COLOSSIANS - Finish Well - In Christ! // One Church Podcast, 21st July 2025

We are one church. We love God, love people, love

His mission, and love His church.

Welcome to the One Church podcast.

Just before we came to Leicester, which is quite a lot

of years ago now, I had the excitement of running my one and

only ever half marathon. I'd trained, prepared and off I

went and I finished. Yes, I did, thank you.

Don't get too excited. My time wasn't too bad for an

older person and the pace was not speedy, shall we say.

And I, but I didn't walk, which was a really good thing for me

because that's quite a long way to go.

But not walk, in my book anyway. But as I approach the finish in

my head, I don't know if you've ever had this experience where

in your head things are a bit different to the reality.

In my head I felt fit. I felt really, really full of

energy. I felt like I was looking good.

You know, feeling good. Ran through that finish line.

You have an official photograph. And then a few weeks later, that

feeling had stayed with me of self satisfaction until the

certificate came through the post and the official photograph

came through the post. Because I opened this envelope

and literally on that photo, it was such a different picture to

what I had seen in my mind. I had red cheeks.

I looked exhausted, my limbs were not looking half as toned

and supple as I imagined in my head, and this was definitely

not a photo to put on the wall or put on the fridge.

Finishing well is a vital concept for us as Christians.

And today I'm really excited because two things are

happening. Today we're going to talk about

finishing well, and we're also going to finish the series that

we have been doing over the last few months as a church in the

letter to the Colossians, which is part of the New Testament,

part of the Bible. And we're looking at the final

words that Paul the great apostle shares with this church

in Colossae. We're giving it the title Finish

well in Christ. Well, throughout this letter,

Paul has constantly just drawn the church to Jesus Christ.

He's constantly brought us back to Jesus.

In fact, we've given this series the title Jesus Over Everything

because that's the theme of the whole book.

Christ who is your life is what Paul says in one of the verses

in chapter 2. Christ is over everything.

He's all you need. And if you're here today

wondering what you really need in life, like I did when I was

14 years old and I was thinking, what is the point of life?

Why do I just get up every morning?

I discovered that Jesus is actually the reason that we're

here on this earth. He is the one we're born for,

the one we're made for, to have a relationship with a living

God. This is not religion.

It's a living faith in a living God.

He's all you need, and He's worth giving everything for.

And there's many in this room. We found him to be true.

We found him to be the King of kings, and we are giving our

lives for him. So today's going to be a great

encouragement to us to finish well.

And today we're going to look at the whole of chapter 4, but I'm

not going to read the whole of it all together.

We're going to unpack it little bit by little bit, which is

going to be exciting. So Paul signs off his letter

with some intensely practical advice and it's all centred

again around Jesus. And then he has some greetings

and requests from some people who are with him and two people

in Colossae. And again, Jesus is over

everything. So why don't we just quieten our

hearts and open our minds and our hearts and our spirits to

allow Jesus to change us through his words.

So let's just pray. Lord, I thank you for the power

of your word. I thank you that it is not meant

just to give us information, but it is meant to change us.

And Lord, we invite you to come and change us.

Lord, by the power of your Spirit, as we read this word

together, we're believing that you were going to speak to each

one of us in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Great.

So as I said, I'm going to read the Scripture bit by bit and

we'll unpack it as we go. It'll be a bit like having a lot

of parcels on Christmas Day, just open one time.

So first, Paul has these words of advice.

And you know, when somebody is like the apostle Paul, you want

to listen to what their words of advice are.

What is it? What are his last words in this

letter? Because if somebody's lives like

he did and is worthy of respect, you want to know what they've

got to say, what they think is important.

So what are his last instructions to this church, A

Church of really baby Christians, very young

believers. So here we go.

Firstly, he says be devoted to prayer.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

This language is really intense. Devote.

If somebody's devoted to something, you know, they really

care about it. It's their focus.

It's the thing they live for. And he says devote yourselves to

prayer. He says be watchful, be alert as

you pray and be thankful. Have an attitude of gratitude.

