Bible go ahead and turn there and I'll begin in verse number one Colossians 1 11 23 through 23 We do not cease to pray for you to be Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness Giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness? and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the image of the invisible God, who is before all things, and by him all things consist. He's the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. And all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you who are sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by the wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister." Now when I look at Colossians 1, 11 through 23, we're looking at a very rich doctrinal passage. And as I was reading this this morning and reflecting on it, I was so encouraged. And really there's just two simple observations that I have from this passage this morning, but those two simple observations really have to be unpackaged. And Paul unpackages them pretty significantly in this passage. The first observation that I have is found in verse 11, and if you skip down to verse 23, what you'll see is that verse 11 and verse 23 are really two thoughts that are connected, and they're really separated by verses 12 to 22. In other words, there's a continuous thought from chapter 11 to verse 23. But what Paul does is he pauses in the middle of this thought and he says, let me give you the reason, the explanation as to why this thought is true. So we can put it this way. Verses 11 to 23 are continuous thought separated by the reason that we should continue to be grounded and settled in the Christian faith. In verse 11, he puts it this way. I am not ceasing to pray for you to be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness. Paul is saying, I'm praying for you to be strengthened internally. And the reason that you can be strengthened internally and the way that you can be strengthened internally is through the power of the gospel. He then goes on to verse 23 to say, if you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. In other words, what I'm praying for will be reality if you continue to be settled and stable in the gospel. And so what Paul does is he explains to them compelling reasons as to why They should be steadfast and settled in the gospel message. And so we can put it this way, the grounded, the Christian who is a settled faith will be strengthened by the gospel. He will be patiently enduring by the power of the gospel. He'll be rejoicing under the burdens that he faces in life because of the power of the gospel. And so we come to the second observation, and that's that there are compelling reasons to have a settled faith. There are compelling reasons for you this morning, in spite of all the things that are going on in your life and the things around you, to have this settled confidence in Christ, in your position in Christ, in the person of Christ. And so really what he's going to do is he's going to kind of put two categories in this passage. The first set of categories is dealing with what the gospel does for us. what it does for us right now, and what it's going to do for us in the future. And so he's basically saying, because of what Christ has done for you, here are the blessings that you have in Christ. Then he kind of moves to a second category, and he basically says this, and oh, by the way, let me convince you and prove to you that Jesus Christ is fully qualified to be able to do for you what he did. So let's talk for a moment about what the passage says about the blessings that we enjoy as Christians. In verse 13, we see this phrase. He says, who Christ hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. If you're a believer, when you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, you passed from death unto life. You became a new creature in Christ and old things passed away and all things become new. You went from being under the dominion and power of sin and now you've been freed to live under the dominion of the Spirit of God. That is talking about the fact that we are new creatures in Christ. So the first blessing he mentions is that as a Christian, you're a new creature. You've passed from death to life. You're a part of a new kingdom. You're in a different position than you were before your conversion. In verse 14, he says, in whom? In Christ. We have redemption through his blood. The idea is that when Christ died for our sins, the debt that our sins have incurred was paid in full. We go to Romans chapter six, verse 23. It says that the wages of sin is death. Because I'm a sinner and because I've sinned, I have this huge debt. I deserve to die. And what Christ did is he laid down his life. He paid in full the debt for my sins and for your sins. And that is an unbelievable blessing that we enjoy as Christians. In verse 14, he says we have forgiveness of sins. In other words, our sins will no longer be held against us. God has not only said, your sin debt is paid in full, but I forgive you. I don't hold those sins against you any longer. What an incredible blessing that we have as Christians. A third that he mentions is in verse 20. He says that Christ has made peace through the blood of his cross. One of the things that the scripture teaches is that because we've sinned against God, because we live in a way that is offensive to Him, we are His enemies. And we don't like to think of it that way, but that's the reality that the scripture teaches. And what God has done for us is He has removed that enmity that's between us and Him. And the way that He did it was through the cross of Christ. When Christ shed His blood, the Lord looked on His sacrifice and He fully accepted it. and he removed that offense that stood between us. In verse 20, he says that he has reconciled all things to himself. That statement's not just referring to the fact that as Christians, that enmity has been removed, but the reality is that's a foreshadow of how God is going to restore his entire creation. So it's not just me who's a fallen creature, and it's not just you who's a fallen creature, But all of creation is under the dominion of the fall. And so what Christ did on that cross was he removed the enmity so that not only can he give you eternal life, but he can restore his creation. And that's what God is going to do in the end. Verse 2021, he says, you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by the wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. And so he's not just talking about the fact that he's removed our sin debt and that he's forgiven us, but he's saying, I not only removed that enmity between you and me, but I've drawn you into relationship. Someone who is my enemy, someone who was distant, someone who lived in a way that was offensive, he is now brought into relationship. What an incredible blessing to consider. The last thing that the text mentions in this little section is in verse 22. He