Colossians Completed!

By God’s grace, we have completed Colossians, which was our first sermon series at Cross of Christ Fellowship [church meeting at DuPage Children’s Museum in Naperville]. (To hear some of the sermons [not all were recorded due to technical difficulties unfortunately], go here)

As I look back at our time in Colossians, I see that it has all been God’s grace in making it through the book. Preaching a sermon every week–with a few weeks break–is VERY difficult work. (It is also very JOYFUL work, and I can’t believe I GET to do this.) Praise God we finished!

This was my first time preaching all the way through a book. In the past, I’ve preached a small series or one-off sermons, but never gone all the way through a book.

Although I am still new at preaching, I can see God growing me in it. I think one of the big lessons I have learned, and continue to learn, is the importance of prayer in preaching preparation. I can get into the Greek, and dig into commentaries, but unless I’m prayerfully wrestling with the truths of the text, and asking God to help in every step, then it is futile. This is where much of the hard work of preaching comes in–the prayerfully wrestling and applying a text to one’s own soul.

I had times where I would see GRAND and AMAZING theological truths in a passage (like Col 1:15-20), and my heart would ICE. But preaching is not mere delivery of facts, but must be an affectionate pressing of truths to the hearts of the congregation. The truths we preach must first melt and shape our own hearts. Thus, one way I see God’s grace these past few months has been here: God moving and stirring my heart afresh.

If you are reading this, I would covet your continued prayers as I seek to faithfully “divide the text” each week at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville.