Community Bible Church Manchester Michigan Podcast

04-26-2026 Blank Outline

04-26-2026 Filled in Outline

Colossians 4:12-18

Thank you for your singing. One of the ways we do that here at Community Bible Church is by supporting missionaries and we have 14 missionaries that we support financially and they’re spread all over the world and they’re helping us send the light not only here in Manchester but where they serve. So, thank you for faithfully praying for them and supporting them and one of the great ways to connect with missionaries is to get to know them personally.

So, I trust you’ll be here next Sunday and get to know David and Susan Swatsky. All right, we’ve been looking at the book of Colossians and we’re going to finish up Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae this morning. So, I want to read the closing verses here.

This is 12 through 18. You can follow along as I read the closing verses that Paul wrote. Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings.

He’s always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. Our dear friend Luke the doctor and Demas send greetings.

Give my greetings to the brothers in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. After this letter has been read to you, see to it that is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea. Tell Archippus, see to it that you complete the ministry you’ve received in the Lord.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

Well, Colossians chapter 4, we’re looking at verses 12 through 18. Now, the subtitle in my Bible simply says final greetings. So, it’s the Apostle Paul, and he’s finishing this letter that he wrote to the church at Colossae because Epaphras, the pastor, traveled 1,200 miles to visit Paul, the Apostle Paul who’s under house arrest in Rome.

And what motivated that visit was that there was some false doctrine, false teaching going on in the church. And Epaphras wants to talk to the Apostle Paul. And so, Paul, who had never been to Colossae, writes this letter to correct doctrinal error and to encourage the believers there.

And so, I think Paul, the Apostle Paul, was probably an outgoing people person. I don’t know that for sure. If you read the book of Romans, there’s this long list of names that he lists as sending greetings.

And so, this morning, we’re going to look at 10 names that are found in the text here. And just some of them you might be familiar with. Some of them, this is the only time they’re mentioned in scripture, and we don’t know hardly anything about them.

But then I want to look at four principles that we can learn from this text here this morning. And so, we can dive into these names. I recall about 40 years ago, probably about 40 years ago, I was starting our previous ministry and was meeting the folks there.

And I remember a young lady came up to me and introduced herself and said, well, I’m going to be your part-time secretary. And so that’s great. And what’s your name? And she said, my name is Phoebe.

And I said, oh, I’ve never heard that name before, Phoebe. And her response to me was, well, have you ever read the book of Romans? And in Romans chapter 16, verse 1, Paul’s sending greetings to Phoebe. Like, oh, I guess I have heard that name before.

Well, there’s some very unusual names here, and we’re going to briefly look at them this morning. So, we’ll run through these names rather quickly, and then we’ll get to the four principles that we want to think about. So, here’s Paul, final greetings.

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. This is verse 7. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister, a fellow servant in the Lord. I’m sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.

So, here’s a fellow by the name of Tychicus. He’s actually mentioned five times in the New Testament. The first time he’s mentioned is in Acts chapter 20, verse 4. He accompanied the apostle Paul on his third missionary journey.

And so, notice the descriptive phrases here. He’s a dear brother, a faithful minister, a fellow servant. And now Tychicus, along with Onesimus, and we’re going to meet in verse 9, they are taking the letter that Paul wrote, and they’re bringing it back to Colossae.

So, part of their responsibility now is to make that 1,200 mile journey from Rome to Colossae to give that letter to the church at Colossae. I think Onesimus is also taking a letter back to a slave owner by the name of Philemon. If you notice that little book in the New Testament, it’s the book of Philemon.

So, Philemon was a slave owner. Onesimus was a runaway slave. He came across the apostle Paul, and the apostle Paul led him to faith in Christ.

And now the apostle Paul also writes this little epistle to Philemon and basically says, hey, would you accept Onesimus back as a brother in Christ? And by the way, if he’s stolen anything from you, if there’s a financial obligation, we will take care of that. And so, here’s Tychicus, and we’ve kind of dovetailed into the second name that’s here, verse 9. He’s coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

So, they’re going to go back to the church. They’re going to give an update on what’s going on with the apostle Paul and deliver this letter. Well, we come to verse 10.

There’s a third name here. My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. So, here’s Aristarchus.

He’s a fellow worker with Paul. He’s first mentioned in the book of Acts. So, if you read Dr. Luke’s record of the early church in the book of Acts, we can read about the first mention of Aristarchus.

And here’s what happened in Acts chapter 19. Paul is in Ephesus, and the gospel made inroads. And if you want to get people upset, start impacting their pocketbooks.

Because there was a business in Athens, and there were silversmiths who made little medals of a god by the name of Artemis. So, you know, the rocket that just went off, Artemis, is the same name. She was a Greek goddess.

And what was happening in Athens as people were coming to know Christ, the sails of the idol Artemis went down and people were furious. And they were after the apostle Paul. And so there was a kind of a flash mob scene in, I said Athens, that’s actually Ephesus.

And so, a silversmith by the name of Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, is getting all the workers together and they’re like, we need to go after this guy, Apostle Paul. They can’t find him. And so, it says in verse 29, the whole city was in an uproar.

The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, and they brought them up. For two hours they’re in this amphitheater and they’re all chanting, great is Artemis, great is this goddess. And finally, somebody stands up and kind of calms things down and they let Aristarchus go.

But that’s the same fellow who obviously now is with the Apostle Paul in Rome. And then Mark is mentioned in verse 10. My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas.

This is the individual who wrote the Gospel of Mark. His name was called John Mark. He accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey.

And then we don’t know exactly what happened, but halfway through that first missionary journey, John Mark left. John Mark kind of bailed on the Apostle Paul. And so, when it came time for the second missionary journey, Paul says, let’s go back and visit the churches that we already have visited.

Paul’s talking to Barnabas and Barnabas says, yeah let’s take my cousin John Mark. And Paul says, we’re not taking John Mark. They had a strong disagreement.

And Paul says, no, he bailed on us the first time and Barnabas wants to take John Mark. And so, they came up with a compromise. Does it surprise you that sometimes Christians disagree on things? It shouldn’t.

They had a strong disagreement. So, what happened is that Paul took Silas and Barnabas took John Mark. And now rather than just a few people going out on one missionary trip, they both went their separate ways.

And there was two missionary trips. Well, this is the same fellow, John Mark, and he’s with Paul. By the way, somehow John Mark and Paul reconciled because at the end of Second Timothy chapter 4 verse 11, Paul’s very last letter, he writes and he says, greet John Mark for me.

He is helpful for me in the ministry. So, something turned around there and John Mark became very helpful to the Apostle Paul. Well, let’s keep plowing through these names here.

Verse 11, Jesus who is called Justice also sends his greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God. They’ve proved a comfort for you.

So, Justice was a Jewish Christian, a co-worker of Paul who encouraged Paul. It’s the only time he’s mentioned here in the New Testament. Verse 12, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends his greetings.

He’s always wrestling in prayer for you. So, here’s the pastor of the church at Colossae, Epaphras, the one who made the 1,200 mile visit to visit Paul. And now Paul’s sending greetings back to the church from Epaphras.

And he says, Epaphras is always praying for you. He’s wrestling in prayer for you. When Diane and I went to our first church in Strongsville, Ohio as assistant pastor, about the third Sunday I was there, a fellow who was our music leader, his name was Dan, came up to me.

And he said, hey, Pastor Ron, would you like to join the wrestling team? I’m like, a wrestling team? This church has a wrestling team? I’ve never heard of that. He said, no, no. Haven’t you read Colossians chapter 4, verse 12? Epaphras, he’s wrestling in prayer for you.

This is a group of guys that get together and pray for the church and pray for each other. Like, oh, that wrestling team. Well, Paul says, Epaphras is praying for you.

And he’s praying, what’s this prayer? That you’ll stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. What a great way to pray. That other people will know God’s will for their life.

It’s a great way to pray for our kids, that they’ll mature in their faith and they’ll stand firm in their faith. Well, that’s Epaphras. Verse 14, our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings.

So, here’s Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke. He was a medical doctor, and he sends greetings to the church from Rome. By the way, when you think about who wrote most of the New Testament, if you go by number of books, letters, by far the Apostle Paul.

If you go by volume, by content, words, Dr. Luke writes more than anybody else. He wrote the Gospel of Mark, and he wrote the Book of Acts. And by volume, he’s the most prolific writer of the New Testament.

If you go by number of books, it’s the Apostle Paul. Well, he mentions Demas. Demas sends greetings.

He was a co-worker with the Apostle Paul. But if you know your New Testament, you realize that Demas is mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, in Paul’s last letter. And Paul says, Demas has forsaken me.

He was a faithful worker for Paul in the ministry, but something happened in Demas’s life, and he walked away from the faith. Second Timothy chapter four, do your best to come to me quickly, Paul writing to Timothy, for Demas, because he has loved this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. So, Demas, who was a faithful follower of Jesus, ended up kind of turning his back on the faith.

Why? Because of the attraction of the world. That’s why 1st John says, do not love the world. Not talking about the physical world.

What he’s talking about is the world system that is anti-God, opposed to God, opposed to truth. And here Demas, who once faithfully served, walks away from the faith and chases after the world. I love what Paul wrote in Second Timothy.

He’s at the end of his life. He’s going to die soon in a Roman prison. He says, I’ve kept the faith.

I finished the course. I finished well. And there’s laid up for me a crown in heaven, a reward that God rewards people for their faithfulness.

And I trust that’s your prayer as well, that you’ll finish well in your walk with God. Well, just a couple other names. Verse 15, give my greens to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Nympha and the church in her house. So, there’s a church in Laodicea and it met in Nympha’s home. So, for the first 300 years of church history, believers did not meet in church buildings.

They met in homes. And then about 300 A.D., they started to meet in larger venues and larger setting. But for the first 300 years, every church met in home.

And so, here’s Nympha who has the home that hosts the church in Laodicea. Here’s the last one. Tell Archippus, see to it that you complete the ministry you have received of the Lord.

See to it that you complete the ministry. And so, here’s another faithful worker, the Apostle Paul. And Paul’s encouraging him to keep the faith and don’t be discouraged.

Keep on serving the Lord. Well, this morning we want to think about what are some truths that we can learn from those names. And as I mentioned, Paul writes all scriptures profitable for something.

There’s a reason God put this in here. And so, I want to think about four truths, four principles that we can learn from these greetings, final greetings of Paul in these 10 names. And here’s the first one.

First one is this, that ministry involves teamwork. Ministry involves teamwork. Paul’s not going at this alone.

Paul has some fellow workers. Paul has some co-workers. Paul has a ministry team.

Paul has people praying for him. Paul has people partially supporting him, although Paul was Bi-vocational for most of his ministry, he was a tent maker. But Paul had a team of people that helped him and supported him in the work.

And that’s the way ministry is designed to work. That ministry is not some solo performance by a pastor in front of people on a Sunday morning. No, ministry involves teamwork.

That’s why the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter four about spiritual gifts, that every believer, I believe it happens at the moment of salvation, God also gives us a spiritual gift that we are to discover, develop, and deploy. What? To build up the body of Christ. There’s like four different passages that talk about this.

1st Corinthians 12, first Peter four, Ephesians chapter four, talks about the list of these gifts. And so, as Paul writes in Ephesians chapter four, he says, from Christ the whole body grows and builds itself up in love, I love this phrase, as each part does its work. And so, the body of Christ functions when we know what our role is, what our giftedness is, and then we deploy that giftedness to build up the body of Christ.

So, as I thought about that, I started thinking about the teamwork that it takes for community Bible church to function. And I know I’m probably going to miss something here, but I just started to make a list. I’m not talking names here.

I’m just talking about responsibilities and boards and committees. So, here’s the teamwork of community Bible church to function and minister. We have a pastor; we have a church board of five deacons as well.

We have a treasurer, assistant treasurer, song leader, instrumentalist, greeters, head usher, tech team for sound and audio visual, missions committee, social committee, Sunday school teachers, deaconesses, someone that does the PowerPoint, volunteer that types and prepares the church bulletin, church decorators, someone who cleans the church, youth leaders, nursery workers, junior church workers, Sunday school superintendent, assistant Sunday school superintendent, security team, building maintenance person, music minister, lawn maintenance person that was here until quarter to nine, lawn mowing, I’m not going to mention any names here. You know who that person is. Awana workers, beyond Awana workers, cooking ministry, financial givers, prayer warriors, Monday night Bible study leader, Wednesday night Bible study leader, Thursday night Bible study leader, nominating committee.

There might be a few others I left out. And the church functions by lots of people finding their role and serving. And so, ministry involves teamwork.

And I am so thankful for the teamwork that’s here at Community Bible Church. And this is why we’re partnering with missionaries. So, ministry involves teamwork, not only with other people, but here’s the key, it also involves teamwork with God. 2nd Corinthians 3:9, Paul says, we are laborers together with God.

And so, what I want you to realize, whatever ministry you’re in, whatever ministry God’s called you to do, whether it’s teaching, whether it’s music ministry, whether it’s working with youth, whatever it is, you better not try to do it on your own strength. I learned this the hard way. We need to partner with God, don’t we? And say, God, I can’t do this on my own.

I like what the apostle Paul wrote. He says, when I’m weak, I’m strong. Why did he say that? He says that because when you feel like weak, when you feel like I can’t do this, guess who we rely on then? We rely on God and his strength and his power.

And so don’t ever try to do ministry. I don’t care if it’s Awana, beyond Awana, Sunday school class, nursery, whatever, make sure you’re partnering with God and make sure you’re asking him to use you and to give you the strength and wisdom to fulfill the ministry that he has called you to do. Well, here’s the second truth, and we need to hustle here a little bit.

So final greetings, ministry involves teamwork. Second one is this, prison ministry is fertile ground for the gospel. Prison ministry is fertile ground for the gospel.

I know this firsthand because for many years, a team of people from our previous church would go to the Cassidy Lake prison, north of Chelsea, and it was a minimum-security prison, and they allowed groups to come in and lead Bible studies. A little later on, it changed dramatically. They kind of shut down the minimum-security prison, and then they made it a boot camp and it was extreme difference there in the mentality of what was going on there.

But for years, groups of people would come in and do ministry and have Bible studies. I remember one friend of ours, his name was Domingo Hermosillo, and he faithfully went for years and years. And I’d ask him, well, how did the prison ministry go yesterday? And he’d often say, you know what? We had four prisoners that put their faith in Jesus on Saturday.

And that was a regular occurrence that they would go in there and they would share the gospel, and people in prison would come to know Jesus. And so, what happened when Paul was in prison? So, he’s under house arrest here in Rome. He writes four letters, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the letter to Philemon.

But what does he write in his letter to the church of Philippi? I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I’m in chains for Christ. So, Paul’s under house arrest.

He has Roman soldiers that are guarding him. And rather than feeling sorry for himself, what’s he do? Oh, I’ve got a captive audience here. He shares Christ with them.

And some of those prisoners, or prison guards rather, come to faith in Jesus. And so, at the end of the letter to the Philippian church, all God’s people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household. Oh, there were some people in Caesar’s household in Rome that came to faith in Jesus.

Prison ministry is fertile ground for the gospel. I often share my correspondence with my friend Steve. Steve committed murder 35 years ago.

Steve comes to know Christ. Steve somehow contacts me, and I make a visit to the prison that he’s in. And Steve had come to know faith, come to faith in Jesus.

It wasn’t a, you know, conversion that was a jail conversion to get out of jail. No, he’s been walking with Jesus for like 35 years now. And probably about four times a year we exchange letters. Steve will never get out of prison, he will die in prison, but Steve knows Jesus. Steve is a light in the prison system.

He shares his faith. He works a little side job there and four times a year we get a check made out to Community Bible Church from the Michigan Department of Prison System. And Steve considers Community Bible Church his church family.

He’ll never come into our doors. When he turned 70 about a year ago, we got a card and all of us signed it and sent it to him and said we were praying for him. Here’s his latest letter.

This is from March 29th. I’m just going to read part of it. He says a group of us from church meet for Bible study every night for an hour.

Perhaps the newest venture is being a part of a prison fellowship program. This program meets twice a week for two hours each. Chuck Colson’s ministry, so he’s involved in the prison fellowship ministry.

Last night we had a worship service which was led by a group from Bay City. The praise team was saying elevation music. Men were in tears and I found myself on my knees as we were led into the Lord’s presence.

Very powerful indeed. Please extend my greetings to Diane and Community Bible Church. Here’s what he says.

I look forward to the day I can worship with you in person. Well, that might be heaven but someday you’ll meet Steve and then he closes. He is risen.

Prison ministry is fertile ground for the gospel. Here’s another letter. This is from our missionaries Martin and Linda Valcarcel.

They ministered in Spain for many, many years and now they’re in their golden years and they’re serving the Lord in Decatur, Alabama and they’re still ministering for Christ. Martin was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago and given not very many months to live. Martin is still around and faithfully serving the Lord.

Here’s their April newsletter. Let me just share part of it. We know that many of you are concerned and praying for my dear husband Martin.

God has blessed him with extended time beyond what was the prognosis for his life. He continues on doing what’s been his life’s work, preaching and teaching the Word of God. Part of that is a jail ministry that they go to every Monday.

His wife writes this Monday, past Monday, everything was ready for his class in the jail. Before we left, he turned to me and said, I don’t know how much longer I can do this. I replied, you will know when that time is and it will be okay.

How about I go with you today? So, we drove to the jail and met Bruce there who gets, goes to get the men. I sang two hymns and then the men read a portion of scripture. They listened intently to the Bible study as Martin shared and a simple invitation was given for those who wanted to trust in Christ as their Savior.

Three of the men responded and then prayed with my husband. What a beautiful moment. Before returning back to their cells, some of the men came up to hug my husband.

Others shook his hand with deep appreciation. From now on Martin wants to go, wants me to go with him to be his helper as he becomes weaker. Here’s one of our missionaries, Martin Valcarcel, who doesn’t quite frankly have very long to live and yet as long as he’s able, he’s going into that prison every Monday night because there’s men and women there that need to hear the gospel.

Well prison ministry is fertile ground for the gospel and if that’s something that kind of tugs at your heart, there are lots of different Christian ministries that are involved in prison ministry and one that I’m very familiar with. It’s simply a correspondence ministry and so it’s a great way to get God’s truth into the prison system. All right number three here, final greetings number three, three truths.

Here’s number three. Encouragement is an essential component of ministry. Encouragement is an essential part of ministry.

So, here’s Tychicus and he’s going back to Colossae and he has this letter from the apostle Paul and it says, I’m sending him to you for the express purpose that you might know about our circumstances and that he may what? Encourage your hearts. Encourage your hearts. So, one of the purposes of coming together as a body of Christ in a worship service or a bible study or whatever is to what? Encourage one another.

Hebrews 3:13 says, encourage one another daily. Daily. Hebrews 10:25, don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together but come together and what? Exhort and encourage one another.

Sometimes we come to church and we sit through a service and we say, well I didn’t get much out of that and that could be the case but maybe God has you here because I guarantee you the persons, people sitting around you need encouragement. I’ve said dozens and dozens of times, I’ve never had anyone making a point with me and coming to my office and saying, Pastor Ron, I’m just way too encouraged. And people, they’re just like overly encouraging me.

So would you like, tell them to back off. No. And we all need encouragement.

We all come here and we think, well everybody’s got it together. We don’t. And so, we need to encourage one another and that’s what Tychicus was going to do, not only take this letter but he wanted to encourage that body of believers, Satan’s tools.

Verse 5, they all start with the letter D. He likes to divide. He likes to put doubt into our minds. He likes despair.

He likes denial. He likes us discouraged. He likes us discouraged.

That’s how he works. And so, we need encouragement and we need to encourage one another regularly. I love that passage in 1st Thessalonians 4 where Paul talks about the rapture and what’s going to happen and he’s writing to believers who have lost loved ones and he says, hey, if they are in Christ, guess what? You’re going to see them again someday.

And that passage finishes therefore, encourage one another with these words. And I’ve stood by at this point hundreds of gravesides and encouraged folks who are grieving the loss of a loved one like Mike and Shannon Porter are today. And I’m able to tell them, if you know Jesus and they know Jesus, this is just a temporary goodbye.

This is just a temporary farewell. You will be reunited with them someday and let that truth encourage your hearts. Well, last one here and we’re done.

Principle number four from this text is this, that prayer empowers ministry. Prayer empowers ministry. So, remember I said that we don’t do this alone.

We have teamwork and we partner with God. And so, what needs to happen in that partnership is that we need to be praying. And this is Epaphras.

We read it in verse 12. He’s the pastor of the church at Colossae. And Paul says, he is always praying for you.

I want you to know that I pray for you. I want you to know I’m early here early on Sunday morning. I walk through the auditorium and I pray.

I pray for every, whoever’s going to be here, whoever’s seated here, that God would work in their hearts. Because prayer is like the gasoline in the engine. And that’s what, how God takes his word and touches people’s hearts and lives.

Pentecost, remember Pentecost, Jesus, after 40 days of post-resurrection appearances, Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives. He ascends up to heaven and he tells the disciples to wait. And so, they wait for 10 days.

They’re waiting in the upper room. There’s 120 of them. You know what they’re doing in Acts chapter 1? They are praying.

They have a 10-day prayer meeting. And then Acts chapter 2, Peter gets up. Pentecost happens.

Peter preaches. 3,000 people come to faith in Christ. How did that happen? You could read Peter’s sermon.

It wasn’t anything spectacular. It’s just saying, this Jesus who you crucified is the Messiah. And you need to repent and you need to come to faith in him.

But what empowered that? It was that prayer meeting and those 10 days of disciples waiting. And so, a prayer empowers ministry. And as you go through the book of Acts, you come to Acts chapter 2, verse 42, and four things that the early church devoted themselves to, the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to breaking of bread, and to prayer.

That was the focus of the early church. So, it was Charles Spurgeon that said, I’d rather teach one man to pray than 10 men to preach. Because there is power in prayer.

And James says, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person is what? Powerful and effective. So, I don’t know who you’re praying for this morning, but I want to tell you, don’t ever stop praying. Don’t ever stop praying for your family.

Don’t ever stop praying for your kids. Don’t ever stop praying for your ministry, your church, because there is power in prayer. Well, ministry involves teamwork.

And thankful for the team here at Community Bible Church. Prison is fertile ground for the gospel. Because when you hit bottom and have nowhere else to go, then people say, I think I need some help here.

I need Jesus. And encouragement is an essential part of ministry. And my prayer and hope is that when we gather here on Sunday mornings, or whenever the body of Christ gathers at Community Bible Church, that you will leave here encouraged.

Encouraged in the truth of God’s word and his promises. And then lastly, prayer empowers ministry.

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04/19/2026 Blank Outline

04/19/2026 Completed Outline

Colossians 4:2-6

We’re going to read some scriptures. This is five verses from Colossians chapter 4 as we kind of head toward the finish line of the book of Colossians. So, here’s what Paul wrote to that church.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, and pray for us too that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.

Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Well, just a few personal notes before we jump into the Book of Colossians.

Most of you know that Dinah have eight grandchildren. Six of them are in Grand Rapids. And so, between our six grand kids in Grand Rapids and our two sons and daughters-in-law, there’s 10 birthdays in Grand Rapids.

So, we’re making frequent trips to birthdays. But three of our grandkids in Grand Rapids go to a wonderful Christian school called Dutton Christian School. And every year they have a Grandparents Day.

And so, the last like three years, we’ve gone to Grandparents Day and spent part of a day in the kids’ classroom. So, this year, Grandparents Day number one is on Wednesday. I was hoping Grandparents Day number two would be Thursday.

But Grandparents Day number two for, let’s see, who would that be for? Liam and Cameron is Friday. And then Aiden has a birthday on Saturday. And then there’s spring sports that they want us to watch on Saturday morning.

All that to say we’re going to be gone for a couple days for the end of the week. But you can be in touch with me by texting or phone calls. And so, we’ll go watch some soccer.

And by the way, Weston scored three goals yesterday. I know you want to know that, four-year-old Weston. So, congratulations to Weston.

We’ve got a little tradition. They call us after their sports on Saturday morning and kind of give us a report on how they did. So, we thoroughly enjoy that.

All right, we’re going to jump into Colossians chapter four. And we’re in the homestretch of the book of Colossians. So next Sunday we’ll finish Colossians.

Interesting, Paul closes by giving greetings to 10 different people. And we’re going to briefly examine the close of the book next Sunday. But this morning, closing reminders from the Apostle Paul.

So, as you know, the Apostle Paul is under house arrest in Rome. He’s awaiting trial from Caesar. And while he’s there, he’s able to receive guests.

