Sermons on Colossians 1:15-18

Colossians 1:15-18 Historical and Contextual Insights:

Experiencing the Power of the Mighty God (Elim International Church Wellington) provides historical context by discussing the Israelites' anticipation of a "Mighty God" during a time of oppression and slavery. The sermon explains that Isaiah's prophecy of a coming savior was a source of hope for the Israelites, who were living in dark times. This context helps to underscore the significance of Jesus' role as the fulfillment of that prophecy and the embodiment of divine might and deliverance.

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) provides historical context by discussing the commonality of creation stories across different religions, noting that Christianity uniquely presents God as existing above the waters rather than emerging from them. This distinction is used to highlight the uniqueness of the Christian creation narrative.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) provides substantial ancient Near Eastern cultural background about primogeniture (the law of the firstborn) as an unquestioned social structure in agrarian economies—double portions, land transmission, family stability—and traces how the biblical narrative repeatedly subverts firstborn assumptions (Cain/Abel, Noah’s sons, Ishmael/Isaac, Jacob/Esau, Joseph/Judah, David) so that Colossians’ use of "firstborn" would ring as a countercultural theological claim rather than an endorsement of elite privilege.

Redemption and Unity: God's Eternal Plan in Christ(Desiring God) situates Colossians/Ephesians within the larger sweep of Israel’s story and the early church’s context by noting how the "mystery" revealed in Christ—Gentiles becoming fellow-heirs and members of the same body as Israel—was only dimly hinted in the Old Testament (e.g., Jonah) but is made explicit in the church era; the preacher highlights the ancient expectation-shifts (from ethnic promises to corporate, Christ-centered inclusion) that make the claim that "all things are united in him" historically radical.

Christ's Supremacy: The Foundation of Creation and Church(Desiring God) offers a contextual observation about the Colossian readership and Pauline milieu: Paul expects that the head/body imagery is already familiar to the Colossians (he drops the image into argument without extended explanation), which suggests that the metaphor of head and body was an established ecclesial vocabulary in that first-century context and that Paul intends to correct particular abuses by appealing to a commonly understood image.

Christ's Supremacy: The Purpose and Power of Creation(Desiring God) situates Paul’s cataloging of “thrones…powers…rulers…authorities” within the real power structures facing the Colossians (including reference to the Roman emperor and imperial pretensions) and reads Paul’s list as deliberately comprehensive so that nothing—no imperial or spiritual authority—stands outside Christ’s creative and sovereign Lordship; the sermon thus uses the first‑century imperial context to underscore Paul's pastoral reassurance to Christians living under political and spiritual pressures.

The Supremacy and Majesty of Jesus Christ(Desiring God) marshals contextual and intertextual usage of “firstborn” in Hebrew poetic and royal traditions (e.g., Psalm 89’s usage where “firstborn” is an honorific making someone supreme among kings) to show how Jewish readers would understand “firstborn of all creation” as a title of rank/status rather than a claim that the Son is a creature; the sermon also draws on New Testament parallels (John, Hebrews, Philippians) to place Paul’s language within early Christian claims about the Son’s divine identity.

Trusting God: The Heart of Generous Stewardship(Phoenix Bible Church) provides brief historically-anchored explanation of “firstborn” and agrarian practices to illumine Colossians 1:15–18 and related stewardship texts: the preacher explains the first-century Jewish/cultural significance of “firstborn” (not merely birth order but primacy of status, authority, inheritance—“first and best”), and he situates tithe/first-fruits language in an agrarian world (explaining tithes as 10% of crops/cattle and “first fruits” as the earliest, best portion of a harvest), using those cultural windows to argue that Paul’s cosmic claims about Christ’s primacy were intelligible to his original audience and directly parallel the biblical commands about giving the “first and best.”

Colossians 1:15-18 Illustrations from Secular Sources:

Experiencing the Power of the Mighty God (Elim International Church Wellington) uses a personal anecdote about the speaker's husband stepping on a nail to illustrate the concept of divine help and protection. The story serves as a metaphor for how believers might perceive crises differently when they trust in the "Mighty God" to safeguard them, emphasizing the practical application of Jesus' power in everyday situations.

