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Whatever you do, do it for Jesus. Point to Him.

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As we study the book of Colossians, Colossians 317 is going to be our guide.

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Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,

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giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

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Whatever you do, do it for Jesus. Point to Him.

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Paul wrote to the Colossians while in prison to a small Christian community in a small town,

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and we covered the first eight verses of this book in the previous episode,

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so we're going to pick up today in verse nine.

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Colossians 1.9 says,

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So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him,

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bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

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being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might,

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for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you

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to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us

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to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

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So Paul is continuing to open this letter to the church in Colossae,

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talking specifically to them, telling them how he's been praying for them.

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And through these verses that we just read, 9 through 14,

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I think there's five key things in this passage that we can learn from Paul

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about how we should be walking in our faith and how we can apply this to our lives.

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And when we look at how Paul prayed for the church in Colossae,

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he first asked that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will

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in all spiritual understanding and wisdom.

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So, number one, first thing we can pull from this passage

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to increase our faith, to walk in faith is,

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number one, seek knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

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Seek knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

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This comes from verse nine.

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We can ask the Lord for guidance.

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Super simple, right?

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Sometimes we need this reminder, though.

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We get going through life.

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We're trying.

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Things get tough.

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And we need to ask ourselves,

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am I doing this in my own power, in my own might,

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or am I asking God for help?

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Am I asking God for guidance?

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Am I asking the Lord for wisdom and understanding?

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Because we want that, but often we get stuck and we get trapped in this,

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I don't know how to figure this out.

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And sometimes we need that reminder.

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Pause and ask the Lord.

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And verse nine says that,

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ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

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And this is something that most believers in Christ desire.

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We want to walk in God's will.

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And people pray in this direction, right?

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Lord, if it's your will, right?

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We hear people pray that.

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But Paul's saying, pray that you get filled with the knowledge of his will.

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How cool is that?

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Then we don't have to guess, Lord, if this is your will.

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No, just pray for the knowledge of his will.

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And with that comes spiritual wisdom and understanding.

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Now, I'm not saying that we'll have it all figured out,

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that we can pray that we always know exactly what God's will is

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and exactly what's going to happen, right?

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The Christian journey is one where we often have to ask that prayer.

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We often have to stop and ask God for clarity,

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for direction, for wisdom and understanding.

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But my point here is, ask for it.

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My point is, ask for it.

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Not so we can always have it figured out, but don't just sit in confusion.

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Remember to ask the Lord for clarity and direction.

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And then let his peace guide you.

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Let his peace guide you.

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His peace that surpasses understanding guide you.

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There's been many points in my life where I'm at that spot,

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wanting direction from God and having to ask for it, right?

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And I remember being a senior in high school

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and thinking about careers in college and what I'm going to do next.

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And I was faced with kind of a big decision.

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And I was trying to ask the Lord, what am I supposed to do here?

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And I remembered a verse that my dad often quoted,

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a very, very popular one, right?

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Jeremiah 29, 11, which says,

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for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare,

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not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

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And that's a verse that you see all over the place, right?

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In Christian circles, it's quoted a lot.

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And it's a great verse.

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It's a verse that brings hope and peace.

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But most people stop after reading Jeremiah 29, 11.

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And I think for the first time, I kept reading.

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If you keep reading, it says,

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Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

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You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart,

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and I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

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Right?

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So there's this promise of good plans for you, hope and a future, right?

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And in this verse, God's talking specifically to the Israelites.

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And there's hope here, but there's some.

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on them too, right? You'll call upon me, you'll seek me, right? We got to be

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calling upon the Lord, seeking Him to find out the knowledge of His will, right? We

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need to be seeking and pursuing the Lord. So before you go anywhere else with a

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tough decision, seek the Lord and ask for His knowledge, His wisdom, and His

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understanding. So that's number one. Number two from this passage, this comes

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from verses 10 and 11 of Colossians 1, is bearing fruit, bearing fruit. Paul prays

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for the believers in Colossae to bear fruit in every good work. Throughout the

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Bible, we see this analogy of a fruit tree, of bearing fruit. I love it because

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we have a peach tree in our backyard, and it's a lot of fun, and we've spent four

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summers with this peach tree in our backyard. We didn't plant it, it came with

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the house, you could say. Four summers, only one of those summers has been

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fruitful, right? We've spent the first three summers without getting a single,

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we got one peach, but we really hadn't gotten any peaches from this tree. This

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summer we got hundreds, and it was really exciting, and I learned something from

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that. You know, trees are so much better when they produce something, right?