He was there for two years, didn’t know if he was going to live or die, depending on how his trial came out. While he’s there, a fellow by the name of Epaphras travels 1,200 miles from Colossae to Rome to visit him. And the reason he did that is because Epaphras was pastoring the church at Colossae, Paul had never been there.

Paul had never been to the city of Colossae, but Epaphras established a church there. And he had some concerns. He was concerned about some false teachers that were trying to lead the church astray.

And so, Paul writes the book of Colossians in response to that and corrects some false doctrine and then writes this book to encourage those believers. It’s amazing how we live in the age of technology and communication because that was a 1,200-mile journey to go to Rome from Colossae. And then Paul writes this letter and sends it back and they have to travel 1,200 miles back to Colossae to get this message to them.

Today, we live in a day of instant communication and texting and emails. So, Paul gives some closing reminders and we’re going to look at four of them this morning from our text. And let’s look at the first one.

We just read it in our scripture reading. Here’s reminder number one. Paul says, devote yourself to prayer.

Devote yourself to prayer. The word devote, we could say a synonym is to commit, to make it a high priority, to dedicate yourselves to prayer. And Paul reminds the Colossian believers and in turn us the absolute necessity of prayer in our life.

That’s true all through scripture. It’s there by command where we’re commanded to pray over and over again. And it’s also there by the example of other people in the scripture.

Just a few verses that illustrate the command to pray. Ephesians chapter six, verse 18, we’re familiar with that text. The armor of God, Paul concludes in verse 18, and pray in the spirit on all kinds of, with all kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Paul reminds the Ephesian believers, hey, you need to be praying. And you need to be praying for God’s people as well and be praying for the church and fellow believers.

Philippians 4:6, and 7, some of my favorite verses in the Bible that I need to practice probably daily. Be anxious for nothing. It’s an imperative.

Stop worrying. Oh, okay. What are we to do? But in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

The paraphrase is, don’t worry about anything. Pray about everything. And then here’s the promise when we do that.

And the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That’s our emotions and our thoughts. Over and over again, we’re told to pray.

First Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. Doesn’t mean that we pray 24-7. It just means make prayer a regular, constant part of your everyday life.

You might say, well, who do I pray for? Paul writing to Timothy, I urge, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. Pray for everybody. But then he goes on to say, for kings and all those in authority, pray for your leaders.

Pray for our president. Pray for our governor. Pray for our local leaders.

Pray for our church leaders. We need to make prayer a regular part of our lives. That’s not only by command, but we see that all through Scripture.

The Old Testament, Nehemiah, who led the effort to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days, he faced all kinds of opposition. And every time there was opposition in his life, you know what Nehemiah did? He prayed. First thing he did is he prayed.

So, Nehemiah was a man of prayer. Think about Daniel in the Old Testament. Daniel taking captive to Babylon a thousand miles from home when he was a teenager.

Now they passed this law that you’re not supposed to pray to anybody but the Nebuchadnezzar king and the Babylonian gods or you’re going to face some punishment. Daniel 6:10 says he did what he always did. He opened his windows and he prayed three times a day.

Now he paid for it. He ended up in, what, the lion’s den, but God protected him. And so, we see this all through the Bible.

The example of Jesus. Read the Gospels. What’s Jesus doing? He gets away by himself oftentimes and he prays.

If Jesus needed to pray, I think we need to pray on a regular basis. So, it’s all through the Scripture. We look at Paul’s letters and Paul’s epistles and it always starts out, almost every one of them, like, I am praying for you.

And so, the first reminder that Paul gives to the Colossian believers is that we need to pray. Now I like a very simple definition of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is talking to God.

It’s that simple, isn’t it? Prayer is talking to God. So, Christianity is a relationship. And how does that relationship grow? Well, the relationship grows because God speaks to us through his word and we speak to God through prayer.

And so, prayer is talking with God. We can do that any time of the day or night. That’s one of the good things about prayer, isn’t it? 24-7.

God’s never busy. He’s always there. He’s always listening.

He’s always ready. Don’t have to make an appointment. God is there.

And so, Paul says, devote yourself to prayer. Now he gives two characteristic adjectives to this thought about devoting ourselves to prayer. Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

So, he says, we need to be alert. We need to be aware. We need to realize that as Christians, we have three enemies.

I hope you know who your three enemies are. The world. That’s the world system that is anti-God.

The flesh. Even though we’re a follower of Jesus, we still have sinful impulses. Paul talks about it in Romans 7. He says, the things I want to do, I don’t do.

The things I don’t want to do, I end up doing. Oh, wretched man that I am. That’s Paul and his battle against the flesh.

And then the third enemy is the devil. That’s what Paul writes about in Ephesians 6:10. So we need to be alert and aware as we pray. One of the things that I find that I need in my life every day is a prayer for wisdom.

James 1 says, if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously. And what you discover as you get further along in life is that we need God’s wisdom in our life, in how we live our lives, in parenting, in grandparenting, in our occupation, and how we handle our finances, in our marriage relationship. We need wisdom.

And God gives us wisdom. A lot of it’s found in his word. There’s also wisdom found, the Bible says, in godly counsel, that we look to godly counsel to help us navigate life’s challenges.

And so, the Apostle Paul reminds the Colossian believers and to us that we need to devote ourselves to prayer. Here’s a second reminder, not only to remember to make prayer an essential part of our life, but let me read verses three and four. And pray for us too that God may open a door for our message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains.

Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. So, Paul asked prayer for himself. That’s something that I’m learning to do because I’m usually the one that’s praying for other people, but I also have recognized that I need to learn to humble myself to ask for prayer for other people.

Having said that, I hope you pray for me as your pastor and wisdom that I need in my life and in our church life. And so, Paul says pray for us. Now who’s us? Well, I think it’s Paul and Timothy.

You go back to the first part of Colossians and Paul introduces the book by saying Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. So, it’s Paul and it’s Timothy and Paul says to the Colossian church, would you pray for us? Would you pray for us? Now here’s what strikes me when I look at Paul’s prayer and look at this request. You know what Paul doesn’t ask for? Where’s Paul? He’s in prison.

Paul’s under house arrest. If that was me, you know what I’d be asking? Hey would you pray that I would be released from this prison and this unjust imprisonment in my life? He doesn’t even mention that. He doesn’t say, hey would you pray that I get my get out of jail card? No.

What’s Paul praying for? What’s the foremost thought in his mind? What is his passion? What is his goal? Well, we just read it. Here’s reminder number two for all of us that we need to pray for the advancement of the gospel. That’s what Paul’s asking for.

Notice again, pray that God may open a door for our message. Open a door for our message. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.

So, what’s Paul praying for or asking for? Would you pray that I will have an open door, an opportunity to share the good news of the gospel with other people? And would you pray that I will explain that and proclaim the gospel clearly? Would you pray for that? Evangelist Ron Hutchcraft says this, that we need to talk to God about people before we talk to people about God. In other words, we need to pray and when we’re getting ready to share the gospel and these open doors, talk to God about people. And when you’re praying for an open door and an opportunity, guess what? It’s on your radar screen.

And now you’re looking for maybe an open door, an opportunity to share Jesus with somebody. If you’re not praying that, those opportunities slip right by. How many times have I reflected back on a conversation in my life and I’m replaying the conversation, man, I had an open door.

I could have shared; I should have shared something with them. And I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t, it wasn’t on my radar screen. And so, Paul’s praying for the advancement of the gospel.

And he says, pray that I might proclaim it clearly. The simplicity of the gospel message. Jesus says, unless you become like little children, you won’t enter the kingdom of God.

What does he mean by that? You have to have childlike faith. Just as a child has childlike faith. Years ago, when I was in, we were in seminary, I worked for a fellow who had been in the pastorate.

He pastored a church in Ohio and then he felt like he needed more education. So, he went back to seminary. And so, he’s a little older than Diane and I were.

Louie Konopka. And Louie pastored a church in Rockford, Michigan that started out the size of our church and grew to about 2,000 people. God used him in a tremendous, tremendous way.

But I remember being there with Louie and Mona Konopka and Louie used to set three-year-old Adam on top of their refrigerator. And he’d stand there and he’d say, jump. What’d Adam do? He jumped.

Why? Because he knew his dad was going to catch him. And so childlike faith, the simplicity of the gospel. Admit your sinner that God is holy and therefore how good do you have to be to get into heaven? You have to be perfect.

And so, none of us are perfect. And so, we all fall short of God’s perfect standard. So, what’s the solution? Well, the B stands for believe.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s Acts 16:31. What does that word believe mean? It means to understand who Jesus is, that he is who he claimed to be, that he’s the son of God.

And then to believe that what he’s done. That when he died on the cross, he took our place, paid our sin debt on the cross through his death, burial, and resurrection. And we put our whole trust in him.

And the C stands for confess. Romans 10:9 and 10. Thou shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.

You will be saved. And so, it’s a turning from our sin and our dependence upon ourself to putting our full trust in Jesus and Jesus alone. That’s the gospel.

2nd Corinthians 5:21. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him, when we put our trust in him, we become the righteousness of God. Christ’s perfection gets credited to our account.

And when we stand before God, he sees us just as if we’ve never sinned because of what Christ has done for us. And that’s why we gather here every Sunday to worship and praise him for what he has done. And so, the Apostle Paul reminder number two is to pray for the advancement of the gospel.

Here’s the here’s the third one. And it’s found in verse five. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders making the most of every opportunity.

So, here’s reminder number three. Live wisely toward unbelievers. That’s what that word outsiders means.

He’s referring to people who don’t know Jesus yet. And so, he’s talking about the way we live, that our life needs to be an exemplary life before an unbelieving world. This is why it’s so damaging when churches or Christian organizations go through, and unfortunately it happens a lot, goes through turmoil where Christians aren’t getting along, where they’re fighting with one another, where there’s church splits.

Because what’s that send a message to an unbelieving world? Well, they can’t even get along with each other. Well, why should I put a stock in following Jesus? And so, Paul reminds us that we need to live our lives wisely in front of an unbelieving world. The reason for that is, as some often say, you might be the only Jesus that other people see.

You might be the only exposure to Christianity and who Jesus is. And unbelievers need to see a distinctive nature of our lives. Usually, it’s shown through testing.

There’s no testimony without a test. And when we go through difficult times, whether it’s difficult relational times, whether it’s difficult financial times, difficult physical times, and we do that well, and we put our trust in God, all of a sudden that gets believers or unbelievers noticing, hey, there’s something different about this person. 1st Peter 3:15 says, always be ready to give an answer, an apologetic, to anybody who asks you for the hope that is in you.

I read that verse for years and I’m like, you know what? No one has ever come up to me and just said, hey, Ron, would you tell me about the hope that is in you, why you have that? But when you read it in context, First Peter’s written to Christians who are scattered because of persecution, and they are suffering, and they’re suffering well. And when you do that, then all of a sudden people like, man, how come you’re not like upset or how can you handle this? And that gives you then a door to share, not because I’m such a great person, it’s because of Jesus and who I know. And so live wisely toward unbelievers.

This helped me greatly, maybe 15 or 20 years ago, when I was listening to Bill Hybels on a sermon about evangelism. And he said, when you are dealing with unbelievers, think of this continuum, where over here, we’re going to mark negative 10. This is someone who is maybe an atheist, an agnostic, they are antagonistic toward the gospel.

The pulpit would be zero, someone that’s neutral toward the gospel, and then plus one to plus 10 is maybe a seeker, someone that’s interested, and maybe getting close to coming to know Jesus. And so, he said that, picture it like this, whenever you have this interaction with an unbeliever, it should result in, maybe they don’t come to know Christ, but maybe because of your kindness and your love and concern for them, now here’s a person that was negative six toward Christianity and the gospel. And after meeting you, they’re negative three.

In other words, you’re pushing them along that continuum. And hopefully then they eventually get to the point where they put their faith in Jesus. So how does that happen? That happens when we live with integrity and love and a godly life in front of an unbelieving world, because they are watching, especially if they know you’re a Christian, they’re watching you.

And no, no, no one’s going to be perfect, but we need to live with integrity. And so that was Paul’s third reminder. You need to live wisely in front of an unbelieving world.

Now here’s the last one, and we’ll conclude with this, and it’s found in verse six. So, verse five talks about our life, verse six talks about our lips, what we say. And so there has to be integrity between those two.

And so, Paul concludes, let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. So, here’s the first word that should characterize our speech. It should be graceful, full of grace, unmerited, undeserved favor.

And so, our speech should be gracious. God’s been gracious to us. We need to be gracious in our speech. And our speech, what, reflects our heart, doesn’t it? Luke chapter six, verse 45, for out of the mouth, for the mouth speaks from the heart what the heart is full of. So, what comes out of our lips is really what’s in our heart. And so, if we’re going to have gracious speech, we need to have a heart that is changed, that is characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, and that our words then are gracious.

And so, in Ephesians four, when Paul talks about the transformation of our life, he talks about our speech, and he says, let your words be only that which is edifying to other people. In other words, our speech as a Christian should be exclusive in what? Building others up, building others up in our speech and encourage them. Man, our speech is powerful.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and we can tear each other down, or we can lift each other up. And so, our speech needs to be filled with grace. Even when Jesus confronted sin in people’s lives, he did it with grace, didn’t he? The woman caught in adultery, he ministers to her, doesn’t condemn her.

He says, I’m the Messiah, presents himself, and then he says, go sin no more. He offers grace and forgiveness. So, our speech should be characterized by grace.

I love the little acrostic, think before you speak. And this could have saved me a lot of pain in my life. But the acrostic is, ask yourself before you speak, is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? A lot of it’s not.

We like to hear ourselves talk. Is it kind? Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? And is it kind? Well, the second characteristic of our speech, then let your speech be characterized by grace.

Then he says in verse six, seasoned with salt. So, we might think, well, salty speech. No, not that kind of salty speech. The kind of speech that makes other people thirsty for the gospel, thirsty to hear more.

And our lives and our lips should make other people thirsty for Jesus. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, verse 14, that familiar passage. Let me read it for you.

Matthew 5:14, you are the salt of the earth. He says, you’re the light of the world. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Live your life in such a way by your good deeds and by your speech that what you glorify God and point others to him. So, here’s the last one. Then our speech should be characterized by grace, by making people thirsty for Jesus.

But here’s the purpose so that you may know how to answer everyone. So, we’ll use the word readiness, the word readiness. I already referred to First Peter chapter three in this book and letter that was written to people that were suffering.

But let me kind of read a few more verses here because it fits in this context of being ready with our speech to what? To share Jesus, to share the gospel. So, who’s going to harm you if you are eager to do good? This is 1st Peter 3:13. But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Ever have that in your life? You did the right thing and you suffered for it? Jesus says if that happens, you’re blessed.

Blessed are those that persecute you for righteousness’ sake, he says earlier. So even if you suffer what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give you the reason for the hope that is in you. So, we need to be ready to share the gospel. Not that we know the answer to every question that everybody has.

There are many, many times in our life, probably more frequently than not, that I have to say, you know what, I’m going to look at that, pray about that, research that, and I’m going to get back to you. Because right now, I don’t know. Better to just be humble and honest than to try to bluff your way through.

But we need to be ready to share the good news. So, foreclosure reminder, devote yourself to prayer, pray for the advancement of the gospel, live with integrity before unbelievers, and let your speech basically point others to Christ. So, here’s four quick questions as we conclude here this morning that we need to put out there.

Number one, how’s your prayer life? Devote yourselves to prayer. And I got to tell you this, if we don’t intentionally plan it, if you’re like me, it’s not going to happen. So put it on your planner, make it part of your schedule.

Yes, you can pray at any time, but we need that dedicated time to pray. And so, devote yourselves to prayer. Secondly, do I pray for open opportunities to share the gospel? Is that even on my radar screen? Maybe there’s somebody that’s in my sphere of influence that needs to know Jesus, and I need to be ready and willing to share the good news.

We sang about it earlier. I love to tell the story. How long has it been since you told the story? And pray for some of us in faith talks this afternoon, because that’s what we’re going to do this afternoon, a few of us.

Share the story of other people. And so, am I praying for open doors, opportunities to share the gospel, and am I able to clearly present it? Do I know what the gospel is?

Lastly, does my speech and my actions reflect Jesus? Is my life and the way I speak to other people attracting people to Jesus or pushing them away? And Paul says the way we live and the way we talk should be an aroma that draws people to the Savior.

And so, I just know that, you know, when you get any more than three people together, people are going through stuff. Everybody has stuff. And some people are willing to share it.

In other words, other people, it’s just so painful they don’t share it with anybody. But I want you to know that if you’ve got stuff on your plate, that we need to pray for one another and support one another in prayer.

The post Closing Reminders from the Apostle Paul appeared first on Community Bible Church.

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Colossians 3:22-4:1

If you remain standing, we’re going to read just a few verses from Colossians chapter 3. We’re going to read verses 22 through chapter 4, verse 1. Here’s what the Apostle Paul writes, Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when their eye is on you, and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism. Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

All right, we’re going to take about a half hour and plow through Colossians chapter 3, and we’re kind of in the homestretch of the book of Colossians.

Just a little bit of background and a reminder that the impetus of this book was that a fellow by the name of Epaphras, who was the pastor of the church at Colossae, makes a 1,200-mile journey from Colossae to Rome, where the Apostle Paul is under house arrest. And the reason he did that is because there were some things happening at the church there that were greatly bothering Epaphras, and some of it was false teachers. And so even though the Apostle Paul had never been to Colossae, he makes this journey there, and he talks to the Apostle Paul about what’s going on, and Paul writes this letter to correct false teaching and to encourage the believers in Colossae.

And so, the first two chapters are more doctrinal. Chapters 3 and 4 are more practical. And so, we’re in this interesting section in the book of Colossians where Paul is addressing slaves and masters.

And what’s interesting is the reason he’s doing that is because slavery was very common in the Roman Empire, which was the world power of the day. This is why when you read verses in Scripture, like Galatians chapter 3, verse 28, when Paul’s talking about the gospel, he says, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, neither is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Why is Paul talking about that in Christ we’re all one, and he mentions these categories, whether you are a slave or whether you are a free person, there’s no distinction.

It’s because slavery was so common. 1st Corinthians 12:13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves or free.

So, slavery was very common. Let me just give you a little context of slavery in the first century. This is from the World History Encyclopedia.

As many as one in three of the population in Italy and one in five in the Roman Empire were slaves. Slaves were, for many of the Roman elite, a status symbol, so that wealthy Romans very often appeared in public with as many as 15 slaves. Slaves were the lowest class of society.

Kind of see a parallel between what John was presenting with the body people. Slaves were the lowest class of society, and even freed criminals had more rights. Slaves had no rights at all, no legal status.

They could not marry, could not have families, they could not own property. For all intents and purposes, they were merely property of a particular owner. So that’s the context in which Paul is writing to slaves and masters.

Now here’s a question, does slavery exist today? It certainly does in many places around the world. Thankfully in our country’s history, back in January 1st of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and changed our world, our country’s trajectory and freed that difficult part of our history where slavery was so common and the slaves were freed. So, this morning as we look at this passage, we’re going to make a correlation and application, and every commentator I read made this correlation.

Today in our country we don’t have slaves, but we’re going to apply these principles, and you can see from the title, to our vocation, to employers and employees. And so, we’re going to think about four biblical principles about the marketplace or the workplace and what God has to say. Isn’t it interesting, the primary message of the Bible is the way of salvation, but the Bible has all sorts of wisdom.

It talks about finances, it talks about friendship, it talks about marriage and the family and raising children, and it talks about the workplace. And so, we’ll look at these four principles this morning as we think about what God has to say about the workplace. Isn’t it interesting, and we probably know this, that work is a gift from God.

And sometimes when we read the book of Genesis and we’re thinking about scripture, we think, well, God gave us work as part of the curse, you know, Adam and Eve sinned, and now God says, now you’re going to have to work for a living, and now that’s not quite the text story in Genesis chapter 2. We discover in verses 7 and 8 that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there he put a man he had formed. Verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to care for it.

Ah, so God created Adam, and what did God do then? God gave Adam a job to do. The first job, you are going to be a caretaker, a gardener of the garden of Eden. This is before even Eve is formed.

This is before sin came into the world in Genesis chapter 3. And so, work is part of what it means to be created in the image of God. Now what happened after the fall is that work became more difficult by the sweat of your brow, and there’s going to be thorns and thistles, and now we live in a sinful world, and we deal with all sorts of difficult relationships because of sin, but work is a gift from God. So, let’s look at this passage quickly and just think about four quick biblical principles from Colossians chapter 3, and here’s the first one.

It’s simply the obedience principle, the obedience principle. Verse 22, slaves, or you could put employees, and some of you are saying, yeah, that’s how I feel. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but as sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. And so, here’s the first basic principle, that if you have a boss, that your responsibility is to what? Submit and obey to what your boss tells you to do. Quite frankly, if you don’t, you won’t be employed for very long.

So, we’re to submit to the, to our authorities. We’re to submit to our boss. And notice the scripture says, and do it in everything.

Slaves, obey your masters in everything. And so that raises the question, is there ever a time when you’re to refuse what your boss tells you to do? And the answer to that is yes. If your employer tells you to do something that is contrary to the principles of God’s word, and this is in Acts chapter 5, verse 29, the apostles said, we ought to obey God rather than man.

And so there may be a time where you have to say, I cannot do that because that’s, that’s against my moral principles that are found in God’s word. You could lose your job for that. I’ll tell you what God will provide and honor that.

I’ve heard many stories of how that’s happened. There’s examples in the Bible of this. One of them is in Exodus chapter one.

And remember that Israel’s in slavery in Egypt and their population is exploding. And Pharaoh is getting concerned that this group of slavery people’s population will overwhelm them. And so, he gives an instruction to the Hebrew midwives.

If a baby girl is born, let her live. If a baby boy is born, I want you to kill it. And those Hebrew midwives refuse to obey that command.

We see that in the book of Daniel. Three young men that were taken captive a thousand miles away from home there in Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar builds a 90-foot-high golden statue.

And he says, whenever the music starts, I want everybody to bow down and worship my 90-foot golden statue. And that’s happening. And there’s three Hebrew young men that refuse to bow down, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And they pay the price for it, but God protects them. And so, in general, yes, we need to obey, but there are times that scripture tells us that we answer to a higher authority. And so, we have to obey God.

Notice what Paul writes to the slaves and in turn to us about obedience. He says, well, don’t just do it when the boss is there. Whether the boss is there or not, our work ethic should be the same.

And so don’t do it just to try to curry favor with your boss, but I want you to work out of sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord and do your best, give 100%. And so, the first principle is obedience. And by the way, part of the reason that costs today in the store are so high, what we pay is because of employee theft.

Very common today. It’s a huge problem. I did a little research on that.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows that employer theft leads to approximately $50 billion in losses every year. Employees that are stealing from their employer, common form of stealing cash, stealing merchandise, sensitive company information, time theft, fudging hours on their time card, taking too long of a break, that’s theft. And so, the obedience principle.

Here’s a second one that should encourage us and help us in this whole matter of the workplace. And it’s found in the last part of verse 24. Let me just read the 23 and 24 again.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart is working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward, it is the Lord Christ you are serving. So, here’s the second principle.

I kind of like this one. The Jesus is my boss principle. Matt Lucas, Matt’s in the back there, about six or seven years ago, gave me a hat.

I’ve actually not had a lot of chances to wear it, but I brought it today. Jesus is my boss. That’s what Paul’s saying here.

That ultimately your boss is not your human employer. Your boss is Jesus. Your boss is Christ.

And so, you need to work as if you’re reporting to Jesus. We need to do whatever job has called us to, whether we’re teaching, whether we’re in construction, whether we’re in engineering, whether we’re a homemaker, whether we’re cleaning house, whatever we’re doing, we need to do it as we’re serving God, as if Jesus is our boss. And so, Paul reminds us that ultimately, it’s Christ you’re serving, whether your boss is benevolent and a great boss, or whether your boss is not so benevolent, not so great.

Our oldest son, about 15 years ago, found himself in a very difficult work environment, and he had a boss that, quite frankly, was not easy to work for. It became very, very difficult for him. One of the ways that he got through those two or three years where he was working for that difficult boss is that every day when he drove into work, he told himself, I’m working for Christ, not for fill in the blank.

I’m serving Christ today, not my boss. And that’s what the Lord tells us, and Paul tells us, that every day we are serving the Lord Christ. Notice he says that in verse 25 as well, anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs.

There’s no favoritism. There’s a day coming when every injustice will be taken care of. That’s why we don’t have to get involved in revenge.

Paul writes in 2nd Timothy about a man who did him wrong. I should remember his name. It’s not coming to me.

