River Church NOLA
Wed March 18 Contrast and Comparison
  • Open Up The Heavens
  • My Jesus
  • Way Maker
  • Here As In Heaven
  • Tonight we’re going to look at some intellectual dangers that this church at Colossae was facing.  Paul warns them because there were some philosophies he felt could threaten the joy and the life of this young church if they wandered too far away from the truth.
    I'm going to read this passage and as I do I want you to look at some contrasts and comparisons that are in this passage where Paul will say here are one set of truths that the world will say is true but I want to show you what Christ and God say is the real truth.
    Colossians 2:8–23 NLT
    8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. 11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. 16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality. 18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud, 19 and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body. For he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. 20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
    There are at least six contrasts and comparisons. 
    The first he talks about false human teachings compared to the true teachings of Christ.  He talks about external circumcision as opposed to internal circumcision.  He talks about how we were dead in sin but we were made alive in Christ.  How there was a legal code that condemned us but now there is forgiveness of sin.  How there were evil authorities that were over us but Christ has triumphed over those authorities.  How there were shadows and now there is reality.

    1. False human teachings compared to the true teachings of Christ.

    Colossians 2:8 NLT
    8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
    Paul starts out this section by warning the Colossian believers about not to be taken captive by these false teachings.  To be “taken captive” meant to be kidnapped, to be carried away … the way pirates would carry away plunder in the times we think about pirates.  It just meant to be absolutely picked up and carried and taken away and held hostage.  Paul says don’t let false teachings do that to you.  Don’t let false teachings and false teachers grab hold of you, kidnap you, carry you away and hold you hostage.  Because just as certain as physically someone was held hostage their freedom was taken from them, if you are taken by false teachings and false doctrines Paul says your freedom will be taken from you in that exact same way.  He warns these people not to be taken by false teachings. 
    What were the philosophies that threatened the Colossians?  A whole bunch of them.  Most of them mixed Judaism and Gnosticism together.  We talked about Gnosticism in the first chapter and we’ll be talking about it some more tonight.  But there were three that are mentioned in this passage, three philosophies that threatened to kidnap the Colossians.

    3 False Human teachings

    The first philosophy that threatened to take the Colossians captive was mysticism

    Colossians 2:18 NLT
    18 Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on pious self-denial or the worship of angels, saying they have had visions about these things. Their sinful minds have made them proud,
    Gnosticism was a system of beliefs that felt like man was not good enough in and of himself to talk directly to God.  We needed intermediaries between us and God.  They felt that there were angels and they were arranged in an hierarchy and that the angels got better and better and more powerful and more powerful as you moved up the line you could eventually get to God.  They felt like these angels all had names like Wisdom, an angel called Power, an angel called Reason.  You had to acknowledge these angels and you had to placate them to get anywhere in your spiritual life.  They felt that every single person starts in a state of total ignorance of spirituality but as you talk to these angels and have more contact with them and more contact with them you can eventually find the oneness that is in all.
    Today there is a fascination with angels, etc. There are even books like The Prophecies of the Archangel Michael, Ask Your Angel… These books say all sorts of crazy stuff about angels and people of which none of it is true, but many are being confused about today.
    All sorts of ‘cookoo’ stuff was permeating the church at Colossae. It sounds spiritual … that you have to go through someone (a saint or an angel) to get to God. This is arrogance because it is basically saying that God’s written word is not accurate.
    God in His revealed word says there is one mediator between Him and man, the man Jesus Christ. 

    The truth is that Jesus is the mediator.

    No angels, no spirit beings, no spirit guides, No looking deep in side, no letting your angel tickle you and you giggle.  It’s you going to Jesus Christ and making a connection with God.

    The second philosophy that threatened to take the Colossians captive was asceticism.

