Prepare your heart for our Sunday Morning Gathering by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together.

You will find tangible suggestions for putting scripture to action in your personal life and in our corporate body, links to the songs we will sing, and lyrics for you to prepare for our corporate singing.

Critically Think

• Read Colossians 1:15-20.
• What contrasts or parallels do you notice between verses 15-17 and verses 18-20?
• What repeated words or phrases stand out, and what might their repetition suggest?
• According to verse 15, how is Christ described in relation to God and to creation?
• How many distinct realms or categories of created things are listed in verse 16?
• In verse 17, what two statements are made about Christ’s relationship to “all things"?
• According to verse 18, what two titles or roles does Christ hold in relation to the church and to resurrection? 
• In verse 20, what action does God carry out “through Him,” and what is the scope of that action? Compare with the wording in Philippians 2:10 as you formulate your answer.
• How does the purpose statement “so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” in verse  18 summarize the passage’s theme?

Prayerfully Meditate

• In what ways does Paul describe or portray Christ in this passage?
• What theological implications follow from the claim that “all things have been created through Him and for Him” in verse 16?
• In verse 17, what does it mean that Christ is “before all things"? 
• In what ways does this passage show that the meaning of Christmas cannot be separated from the cross? 
• How does this passage encourage a ‘high’ view of Christ during the Advent season and beyond?

Intentionally Act

• What practical steps could you take this Advent season to live more consciously “for Him”, rather than for yourself or for human approval?
• How can you use this passage to explain to a non-believer at Christmas time who Jesus really is and why His birth matters? 
• Looking ahead beyond Christmas, how can the vision of Christ in this passage shape your expectations for His second advent (return)?
• Click the links below to find the lyrics and recordings of the songs planned for our gathering this Sunday; learn the songs, study the lyrics and sing them with others.
• Pray for those leading our corporate gathering this week and for the Holy Spirit’s work as the Word of God is further explained and applied: Dawson Bryant: music; Terry Engling: elder prayer & scripture reading; Bret Capranica: teaching.

Songs for Sunday

Morning Gathering

• Hark! The Harold Angels Sing (sheetmusic)
• Angels We Have Heard on High (sheetmusic)
• Silent Night (sheetmusic)
• Come Behold the Wonderous Mystery (sheetmusic)
• Angels, From the Realms of Glory (sheetmusic)

Lyrics

Lyrics Morning Gathering - December 21, 2025 by Summit Woods Baptist Church