But then Paul says, the Lord will repay him. The Lord will take care of him. It’s Alexander the coppersmith.

His name just came to me. And so, God will take care of every injustice, even in the workplace someday. Because Romans 14:12 says, well, I’ll stand before God someday to give an account, both believers and unbelievers, two different judgments.

And so, the second principle is Jesus is my boss. Here’s the third one. The third one is this, the reward principle, the reward principle.

And again, we’ve read this several times, but notice verse 24 and 23, work with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human bosses, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. You’re going to receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. And in this context, Paul’s talking about work.

And sometimes we think about rewards. The Bible has a lot to say about rewards. Revelation 22:20, I think it is.

The Lord says, I’m coming soon. My reward is with me. The judgment seat of Christ is for reward or loss of reward.

Matthew chapter six, Jesus is talking about spiritual disciplines. And he talks about giving to the needy. And he says, don’t, you know, blow trumpets and make a big deal about putting money in the offering plate.

Don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Let me read verse two of Matthew six. So, when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets.

Some refer that to that in the temple; there was these golden receptacles that people put their offering into. And people love to come in and throw a bunch of coins in there and make a lot of noise like, wow, he must have given a lot of money. Jesus says, don’t do that as the hypocrites do to be honored by others.

Truly, I tell you, they’ve received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your father who sees in secret will do what? He will reward you.

He will reward you. That same principle is found about prayer. And the same truth is found in the next couple of passages here about praying and about fasting.

He says, when you fast, don’t look as somber as the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, so others will know they’re fasting. They want people to look at them and know, oh, you must be spiritual, you’re fasting. They have the reward.

But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your father who is unseen, and your father who sees what is in secret will reward you. So, what Paul’s talking about motives. And when we do things for others to recognize us, guess what? You have your reward.

When you do things out of a motive for serving Christ and making a difference and not calling attention to yourself, guess what? You’re going to be rewarded in heaven someday. And so, Jesus later on in this passage says, don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, but lay up for yourselves. I want you to be selfish when you get to heaven, that when you get up there, you are going to have what? A great reward because of what you have done.

And so, the text here seems to indicate that one of the things that God will reward, we kind of think, well, it’s giving to God’s work. Yes, it’s praying and it’s fasting with the right motive. But here, what else God will reward? Faithfulness in your vocation.

Faithfulness in your vocation. God will reward that. A parallel passage in Ephesians chapter six, basically says the same truth here.

Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

Same principle here. And so sometimes we have this spiritual dichotomy, you know, that all Sunday is a spiritual day and we worship and we give and we serve. And then the rest of the week is different.

And the Bible says, no, no, that every day is an opportunity to serve God faithfully in our vocation, in our homes. This is what Paul means when he says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for what? The glory of God, for God’s glory. And so, there’s a reward for being faithful in our workplace.

Well, here’s the last one and we’ll just finish up with this. And it’s really verse one of chapter four, which probably in the chapter divisions should be the end of chapter three, because it fits the theme and the context. Chapter four, verse one, masters provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

And so, here’s the reminder for bosses that guess what? Don’t forget you’ve got a boss too. Your boss and your master is in heaven and is God and he sees and he knows everything that we do. And so, the text says, provide your slaves, your employees with what is right.

What is fair, fair wages, fair working conditions, because you also have a master in heaven. And so, treat those employees fairly with what is right and what is equitable. And James chapter five, when James is giving warning to those that are rich, one of the things he says in James five, four, look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out to you.

The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord almighty. You’re not paying your people right. You’re not paying them just fair wages.

And so, here’s the reminder that you have a master, a boss in heaven that you need to be accountable to someday as well. And so, four principles from Colossians chapter three that really apply to employer-employee relationships. And I think they’re important because most of us spend a lot of time in the workplace and driving to work and being at work.

And God says there’s four truths here. You need to obey your master, your employer in everything, except if he asks you to do something against God’s truth, but be obedient and remember that ultimately it is Jesus who is your boss. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

And when you do that faithfully, you’re going to be rewarded someday for being faithful and a good boss, a good employee, and for treating your people with equity and fairness. And by the way, another reason why God has you where he has you in the workplace, let me remind you, is because there’s people in the workplace that you’re going to rub shoulders with every day that need Jesus, that need to know the truth of the gospel. And so, God may have you where he has you because there’s somebody there that might need to know Jesus and you’re going to be the only Jesus they ever meet.

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Easter 2026 Blank Outline

Easter 2026 Completed Outline

I’d say we were blessed, right? But that’s not going to happen. So, so glad you’re here. And I have to be honest with you; I have a specific goal in mind for today.

I love what 1st John 5:11 through 13 says. This is what John the Apostle wrote. This is the testimony, God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

So, my goal for us today is that every person here, anybody watching on livestream, will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heaven is yours, that your sins are forgiven, and that you can face today whatever trials you’re facing because Christ is in your heart and in your life. So that’s, that’s the goal. And so, we’re going to talk about fear today, conquering our greatest fear.

So, let’s talk about fear. And I think our fears change as we, as we get older. You know, when, when we’re young and you parents with young children have had this experience that you put your kids to bed at night and all of a sudden, you hear some footsteps and they’re running into your room because they’re afraid.

They’re afraid of the dark. And so, they want to climb into bed with mom and dad because they’re fearful of the dark. As we get a little older, our fears change.

When you become a teenager, the greatest fear is not fitting in. And so, your peer group, peer pressure becomes the number one driving force in the decisions you make because you want to fit in with everybody else. There’s a new acrostic today, if you’re familiar with F-O-M-O, fear of missing out, and I’m going to miss out on fun.

I have to tell you, when I was ready to go to college, I knew I wanted to go to a Christian college. I was 17 years old and I’ve been exposed to all these Christian colleges. My older brother had gone to Cedarville University in Southern Ohio.

There was Cornerstone University. My dad served on the board there for 40 years in Grand Rapids. Taylor University.

So here was my plan. I’m like, you know what, I’m going to go to a different Christian college every year, you know, so I don’t want to miss out on any fun. So, I’ll start out at Cedarville, then I’ll transfer to Cornerstone, then I’ll go to Taylor, and then somebody said, that’s not the way it works.

So okay, okay. But I didn’t want to miss out on any fun. Fears.

How about fear of rejection? Confession time. I ended up at Cedarville University. I never really dated in high school.

We kind of hung out in groups, and so here I am, a freshman in high school. I’d never asked a girl out on a date in my life, and I was so afraid of rejection. So, here’s what I did.

I talked to my roommate, Joe, and I said, hey, kind of thinking of asking this girl out. Her name, sorry, dear, her name’s Marlene. It was Marlene, and I said, but would you like talk to her and just say, I’m thinking of asking her out, and then if she says yes, then come back and let me know, and then I’ll ask her out.

Let’s take the rejection factor out of it. Oh, fear of rejection, and as we get older, we get into a new job, and the fear, like, do I have what it takes to do this new job? Then we have children, and that brings a whole other set of fears in our life, and then they get a driver’s license for our kids, and that brings a whole new level of fear. As we get older, then fear of aging, but survey after survey says that Americans’ greatest fear is the fear of death.

It’s called thanatophobia. Thanatos is the Greek word for death, so it’s the fear of death. Hebrews 9:27 tells us a sobering truth this morning, and the author of Hebrews says, for it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment.

So, the fact of the matter is, unless Jesus comes back in our lifetime, we’re all going to die, and the good news this morning is that because what we’ve been singing about and what we’ve been reading about is that Jesus came to take the fear of death away from us. That’s Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. It ties the Christmas story and the Easter story together.

Here’s what the author of Hebrews writes, since mankind has flesh and blood, he, referring to Jesus, shared in their humanity, so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil. And then verse 15, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. And so, Jesus came to take the sting and the fear of dying from each and every one of us, and because he rose again 2,000 years ago, we have victory over the grave.

So, I read this on Facebook, it must be true. 4,200 world religions, there’s only one empty tomb. There’s only one empty tomb.

4,200 world religions and one empty tomb. So, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. So, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to 1st Corinthians 15 or just to follow along with the outline on the screen.

It’s called the resurrection chapter. Paul wrote this to a church that had massive problems. There was infighting, there was all sorts of problems going on in the church at Corinth, and so Paul writes to kind of try to correct some of those problems.

But in chapter 15, he presents this glorious truth that is the cornerstone of Christianity. It’s called the resurrection chapter. So, we’re going to go through an outline.

There’s seven points. They all start with the letter P, and then we’re going to think about four questions that we each need to consider in our lives. I also have a green insert in the bulletin.

I’d really like, if you don’t mind, toward the end of the service, to just fill this out and just give you an opportunity to respond to what we’re talking about today. You know, when Paul preached the gospel in Mars Hill to the intellectuals in Athens, Greece, some mocked, some said, that’s foolishness. Some believed, and some said, hey, I’d like to hear a little more about that.

And so, the gospel always demands a response, and so there’s a little table in the back, and you can put those in the little basket, and that would encourage me and help me if you would do that toward the end of the service.

So, let’s look at 1st Corinthians 15. Here’s the first point, the priority, the priority. If there’s one or two verses in the Bible that summarize the gospel in a nutshell, it’s 1st Corinthians 15:3 and 4. Here’s what Paul writes, for what I received, I pass on to you. So, Paul didn’t come up with this. This is something that he received, and he says, it is of first importance.

That’s the word. This is the priority. This is the most important thing.

What is the most important thing, Paul? That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Notice that Paul uses that phrase according to the scriptures two times, because this was all prophesied in the Old Testament. 700 years before Jesus came, Isaiah wrote Isaiah 53, and talking about the Messiah is going to be the suffering servant, and people misunderstood in the first century that they thought Jesus was going to be this political deliverer who would deliver the nation of Israel from Roman oppression.

They didn’t understand that first he had to suffer and die, and so Paul says this is all according to the scriptures. Here’s the gospel. It is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus, and so for churches like ours that believe the Bible, believe in the gospel, someone has said the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, and so for community Bible church, the main thing is the gospel.

It’s interesting how easy it is for even religious or Christian organizations to have mission drift, and you forget the sole purpose that why we are here. So why do we have an Awana program? Because we want to reach kids with the gospel. Why do we have Beyond Awana? We want to reach kids with the gospel.

Why do we support 14 different missionaries that are serving around the world? Because we want to reach the world with the gospel. Why do we have faith talks, which is training a handful of people how to share their faith? Because we want people to know the good news of the gospel, and so here’s the priority. The priority, Paul lays it out in the first couple verses here, verses three and four.

The priority is the gospel. Now how do you know something’s true? This has become a problem in our culture. We didn’t have to face this when I was growing up.

When I was growing up back in the 60s, there was three television stations, ABC, NBC, CBS. My folks watched the CBS news every night. Walter Cronkite was the main anchor, and he gave the news, and he had this little tagline that he finished with, and if Walter Cronkite said it, it was true.

He was voted the most trusted man in America year after year after year. Today, people don’t know what’s true. There’s such a thing as revisionist history.

People are trying to say, well, the Holocaust really didn’t happen with AI, and now, you know, I’m on Facebook some, and I see these videos, and now I’m like, I don’t think that’s really happened. You know, it’s somebody digitally mastering things, so, you know, and then there’s fake news. There’s people that say, well, that’s your truth and my truth.

No, there’s only one truth, and so we move from the priority of the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, so how do we know that Jesus rose from the dead? And so now Paul moves to the proof. So, he’s writing to the Corinthian church, and he says, let me tell you, this was written probably 20 years after Jesus rose from the dead, so this is two decades later after the resurrection of Jesus, and here’s the proof. He begins to list people who actually saw the resurrected Christ.

It’s interesting, and we’ll get to that, but in 1st John chapter 1, here’s the Apostle John’s introduction to 1st John, that which was from the beginning, which we’ve heard, which we’ve seen with our eyes, which we’ve looked at, our hands have touched, this we proclaim to you concerning the word of life. He says, we’ve seen him, we’ve heard him, we’ve touched him, he’s alive, he’s alive, and so Paul’s going to list six different post-resurrection appearances that Jesus made. So, here’s, just to give you the timeline, Good Friday, Jesus was on the cross from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., they put him in that tomb of Joseph of Arimathea on Friday before the Sabbath occurred.

There was Saturday, Sunday morning, the ladies come to the tomb, they find it empty, and the Bible tells us for 40 days he made post-resurrection appearances. There’s at least 10 of them recorded in the New Testament. He actually talked to people and ate with people and showed the physical wounds in his hands that Jesus is alive.

And so, it’s interesting that in a court of law today, they do not allow hearsay when they’re doing a trial. They’ll throw something out like, no, that’s just, that’s secondary information, that’s hearsay. The most powerful, weighty testimony in a court of law is what? First-hand eyewitness.

Someone who testifies and says, no, I want to tell you, I saw this and this is exactly what happened. And so, the Bible is before the time of laws in our court system. Here’s Deuteronomy chapter 17, verse 6. This is what God gave in the law in Deuteronomy 17:6. On the testimony of two or three witnesses, a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

So, we’re not going to give somebody the death penalty just because one person says something. You at least have to have two, better to have three eyewitnesses who testify to this event. Now the apostle Paul picks up on that in the New Testament, and he’s talking about in the pastoral epistles, pastors and elders, and this is what 1st Timothy 5:19 says, do not entertain an accusation against an elder or pastor unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.

Now, why is that in there? Paul says, you know, just one person coming and accusing me or a pastor of doing something. No, you need to have two or three witnesses. And so here Paul’s giving us in this text six post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

Let me just read it. He goes on to say in verse 5 that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that, verse 6, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of which are still living, though some have fallen asleep, some have died.

He appeared to 500 people at once. Most of them are still alive. Go talk to them.

Go hear their testimony. He goes on to list the other post-resurrection appearances. Then he appeared to James, then the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also.

And so, here’s Paul’s testimony. The proof of the empty tomb is that Jesus made all these post-resurrection appearances. So now we have a problem, and that’s the verse 12.

That’s the next part of the text. Here’s the problem. There’s always skeptics.

There’s always deniers. There’s always people that say, well, we don’t believe in the resurrection. We don’t believe in afterlife.

There were two Jewish religious sects, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. One of the things that distinguished the Sadducees from the Pharisees is they didn’t believe in the resurrection. They believed in nihilism.

About a quarter of the population of the United States population today believes in nihilism. How sad is that, that the grave is the end? nihilism believes that personal consciousness and identity are completely and permanently distinguished at death. And so that this life is all there is, and that the grave is the end.

And that was true in Paul’s day. And so, verse 12 says, but if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If we’re saying that Christ is raised, how come there’s a lot of people that are saying he’s not raised? He hasn’t risen? That the tomb is not empty? That could have been easily disproved because they could have just gone there and shown the body of Jesus. Isn’t it interesting that there was fake news in the resurrection story? Because when we go to Matthew chapter 28, verses 11 through 15, here’s what was happening.

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city that were guarding the tomb and reported to the chief priest everything that happened, that the tomb is empty. When the chief priest met with the elders, they devised a plan. They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, here’s what you’re to say.

His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So, the soldiers took the money, did as they were instructed, and this story has been circulated among the Jews to this very day.

So, there was this big cover-up attempt and a payoff and just say, just say that the disciples stole his body. So, Paul says there’s some skeptics, there’s some deniers, and so that leads us to the predicament in verses 13 through 19, the predicament. And so, Paul says, okay, let’s assume, let’s assume the truth that there is no such thing as resurrection.

There is no afterlife. And now Paul goes through this long list of things that happen, would happen, and would be true if there is no afterlife. Let me just read verses 13 through 19.

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ isn’t even raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses where the apostles are a bunch of liars, for we have testified about God and that he raised Christ from the dead.

But he did not raise him, but he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile.

You’re still in your sins. Your sins have not been forgiven. Then also those who have died in Christ are lost.

You’re never going to see your loved ones again that have died in Christ. And then he says, if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. We are to be pitied.

Oh, those poor, miserable Christians, they believe in the resurrection, they believe in Christ. It was back in the 1980s when Ted Turner, who was the founder of CNN and TNT and Turner Broadcasting Network, he’s 87 years old today, but back in 1980, he referred to Christianity as a religion for losers. It’s for people who need some sort of like emotional crutch.

They’re not strong enough to make it through life on their own. And so, they’re weak and they need an emotional crutch. So, they came up with this thing called Christianity.

He later apologized in the 1990s for making that statement. And I but Paul says, if there’s no resurrection, then we’re in a boatload of trouble. We might as well close the doors of our church and I need to go find another occupation.

But here’s where the whole chapter turns with that little three letter word, B-U-T, in verse 20, and it’s the proclamation, 1st Corinthians 15:20. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the euphemism for death. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead came also through a man.

For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. We’re going to talk about that a little bit. At some point in time, every person is going to be resurrected.

And there’s two different resurrections in the Bible. Believe me, you want to be at the first one, not the last one. But he goes on to say in verse 23, but each in turn, Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him.

So, there’s something called the rapture that Christ is coming back. That’s when the first resurrection is going to take place. That’s 1st Thessalonians 4. Christ doesn’t come all the way down to earth.

There’s a meeting in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first. We which are alive and remain will be caught up with him and together in the clouds.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That’s when that first resurrection happens. Then verse 24, then the end will come when Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, is death. So, Paul says, yeah, here’s what’s going to happen if there’s no such thing as a resurrection, but he says Christ is alive and that gives us hope.

And there’s going to be a resurrection someday for all who are alive and pass away. So now Paul begins to talk about this new body, this resurrection. So, we’re going to talk about the parameters.

What’s this body look like? And we don’t have time to go into this text, but there’s two questions that are asked in verse 35, but someone will ask, how are the dead raised? Secondly, with what kind of body will they come? So how does this happen? And what are these new bodies going to look like? What are these bodies? And we don’t have time to read the whole text, but Paul talks, the analogy is a seed that’s planted in the ground that dies and then springs up to new life. So, let’s just think about, and people have asked me this question, what happens when a Christian dies at that moment of death? And here’s what I believe the Bible teaches. So, a person dies, 2nd Corinthians 5:8, absent from the body, if they know Jesus, present with the Lord.

Their soul, their spirit, whatever you want to call the immaterial part, goes directly into the presence of God. What did Jesus say to the thief on the cross? You will be with me in about 100 years. No, today, you will be with me in paradise.

And so, the body is buried, or the body is cremated. I often get the question, you know, is it okay for a Christian to be cremated? And the Bible really doesn’t talk about that. It simply hastens the process of decay.

It’s no problem for Jesus to create a new body out of decay. He formed Adam out of dust. So that just hastens the process.

Diane and I are both on a little bit of the opposite side of this. We’ve begun to, you know, he hits 70, you need to begin to think these things through. Diane says, she wants to be cremated, I want to be buried.

So, you know, that’s our little, okay, have it your way and I’ll have it my way. But what, so then what happens? So, we’ve got, we’re in heaven, but do we have bodies? And the Bible doesn’t speak very clearly about that. So let me just read a paragraph from a fellow by the name of Randy Alcorn, who wrote an extensive book on heaven, 492 pages long.

If you have any question about heaven, he addresses it. And here’s what he writes. This is, do people have intermediate bodies in the present heaven? If those in heaven are granted temporary forms, and I recognize it as only a possibility, it would in no way minimize the absolute necessity or critical importance of our future bodily resurrection, which Paul establishes in 1st Corinthians 15.

We do not receive resurrection bodies immediately after death. Resurrection is not one at a time. If we have intermediate forms in the intermediate heaven, they won’t be our true bodies, which have died.

Continuity is only between our original and resurrection bodies. If we are given intermediate forms, they are at best temporary, comparable to the human appearing bodies that angels sometimes take on, distinct from our true bodies, which remain dead until our resurrection. So, so here the body is in the ground, and then when Jesus comes back, the dead in Christ are going to rise.

And it’s going to be the exact same body that you had, only it’s going to be much, much better. Paul describes it in these three verses here in 1st Corinthians 15. So, it will be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body is sown perishable, so our bodies are dying and decaying. It is raised imperishable, indestructible. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. Not a spirit, but a spiritual body.

And so perhaps the best understanding of what our new bodies are going to be like is to understand the body of Jesus when he was resurrected. And so, Jesus ate, Jesus’ kind of did some time travel. Remember the first night on the resurrection night, the disciples are in a room, the doors are locked, they’re afraid because they’re thinking if they kill Jesus, they’re coming after us, and all of a sudden who appears? Jesus.

They just, it’s just like time travel. And he appears to them and says don’t be afraid, it’s me, look at my hands, look at my side. And so we have these new bodies and thank God that we have new bodies that the Apostle John says there’s going to be no more in heaven, no more sorrow, no more disease, no more suffering, no more curse, no more pain, I’ll vote for that, because we got new bodies that will never be destroyed and that will be just like the body of Jesus.

And so, Paul begins to wrap this chapter up and in verse 52 he’s talking about that moment of resurrection and the appearance of Jesus. He says, behold, verse 51, I tell you a mystery, we shall not sleep but we shall all be changed. That sometimes is a verse that’s over the door of the nursery and churches; we not all sleep but we’ll all be changed.

Thank you, I got one laugh. In a flash, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall all be changed.

So, Paul tells us about these resurrected bodies. Now here’s our last point and it’s the prophetic declaration and so Paul finishes this resurrection chapter like, man, like with a victory cry and just like looking, shaking his fist at death. And I call it a prophetic declaration because when we get to verse, the end of verse 54 and verse 55, they’re quotes from the Old Testament from Isaiah and the book of Hosea.

So let me, let me just read the text here. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable, the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true.

This is from Isaiah 25. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where oh death is your victory? Where oh death is your sting? Verse 57, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And therefore, then there’s an application here. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

And so, Paul finishes this chapter with a victory cry. Our last enemy has been defeated. It is death because Jesus conquered the grave.

And Jesus says, I am the resurrection of life because I live. You too will live someday. So maybe my wife Diane’s new favorite song is by Mercy Me and it’s called Oh Death.

We don’t have time to play it, but let me tell you the lyrics here, the chorus. This is what the song says. Oh death, I will not be afraid.

In the end, you will lose. I will dance on your grave with the one who buried you. You ain’t nothing but a stone that my savior rolled away, set you straight and set me free.

Oh death, you are dead to me. Oh death, you are dead to me. That’s the great truth of Christianity, that death has been defeated.

And if you have a loved one in Christ that has died, and you know Jesus, your savior, the wonderful hope that you will see them again someday. My mom was a pastor’s wife and died relatively young at the age of 50. It was 1978 when our family stood around her casket at her funeral.

And right before they’re going to close the casket and the service is going to start, I’ll forever remember the words of my dad. We will see her again someday. 48 years later, that’s still the hope, the hope of resurrection, the hope of reunion.

And so, I’ll just begin to bring this to a close this morning. I was reading this last week a book by Erwin Lutzer entitled One Minute After You Die. And it talks a lot about what that’s going to be like for people who know Jesus, for people who don’t.

But he talks about the fear of dying. Let me read a little bit of this section here. Dr. Lutzer writes, I for one would like to have dying grace long before I need it.

What’s that going to be like? But the famous English preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, says that death is the last enemy destroyed and we should leave him to the last. He adds, brother, you do not want dying grace till dying moments. What would be the good of dying grace while you are yet alive? A boat will only be needful when you reach a river.

Ask for living grace and glorify Christ thereby, and then you will have dying grace when the time comes. Your enemy is going to be destroyed, but not today. Leave the final shock of arms till the last adversary advances, and meanwhile hold your place in the conflict.

God will in due time help you to overcome your last enemy, but meanwhile see to it that you overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. And Dr. Lutzer writes, some believers who thought they could not face death discovered that they had the strength to die gracefully when the time came. When you were in that moment, that’s when God will give you the grace and the strength to face and defeat our final enemy death.

So let me tell you about our friend Laura. Laura is a young lady that we became acquainted with through her sister Susan and her husband Nick, who served on the music team at Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference for several summers while we were there. So, we got to know both Susan and Nick.

And Susan’s sister Laura had been fighting a cancer journey for four or five years, guessing Laura to be in her mid to late 30s, maybe early 40s. We followed it along on Facebook. Here’s what Laura wrote six weeks ago.

Friends, recently I was hospitalized again, and while I was there, I received some sad news that initially I was not ready to hear. My liver is very sick and that I should consult hospice and prepare for the end, with said end coming potentially in as little as a few weeks. Initially I was shocked and devastated and a little angry.

But she writes, but in the hours and days that I continued to lay in the hospital, I was blessed with the most supernatural peace. So, this week I planned my funeral. I met with a funeral home.

I did a tour of cemeteries. I secured a burial plot and wrote my obituary. Then she writes, I have so much peace.

