First Baptist Family of Asheboro, NC

  How we do our job matters, especially when we are sharing the Gospel, it matters.   Paul is writing to believers in Colossae.   He’s answering the question, “What’s it mean to do life?”   This passage is part of the household codes that we visited last week.   How does this affect our job?   The troubling part for us is that the household codes apply to slaves.   S ome people in that congregation were probably slave owners and some were slaves.   Slavery still exists today and we do not condone it.   We have fellow believers around the world that are slaves. What do we do when our circumstances aren’t ideal?   Sometimes this happens in our workplaces or in our homes.   We pray for God to change things but sometimes nothing changes.   Some things persist even if they’re against God.   Sometimes we don’t like our job or our boss.   We excuse and reduce our attitudes and behaviors as a result.   This really affect...

In Colossians, Paul is writing to a people who are finding their way in the world just like we are.   How do we do what we are called to do?   How does it affect the rest of our lives?   We learned a lot growing up and we find ourselves turning into our parents!   Men, many of us walk around the house turning off the lights.   Ladies, you might think sometimes that you’re turning into your mother?   The people in Colossae were the same, but they are now in Christ and things are different.   Paul is addressing that in this passage.   This passage is probably familiar to you.   There’s a lot of preconceived notions about what these verses mean.   It’s about the roles of wives and husbands.   This is an opportunity to ask how we interpret Scripture.   This passage is in a letter that was written to the Colossian church.   It was circulated to other churches as well.   The question we have is are these things just for t...

  We continue in Colossians and today we look at the heart and what’s good for our hearts.   There’s a heart symbol on the oatmeal I eat.   It tells me it’s good for my heart to eat oatmeal. How good would it be if we had symbols that indicated to us who and what is good for our hearts?   How do we care for our hearts?   Our hearts have been tossed around so much lately.   Today the question is before us: how do we care for our hearts?   Colossians 3: 16-17 is our focus today.   It’s about a new heart.   The heart we’re talking about today isn’t our physical heart but the spiritual heart, the core of our being.   The heart is the center-most part of us, the deepest part of us.   Sometimes the deepest part of us can get tossed around.     Make Jesus your home.   Have you ever played hide and seek?   In this game there’s a home base where you’re safe if you can make it to home base.   Jesus is our home...

  The series we’re in is about a new you.   How can we get different results than we have in the past?   We are thinking about what it means to be made new.   As a church, how to we do things together in a way that pleases God and is healthy?   We want you to be taking good care of yourself.   We have disagreements at home and with fellow church members sometimes.   Paul is addressing disagreements in this passage.   We are opinionated people.   We don’t agree on all things.   What’s the best peanut butter?   Is crunchy better or is creamy? Some disagreements are more serious and we can find ourselves in a power struggle.   This is happening in our nation.   They key to being healthy is right here in this text.   Two weeks ago in my sermon I talked about Jesus being seated at the right hand of the Father.   We can choose to set our minds on Heaven.   We can have a new way of thinking.   Jesus is the c...

 For two thousand years the church has gathered together and every time we gather together there's a sense that we are reproducing what is in Heaven.  We are a reflection of Heaven.  For Baptists, we do things more casual than some and some are even more casual than us.  In this setting we can lose a real sense of what's in Heaven when we come together.  We are in God's presence when we gather together; it's not that God is uniquely here.  Worship is an awareness of God's presence.  When we sense God's presence we know we are not worthy and there's a conviction that comes; many things come to our minds.  We are reminded of the cross and the resurrection and this brings us to confession of sin.  That's what we want to do in worship.  Worship's ultimate intent is to know you're in the presence of God.  As a group when we spend time together in God's presence we model Heaven.  Sometimes we're just getting into God's presence as th...