Restoration Series: Partners in the Good News | March 6, 2023

Let’s review the implications from yesterday’s sermon, based on

Colossians 1:15-23:

1. Worship Jesus alone as your Creator and Sustainer—don’t let anyone or anything take His place.

What are some things in your life that you rely on, possibly more than God? For example your finances, your relationships, your gifts or abilities, your work or education, your reputation. Pray and ask God to show you what might be keeping you from relying completely on Him as your Creator and Sustainer of life.

2. Trust in Jesus alone as the One who reconciles you to God—don’t rely on your good works.

Pastor Mark pointed out yesterday that it is Christ who makes us holy and blameless by shedding His blood for us on the cross. He called it the Great Exchange: Christ takes our sin and gives us His righteousness. We are right with God not because of our personal conduct but because of our position in Christ. Christ will enable us to persevere through it all. What is a current situation in your life you need God to help you persevere in? To rely on Him and not on your good works or abilities to get through? 

3. Become a minister of reconciliation—don’t let anything get in the way of pointing people to Jesus alone.

The Apostle Paul says this in Philippians 1:3-6:

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. ⁴ Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, ⁵ for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. ⁶ And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. 

I love how Paul refers to the Christians in Philippi as partners in spreading the Good News about Christ, also known as ministers of reconciliation!

When you think about that awesome responsibility of being a partner in the Gospel, a minister of reconciliation, what gets in the way for you? What stops you from playing your part? Is it fear of how someone might respond or reject you? What about fear of not knowing what to say? Are you so busy you think you just don’t have time? Or maybe you just don’t know how to reach out? It is Christ who enables us and will complete the work He started in us.

We all have a story to share … our own. Your story is the most powerful testimony you can tell someone about who God is. How did you come to know Christ? How has He transformed your life?