Have you ever tried actually praying and not asking for

anything of God, just saying thank you.

It's quite hard actually, because we're so wired to ask

him for things. It's good just to say thank you

for this and thank you for that, and thank you for the beauty of

creation. Thank you for my family and

thank you for everything. But also then to thank him for

the things we may want to ask him about things that are coming

up, for example, just say thank you.

I know you're with me in that situation.

Thank you. I know you've gone ahead of me

into my new job. I thank you that you're with me

in my exams. I thank you.

It's really life changing to do that sometimes.

But Paul doesn't specify how we pray here.

He just says pray as a priority. And it's the same for us.

All types of prayer, private prayer, devotion, publicly in

groups, together in our small groups as we meet with friends

to pray, listening, intercession, praying on behalf

of others. You know, I love prayer times

sometimes. I was in a prayer time last

Saturday morning with a group of women, and it basically ranged

from silence and being in awe in the presence of God to shouting,

speaking in tongues, you know, just all sorts of things in that

prayer time. People kneeling, people

standing, it's all included. And I love prayer times like

that. Last Sunday here at the central

site, I met a young man called Reagan who was from India.

He actually introduced himself to me as a firefighter from

India. And I thought at the time, oh,

that must be some sort of Christian organisation in India.

They're firefighters. But actually he said, no, I'm a

real firefighter. I do work as a fireman in India.

But he came to this country to spend some days in prayer and

fasting. And he felt called to come to

our church last Sunday morning just sort of out of the blue

with a friend who lives in Anstey.

And when he talked to me about his burden to pray for the UK,

there were tears in his eyes. And he actually struggled to get

the words out as he talked about what he believed God wants to do

in our nation. And he wrote to me afterwards

and said he felt like one church is a part of that as well.

So let's be devoted to prayer more and more.

And Paul now asks the people in Colosse for their help.

And they may have said, well, how can we help you, Paul?

We're just new baby Christians. We hardly know what to do.

We hardly know how to live this Christian life.

How can we help you? You've been halfway around the

Mediterranean. You've preached the gospel.

You've planted churches. You've suffered hugely for your

faith. You're a famous Christian.

Lots of people know all about you.

But he says, no, I need your prayers.

Pray, he says, for open doors, verse 3 and 4.

Pray for us too, that God may open the door for our message so

that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in

chains. Pray that I may proclaim it

clearly as I should. Wow, they can pray.

Do we know? We don't know the power that is

there in the most young new believer.

You may be in this room and you've not been a Christian very

long. Don't underestimate the power

when you open your mouth and you pray to God, when you just speak

the simplest of prayers, all heaven hears you.

And it is amazing the power that's at our disposal as we

pray. And Paul doesn't say pray that I

might be released even. He just says, pray that I can

share the message of Christ with as many people as possible.

And there's a side note to that. Let's keep remembering as a

church all those who are imprisoned around the world for

their faith, thousands and thousands of people who maybe

their relatives don't even know where they are or where they're

being held, but who are in chains, as it were, because they

proclaim Christ. I was just thinking about Leah

Sharabu, who is the young Nigerian girl was abducted.

I think it's nearly five, it's 5-6 years ago now with her

classmates. But because she refused to

renounce Christianity, she's still kept in captivity.

And we we need to pray for people like her.

But Paul says pray for Open doors for our message.

Do you know prayer opens doors? Have you experienced that in

your life? I remember when we started Open

Hands and it was great to have our Open Hands celebration and

thank you now on Thursday, what a great occasion that was,

saying thank you to our volunteers, the team sharing so

brilliantly well about all the different areas of Open Hands

and we love our charity Open Hands.

But when we first started Open Hands, I remember a lady called

Shalom who used to come along and help on a Tuesday and a

Thursday morning, and she brought a prophecy one day in

our prayer times before the sessions, she said open hands

bring open doors. And that was something that sort

of stuck with me for quite a long time.

As we open our hands to people, it opens doors for the gospel as

well. And you know, prayer can give us

that open door. So prayer can often show us the

key for wanting to reach people in our school, our

neighbourhood, where we are. If we pray, God will often give

us a key to open the door to that person's heart or that

person's life. It might be an act of kindness.

