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Announcer: This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us today. Here at Connect with Skip, we're passionate about helping you understand God's word and apply it to your everyday life through clear, practical Bible teaching. That's why we invite you to sign up for Pastor Skip's free weekly devotional. You'll receive biblical encouragement, ministry updates, and exclusive ministry content, all delivered right to your inbox. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free. Visit connectwithskip.com today. That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

Typical Paul in many of his letters says, "I'm praying for you guys." And then he says, "This is what I'm praying for you guys." So he says in verse 3, "We pray always for you." Now, when somebody tells me they're praying for me, I always want to know what they're praying for me for. "I've been praying for you." "Really? What?" And so to appease their curiosity, but more than that, to really inform them specifically what he's praying for, verses 9 through 14 are Paul's prayer.

"For this reason we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Okay, I want you to notice these terms because they're intentional. Look at the word "knowledge" in verse 9, the word "wisdom" also in verse 9, and then also the two words "spiritual understanding."

Remember I told you about the Colossian heresy and that mixture of Jewish legalism and asceticism and mysticism, which would become known as Gnosticism? These were keywords in their vocabulary. These were buzzwords. If you want real knowledge and true wisdom and real spiritual understanding, you have to follow this stuff.

That was the Colossian heresy. It became formalized by about the second century AD, called Gnosticism. Now, "gnostic" or "gnosis" is the Greek word for knowledge. You've heard of the word "agnostic." My brother claimed to be an agnostic. He was raised in faith, but then he declared to the family one day, "I am an agnostic."

An agnostic simply means "I don't know." There may be a God; there may not be a God. I'm not sure. I'm uncertain. An atheist says there is no God. An agnostic says, "Maybe, may not be. I'm going to live my life doing my deal. I'm agnostic. I don't know. I don't have the knowledge for sure."

A gnostic is the exact opposite of an agnostic. A gnostic says, "I know." And if you want to really know God, you have to practice this Jewish legalism and Greek mysticism and radical asceticism, all these things that I talked about of the Colossian heresy. They used these terms a lot. True spiritual knowledge, we'll give you the true path to God. Jesus is a good start, but He's not all you need. You need more.

That's why Paul wrote the letter, because they were saying you need more. So this is what they believed. This is what they said. Now, let me tell you, Gnosticism began with a legitimate philosophical question. Listen to the question and you'll say, "Well, it's legitimate because that's what people ask today." Here's the question: "How can a world so filled with evil have been created by a good God? How can a world that is evil be created by a good God?"

And so this belief system came into view, which said the material world is evil. And because the material world is evil, it could not have been created by God. So what happened is an emanation, a spiritual entity or being, went out from the true good God, and then another emanation, and another emanation, thousands of them, and eventually it was so far from that original good, powerful God that it was evil. And that entity created the evil universe. That's all part of this Gnosticism.

Moreover, they said Jesus was one of those emanations. He's not God; He's just an emanation. He's a good start; He's a stepping stone to get to have true knowledge and spiritual understanding and true wisdom. So that became known as Gnosticism. That is what Epaphras is bothered about. So he uses their terminology. "I'm praying for you that you'll be filled with the knowledge of His will." You'll know what God's will is for your life.

It's amazing how many people have gone to church their whole life and they have no idea what God's will is for their life. Paul says, "I want you to discover that." Now, the way you discover it is you seek it. You pursue it. You make that your pursuit. I want to find out what God has me here on earth to do. Paul says, "I'm praying that you'll have that knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding."

That you may have a walk worthy of the Lord—I'm not going to go through every nuance of this—fully pleasing Him. I would say these are synonymous ideas. When you are filled with the knowledge of God, of what God wants you to do, God's will for your life is, generally speaking, you're going to live a life that's pleasing to God. What is the purpose of life? What is the reason life exists?

In Revelation in heaven, the anthems of heaven by the angelic hosts are, "And for your pleasure all these things were created and exist." You were created to bring God pleasure, to please God. You were created to serve God. That's why you get so happy when you engage in pleasing God, serving God, doing His work, leading people to Christ, praying for other people. It brings joy.

You think, "Oh, I'll do some of that, but I'm going to pursue happiness." That's part of my legal right as an American, it's in my constitution: the pursuit of happiness. Listen, happiness is never found by direct pursuit. The more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do. If you really want pleasure and joy, don't seek after pleasure and joy. Seek after God, and all these things will be added to you.

It's not by direct pursuit; it's by pursuing God. Fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Of course, that's what you're doing. That's what Bible study is meant to do. You understand the word of God, you'll understand the will of God, you'll have the knowledge of God, etc. And I love verse 11: "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy."

