in Christ, like it's settled, it's secure, it's based on who Jesus is in the Gospel.
And so I'm starting off, this isn't me going, oh, you stupid Colossians, oh, foolish Colossians, who is going... It's not that particular writing style for this one.
It's an encouragement of, I know you've been through it, but you're standing before the Lord is secure. And I can thank God for who you are because of the testimony that I've heard about you.
Yeah, and I think that's one thing that kind of tagging this into the next thought, I think that's awesome that he says to them, you're standing strong and I'm hearing about it. Like people are hearing about... And he highlights three things, right?
Their faith, their hope, and their love. And he highlights that and he says like here's three things that I'm writing back to you and saying like... And this is before social media, right?
This is before Twitter and Instagram and all of that. This is before Facebook posts and before even newsletters the churches could send out of like, hey, we had this great big Sunday or whatever. This is before all of that.
And yet word had spread and Paul writes to them like, your testimony speaks volumes. And I think that that is a... I think that's encouragement, but I also think there's a challenge there.
And the challenge that I think of is like, I wonder what Paul would write back to me. You know what I mean?
Like, I wonder if he would write like, hey, Dennis, I'm writing to you from a jail cell, I'm praying for you, I'm thankful for you, and here's what I'm thankful for. Like, would he be able to, is there word of Dennis' faith and hope and love?
Is it reaching people? And again, I recognize that it's not necessarily on us, but I do believe as a Christian, like we should desire that our testimony would speak volumes to people. And that kind of stands out to me as a challenge.
So I know we're running out of time, so let me ask you kind of real quick, what do you think is a takeaway? This is Strength for the Day Podcast. What's something that we could walk away with today?
Why don't you give a thought, and then I'll give a thought.
Yeah. I would say as I look at Paul's kind of prayer of gratitude that he talks about to them, the word that sticks out to me is the word truth with the word of the truth of the gospel. And then he talks about it's come to the Colossians.
It's bringing forth fruit in the Colossians. The Colossians did not receive this letter. They did not have testimony because they did not know the gospel or they did not know God's Word.
It was God's Word that they listened to it. They heard it. Obviously, this would be them actually receiving a physical copy of part of the Word of God.
But they intentionally listened to God's Word, and it brought about change in their life.
So maybe to someone that's listening to this, as you are hearing God's Word being talked about, you can have strength for the day, knowing that God's Word can make an impact in your life. It can bring about growth.
The Colossians weren't some supernatural whoever's that, oh, they can have a good testimony, or they can have this word that is sounded out from Epaphras that Paul hears about. They were nothing special in and of themselves to have testimony.
Each one of us, as we allow God's Word to work in our lives, we can have that same life. And so I would say strength for your day can come from the fact that if you will hear and apply and obey God's Word, that you can make a difference today.
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with that. And I think kind of a quick challenge that would stand out to me is where I started. That, man, in my difficulties, like in my challenges, am I seeking to be encouraged?
Well, yeah, we all are. But maybe if I had a perspective change and desired to encourage others, even when I'm going through it, maybe God would use that to encourage me.
And so just as Paul said, in a jail cell, writes to encourage someone else, I wonder maybe for our listeners, what jail cell are you sitting in today?
You know, what trial are you in that you could step back and say, you know what, today, even though, even though I've had this financial difficulty, even though there's a relationship struggle, even though there's this work situation or the struggle
with kids or whatever you're dealing with, like who could I encourage today? That'd be a thought that stands out to me.
And then kind of tagging along what you just said, like allowing the Word of God to help us build a testimony that someone could be able to say, oh no, oh, Bryon, yeah, faith, love, hope, man, that guy's got them all.
And that's only built into our lives as we build God's Word into our life. So, well, for our listeners, I would tell you thank you for being with us today. And Bryon, why don't you tell us about what's next week?
Yeah, so next week, we're gonna be going through verses nine through 14.
And I would encourage you, obviously, to read through that passage. And it'll be a huge encouragement to you.
We'd maybe encourage you to read through the entire book of Colossians at some point in the next week, or if you just want to maybe have some section of the passage today that you would want to meditate on and think about.
It's one thing to just hear God's Word. It's another thing entirely to meditate on it. We just heard recently in our growth groups from Psalm 1 about the blessed man and one who meditates in the law of the Lord day and night.
And so we encourage you to take some time and do that today with God's Word in your life. And we will see you next. Well, we won't see you, but you will see our names come up on your podcast feed.
And we will be in Colossians 1 and verses 9 through 14 next week. And we'll see you then.
Yeah. Looking forward to it.