says that it is to present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. The idea is that when we stand before God someday at his throne, he will say, not guilty, righteous. He calls us saints. Folks, the first reason that we should have this continuation to be grounded and settled in the faith is because we think about what God's done for us through the gospel. We have forgiveness, we're brought into relationship with God. He's removed that enmity between us. He's gonna restore the creation. All of those things are blessings in that first category. But he mentions a second category, which is also extremely important, and that's talking about the uniqueness of Christ's character. The Lord Jesus Christ is fully qualified to do what he did for you and for me. And he mentions a whole list of reasons why he's qualified. And I'm just gonna run through them quickly so that we can reflect on them. In verse 15, he says, who Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Now, if God's invisible, that means you can't see him. But this statement is saying that when you see Jesus, you see God. In other words, Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. The reason that the text can say that is because when we look at Jesus, we're looking at God in the flesh. We're not just looking at a man, we're looking at God incarnate. In verse 15 it says, He is the firstborn of every creature. And when it talks about him being the firstborn, don't think of it talking about birth order like Jesus was born at a point of time and he was the first to be born at a point of time. In fact, some people wrongly teach that Jesus Christ was the first creature created. That's not what the passage is teaching. And he'll make it very clear in just a moment that that's not what the passage is teaching. But when it says that he's the firstborn of every creature, It has the idea that he is preeminent in rank. There is nothing in all the creation that is of a higher rank than the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, why is that? Well, here's the reason. In verse 16, he's gonna tell us why Jesus is preeminent in rank above everything in all of creation. It's because it says, by him were all things created. The Lord Jesus Christ is not a creature. the creator. And he's not just the creator of some things or most things, he's the creator of all things. Everything that exists was created by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it goes on to say not only were all things created by him, but all things are created for him. The reality is it's not just that he owns it all and he made it all, but it exists for his glory and his honor and his pleasure. In verse 17, he goes even beyond this. Not only did he make everything and it belongs to him and it's for his glory, but he also says that by him all things consist. The idea is that Jesus Christ is sovereign and he's intimately connected with what's going on in this world. He is involved in taking care of this creation. Though it's a fallen creation, Though it is at enmity with Him, the Lord Jesus Christ cares about His creation, He cares about you, He cares about me, and He is working intimately in our lives, ultimately to bring us to faith in Christ, to mature us into Christ's likeness, and then one day He's going to allow us to be a part of His restored creation. What an incredible blessing. He then goes on to say this, verse 18, He's the head of the body. When he talks about the bodies, talking about the church, he's saying God's people, the reason that he is the head of the church, he is the one who is ruler over God's people, is because he purchased with his own blood his church. It says in verse 18, he's the firstborn from the dead. And the reality is that the reason that we can have absolute confidence that the gospel has the power to save us now and forever, It's because Jesus Christ conquered death. You know, we're getting ready to celebrate Easter, and I know a lot of churches can't meet. Well, really no churches can meet because of the bans that are going on in our nation. Really all around the world we have this situation going on. We're remembering the resurrection of Christ, and I want to remind you that because Christ is risen, He has demonstrated His power over sin. his power over death. He's demonstrated that he is not only the giver and the sustainer of life, but he has power over death. And we see that, and that is one of the reasons that Christ alone is uniquely qualified to do what he's done for us. Then we come to the last statement in verse 19, and I think that this one is also very important. It said, it pleased the Father that in him should all the fullness dwell. The idea is this, everything that makes God, God. Christ fully possesses it in its fullness. When we see Christ, we see God in flesh. And so when we look at Colossians chapter one, we're reminded that we can have a steadfast, confident faith. If we will be settled in the faith, we will be strengthened in the inner man. We will develop this sense of confidence and encouragement and stability when we go through difficulties. I'll remind you again of that statement we saw at the beginning. The Christian who has a settled faith will be strengthened by the gospel. He will patiently endure by the gospel. He will rejoice under the burdens of life by the gospel. Let's remember that this passage tells us what God has done for us, and why Christ is qualified to do what he's done for us, and that gives us plenty of reason to be thankful this morning. Let's bow together for a word of prayer, and let's just thank God for these wonderful truths that we've been able to reflect on. If you missed the first part, this'll be on our Facebook page in just a couple of minutes, and I hope that this'll be a blessing to you. Father in heaven, thank you so much for the power of the gospel, We thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ, who created all things, who sustains all things, whom all things exist for his honor and glory. And we thank you that the Lord Jesus Christ removed that enmity that was between us and you. He's forgiven our sins, past, present, and future. And we're reminded that we can have a settled, steadfast faith because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. I pray that you would take this passage of scripture and the truths that we have reflected on this morning, and I pray that you would mightily encourage your people through it. And if someone is able to come across this who doesn't know you as Savior, I pray that through these things, they would see who Christ is. He's God in flesh who died for their sins and rose from the dead, and that they can have peace with God by placing their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. It was good to see some of you this morning, and I hope that you're blessed by this time that we've spent together in the Word. And we'll look forward to seeing you the next time we meet together.