Now, I happen to love that verse because notice the wording. Notice the three words in verse 11: "strengthened," "might," "power." Here's Paul saying, "I'm praying that you get those three in your life: strength, might, power." What that tells me, the fact that Paul is praying that for believers, it tells me I need all the help I can get. I need all the strength, all the might, all the power I can get.

Now, when he uses the word "strengthened" and "might," see those two words? They're very similar. They're the Greek word *dunamis*. You've heard of that word *dunamis*; it's "dynamite" or "dynamic." If you had a Greek New Testament—and I know some of you may actually have a Greek New Testament because some of us here do actually read the original languages—but you will notice that it says *dunamai dunamoumoi*, which would probably best be translated that you will have the dynamic of God's dynamite, that you will live with the dynamic of God's power.

So these two words are fused together: *dunamai dunamoumoi*. Have the dynamic of God's dynamite. I'm praying that you be strengthened with His power. I love that because I can't do any of this on my own power. I am so weak, and the quicker you come to that awareness of your weakness, the better off you'll be. That's where the strength begins, right?

That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12, that he prayed three times to have that thorn removed, and he goes, "I'm going to just rest in God, and it's His power, and He's going to carry me through." So strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power.

Now, why do you need all this power? Here's why: for patience and longsuffering with joy. I'll get to the "with joy." You need God's power and strength just to live a patient life, just to get longsuffering in your life, just to put up with the people you put up with and the things you put up with in society. It takes all of God's strength and power for this to happen: patience and longsuffering.

Any of you struggle with patience? Any of you pray for patience? Ever get impatient that you're not patient? "God, give me patience now!" It's a good prayer, but be advised when you pray for patience what's coming your way. Trials that require strength, might, and power. It's tribulation, Paul said, that works or develops patience.

And God knows what you need, and God knows how to dish it out and write the prescription at just the right time. So never ask, "How do I get out of this?" Always ask, "What do I get out of this?" Patience, longsuffering, but then he adds this: "with joy."

Announcer: You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Every day, friends like you help connect people around the world to the life-changing truth of God's word through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. Our world constantly tells us we need something more. But the book of Colossians reminds us that everything we truly need is found in Jesus Christ.

That's the heart of Pastor Skip's resource *Expound: Colossians*. As he walks verse-by-verse through this powerful New Testament book, you'll discover why Christ is supreme over all things, how to recognize truth in a world full of competing voices, and what it means to live each day firmly rooted in Him. We'll send *Expound: Colossians* as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let's return to today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig.

Skip Heitzig: Now, it's one thing to endure. "Okay, I have patience, I'm putting up with it." It's another thing to do it with joy. Somebody once said a little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a lot of faith will bring heaven to your soul. When you can endure with joy, man, that's like, okay, now you're passing the test. Now you're getting A-plus-plus. Endurance, patience, with joy. And Paul says, "I'm praying that for you."

But then quickly, as he winds this down, "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us"—get this, get this—"He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." This group, this group of heretics, this Colossian heresy, these neo-Gnostics were saying that you have to go through all of these practices and rituals in order to get perfect. Jesus is a good start.

What Paul underscores is God has qualified us. You don't get qualified; you're not on the way. You have enough in Christ. He has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, translated us into the kingdom—that's an instantaneous fact—the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

I hope you always close your prayers by thanksgiving. And you should always thank God for salvation, right? That's what he's doing. I'm thanking God for the salvation He's brought to us. That's what communion is all about. "Do this in remembrance of Me." Remember back so you can always give thanks for how you are saved, why you are saved, that you didn't do it, He did it for you. So you can give thanks, giving thanks to the Father for these things.

We always say gratitude is the attitude that sets the altitude for the Christian life. And Paul is a man filled with thanksgiving, so he does that here. Now, I thought we were going to go a little more than this, but we're going to dip into it. Verse 15 to 20 is the centerpiece, in my view, of the book. It's the very heart of it. It's the theological heart of it. It's the theological core of it.

It is verse 15 to 20, a two-stanza poem. Two stanzas in the original language. It translates a little differently into English, but there's two stanzas. It's a poem, so it probably was a statement of faith that was maybe written by Paul, adopted by the churches. It is believed that this is sort of their core statement of faith regarding the person, nature, and work of Jesus Christ.

So there are quotations or borrowed phrases from Genesis and Exodus and Psalms and Proverbs in verses 15 to 20. We're not going to note all those when they occur, but it is the very centerpiece, which centers on the person of Jesus Christ. Now, Paul says hi, greetings, you're citizens here and in Christ, I'm praying for you, this is what I'm praying for you for. Now I'm going to get to the heart: Christ.

You are holding in your hand a book that has a single message: Christ. Oh, I know, there's 66 books, different authors, different reasons they were written. But think about it. Genesis talks about creation, the fall, and then immediately in chapter 3, the very first prediction of the solution for the fall. God's going to send the seed of the woman. It's the first messianic prophecy.

