Mckernan Baptist Church Podcast

Today Pastor Mike will look at the conclusion of Colossians. In these final greetings we meet some of the companions that Paul has in his walk, and we are introduced to what they bring along to support the journey.

Today we will look at how Paul's words in Colossians 4:2-6 give guidance to the practical outworking of our relationship with our "neighbours", those people in our communities and our world who live outside of a restored relationship with God.

Welcome to MCkernan Baptist Church! WE are glad you hAve joined us. AS we continue our focus on what it means to walk WITH God, we are currently exploring how we might be more intention in developing our relationships with God.

Today we will look at some direction Paul gives in Colossians 3:15-16 that guide the practical outworking of our relationship with God.

Since our ministry year began last September, we have been talking about what it means to walk with God. While Paul is clear that this walk is not about external rules and rituals, he also is clear that it is more than mindless wandering. In Colossians 3:17, Paul provides a concise summary regarding our walk with God.

Since the beginning of our ministry year last September, we have focused a them summarized simply by the word. "WITH". What does it mean to walk WITH God? We continue this theme into this new year as Tim Pippus brings a message today that well take us back two thousand years to a time when Jesus took Peter, James and John out for what they thought would be an ordinary hike. We will see how the extraordinary events they experienced that day can strengthen and guide us as we seek to walk with God in the midst of our ordinary lives in 2018.

Various members of the ministry staff will be reflecting on a number of Bible characters and what it meant for them to walk with God.

Today we will go through the Christmas Eve Story in the book of John and how Jesus is the Light that came into the world on Christmas.

We have affirmed again that the first and true gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ Himself, coming down to us as a light in our darkness (Is. 9:2,6). As with any gift, however, this coming of Christ calls for response.

The season of Advent anticipates the "coming" or "arrival" of Jesus. While we celebrate His first coming, we continue to await His second coming when He will return to fulfil what was set in motion through HIs birth, life, death and resurrection.

On this First Sunday of Advent, we focus on the hope Jesus came to bring. In Colossians 3:5-11 Paul gets very practical about how setting our hearts and minds on Christ should impact our lives at the level of those issues where we struggle to follow Him. Paul exposes the root cause of our sin and challenges us to invite Christ's transformative power into these root causes. Rather than hide these painful chapters, God chooses to bring these stories to the light relating to the coming of Jesus to earth. This is a powerful reminder that Jesus walks with us amid our pain.

Pastor Lyle goes through different examples of anger. greed. sexuality, and pride and how they effect us when we will let them become our ultimate instead of Christ.

Our journey through Colossians has repeatedly emphasized how walking with God is not about external conformity to a list of rules. What then, is it about? At the beginning of chapter 3, Paul turns his thoughts toward this question, beginning with a challenge that we take a hard and honest look at our ultimate affections and allegiances. Put another way, "what do we love and what makes life worth living?"

Our walk with Jesus is not without potential diversions, so let's be prayerfully aware of the pull toward...

Freedom from disqualification to a place of belonging with God's people, freedom from guilt and shame, freedom from the powers of darkness.

Today is Reformation Sunday. Our whole theme of walking WITH God in personal relationship rests on the return to Biblical truth that came out of the Protestant Reformation. This truth has been summarized in five rallying cries that have come to be known as the five 'solar'.

A key reason Paul wrote Colossians was to encourage new followers of Jesus in the city of Collossae. His comments here provide a lot of insight into the meaning we can derive intentionally walking with God.

"We all have a picture of God, and when you get down to the core, what you believe about God (who He is) really matters" - Pat Barret

When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he addressed a culture that had a very limited view of who Jesus was. Some saw Him as one "god" among many. Others from a more Jewish background struggled to see Him as God at all. As a result, Paul penned a powerful portrait of Jesus that continues to challenge our (too small) ideas of Him today.

Colossians 1:12-1