    Colossians 2:20–23 NLT
    20 You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, 21 “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? 22 Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. 23 These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires.
    He is dealing with the concept of Don’t touch, Don’t handle, Don’t taste.  Don’t do anything that has to do with the physical world.  There were some people in that time who felt like the way to please God, the way to really get on God’s good side was an extreme form of self denial.  That the body was bad.  The body was evil.  So if you hit yourself with whips, if you starved yourself, if you slept on beds that were cold rather than putting a blanket on yourself somehow you were earning spiritual brownie points and this made you more acceptable to God. 
    Asceticism was one of those philosophies that threatens to kidnap us and still today if we think that we can get God’s favor by doing things like “I won’t eat marshmallows for lent.”  As thought somehow not eating marshmallows in your hot chocolate is going to make you more acceptable to God.  What nonsense!  Total nonsense!
    Paul says in those verses 20-23 that it looks real good on the outside and other people who see that you do those kind of things, practice that form of extreme self denial… Paul says it looks so good on the outside.  People will think you’re so super spiritual.  But what little you gain by that is completely lost in the end because in God’s eyes it means nothing.  So really you don’t gain anything by practicing asceticism.

    The third philosophy that threatened to take the Colossians captive was legalism.

    Colossians 2:16 NLT
    16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.
    Colossians 2:16 “So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink,
    Evidently the Christians there were being judged by exactly that.  He says don’t do that.  That will kidnap you and take you away from the truth.
    or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.”
    A new moon celebration, the Jewish calendar was tied to the moon and a new moon celebration was every 28 days there was a new moon and there was a celebration that went along with that.  It had to do with the calendar. 
    God’s answers to man’s deep longing to know truth is only found in Jesus Christ.  It’s not found in self-discipline.  It’s not found in angels.  It’s not found in following rules.  It’s only found in Jesus Christ.
    The true teaching is the contrast that goes with these.  No matter how elaborate or complex these philosophies were they all had one thing in common.  They were very empty and hollow.  He says back in verse Colossians 2:8 “Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.”
    It’s like those chocolate Easter Bunnies.  They look so cute on the outside and you take a big bite and there’s absolutely nothing but air.  I hate that!  I hate that if I think I’ve got one of those solid ones and I grab a hollow one instead.  That’s what happens if we look to philosophy of human origin.  Mankind’s thinking.  It’s empty.  It leaves you with nothing. 
    Paul says in contrast the truth is in Christ you have everything.  In Christ you have everything.  Colossians 2:9–10 “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
    Colossians 2:9–10 NLT
    9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
    The Greek word for “fullness” is pleroma.  It was a word that Gnostics liked to use because it meant fullness.  They thought that pleroma was what they were looking for.  It meant all the fullness of deity.  They thought that by going through the angels one step at a time that they could get to that pleroma.  And Jesus Christ was like the ABCs.  He was for the people who were just getting initiated.  He was one of the little steppingstones that could get you to pleroma. 
    But God says, no. 

    Rather than Jesus being a steppingstone to fullness, completeness.  Jesus Christ is fullness, He is completeness.  Because He contains all of God. 

    Jesus is part of the trinity – Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit. 
    Each one of them is fully God.  They have separate personalities, but each one is fully God.  So, when you have Jesus Christ you have God.  You have everything you can possibly need.  You don’t have to search for anything else.  You don’t have to search for pleroma.  It is in Him.
    So why would you need a false teacher?  Why would you need a man-made philosophy.  If you’ve got it in Jesus Christ there’s no need to search anywhere else.

    2. External circumcision as opposed to internal circumcision.

    The Jews had a really hard time believing that the Gentiles didn’t have to be circumcised.  The Jews, because the had for centuries lived a certain way, circumcision was a part of life, it’s what it meant to be a Jew, to believe that the Gentiles didn’t have to go through that ceremony was very hard for them to accept.  So many of them wanted to continue to have the Gentile believers if they were going to be Christians, be circumcised first. 

    Circumcision originally symbolized two things: internal commitment to God & that Israel was different from other nations.