I’m grateful for the gifts of this past week. And she lists all sorts of blessings that happen. I’m experiencing such sweet intimacy with Jesus.

And three weeks ago, Laura went into the presence of the Lord. Dying grace because she knew Jesus.

And so, we’re going to conclude by just asking some questions to consider. And I think they’re on the screen or they might be in your notes. And here’s the most important one, the most significant one. So, as I mentioned, the Bible speaks of two future resurrections.

With different participants and different outcomes. The question is, do you know which one you’re going to be at? The first one we’ve already mentioned, it’s the first resurrection that Paul’s writing about here in 1st Corinthians 15 and 1st Thessalonians 4. It’s to those who belong to Jesus. And if you’re alive, when Jesus comes, you’re going to be caught up and taken up to heaven.

If you’ve died, the dead in Christ are going to be raised and will be in Jesus’ presence forever and ever. And Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers who were worried about their loved ones that had died and Jesus hadn’t come back. So, he talks about the order of this.

And then he finishes by saying, comfort one another with these words. Give encouragement. You will see your loved one in Christ again someday.

So, here’s the committal statement that I’ve read at least 150 gravesides by now. The close of a service at the cemetery for as much it has pleased Almighty God to take out of this world the soul of the person that’s died. We therefore commit their body to the ground looking for what the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, at which time those who are in Christ will be resurrected and given a new body like Jesus’ new body.

You’re going to see this loved one again someday. That’s the hope and the encouragement. That’s the resurrection for believers.

But there’s another resurrection that the Bible talks about at the end of the book of Revelation. That’s the resurrection of unbelievers. It’s for those whose, quite frankly, the Bible says their names are not written in the book of life.

And God has a book of those names of those who have put their faith in Jesus. And so, Revelation 12:20 rather, verses 11 through 15, it’s called the great white throne judgment. Then I saw a great white throne with him who was seated on it.

The earth and the heavens fled from his presence and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in it. And each person was judged according to what they had done.

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

That’s resurrection number two for those that don’t put their faith in Jesus. And I want to be sure that you’re not at that resurrection. I want you to be at the first one.

And the good news is that you can be in the gospel is so simple that people stumble on it. A, admit that you’re a sinner. We’ve all fallen short of God’s perfect standard.

How good do you have to be to get into heaven? Andy Stanley says you have to be perfect. Therefore, we all have a problem. B stands for belief.

You have to believe who Jesus is, that he said who he was and is, that he is the perfect son of God who went to the cross and died for your sin and my sin. And then simply the C stands for confess or accept the gift of eternal life. And so, it’s not just intellectual belief.

It’s coming to the place where you’re willing to admit that you need a savior and turn from your sin and put your faith in Jesus and Jesus alone to pay for your sin debt. And when we start to add other things to that, then it becomes a works-based system. Bible says we’re saved by grace through faith, not of works.

And we think we have to work our way to heaven. We’re saying, well, Jesus, your death on the cross wasn’t enough. So, I need to help you out a little bit here.

So that’s the gospel. I call it the great exchange. He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

And we simply pray that prayer and receive Christ as our savior. That’s the first question. Here’s number two.

Do I regularly express my gratitude to God for my salvation, for my rescue? So, Paul closes this chapter, and we read the verse 57 in the resurrection chapter here. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. So, if you have received Christ, my challenge to you is you need to thank him every day for what he’s done for you.

He’s rescued you. He’s given you the gift of eternal life. I call it my daily five.

Every morning I start out, I pray, thank God for five things, sometimes more. But I thank God for these five, my daily five. I thank him for life.

I thank him for my health. I thank him for my family. I thank him for the ministry that he’s put me in.

And I thank him for salvation every day. Thank you. Thank you, Lord.

And so, we need to be grateful. And part of the reason you’re here today is expressing your gratitude and worshiping who Jesus is. Number three, am I standing firm in the faith? Verse 58, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.

Let nothing move you. Know what you believe and who Jesus is. And be firm and steadfast in your belief in the scriptures and your commitment to the Lord.

And then lastly, here’s the fourth one. Am I using my time, talent, and treasure to advance God’s kingdom? He closes, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Hey, this is true.

And if Christ has redeemed us, we need to show him our gratitude through what? Investing our time, our talent, and our treasure in ministry and ministering to others and thanking God for what he has done for us. As my late friend, Pat Riefma, said, he’s now with the Lord. He used to be the head football coach at Northwood University.

He used to tell his players all the time, go mad, M-A-D, go mad, go make a difference. You know, football is just, you know, this vehicle to enjoy. Go make a difference with your life.

Well, that’s my prayer for all of you, that you know him, that you’ll serve him, and that this will be an encouragement to you. And for many of you lost loved ones and friends in the last year, if they know Jesus, what an encouragement. You’ll see him again.

It’s just a temporary farewell until Jesus comes.

The post Conquering Our Greatest Fear appeared first on Community Bible Church.

March 29, 2026 Blank Outline

March 29, 2026 Filled in Outline

Bible Verses – Colossians 3:18-21

Well, Jesus gave a great victory cry, didn’t he, on the cross on Good Friday? He cried out, Tetelestai means it is finished. And isn’t it good to know that we don’t have to do anything to add to earn our salvation? Jesus paid it all, and we just need to believe and receive the wonderful gift of eternal life. All right, we’re going to read Psalm 127, and this morning is our scripture reading.

Words are on the screen, and you can follow along as I read. Here’s what the psalmist writes. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat, for he grants sleep to those he loves. Children are heritage from the Lord.

Offspring a reward from him, like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.

Well, we are on our journey through the book of Colossians, if you’ve been with us for the last couple of months.

And we are in Colossians chapter 3, this letter written from Paul to Epaphras, actually the church at Colossae where Epaphras was serving as pastor. And Paul’s under house arrest. Epaphras makes a 1300-mile journey, visits Paul in Rome, tells him about what’s going on at the church at Colossae.

And Paul writes this letter to correct some doctrinal errors, but also to encourage the church. And so, we’re in the more practical section of Colossians, and we’re in Colossians chapter 3. The subtitle in my NIV Bible says, Instructions for Christian Households. And so, God ordained three institutions.

Marriage and the family is the first one. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. Marriage and the family is God’s idea.

God’s the designer, the architect. That’s why he’s giving us some instructions on how the family should operate and work. The second one is the government.

Romans 13, the powers that be are ordained of God. And so, God places leaders and disposes of leaders, and government is God’s idea. It’s instituted to protect us and to stand for truth and to punish evildoers.

That’s the purpose of government. And thirdly, the church. Jesus says in Matthew 16, I will build my church.

That’s the first mention of the word church. And the gates of hell won’t prevail against it. Acts chapter 2, the church began on the day of Pentecost.

And so, those are the three divinely ordained institutions. And this morning, we’re going to look at four directives. We looked at two last week.

We’re going to look at two more this morning about how the family should function. So, last week, we gave a couple of introductory truths. Let me just go over them really quickly.

Number one, God designed the family to function according to his design. Lots of ideas about how the family should work. The role of the husband, the role of the wife, the role of the kids.

But God designed the family, and he gives us some instructions on how it works best. So, it works best to function when each member understands their God-given role and functions according to it. And so, marriage works best when a husband understands his role, a wife understands her role, the kids understand their role in the family unit.

And that’s God’s design, and we’re going to look at that. Second introductory truth, men and women are equal before God, but function in differing roles in marriage. So, there’s equality, but there’s differing roles.

And so, we started out last week by looking at the role of the wife, and we use this word, suitable helper. It’s from Genesis 2:18. Remember the creation story, Genesis chapter 1, it’s good, it is good, it is good, it is good. That phrases you nine times.

Then finally, God says, after he creates Adam, something’s not good. What’s not good? It’s not good that man should be alone. And so, we read in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18, that Eve is created out of Adam’s rib.

And let me read 2:18, the Lord God said, it’s not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. So, we looked at this word, helper.

It can sound condescending, but it really isn’t. It means that God brings two people together, and the wife’s role is to complement her husband, C-O-M-P-L-E-M-E-N-T. Although, if you want to stick an I in there and do that, that’s good as well.

It’s not a derogatory term in any way. It’s that God realized that husbands had some deficiencies, and they needed help when all the ladies say amen, right? Right, right. And Adam and Eve, Eve was the perfect helper.

That word is used of God himself. In Psalm chapter 7, verse 5, God, you are my help and deliverer. It used to describe God’s role in our life.

And so, role of the wife, suitable helper. The role of the husband, we said loving leader. And the command in Colossians is husbands, love your wives.

It’s the word agape, the highest form of love. The parallel verse in Ephesians, as Christ loved the church, sacrificial love, a willingness to die for your spouse. And so, the role of the husband, loving leader.

We talked about this nasty word in our culture today of submission. And we looked at Ephesians 5:21, that says, Paul says, submit to one another. So, in marriage, there’s a mutual submission.

But as we shared last week, when you can’t come to a compromise, and you can’t come to an agreement, then there has to be somebody that makes the decision. And in God’s design for the family, that’s where the husband is the head of the household, comes in to make that decision and to be responsible before God for that decision. Well, this morning, we’re going to get to the role of the kids, the children, and then the role of the parents.

So, some great verses here. Maybe we should bring all the kids back up from junior church for these next five minutes here. The role of children, two words, obey and honor.

Obey and honor. Here it is, Colossians 3:20, children. And by the way, that word Téknon means dependent children.

Okay? So, if you’re claiming them on your W-2 forms, that means they’re probably living at your home and you’re supporting for them. That’s who this is directed to. Not adult children, but dependent children.

Children, here it is. Obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. Obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 6:1 was one of my favorite verses to quote. It says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. So, obedience.

And we’re going to talk about obedience in just a little bit, but let me just at least touch on this second word of honor. Because as we leave the home and establish our own home, when we’re out from under the umbrella of our mom and dad’s support and living on our own, whether single or married, the responsibility for scripture says you need to honor your parents, to honor your parents. It’s first command with a promise according to Exodus 20.

But here’s what John Trent and Gary Smalley, they wrote a book called The Gift of Honor. Here’s how they describe honor. Honor is the decision we make to place high value, worth, and importance on another person and granting that person a position in our lives worthy of respect, worthy of respect.

And so, we need to honor our parents. Now, sometimes this is difficult to do because some of us may have been raised in a home where it’s like, well, I don’t think my parents are worthy of honor. The question isn’t, are they worthy of honor? The Bible says you need to honor them.

And we can talk about ways in which we can do that to give them a place of value in our lives. So, in this book by Smalley and Trent, they gave a little section and asked the question to others, what could your children do or have they done to make you feel honored? So, what does this look like? They list about 25 answers here. I’ll just give a few.

These are parents saying, this is what would honor me. On a day other than mother or Father’s Day, it would mean so much to get a card or letter from our children letting us know that they’re thinking of us. Another person said, even though it’s difficult for me to do, my daughter always makes a point of hugging me when we get together.

That makes her feel honored. As a single mom, when my school-age children do chores without being asked or additional chores, I feel honored. A couple others here.

When I see my daughter seeking after God, I can’t think of anything that brings me more honor. Third John 4 says, I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth. This is number 17 on the list.

When my children let me spend time with the grandchildren, I feel honored. And all the parents said, amen. It’s time with the grandkids.

Here’s one more. The greatest present I ever received from my son was a cassette tape. Boy, that dates this book, doesn’t it? A cassette tape that looked back on several specific things I had done for him in the past.

It’s expressing honor and staying in touch with mom and dad and giving them a place of value in our lives. I’ve shared this many times before. I think I’ve probably now gotten to the point that I can read it without crying.

We have three adult sons. What do you do on Father’s Day when you’ve been around for lots of years? I don’t need anything. I got 50 ties.

I don’t need ties. I don’t need clothes. But my most valued Father’s Day gift came from 2008 when our youngest son simply wrote a poem and had it framed.

It was entitled, You Taught Me. Some of you have heard this before, but I’m going to read it again. This is from Andrew.

You’ve taught me everything I know and how to live my life. You’ve taught me how to love a girl and how to pick a wife. You’ve taught me how to play some sports and how to play a game.

You taught me when it comes to God to never stand in shame. You taught me how God’s our shepherd and we are God’s herd. You taught me how to follow him and how to read God’s word.

You taught me how to appreciate the things I haven’t had. You taught me all I know for that I love you, Dad. You taught me all these things and more.

So, what else can I say? I guess all that is left is happy Father’s Day. So that poem like hangs in my office and all that cost was a little creativity, but that’s the gift of honor. So back to Colossians 3, children obey your parents.

So, this is something that needs to be taught because children are born into this world as sinners. Psalm 51, David wrote, In sin my mother conceived me. He’s not saying that was an illicit relationship.

He’s saying that every person in this world is born in Adam and therefore we’re sinners. We don’t have to teach our kids to disobey. It comes naturally.

About the third word they learn, Papa, Mama, mine. That’s mine. It comes to them naturally.

So, here’s Chip Ingram, wrote a book, Effective Parenting in a Defective World. He says, A child does not learn obedience by accident. It takes intentional effort by parents and that effort requires commitment.

Commitment to provide the necessary resources for the children to learn to obey. If submission and obedience to parents is not learned early in a child’s life, it’ll impact all of their future relationships with their teachers, with their employers, with their spouses, with their aging parents, and even with God. And so, this is crucial to teach submission and obedience.

And what are the resources that God has given us to do that? Just very quickly, first of all, God’s Word. So how do we know right from wrong? We live in a culture that is a relativistic culture and there’s your truth and my truth. But the Bible says, no, there’s absolute truth.

And so, we have to teach them there is a standard of right and wrong. There is absolute truth. Two plus two equals four, not five, six, seven, eight, or any other number.

There is absolute truth. It’s established in the character of God. John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

John 17:17, your word is truth. And so, this book, the Bible, is the guidebook for decision-making, for truth, for right and wrong. Here’s how the psalmist in Psalm 19 describes the scriptures, God’s Word.

He uses a lot of different words to describe God’s Word. But David wrote, the law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. And so, what’s the starting point? They need to learn early on God’s truth, and the standards of truth, and what the Ten Commandments are, and that ultimately, when God says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right, that ultimately disobedience is not just against mom and dad, but ultimately every sin is against the Holy God, and that sin has consequences. And so, they need to learn to obey, not just needing to know the standard of Scripture, the what, but they also need to understand the why, that it is an affront to God.

They also need to learn to defend their faith, as we all do, 1st Peter 3, verse 15, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

The word there, answer, is the word apologia. It means apologetics. It doesn’t mean we’re apologizing for our faith.

It means we know how to defend our faith. We know how to answer the hard questions. And so, part of the reason that I think that sometimes kids that grow up in the church, and they kind of learn the memory verses, and they go through all the motions, but they never understand the deeper things of why, and then they get out in the culture, and they begin to question things.

And so, it’s not just what, it’s why. For example, this means being ready to answer questions, how can you prove God exists? Doesn’t evolution prove there is no God? How can an intelligent person believe the Bible when it was written thousands of years ago? Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions? How can a supposedly loving God send a good person to hell? Don’t all faiths basically worship the same God, just in different ways? What makes Christianity right and all other religions wrong? If God is all powerful and all loving, why do evil and suffering exist in the world? How can someone say Jesus is the only way to God? This is from a book called Fearless Parenting. So, mom and dad, how do you think your teenager will do when a non-believer asks them one of those questions? Because if this type of questioning of their faith hasn’t happened yet, it will very soon, and your job is to make sure they’re prepared to answer such questions.

And so not just the what, but they need to understand the why. So, resources for teaching obedience. God’s Word.

Here’s another one. How about prayer? How about prayer? 1st Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. James 5:16, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

This is pictured in Job chapter 1, where Job had 10 children. Every day it’s a picture of intercessory prayer, praying for our kids. One way to improve your prayer life is to have kids and grandkids.

And so, prayer is another key resource for teaching kids’ obedience and praying that God will soften their hearts and help them to learn submission and obedience to mom and dad. All right, let’s go back to Colossians 3 then. So, the role of the children, obey, honor your parents, and then the role of the parents.

Here we are in Colossians 3, this is verse 21. It’s addressed to fathers, the footnote in my Bible says, or parents. So, fathers, parents, Colossians 3:21, do not embitter your children or they become discouraged.

I looked this verse up in lots of different translations. There’s a Holman Christian standard Bible translation that says, do not exasperate your children. The ESV says, do not provoke your children.

The message, which is a paraphrase says, do not come down too hard on your children or you will crush their spirit. The New Living Translation, do not aggravate your children or they will become discouraged. Here’s the role of parents, the role of parents.

And here, Paul gives some instructions regarding the parents’ role. And we’ll look at that in just a little bit. But I want us to look, and I think it’s in your notes, a study that was done several years ago.

And here it is, case study, the Rubin Hill, Minnesota report. And so let me give you a little background on this, and then we’ll look at it and hopefully explain it a little bit, because I think it can help us in our parenting role. Here’s an article focused on the family article from 2023.

There is no responsible parent on the planet who hasn’t struggled with getting a child to obey. We’ve all been there. I’m having a flashback right now of our oldest son.

It was bedtime. And he was being rather defiant going to bed. So, I put him in bed and he’s crying and making a ruckus and getting out of bed.

That happens two or three times. And back in bed, I said, do not get out of that bed. And if your feet touch that floor, I’m going to spank you.

And he’s crying. And I walk out of the room, and first thing I hear is feet on the floor. I go in, I paddle him.

That’s like the fourth time he got out. I said, stay in that bed. If your feet touch that floor, you’ll get a spanking.

That happened about three or four times. And then I’m like, I don’t know what else to do. I think he was overly tired and glassy-eyed, and we gave him a little special juice to calm him down.

Don’t report us. And he went to bed, but I was like, I don’t know what to do. He was being so defiant.

But that will has to be broken, but we don’t want to break their spirit. So, no responsible parent on the planet hasn’t struggled with getting a child to obey, and it can be an excruciating experience, as I just related. How do you get your child to mind without losing yours? That’s a great question.

And so, he goes on to say, it’s important to understand our parenting styles might contribute to this. So here it is. Sociologist Ruben Hill conducted a study of thousands of teens and parents in Minnesota.

He’ll put all his research on a grid with an x-axis and a y-axis in four quadrants that you see on the screen. The horizontal axis measures how much discipline or control parents exercise in the relationship with the children, from all the way to the right, extreme control to do whatever you want, no control. The vertical axis measures love, so lots of love, 100 on the top there, or you don’t feel any love for mom or dad.

And so, they came up with four parenting styles. Upper left-hand corner permissive, bottom left neglectful, bottom right authoritarian, and upper right authoritative. So let me just briefly comment on those.

So permissive parents are high in love, and you love your child, love them so much that maybe you don’t want to discipline them. Permissive parents tend to produce children with low self-esteem and feelings of inferiority, though the parents express a lot of love. The lack of boundaries leaves children with a high level of security.

Actually, children want boundaries. They want to know how far they can go. That gives them safety and security.

Secondly, and this is where the worst quadrant to be in, is the neglectful parent, low in love, low in discipline. These children grow up with little or no lasting relationship with mom or dad. The parents’ neglect might not be necessarily intentional.

It might be simply because they’re going through their own trauma. Maybe they got some sort of addiction in their life, and the kids end up getting neglected. These children grow up with emotional scars, and their only hope is to find Jesus and be surrounded with godly role models and good Christian counseling.

These are the kind of kids that end up at Youth Haven Ranch and Rives Junction, that wonderful ministry, where they take kids out of very difficult homes, and it doesn’t cost them a penny, and they spend a week at Youth Haven Ranch. We’ve had the Carlson family here a couple years ago, and they just love on those kids for a week. They give them breakfast in bed.

These kids have never experienced that. They just love on them, and then they try to share the love of Jesus with them. So, that’s the bottom left quadrant.

Bottom right quadrant is the authoritarian parent. High on discipline, but low on love and affirmation. Parents are more like drill sergeants, and if you ask any question, the answer is, because I said so, do it.

And so, they’re low, high on discipline, low on love. Josh McDowell’s got a saying in all his research, he says, rules without relationship leads to rebellion. You put all these restrictions and rules on kids, but don’t have this good loving relationship, guess what’s going to happen? There’s going to be rebellion.

Authoritarian parents squeeze their kids until the kids can’t wait to leave home. Well, here’s the last one, and this is where we want to be. It’s the authoritative parent.

High on love and high on discipline. Clear boundaries with clear consequences. The result is the child high in self-esteem and equipped with good coping skills.

And so, I don’t know where you are at on this chart, but what you want to do is just shoot for that upper right-hand quadrant, and that’ll help in our parenting roles. And maybe just good every now and then to have a good discussion with your spouse about discipline.

What I learned when the kids were young, my wife was more the disciplinarian and then as they became teenagers I switched into that role and that’s kind of maybe a natural flow. But the role of the parents, so let’s think about some e-words that as Paul says, parents do not discourage or embitter your children or they’ll become discouraged.

So, what can we do, what is our role? Number one, lots of e-words here, be an example, be an example. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 11:1 follow me as I follow Christ. He wrote to the Philippian church, the things that you have learned and heard and received and seen in me do. So there has to be a consistency between lip and life and mom and dad, your modeling career started the day your child was born and they’re looking at you and we need to be an example.

And in Deuteronomy 6, the Shema says the truth starts with what being in our heart and then we can pass it on. You can’t pass on what you don’t possess and so we need to be an example. This is so powerful, especially in the lives of fathers.

Let me just take time to read this because I think it has significance. This is from a book called Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas, chapter one, entitled Papa God, Papa God. Catch this as you think about parents as role models and especially fathers.

One day, this is Gary Thomas writing, the author, one day when our daughter Kelsey was two years old, she started pointing at every family member’s chair around the table. I happened to be gone at the time. Mommy, Allison, Graham, Kelsey.

She then pointed to my empty seat and said, God, that’s not God, Kelsey. Lisa, my wife said, that’s Papa. Kelsey replied with a smile, Jesus.

Three days later, all of us were together in a hotel room when Kelsey did it again. She started pointing to everybody and announcing his or her name. When she got to me, she said, Jesus, I’m not Jesus.

Kelsey, I’m your Papa. Kelsey replied, you’re Papa God. I was flabbergasted and earnestly tried to talk it out with her, but you parents know what a two-year-old is like.

By the time I had made my point, Kelsey had found something vastly more interesting than theology, her little toe. But these early episodes of mistaking identity truly opened my eyes as a young parent. The more time I spent with my kids as they became toddlers and then preteens and teens, the more open they seem to be to God’s presence in their life.

The less time I spent with them, the less they seem to pray. The observation both sobered and humbled me. Somehow in their minds, I helped shape their passion and hunger for God.

Wow, power of an example and kids’ first exposure to God the Father is their relationship with their own Father. That’s why some people struggle with their understanding of who God is because they’ve not had that good role model example in their life of a loving Father. They’ve had the opposite.

It has a great impact in their life. Well, example, I added a couple others here that aren’t on the screen. Certainly exhortation, that Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6 says, these truths you shall teach them diligently to your children.

When they get up in the morning, when they walk by the wayside, when they lay down at night, you need to teach them. Parents are responsible. The church can help, but parents are responsible to teach their children God’s truth.

I’ll say evangelism. Evangelism. We need, and there’s no guarantee here, is there? I’ve seen two children raised in the same home by the same parents.

They all went to, you know, same pattern with all the kids, taught them the same thing. One follows Jesus, the other one doesn’t want anything to do with Jesus. But our first responsibility as parents is what? We want our kids and our grandkids to come to know Jesus and to come into a relationship with Him.

That’s why from the moment Dinah and I found out that we were expecting a child, we earnestly began to pray that they would come to faith in Jesus. There’s nothing more important than that. And so, an example and exhortation, teaching them and evangelizing them.

And here’s the last one. Encouragement. Encouragement.

To be an encourager. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Ephesians 4 says, let your words be exclusive to what building each other up.

Now, this is hard for parents because we’re responsible for those kids and we want them to learn right and wrong, but we also need to encourage them. I don’t know anybody here that want to be a middle schooler in today’s culture and with the social media and where our culture is today. It is not easy for kids.

And so, we need to be their number one encourager. And a study that they did many years ago, our parents found out that, and I understand this, but parents tended to give 10 negative messages for every one positive. And so, my encouragement is to kind of balance that out.

And we have a tendency to, the report card comes home and there’s A, A, A, A, and then there’s a D. What’s the first thing we look at? What’s wrong right here? Then we need to learn to praise and be an encourager. And yes, there is time for correction. Well, let me just close with Chip Ingram’s definition of success in parenting.