It might be something that we need to say to that person or a

way we need to be. I remember the Lord saying to me

when I prayed about this with somebody close to me, that

kindness would open their heart. The key is prayer.

And Paul says all around you there are people who are not yet

believers. There are people who don't yet

know Jesus, not yet part of the family of God.

And so he says be wise as well. Be bold, be attractive with

people. Be wise in the way he says that

you act towards outsiders. Make the most of every

opportunity. Let your conversation be always

full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to

answer everyone. You're in a different Kingdom

now. Paul's already said that at the

beginning of his letter, right back in chapter 1, he was clear.

When you came to the cross, you moved out of the Kingdom of

darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

But Paul says don't now hideaway.

Yes, your life is hidden with Christ in God, but you're not

living as a hidden away person in your own little secret

society. We are out in the world living

as believers in the world. We go out from this place into

the places where God has called us to be, and it was the same

for them. Paul says be wise, look for

opportunities. Make the most of opportunities.

Don't shy away from opportunities to share your

faith taught to people in a way that will win their hearts and

minds. And he uses this phrase, let

your conversation be full of grace, seasoned with salt.

I love seasoning in food. I also love a bit of salt on

food and, and we don't want bland food, do we?

And we don't want to be bland in our conversation in the way that

we talk towards people who are at the moment not yet believers.

He says. Paul's really saying be

interesting, be confident, be engaging, be friendly, be

normal, be real, don't put on a special voice or whatever, but

just be normal. And I wonder if you've ever

eaten a salty takeaway. Have you ever been to a takeaway

restaurant or you had a takeaway delivered and suddenly in the

middle of the night, you, you're up because oh gosh, I feel so

thirsty. Need to run to the bathroom or

go downstairs, get a big drink of water usually because that is

salty. You've eaten some salty food.

And Paul's saying be like this in how you speak, how you act be

clear, making people thirsty for the living water.

Jesus Christ, talk in such a way that people are going to be

thirsty when they've talked to you.

At my uncle's funeral, we went, we travelled up to the North

East on Friday for my Uncle Leonard's funeral.

He, he was my, my dad's brother. Yes, we went up to Geordie Lund,

which is where I came from originally.

And it was a wonderful opportunity for David and myself

to show love and to speak with grace with many of our relatives

and the friends who were there, both with prepared words,

because I'd prepared the tribute for Uncle Leonard.

And also with David being able to share a little message from

the Bible. And then also just taking the

moments at, at the party afterwards, looking for open

doors to share God's love, to share that message as well in a

natural way. And one of my relatives, I'm

afraid I didn't do that well outside of the church, but I

sort of redeemed the day afterwards because it rather

took me by surprise. My cousin's wife said to me, oh,

this has really made me think about my own mortality.

And I thought, wow. And I was a little bit taken

aback by her just coming out and saying that I hadn't really

spoken to her for a long time. And suddenly she says this.

So I didn't do so great in my response.

But later on, I made sure I found her and we sat and had a

long conversation at the table. Just sharing at a level, not not

putting myself above her, but talking about all sorts of

things, like we don't really believe in retirement, what that

means. I told her my story of looking

for meaning and purpose when I was a teenage girl and how I

found that in Jesus and how that changed my life.

And it just sort of flowed. And the conversation was, I

believe, quite seasoned with salt.

And I went to see her before I left and gave her some parting

words. And then across the table I also

heard David. And I could hear the word Jesus

coming out quite a few times in a conversation he was having

with my cousin's friend who was there.

So I know he was doing his thing and talking about Jesus as well.

So there we are. That's a few last words of

advice from Paul about prayer, about deeds, about words.

And we could spend the whole morning here.

But next comes the bit in these letters that we often gloss

over. We often just whizz to the end

then and forget all the great greetings at the end and the

people, because I believe the people that Paul talks about at

the end of this letter have a lot to teach us and maybe

there's one that's going to speak to you particularly.

So let's see what we find out from them.

