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we actually know somebody who was willing to pay

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the price of their blood

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in order to have his enemies become his friends.

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So we're gonna be continuing our series in Colossians,

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but before we get into the following verses 15 through 23,

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we actually need to go back into some of the territory

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Joey covered in verses nine and 10,

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so that we can get a fuller understanding

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of what Paul is trying to say to the church at Colossians.

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So in verse nine, he says,

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and so from the day we heard of you,

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we have not ceased to pray for you,

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asking that you may be filled with the knowledge

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of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

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so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,

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fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work

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and increasing in the knowledge of God.

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There's this key point that we see

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in Paul's prayers for the church,

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that it really matters that we know God,

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and that's going to inform what we start to see in Colossians

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because he's gonna give us a very descriptive

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and theologically rich idea of who Jesus is.

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But before we get into that, I'm gonna say a little story.

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Recently, I got married,

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and in this process of being engaged,

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one of the things that me and my wife did

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is marriage counseling or premarital counseling.

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And in this process,

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one of the key themes that we always got

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beat into us, for lack of better terms,

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is Sebastian, you need to become a lifelong learner

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of Christina, which is my wife's name,

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or they would say, Christina,

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you need to become a lifelong learner of Sebastian.

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The reason why that phrase was so prevalent

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within this premarital counseling

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was to say that we're never going to get to a point

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in our lives where we know all that we need to know.

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And I think Paul, in the same way,

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in verses nine through 10, is saying,

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church at Colossians, church of today,

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you need to become lifelong learners of Jesus.

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And so now that we understand why Paul's prayers

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for the church were that we would be full

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of the knowledge of God,

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we can understand better why he says what he says

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in verse 15.

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He says, he is the image of the invisible God,

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the firstborn of all creation.

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For by him, all things were created in heaven

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and on earth, visible and invisible,

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whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,

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all things were created through him and for him.

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And he is before all things,

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and in him, all things hold together.

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And he is the head of the body, the church.

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He is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead,

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that in everything, he might be preeminent.

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For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

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and through him to reconcile all things to himself,

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whether on earth or in heaven,

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making peace by the blood of his cross.

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And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind

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doing evil deeds, has now reconciled in his body

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of flesh by his death.

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In order to present you holy and blameless

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and above reproach before him.

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If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast,

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not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard,

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which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven,

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and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

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And so we get this idea that Paul's prayer

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for the church at Colossians is that they know God,

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and then he gives this really rich description

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of who Jesus is.

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And so we're gonna go over a couple of things

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that Paul thinks it's really important

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that we know about Jesus.

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And what we're gonna find is that for each deep

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theological truth that Paul states,

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there is an equally practical and needful tool

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that we can gain from it.

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So the first characteristic that we need to understand

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about Jesus is that Jesus is God.

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One of the key characteristics that the original audience

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would know and look for as a quality about God

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is that he is a preexisting creator of everything.

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And so it's not up for question or debate

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on if Paul is stating the deity of Jesus.

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He's being very clear that by him and through him,

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all things were created, meaning that if it weren't

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for Jesus, none of this would be here.

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And this is where that practical and needful tool

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that we gain from this theological truth comes

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is that it helps us to know that Jesus created all things,

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because if I don't know that, my relationship with him

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is not gonna be what it should be.

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I'm not gonna truly understand and appreciate

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the fact that I can breathe, the fact that I can walk,

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the fact that I have family, because he upholds all of that

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by the word of his power.

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Hebrews 1, 3.

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he says, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. And Paul even goes

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as far as to say in Acts 17 when he's evangelizing to people in Athens that in

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him we live and move and have our being. So it's really important that we

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understand that God came down in human form and was Jesus because without

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understanding that I'm not gonna give him the proper praise, the proper worship,

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and the proper service he deserves. And from that truth that Jesus is God and

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that Jesus made all things comes another truth that is just as important, which is

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not only was all things created by Jesus, but I was created for Jesus. Verse 16

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says, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and

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invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were

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created through and for him. And so I was at this young adults group a couple of

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weeks ago and we were singing the song, you are worthy of it all, you are worthy

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of it all, for from you are all things and to you are all things, you deserve

