Look at the very next verse: Colossians 3:21 “Fathers, do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged.” So what has happened here? Here God in His Word gives us all these things to do, which we say we are not keeping, and yet then He goes and says, “Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.” So, is God giving us commands and violating His own Word by giving us things we can’t keep? Or, has He given us means by which we can actually keep these commands? (View Colossians 3:21)

What we are going to be talking about is what it is to abide in Christ and walk in the Spirit, so that we can keep those very commands. We will know that if we do not keep them, it will be by our choice, not because God has not given us the means by which, and we are empowered to keep these commands.

Now, I am kind of a different guy. When I read books (not novels, but I read books for information), I read the last chapter first because I want to know: What is the author getting at? What is his point, what is his conclusion and summary? Then, as I go through the rest of the book, I look at those assumptions and hypothesis and see if it makes sense since I know where he is heading. So I want to do that right now with what we are going to be doing in these sessions.

This is often what we go through for a sermon/message, and the path of “what” of the message is usually something like: Be good and righteous. Do not be bad and sinful, right? It may come out in love each other, love each other as Christ loved the church, etc., but that in effect is what it is. Well then we want to know, how? The essence of these sessions is going to be the how of how to be good and righteous, (not be bad and sinful) is that we repent of our sin, which cleanses the temple. We surrender to the Father and His will, we abide in the Son, and therefore we are filled with the Spirit, and we have to believe that all of these things are possible and essential in order to do the what? The only way that we can be good and righteous; and not bad and sinful is through this. This is the end of the course right now that I an telling you about.