If you’re not shooting it, if you don’t know what the target is, the aim is, then you’re not going to hit it. And I came across this about 20 years ago and found, oh, I think I found a definition that defines from a biblical standpoint, success in parenting. Here’s what Chip Ingram says.

Success in parenting is when my children transfer their primary love, submission, and obedience from me to Jesus Christ. You see, we have them for about 18 or 20 years. We’re not always going to be around.

And so, what we want is that transfer of their primary love, submission, and obedience to Jesus. And that’s why John writes; I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth. Well, instructions for the household.

It’s God’s design. It’s God’s idea. He created marriage in the family.

The wife’s to be the suitable helper. The husband, the loving leader. The children are to obey and honor.

And then the parents start to be an example, an exhorter, an encourager, and an evangelizer. We’re going to close with a hymn video. It’s called Generational Blessings.

And it’s simply a prayer that talks about the Psalm of Asaph. He writes, the things that our ancestors have told us, we will not hide them from their descendants. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders that He has done, so the next generation would know them. That’s our kids, even the children yet to be born. And they in turn would tell their children.

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If you’ve been with us, we’ve been going through the book of Colossians and Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. Let me give you a little bit of background and context here, and then we’re going to jump into our topic this morning. So, Paul, the Apostle Paul, is under house arrest in Rome.

He actually stays there for two years. He’s awaiting trial. He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die.

And while he’s there, he’s able to receive visitors. A fellow by the name of Epaphras makes a 1,300-mile journey. Think about that in the first century.

It would have taken him weeks or maybe months. 1,300-mile journey from Colossae to visit the Apostle Paul. And the reason he did that is because some things were happening in the church at Colossae.

Now, Paul had never been to this church. Paul had never met these people. Epaphras was the pastor.

And so, there were some problems within the church, some doctrinal problems about who is Jesus, some other problems about legalism and other things that were going on. And so Epaphras tells the Apostle Paul that, and the Apostle Paul writes this letter to correct the doctrinal error about who Jesus is and also to encourage them. So, the first two chapters are more doctrinal.

When we get to chapters three and four, it’s more practical application. In other words, if you’re a follower of Jesus, if you’ve received Jesus as your Savior, here’s the question, how should we then live? That’s what this discipleship was all about after those police officers come to know Christ. Okay, what difference should this make in my life? And so, Paul writes in chapter three, verse one, since then you have been raised with Christ.

Okay, this is how you’re to live. Set your hearts and your minds and affections on eternity. That’s the priority.

And then he goes on through the text here and he tells us to put off some things. This is the life change, the sanctification process. Put to death therefore sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed.

And he goes on to list 10 things. And then last Sunday, we looked at the next section of chapter three where he tells us who we are in our new position in Christ. We’ve been chosen.

We’re now positionally holy when God looks at us. He sees us as justified, just as if we’ve never sinned. And he also sees us as dearly loved.

And then he talked about a new practice, clothe yourselves. Here’s the characteristic traits that we’re supposed to incorporate into our life. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience.

And finally, he talks about, as we’ve closed last Sunday, our new purpose. And that was found in verse 17. Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So now we have a new purpose. It’s not living for self and our own selfish desires, but it’s what, to glorify God. And to do everything we do in his name and to glorify him.

Well, this morning, just in the next 25 or 30 minutes, we’re going to look at Colossians 3. And we’re going to look at verses 18 and 19. And then next Sunday, we’re going to look at verses 20 and 21. And this is entitled, God’s Design for the Family.

God’s Design for the Family. And so, God gave us three divine institutions. He created the family, marriage.

That’s Genesis 2, verse 24. Therefore, shall man leave his father and mother, cleave to his wife, they shall be one flesh. Marriage and a family is God’s idea, God’s plan.

He also instituted government. Romans 13:1, the powers that be are ordained of God. And government is God’s idea.

To seek justice, to prevent evil. And then thirdly, the church. Well, it’s no surprise that whatever God creates and institutes that we have an enemy that wants to push back and destroy.

And so, this morning, we’re going to look at God’s design for the family. And think about that for the next few minutes here. Let me, by way of introduction, read a brief article from Dr. Rob Rienow, who’s with Visionary Family Ministries.

It’s titled; Families are Under Attack. You know that, don’t you? That the home and the family, it’s a spiritual battle. That’s Ephesians chapter six.

Here’s what he says. Family ministry is urgently needed in the church because families are under attack. Satan has been attacking marriages and families from the beginning.

When sin entered the world, Satan drove a wedge between Adam and Eve. In their shame, they retreated not just from God, but from each other. Satan then set his sights on Cain and Abel in order to stir up more sin, hatred, and brokenness.

Jealousy and anger boiled over into murder and then banishment. Satan drove a wedge deep into the heart of the family and he continues to do the same today. Satan and the demons also wage their war against the family through the spirit of this world.

Culture itself stands in opposition to God’s plan for marriage, parenting, and a family. Boy, we’ve seen that in our United States in the last 20 years, haven’t we? A cultural assault on what God says, this is marriage. There are two genders, male and female.

God created that and established that in Genesis. And so, we’re going to look at God’s instruction for the family, God’s design for the family. And let me just begin to set this up with a couple more introductory truths and then we’ll get to the texts.

So, here’s two truths. I think they’re on the screen. God designed the family to function according to his design where each member understands and fulfills their God-given role.

So, if God created marriage, he also gave us kind of a playbook, this is how marriage is supposed to work. And the family functions best when it functions and understands that and follows those God-given roles. Here’s the second one.

Men and women are equal before God but function in differing roles in marriage. So, both of them have been created equal in the image of God, but God has given different roles for a husband and a wife and also the children in the family. So, let’s look at the role of the wife and we’ll get to Colossians 3:18 in just a little bit.

But there’s a reason I’m giving some more background to this because we’ll get there in just a little bit. But here’s the role of the wife and we’re going all the way back to Genesis. The role of the wife from Genesis 2:18, and there’s an interesting Hebrew phrase here, is to be a suitable helper, a suitable helper.

So back to Genesis 2, here’s the creation account. Then the Lord God formed a man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. So, what did God do next? First, he created Adam out of the dust.

Adam is now alive and he puts him in the garden and he is the caretaker of the Garden of Eden. So, he puts him in the garden to take care of it and the Lord God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you do, you will certainly die, physical death and spiritual death. Now it’s interesting and I think I knew this, but as I read this again, God gave those instructions to Adam, but Eve hasn’t been created yet.

Eve did not hear those instructions from God. I don’t know if that became part of the factor of why Eve took part of that fruit. But when we come to verse 18, here’s Adam and God says to him, and remember the creation account, read like six times, God created this, it was good, it was good.

He declares it was good. And now we get to the chapter two, verse 18, and God says something’s not good. What’s not good? It’s not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him. That’s the NIV translation. I looked this up in four or five different translations.

The ESV says a helper fit for him. The King James says they help meet. Good news translation says a suitable companion to help him.

Someone has said Eve was the solution to Adam’s deficiency. So, this word helper, it can be understood in a wrong way, like a little condescending. That’s not meant in any way.

So, the Hebrew word for helper is E-Z-E-R, Ezer. This Hebrew word means a God-given partner who compliments her husband, not an inferior. In fact, this Hebrew word Ezer, E-Z-E-R, is used to describe who God is.

Psalm chapter 70, verse five, Psalm 75. Oh God, you are my helper and my deliverer. So, it’s not a condescending word in any way.

It’s used to describe God himself. The word suitable is the word Mata’ay. Ezer means a counterpart, somebody parallel to.

God created a husband and wife to work together as a team in his purpose for them, complimenting one another in their various strengths and weaknesses. So, the role of the wife is to be a suitable helper. I think I have a little credibility when it comes to speaking on marriage because in August of this year, Diane and I will have been married for 49 years.

So, I’ve traveled a little journey on the marriage journey. And I got to tell you; Diane has been exactly what’s being described here in my life. She compliments my weaknesses.

So let me describe how that plays out in our marriage. About what Diane brings to our marriage. Number one, she is very creative.

I do not have a creative bone in my body. And you know, in the summertime, she runs this huge craft room up at Maranatha Bible Missionary Conference. And she’s just got that creative gene.

She also, confession time, she knows how to fix things better than I do. And I grew up in a pastor’s home and my dad wasn’t gifted in working with his hands. And so, he either had somebody in the church come fix it or he hired it out.

Diane’s dad was a carpenter and she just picked up this ability to know how to fix things better than I do. Another confession, she has much more common sense than I do. It’s the only amen I’ll get all Sunday morning.

So, here’s an illustration of this. And this is like 25, 30 years ago. I’m dropping our kids off at Chelsea Elementary School.

And the car that we owned, you could get in the driver’s side from the outside. But when you got in, you couldn’t open the door from the inside. And I don’t know, it’s like, oh man, we need to fix this.

And so, for about two or three days, I’m dropping our elementary age children, it was probably 40 years ago, off at school. And there’s all these cars. And so, I need to get out of the car.

And so rather, what I was doing, I was, anytime I needed to get out of the car, I was crawling across the console and opening up the passenger side door to get out. And I was telling Diane about that, like, this is such a pain, we need to get this fixed. She said did you ever think of rolling down the window on the driver’s side and reaching out and opening the door like that? I never thought of that.

I’ve just been crawling across the console and going out the other side. See, much better common sense. I might get another amen.

I’m directionally challenged. I mean, I just, I get lost very easily. I’m one of these that, when I park in the mall or in the shopping place and I come out, I have no clue where the car is.

And Diane has a much better sense of direction than I do. She enjoys things that I don’t, cooking and shopping. Although she enjoys the Amazon shopping a little bit too much, but that’s okay.

But you get the picture that God then places two people together and I bring some strength. And the role of the wife is to be a suitable helper. Well, all that to say in preparation for the text here.

So, we’re going to go back to Colossians 3, verse 18. So, I need to read the text. And so, we’re going to use, and it talks about the role of the wife.

We’re going to use the S word. This is why I did some preparation here before we got here. Let me read it.

Wives, this is what God says, submit yourselves to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. Doesn’t say submit to all men. Doesn’t say to submit to other husbands.

It says, submit to your husband. Now that word and that concept has gotten a bad connotation in the church and outside the church. It’s gotten a bad connotation in the church because some husbands have taken that concept and use it almost as a club to get their own way, to beat down their wife, to quote these Bible verses to them.

And that’s not what this verse is all about. It’s gotten a bad rap outside the church because people think that, well, this is from 2000 years ago. Hey, the apostle Paul was a chauvinist and this is not for today.

And so, this whole concept of submission has gotten a bad connotation to it. I want you to know that wherever Christianity has made inroads in a culture, it has elevated the role of women. Wherever Christianity has made inroads in the culture, and maybe you guys see this in your discipleship training, that it elevates the role of women.

Here’s an Orthodox Jewish prayer that the Jewish men would pray. It’s called Blessings of the Morning. Blessed are you, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has not made me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.

That’s the Orthodox Jewish prayer that some of the Jewish men would pray every day. Thank you that you didn’t make me a Gentile, a slave, or a woman. And so, this whole idea of submission, and whenever you look at a verse of scripture, you got to look at all the contexts.

And so, if we go to Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, and he’s talking about the family in Ephesians chapter five, here’s an overlooked verse when it comes to family dynamics. This is Ephesians 5:21, and the entitle inserted in the NIV, Instructions for Christian Households. Here’s what Ephesians 5:21 says.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And so there should be a mutual submission in the way that marriage works.

And when one person, one spouse, calls all the shots, makes every decision without input from their spouse, when they get their way 100% of the time, or else the partner’s life is miserable, that’s not submitting one to another in the fear of Christ. And so, there’s to be a mutual give and take. Submit to one another out of reverence for who Jesus is.

So where does submission come in? Well, I really think that submission comes in when you can’t agree on something. You know, so when you both agree on something, nobody needs to submit. But when you can’t agree, when you can’t come to some sort of compromise, and compromise has been a saving grace in our marriage for the last 49 years, we have, where we sit and chill the rest of the night, we have two TVs.

Diane watches her stuff, and we watch a couple of things together, but she’s got her likes, I’ve got my likes. I like sports, she likes movies. And we watch a couple of shows together, and then we kind of watch our own thing.

I have to turn my sound down though, but oh, I submit, you know, mutual submission. So where does submit come in? Where do you need a tiebreaker? When you can’t agree on something. And when you cannot work it out, cannot agree, then the God-given responsibility, and believe me, every husband’s going to have to give an account before God of how they’ve managed and led their family.

They, the husband has to break the tie. The husband has to, as the head, makes a final decision. It’s kind of like the United States Senate, when they’re voting on something, and it’s 50-50, guess who breaks the tie? They bring in, you know, the vice president, and comes in and casts the deciding vote.

And so that’s the role of the husband, and he is responsible before God to make that final decision. Well, very quickly, we’ll just touch on this, the role of a husband then. Colossians 3:19, husbands love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

In Ephesians 5:25, husbands love your wives just as Christ loves the church. So, if a husband is loving his wife the way that God calls him to, and the word there, love, is agape, the highest form of love, self-sacrificing love, as Christ loved the church, Christ died for the church, he gave his life for the church. When a husband is loving his wife in that self-sacrificing way, then when there does come a decision and the husband has to make a final decision, it’s much easier for a wife to submit.

Love your wives, husbands love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. So, what do we know about love? We know that love is a decision. I’ve done a lot of reading of Dr. Gary Chapman, and he’s written a book, The Five Love Languages, and I’d encourage you to get that book.

It’s a great groundbreaking book on how each of us have a primary love language and a secondary love language. But he says, love is a decision. And when a couple gets together, he calls it the tingles, there’s this, last usually about two years in dating or in marriage, but then you come down to reality and love then is a decision, it is a commitment.

And so, love is a decision, husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church. And perhaps the greatest description of love, it’s found in 1st Corinthians 13, read at many weddings. Hopefully you can insert your name in these characteristic traits of love.

Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn’t envy, it doesn’t boast, it’s not proud, it doesn’t dishonor others, it’s not self-seeking, it’s not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres, love never fails.

I hope you can put your name right in there and read this text and say, well, Ron Clark is patient. Ron Clark is kind and understanding and just put your name right there in the text. Well, husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

The new century version says, be gentle with them. One of the fruits of the spirit that God wants to do in our lives is to make his gentleness among those other eight-character traits. So, what does it look like for the husband to be the loving leader of the home? And we’ll just wrap this up and then we’re going to watch a brief video here song and we’ll close with prayer.

Well, I like alliteration. Number one, husbands are called to be the provider. It doesn’t mean that the wife can’t help in that process, but ultimately the husband is to be the provider for the home, not just financially, but in a lot of various areas.

The husband is called to be the protector of the home, the protector. Imagine late at night and it’s like one o’clock in the morning and husband and wife are in bed and the wife wakes up her husband and says, honey, honey, I hear noise. I hear something at the door.

I think someone’s trying to get in the house. Now, what husband would say, well, dear, here’s the baseball bat over here. Why don’t you go and check that out? No, no, the husband is designed to be not only the provider, but the protector.

And the third P is the husband’s designed to be the pastor, the pastor. One of the qualifications of being a pastor is that you must manage your own household well. In one sense, every family is like a mini church.

And so, you can’t call a person to be a shepherd of a lot of people if he’s not pastoring and shepherding his own wife and his own kids well. And so, as a husband, you’re called to be the pastor. You’re called to be the spiritual leader of your home.

On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we always give a gift to all the dads and moms that attend on those highlight Sundays. And I’m excited for Father’s Day because I’ve got a great book we’ll give to every dad. It’s by John Beek, How to Lead Your Family, A Guide for Men Wanting to Be More.

A lot of men don’t know how to lead their family spiritually. I was fortunate to grow up in a pastor’s home. And I had a great role model of a dad as a pastor leading a home spiritually.

And we spent some time praying together as a family and reading some scripture verses, not every night, but occasionally around the dinner table. And my dad helped start a Christian school in 1961. And so, we were placed in that Christian school and we just got bombarded with God’s truth.

Not everybody has that experience. And so like, well, how do you lead a family spiritually? So, we will gladly get that book to you. Well, God designed a family to function according to his design where each member understands and functions according to their God-given role.

The wife is a suitable helper, the husband as a loving leader. And next week we’ll look at the next two, the next two verses. And to see what God has called the rest of the family to do.

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Bible Verses – 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

Thank you for your singing, and that’s why we’re here this morning, God’s love. And we’re going to learn a little bit more about that this morning as we look into God’s word. So let me read just a couple of short verses from 2nd Corinthians 5:16 and 17.

Talks about the new life that we have in Christ. And so, here’s what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. So, from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

We once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Here’s a familiar verse. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. The new creation has come, the old has gone, and the new is here.

Well, next 35 minutes or so, we’re going to jump into the book of Colossians. And let me just give you the setting, a little bit of background reminder of the purpose of the book and why Colossians was written. So, you remember that the leader of the church at Colossae was a fellow by the name of Epaphras.

And actually, the Apostle Paul never visited Colossae. But what was going on is that there was some false teaching that was infiltrating those new believers there in Colossae. And Epaphras, the pastor of the church, makes a 1,300-mile journey.

Think of that in the first century. It would have taken weeks, maybe a couple months. He makes this long journey, and he visits the Apostle Paul, who’s under house arrest in Rome.

Paul was there for two years. He was able to receive visitors. And Epaphras tells him what’s going on in the church at Colossae.

And so, Paul writes this letter to correct some doctrinal error about who Jesus is and to encourage those new believers. So, we’re in chapter three. The first two chapters are more doctrinal, doctrinal truth.

And when we get to three and four, a little bit more on the application side. So, this morning, we’re going to think about our new life in Christ, my new life in Christ, and I trust that describes you this morning. There are certain moments in our lives that radically change our life.

I remember back in August 20th of 1977, my wife and I stood in front of a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was the Emmanuel Baptist Church. My dad happened to be the pastor there.

And we stood there before about 250, 300 people, and we said some very important words and vows about marriage. And then my dad, like most pastors do, make a pronouncement. And now by the authority given to me by the Church of Jesus Christ, I now pronounce you husband and wife.

And life has changed. Our status has changed. Our identity has changed.

We no longer check the single box. We check the married box. Think about those families that have adopted children.

We have a nephew and his wife in northern Ohio, and they have four biological kids, but they’re very passionate about adoption, the adoption option. And they’ve adopted two children, so now they have a family of six children. And it’s one of the few, I think, happy occasions in our court system where a family legally adopts and brings into their family young children and a name change and all that that entails.

Those are moments that totally change the trajectory and identity of our life, but perhaps no greater change happens in our life than when we put our faith in Jesus Christ to be our Savior, because that has a huge impact in our life. John chapter 1, John writing talks about the fact that to those who receive Christ, to those who believe in His name, He gives them the right to be called the children of God. And so, when we put our faith in Christ, when that great exchange happens, described in 2nd Corinthians 5:19 through 21, He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God, a tremendous change takes place.

And we pass from death, spiritual death, to spiritual life. The New Testament describes that we pass from darkness to light. We pass from being an enemy of God to being a child of God.

And so, this morning in Colossians chapter 3, in the text that we’re going to look at, Paul begins to elaborate on this a little further as he thinks about our new life in Christ. And so, we’re going to think about three truths here. Our scripture reading said, all things become new when we become a follower of Jesus.

And so, the question is, well, what becomes new? And so, we’re going to suggest three things that become new in our life from the text. And let’s look at the first one. This is found in Colossians 3, verse 12.

Therefore, so that points us what Paul’s already writing to the Colossian church about. He’s telling them, verse 1 of chapter 3, you have been raised with Christ. You have a new life.

He’s telling them your sins have been forgiven. God has made you alive in Christ. Therefore, we have a new position, a new position.

We could say a new identity, but a new position. And Paul uses three terms here to describe our new identity, our new position in Christ. Let’s look at it.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, as God’s chosen people. Now we go back to the Old Testament and we know that the nation of Israel, the Jewish people are called what? God’s chosen people. And God still has a plan for the Jewish nation and the Jewish people.

And he chose them. This is from Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 6. Let me go there quickly and read it. Deuteronomy 7:6. Here’s what Moses writes in the Pentateuch.

He writes, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you, the Jewish nation, out of all peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. So, God looked down on all the nations and he chose the Jewish nation to be his chosen people and called Abraham to be the father of that nation.

And there’s promises all through scripture that are given to God’s chosen people. Well, this doctrine of election, of being chosen, is also predominant in the New Testament. And it’s all through scripture.

Here it is in Colossians 3:12. You’re God’s chosen people. John 15:16.

Here’s Jesus in the upper room discourse. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. Ephesians chapter 1, Paul writing to the Ephesian church, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world.

And so, the scripture teaches that if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, somewhere in eternity past, God made a choice, an election, and he chose you. And that should stir our hearts. Now for years, there’s been two camps in theology, one called Calvinism that emphasizes the sovereignty of God and that God makes the choice of salvation.

There’s another camp on the opposite end that is called Arminianism that emphasizes the free will of man to make a choice. Now, I think the Bible teaches both. Romans 10:13, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. And how do those two mesh together that God chose us yet gives us free will? And I’ll have to tell you; I can’t fully explain it. There are some things that God knows, but the Bible clearly teaches that we have been chosen and that God has chosen and elected those to be saved.

Now that brings up the question, well, then why should we witness? Why should we share the gospel? Why should we pray for people to come to know Christ if God’s already chosen? And the answer to that, he’s not only chosen the end, those that are going to come to Christ, but he’s also chosen the means of how that gospel message will get to them. And that involves you and me. And so, we go to Romans 10:13, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

And then the apostle Paul begins to ask some questions. How then can they call on the one in whom they’ve not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they’ve not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? It’s not the official word for a pastor. It’s someone who tells them, who proclaims to them the gospel message.

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? And so, we have a new position. We have been chosen by God. But then the apostle Paul talks about a second new identity or new position that we have in Colossians chapter three in our text this morning.

Not only have we been chosen, but the apostle Paul describes us as being holy. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy, holy. And so, he declares and says that Christians are holy.

Now we have to understand the difference between our position in Christ and our practice. When we put our faith in Jesus, the moment that we trust him as our personal savior, there is a legal declaration that God makes. And it’s called justification.

Here’s the definition. Justification is an act of God whereby he pronounces a sinner to be righteous or holy because of their faith in Christ. The root idea in justification is the declaration of God, the righteous judge, that the individual who believes in Christ is viewed as being righteous because he has come into a righteous relationship with God.

And so, when we are saved, we are in Christ. And when God looks at us positionally, he sees us as holy. Sometimes justification means that God sees us just as if we’ve never sinned.

It’s because we have the righteousness of Christ put in our account, his holiness, his perfection. So, Andy Stanley asked the question, how good do you have to be to get to heaven? And the answer is perfect because God’s holy. And the only way we can come into heaven is if the only perfect person that ever lived on the planet, Jesus, his righteousness gets imputed to our account.

And so, we have a new position. We’re chosen. We’re holy.

And then the third descriptive phrase here of our new position is that we are dearly loved. We are dearly loved. I’m chosen.

I’m holy. I’m dearly loved. I don’t think we can fully understand the depth and breadth of God’s love for us.

Paul writes about that. He prays for the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter three, that I’m praying that you might understand the height and depth and breadth of God’s incredible love for you and me. I think about the love that you have for your own children.

Think about the incredible love that a parent has or a grandparent has for grandchildren. And God’s love is infinitely more than that. But God demonstrated his love for us while we were yet sinners.

Christ died for us. He sent his one and only son to live a holy, perfect life, to go through the pain and agony of crucifixion, and to pay our sin debt. So, Dr. David Jeremiah has written a book entitled God Loves You, subtitled He Always Has and He Always Will.

Here’s what he has to say. God loves you. This is the most important fact in your life.

The eternal, self-existing being who created and sustains everything that exists, dearly loves you. God loves you even when you don’t love him. God’s love never quits.

God loved you before you were born. God loves you when he is correcting you. God wrote his love in red, his blood on the cross, and God will never let you go.

That great passage in Romans chapter 8, what shall separate us from the love of God? And Paul goes through that long list and he says there is nothing, nothing in all creation that can separate us from God’s love. And so, I believe the Bible teaches when you put your faith in Jesus, you are eternally secure. Now not every church doctrine teaches that.

Some denominations believe that you can lose your salvation. But I believe the Bible clearly teaches that once we are saved, once we’re a child of God, we are always a child of God. John 10 describes this, that we are held in the palm of the hand of Jesus, and the hand of God the Father engulfs the hand of Jesus.

We’re in the double clutch of God, and he will never let us go. And so, here’s our new position. All things become new.

When we become a follower of Jesus, we recognize that he’s chosen us, that positionally we’re holy, and we are dearly and deeply loved. And one of the things that God wants us then as followers of Jesus is what? To be a conduit of love to others, and to show that love to other people all around us.

