Table Talk – Episode 54 – Just Be

Posted on July 21, 2016July 21, 2016 by chgruver

July 15, 2016: This week Pastor Sam noticed the sign on the building across the street from the restaurant had some burnt out letters making the sign read “Just B” and how we as Christians should just be who God made us to be.

Table Talk is a weekly gathering of men in the Pinellas Park area from different denominations and backgrounds. We meet every Friday morning from around 6:30-8:00 at the Egg Platter restaurant. It is located at 6767 US Highway 19 North in Pinellas Park. If you happen to be in the area feel free to come out and join us for a time of fellowship and Bible study.

It Revolves Around Christ – Head

Posted on July 20, 2016July 12, 2016 by chgruver

This week we have been focusing on the centrality of Christ as Paul presented to the Colossian church in Colossians 1:15-20. Last time we looked at Christ as the creator, today we will look at how Paul presents Christ as the Head of the church. In Colossians 1:18 we see, “He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.” This concept of Christ being the head of the church is one Paul uses in a number of places. It is one that shows Christ’s leadership over the body of believers, but is also shows the believers’ submission and trust in Him.

When one looks at the concept of the head and the body the best way to look at it is how our own body works. When we think of doing something our heads tell the rest of our body what needs to be done and it follows. You want to walk over to your friend’s house, your head tells your body to get up off the couch and then to start taking steps to head out the door and over to your friend’s house. For the most part your head will not willingly tell your body to do something that is harmful, though there are times when you do something that may cause you pain but it is for good, like exercise. In acknowledging Christ as the head of the church, we listen to His will and follow it. We have trust that His will is not going to harm the church but help it to grow.

Another thing that Paul mentions here is that Christ was the firstborn from the dead. This also is a way of looking at Christ as the head of the church because the head also is not just leader but source or origin. The church came out of Christ, He is the one the founded the church. Firstborn again like we saw last time indicates a priority over, Christ was not the first person that was raised from the dead, but He was the most important. That is because when Christ rose from the dead it was demonstrating His power over sin and death; others may have been raised from the dead, but they later on faced death again. Jesus faced death once and overcame it, He is still alive sitting at God’s right hand interceding on the behalf of all believers.

This verse finishes off by stating the purpose of this section that is the everything is centered around Christ. He has first place in everything, other translations state Christ’s supremacy or preeminence over everything. The false teaching that the Colossian church faced, and we even hear some shout today is that Christ is one out of many ways; what Paul is stating and what Christ stated Himself is that He is the only way.

It Revolves Around Christ – Creator

Posted on July 18, 2016July 12, 2016 by chgruver

In our journey through Colossians last week we looked at Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers. This week we look at what Paul has to tell these believers right off the bat regarding their relationship with Christ. The false teachers were all pointing out other things that the believers needed to focus on to obtain salvation or reach a point of spiritual maturity; Paul comes out and states all you need is Christ. In fact Paul goes so far as to say that Christ is the center of it all. We see his words in Colossians 1:15-20 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross— whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Creator

The first thing Paul points out to the Colossian church is that Christ is Creator. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.” The first thing Paul states in these three verses is that Christ was firstborn over all creation. What this means is that Christ preceded and takes importance over creation, not that he was created. In other words Paul explains to the Colossian church that Christ was God in the flesh, and His presence allowed us to see the essence of who God the Father is.

The second thing Paul points out regarding Christ and creation is that not only did Christ precede creation but He is the one who created. One way to look at this is that Christ is firstborn because He created all things. Not only did He create all things but He did so with a plan and purpose. Paul is stating that you have false teachers stating that the material world is evil, but Christ created it good and even if we see things that we regard as evil God ultimately uses it for His purposes.

The final thing Paul points out regarding creation is that Christ holds all things together. He is in control because He is firstborn over all creation, and all things were created in Him. What this means is when you look at the world today and all the chaos and uncertainty as believers we have no need to worry, because Christ is in control. The United Kingdom left the European Union, whether you were for it or against it remember Christ is in control. Don’t know who to vote for regarding the US presidential race, remember no matter who is elected God is in control. This is a ray of hope no matter what dark times we may face, God is always in control, we may never understand the reasons why something happens but God has a plan that will always happen. This is why we can place our trust and hope in Him.

Table Talk – Episode 53 – Encouragement

Posted on July 14, 2016July 13, 2016 by chgruver

July 08, 2016: This week we heard from Pastor Sam a testimony from when he was on vacation and how God used him to encourage others in their time of need.