This really shows as well that we do it together.

We finish well in Christ as a church, as those who do it

together. Because I don't know if you've

ever thought of Paul as a loner. What image do you have of him

when you read the Bible? I sometimes think of him as

quite an austere man, you know, quite straight laced maybe, and

maybe someone who would do it himself.

But I think we need to think again if we think that, because

it seems like Paul was always with others.

He's always sending messages from others and greetings to

others as well. Because we are meant to be in

this together, this beautiful messy church that we are part

of. Isn't it wonderful to be part of

the family of God? We know none of us are perfect

yet, but we're on this journey together.

And what's Paul doing in these few verses?

Well, anybody here like sewing? Most of us don't have much time

for sewing, do we? So we just like buy clothes.

But back in the day when I was little, my mum would make all

our clothes and I remember being in this like crimpoline dress.

And so just think of that picture of sewing and think of

the power of a little thread that is goes in and out, in and

out, doesn't it, to join the two pieces of fabric together.

In itself, it's not very strong. You could just snap it in two.

But if there's enough stitches and they're close enough

together, they will bind 2 pieces of fabric together.

And what Paul's doing is he's stitching together the group

that he's with in prison or that come and visit him in prison

with the people in Colosse and this new little baby church,

probably only a few households meeting together at this point.

And Paul brings greetings and he sends greetings to them.

And I think they all have something important to say.

So firstly, finish well, like Ticacus and SMS and Aristarchus,

I bet you glad you don't have to say all the words today, all the

names. But I've had a practise at that,

dear family, faithful servants. So Ticacus, first he says he

will tell you all the news about me.

He's a dear brother, a faithful minister and a fellow servant in

the Lord. I'm sending him to you for the

express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and

he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with an SMS.

Our faithful and dear brother who is one of you, they will

tell you everything that's happening here.

And my fellow prisoner, Aristarchus sends you his

greetings. So a little bit about those

three people, Tikicus from the province of Asia, probably the

postman actually physically carrying this letter from Paul

to the church, and also maybe carrying the letter to the

Ephesians, which was a circular letter.

He's mentioned in Acts chapter 20 where he's called to

Acts 20 · chapter mention

accompany Paul on his last visit to Jerusalem, taking money for

the people in need in Jerusalem. And that is a very responsible

thing to do, isn't it? So he must have been a very

trusted brother, loyal, faithful, amazing.

Thank you to all you in one church who are loyal and

faithful. And thank you as well to all

those who handle our money, because that is a great and

honourable and responsible position.

What about Anessimus? He's an interesting one.

If you read the letter to Philemon you'll find out more.

He used to be a slave in the house, and of course that was

part of the culture then. He used to be a slave in the

household of, of Philemon, but he ran away.

He was a runaway slave. He'd run away from that

situation. He'd met Paul in Rome and

apparently been led to Christ by him.

And Paul now is writing and sending him back to Colossae.

And if you read the book of Philemon, you'll see he writes

specifically to Philemon to say welcome him now, because now

he's a valued brother in Christ. Don't welcome him back as a

slave anymore. Welcome him back as a brother.

And how does Paul describe him in this letter?

He says, is it, does he say runaway or rebel or Sinner?

No, he calls him faithful, dear one of you.

And this teaches us, doesn't it, that our past doesn't need to

define us and we can be renamed. We can rename others as well.

Jesus did it all the time. Think about if you know your

Bible at all or if you've read, had stories told to you in the

past about people like Peter, Zacchaeus, Mary Magdalene,

Matthew, the tax collector, all became new people in Christ.

Some of them actually literally had a name change, but Jesus saw

them as different. And maybe you used to call

yourself a drunkard. Or a drug addict, or a failure.

Or a school dropout. Or a runaway.

Like an assimus. Well, why not ask Jesus to hear

your new name today? Because he can wipe away all of

that past. And if you've already come to

Christ, then you have a new name and you have a new start.

This is not the end for you. You can be renamed then.