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) uses the example of a tour through an atomic laboratory to illustrate the concept of Jesus holding all things together. The guide's inability to explain what holds matter together is contrasted with the Christian belief that Jesus is the sustaining force of the universe.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) uses multiple concrete secular/real-life illustrations to make the Colossians text practical: a personal anecdote of standing in a cemetery to meditate on the brevity and character-focus of life, a detailed HR vignette about a colleague named Grace who spoke truth with brutal fairness (showing how fairness looks in institutional life), specific family-workplace scenarios of favoritism damaging relationships, and a vivid encounter at a coffee shop imagining how one would want strangers to treat one’s own child—each illustration functions to translate the theological claim about Christ’s use of privilege into concrete calls to equitable behavior.

Redemption and Unity: God's Eternal Plan in Christ(Desiring God) peppers his theological exposition with cultural and secular contrasts to clarify "riches" and temporal discipleship: he names contemporary prosperity-Gospel expectations (the image of driving a BMW or owning multiple houses) to critique timing and stewardship, recommends a "wartime lifestyle" simplicity for kingdom purposes (contrasting consumer priorities), offers domestic/tech examples (computer/tablet costing thousands) to illustrate modern excess, and uses light-hearted national/cultural jokes (Swedish emotional stereotypes) and family metaphors (prodigal children wanting inheritances early) to make the cosmic claims about inheritance, riches, and future reign emotionally relatable.

Christ's Supremacy: The Foundation of Creation and Church(Desiring God) relies on vivid metaphors drawn from ordinary life to illuminate theological points: the watch/watchmaker analogy (distinguishing creaturely dependence that would result in cessation if the maker stopped willing from Christ’s continuous upholding), a physiological inventory (arms, hands, hair, lungs existing by his will millisecond by millisecond) to dramatize dependence, and a bodily/balloon metaphor (rejecting a simplistic “big balloon” picture) to explain how the church as Christ’s body fills and expresses him across the created order.

Embracing Fearless Generosity: Reflecting God's Love(Mosaic Church) uses multiple vivid secular and personal illustrations to make Colossians practical: the preacher references the film‑style rescue at “Haxor Ridge” (Hacksaw Ridge) as an image of “give me strength for one more” to press sacrificial courage; a detailed anecdote about leaving a $20 bill at a late‑night diner called Friendlies (a personal encounter where the waitress later recognized the giver and said the gift transformed her year) is used to show how even small generosity can have long, tangible effects; the pastor tells a long personal narrative about moving to Monterey, a $3,500 transmission that reinstated debt, and an anonymous $3,500 gift from a waiter that eliminated their debt—this story is used to show how unexpected generosity can reconfigure life trajectories and the ecology of ministry; he employs a “hotel room renovation” thought experiment (spending lavishly to change a temporary room versus investing for eternity) and an entrepreneurial example imagining investing early in Amazon to illustrate kingdom investment logic—these concrete secular/business and everyday stories are used repeatedly to translate the cosmic claims about Christ’s lordship into the daily practice of giving and stewardship.

Trusting God: The Heart of Generous Stewardship(Phoenix Bible Church) uses several concrete secular and cultural illustrations to bring Colossians 1:15–18 into everyday life: the preacher opens with travel to Germany and teaching idioms (e.g., “cart before the horse,” “couch potato,” “under the weather”) and then uses the idiom “putting the cart before the horse” at length as a vivid image for ordering God after possessions—explaining how the idiom’s ordinary meaning (doing things in reverse order) parallels placing material priorities above Christ; he tells a personal anecdote about analyzing his family’s bank account (excessive Chick-fil-A purchases) to show how habits reveal what we put first, uses a dinner/plate-with-spouse analogy (cutting the best portion and offering it to one’s wife) to illustrate sacrificial first-fruits giving, references the cultural figure Tim Tebow in connection with the popularization of John 3:16 (Tebow’s eye-black) as an example of how the gospel’s generosity-language has public resonance, and closes with a detailed beach/sunset story—including natural facts about the ocean (covers 70% of planet, home to more than 90% of life, only 5% explored) and a childlike question (“why does the ocean stop here?”)—to portray trust in God’s design: trusting God with the visible cosmos (land, sea, sun) but hesitating to trust him with money and possessions, thereby concretizing the sermon's claim that Colossians’ proclamation of Christ’s supremacy should re-order practical trust in daily financial decisions.

