On April 11th, Pastor Ray will begin meeting with what will be called the “Church Plant Group,” or CPG for short. This group will worship with TCO at 9:15am and then meet in the third modular during the 11:00am hour to plan the launch of LIDO....
In light of everything going on right now in our culture, in our nation, we as believers have a wonderful opportunity to display Christ and our hope in a real way. Unity of the gospel and the church in a real way....
The gospel wasn’t meant to simply be admired or acknowledged. It was meant to be submitted to and to be enjoyed....
Here in Colossians 2:20-23 Paul makes some observations regarding the flaws in man-made rules and their ineffectiveness to truly deal with our flesh. Look with me today at these and survey your own life in light of this and how you seek to put away sin form your life:...
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Look with me at Col. 2:20-23 today. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, the problem of controlling sinful desires has plagued the human race. Whether you call it the flesh, the old nature, or indwelling sin, we all wrestle with strong internal temptations to do wrong. So a very practical question is, “How can we keep the flesh in check?”...
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Though there are many substitutes and counterfeit things that grab our focus and attention and undermine the sufficiency of Christ and His work, Paul is focused on one particular area here as we have seen, that of legalism. What Paul says here is that we must loosen our grip on self (legalism) and grab tightly to Christ, cling to Christ (faith)....
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Continuing our look at Colossians 2:16-19 … Paul is addressing what many refer to as “legalism”. Words have meanings, and often times we use the same words but mean different things. I hear this word tossed around a lot, wrongly tossed around a lot, carelessly tossed around a lot, often times to justify our own self, often rooted in pride. So let me define legalism f...
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Our standing before God, and the fullness and completeness of our faith, are not to be judged or regulated by externals, but rather a love for and trust in the completeness of Christ and His work at the cross for our forgiveness and righteousness and standing before God....
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The goal of Satan and his false teaching is to take us captive, to make us prisoners again, to enslave us to false things. ...
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Look with me at Colossians 2:6-7 today. Here is the overarching point that Paul is making here: Believers are to be fueled and rooted in their understanding of the fullness of what the gospel accomplishes and provides regarding salvation and forgiveness of sin, and this understanding is expressed thru gratitude and worship of the one true God thru how we conduct all of our...
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I think the tendency for the church in any age is to retreat in a cowardly and selfish way from the high demands of the Christian faith and seek safety in taking the easy road and the selfish road and to justify it, especially in difficult times. I mean after all, we aren't completely denying Christ, we think to ourselves. But maybe we are more than we think. Even today we...
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We have the privilege as believers of continuing Christ’s work on a historical plane, taking the gospel to new people and places. That is how we are to spend our lives as believers, advancing God’s kingdom thru whatever means necessary, even thru suffering....
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