What about Aristarchus? Well, he was a native of

Thessalonica, not far away. He was arrested at the time of a

riot in Ephesus. You can read about it in Acts

19. And he'd gone with Paul to Rome,

and Paul calls him his fellow prisoner.

He'd probably chosen as well to either to stay in prison with

Paul or to be a person who would regularly come and visit Paul in

prison. It might mean he was literally

in chains with Paul to say he was a fellow prisoner, but also

many people think it might mean that he was actually a prisoner

of Christ in terms of he couldn't leave Christ he wanted.

He was constantly chained to Christ.

He was constantly seeing Jesus as the centre of his life.

He'd been captured by Christ. I wonder, have you been captured

by Christ today? I pray that we all have our

hearts captured by him. So one church, these three would

say to us, finish well in Christ, be dear family, brothers

and sisters serving together. Don't let the past define you.

You've got a new name and be a prisoner of Christ.

And then we see finish Well, like Mark, as does Mark, says

Paul, the cousin of Barnabas. You've received instructions

about him. If it comes to you, welcome him.

Well, why did they bother? Why did he bother to say, if he

comes to you, welcome him? Why would they not welcome him?

Well, because he'd had a varied life, to put it mildly.

It was a life of ups and downs. He was one of the very first

evangelists sharing the good news around Europe.

And he was a close companion of the disciple, the apostle Peter.

He also wrote a gospel. I don't know if you can guess by

any chance what that gospel might be.

The gospel of Mark, yes. But confusingly, Mark is also

called John. Mark or John in the Bible.

So let's just put that to confuse you.

This is the story behind the back story behind this thing

that Paul is saying now is that he'd been gone with Paul and

Barnabas on their first missionary journey, a big

journey all around, many, many places sharing the gospel.

But at some point on that journey, he turned back.

And that was something that Paul didn't forget when Barnabas

wanted to take John Mark again on the second missionary

journey. And if we read in Acts 15 that

Paul didn't think it wise to take him because he deserted him

and they had a sharp disagreement.

So Paul and Barnabas parted company at that point and Wenden

did 2 separate missionary journeys and Barnabas took Mark,

but Paul chose Silas and left and went a different way Later

on. Obviously though, Paul did

change his mind about Mark, as we see from this letter,

possibly because Mark by now proved himself and he now urges

the Colossians to welcome him. And in a letter that's written

five years after this one, the Letter to Timothy, 2nd letter to

Timothy, Paul sees it so differently.

He says only Luke is with me, get Mark and bring him with you

because he is helpful to me in my ministry.

So to anyone here who's messed up, Mark would say, well, look

at me, God is the God of the second chance, the third chance,

the fourth chance, the many chances.

Don't let your past define your future.

Don't keep looking backwards, but look ahead.

Finish well. And one church.

Let's be those who welcome those who've failed and who've messed

up. And yes, there might be a

sensible process to go through when somebody arrives who's had

challenges in their past, but let's believe in the possibility

of restoration and a second chance in Christ.

And on a side note, Paul says that Aristarchus Mark and Jesus

Justice were the only Jewish Christians in his close group at

that time. Jesus, who was called Justice,

also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my

fellow workers for the Kingdom of God, and they have proved a

comfort to me. This was important to Paul for

him to have believers, brothers and sisters who were Jews

because he himself was a Jew who had come to Jesus.

And he longed for his fellow Jews to know Christ as their

Messiah that they'd longed for and to be saved.

And let's just keep remembering as a church, Jews around the

world today and pray for them to be saved.

Pray for a great end time harvest among the Jewish people

to come into God's Kingdom. Finish well then like a paphras.

So there's another great guy. Pray, strengthen, work hard.

Listen to what he says about Paphras.

A Paphras who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus sends

greetings. He's always wrestling in prayer

for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature

and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is

working hard for you and for those that Laodicea and

Herapolis Epaphras mentioned in the 1st chapter of the letter as

the founder of the church in Colosse and here described as

one of you. He's one of your own, a servant

of Christ Jesus. He wrestles for them in prayer.

If you've ever watched wrestling, wrestling involves

like hanging on to your opponent, not letting go.

Epaphras carries a burden. He won't let it go.

