Bismarck Community Church Sermon Podcast · Jim Ellis

Remember My Chains | Colossians: Joy In the Mystery (Mar 15, 2026)

·30 min·3 clips

Paul ends his letter to the Colossians with 'Remember my chains,' revealing his imprisonment for the first time to the church.

The episode is a sermon from Bismarck Community Church, part of a series on the Book of Colossians. Host Pastor Jim begins with anecdotal reflections on receiving mail and personal anxiety, using a story about his child's constipation scare to illustrate how people forget God's steadfast love. He shares another personal example: a letter he wrote to himself six months earlier, which he had forgotten, highlighting how worries fade and God's work becomes evident over time. Jim transitions to the biblical text, noting this is the seventh week in Colossians and focusing on the final verse where Paul writes, 'I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.' He breaks this down into three points: grace, Paul's personal authorship, and the command to 'remember my chains.' Jim defines grace as 'God acting in our lives to do what we cannot do on our own,' framing Paul's letter as a 'grace sandwich' that starts and ends with grace. He emphasizes that this is the first explicit mention of Paul's imprisonment in the letter, explaining that Paul wants the Colossians to remember he is imprisoned for Jesus, which mirrors what Jesus has done for them. The sermon then delves into the list of 10 people Paul mentions in Colossians 4, with Jim briefly analyzing each name, such as Tychicus (the letter-bearer), Onesimus (a runaway slave), Mark (the reconciled gospel writer), and Luke (the only Gentile author in scripture). Jim connects this to the theme of remembering, arguing that if believers forget those who came before, they risk forgetting God. He concludes by tying the sermon to communion, reading accounts from Mark and Luke about Jesus instituting the Last Supper, and urging listeners to remember Christ's sacrifice through this meal. The episode ends with a prayer and invitation for elders to serve communion.

As heard by us

A steady sermon on memory, suffering, and living with Jesus' return in view.

This sermon stays with one small phrase in Colossians, "remember my chains," and lets it do several jobs at once: recalling Paul, facing hardship honestly, and keeping hold of the hope that Jesus will return, perhaps in our lifetime and perhaps not.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a sermon that turns one phrase into a whole way of living, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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