Colossians 1:15-18 Cross-References in the Bible:

Experiencing the Power of the Mighty God (Elim International Church Wellington) references the story of Daniel in the lion's den to illustrate the theme of divine protection and trust in God's power. The sermon uses this story to highlight how Daniel's faith in God safeguarded him from harm, drawing a parallel to the protection believers can expect from Jesus as the "Mighty God." Additionally, the sermon references Job 11:18 to emphasize the security and hope found in trusting God's might.

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) references John 1:1-3 to support the idea that Jesus was present at creation and that all things were made through Him. The sermon also cites Hebrews 1:3 to emphasize that Jesus is the express image of God's person. Additionally, Matthew 19:4 is used to affirm Jesus' belief in a literal six-day creation, contrasting it with evolutionary theory.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) connects Colossians 1:15-18 to a string of Old Testament narratives (Genesis: Cain and Abel; Noah’s sons; Abraham/Isaac; Jacob/Esau; Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim over Manasseh; Judah as the line through which blessing flows; Samuel’s anointing of David) to show a persistent biblical pattern of God overturning human expectations about firstborn rights, and he cites Hebrews (the phrase “church of the firstborn”) to tie the New Testament picture of belonging to Jesus back into the theme of reversed human hierarchies.

Redemption and Unity: God's Eternal Plan in Christ(Desiring God) marshals a dense cluster of biblical cross-references to support the reading of Colossians as cosmic summation: Ephesians 1–3 (same long-sentence structures about predestination, riches of grace, and the mystery of Gentile inclusion), 1 Corinthians 3:21 (all things are yours, you are Christ’s), Romans 2 (salvation from the Jews), Revelation 3:21 (the one who conquers will sit with Christ on his throne, used to illustrate shared rule), Numbers 14:21 (Old Testament oath, “the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD”), and numerous Pauline motifs (head/body language and the firstfruits/firstborn-of-resurrection theme) to show how Colossians fits a canonical vision of Christ as the summing center of history and the church as participating in his reign.

Christ's Supremacy: The Foundation of Creation and Church(Desiring God) explicitly cross-references Hebrews 1:3 (Christ upholds the universe by the word of his power) to explicate "in him all things hold together," cites Colossians 2:19 and Colossians 3:15 to unpack implications of headship for the body (nourishment, unity, peace reigning in hearts), and ties back to Colossians 1:13 (transfer from darkness to the kingdom of the Son) to show how Christ’s majestic attributes in vv.15–18 underpin believers’ security and worship.

Christ's Supremacy: The Purpose and Power of Creation(Desiring God) repeatedly cites John 1:1–3 to show the same logic—“in the beginning was the Word…all things were made through him”—and brings Hebrews 1 (God has spoken by a Son through whom he created the world) and Romans 11:36 (“from him and through him and to him are all things”) into the exegesis to demonstrate Paul’s wider canonical pattern that the Son is both agent and goal of creation; these cross‑references are used to argue that “through him” and “for him” point to divine agency and purpose, not creaturely status.

The Supremacy and Majesty of Jesus Christ(Desiring God) brings John 1:18 and John 14:9 (e.g., “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”) to bear on “image of the invisible God,” quotes Philippians 2:6‑7 to show both deity and incarnation (“though he was in the form of God…he emptied himself”), and points to Colossians 2:9 (“in him dwells the fullness of deity bodily”) as immediate Pauline corroboration that Paul means Christ is fully God; Psalm 89 (Hebrew Scripture) is used to illustrate how “firstborn” can mean primacy and royal status.

Embracing Fearless Generosity: Reflecting God's Love(Mosaic Church) deploys a cluster of passages to ground practical application: Colossians 1:15–18 is the theological basis; Malachi 3:6–12 is cited as the Old Testament context for bringing “tithe” and the call to return one’s “first and best”; Matthew 6 (Sermon on the Mount) is used to expound Jesus’ logic that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” and to explain why giving forms the heart; Philippians is appealed to for Paul’s language of “partnership in the gospel” to show how financial gifts include givers in missionary work; Hebrews 10–11 and Galatians 5:1 are also invoked to frame faithfulness, perseverance, and freedom as the pastoral context in which giving belongs.