That they would stand firm in all the will of God and they be

mature and fully assured. And this is our prayer for you

as a church. And he's a hard worker.

He's working hard. And if Paul says he's working

hard, he's working hard. One church, you are all one of

us. And if you're here as a visitor,

you're also honorary one of us as well.

And we believe in this next season, it's going to be a

season of discipleship, a season of a greater harvest and

strengthening people. And this will mean we all need

to work hard. If Pafras had this laser sharp

focus and you know we are all on the same mission together, he

would say to us, finish well, pray and work hard for Christ.

It'll all be worth it. And then we read about our dear

friend as Paul says. I love how he describes Luke,

our dear friend. Luke the doctor and Demas send

greetings. What did they have to say?

Well, Luke would say finish well.

Use your gifts and skills to serve Jesus.

Luke wrote two books. This is an amazing group of

friends of Paul, isn't it? Luke wrote two books of the New

Testament, Luke's Gospel and Act of the Apostles that we know as

Act. And he was a close companion of

Paul. And yet here we see him choosing

to stay in prison with Paul. He could have been out, couldn't

he? Doing all sorts of things.

But he chooses to stay with Paul, ministering to his knees.

We have, we have reason to believe because he's Paul, says

Luke, the doctor, that he's actually using his skills and

his gift and training as a doctor to minister to Paul.

Physically, not glamorous, but probably this kept Paul alive.

If you think about Paul's life, he'd done all sorts of things.

He'd suffered all sorts of things.

He'd had beatings, he'd been in prison many times.

He was stoned. He suffered so much in his body.

He, he'd been, it says, in the shipwrecks and all sorts.

And as well as that, the Bible talks about him having a thorn

in the flesh, which we don't really know what it was, but it

may have been an ongoing, challenging physical condition

that needed help. And there's Luke ministering to

his needs, helping him. And I was just thinking about

one church and thinking about all the amazing gifts and skills

that are in this room. We have nurses, doctors, we have

scientists. We have people with wonderful

practical skills. We have people who can clean in

an amazing way that I never could because that is not my

gift. We have people who can mend

pipes and do electrical circuits and things like that.

We can have people with all different gifts.

I think what it would look like if we all just laid our gifts

down and we just said, Lord, these are for you for your

service. Yes, they're for my job, but I'm

going to use them for you. I'm going to use them for you

all devoted to Christ. And then what about all our

personalities and all the experience we've got in our

lives and all the things that go to make us the people we are?

If we're just willing to say, Lord, this is yours and

rededicate ourselves to use what he's given us.

And then what about Demas? Because all Paul says there is

and Demas and we'll come back to him just in a moment.

So finish. Well, we belong to this great

and amazing varied family. Give my greetings to the

brothers and sisters at Laodicea and to Nimpha and the church in

her house. After this letter has been read

to you, see that it's also read in the Church of the Laodiceans,

and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.

Brothers and sisters, men and women.

Some of the old Bible translators translated the name

Nympha into a a masculine form, I think because they couldn't

quite cope with the idea that this church met in her house and

what the implication was, was that she was actually the leader

of that church. They couldn't cope with that.

But we have a church, don't we, which is men and women, boys and

girls, all equal family. We have our wonderful deaf

community here, deaf and hearing.

We have all our amazing young people sat together this

morning, young and old. We're all one family, all

servants of Christ. I'll just say to all of you,

don't let anything hamper you. Don't stay on the edge of this

family. Get right stuck in because this

is your family and we have a mission to fulfil together and

you have a part to play in that. And finish.

Well. Remember, Demas, we're going to

come back to him now. And our kippers, you started so

finish, Demas, you remember he was only mentioned by his name,

nothing else. He's the only one that Paul

doesn't actually say anything about.

It seems that possibly he didn't finish well.

And it's a great sadness, isn't it, when we know people who go

strong for God and then seem to it seems to sort of die away.

He certainly had a blip. His faith was not strong enough

to stand and he walked away from his mission.

And we read this a few years later into Timothy for Demas,

says Paul, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has

gone to Thessalonica, and we feel Paul's sadness there.