Well, there’s a second thing that becomes new. And not only do we have a new position, but a new practice, a new practice. This is beginning in the second part of verse 12. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves.

And now the Apostle Paul is going to go through a long list of characteristics that should characterize our new life in Christ. Now, if we go back to chapter, earlier in chapter 3, we saw this, I believe, last Sunday where the Apostle Paul says, there’s some things you need to get rid of in your new life in Christ. And he lists 10 things.

Verse 5 of chapter 3, put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed. He goes down to verse 8, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language. Don’t lie to one another.

That’s the old way of living. That’s the sinful nature. And now, Paul says, here’s our new practice as followers of Jesus.

And I want you to clothe yourselves to put on these 10-character traits. Now, we won’t have time to elaborate on all of these, but let’s just go through the list. These words should describe, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you and me.

And so, when we go through this list, we could ask the question. The first one is that we’re supposed to be compassionate. And so, the application question would be, am I a compassionate person? Do I demonstrate, you know, empathy is feelings and identify with somebody’s feelings.

Compassion takes the next step and does something about it. First John says, how does God’s love dwell in you? If you see somebody in need and you have the resources to meet that need and you just pat them on the back and say, you know, I know you don’t have a place to live and I know you don’t have any food, but be warm and filled. I’m praying for you.

No, that’s not God’s love. That’s not God’s compassion. And by the way, I think all 10 of these character traits describe who Jesus is.

You can see parallel verses that describe Jesus’ character. And so basically, Paul’s saying we need to become what? Christ-like. And as someone said, we’ll never be Christ-like until we understand what Christ is like.

And the New Testament tells us that. So, here’s what we’re to put on. Clothe yourselves with compassion, compassion.

Kindness, but there’s something that’s lacking in our culture today. Just being kind to one another. By the way, where does this all start? This all starts in the home and then it extends outward.

But where the rubber meets the road of who we really are is how we are, you know, with our family and in the home. And so that’s where the true test is. Am I kind? But we live in this coarse culture of political rhetoric that is discouraging and social media where you hide behind a screen and you say some things you would never say to another person face-to-face.

The Bible calls us to be kind. Be kind one toward another. Tenderhearted, Ephesians 4:32. Humility. Clothe yourselves with compassion, with kindness, with gentleness or meekness.

 The next phrase, and I’m reading out of the NIV here, is patience, patience. Two different words translated for patience in the New Testament. One is makrothumia. And it has to do with patience with people. Makros is the word for long. Thumos is word for anger.

It means to have a long fuse. In other words, not be quick to get to be angry, but to be very, very patient rather than flying off the handle. The other word for patience is hupomoné. And that means to remain under. And that’s used in relationship to circumstances.

And so, when difficult circumstances are in our life, the first thing, natural thing to pray is, Lord, get me out of here. And sometimes God says, no, I want you to remain under because I’m doing a work in your heart and in your life through this circumstance. And so, you need to be very, very patient.

And so, we need to clothe ourselves with patience. Number six here on this list, bear with each other. Bear with each other.

I had to look up that meaning of the word bear with each other. What does that mean? Here it is. The word for use here in the original Greek anechó means to endure something unpleasant or difficult.

Bearing with one another implies willingness to endure with other believers despite differences and frustrations. A willingness to endure with other believers despite differences and frustrations. And so just like in our own immediate family, sometimes we get frustrated with one another in different opinions.

And now comes the church, the body of Christ, and there’s all sorts of different viewpoints and personalities. And we need to be patient. And we need to endure and recognize that sometimes we see things differently.

And sometimes it’s okay to disagree. Or sometimes, you know, it would just be, maybe you’re not getting good service in the restaurant. And I just say, well, maybe the waitress is having, or waiter’s having a bad day.

You know how difficult it is to deal with waiting on, you know, six tables at once and the frustrations. And so, we need to be patient and to bear with one another. Verse, next one, number seven says, well, that’s part of verse 13, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Okay, we’re going to put on forgiveness. Ephesians 4:32, be kind, tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. And so just as God has forgiven us, we’re to forgive others.

And we’re to forgive fully, we’re to forgive freely. And we’re to put it in the past, not that we forget it, but we don’t need to keep bringing it up. Somebody said, everybody thinks forgiveness is a great idea until you have to forgive somebody.

And I realize forgiveness is hard. Sometimes the hurt and the pain runs deep. Now, and I’ve shared this before, here’s what I’ve struggled with over the years, like, okay, do we just blanket forgive everybody that’s ever harmed us or hurt us? And again, there’s two different viewpoints on this, but Dr. Gary Chapman, and I’ve listened to a lot of his teachings.

Here’s how he describes forgiveness. Forgiveness is a godly response to an apology. Forgiveness is a godly response to an apology.

How does God forgive us? God forgives us when we come to him and ask him for forgiveness and tell him that we need him to forgive our sins. And so, forgiveness is a godly response to an apology. Now, that then brings up the question, well, what if the person never apologizes to me? Or what if the person has died and they never apologized to me? Then I like to use the word release.

And it’s kind of a form of forgiveness. The apostle Paul writes in 2nd Timothy that Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm. This guy did not do me right.

And what does Paul say? The Lord will repay him. I’m just going to turn him over to God. God will, the just God will take care of that. And so, we’re to put on forgiveness.

He goes on to talk about love, verse 14, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. That’s going to be the defining character trait of our lives, our church.

John 13:35, Jesus said, by this shall all men know you’re to my disciples if you go to church three times a week. No, no, if you love one another. So, love is that defining character of how people are going to know that we’re followers of Jesus by how we love one another.

Boy, do I need this next verse and you do too. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ. So positionally we’re at peace with God, but practically we need what? The peace of God in our daily life. Philippians 4:6, and 7 gives us some steps how to find that peace of God. Be anxious for nothing.

It’s an imperative and it says, stop worrying. I need this verse like every day. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Don’t worry about anything. Pray about everything. And then here’s the promise.

The peace of God that transcends understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We have a friend that we got to know through our ministry at Maranatha over the years. Her name’s Susan. I believe it’s her younger sister, Laura, has been fighting a battle with cancer for a long time.

And she’s been posting on Facebook and Laura’s been posting on Facebook. And about a month ago, Laura went into hospice care and she’s probably in her late, late 30s and knew that the doctors have done all they can do. This last week, Laura went home to be with the Lord, but she testified of a tremendous peace that God gave to her in the closing days of her life, because she knew where she was going.

And the peace of Christ ruled her heart. The word there rule really means umpire. You make a choice and it’s the peace of God.

Now notice the 10th characteristic here, and it’s gratitude. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart since as members of one body, you were called to peace and be thankful. And so, gratitude and thankfulness should characterize our life.

So, Paul writes in his letter to Timothy in the last days, this is what life is going to be like. He lists about 20 characteristics. One of them is that people will be ungrateful.

They’ll have a sense of entitlement and they won’t express gratitude. And one of the characteristics that should define our lives as followers of Jesus is that we should be thankful, continually thanking God for what he’s done for us, being grateful and thankful to one another. Again, it starts in our own family and spreads out.

Remember the story of the New Testament, Jesus healed 10 lepers. And he says, go show yourself to the priest and you’re healed. And all 10 lepers, Jesus healed of this horrible disease.

And one came back to say, thank you to Jesus. And Jesus said, where’s the other nine? And so, we need to be grateful. Well, we need to begin to wrap this up.

And so, let’s look at not only our new position, a new practice to put on these 10 characteristics that should describe our lives. But then the apostle Paul closes this section by thinking about a new purpose, a new purpose. Verses 16 and 17.

Let me just read them and then we’ll share a little bit. Let the message of Christ, I believe that’s the word of God. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms and hymns and songs from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And so, if we’re a follower of Jesus, we have a new purpose. And one of those purposes is ministering to one another. And that’s what the apostle Paul mentions here, that we are to what? Teach and admonish that where it needs to counsel, or to counsel one another, to teach one another, to encourage one another, to use our gifts toward building up the body of Christ.

But then he closes by giving us, here’s our overarching purpose in life. And what I like about scripture and the Bible is that it answers the three key questions in life. Where did I come from? Origins.

Well, read Genesis chapter one, the first few words, in the beginning, God created the heaven, the earth. Psalm 33, he spoke this world into existence. So, it answers the question of origins of how this world began.

Secondly, it answers the question of purpose. Why am I here? That’s a journey everybody is on. What is the purpose of life? The third question it answers is destiny.

Where am I headed? And so, the apostle Paul gives us a purpose here in verse 17, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father through him. And so, the apostle Paul is saying, we have a new purpose in life. Now we’re not, we’re not living for ourselves.

Now we are living for what? The purpose of God’s glory. And so, the Westminster Shorter Catechism was written in 1647. It was written by the Westminster Assembly, designed as a concise tool for instructing children and new converts in the basic doctrines of Christian faith.

It has 107 questions and answers that young children and new believers would memorize. Here’s the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is the chief end of man? In other words, what is the purpose of mankind? Why were we created? The answer is man’s chief end or purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

God wants us to live a life of bringing glory to him, of worship and praise to God. Here’s one definition, to glorify God is to honor God with praise or worship. To glorify God is to extol his attributes, to praise his works, to trust his name, to obey his word, to serve him.

And so, God has put us here to come to know him, but also to glorify God in everything that we do. So, Romans chapter 15 verses five and six, we glorify God through our words. Let me read the text here.

I’m not sure I’ve got the right, I’m not sure I’ve got the right verse. Yep, here it is. May the God who gives endurance, this is Romans 15 five, and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other as Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, we bring glory to God when we speak on his behalf, when we declare who God is, when we talk about the fact that God is holy, God is love, God is just, God is merciful. That brings glory to God’s name. We glorify God through our works.

Now we’re not saved by works, we’re saved by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, but we’re saved to do good works. And so, on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter five, Jesus says these words, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. So, we glorify God through our words, through our works, we glorify God through our worship.

That’s something we’re going to be doing a lot of when we get to heaven around the throne of God. And so, here’s how Paul puts it to the Corinthian believers. So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

So, we have this kind of dichotomy that we’ve put into our lives that, okay, we’re going to come to church on Sundays for a couple hours and we’ll glorify God and worship him. And then the other 166 hours during the week, we’ll kind of do our own thing. And the apostle Paul in scripture says, no, that’s not the case.

We can bring glory to God in everything we do by doing it for his purpose and to make him look good and to bring honor to him. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Now, just in the last couple of minutes here, as we think about our new position, our new practice, and our new purpose, James 1:22 says, don’t just be hearers of the word and you’ll deceive yourselves, but I want you to put it into practice.

And so, here’s just some application thoughts, some questions that we need to think about, action steps. So, we think about our new position in Christ. The first one is, are you in Christ? Have you come to your point in your life where you realize you can’t make it to heaven on your own, that we’re all sinners and that we need Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross? I made that commitment when I was eight years old after a church service in Cleveland, Ohio.

And it’s the greatest decision you can make. And as we talked about, it changes our life. So, am I in Christ? Have I put my faith in Christ? Do I know for sure that my sins are forgiven and my destiny is heaven?

Secondly, we need to evaluate our lives on these 10-character traits that we talked about in verses 12 through 15 and ask these questions.

Hey, am I a compassionate person? Am I kind? Am I forgiving? Am I gentle? Am I patient? And I would imagine that in that list of 10, there’s probably one or two that maybe we need to work on a little bit. If you don’t know what it is, just ask your spouse or your best friend and they can help you with that. But which of these do I need to grow in?

And then lastly, do I know my purpose in life? My purpose in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him. I’ve heard a story, I’ve probably shared this several times, but I remember Dr. Joel Stoll, who was president of Moody Bible Institute for many years and just been such a wonderful, gifted pastor and administrator. And he’s been on many boards. And I remember he was serving on the board of the Billy Graham ministry.

And I heard Dr. Stoll tell this story several times, but they were having some big banquet and they had all the board members of the Billy Graham ministry on the Dias, on the platform. And so, Dr. Stoll shows up and he finds himself assigned seats and he finds himself seated right next to Dr. Billy Graham. And he goes, oh man, like, what am I going to say to Billy Graham? What do you say to him? And so, he tells a story that they’re sitting there and he turns to Dr. Graham and he says, well, what’s been the greatest highlight of your life? I mean, certainly it has to do with all these crusades and preaching to tens of thousands of people and seeing so many people come to know Christ.

Dr. Stoll says that Billy Graham kind of made a hand motion like he’s slid that suggestion off to the side and he says, no, you know what the greatest moments of my life have been? The greatest moments of my life have been my time alone with God, where I’ve been with God’s word and just praying and fellowshipping with him and getting to know God better. That has been the greatest moment of my life. And that’s what God wants to have with all of us, doesn’t he? Revelation 3:20, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

It’s written to Christians. If anybody will hear my voice and open the door and let me in, I’ll come in and have fellowship with him. The picture there is God wants to spend time with you and have fellowship with you.

And so, make that time alone with him a priority in your life and you will be blessed. Well, if you’re in Christ, you got a new position, a new identity, you’re chosen, you’re holy, you’re dearly loving. You’ve got a new practice put on all these traits, compassion, kindness, love, forgiveness, and live for the glory of God.

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Outline

Colossians 3:1-11

I’m going to read some scripture from Colossians chapter 3. The first four verses, words are on the screen, and you can follow along. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Colossae.

And then we’ll look into this passage. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.

We are looking through the book of Colossians, and we’re really about halfway through. So, we finished Colossians chapter 2 last Sunday, and now we’re in the second half of the book. There’s four chapters in Colossians.

By the way, the chapter divisions were given in the 13th century. So that’s really helpful. Can you imagine trying to find someplace in Psalms, which has 150 chapters without those chapter divisions? So, we’re halfway through.

The first two chapters of Colossians are more doctrinal, correcting some doctrinal teaching about who Jesus is and the way of salvation. When we get to chapters 3 and 4, it’s more practical, some application. In other words, how should we as believers in Christ live? And so, we’re going to look at Colossians chapter 3, the first 10 verses.

And rather than giving my normal outline, sometimes I just like to ask some questions from the text and try to answer them. And so that’s what we’re going to do this morning as we think about Colossians chapter 3. And here’s the four questions we’re going to ask. What does the scripture mean when it says we’ve been raised with Christ? That’s how this text starts out.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ. And so, we want to understand what’s Paul talking about there? Secondly, we want to ask the question, what difference should that make in our life? What impact should that truth have for you and me? Thirdly, we want to ask and answer the question, where is the physical body of Jesus right now? And what is he doing? And then lastly, we want to think about how does spiritual change and transformation happen in our life? How do we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus? And that’s the last part of the text.

So, let’s look at the first question from Colossians 3:1. What does it mean when it says we have been raised with Christ? Let me read the text again. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. So, four weeks from today is Resurrection Sunday.

The great Sunday where we get to celebrate the historical event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without that doctrine, Paul writes to the Corinthians, if Christ hasn’t been risen from the dead, we’re liars, we’re false witnesses, we’re still in our sins, and we have no hope. But then he says, but Christ is risen from the dead.

And so, Paul’s writing to these believers at the church at Colossae, and he tells them that we have been raised with Christ. Now we know that the resurrection of Jesus guarantees our future resurrection. 1st Thessalonians 4, there’s a day coming when Christ is going to descend from heaven, and Paul explains it to the Thessalonian believers.

There’s going to be a trumpet sound, there’s going to be a shout, and the dead in Christ are going to rise first. Christ is going to resurrect our physical bodies someday. But when Paul writes to the Colossians, and he says you have been risen with Christ, he’s speaking past tense.

So, what does he mean when it says you have been risen with Christ? Well, if you know your New Testament, the Bible talks about two Adams. There’s the first Adam, he was the representative of all the human beings in the Garden of Eden, and he made a bad choice. And that bad choice of sin that Adam made plunged the entire world, every human being that was born since then was born in sin because of Adam’s choice.

You might say, well, that doesn’t sound fair, but that’s the biblical truth. That sin came into the world through one man, 1st Corinthians 15:21 and 22. Since death came through a man, that was Adam, physical death, spiritual death, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

So, Jesus is referred to as the second Adam. And when Jesus died on the cross, if we are in Christ, we were actually united with him. There’s an old hymn that asks the question, were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when he rose from the dead? And the answer to that, if you know Jesus, is yes, because you have been united with Christ when you received him as your Savior, and you were actually there with him when he died.

He died for you. When he rose again, he rose again for you. And so, the Bible talks about these two representatives, these two heads, the first Adam that plunged us into sin because of his wrong choice, and the second Adam, who is Jesus.

Here’s how Paul describes it in Romans 6, verses 3 through 5. Or don’t you know that all of us were baptized into Christ Jesus? He’s not talking about water baptism there. The baptism of the Spirit is when we receive Jesus as Savior. The Spirit of God places us into the body of Christ.

He puts us in Christ. So, don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Here’s how Dr. Warren Wiersbe, the late great preacher, wrote that B series of Christian books that many have read. He says this, I am in Christ and identified with him. Whatever happened to Christ happened to me.

When he died, I died. When he rose again, I rose again spiritually. So, Paul says, I’m crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives within me. Now this is the beautiful picture of water baptism, immersion.

And we’re going to have a baptism here in a couple weeks. And I would encourage you that if you haven’t followed the Lord in baptism, if you know Jesus as your Savior, he would like you to take that step as a way of publicly identifying with what Jesus has done for you. And I know baptism can be a very confusing issue because various churches teach different ways and modes of baptism and actually meanings of baptism.

There’s no saving value in baptism. But baptism, according to the New Testament, we look at it as the biblical pattern. So read the book of Acts.

Acts chapter 2, the church is born. 3,000 people come to faith in Christ. What’s the next thing they do? 3,000 people are baptized.

Philip leads the Ethiopian official to faith in Christ. And he’s in a chariot, and there’s water there. And after he receives Christ, he’s baptized.

The Philippian jailer is saved in Acts chapter 16. And what happens to the jailer and his family that come to know Christ? They’re baptized. So, it’s the biblical pattern, and it’s a biblical picture.

And the way we do immersion is it pictures what? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Go down under the water. Jesus died for me, was buried for me.

Come up out of the water. Jesus rose again for me. And then it’s the biblical proclamation of letting others know that you’ve taken that step of faith in Jesus.

Paul says, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it’s the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And so, what does Scripture mean when it says we’ve been raised with Christ? In one sense, it’s already happened because we were there in Christ. We also have a future resurrection to look forward to.

Well, here’s a second thought and question. What impact should that truth have on our lives? And it’s right in the text because Paul tells us in verse 1 and verse 2, set your heart on things above. Verse 2, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

So, what impact should it have that we’re given new life in Christ, that Christ died for us and was buried and rose again for us? It should eternally impact our lives. Jesus changes everything. Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation.

The old has passed away, all things have become new. And so now to set your heart and mind on things above is that we look at life, we look at the world, and we look at our perspective from an eternal perspective. We look at life differently.

We should have different priorities. Psalm 49, it’s a great psalm. And the psalmist in Psalm 49, verses 16 and 17, writes, do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increase, for they will take nothing with them when they die.

Becoming a believer should change our perspective about money and finances. The question to John D. Rockefeller years ago, how much did he leave? All of it, all of it. So, the Bible says, do your giving while you’re living.

Well, this isn’t in scripture, but somebody has said this. Let me correct that. Do your giving while you’re living, then you’re knowing where it’s going.

And so, it should impact our lives. There’s a great little book called The Treasure Principle, written by Randy Alcorn. And he writes about this whole matter of how Christ should impact the way we look at life.

Here’s the treasure principle. You can’t take it with you, but you can send it ahead. It’s what Jesus said in Matthew 6:19, and 20.

The Sermon on the Mount. Don’t lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where what moth and rust and thieves will come in and steal it, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. And so, we need to have an eternal perspective.

Here’s some of his other treasure principles. Heaven, not earth, is our home. Heaven, not earth, is our homes.

So, the Bible describes believers as pilgrims or passing through. Paul writes in Philippians; our citizenship is in heaven. And so Randy Alcorn says, are you living for the dot, which is our life here on earth, 60 years, 70 years, 80 years, 90 years, maybe a few more, maybe a few less, or are we living for the line? And the line is what? Eternity.

And so, what impact should this truth have? It should change the way we look at all of life. So, we should ask ourselves some questions. How can I best use my time to advance God’s kingdom? How can I invest my time to live for something that really matters? How can I best use my giftedness, my talents to advance God’s kingdom? How can I use my treasure to advance God’s kingdom? Jim Elliot, the missionary that lost his life in Ecuador through the Aka Indians, made a famous statement.

He says, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. What’s Jim Elliot saying? We need to live with an eternal perspective, with eternity in view. So, over the course of the next three months here, we’re going to have some missionaries that are going to come and share their ministries with us.

And in a couple of weeks, a fellow by the name of Ben Lowe and his wife Donna are going to be here.

They’re going to be here in April. And then, Lord willing, we don’t have this date nailed down yet, but in May, Pastor Semei from Lasting Smiles Uganda is going to be in the United States. And probably going to be able to come here and share.

All that to say, that’s going to give us as a church an opportunity to pray for these missionaries and to invest in their ministry who are making a huge impact for the cause of Christ. Let me give you a little background from Ben and Donna Lowe, who are going to be here in a couple of weeks. And he’s just going to share about 10 or 15 minutes in the morning service about their ministry.

And then probably have a question-and-answer time after our fellowship time. So, here’s the background of Ben and Donna. I’ve not met them personally, but I’ve talked to Ben extensively on the phone.

Here’s their background. They’re with Tactica. If you remember, Tactica was one of the missions that in our Celebration Sunday, Ryan Rott was here, the founder of Tactica, teaching truths to police officers around the world.

It’s a tremendous ministry. So, we were able to give $10,000 at Tactica’s ministry. So, here’s Ben and Donna’s background.

We originally became connected with Ryan and Gretchen Rought about nine years ago through Ben’s parents’ church who support Tactica. We have gotten closer and more involved over time. Ben began going on mission trips with Tactica, and it changed our lives and transformed our world.

Ben has been in law enforcement his entire career and currently serves as the undersheriff in Roscommon County. We’ve been connected to Tactica for many years and always thought that we would serve with the ministry after we retired. However, the pull into missions has become stronger and stronger, sooner than we had thought, and God is clearly calling us now.

Originally, the sheriff of Roscommon County planned to retire at the end of this year, 2026, and turn the sheriff’s office over to Ben as the sheriff of Roscommon County. However, as God has called us into ministry, Ben has had conversations with the sheriff over the last six months about what God is doing in his life. Ben announced to the entire agency at a meeting in January that he will not be staying as sheriff and will be leaving to go into full-time missions with Tactica.

I talked to Ben on the phone, and he’s so excited about what God’s doing in their lives and through the ministry of Tactica. He’s saying that when he announced that, you know, they were grooming him to be the sheriff of Roscommon County, when he announced that he’s not going to take that position and he’s going to go into these full-time missions where people are like, what is wrong with you? You’ve worked your whole life to get to this point. And Ben’s life’s been changed.

He recently got back from a trip to Panama where they ministered to Panama police officers and did some tactical training with them. And in that trip that week while they were there, 11 Panamanian police officers put their faith in Jesus. And so, what impact should this truth have on our lives? It should change the way we think and change the way that we act and change our priorities.

All right, let’s look at the last two here very quickly as we begin to wrap this up. Here’s our third question. Where is Jesus right now, and what is he doing? Well, let’s write in the text, and it’s all through the New Testament.

We’ve already read it, but let me read it again. Since then, you’ve been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is.

Here it is. Seated at the right hand of God. Jesus, the physical body of Jesus, when he ascended up to heaven in Acts chapter 1, death, burial, resurrection, 40 days of post-resurrection appearances.

Then Jesus ascended to heaven. The disciples were in the upper room for 10 days praying. Then the Holy Spirit came and the church was born.

But when Jesus went back to heaven, the scriptures tell us that he sat down at the right hand of God. The book of Hebrews mentions that as well. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.

So right now, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. In one sense, it symbolizes that his finished work on the cross is completed. Jesus paid it all.

There’s nothing more he needs to do for salvation. And so that’s the symbolism of sitting down. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I like to get to the point in my day where we say, I’m done for today.

Tomorrow’s another day. And so, we go through our day and have a busy day. And for Diane and I, usually it’s at about 7 o’clock, 7:15.

When finally done with our responsibilities, involved with grandkids, eat dinner, do some chores, finish, clean up the kitchen. At about 7:15, we both sit down like we’re done. We’re done.

Give me the news. Wheel of fortune and jeopardy. We’re going to watch that.