Prayer of Brotherhood – Salvation

Posted on June 24, 2016June 16, 2016 by chgruver

So we have been looking at Paul’s prayer regarding the Colossian church as found in Colossians 1:9-14 and last time we ended with how as believers they should be giving thanks to God when strengthened for endurance and patience. Paul also goes on to mention other reasons that as a believer we should be giving thanks. If you look at Colossians 1:13-14, “He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.” Paul points out four things that as believers we should be thankful for besides being enabled to share in the inheritance that we will receive as believers, we were rescued, transferred, redeemed, and forgiven.

Rescued

The first thing Paul mentions is that God rescued us from the domain of darkness, meaning we were once held captive or as prisoners to sin and God came down and freed us. If we were in physical bondage and captivity we would surely be grateful to the person who came and rescued us from our situation, well spiritually that is exactly what God did. We were at one time in a position, spiritually, where sin and darkness were in control of our lives. Before we came to Christ sin was what ruled in our lives, if we happened to do anything “good” it was because it benefited our sinful desires. However, Christ came down and removed the power sin had over us to where no longer are we controlled by our sinful desires.

Transferred

The next thing Paul mentions is that after we were rescued we were transferred to Christ’s Kingdom. You see he did not just free us from sin and leave us to wander around. We were transplanted from one kingdom to another, we went from slaves under sin to citizens in the Kingdom of God. We were rescued from our sinful desires and placed under the Lordship of one who requires us to do good. When Christ removed the power sin had over us we were given the Holy Spirit who urges us to follow God’s will.

Redeemed

It is not just that we were rescued from Satan’s power and became citizens of God’s kingdom but Christ has also redeemed us. What this means is that we were bought for a price, the word used here was that of paying a ransom. When sin entered into the world with Adam, we were taken captive; and when Christ died on the cross the ransom was paid to where God was able to bring us back into His kingdom. We were bought at a price to which we are no longer for sale. When we were redeemed by Christ the sale was final.

Forgiven

Finally we should be thankful because our sins are forgiven, which goes hand in hand with redemption. Look at in the way of when people would go into slavery due to large debts, because of sin we had an unpayable debt and thus became slaves to sin. Christ came and redeemed us, bought us from the slavery to sin, and then forgave us, payed off or canceled our debt. You see we should be thankful to God because of our salvation, as not only does God make it possible for us, but He is the one who saves us. We cannot do it on our own, only God had the power to bring us salvation.

Table Talk – Episode 51 – Meeting People’s Needs

Posted on June 23, 2016June 23, 2016 by chgruver

June 17, 2016: This week we got to talking about how as the church we need to be meeting people’s needs.

Prayer of Brotherhood – Endurance and Patience

Posted on June 22, 2016June 16, 2016 by chgruver

This week we are looking at Paul’s prayer for the Colossian church and that they work to grow spiritually. Last time we saw the first aspect of spiritual growth being related to seeking God and knowledge of His will. Today we will look at how when growing spiritually we need to focus on endurance and patience. In Colossians 1:11-12 we see, “May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.”

Endurance and Patience

Paul prays that the Colossian church will be strengthened by God so they can exhibit endurance and patience. The purpose behind this is when you start to live out your faith you are bound to encounter trials and persecution, Paul understood this and prayed that God would give the Colossian church the strength to stand in such time. It is far too easy when times get tough because of our faith to take a step back and tone down our beliefs, but that actually hinders us. Growing spiritually is much like growing physically, when we grow physically we often encounter growing pains as we mature, growing spiritually is much the same we have to encounter the trials and tribulations in order to grow.

The need for endurance and patience is not just because of our own spiritual growth but also as we are shaped into the men God wants us to be. The trials and hardships are not just growing pains but also serve as a means to make you useful in doing God’s will. If you have ever seen the method that Native Americans used to use when making arrowheads they would take basically two stones and use one to chip away bits and pieces of the softer stone until an arrowhead was formed. The trials and hardships that we face where we are needing to have endurance and patience do much the same. They shape us and form us into until we are a tool useful for God’s purpose, then like sharpening a knife it is a process that keeps us useful. The thing to remember is that all believers face this, we are never told we will have an easy life as a Christian, that is why Paul prays for believers to be strengthened for endurance and patience, as trials and hardships are almost guaranteed to the believer.

Give Thanks

As we are strengthened to be able to exhibit patience and endurance giving thanks to God should naturally flow out from that. When you think about it when we were children we all wanted to grow, we would get excited about a mere fraction of an inch of growth; and we will celebrate each year as we get a year older. It is only natural that we should exhibit the same we have regarding physical growth when we see the evidence of our own spiritual growth. You see we are not giving thanks because we are facing the trials and hardships themselves, but rather we are giving thanks because it means we are growing in our faith.