Only Luke is with me. Demas couldn't lose his

salvation if he was saved, I don't believe.

But it seems he did lose the joy of finishing strong.

Although we don't know what his actual ending was.

It could have been better after this.

But why? Why did he walk away?

Because he loved this world. Don't love this world.

We have all our wonderful young people here.

Don't love this world. Love Jesus first, because that's

the way to live. The best, most amazing life that

you could possibly live is to put Jesus first.

Don't live for sport or money or travel or experiences.

Live for him first, because it's only what is done for Jesus that

will last. It's only in Jesus that we can

find satisfaction. It might be hard, but it'll be

worth it all. So to put it positively, don't

be like Demas. Be distracted.

Listen to what Paul says to our kippers.

Our kippers may have been the overseer of all the churches in

the area. It says this.

Tell our kippers, see to it that you complete the ministry you've

received in the Lord. Was our kippers maybe a bit

discouraged, a bit tired in the ministry, losing focus?

Well, Paul's saying finish well, finish well.

And for us, complete the ministry that you have been

given. We haven't all been given the

ministry of leading a church, but we've all been given

callings from God. We've all been given a purpose.

We've all been given something, a task that He wants us to do.

And just listen for what that is.

But it's worth thinking, what is it that Jesus has given us to

do? And is it time to set our heart

again to finish what we started and to know that we can only do

that in Christ? So we're coming to the end of

our tour in the letter to the Colossians.

It's been a great journey, hasn't it, the last few months?

And now Paul himself, we see him almost snatch the pen from the

person that he's dictating this letter to because he would have

spoken the letter to the person writing it down.

But he picks up the pen and probably as he his hand went

across the page, he would see the chains on his own wrists.

And he writes this. He says, I, Paul, write this

greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains.

So let's finish well and remember Paul, his life laid

down. And he once said in another

letter, imitate me as I imitate Christ.

And so with all this letter, it all comes back to Christ, to

Jesus. Finish well.

Remember Christ over everything. The letter ends with a simple,

deeply profound word. Grace be with you, Colossians

418. The letters use many words and

is declared to the Colossians that Christ is over everything.

Remember, Christ has a Kingdom, Christ is supreme.

These are the weeks we've looked at Christ the greatest treasure,

Christ in me, the hope of glory, the reality of Christ hidden

with Christ. Christ changes everything and

now grace has the final word, grace be with you.

And as Paul already knows and he wrote somewhere else, his grace

is sufficient. He said for me, and here's the

word grace. Today church is sufficient for

you, for every single one of us. Whatever you're facing today,

Jesus grace is enough. So maybe something in that

message is spoken to you. I believe something is spoken to

each person. Maybe you need to remember today

that you have a new name. Maybe that was spoke to you,

that in Christ the old name you had has been wiped away, just

like it was written on the white board and it's been wiped away

and Jesus has written a new name for you.

Just remember that today you are loved, you are chosen, you are

precious. You're a success, you're not a

failure. Maybe you need the grace and

mercy to get back up. Like Mark, you've failed in some

way, you've messed up in some way.

But Mark would say to you today, God is the God of the second

chance and the third chance and the fourth chance.

So receive that grace today. Maybe you need grace to finish a

job, something that God has given you to do, and you're

struggling to have the energy to see it through, but His grace is

sufficient for you. His grace is enough.

Just say to him today, I'm going to finish with your help.

I'm going to finish. And maybe you're worried you're

going to love this world like Demas, or you feel yourself

slipping there. It's time to repent, to turn

away from those things and to say, Jesus, I want you to be my

centre. I want you to be my focus.

I'm going to put you first and believe that everything I need

will be given to me as well. Your grace is enough and we are

one in Christ. So why not just say your own

little prayer in your own heart right now?

Remember what Paul said, Devote yourselves to prayer.

Just pray over your own life right now and say, Lord, your

grace is sufficient for me. I put you first, I put you

first. Thank you Lord, the Lord bless

you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine

upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards

you and give you peace.