Trusting God: The Heart of Generous Stewardship(Phoenix Bible Church) weaves a network of biblical cross-references to support and expand Colossians 1:15–18: Genesis 1:1 and John 1 (the sermon cites “In the beginning” parallels to underline Christ’s preexistence and role in creation), Isaiah 44:6 (“I am the first and the last… Apart from me there is no God”) to underscore divine uniqueness and supremacy, Psalm 97:9 to stress God’s exaltation “far above all gods,” and Psalm 16 to point to “fullness of joy… pleasures forevermore” as eschatological assurance tied to Christ’s lordship; in argument about God’s initiating love the preacher cites 1 John 4:19 and 1 John 4:10 to show God loved first and gave his Son, John 3:16 and Romans 8:32 to demonstrate that God gives his “one and only Son” and will graciously give believers all things, and Ephesians 1:3 and James (unnamed verse about “every good and perfect gift”) to clarify that God’s best are spiritual, eternal blessings rather than primarily material goods; in the stewardship application he references Proverbs 3:9 and Malachi 3:10 to ground the “first fruits/tithe” motif and 2 Corinthians 9:6–7 to bring in the New Testament’s farming imagery about sowing and cheerful giving, while Matthew 6:33 is appealed to for the trust-dimension (seek the kingdom first and “all these things will be added”), all of which the sermon uses to move from Colossians’ cosmic christology to a practiced ethic of trusting, first-fruits generosity.

Colossians 1:15-18 Christian References outside the Bible:

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) references C.S. Lewis, quoting him on the importance of preparing for doubt as part of faith. The sermon also mentions Sean McDowell's journey of deconstruction and return to faith, using it as an example of how doubt can lead to a deeper understanding of Christianity.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) briefly invokes "the guys in the Bible Project" as a supportive resource in discussing the subversive trajectory of the firstborn motif across Scripture; the preacher uses their accessible narrative work as an interpretive ally to underline how the biblical storyline repeatedly overturns human expectations about primogeniture (the reference is appreciative and treated as reinforcement rather than as primary exegesis).

Embracing Fearless Generosity: Reflecting God's Love(Mosaic Church) explicitly cites A. W. Tozer (The Pursuit of God, chapter two, “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing”) and summarizes his contention—quoted and paraphrased—that “whatever we possess possesses us”; the sermon uses Tozer’s aphorism to bolster the pastoral claim that material possession can become an idol and that radical, open‑handed giving is a spiritual means to be freed from being possessed by possessions.

Colossians 1:15-18 Interpretation:

Experiencing the Power of the Mighty God (Elim International Church Wellington) interprets Colossians 1:15-18 by emphasizing the supremacy and might of Jesus as the "Mighty God." The sermon highlights that Jesus is not just a historical figure but an active, powerful presence in believers' lives today. The speaker uses the analogy of a "mighty God" who safeguards and provides hope, drawing parallels to biblical figures like Daniel to illustrate how Jesus' power is evident in overcoming life's challenges. The sermon does not delve into the original Greek text but focuses on the practical application of Jesus' supremacy in daily life.

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) interprets Colossians 1:15-18 by emphasizing the preeminence of Christ in all things. The sermon highlights that the term "firstborn" in this context refers to status rather than time, indicating Christ's supreme rank over creation. The preacher uses the analogy of Solomon being called the firstborn in Psalm 89:27 to illustrate that "firstborn" signifies importance rather than birth order. The sermon also discusses the Greek term "eikon" (image) to explain that Christ is the exact representation of God, reinforcing the idea that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) interprets Colossians 1:15-18 through the social-ethical lens of primogeniture and favoritism, reading "the firstborn" not as a claim to self-exalting privilege but as a Christological inversion in which the one who is first uses his status to serve the marginalized; the preacher emphasizes that Jesus, though "firstborn," pours himself out for "the least of these," dies a humiliating death, and thereby recasts the firstborn motif as a model for Christians to refuse favoritism and exercise fairness toward the poor, overlooked, and abused rather than using power to elevate some and slight others.

