1. The Gospel is a Seed with Power

In the first chapter of Colossians, Paul describes the Gospel as "bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world". The Gospel is more than words or information that gives us orientation to God. The Gospel is like a powerful seed that grows into a mighty tree!

This growth is spiritual and it happens in our souls, shaped by God to be useful for His purposes.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   May 31, 2026   |   Colossians 1:1-14

2. Christ Jesus and Sin

Do you know what sin is? It isn't a little mistake or something minor, like going 60 in a 55 mile per hour zone. Sin is serious. It separates us from God. It angers God, and cues His wrath. So it should put us on our knees before God pleading, “have mercy on me a sinner!”

Without Jesus, there is no hope for this sin.

When all of the world began, everything was order. Sin comes in and creates chaos, everywhere. As the chaos of sin comes in and destroys the created order, Christ Jesus is still there holding all things together, containing the effects of sin so that we are not hopeless. In the end, He heals the chaos and restores order into His creation.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   June 7, 2026   |   Colossians 1:13-23

3. Mystery

 

 Doug Ellis    |   June 14, 2026   |   Colossians 1:24-29

4. Hearing Scripture in a World of Woo

Like Jesus' temptation in the desert, Satan is always whispering attractive lies to us, trying to seed us with ideas that could substitute for the truths of God, and cause us to head off in directions that are contrary to God's will. These lying woos sometimes sound plausible, sometimes we don't question them because everyone around us believes them to be true, and sometimes they could even sound holy. But they are lies.

God has given us truth in Scripture. How can we know this truth if we instead spend hours upon hours of time buried in the internet, but never gathering with others to explore and absorb the truths of Scripture? The greatest danger to Christians today is that we study the Internet instead of Scripture.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   July 5, 2026   |   Colossians 2:1-10

5. Gnostics and Judaizers

What would be left of your religion if you stripped away the music, the devotional readings, the Bibles, the buildings, the majestic worship experiences, the preaching, your Christian friends, the children's programs, etc.

Would you be alone in a desert, or would it be a simple time with just you and Jesus?

 

 Doug Ellis    |   July 12, 2026   |   Colossians 2:8-23

6. The Map of the Way Things Should Be

 

 Doug Ellis    |   July 19, 2026   |   Colossians 3:1-17

7. Marital Counseling

 

 Doug Ellis    |   July 26, 2026   |   Colossians 3:18-21

8. Slavery

 

 Doug Ellis    |   August 2, 2026   |   Colossians 3:22-4:1

9. Intercessory Prayer

 

 Doug Ellis    |   August 9, 2026   |   Colossians 4:2-4

10. The Effect of Salt

Colossians 4:5-6 is the type of passage that I might gloss over. Why? It feels as though it is just saying something that I already know. That is, "Talk with people outside of the church, and perhaps make sure that it involves evangelism." Yet if I pause and meditate on some of the phrases, what emerges is a not so simplistic.

Consider that every encounter that we have with someone is an opportunity for it to be meaningless and trivial, or an opportunity for it to be life-changing. That is the thrust of what Paul is writing about here. He is saying that this is a moment when a valuable encounter can happen, one that is filled with power and the potential to make a change in that person's life.

Yet, we tolerate such meaningless encounters over and over. And within the church? We also can tolerate week after week of meaningless encounter. It should not be so.

 

 Doug Ellis    |   August 16, 2026   |   Colossians 4:5-6