This session has not been translated into your language yet, so it is shown in English.

How to Get the Life You Want

1. READ

   Colossians 1-4

2. CONNECT

   10min
   Paul wrote his letter to the church in Colossae to counteract false teachers who were mixing Christianity with other practices ranging from Greek philosophy to a misuse of Jewish traditions and even the veneration of spiritual beings. These heresies might sound unrelated to your life, but in this study, we’ll see how Paul revealed the desires behind practices and showed us how God invites us to satisfy the longings of our hearts.

3. Reflection

   • If you could have any “superpower,” what would you want?
   • What might this choice reveal about what you value or want out of life?

4. WATCH

   20min

5. DISCUSS

   15min
   1. What is something you want to remember from the video?
   2. Why did Paul denounce asceticism?
   3. What are some of the effects of regeneration discussed in the video?
   4. Explain what this statement means: “The spiritual or heavenly matters Paul had in mind still require our participation in the world.”

6. APPLY

   15min
   The Colossians longed for wisdom, power, and freedom from sin. Those desires aren’t bad. Christ offers all of that and more. The problem was that the Colossians were looking for those things somewhere other than in Christ and, as a result, they ended up not free, but enslaved. Author Andy Crouch says this is what always happens when we use created things to pursue a rich, full life: “Idols promise freedom and deliver slavery, offer authority and deliver vulnerability, whisper fantasies of power but end up with us completely in their grip.”

   1. Crouch writes, “Every idol is an attempt to gain an edge on the world and to have some leverage over chaos.”
      • Identify three things that the community or culture around you uses to gain an edge on the world or have some leverage over chaos.
   2. Read Colossians 3:5-9 and 12-16.
      • In what ways do the things you mentioned foster the old nature described in verses 5-9?
      • In what ways do they foster the new one (verses 12-16)?
      • What does this make you think?

7. CHALLENGE

   What is one thing you want to remember from this study? Let Colossians 1:9-14 guide your time of prayer.

   And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.