Shooting for the Center

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray preached from Colossians 2:1-15, walking through Paul's concern for the Colossian church and his warning against plausible arguments that pull believers away from Christ. The central image was a target and a spirit level: Christ hits the absolute center every time, and everything else is measured against that. To set up the passage, Pastor Ray introduced a four-direction picture of how...

Read together

1. Colossians 2:1-2 Paul's personal struggle and prayer for the hearts of believers in Colossi and Laodicea to be encouraged and knit together in love
2. Colossians 2:2-3 the mystery which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
3. Colossians 2:4 warning that no one may delude believers with plausible arguments
4. Colossians 2:5 Paul absent in body but present in spirit, rejoicing in their good order and firmness of faith
5. Colossians 2:6 just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him
6. Colossians 2:7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith
7. Colossians 2:8 warning to see to it that no one takes believers captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition and elemental spirits of the world
8. Colossians 2:9 in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily
9. Colossians 2:10 believers have been filled in Christ who is the head of all rule and authority
10. Colossians 2:11 circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh through the circumcision of Christ
11. Colossians 2:12 buried with Christ in baptism and raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God
12. Colossians 2:13 believers who were dead in trespasses made alive together with Christ
13. Colossians 2:14 the record of debt with its legal demands canceled and nailed to the cross
14. Colossians 2:15 God disarmed rulers and authorities and triumphed over them in Jesus
15. John 3:16 quoted by a child from memory as an example of scripture learned through Awana
16. 2 Corinthians 8:9 though Christ was rich yet for our sake he became poor that we by his poverty might become rich
17. Titus 2:11-12 the grace of God has appeared offering salvation and teaching believers to say no to ungodliness and to live godly lives
18. Micah 6:8 what the Lord requires: to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God

Talk about it

1. Pastor Ray described four directions a person can drift from the center of orthodox Christian faith: too naturalistic, too supernaturalistic, too dogmatic, or too experience-based. Which of those pulls do you find yourself most prone to, and why?
2. Paul tells the Colossians he is struggling and praying for people he has never even met, so that their hearts would be encouraged and knit together in love. What does that kind of concern for strangers look like in practice, and where do you see it happening around you?
3. Pastor Ray said that just as we received Christ by faith, we are to walk in him by that same faith, not by our own effort. How does that change the way you think about the hard days when following Christ feels like a lot of straining and pulling?
4. The sermon used the image of Steve guiding his legally blind daughter Eileen through a shot, talking her through her breathing and timing until she hits the target. In what ways has God, or another believer, walked you through something you could not have managed on your own?
5. Pastor Ray closed with Micah 6:8, to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and said that living this way is impossible without Christ. Where in your daily life right now do you most need to yield to him rather than trust your own aim?