This is part 04 in our series on Paul's letter to the Church at Colossae
Morning Worship, Sunday, January 24, 2020
Long Branch Baptist Church

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"Show Us Christ" - By Bob Kauflin, Doug Plank; Song Number 6169253

Colossians 1:2–8
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints; because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth; just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond-servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit.

Are you bearing fruit as a believer? “BECAUSE OF THE HOPE LAID UP FOR YOU IN HEAVEN”

It is constantly bearing fruit (6a)
• Since the day you heard of it (6c)
• Since you understood the grace of God in Truth (6d)
o Paul was obsessed with bearing fruit
Acts 9:19–22 [Shortly after Paul was saved] Now for several days [Paul] was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately [Paul] began to proclaim...
Romans 1:8–15 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world...
o Are you bearing fruit as a believer?

It is constantly increasing in fruitfulness (6b)
• How long would you continue to plant a garden if each plant only produced one fruit.
o Can you imagine growing a tomato plant only to receive one tomato for all the effort you put in?
o All the room that a squash plant takes up only to receive one squash!
• Mt. 13:3-8: This is in keeping with Christ’s parable in
• Jn. 15:1-8

All this stems from an uncommon love that God gives us at the moment we are born again
• Col. 1:4 “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints.”
• Co. 1:8 “[Epaphras] informed us of your love in the Spirit.”
• Paul basically said that it was love that is the fertile environment that allows faith and fruitful works to grow:
Colossians 2:1–3 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have...
• And though there was already evidence of a growing love in the church at Colossae, Paul never missed an opportunity to encourage them to grow deeper in their love for one another and the Kingdom work of God.
o Colossians 3:12–17 So, as those who have been chosen of God...

It’s natural to want to take the gifts we receive and put them to use immediately.

If it was a toy, you wanted to play with it. I remember at the age of four or five getting a ventriloquist’s dummy. I don’t recall opening anything else, though I’m sure I received many others…

Maybe it was a toy that allowed you to call all your friends up you played with them with your toys for hours.

If you received clothes, you wanted to try them on, or at least couldn’t wait to wear them to church or school.

We receive the gift of salvation
• John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son..."
• Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith..."

We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
• Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children...”
• John 3:34 “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God...”
• John 20:22 "And when He had said this, He breathed on them...”
• He not only is a Gift from the Father, but He himself gives gifts to us. He literally is the Gift that keeps on giving.

We receive the gift of Eternal Life
• John 10:27–28 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me..."
• 1 John 5:11–12 "And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life..."

We receive the gift of belonging to the Family of God
• John 1:9–13 "There was the true Light which, coming into the world..."
• 1 John 3:1 "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us..."
• James 1:17 "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above..."
• James 3:17–18 "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable..."

Why is it that faith in Christ provides the greatest, most significant, more superior of gifts, and for the most part, we do nothing with them? Do we treat the gifts of God with the same emotional distance that we treated those gifts we said “thank you” for, but really didn’t want?

Colossians 1:5-6 The fact that God has reserved a place for us in heaven should cause us to want live a fruitful life. Are you bearing fruit as a believer?