The Time Is Now: Identity Found: 1 Peter 2:9-10

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (CSB)

1. I’m Chosen

But you are a chosen race…
1Peter 2:9 (CSB)

Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.
1 Peter 2:10 (CSB)

2. I’m Called

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people.
1 Peter 2:9 (Mess)

3. I’m Set Apart

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)

4. I’m Valuable

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)

But you are the chosen race, the King’s priests, the holy nation, God’s own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (GN)

…to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (Mess)

Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10 (CSB)

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. 
Hebrews 13:5 (NLT)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/the-time-is-now-identity-found-1-peter-29-10/

The Time Is Now: Part 1: Romans 12:3-8

 

 

1. Your Gifts Flow From Grace

For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Romans 12:3 (CSB)

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith…
Romans 12:6 (CSB)

2. Your Gifts Differ From Others

Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function…
Romans 12:4 (CSB)

3. Your Gifts Connect Your Church

…in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
Romans 12:5 (CSB)

4. Your Gifts Empower Ministry

According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12:6-8 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/the-time-is-now-part-1-romans-123-8/

Tell Me Something Good: Don’t Chase the Shadows: Colossians 2:16-23

 

Don’t Chase…

1.  The Lies of Legalism

Therefore don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.
Colossians 2:16-17 (CSB)

2.  The Mirage of Mysticism

Let no one disqualify you, insisting on ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
Colossians 2:18-19 (CSB)

3.  The Abyss of Asceticism 

If you died with Christ to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these [regulations] refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. Although these have a reputation of wisdom by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value against fleshly indulgence. 
Colossians 2:20-23 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/tell-me-something-good-dont-chase-the-shadows-colossians-216-23/

Tell Me Something Good: I’m Brimming Over: Colossians 2:9-15

 

In Christ…

1.  I Am Full

For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Colossians 2:9-10 (CSB)

2.  I Am New

You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.
Colossians 2:11 (CSB)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 
Ezekiel 36:26 (CSB)

3.  I Am Alive

…when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses. 
Colossians 2:12-13 (CSB)

4.  I Am Free

He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Colossians 2:14-15 (CSB)

5.  I Am Victorious

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Colossians 2:15 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/tell-me-something-good-im-brimming-over-colossians-29-15/

Tell Me Something Good: Jesus Is My Treasure: Colossians 2:2-8

 

1.  Jesus Is The Source Of Every Spiritual Treasure

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Colossians 2:2-3 (CSB)

2.  Access Your Spiritual Treasure

So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him…
Colossians 2:6 (CSB)

3.  Guard Your Spiritual Treasure

Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Colossians 2:8 (CSB)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/tell-me-something-good-jesus-is-my-treasure-colossians-22-8/

Tell Me Something Good: Good News When You’re Suffering: Colossians 1:24-29

When Christ is in me…

1) I CAN STAY JOYFUL WHEN I’M HURTING

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church.
Colossians 1:24 (CSB)

Three Reasons to Rejoice in Suffering

A. WHEN YOU SUFFER, JESUS SUFFERS. 

As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Acts 9:3-4 (CSB)

B. WHEN YOU SUFFER THERE IS A PURPOSE

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Acts 9:15-16 (CSB)

C. WHEN YOU SUFFER YOU MATURE SPIRITUALLY

…so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28 (CSB)

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10 (CSB)

2) I CAN STAY PURPOSEFUL WHEN I’M STRUGGLING

I have become its minister, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known…
Colossians 1:25 (CSB)

The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:26-27 (CSB)

We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28 (CSB)

3) I CAN STAY STRONG WHEN I’M AGONIZING  

To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:29 (NIV)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/tell-me-something-good-good-news-when-youre-suffering-colossians-124-29/

Tell Me Something Good: Jesus Blows My Mind Part 2: Colossians 1:18-23

 

 

Jesus is my…

1) Liberator – He sets me free
2) Reflector – He helps me see the heart of God
3) Creator – He made me with purpose
4) Sustainer – He holds me together

Jesus is my…

5) Leader – He guides me

He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:18 (CSB)

6) Filler – He fills me

For God was pleased [to have] all His fullness dwell in Him…
Colossians 1:19 (CSB)

For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1:20 (CSB)

7) Reconciler – He reconnects me

…and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:20 (CSB)

So What…

But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
Colossians 1:23 (NLT)

source https://edgechurchcolorado.com/tell-me-something-good-jesus-blows-my-mind-part-2-colossians-118-23/