CONTENTS
1. Come to Jesus Daily devotional- Monday – Jesus changes everything… we have peace with God.
- Tuesday – Jesus changes everything…we are united and thankful.
- Wednesday – Jesus changes everything…what we teach and learn.
- Thursday – Jesus changes everything…what we sing about.
- Friday – Jesus changes everything!
You can listen to the message at: Link for audio content
1. COME TO JESUS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
One of our goals as a church is to spend at least 20 minutes every day in prayer and worship out of the bible. I hope you find this devotional helpful toward that end.
MONDAY – JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING…WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD (3:15)
Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Paul urges us, ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…’ Oftentimes, we lack inner peace because we are looking for it in the wrong places, allowing these things to rule in our heart. We say things like, “I’ll have peace when that relationship is right…that situation is fixed…I feel more worthy of God’s love…I have that new…”
Take a moment to think, what is, or often does, rob you of peace?
What does it mean to ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts’?
To have the peace of Christ ruling in us means to put your faith in Jesus: His great power, his love, and His forgiveness and redemption through the cross (the gospel); It’s to trust Him above all other things that rob one of peace. It’s objective - You have peace with God through Jesus’ death for your sin. God’s wrath and condemnation have gone, you have peace. As Paul says,
‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Romans 5:1)
How did we get this peace?
Firstly, we have peace with God because Jesus took our sin upon Himself. Paul writes,
‘For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.’ (Colossians 1:19-20)
Secondly, We are told that ‘you were called to peace’. You are a Christian because God chose and called you to Himself by grace. You did not earn it and you cannot lose it!
RESPONSE
Paul ends this verse with, ‘And be thankful.’ Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart by being thankful for it. Let’s be like the Psalmist who sang,
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” (Psalm 100:4-5)
TUESDAY – JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING…WE ARE UNITED AND THANKFUL (3:15)
Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
As we saw earlier in this chapter, peaceful relationships in the church are under threat (See 3:8-9). The only way to build the kind of loving church that honours Jesus is to ‘Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.’ As we remember how we have peace with God through the amazing grace of God, we are enabled to forgive, love and bear with our brothers and sisters (See 3:12-13).
Furthermore, Paul does not just point to what Jesus did on the cross as the basis of how we are to treat one another, he also reminds us of what Jesus has made us to be as the basis of enduring love and unity - we are ‘members of one body’.
We are united in Christ
Paul describes every Christian as ‘members of one body’. We are supernaturally joined together in Christ. Paul shows us how our love for Christians is empowered by knowing this unity when he writes,
‘Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.’ (Colossians 1:24)
You have been called to peace
Do you see that you have peace with God through Christ, but so too does the whole body – every other Christian whom God has chosen and bought with His precious blood. This peace with God is worked out in loving relationships that understand the spiritual unity that exists among us. This is reflected in Paul’s teaching on the body in 1 Corinthians 12,
‘There should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.’ (1 Corinthians 12:25-26)
RESPONSE
Yesterday we saw that we need to be thankful, personally, for the peace we have with God. Today, let’s be encouraged to thank God together, with your church family, for the peace and unity that we share together. We truly are the family of God.
WEDNESDAY – JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING…WHAT WE TEACH AND LEARN (3:16)
Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
To be the mature and healthy Christians and church that Jesus wants, we have to teach and learn the right things. What we give our minds to has a massive impact on everything. Too many Christians use their freedom in Christ to indulge in things that fill their minds with unhealthy thinking and then wonder why they are depressed, lethargic and prone to broken relationships. Too many churches teach and act with a view to growing in numbers rather than growing people in true spiritual maturity.
Be a community rich in the gospel
When you walk into a restaurant there is the aroma of what they are cooking. The menus tell us what they are cooking. The surroundings, cutlery, waiters, are all designed to help us to enjoy what they cook. Likewise, the church is to be saturated with the gospel.
Paul says that we are to ‘Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.’ This ‘message…’ is the gospel which is good news about the death and resurrection of Christ for our salvation and restoration. In all that we do as a church, the gospel is to be the constant, overarching theme; it is, or we could say, Jesus, is to shape all of our teaching, learning and singing. As the gospel dwells richly among us we are to,
Teach – To impart knowledge through careful instruction that is shaped by the gospel
Admonish – To warn, council and urge those who are straying using gospel truths.