And we are done for today. Well, that’s kind of what Jesus is doing. He’s seated at the right hand of God the Father.

He is done. But he’s not just doing nothing. Hebrews 7:25 says he’s making intercession for you and me.

Let me read the text. Hebrews chapter 7, the last part of verse 25. I’ll read the whole verse.

Therefore, Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. In other words, Jesus is praying for us. Yes, our sins have been forgiven, but Jesus is interceding for us.

Now, what happens? Picture Job chapter 1 where Satan is actually in God’s presence. God says to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? He’s an upright man. And Satan basically says, well, yeah, Job’s living for you, but that’s because he has an easy life.

That’s because he’s rich. That’s because you’ve blessed him. That’s because he has his health.

That’s because you’ve given him all these wonderful things. Start to take that away and see what he does. And so, the book of Job has this interesting conversation between God and Satan.

Now, in the book of Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, it calls Satan the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses Christians before our God Day and night. It almost sounds like Satan still has access and could be up in heaven and when one of us maybe stumbles and falls and sins, he’s like, oh, yeah, look at this person. And Jesus would say to Satan, that sin’s already been taken care of.

I paid for that sin on the cross. Jesus is interceding for us. He is praying for us up there in heaven.

All right. Last question, number four from Colossians chapter three. And this is the second half of the text here.

And it’s basically asking the question, so how should we then live? If when we put our faith in Jesus, what does that entail to become more like Christ? How should we then live? How does transformation take place in our lives? The Bible identifies three enemies of a Christian. The world, that’s the world system that is anti-God. And if you don’t know what’s going on today, our world system is anti-God today.

The flesh, that’s our human flesh. We’re still tempted to sin. We still fall and stumble and sin.

And then the devil. There’s opposition, spiritual opposition, devil and demons. So, when we live the Christian life, all our sins are paid for, but we still struggle with sin.

Paul writes about that in Romans chapter seven. He says, the things I want to do, I don’t do. The things I don’t do, don’t want to do, I do.

Oh, wretched man that I am. There’s Paul struggling with sin. So, Paul gives some instructions here of what we’re to do, how spiritual transformation takes place.

And he starts it in verse five. Here’s what he says. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

He names five sins, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived.

So, your BC life, before Christ’s life, was characterized by all these things. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as, and here he adds five more things to get rid of. Five more sins.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger. Is anger always a sin? No. There are times when it’s wrong not to be angry.

When we look at the injustices of our world. We’re to love good, but we’re to, what, hate evil. The whole organization, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, was started because one woman whose son was killed by a drunk driver got angry enough and mad enough to say, we need to do something about this.

And so, anger isn’t always a sin. Be angry and sin not. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.

But many times, it is. So, get rid of yourselves of all such things such as anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and put on the new self which is being renewed in the image of its creator.

And so, Paul says now you need to put to death sin. You need to get rid of these old sins and old patterns of living. Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 4, take off the old man and put on the new man.

God’s given us some resources to do that. God’s word, we need to be in God’s word. And that will help us, number one, identify what sin is.

We need to understand the holiness of God. God is holy and God cannot stand sin. He hates sin.

The more we understand the holiness of God, the more we’ll see sin in our life. It’s kind of like, and I’ve had this experience, going into a dimly lit bathroom and looking in the mirror and, you know, I’ve done that like, hey, I think I’m looking pretty good. Later that day, I’m in another bathroom with really, really bright lights like, oh my goodness.

Yeah, I need to make some changes here. That’s the way it is with the holiness of God. The more we understand and see the holiness of God, the more we become aware of our sin.

And so, we need to put off sin and put on the new man. That means being in God’s word. It means praying.

It means being connected to a fellowship of believers where we can pray for one another and encourage one another. It means living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Connecting to the Spirit’s power that Paul talks about in Galatians chapter 5. He says, so I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other. And so, living under the power and the influence of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes about in Ephesians 5:16, keep on being filled with the Spirit, with God’s word, the Spirit of God.

The prayer that I make every morning is straight from Scripture, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart today be acceptable to you, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Lord, would you help my thoughts and my actions in the power of the Holy Spirit to be pleasing to you. And so, there is the sin nature that we still have after we come to know Christ, but there’s another power of the Holy Spirit that is more powerful than that sin nature.

And that’s why Paul says, walk by the Spirit. My brother-in-law, Diane’s got one brother. He’s 81 years old, lives in central Florida, and Dale was a school teacher.

He joined the Air National Guard early in his career and flew fighter jets for the Air National Guard and retired as a lieutenant colonel. But later on in his career, he got hired by American Airlines. And so, he’s been retired for 21 years now, because back when he was flying for American Airlines, mandatory retirement at 60 for pilots.

I think that’s changed since then. So, he retired 21 years ago. And I remember him showing me a picture last time we were down there that he has on his desk.

And it’s a picture of him standing, I would say, under an airplane, a jet airplane, and it’s the largest airplane that you can fly. And I don’t know what the name of it is. I should have researched it.

But he’s standing underneath this engine that is just dwarfing him. And he is proud of, you know, this is the plane that I flew in the last part of my career. And when you look at that picture, like, what incredible power in those engines to take this huge plane filled with people, filled with hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel.

And what’s it able to do? It’s able to, through that power, overcome gravity and get up into the air. The Apostle Paul says, that’s a picture of the Spirit of God in our life. As we submit to him, as he controls us, as he begins to change our thoughts, begins to change our minds, begins to change our priorities and our desires, we can have victory over sin.

So, my friend Carl Clausen wrote a book entitled Seven Resolutions, and one of the resolutions is in that book is to kill sin. Here’s what he writes, three weapons or tools for putting to death sin in our lives, to having victory over sin. He lists them.

Number one, expose it. Expose it. So, we need to bring our sin to the light.

We need to admit what our sin is. First John, chapter one, verse eight, John says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So yes, we should progress in our sanctification, in our Christian life, but not on this side of heaven will we ever fully have victory over every sin in our life.

That’s going to be when we get to heaven called glorification. And so, the Bible says we need to be honest, we need to expose sin, bring sin to the light by confessing it to God, and if necessary, another trusted friend. James 5:16, confess your sins to one another.

There’s one God and one mediator between God and man, the person in Christ Jesus, but this is talking about accountability. And if we keep struggling with a sin over and over and again, if we’re going to get serious about it, we need to name it and maybe ask for another friend, a close friend that we can confide in to help us with some accountability. And so, he says, we need to expose it.

Then he says, we need to attack it. Whatever that sin is, he says, we need to cut off the supply. Kind of what the American military force is doing in Iran right now.

They are bombing those missile launchers so that Iran can’t shoot back. Go to the very source, cut off the supply. And then lastly, he says we need to overwhelm it, and when he means overwhelm it, we need to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, Colossians chapter 3, we’ve been raised with Christ, if you know Jesus as your Savior, because we’ve been united with him. When he died, we died. When he rose again, we rose again.

And that should change our life. It should change our priorities. It should change our affections.

Second Corinthians 4:16 through 18, the apostle Paul writes these words about the change in our life. He says, therefore, don’t lose heart, though outwardly we’re wasting away, yet inwardly we are becoming renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Here’s the application. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. What is seen is temporary, what is unseen is eternal.

And so, we have a new perspective. We look at life from a different lens. We look at our friends and neighbors and relatives who don’t know Jesus as people who need to know what the truth of the gospel, otherwise they’re going to spend eternity separated from him forever.

Whereas Jesus and what he’s doing right now, Jesus right now is seated at the right hand of God and he’s interceding for you and me. And when Satan, the accuser, the brother comes, Jesus says, I don’t want to hear it. They’re forgiven.

How does transformation take place in our life? We need to get serious about sin. We need to bring it to light. We need to expose it.

We need to have victory over sin through the power of the spirit in our lives. There’s a great prayer in the end of Psalm 139 that the psalmist prays. In the last two verses of Psalm 139, here’s what the psalmist writes, search me, oh God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my thoughts and see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. What’s the psalmist praying? Lord, would you show me some areas in my life that I need to deal with and that I need to confess, expose it and confess it and have victory over sin.

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Bible Verses John 8:31-36

Well, if there’s ever a time we need to be standing on those promises, it’s today, isn’t it, with what’s going on in our world? But I’m so thankful we can rest on the promises that we can have peace with God. Even in the midst of world turmoil, we can have the peace of God. To know that God’s a sovereign God and he’s in control and he brings leaders up to a position, and then he takes them down in his timing.

And thankful that the last chapter of history’s already been written, and God wins. And so, it’s all laid out there in several books in Scripture, especially the book of Revelation, and thankful for that. All right, we’re going to read some Scripture.

This is John chapter 8, and Jesus has been in a little bit of dispute with the religious leaders, and then he turns to the Jews who believe in him, and he says, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. They answered him, we’re Abraham’s descendants that have never been slaves of anyone.

How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus said, verily I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, a slave has no permanent place in the family, but his son belongs to it forever. So, if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

All right, we’re going to be in the book of Colossians, and Colossians chapter 2, if you’d like to follow along in your Bibles.

If not, you can kind of follow along on the screen this morning. So, I always like to give a little bit of background, just because a lot happens in a week, and sometimes someone will ask me, what did you preach on last week? And I have to go like; I have to think about that. What was that last week? So, book of Colossians.

Here’s the background. Paul’s in prison in Rome. He’s under house arrest, and he’s awaiting trial.

He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die. And he’s there for about two years, and he’s able to have visitors come and go during that time. And a person by the name of Epaphras makes a long journey from Colossae to Rome, 1,300 miles back in the first century, to visit the apostle, Paul.

And what drove him to make that visit was that Epaphras is the pastor of a church at Colossae, and there’s some trouble in the church. There’s some false teachers that are coming in and teaching false doctrine about who Jesus is, about how to get to heaven. And Epaphras tells all this to the apostle Paul.

And even though Paul’s never been there, he’s led by the Spirit of God to write a letter to the church to correct doctrinal error and also to encourage them. So, during this two-year time period, Paul writes four letters, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. They’re called the prison epistles.

And so, we’ve been looking at the book of Colossians where Paul begins to write who Jesus is and correct that error and the correct doctrine of who Jesus is. And this morning, we’re going to look at verses 16 through 23 of Colossians chapter 2, and think about freedom in Christ, that when you come to faith in Jesus, you know the truth and the truth will make you free. What did Jesus say? I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And so, we experience spiritual freedom. What is that spiritual freedom? Here’s the good news. First of all, when you put your faith in Jesus to be your Savior, to pay for your sin debt, to forgive you of your sins, when you put your trust in him for your eternal salvation, you are free from the penalty of sin.

Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. That’s physical death, came into the world when Adam and Eve sinned. Before then, there was no death.

But also, spiritual death, separation from God. And the Bible says we’re dead in our transgressions and sins, and when we put our faith in Jesus, he makes us alive and we’re free from the penalty of sin. We’re at peace with God, Romans 5:1, Romans 8:1. There’s no condemnation to those that are in Christ.

In one sense, we were on death row before we came to know Jesus. And now Jesus has paid our sin debt and paid our penalty, and we are free from the penalty of sin. I like to say it, and I’ve said it many times, sin has to be paid for.

Either you’re going to pay for it with eternal separation from God, or you put your trust in Jesus who’s already paid for it and asks us to receive that gift of eternal life. So, we’re spiritually free from the penalty of sin. We’re also free from the power of sin.

Now that’s a daily struggle. That’s called our sanctification. But God has given us principles in his word to help us to have victory over sin in our life.

Romans chapter 6 talks about that. Count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and his righteousness. Someday, we’ll be free from the presence of sin.

And that’s when our salvation is complete. That’s called our glorification. And we’re going to be in heaven, and John describes heaven by telling us what’s not there.

There’s no sin. There’s no sadness. There’s no sorrow.

There’s no sickness. There’s no death. There’s no sun, because the glory of God illuminates heaven and all these wonderful things.

We’ll be back in that perfect world. And so, in one sense, Genesis chapter 1 and 2, the perfect garden of Eden, then sin comes in Genesis 3, and then you go to the end of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, the new Jerusalem. It kind of goes back to the perfect state that we began with in Genesis 1 and 2. What else we’re free from, and this is what we’re going to look at in the book of Colossians, is we’re free from the law.

We’re free from the law. The Bible says that Jesus came not to abolish the law, the old covenant. He came to fulfill it.

And so, we are free from the law, from the old covenant. Hebrews chapter 10, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again, offering sacrifices which can never take away sin.

But when this priest had offered Jesus, when this priest Jesus had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. I noticed nobody brought a lamb this morning to offer as a sacrifice for sin. You don’t have to do that anymore.

When Jesus came on the scene, John the Baptist said, here’s the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He made that once and for all sacrifice. And so, Jesus has fulfilled the law.

Now what was happening in Colossae was that there were some Old Testament, there were some false teachers that were looking at the Old Testament and trying to impose what God gave to the Jews, restrictions on the believers in Colossae. They’re saying, well, you know, you kind of need to follow the Old Testament law. And they were trying to bring them back to the old system.

This is what the book of Galatians is all about. Why would you go back to the old covenant when Jesus has paid it all and you are free from that? So, Romans 5:20 says God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. Part of the reason for God’s law was to put this perfect standard there so we could understand we need a Savior.

Jesus says, you break one point of the law, you’ve broken it all. And then in Matthew 5, he upped the standard and said, adultery isn’t just the physical act. Adultery is when you have lust in your heart for another woman, you’ve committed adultery.

And all of a sudden, Jesus goes to the very heart of sin, and it’s not just the outward act. And so, what was the law given? The law was given to Galatians to be our schoolmaster, to point us to Jesus, for us to realize that we need a Savior. And so, the Apostle Paul’s writing in Colossians 2:16 through 23, to give some warnings about people who would bring us into maybe bondage through rules and regulations that no longer apply to us.

So, we look at three warnings this morning. Here’s the summary. The Apostle Paul warns the Colossian believers regarding those who might impose man-made rules or Old Testament regulations on New Testament believers.

Here’s the first warning, and it’s found in Colossians 2:16 and 17. It’s a warning about legalism. So, Paul writes, therefore, because of what Christ has done for us, he’s just talked about the cross and what Jesus did by forgiving us of our sin.

Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ.

So, here’s Paul’s warning. The Old Testament system had a lot of regulations about what you could eat, diet. That’s found in Leviticus 11, the kosher diet.

There’s certain foods that were considered unclean and certain foods that you could eat. They also had all sorts of rules and regulations about celebrations, about days and feasts. Leviticus 23, seven festivals that God gave to the nation of Israel there to celebrate throughout the year.

They had a weekly new moon celebration or monthly, rather, new moon celebration and the weekly Sabbath. And so, the apostle Paul is saying, don’t let any of these people bring you back to the old law and the old covenant because Jesus has fulfilled it. Don’t go back and be restricted by legalism.

Now, 2,000 years later, there’s a movement that would take Christians back to that. I researched it this week, a movement today very similar to what the Colossian church was facing. It’s called the Hebrew Roots Movement.

The Hebrew Roots Movement holds to the teaching that Christ’s death on the cross did not end the Mosaic Covenant. New Testament Christians are still under the obligation of the old covenant. Christians must keep, therefore, what? The Sabbath and worship on Saturday.

Christians must observe the Jewish feasts. Christians should avoid the paganism of Christianity, which they define as Christmas and Easter. Don’t celebrate that.

That’s the Hebrew Roots Movement that is around today. So don’t let anybody pose these Old Testament restrictions on you because Christ has fulfilled the law. In fact, in Romans chapter 14, verse 17, here’s what Paul writes, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking.

Don’t define your Christianity by what you eat or by what you drink, but the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so, the first warning is against legalism. Now there’s also a form of legalism, and some of you may have experienced this in your church background, your upbringing.

There’s a form of legalism where sometimes spiritual leaders or churches will put their own man-made definition of what a good Christian looks like and impose it on other believers. For instance, let’s just say that we’ve decided to make a new rule, and starting next Sunday, nobody’s coming into worship unless you’re wearing, for the men, a tie and a suit jacket. And ladies, no pants.

We want you wearing dresses, and by the way, we’re going to measure the length of your skirt. You kind of see where I’m going with this? Now depending on your church background or your upbringing, you may have been exposed to this. You may not have been exposed to this.

My dad was in the ministry for 60 years. The church that I grew up in in Cleveland, Ohio was a part of a fellowship of Baptist churches, and it was an association. It wasn’t a denomination, but just Baptist churches that kind of believed alike, and there was like 1,200, 1,300 of them.

It was called the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. And people would say, well, what’s an irregular Baptist church? They were sound doctrinally, but in that fellowship of churches, there were some that understood grace, and there are other churches that tried to give you a lot of rules and say, this is what a good Christian looks like. Now granted, I’m going back to the 60s and 70s when I grew up, but I know there was a church in Milwaukee, and my friend ended up pastoring in the Milwaukee area, and he told me that some of the GRBC churches in Milwaukee would not allow the church to take their youth group to the Milwaukee Brewers baseball game because they served alcohol there.

And so, we’re not going to go to the Milwaukee Brewers baseball game because of alcohol. Some of these things will sound strange to you, but they are restrictions that different churches and religious leaders have put on people 50, 60 years ago, and my wife can attest to this because she grew up in a home that playing cards, deck of cards. Christians shouldn’t play with playing cards.

I guess it’s secondary identification because you’re identifying with cards that could be used for gambling, and so you got to stay away from playing cards. How about movies? I grew up in a home, and we didn’t go to movies because you’re supporting Hollywood. The first movie I went to in my life was when I was in seminary.

I’m like, oh, I’m going to a movie theater. And isn’t it interesting, the same people that said don’t go to movies when the VHS came out there. They’re watching it at home on their video recorder.

How about rules regarding hair length? I went to a Christian school that had some pretty strict rules. They didn’t want the hair to touch your ears. I remember our principal, I was a junior, senior.

I remember he came up to me one day in school. They had rules on how long your sideburns could be. He was a man of few words.

He came up to me, looked me right in the eye. He didn’t say a word. He just did this.

I got the message. Cut your sideburns. Different rules about clothing, different rules about music, different rules about alcohol.

The Constitution in our previous church had, it was an old constitution that is floating around there. And when you’re, I was teaching a membership class one morning. And I was kind of hoping to slide by this part of the church covenant, what was in there.

And they said, we want you to abstain, totally abstain from this use and sale of alcohol. That was probably a constitution that was written 100 years ago. I remember I’m teaching that class and there’s 10 people in the class and one of our dear friends raised her hand, stops me.

Does this mean that if you drink alcohol, you can’t be a member of this church? And I’m kind of like, uh, that’s what it says. She got up, walked out of the room and went home. As soon as that was over, I sent somebody over there and she was in tears.

We changed that part of the constitution because I don’t think that’s, that’s, that’s biblical. Bible forbids drunkenness, but do all things in moderation. Uh, so all these rules and all of these regulations, how about dancing, dancing, Psalm 150.

It’s a great Psalm, Psalm of praise. And, uh, David writes it in Psalm 150, talking about praising the Lord with all kinds of musical instruments, praise him with the trumpet, the harp, the lyre, the timbrel, praise him with dancing. Uh, my, my dad, uh, preached a sermon and he changed a lot when he got into his 50s and his, his 60s.

And his sermon was a sermon about, uh, I’m a recovering legalist. In other words, I used to define my Christianity by the things I didn’t do. I remember my dad telling me he was at a retreat at Maranatha.

It was a retreat where they deal with, um, women. My, my mom was very involved in this ministry with women who had experienced, uh, abuse, mostly sexual abuse. And that whole, this retreat once a year and people would come from all over the United States and they needed healing.

But I remember my dad told me after one of those retreats, he at this point had to be in probably his 60s. He said, I danced with my wife for the first time in my life. Um, those rules just went away and he experienced freedom in Jesus.

You know, this was the problem with the Pharisees, the religious leaders, because they took the Old Testament law and then they began to define it. And then they began to put all these rules and regulations to the point where the Pharisees had 613 do’s and don’ts. Don’t work on the Sabbath.

Okay, now we’re going to define what work is. Last Wednesday, we were sharing with, um, uh, the Awana kids, um, going through the seven miracles in the Gospel of John. And I was sharing with them, uh, miracle number three in the Gospel of John, where Jesus heals a man by the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem.

It was on the Sabbath day. He heals him. He says, take up your bed and walk.

And he, he’s, he’s been lame for 38 years. He takes up his bed and he begins to walk and the religious leaders come over and tell him, you are breaking the law on the Sabbath. You are working by carrying your bed.

Didn’t, didn’t even see the miracle or didn’t register with them. Um, they got into the minutia of the law and they missed salvation. They missed the, the law giver and the Savior, Jesus, who was right there.

There’s another passage in, um, Matthew chapter 15, where the religious leaders are watching the disciples and they didn’t go through the traditional tradition of how they were to wash their hands before they eat. And so, they came to Jesus and how come your disciples aren’t following the law? And Jesus confronts them and he points out their hypocrisy. He says, you know, the Bible says, honor your father and mother.

But those religious leaders came up with, um, a system that says, uh, they would declare something Corban. Corban means I’ve dedicated everything I have to God. And so, yes, my mom and dad are in financial need, but I can’t help them because all my possessions are dedicated to God.

And Jesus calls them out on it. His harshest words in the New Testament, Matthew 23, were for the religious leaders who focused on rules and regulations and missed Jesus. And he calls them hypocrites and calls them all kinds of names.

And so, a warning against legalism. We’re, we’re free in, in Jesus. Here’s the second one. We’ll, we’ll be move much more quickly here. A warning against mysticism, a warning against mysticism. This is from verses 18 and 19.

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels. There’s a red flag right there. They were trying to get the Colossian believers to worship angels.

I also have no other gods before me. Don’t let them disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen.

They are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. A warning against mysticism. Goes on to say they have lost connection with the head from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God caused it to grow.

You’ve been disconnected with Jesus. What were these people doing? They were, they were having experiences and they were having visions and they were having dreams and kind of saying, well, I’ve got this inside information from, from God. And they had all these mystical experiences.

Now, if you look at the scripture, God used dreams in the Old Testament to communicate to people. Jacob had a, had a dream that God gave to him. God gave dreams all the time and it was in the New Testament as well.

If you go to the Christmas story, what an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. And so oftentimes God did communicate through dreams. We come to the book of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two.

Here’s what the author of Hebrews says. In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through prophets at many times and in various ways. So, God spoke to the prophets in many different ways.

Dreams was one of them. Visions was one of them. But in these last days, he hasn’t spoken to us by his son.

And so, God used dreams and visions in the past. Hebrews seems to indicate that now we’ve got the completed scripture and God has spoken to us through his word. And so, I think we have to be careful about mysticism.

Be careful when, when somebody says, well, God told me. Okay. How did God tell you? Was that through his word? No, God’s, you know, somebody says, God spoke to me directly.

And, and you need to be careful about that. You need to be careful about, I had a dream and this is what God told me. Does God still speak in dreams? I think he can.

We don’t want to put God in the box. I’ve heard this, and this is, this is true in the, in the Middle East, many, many people who follow Islam have come to faith in Jesus because Jesus appeared to them in a dream. I’ve heard missionaries tell that story over and over and over again.

So, God, God can do that. But our, our, our experience always has to match up with scripture. Here’s what one author says.

We all have notions about truth, but how do we know for sure that our notions or our thoughts are coming from God? Am I hearing God? Am I only hearing myself? Worse yet, am I hearing the temptation of Satan disguised as the leading of the Holy Spirit? And so, the author writes, most commonly God communicates through the Bible, his inspired word. It is through the word that we are sanctified, through the word that is our light for our path. God also guides us through circumstances, through the promptings of the spirit, through godly mentors, providing wise counsel.

And so be careful about mysticism. Make sure that your experience is grounded in the truth of God’s word. Years ago, I had someone in my office that was going through some struggles and they said they saw this rainbow and they’ve been praying about something that they were thinking that God wanted them to do and their prayer was, well God, if you want me to do that, make a rainbow appear. And several days, weeks, I forget the time period, they saw a rainbow and he’s telling me about this and he says, well I think that’s a sign that I need to do this. And I said to him, that’s not a sign that you’re supposed to do what you’re talking about doing because what you’re talking about doing is forbidden in God’s word.

And so, you just put out this little false fleece and then you, you know, you wait until there’s a rainbow and says, okay God, thank you. That’s the sign. It’s like the guy that was on a diet and I love donuts and he struggled because he drove by the Dunkin’ Donut shop on his way to work every day and so one day he prayed, Lord, if you want me to get a donut this morning, I pray there’ll be a parking spot like in that Dunkin’ Donut. And on his eighth time around, there was a spot that was open. And that was his sign from God.