    First, an external sign of internal commitment to God.  Secondly, it showed the pagan nations that Israel was different from the rest of them.  They had a physical sign that showed that she was different than any other nations in the world at that time.  Even though the early church finally decided that the Gentiles didn’t have to become circumcised to become Christians there were obviously some people who were still trying to make Gentile believers be circumcised.
    Colossians 2:11–13 NLT
    11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
    So Paul said No…
    Colossians 2:11–13 “When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.”
    In Romans 2:28-29 Paul speaks to this idea that it’s not the external that matters but what happens in the heart.  It was always that way.  God had the Jews be circumcised externally but just because you were circumcised externally did not mean hat you were a true believer in the Messiah.  God was always asking them to have their heart circumcised, to love Him, to obey Him, to serve Him.  And Paul contrasts that here.
    Romans 2:28 “For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision.”
    Romans 2:28–29 NLT
    28 For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. 29 No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
    Romans 2:29 “No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.”
    In this passage Paul even puts a different spin on circumcision.  He says in this passage that circumcision represented God’s judgment on the carnal nature.  He cut away the carnal nature and was done with it.  It was man’s effort and He didn’t want anything to do with it.  Circumcision in this passage represents the cutting away of our carnal nature and we see this in Jesus’ death on the cross.  When He died He was cast out, He was cut away from God and all of human efforts ceased.  The was no longer any reason to try by human effort because Jesus took care of it on the cross.  He pictures that on the cross. 

    Baptism symbolizes circumcision of the heart.

    Colossians 2:12 “For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.”
    So He goes into baptism and says while circumcision symbolizes the death of Jesus, in this passage, baptism signifies the positive aspects of our new life in Christ.  That we have a new life in Christ that allows us to have that circumcision of the heart that’s always been there for us.  It gives us that new heart that’s able, has the capacity to love God, to obey Him and to serve Him.  We have that new circumcision of the heart that gives us the ability to love God

    3. The legal code condemned us but now there is forgiveness of sin.

    There was a legal code that condemned us.
    Colossians 2:14–15 NLT
    14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
    This third comparison we see was the Law of Moses, a legal code and it condemned us.  But the contrast is that Christ doesn’t condemn us.  He forgives us. 
    Most Christians tend to think of the law as bad.  The law is Old Testament and grace is New Testament.  The law’s a bad thing.  But the law had a planned purpose by God that was good.
    Paul says,
    Galatians 3:24 NLT
    24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith.
    The Bible says that the purpose of the law was first that it told us what the rules are.  What is God’s standard?  The law tells us that God has standards and lays them out very clearly.  The law also tells us the penalty if you break one of those laws.  And it also points out the impossibility of any one of us keeping that law perfectly.  It shows us that we need a savior.  The law had a purpose that God used that was very effective.

    The purpose of the Law was show us God’s Standard, tell us the penalty when we break the Law, show us the impossibility of keeping the Law and point us to our need for a Savior.

    The thing about the law that caused the problem here is that the law did require perfection.  Absolutely.  The law says you must keep this law perfectly every day of your life or you will stand condemned.  But I have a real hard time being perfect no matter how hard I try.  So every one of us stand condemned by this law that requires perfection.  None of us can live up to it.  It was God’s standard, it’s the way it had to be, but we all stand condemned by it.        
    But the contrast is what Jesus did with that condemnation.  What it says in verse Colossians 2:13–14 “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.” We deserved the condemnation.  We are imperfect.  We have broken God’s laws.  So we stand condemned.  He took that and He did something different with it. 

    Jesus brought us the forgiveness of sins.

    Sin is no longer an issue in my relationship with Jesus Christ because He took the code that was against me, took the condemnation on Himself so I am no longer condemned.  That is news that I have to remind myself every day of my life.   I struggle and struggle and I still blow it and I make these vows to God that this will never happen again and yet it does.  I'm so aware every day about how far I fall short of that code.  What I have to remind myself is that in Jesus Christ there is no condemnation.
    Romans 8:1 NLT
    1 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
    It doesn’t say a little pinch of it is still there.  There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of live set me free from the law of sin and death. 
    In that time it was the custom when someone was executed, when they were crucified to write on the placard what the person had done wrong.  Then they would take that placard and put it above the person on the cross, nail it above their head, so that everybody who walked by could see what this person had done and Rome was punishing them.  They could see the kind of punishment Rome took out on people who didn’t obey her laws.  Pilate wrote on the placard that was above Jesus “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  He wrote that in three languages.  What he was saying was “This man’s sin?  Disloyalty to Caesar.  He thinks he’s king.”  Everybody who walked by could see, “This man claimed to be king instead of Caesar.”  When God looked down do you really think that God was impressed by Pilate’s little sign, as if that’s the reason Jesus died?  No.  Pilate may have put a sign that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” and think that’s why He died.  But God saw instead a sign that read, “The Law, the broken Law.” 
    So when Jesus Christ died what God saw was the broken law that Jesus was dying for all of us to pay that penalty.  By His dying, Jesus settled every claim against us.  There are no more claims to be thrown at us.  Jesus settled them by dying under that placard of broken law.
    One year at Good Friday, we had everyone write down your sins on a piece of paper and maybe they have a cross there and they ask you to go nail that piece of paper to that cross.  That kind of an exercise visualizes for us the reality of our sin and how we can remember when we nailed that on what Jesus died for.   But because our sins was nailed to the cross there’s no more condemnation.  The code has been cancelled. 
    Why did He do it?  Because He loved us. 