RESPONSE
Are you a person who allows the message of Christ to dwell richly’ in you? Do you give quality time every day to thanking God for your salvation through Jesus? If we all did this, we would be the kind of community that has the message of Christ dwelling richly among us. Let’s humble ourselves so as to listen and learn. Let’s also be loving enough to teach and admonish. Let’s make Paul’s ambition our ambition,
‘He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.’ (Colossians 1:28)
THURSDAY – JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING…WHAT WE SING ABOUT (3:16)
Colossians 3:16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
What do you sing about? What music do you listen to? Some people say, “I can’t sing!” okay, you may not be as good as… (you fill in the blank), but God has given you a voice to sing and the more you use it, the better you will get at it! Not to sing is to miss one of the gifts God gives us to enjoy Him and His truth. Reading or hearing truth is like studying the cookbook but singing is like enjoying the aroma of the food.
Yesterday we saw that we are to be a community that is rich in the gospel, which, in turn, shapes what we teach, learn and admonish. Today we will see that one powerful vehicle for this teaching, learning and correcting is through our corporate singing – ‘through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.’
Jesus dwells richly among us through our singing
To be a community that is rich in the gospel, that celebrates and lives in the good of God’s grace, we must become great at singing great songs.
David Pao writes,
‘As has often been stated, more theology is engrained into our hearts through singing than through the printed page or even through preaching.’
RESPONSE
Are you singing every day and through the day. Do you have a hymn of praise in your heart? I have made it a practice to memorise old hymns and I sing them to myself through the day. What songs have you memorised? In your worship, or if you lead worship, are your songs rich in the gospel? Paul says we are to sing with ‘gratitude in our hearts’. Gratitude means ‘grace’ - let’s fill our minds, hearts, and songs with the grace of God, and so allow ‘the message of Christ dwell among you richly among you.’
FRIDAY – JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING (3:17)
Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I wonder how many different things one does in a day? The thoughts and actions are surely beyond counting. What’s amazing is that in all that He did, Jesus, did everything perfectly – he never sinned! In all things, He was loving God with all His ‘heart, mind, soul and strength’.
Whatever you do
Knowing Jesus affects everything. This week we have seen that He transforms our relationship with God (3:15), our relationships with one another (3:15), how we give thanks (3:15), what we teach and learn (3:16), and what we sing about (3:16). Today, Paul sums this all up by saying that in, ‘whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ – Jesus changes everything!
‘Whatever you do, whether in word or deed’; it’s not enough to say or sing the right things, we also have to do the right things.
RESPONSE
Paul gives us two ways to respond,
Firstly, we are to do everything 'In the name of the Lord Jesus’ – everything we do is to be worthy of His name; We are to ask, Could we do this or that thing whilst wearing an ‘I love Jesus’ T-shirt? It is said of us that ‘We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors’ (2 Cor. 5:20); This means that we are Jesus’ representatives as individuals and as a church.
Secondly, we are to live a life of thankfulness – ’Giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ This is to constantly recall and be grateful for the gospel of our salvation; but, more broadly, it also means that we are to endeavour to only do things for which we can give thanks to God.
This is a profound challenge to us. We are to do nothing that is unworthy of the Lord Jesus and for which we cannot give thanks.
2. COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Read Colossians 3:15-17
Opener – What is your favourite song and why?
Introduction
This week we have been considering how a relationship with Jesus changes everything about our identity and, following on from this, our lifestyle, even down to our singing.
Discuss together
- 3:15. How does Jesus transform our relationship with God?
- 3:15. What kind of relationships should we now have?
- 3:15. Why should knowing Christ transform us into thankful people?
Response: Over the next week, could you begin each day by giving thanks for the gospel and a number of things that God has blessed you with?
- 3:16. How does Jesus revolutionise what we teach and learn?
- 3:16. Why should knowing Christ make us into a singing people, and why is singing helpful for us?
- 3:16. What kinds of songs does Paul encourage us to sing?
Response: Over the next week, could you begin each day by singing a song of worship?
- Paul sums this all up by saying that in, ‘whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ – Jesus changes everything! Take some time to pray for one another out of this text.
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