All right, here’s the third one. It’s a warning against asceticism. So, what is asceticism? And here it is. This is asceticism and monasticism.

They’re kind of closely related. Asceticism and monasticism are two religious disciplines designed to de-emphasize the pleasures of the world so that the practitioner can concentrate on the spiritual life. Asceticism is the practice of strict self-denial as a means of attaining spiritual growth.

Monasticism is the state of being secluded from the world in order to fulfill religious vows. So, the monks take a vow and they live in seclusion and isolation to focus on their relationship with God. And the Apostle Paul gives a warning against this.

Verses 20 through 23. I’ll read those as we begin to wrap this up. Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why as though you still belong to the world do you submit to its rules? Here’s what the ascetics were saying.

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These rules which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use are based on, here’s the key, merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

And so, beware of asceticism, all these rules that says you can’t do this or that kind of even hinder our bodies. So, here’s again a paragraph that might help us understand this. Followers of Christ are told to deny themselves, Luke 9:23, but asceticism takes this command to an extreme.

The Bible never suggests that a Christian should purposely seek out discomfort or pain. On the contrary, God has richly blessed us, this is 1st Timothy 6:17, with everything for our enjoyment. God wants us to enjoy life.

Jesus’ first miracle, water into wine at the marriage of wedding feasts. He was a God of joy, a God of celebration. Paul says the kingdom of God is what? Joy and peace and righteousness, not restrictions.

The Bible warns of those who forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, 1st Timothy 4. Thus, it is erroneous to believe that celibates who abstain from certain foods are more holy than other people. We are under grace, not under the law. Therefore, the Christian does not live by a set of rules, but by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Christ has set us free. In many cases, the ascetic practices self-denial in order to earn God’s favor or purge themselves from sin. This shows a misunderstanding of grace and no amount of austerity can merit salvation or God’s love.

And Paul points out, verse 23, all these rules and regulations lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Because we’re putting restrictions on the exterior and as somebody said, the heart of the matter is a matter of a heart. And so, there’s some of our personalities when you go by a bench and it says wet paint do not touch, what do we want to do? Let me see if it’s still wet.

It almost encourages us. We have to be very careful as parents and I know we need to have regulations and rules and I don’t want any young people here to leave this message saying, well, you can’t put any rules on me, mom and dad. No, they’re given their responsibility to guide you in your spiritual walk.

But having grown up in a little bit of a legalistic type of church, I’ve seen many people who have all these rules and restrictions when they’re at home, not allowed to do this, don’t do this, don’t go there. What happens when they leave the home? They go wild. They go crazy.

And so, what we need to do is shepherd the heart. What do they do? And I’m told in Amish culture, and of course there’s a lot of rules and regulations in Amish culture, but there’s a certain period and I don’t know how, I’ve read this, I don’t know how old they are when they get to be 16 or 17, they tell them, okay, you can go out and do whatever you want for a year. And then you decide, do you want to live in the Amish way or do you want to live that way? And they kind of give them an option in certain Amish places.

And so be careful about asceticism. Now we might say, well, what about Lent? Because we’re in a season of Lent. I have to tell you, growing up in the circle of churches that I grew up in, I knew very little about Lent.

I didn’t really hear about it. I didn’t really know what it was. It just wasn’t emphasized.

So, I’ll just close with this. Here’s Lent. Lent is a period of fasting, moderation, and self-denial traditionally observed by Catholics and some Protestant denominations.

It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. The length of Lent was established in the fourth century as 46 days, 40 days not counting Sundays. And so, here’s what the author has to say about Lent.

However, over the centuries, Lenten observances have developed a much more sacramental value. Many Catholics believe that giving something up for Lent is a way to attain God’s blessing. But the Bible teaches that grace cannot be earned.

Grace is by definition a gift. If a Christian wants to observe Lent, he or she is free to do so. The key is focusing on repenting of sin and consecrating oneself to God.

Lent should never be a time of boasting of one’s sacrifice of trying to earn God’s favor or increasing his love. God’s love for us could not be any greater than it already is. There is nothing you can do to get God to love you more.

His love is unconditional. His love is unending. Paul writes about that to the Ephesian believers to try to, I want you to understand, God’s immense love for you.

And so, three warnings, warning against legalism, warning against mysticism, warning against asceticism, don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t handle. Here’s our summary. This is the good news.

The finished work of Jesus Christ has provided all we need for salvation, has provided all we need for sanctification. 2nd Peter 1:3, God’s given us everything we need for a life of godliness. Therefore, we are complete in him.

Don’t let anybody tell you that you need to add this. Jesus plus anything is a false teaching. When you add anything to the finished work of Christ, you’re saying Christ’s death on the cross is not sufficient to pay for my sin.

And so, we’re complete in him. He’s given us all we need to live a life of godliness. Therefore, we are complete in him.

Thank God for the cross. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

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Colossians 1:24 – 2:5

This is Colossians chapter 2 and we’re going to read the first five verses from Paul to the church at Colossae. Here’s what he writes, I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for all those that lay out of Sea and for all who have not met me personally. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart, united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments, for though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

Well, we are going through the book of Colossians. We’re going section by section, verse by verse. This morning we’re going to be in Colossians chapter 2 and the first five verses.

But what I’d like to do, just to kind of get us thinking again of the context, to remind you that Paul’s writing from prison. Paul’s in Rome and he’s under house arrest. He’s awaiting trial.

He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die. And he gets a visitor. The visitor is Epaphras, who’s the pastor of the church at Colossae, 1300 miles away.

Probably took him three months to travel to see the apostle, Paul. What drove him there is that he was concerned about the church. He was concerned about some false teachers that were teaching the wrong way of salvation, that were teaching that Jesus is not who Jesus is.

And so, Paul writes this letter to correct their thinking, their doctrine on who Jesus is and the way of salvation, and to encourage these new believers. Paul’s writing to people that he’s never met before. Paul’s not visited the church at Colossae, but he’s still praying for them and encouraging them.

And so, this morning in these five or six verses we want to look at this morning, I’ve entitled this Insights into Pastoral Ministry. Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be a pastor? Some of you maybe have. Our oldest of eight grandchildren, Shane, he’s just turned 13 and he comes to Awana and Youth Group here on Wednesdays.

And a couple weeks ago he asked me, he says, like, Grandpa, like, how do you get paid as a pastor? How does this work? I said, well, people put money in an offering plate, and that’s how we pay our light bill, our insurance bill. That’s how we support, actually we’re supporting 14 missionary families, not their total support, but supporting 14 missionary families, and the pastor gets paid out of that. Oh, so he’s trying to put it together.

Quite frankly, there’s a lot of misconceptions about the life of a pastor, and we’re going to get some insight here from Colossians chapter 2, but I feel like I probably have some unique insight because I grew up in a pastor’s home. My dad was in the ministry for 60 years, pastoring churches, and he traveled to a lot of mission fields and encouraging missionaries. And then I’ve been in pastoral ministry, this is year number 46.

So, I think I’ve got a little bit of insight into what pastoral ministry is all about. Now, here’s what I remember from growing up in a pastor’s home, and of course, this is a long time ago, this is like 60 years ago, but I remember this is back when church schedules, it was almost like the more times you came to church, the more spiritual you were. We were at church all the time.

Of course, I had to be there because we’re the pastor’s family. We were there Sunday morning, then in the afternoon we had something called training union, and that was like at 4:30. Then we had a service in the evening, and then we had a Wednesday night service and other activities. I remember my dad being gone a lot.

You know, Sunday was a busy day. He got involved in teaching something called Baptist Bible Institute, and it was like a Bible college. And he would go there on Monday nights and teach at this Baptist Bible Institute.

Wednesdays we were at church. He was just gone a lot in the evenings. I remember as a young kid, a couple of our vacations getting cut short because someone in the congregation had died.

My dad felt, you know, that he needed to be there to do the funeral service, and so a little bit of disappointment in me and my brother. It’s like, oh, our vacation’s over. Yeah, yeah.

Insight into pastoral ministry. Now, you might say this is a great message for maybe a pastor’s meeting or a pastor’s conference, so here’s how I want you to apply this. I’ll give it to you ahead of time.

You know what the Bible says? If you know Jesus, we’re all ministers. Second Corinthians 5 tells us we’re ministers of reconciliation. Ephesians chapter 4 says God’s given gifts to, what, equip people.

That’s the church body for, what, the work of the ministry. So, I’m going to give you some principles of pastoral ministry, but they’re really applied to all of our lives because Scripture tells us we’re all in ministry. So, let’s start with the first one here.

It’ll be up on the screen. Here’s number one. Ministry is hard.

Ministry is hard. Notice what Paul writes here. He’s saying his goal is to present everybody fully mature in Christ.

That’s verse 28 of chapter 1. Listen to the language he uses. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. The New King James Version says to this end I labor.

I’m striving. The word there, work and labor means to feel fatigued, to be weary, striving. That’s the Greek word from which we get the word agony.

Paul lets us know that ministry is hard. We read his autobiography briefly, I think last Sunday, and Paul says, yeah, I’ve been in prison often, shipwrecked, and been stoned and left for dead in Lystra, been beaten three or four times, and he goes on to list all of the difficult things in his ministry, and then he says, besides all of this, verse 28, 2nd Corinthians 11, I feel daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Don’t read it during the service, but there’s an insert in your bulletin from one of our missionary families, the Woodard family, giving us an update.

They’re currently in Papua New Guinea, and you want to realize how difficult ministry is, you know, read that letter, and they’re asking for prayer. Ministry is hard. Now, for 40 plus years, and I understand this, it’s a little bit of sarcasm, but I’ve had to deal with a joke being in the ministry, and you’ve probably heard this before, you can fill in the blank, how hard can this job be because you only work, fill in the blank, one day a week? One day, how hard can that be, one day a week? Well, let me just share some insights, and I’m not sharing this for sympathy in any way.

This is from an organization called CLIMB, Christian Leadership Insight for Ministry and Business. This is from November of last year, and here’s what they say. They studied ministers.

The work of a pastor involves intense, emotional, spiritual, and organizational demands that few other professions share. According to a recent survey, listen to this, one-third of all pastors have considered leaving the ministry in the past year. One-third of all pastors in the last year said, there was a time in the last year I felt like I want to leave.

You might say, well, did you ever feel that way? And I’ve shared this story before, and the answer is yes. First, I graduated from Grand Rapids Seminary. My first ministry assignment was associate pastor at a church suburb in Cleveland, and I went in with great excitement and enthusiasm, and I had these preconceived ideas of what ministry was going to be like, and I thought, I’m going to get over there, and the pastor and I are going to pray together and strategize and do ministry, and none of that happened.

And quite frankly, there’s a little bit of a personality conflict between the pastor and me. I remember in my position, he wanted me to be at every activity that the church had, and at the beginning of the month, there would be 13 straight nights where I was gone from the home. At that point, we had our first child, and I went to him and said, hey, this isn’t working for me, and basically said, well, this is the way it is, and then I decided, well, not for me.

I’m not going to sacrifice my family. And there was a time in that time period where I thought, you know, I think I’m maybe done. I worked as a professional painter when I was in seminary.

I knew I could make a living as a painter, and so kind of like Peter wanted to go back to fishing, like, I’ll just go back and paint. God led us to a weekend, two or three days at Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference, and in God’s plan, we were there for a couple days. I was thinking about leaving the ministry, and God just ministered to us through the minister there and the program there in two or three days, and God kind of gave me a course correction to keep on going.

That was 41 years ago. But ministry is hard. So, this Climb Study says, why would so many pastors consider leaving the ministry? Again, I’m just going to quote here, the decision to leave a deeply held vocation is rarely due to a single event.

It is instead the result of compounding pressures that erode a minister’s sense of well-being and satisfaction. These challenges range from internal demands of the job to external pressures from the congregation and the wider culture. Here’s another factor, ministerial stress and burnout.

The stress associated with a pastor role is the most frequently cited reason for considering resignation, noted by over one-half of the ministers who contemplate leaving. Pastors frequently operate in a state of 24-7 availability where duties bleed into personal time due to the expectation of immediate crisis response. This heavy workload means that 90% of ministers report working more than 50 hours a week.

The emotional toil of constantly counseling, comforting, and managing the spiritual lives of others leads to exhaustion and a decline of personal well-being. Here’s another factor, church conflict and criticism, and that’s very common in the ministry. And so, I remember hearing this at an ordination service years ago, and here’s a fellow that’s new going into the ministry, he says, you have to have three things.

You have to have a teachable head, you have to keep learning, you have to have a tender heart, and you have to have a tough hide. Criticism. I remember sitting in a room with six people on one side of the table, six people on the other side of the table, and there was a controversy about what style of music was going to be at this church, what style of music we were going to have.

And six people demanding this way, or we’re leaving. Six people say, no, we need to go this direction, or we’re leaving. And I’m straight in the middle.

I remember meeting with some board members, and they just wanted to kind of have a personal meeting with me. And it was half the board, and I said, well, is this about church issues? They said, not really, we just want to chat with you. Okay, I met with them.

Walk into the room, sit down, and here they have those yellow legal pads. And for an hour and a half, I said, now don’t take this personal. But ministry is hard, that’s why it takes a calling.

Here’s another factor why some guys feel like they want to resign. Isolation. The leadership position itself creates a sense of isolation, which 43% of ministers considering leaving the ministry identified as a major factor.

The minister is expected to be a confidant and spiritual guide, but the nature of the role makes forming genuine reciprocal friendships difficult. This is sad. Studies show that 70% of pastors do not have someone they consider a close friend.

Do you know they used to teach that in seminary? My dad went to Grace Seminary in Winona Lake, Indiana back in the 50s, and they actually taught now when you get to a church as the pastor, you can’t really have close friends because the congregation will perceive that you’re playing favorites. How would you like someone to say in your life, well, don’t have any close friends. You just have to be isolated.

And so, the first insight into pastoral ministry is that ministry is hard. I want you to know I’m not contemplating leaving the ministry. You guys have been a great encouragement to us.

Yeah, when we got back from our trip from Florida, which we rarely get away, get back home on Sunday night, I think it was two weeks ago, and there in our kitchen, some flowers. Little note. Welcome back.

Thank you, whoever did that. Let’s go to number two. Ministry is hard.

Here’s the second insight Paul gives us. Ministry must be done through God’s enablement, through God’s enablement. Here again, verse 29, notice what Paul says, to this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

So, what’s Paul saying here? Hey, you can’t just get up and do it in your own strength, but ministry, whatever ministry you’re called to, has to be done through the power of God in your life. There’s all sorts of verses that refer to that. Zechariah 4:6, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

The disciples in Matthew chapter 17, someone came to them and they were demon possessed and wanted the disciples to cast out the demon and they couldn’t do it. And they came to Jesus and said, why couldn’t we do that? And Jesus says, because this only happens through prayer and fasting. You need spiritual power, spiritual enablement.

So, Paul writes to the Philippian church these words, therefore, my dear friends, continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, not work for your salvation, it’s a gift. You just have to receive the gift of eternal life. But then he says, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Paul from prison, Philippians 4:13, I can do all things not in my own strength, through Christ who strengthens me. And so, ministry must be done through God’s power and God’s enablement, not relying on our own self-sufficiency. Third one, last one, we’ll begin to wrap this up.

Here’s number three. Ministry must have specific goals. Ministry must have specific goals.

So, this is the rest of the passage here, because Paul’s writing to these believers in Colossae, and he’s got a certain target, a certain goal that he wants to accomplish. Not necessarily attendance goals, not necessarily financial goals. That’s kind of our American culture of how we define success, even in church ministry.

It’s bodies, bucks, and building, how big things are. No, Paul had some very different targets, different goals, and he speaks to it very clearly beginning in verse 2, Colossians 2:2. My goal is, you can’t miss it. So, I’m writing this letter to you, and here’s my goal.

Here’s my target. My goal is that they, the Colossian believers, may be encouraged in heart. And so, here’s goal number one.

Paul says in his ministry and in our ministry, it’s the goal to encourage. It literally means to pour courage into someone. There’s all sorts of scripture verses that speak to that.

I love Hebrews 3:13. It says, encourage one another daily. Daily. We need to do this every day, don’t we? Just to encourage someone, it starts with our own family, doesn’t it? How can you encourage your spouse today? How can I encourage my kids today? And then it should overflow to other areas of our life, our church family, and our neighborhood.

Encouragement. The author of Hebrews speaks to this in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25. He says, let’s see how we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.

The author of Hebrews says, don’t stop meeting together, but encourage one another. Now, in our world today, we have live stream, don’t we? And most churches live stream their service. And my wife will verify this.

Usually sometime during the week, I check out like four or five other churches and watch their live stream. Maybe not the whole thing, but I’m just kind of curious, you know, what other churches are doing and what they’re sharing, what they’re speaking about. And live stream is good.

And I will also say, we live stream our service. I do check weekly just to see, you know, is anybody watching? Last week we reached a kind of a high, I think it’s because Alex gave her testimony, but there were 72 views last Sunday. That’s double what we normally get.

But having said that, that’s good for shut-ins, that’s good if you’re sick, but we need the body to be present because you can be encouraged watching live stream, but you can’t encourage somebody else because you’re not here. And so, encouragement. Paul is looking to encourage the body of Christ.

How do you do that? Well, through God’s Word, God’s promises. At Sharon’s funeral last night, I said, you know, my goal is to encourage you. Here’s some promises from God’s Word that’s going to give you hope and encouragement, especially at a time of the loss of a loved one.

Because if you know Jesus, you’re going to see this person again someday. And Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers about the rapture and the fact that when Christ returns, believers will be caught up and will be reunited. There’ll be a meeting in the air and we’ll be in heaven forever and ever.

And he says, encourage one another with these words. That’s our ultimate goal. It’s not in this world; it’s something that is out of this world.

Encourage through God’s Word, through the promises of God’s Word. You can encourage someone just by listening. James says, I want everyone to be slow to speak, slow to wrath, quick to listen.

Most of us, myself included, are not good listeners. A lot of us, we’re talking to somebody and we’re kind of half hearing them and kind of planning what we’re going to say. You can greatly encourage somebody just by being an empathetic listener, asking them some questions.

Many times, I’ve had people in my office and they share their problem and I just kind of listen to them and ask them questions and pray with them. They’re like, thank you, that was so helpful. I didn’t do anything, just listened, prayed with them.

Encouragement. Our words can encourage. Proverbs says, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

And so, we have this powerful tool called our mouth and words can either, what, lift up or tear down. The Bible says once we become a believer, we should use our words exclusively to, what, build up other people. So, we encourage them through our words.

We encourage through acts of kindness. We encourage through praying for others. Paul’s first goal here is encouragement, but he has a second goal and it’s unity.

Look at it in verse 2. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love. And so, not only encouragement, but unity. We’re all one.

We’re all part of the body of Christ. Now, St. Augustine gave a famous quote. Here it is.

In essentials unity, there’s five key fundamental doctrines of the faith that we need to agree on. They’re essential to salvation and who Jesus is and the substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross for our sins, the fact that he’s coming again, the infallible word of God. There’s these core values that we must agree on to have unity.

So, in essentials unity, in non-essential liberty, there’s other areas of the Bible, interpretations, especially in eschatology. We can agree to disagree the doctrine of last things. When is Christ coming back? There’s a seven-year tribulation period.

Some say he’s coming back before the tribulation, the rapture. Some say it’s midway through the tribulation. Some say it’s at the end of the tribulation.

There’s another view called the pre-wrath rapture. Yeah, we can disagree on those. And then in all things charity.

And so, unity. Paul speaks to us in Ephesians 4:3 through 6, make every effort to keep the unity of a spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, just you are called the one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

And so, Paul’s goal is unity. You know what Jesus prayed for right before he went to the cross? His high priestly prayer? It’s found in John chapter 17 verse 3, this long prayer that Jesus prayed right before he goes to the cross. Not verse 3, it’s down in verse 21, 20 and 21.

My prayer is not for them alone. He’s praying for his disciples. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.

Guess who that is? That’s us who believe through the scriptures and the message of the Bible. Here’s the prayer request, that all of them may be one. Jesus’ prayer was for unity within the body of Christ.

Well, Paul’s goal was encouragement. Paul’s goal was unity. Back to Colossians chapter 2, Paul’s goal was for them to know Christ.

That’s found in verses 2 and 3. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart, united in love, so that this will produce the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ. I want you to know Christ. And then it says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Knowledge in Jesus is all the treasures of what? Wisdom. The whole section of the Bible is wisdom literature. The book of Proverbs, that’s a great book to read through.

I think there’s 31 chapters and 31 days in a month. Read through the book of Proverbs. There’s great wisdom there.

Knowledge and wisdom. So, to know Christ, how do you get to know someone? You get to know someone by spending time with them. How do you get to know somebody? How do you get to know Jesus? Well, it’s kind of simple.

God speaks to us through his word, and we speak to him through prayer. So, it’s reading God’s word, that’s how he speaks to us, and it’s praying. I’ve had people sit in my offices; God told me to do so-and-so. And I said, well, let me tell you this, that wasn’t God, because God never tells us to do anything that is contrary to what’s in this book. So, I don’t know who told you that, what voice you were listening to, but we know Christ by reading his word.

Reading the gospel is a great place to start. Matthew, by spending time and speaking to him in prayer. And God wants to know what’s on our hearts.

And he can take whatever our thoughts are. Sometimes we’re hurt, and God wants to hear our thoughts and our prayers. Lastly, and then we’re done this morning, here’s the fourth target, the fourth goal, is spiritual discernment.

So, remember in Colossae, there was these false teachers that were teaching wrong about who Jesus is, wrong about the way of salvation. And so, he says, I tell you this to know Christ better and to encourage you, I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. That’s an interesting word.

It’s used only here in the New Testament. Don’t be led astray by false teachers, fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delighted to see how disciplined you are and how firm you are in the faith.

And so, Paul says, I want you to have some spiritual discernment. You know, in the banking industry, the best thing they tell you how to detect a counterfeit is to study the real thing and make sure you know what that $100 bill looks like or whatever denomination that you’re looking at. And that’s true.

The best thing to be able to have spiritual discernment is to know the truth. John 8:32, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Well, quickly here, let me just conclude with a couple of obvious expectations and applications rather.

So here we go as we finish. Number one, if you’re in ministry, and we all are, if nothing else, you’re ministering to your family, you’re ministering to your spouse, you’re ministering to hopefully a ministry in the church. We’re all ministers.

Don’t expect ministry to be easy. There’s always going to be challenges. There’s always perhaps going to be some criticism.

And so, one of the ways that we can help with that is that we need to encourage one another as we do ministry. And so, encourage a Sunday school teacher, encourage a junior church worker, encourage the nursery workers, encourage the tech crew, encourage youth workers, encourage those that are working in Awana, those that are working in beyond Awana, those that minister in music, board members, encourage them. And that’s part of our job.

But don’t expect ministry to be easy. But I love 1st Thessalonians 5:24, faithful is he who calls you who also will do it. And so, if God’s called you to a ministry, he will make sure to encourage you and be faithful to you to help you complete what he’s called you to do.

Secondly, always minister in dependence on God and his power. And I know this sometimes gets forgotten, but you know, if you’re even teaching a Sunday school lesson, giving a lesson to the kids on Wednesday night at Awana, you can’t do that in our own strength. We want to depend on God to move and to speak through us.

And so, we’re depending on his power. Remember the story of Samson, one of the saddest verses in the Bible. The secret to Samson’s power wasn’t his hair.

That was just the outward symbol. It was dependence on God and his power and his strengths. And then one day Delilah tricked him and deceived him and had him wrapped up and said, the Philistines are on you.

And Samson goes to try to break those ropes, and he doesn’t realize that the spirit of God has left him. He has no power. Samson ends up in the temple to Dagon, the Philistine gods.

His last act was to ask God to give him one more burst of physical power. And he was chained between those two pillars in that temple, and he tore those pillars down, and the whole building collapsed and killed everyone. But Samson forgot that God’s power was no longer with him.

That was true for the nation of Israel. The Shekinah glory had left them. And so, we always have to minister in dependence on God and his power.

And then the last one is to minister with specific goals in mind. So, when you do ministry, one of the things I’ve learned is that you have to know your audience, don’t you? Like, who am I speaking to? Who am I ministering to? Am I ministering to people who have been in church all their life, to Christians? Am I speaking to people who don’t know the Lord, don’t know anything about the Scriptures? And so, we need to know our audience, but we need to have specific goals in mind. Paul’s were encouragement, unity, knowing Jesus, and being united in love.

Well, that’s a little insight into personal or pastoral ministry. I hope that encourages you as we minister together here through the body of Christ.

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