    4. Evil authorities that were over us but Christ has triumphed over those authorities.

    Colossians 2:15 NLT
    15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
    Paul teaches frequently in his writing that there was an unseen world and it’s filled with spirits.  Not dead spirits.  I'm not teaching that people who die are now these spirits wandering around.  The Bible doesn’t teach that at all.  But the Bible does teach that when Satan fell from heaven a third of the angels fell with him that they are the ones who wander, they are the evil spirits and then there are God’s spirits – the angels – the good spirits that are angels and they are also in this unseen world.  
    I know it’s really strange.  But the truth is this room to my knowledge is filled with God’s angels, not to do the kind of things these stupid books say but to do God’s bidding.  But also there is the presence of evil spirits.  They are loose in this world.  Paul calls them authorities and powers and spiritual beings. 
    Ephesians 6:12 NLT
    12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
    They are there.  The Bible makes it clear that spirits good and evil are around us whether we can see them or not.  And they had power over us before we came to Christ.  So here’s the contrast.
    Colossians 2:15 NLT
    15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

    Jesus triumphed over those Authorities.

    He stripped them of their power, He stripped them of their ability to hurt us any more, to have anything to do with us. 
    Evidently these evil spirits were gloating when Jesus died on the cross.  I just know that Satan and all of his army of evil angels were gloating to think that they had won.  But in the ultimate Jesus went to those spirits and proclaimed His victory, “You didn’t win!  God won!  I'm here!  I'm back.  You guys are history.”
    Paul says,
    Ephesians 4:8–10 NLT
    8 That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.” 9 Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
    I know that’s a difficult passage but as you put it together with this one in Colossians 2:15 “In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.” … that He disarmed those powers and authorities and He took captive.  He did a parade in the unseen world of all those evil spirits dragging them through the streets saying, “I won!  Forget it guys!  I won!  You didn’t win.”  The Bible says He disarmed them.  He made sport of them.  He made fun of them.  They have no power over us anymore.  Jesus has triumphed.

    5. There were shadows and now there is reality.

    Colossians 2:16–17 NLT
    16 So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. 17 For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.
    A new moon celebration was a celebration of the new moon every 28 days when it came around. 
    But the point is these kind of rituals – dietary law, the Sabbath, these kind of celebrations were given to the Israelites for one reason.  It was to remind them of a reality that was coming.  It wasn’t there yet.  In the Old Testament Jesus was not there as Messiah but He was the promised Messiah.  All these rituals and all the things that happened in the tabernacle, the things that happened in the Temple, that sacrificial system, the ways that they could wash their hands or not wash their hands, how they could dress or where they could go.  All of those things had a picture behind them.  And the picture was these are about the coming Messiah.  They were shadows.  They were just glimpses of a reality that had yet to come. 

    All the festivals, the sacrifices, the rituals, and even the Sabbath were shadows of what was to come.

    Hebrews 10:1 NLT
    1 The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.
    The law itself was a shadow.  It pointed to the necessity of a savior.  So it served the purpose.  These shadows, those sacrifices, those ceremonies, those rituals, those dietary laws served a good purpose.  They pointed people to Jesus Christ as the Messiah who was coming.  It says it verses 16 & 17 that

    The Law was a shadow, but Jesus Christ is the reality. 