Then you go through the Old Testament, you find the prophets announcing a deliverer's coming from the tribe of Judah, from the house of David, who will rule over the earth. The prophets add more flair and more prediction to it. Daniel certainly does. You come through that to the New Testament, you have four stories presenting Christ, four Gospels. Then you have the book of Acts, which tells you about the followers of Christ who developed communities in different parts of the world.

Then you have the epistles written by Paul and John and Peter, which talk about the practices of the church and the doctrines of the church and how they're to act. Then you have the book of Revelation, which shows you Jesus coming to fulfill all of those prophecies, coming to rule and reign. It's all about Him.

So the Bible, if you want to boil it down to its irreducible minimum, is about one person and two events. One person: Jesus Christ. Two events: first coming, second coming. First coming to deal with the issue of the problem of sin. Second coming to rule and reign with those who have been cleansed from their sin. And that is the message of the Bible. One person, two events. Paul makes a beeline to Christ, and rightfully so, because the Bible is about Christ.

You remember when Jesus rose from the dead and was walking with those two forlorn, discouraged disciples on the road to Emmaus from Jerusalem, and He's walking alongside of them? They don't know it's Him. And it says, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He began to explain to them in all of the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

And afterwards they said, "did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us along the way?" As Jesus revealed Himself in the Scripture and they could see how this point connects to that point connects to that point, it all made sense. Their hearts burned. And so he goes for it here.

I may be able to get through verse 15, and then we'll close and continue next time. Concerning Christ, concerning Jesus: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." Every cult has butchered that text. It is one of the hallmarks of non-Christian cults. They try to go under the name of "we're Christians," but they're not. Whether there's Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons, they always go to this text, wanting to show you that Jesus was created by God.

That God made Jesus, Jesus may have made other things, but He is the firstborn of creation. He's the first one ever created. So that's going to take some explanation. But I want to explain that one word: He is the image of the invisible God. The word is *eikon*, icon. He's the icon. He is the copy. He is the exact representation of God.

John chapter 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 18: "no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father"—or at the right hand or the place of intimacy with the Father—"He has revealed Him. He has manifested Him. He has brought Him forth."

I did this for the purpose of illustration. This is probably where we'll close. I know you can't tell from there, but I brought a big one instead of a small. This is a negative, a photographic negative. This is a four-by-five negative from a camera that I used to own, a four-by-five field or view camera. It used to be in plates that you would put in individually in the back of the camera, put a sheet over your head, you'd see everything upside down, focus, etc. And it's still being used today.

But this is a picture of a church I can see in New Mexico. When I first moved here, I was doing this kind of photography. Okay, when I clicked the shutter to make this image, the film had never seen light up to that point. But when I clicked the shutter, it made an image. It's called a latent image in photography. A latent image.

That is, it's an image, but it's invisible to the eye. And if you were to take the film out of the camera after I clicked the shutter and looked at it, it would be opaque. You wouldn't see an image, but it's there. It's a latent image. It's invisible and it has to be made visible. So how do you make something that's latent and invisible visible? You use chemical called a developer.

Now, I talk about this because I actually still do this to this day. I still have a little darkroom and I still do it by hand. So when you take, when you snap the shutter and it's invisible and you have this silver bromide on the emulsion of the image, when you put it in developer, it takes that which is invisible and makes it visible.

You put other chemicals in there to make it more permanent. But now I can hold it up to the light and I can see a perfect image. I see a cemetery with crosses and graves. I see the steeple of the church. I see the outline of the church. It was taken right up here in Cedarcrest along the road.

But invisible God, the developer was Jesus. So if you want to know what God is like, you look at Jesus. He is the icon of God. He is the visible image, icon, copy, exact representation of the invisible God. What Jesus said: "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."

This is very core to the rest of the book and it's very core to Christian theology. But we're out of time, so we're going to really get to the core and the idea. How is Jesus the firstborn if He created everything? How could God have created Him? What's up with that? And so we'll delve further into that, but it's a theological goldmine.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Now, here's how to pre-order an exciting resource from Pastor Skip that's coming next month. Have you ever wanted to understand the Bible better but felt overwhelmed by where to begin? In *Soaring Above It All*, Pastor Skip Heitzig guides you through the big picture of Scripture in short daily devotionals designed to help you better understand God's word. Pre-order your copy of *Soaring Above It All* today, wherever books are sold.

Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word with people around the world through clear, verse-by-verse Bible teaching. And this month, when you give $50 or more, we'll send you *Expound: Colossians* as our thanks. In this five-message study, Pastor Skip explores one of the Bible's clearest pictures of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and shows how being rooted in Him changes the way you live every day. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.