Giving thanks is not just because of the evidence of our growth but also because we are saved. We give t hanks because we will take part in the inheritance that fellow believers will share in. The reason we are to give thanks to God is because He is the one that makes us able to share in the inheritance, it is not by anything we have done or could ever do; but it is all because of God’s mercy and grace. Next time we will look further into other reasons we should be giving thanks to God as Paul points out to the Colossian church.

Prayer of Brotherhood – God’s Will

Posted on June 20, 2016June 16, 2016 by chgruver

A couple of weeks ago we started to look at the book of Colossians and have been going through it verse by verse. We took a look at the city of Colossae as well as the church located there. Then last week we looked at how Paul reacted to learning about this church that started as part of the fruit of his ministry in Ephesus. This week we start to look at his specific prayer for the church in Colossae. This prayer is one that specifically geared towards wanting to see the Colossian church grow spiritually. This prayer in fact is a prayer that we as believers should have regarding each other, as brothers in Christ we should have a desire to see each other grow spiritually. So what is this prayer? In Colossians 1:9-14 we see, “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.” Today we are going to look at the first two verses of this section, “For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God.”

Knowledge of His Will

The first thing that Paul prays for regarding the Colossian church is that they will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Remember this was a church that was facing false teachers that claimed there was a hidden knowledge that one needed to find, Paul is stating that God is willing to impart knowledge of His will on the believers. God’s will is not an Easter egg that is hidden in which you need to go searching for, no it is clearly revealed to us in His Word; all we need to do is seek to draw near to God, place our focus on Him and His will is revealed to us.

Walk Worthy of the Lord

It is not just enough to know God’s will it also needs to be applied. When Paul states that he prays that the Colossian church will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, he is essentially saying he prays that it becomes a controlling influence in their lives. As we focus more on God and His will we should naturally find ourselves wanting to “walk worthy of the Lord.” This means we will continue to grow in our knowledge of God, as we can never know everything there is to know, and do good works, as they are an outpouring of our faith. You see the first step of spiritual growth is learning more about God and His will as well as being obedient as we find ourselves wanting to do God’s will as we further seek to learn more about God and His will.

A Friend of a Friend – What Must Be Done

Posted on June 17, 2016June 9, 2016 by chgruver

In looking at Colossians 1:3-8 we have seen that Paul has heard about this young church that came out of the fruit of his ministry in Ephesus, and reminds them of the source of their hope. Today we will see what Paul points out as what should be done with that hope. In Colossians 1:6-8 we see, “It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and recognized God’s grace in the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow slave. He is a faithful servant of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit.” Paul now goes and starts telling the Colossian church the purpose of the Gospel.

Bearing Fruit

He starts out with telling them that the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world. Essentially Paul is stating that the Gospel is to continue to be spread, they heard the Gospel from someone and in turn they should be sharing the Gospel with others. Paul does this by telling the Colossians that it was not just them that found their hope through the Gospel but that the Gospel is for all people in all places. He was essentially stating that it was not just them that will find salvation in the message of the Gospel, but that they should be willing to spread it so that it would continue to bear its fruit.

Seed Planted

This point was driven home by Paul indicating that the seed that bore the spiritual fruit found in the Colossian church was planted by Epaphras. This was not one of the apostles, a missionary, or even some full time minister; this was just a fellow Colossian that heard the message and came to faith while he was probably visiting Ephasus. God used an ordinary man for His extraordinary purpose. As mentioned in the Great Commission we may not all be evangelists, but as Christians we are all to go and spread the Gospel around the world.

What’s The Fruit

So what is the fruit that is growing all over the world that Paul is talking about. It is those that have given their life to Christ. As mentioned they recognized God’s grace in the Gospel and gave their hearts over to it. On exposure to the Gospel message they had a stirring in their hearts as a result of the Holy Spirit drawing them to God that let them see this great gift that is offered to them, which they did not deserve. That is exactly what grace is, receiving something which you do not deserve; on the other side of the same coin is mercy, which is not receiving something you do deserve. You see through mercy we do not receive the punishment of death that we deserve due to sin and through God’s grace we receive life; not because of anything we did but because of Christ and what He did for us in His love. This is what Paul is doing right off the bat, he is reminding the Colossian church of the Gospel message, the message that led them to faith. He is reminding them of God’s grace and mercy as this needs to be first and foremost in their minds, especially when he starts to counter the false teachings that the church is dealing with.