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the glory. And I felt like the Lord had put a correction in my heart for this

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young adults group because what he had said to me is this young adults group is

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seeing that I'm worthy of it all but they think that I'm worthy because I

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saved them. And what they need to know is that I was worthy before I saved them. He

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said, I'm not worthy because I'm your Savior, I'm your Savior because I'm

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worthy. So there's this generation of people who didn't know that Jesus was

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gonna come that still knew that God was worthy and offered them, offered him

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their devotion and their praise and their sacrifices because God has always

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been worthy and we were made for him. So not only were all things created through

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him, but they were also created for him. The practical truth that we need to

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understand and gain from this is most of the young people in the church today

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find their purpose and find their value in the things that they're doing for God.

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They think that they were made for kids ministry or worship ministry or tech

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ministry and even though those things are good, they're not what they were made

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for. They were made for God. Some people find their identity in evangelism and

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even though evangelism is good and needful and a command that God gives us,

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it's not what we were made for. We were made to know and love God and he made us

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because it brought him joy. And as an extension of understanding that my sole

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purpose in this world is to know God and glorify him forever, from that I can then

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go into the kids tech worship ministries and serve not from a place of finding my

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purpose, but from a place of understanding that my purpose is to make

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God more known because he saved me. Psalm 139 verse 13 says,

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for you formed me from my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's

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womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works

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and my soul knows it very well. And we get this idea that the psalmist really

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understands that God made him for himself. It really matters that we

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understand the reason we were made, being for God. It's the only way that we're

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able to put our lives into proper perspective. If I'm able to see that my

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purpose is in knowing and loving God, then it will be easier for me to approach all

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of the things that God has called me to do without attaching the value of my life

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to those things, and without fully appreciating how genuine the grace and

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love of God is that he could desire me. And the last thing that we really need to

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understand and recognize that Paul makes very clear to us is that Jesus came to

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the earth so that we can be reconciled. So we have this worthy and holy God that

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we ought to know, we ought to become lifelong learners of. Not only is he God,

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not only were we made for him, but we were made for him and then we rebelled

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and were separated from God. And so it really matters that Jesus came so that

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we can have reconciliation to God. If we go back to that verse in Colossians,

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starting in verse 21, it says,

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And so God came to earth for a purpose, so that we can be reconciled to him.

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Romans 5 gives us a fuller perspective of what this means, for if while we were

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enemies of God, we were reconciled to him.

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to God by the death of his son. Much more, now that we are reconciled, we shall be

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saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus

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Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. And so not only did we

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rebel from God, but scripture goes as far as to say that we were enemies of God.

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It's hard language for me to really comprehend that I was an enemy of God

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because our tendency and our desire in life is to feel like there's no way that

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we could have been that hostile to God. But if we really look back at our

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previous natures, if we look back at what our lives looked like before we knew

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Jesus, we'll see that there really is a hostility in the ways that we lived, the

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ways that we talked, and the ways that we acted before our nature was changed,

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before we understood that this good God came to earth in the form of a human and

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died for us. The final thing that really puts the nail on the cross, for lack of a

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better phrase, is that we get to see that Jesus's payment was costly. The most

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standout statement to me in that verse is, for him all the fullness of God was

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pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether

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on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So understanding

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that Jesus paid such a high price in his blood for us is so important because if

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we were to put that into today's standard, how we understand we pay for

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things, like nobody in civilization today goes out to the blood bank and gets a

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pint of blood to go pay for their groceries or their dinner, but we

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actually know somebody who was willing to pay the price of their blood in order

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to have his enemies become his friends. And I think that's why Paul's major

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theme throughout this whole chapter of Colossians is that we ought to know God

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is the least that we can do for him, is offer ourselves back to a God who paid

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such a high price for us. So that's my encouragement to you today, is really

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really meditate and dwell on this fact that there's so much to know about God.

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Paul really just lays out the basics. If we decide as Christians and as disciples

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and followers of Christ to be lifelong learners of Jesus, there's so much

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richness, that's the abundance of life that Jesus talked about in John 10. If we

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if we know him, if we come to a full knowledge of who Jesus is, that's gonna

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be be the fullness of life that we've all been looking for.