Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

The original post was incorrect. This is the corrected version. From 1934 to 1937 what became known as the Dust Bowl devastated a 150,000-square-mile area, encompassing the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Well, the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been without rain for 3 ½ years. Today life would return to the land through the heavy rains that God would bring through the voice of His prophet; however, Ahab and Elijah have much different responses to the rains returning.

We have always been fascinated with epic battles and showdowns. We usually mark such places with historical markers. For example, the Battle of Little Big Horn, Gettysburg, etc. In that same vein on the southeastern peak of Mount Carmel, there is a dramatic stone statue of the prophet Elijah with his sword raised to heaven as he slaughters a priest of Baal. The site is now known as Muhraka which means “the place of burning”. In this sermon, we take a close look at this epic showdown.

How can we trust the Lord when we can SEE no reason to do so?

God often takes people from obscurity and gives them a prominent task. Chances are good you are dumb enough, stubborn enough, and weak enough to be greatly used by God because God likes to take nobodies and turn them into somebodies. Even if we are used by God, we have seasons of spiritual drought. How should we respond when we see a brook we have depended upon drying up a little more each day? What is God trying to tell us when He allows our brooks to dry up?

The Book of Colossians ends with Paul expressing his gratitude for each member of his ministry team. Just as there is no "I" in "team", there is no "I" in "church". All church ministry is dependent upon the assistance of other team ministry members.

The relationship between prayer and evangelism plus how we gain the credibility to speak to others about the gospel.

In this text, we examine our attitude toward work and the workplace whether we are employers or employees. Just as our relationship with Christ transforms our families so too should our workplace be impacted.

In this text, Paul turns his attention to husbands and cautions them not to be harsh with their wives. The ancient world emphasized a husband's rights but the Bible emphasizes a husband's responsibility. For all the criticism leveled against Christianity's view of husband/wife relationships today in the first century, it was on the cutting edge.

Paul tells the wives to submit to their husbands in Colossians 3:18. What does he have in mind exactly? Is the husband supposed to make all the family decisions? What if a husband tells his wife to do something she considers unwise or unhealthy? What if a husband demeans his wife. Is a wife required to submit to a husband like that? In today's sermon, we discuss what Paul does and does not mean.

The church in Colossae had people around them suggesting that their place in God’s family was not secure. Paul counters this teaching by assuring this church that their identity and connection to God through Christ is rock solid…not only are they really children of God, but they are also planned for children. Furthermore, because of who they are they can act in certain ways...all they have to do is believe it.

Are people like Frosted Mini-Wheats? You know the cereal where one side of the mini-wheat is frosted with sugar and the other side is plain. Are you composed of two natures? Do you have a sweet side that wants to honor God and an unsweet side that wants to rebel against God? When I became a Christian did God add a new nature alongside my old nature thereby giving me two natures or did He get rid of the old nature when He gave me the new nature?

In what sense is our life now hidden in Christ? What does it mean that I died and Jesus is my life? These are the questions Paul answers in this text.

As Americans, we will fight for liberty over tyranny in almost every area of life save one - our Christian Liberty. In some misguided notion of “going along to get along,” we often allow legalists to infiltrate our churches and take them over. Whenever that happens the freedom we have in Christ is soon crushed. Someone has said, "Misery loves company" and that is the legalists' official motto. All legalists share two traits in common: They like to be in control. They like to make comparisons. And the way the legalist gets to be in control is by getting others involved in their game of making comparisons. Now typically when I preach on this topic of legalism I recite all of the absurdities by legalistic types that have been suggested as signs of true spirituality over the ages but there’s really no need for me to go into all that for we all know the sorts of things that have been long debated amongst Christians, particularly in more modern times…things like should Christians be teetotalers o

The heretics in Colosse spoke of hidden spiritual treasures which could only be revealed by deciphering cryptic codes, learning secret phrases, and undergoing elaborate rituals. This intrigued and appealed to some just like the serpent’s suggestion that God was hiding something from them intrigued and appealed to Adam and Eve. We have a certain curiosity about secrets and our pride is often seduced by the thought of becoming members of a secret society. We tend to like the feeling of knowing more than others and so the suggestion that there was more to know…that there were secrets hidden from the average person not only intrigued but tempted many to go off course. This is what Paul addresses today.

Some Christians have a dyslexic interpretation of one of Jesus’ final statements on the cross because they behave as if He didn’t say, “It is finished!”, but rather as though He had asked, “Is it finished?” Now the distinction could not be greater. You will live your life one way if you still wonder if it’s finished and you will live your life quite differently if you know beyond any doubt it is finished. Some in Colossae were being taken captive by philosophies that claimed nothing was finished in Christ and He was only part of a greater process. Jesus in their view was not the main thing that mattered in your spiritual development and life He was only one thing in a series of things that mattered. In this epistle, Paul will demonstrate that theological errors such as misunderstanding the sufficiency of Christ inevitably result in practical errors such as your trying to do more because Christ was somehow insufficient.

Any kind of deception has real consequences but spiritual consequences that can last for all of eternity. Paul’s concern today is that the church at Colossae avoids being taken captive by false human tradition-based philosophies.

The word "reconcile" is one of five keywords used in the New Testament to describe what happens at the time of salvation. The others are "justification, redemption, forgiveness, and adoption." Reconciliation is a relationship term. It brings to mind enemies who set aside their differences and become friends instead. The passage we study today, from verse 21 on through the end of the chapter, is a tremendous description of the process of the transformation that reconciles us to God and then motivates us to become reconcilers ourselves.

Imagine being the only disciple who did not get to see the risen Lord Jesus on Easter. While the other disciples are overjoyed and waxing eloquent about having spent time with Jesus you have no such point of reference. To him, Jesus is still crucified and buried. That disciple who missed out refuses to believe it unless he sees Jesus for himself. It's easy to believe what we see; however, Jesus pronounced a blessing on those who would believe without seeing.