Redemption and Unity: God's Eternal Plan in Christ(Desiring God) interprets Colossians 1:15-18 (and parallel Eph 1 material) as a cosmic summation: Christ is presented as the intelligible "sum" or telos of all history and creation, the one in whom "all things are united/summed up," so that creation, redemption, and eschatological rule all point to him as the end and meaning of everything; the preacher develops this by close syntactic and semantic attention to the Greek (treating the long sentences in Ephesians/Colossians as a single, intricate plan) and by arguing that Christ’s preeminence (Creator, sustainer, head of the church, firstfruits of the resurrection) answers the question “what does it all add up to?”

Christ's Supremacy: The Foundation of Creation and Church(Desiring God) gives a careful exegetical reading of Colossians 1:15-18 that stresses three complementary facets: (1) ontological: Christ is fully God (the image of the invisible God); (2) cosmological: as the Creator He is "before all things" and "in him all things hold together" (upholding moment-by-moment what he made); and (3) ecclesiological/eschatological: his headship over the church and his status as "firstborn from the dead" inaugurate the new creation, so his resurrection inaugurates the preeminence that the whole passage is driving toward.

Christ's Supremacy: The Purpose and Power of Creation(Desiring God) reads Colossians 1:15–18 as a sweeping christological statement: Paul insists that everything (every visible and invisible thing, including the hostile "thrones…powers…rulers…authorities") was made by, through, and for the Son, so the sermon emphasizes the triadic authorship (Father creating through the Son) and stresses that "for him" signals the purpose of creation—to display Christ’s preeminence; the preacher develops a sustained analogy that creation functions like a theater or proclamation platform whose purpose is to show Christ’s greatness so that creatures (especially humans) might rightly know, love, enjoy, and thereby glorify him, and he also treats “in him all things hold together” as a present sustaining reality rather than merely a past creative act, tying the whole passage into a single portrait of Christ as agent, goal, and sustainer of creation.

The Supremacy and Majesty of Jesus Christ(Desiring God) gives a careful exegetical defense of full Christ‑deity in the verse cluster: it argues that "firstborn of all creation" is not ontological subordination but an honorific/status title (with four pointed exegetical reasons), treats "image of the invisible God" as making the unseen God visible in the incarnate Son, and uses linguistic/grammatical analogies (the genitive (“of”) can mean government/over‑ness, like “coach of the team”) plus intertextual proof (Colossians 2:9, Philippians) to insist Paul intends Christ as distinct from and above creation rather than as a created being.

Embracing Fearless Generosity: Reflecting God's Love(Mosaic Church) interprets Colossians 1:15–18 as the theological foundation for Christian generosity and stewardship: the preacher reads the passage’s claims that Christ is Creator, preeminent, and the One who holds all things together to mean (1) God is self‑existent and sustains our existence, (2) because he is preeminent he loves and goes first, and therefore believers are called to imitate that priority by giving their “first and best”; the sermon treats the passage not merely as doctrinal truth but as a practical motive that protects hearts from money‑idolatry and grounds the tithe/generosity ethic.

Trusting God: The Heart of Generous Stewardship(Phoenix Bible Church) reads Colossians 1:15–18 as a declaration of Christ’s preeminence and then applies that preeminence directly to the logic of stewardship: the sermon emphasizes “preeminent” as meaning both first in order and best in worth (drawing on the passage’s repeated language “firstborn,” “before all things,” “the beginning”), argues that Christ is the lens by which all priorities must be ordered (he is “the paper you’re writing on”), and uses the idiom “cart before the horse” to interpret the passage’s practical implication—if Christ is not first and best in a believer’s life, everything else will be “out of whack”; the preacher does not delve into Greek lexical exegesis or offer novel philological minutiae but gives a thematic, pastoral reading that moves from Colossians’ cosmic Christology (creator, sustainer, head of the church) to a concrete ethic: because Christ is first and gives first, believers should give their first and best in response.