    It’s found in Him.  There’s no longer shadows.  Reality is here.  In this final contrast he says reality has come and the shadows are no longer needed. 
    As I'm standing here I can see my own shadow.  My shadow is not me.  It reflects me.  It points to me.  If you saw a shadow you’d probably look upward to see what the shadow pointed to.  But now that I'm here the shadow really isn’t necessary. 
    For many Christians and the Colossian church evidently did not understand how deep that implication was that since Jesus Christ had come the reality of everything that God had ever promised the fulfillment of everything that God had ever promised the shadows weren’t necessary.  You don’t need the ceremonies.  You don’t need the dietary laws.  You don’t need the robes.  You don’t need the rituals.  You don’t need the incense to worship any more God said.  The reality is standing in front of you.  Why would you want to be with the shadow when you could have the reality?
    In our lives we need to remember that the shadow has gone and not get caught up as Paul warned this church, don’t get caught up in the shadows.  Don’t get caught up in things that are not real anymore that point to the truth.  You’ve got the truth.  You’ve got Jesus Christ.  You’ve got the fullness. 
    Hebrews 7:18–19 NLT
    18 Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. 19 For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
    Hebrews 7:22–23 NLT
    22 Because of this oath, Jesus is the one who guarantees this better covenant with God. 23 There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office.
    Paul loved this church.  He loved the people in this church and he didn’t want them to be kidnapped, taken hostage by false doctrine, things that were not true.  Because they don’t compare to the truth of God. 
    I’d like you to bow with me and think about these things because what Paul tells us is this. 
    He tells the Colossians and he tells us instead of a life seeking satisfaction in angels and supernatural beings and human wisdom God offers fullness and completeness in His Son. 
    Instead of a life spent trying to please God by external rule keeping God offers to do something on the inside of us, changing our hearts to let us love Him. 
    Instead of a life of condemnation because of our inadequacies, God offers total forgiveness and no condemnation. 
    Instead of a life being enslaved to evil spirits, God offers freedom from bondage. 
    Instead of a life spent living in the shadows God offers us a life in the light of His reality.         
    Prayer
    Father would You take these truths and help us look at our own lives to see where it is we’re off.  Even though most of us aren’t off in gross ways we’re probably all off in some small ways.  Father, most of us get caught in the trap still trying to force You to accept us, thinking if we just do this or do that that You have to accept us, You have to love us.  Because we kept the law, we kept Your rules.  God, would You just bust that idea out of our heads?  Remind us that there’s no condemnation.  That we are acceptable because of what Jesus Christ has already done and that we cannot do anything more to please You than what He has done on our behalf.  And God I know most of us find still some ways to hang on to the shadows the trappings of worship rather than just worshipping the reality of Jesus Himself.  Father, I know all of us need to be reminded of how complete we are in Jesus Christ, that in Him we lack nothing, no matter what our senses tell us, no matter what our circumstances tell us, You have told us that we are complete and we lack nothing.  I pray that this week that we would all find ways everyday to acknowledge that completeness, that we won’t look for it in other people, that we won’t look for it in their approval, we won’t look for it in our jobs, we won’t look for it in our careers, we won’t look for finding fulfillment in our children.  But we’ll recognize the fullness that is already ours in Jesus Christ.  In Your name, I pray, Lord Jesus.  Amen

      • Colossians 2:8–23NIV

      • Colossians 2:8NIV

      • Colossians 2:18NIV

      • Colossians 2:20–23NIV

      • Colossians 2:16NIV

      • Colossians 2:9–10NIV

      • Colossians 2:11–13NIV

      • Romans 2:28–29NIV

      • Colossians 2:14–15NIV

      • Galatians 3:24NIV

      • Romans 8:1NIV

      • Colossians 2:15NIV

      • Ephesians 6:12NIV

      • Colossians 2:15NIV

      • Ephesians 4:8–10NIV

      • Colossians 2:16–17NIV

      • Hebrews 10:1NIV

      • Hebrews 7:18–19NIV

      • Hebrews 7:22–23NIV

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
6 members • 19 followers