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There's value in all trees, but man, the joy that we got from that peach

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tree when we had this fruit that we could eat, and our kids are just pulling

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peaches off the tree, the tree was more joyful to us. We got more out of

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that tree this summer than the years before because it produced fruit, and the

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same is true in our lives. We have the option to have a life that produces

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something or one that doesn't, right? Our lives can produce fruit or they can't,

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and Paul said produce fruit in every good work. Seize every moment of your

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life for the gospel. Paul demonstrated this throughout his life, didn't miss an

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opportunity to talk about the gospel. Produce fruit in every good work, but the

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key to being a branch that produces fruit is you have to be connected to the

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tree. John 15 5 Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in

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me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do

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nothing. If I cut a branch off of that peach tree, which I've done before, if a branch

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dies, or if I cut it, even if there's a branch that's full of fruit or full of

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blossoms, and I cut that branch off, it's not gonna produce anything because it's

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no longer connected to its source of everything. Its source of life, its source

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of water, its source of food. Like you gotta be connected to the tree or to the

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vine as Jesus says. The same is true in our lives. If we want to produce fruit, we

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have to be connected to the Father. In Colossians 1 11 that we just read says,

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be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance

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and patience with joy. That is what we get when we're connected to the Father.

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Strength, endurance, patience, and joy. God the Father is our source of those

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things. We receive that by being connected to the Father through the word,

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prayer, and worship. So number two is stay connected to the Father and bear fruit.

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Number three is give thanks. This comes from verse 12. I'm always impressed every

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time the Apostle Paul talked about gratitude and thanksgiving, right? His

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life was completely flipped on its head during his conversion, right? He endured

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plenty of suffering as a believer for Jesus. In fact, during that Acts 9, if you

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read that that chapter, during that conversion God told Ananias that he

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will show Paul how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. And Paul did. He

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encountered all sorts of suffering. And he wrote a lot of his letters in the New

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Testament from prison, but in those same letters he talks about thanksgiving from

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prison. Same is true here, right? He's talking about thanksgiving even though

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he's writing from a prison cell. So Paul understood the power of thanksgiving and

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he also understood the sovereignty of God and that we can have joy in the

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midst of suffering because we have God who is the creator of the world, who's

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greater than whatever it is we're facing. God is good and there is power in being

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thankful. And everything changes in our hearts and our minds when we're thankful

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and grateful. Anxiety and gratitude can't exist in your brain at the same

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time. Paul understood the freedom that's connected to having a grateful heart and

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he deeply wanted the believers that he wrote his letters to understand this and

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practice this because he knew the power and freedom that was in it. So number three

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is be grateful. Be thankful. Number four comes from Colossians 113, transfer

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from from dark to light. Let's reread this verse. He has delivered us from the

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domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son. We have

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been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom

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of his beloved son. Praise God, right? We've been transferred

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from darkness to light.

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So stop walking in darkness.

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In fact, I would say reject, turn away

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from the things of this world that are dark,

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that distract us from Jesus, from the light.

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In this translation I'm reading says domain of darkness.

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Other translations say the power of darkness.

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In darkness, the enemy can have power over people.

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And the domain of darkness brings depression,

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confusion, affliction.

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And when those powers grab a hold of somebody,

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that's exactly what they do.

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They depress people, they confuse people,

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they afflict people.

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But if you look at this verse, it says,

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Jesus came and plucked us out of the domain of darkness

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and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son,

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the kingdom of light.

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And that brings us to our fifth and final point.

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How can we turn away from the domain of darkness

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to the kingdom of light?

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Well, the last verse says, in whom we have redemption,

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the forgiveness of sins, verse 14.

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You are redeemed and forgiven is point number five.

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And that's the gospel message, the good news.

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Jesus came to redeem you.

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He redeemed us by paying the ransom on the cross.

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He paid the price and now we are redeemed and forgiven.

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So if you wanna be plucked from the domain of darkness

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and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son,

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the kingdom of light, all you have to do

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is surrender to Jesus, confess the sin in your life,

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repent and ask for his redemption and his forgiveness.

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And if you've never done that,

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there's an open invitation to you to do that today,

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wherever you are.

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Romans 10, nine says, if you confess with your mouth

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that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart

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that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

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The first step in there is confession, right?

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Confessing that you are a sinner

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and confessing that Jesus is Lord.

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And then comes belief, right?

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Believing in your heart, with all of your heart,

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believing wholeheartedly in the life, death

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and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

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believing that Jesus was a man who walked this earth,

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that he was fully man and he was fully God,

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that he was killed as an innocent man

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to pay the ransom for our sin,

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and that he didn't stay dead,

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but three days later was resurrected to life

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and lives today, right?

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So believing that wholeheartedly

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and then accepting the free gift

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that he offers of salvation through his grace,

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the grace of Jesus.

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Accepting that, right?

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Saying I need this,

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I don't want to live this life alone anymore.

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I don't want to do it in my own might, in my own power.

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I want to surrender my life to Jesus,

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accept his free gift of salvation,

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put Jesus on the throne of your life,

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and then we walk in that new life with Jesus.

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We walk in that new life.

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We walk in the kingdom of light

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instead of the kingdom of darkness.

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Walking in new life as a new creation.

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And then whatever you do, right?

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Back to Colossians 3.17.

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Whatever you do, do it for Jesus.

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Whatever you do, do it for Jesus,

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and always remember to point to him.

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So next episode, we'll be continuing,

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finishing up Colossians 1.

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One of my youth leaders, Sebastian,

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he helps me lead the youth group at our church.

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He's gonna bring the word here

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with starting in verse 15 from Colossians 1.

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♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

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♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