Colossians 1:15-18 Theological Themes:

Experiencing the Power of the Mighty God (Elim International Church Wellington) presents the theme of Jesus as the "Mighty God" who actively works in believers' lives, offering protection, hope, and power. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus' might is not just a theological concept but a practical reality that believers can rely on in times of crisis. This theme is distinct in its focus on the active, ongoing role of Jesus' power in the believer's life, contrasting with a more passive understanding of Jesus' supremacy.

Navigating Faith: Embracing Doubt and Seeking Truth (Grace Bible Church) presents the theme of the gospel as a comprehensive narrative that spans from Genesis to Revelation, rather than being limited to the message of salvation alone. This broader understanding of the gospel as the entire story of God's redemptive work is proposed as a way to strengthen faith and reduce doubt.

The sermon also introduces the concept of the Trinity's involvement in creation, describing it as a "Trinity of Trinities" with time, space, and matter each having three components. This is used to illustrate the Trinitarian nature of God and His work in creation, providing a unique perspective on the interconnectedness of the universe and the divine.

Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility(Become New) emphasizes a theological theme of divine anti-favoritism: God deliberately subverts human systems of inherited privilege (the law of the firstborn) throughout Scripture, and Colossians’ "firstborn" terminology shows that Christ’s lordship is exercised in self-giving service rather than self-seeking dominance, calling the church to an ethic of equality and protective concern for the marginalized as a theological imitation of Christ’s use of power.

Redemption and Unity: God's Eternal Plan in Christ(Desiring God) develops the distinct theological theme that God’s plan is "Plan A" from eternity — the fall, the presence of sinners, the death of Christ, and the redemption of the elect were foreseen and constituted parts of a single purposeful plan — so Colossians’ language about Christ as Creator and preeminent head must be read alongside predestination and the cosmic scope of redemption, yielding the variant theme that Christ is both the architect and the telos of a divinely intended, universe-wide unity.

Christ's Supremacy: The Foundation of Creation and Church(Desiring God) surfaces the theological motif of continuous dependence (not merely initial creation): Christ does not merely make the world but sustains it "millisecond by millisecond," and his headship over the church and his being "firstborn from the dead" together constitute the theological claim that Christ’s preeminence now anchors believers’ security and satisfaction in the new-creation reality.

Christ's Supremacy: The Purpose and Power of Creation(Desiring God) frames a theological nuance that is less often emphasized: creation’s telos is doxological disclosure of Christ’s preeminence—God made everything “for him” so that creatures may know, treasure, and enjoy the Son, and the preacher adds the paradoxical claim that our enjoyment of Christ is itself his glorification (so “for him” and “for us” are both true without contradiction).

The Supremacy and Majesty of Jesus Christ(Desiring God) develops a distinct linguistic‑theological theme: the title “firstborn” functions in Paul’s usage as a status marker (first in rank) rather than a temporal/ontological marker, and that grammatical observation (including the flexibility of the Greek genitive) becomes theological proof of Christ’s sovereignty and deity against readings that treat him as creature.

Embracing Fearless Generosity: Reflecting God's Love(Mosaic Church) advances a fresh pastoral theology connecting Christ’s cosmic preeminence to Christian stewardship: because Christ is Creator‑Sustainer (preeminent), he “goes first” and gives first, and believers imitate that divine initiative by giving firstfruits—this theme reframes tithing/giving not as divine need but as discipleship formation (protecting the heart from idolatry) and as a way to participate in kingdom transformation (giving includes you in works you could never do alone).

Trusting God: The Heart of Generous Stewardship(Phoenix Bible Church) foregrounds a theological rhythm that the sermon treats as distinctive: God’s ontological preeminence (Christ as first and best) grounds God’s prior, initiating love (God “gives first”), and that prior giving constitutes the basis for a Christian ethic of first-fruits stewardship; the preacher frames stewardship not as an external duty or a program of behavioral change but as an identity-flow—from gospel identity (God has acted first) to joyful reciprocal action (we give our first and best), and explicitly contrasts that spiritual rhythm with both legalistic tithing and the prosperity gospel, insisting that “God gives his best” in spiritual/eternal blessings rather than material wealth and that Christian giving should be cheerful, trust-based, and rooted in knowing who God is.