INTRODUCTION
A. Our Journey of Life
-An infant begins an exciting journey to experience Life –(sights, sounds, touch, even dependency on parents)
- In growing, He works to excel in this new Journey
- As he grows into maturity & others notice
- Responsibilities and Opportunities … to Maturity
B.Epaphras also has a life of growth – but a different kind of growth
- Paul leads him to Christ
- In His faith (life), he becomes stronger and stronger
- He becomes grounded as he grows into maturity
- His love takes on a new definition – others attach
- A Church is Born (in 3 cities) in a house
Our life should be the same …
C. Distractions Come
- Paul has already heard of them
- He’s been praying for them because he knows the dangers
- Paul has seen this before (in Corinth, Galatia, & Philippi)
- He writes a letter to help (he doesn’t wait for Epaphras to recover from the long trip to Rome, but urgently sends a letter back to the church)
D. Text: Colossians 1:6b-14
- Describes his prayer
- Encourages them to grow and walk in a way that seek God’s way
- Reminds them of the REASON for PURSUING GODLY LIVING
- TEXT COLOSSIANS 1.6-14
I. THE GOSPEL IS BEARING FRUIT AND GROWING
READ VERSES 6b
‘gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world’
-being preached adding God’s blessing all throughout the Roman Empire
-God desires to use all believers to bear fruit allowing Him to bless that seed!
-BUT IS IT? Did the gospel bear fruit because of your effort this past week?
READ VERSES 7-8
‘you learned it from Epaphras’ – 7
-Epaphras does the same as Paul did for him (he spread the seed)
-The beauty of passion begins with one and spreads (as God promised)
-Discipleship as God intended
ILLUSTRATION: DISCIPLESHIP
-Begins one at a time - Not class at a time
-Question is whether you want to be used
-Ask God to use you to touch one person each day
-Look for opportunities to be used
‘a fellow servant’ ‘faithful minister’
-Testimony of Epaphras should rub off on all of us
-As it did this church - ‘love in the spirit’
-We are all called to be a faithful minister
-We are all called to be a fellow servant
Does the gospel bear fruit based on your life? Do you even consider the need? Or do you just go through life living one day at a time?
II. KNOWLEDGE REQUIRES WISDOM
As we will see throughout the book many in the church had the knowledge of the Word. In fact, it was a group considered in the know that was causing this problem. They were missing a very important element of Christian faith.
READ VERSES 9
‘for this reason…’ (all the above)
- Paul knew what was at stake
- How dangerous worldly vices could be a distraction
2 General Areas of Prayer
1. ‘fill you with the knowledge of His will’
-Filled with a hunger for God’s Word
I don’t know if we haven’t reached a stagnant time almost as though we feel we are all filled up. What about YOU? Do you still have a hunger for HIS WORD?
READ 2 Tim. 4.3
2. ‘through all spiritual wisdom and understanding’
-Knowledge does NO GOOD w/o the wisdom to put it to use
READ HEBREWS 5.11-14
QUOTE: APPLYING THE BIBLE said this of KNOWLEDGE
“Knowledge is impossible apart from commitment, involvement, and action”! (it’s not enough to know – it won’t hold without the rest – commitment, involvement, & action – I can read it, even enjoy it, but without the understanding of how to apply it, there is no strength.
Knowledge of Godly living is great – IF we put it into practice through Godly training.
III. 4 CHARECTERISTICS OF GODLY LIVING
What does it mean to have the knowledge of God’s will –spiritual wisdom and understanding. Let’s get specific!
READ 10a ‘live a life worthy…’
‘worthy’ describes something of equal weight
- Believers are to be equal to the Lord’s standards
- He loves me so I love you
- He forgives me so I forgive you
- Because He is holy, I strive to be holy
1 Peter 1.15-16
- A transformed character – Godly justice
GERMAN PROVERB “Where might is master, justice is servant”
God’s power, God’s might, living within the life of the believer displays Godly servant hood that none can fault as Paul described in Ephesians.
4 Characteristics of Godly Living
READ VERSE 10b-12
1.‘bearing fruit in every good work’ (goes back to verse 6) - 10
-Jesus Christ – The believers VINE
-As one receives the gospel seed, he becomes a branch of the VINE
-As a Branches bear fruit, so do we as his seed.
-A Christian is to produce spiritual fruit
-Spiritual Growth doesn’t happen overnight but requires constant training
2.‘growing in the knowledge of God’ - 10
-These two go together
-As one bears fruit they are trained by God which sparks a stronger deeper love for Him. As the two work together, more fruit is produced because of a deeper love. A RELATIONSHIP!
READ JOHN 12.24
The act of dying to self is deceiving to the Christian and stops our bearing fruit. Because we bear no fruit, we fail to see the …
3.‘spiritual strength’ - 11
2 Areas:
1.‘with all power’
Word describes a spiritual vitality, liveliness and excitement because of something new
2. ‘according to His glorious might’
HE is the something new. Power that overcomes resistance to the old way of life.
Godly strength with all power and might …might have “endurance” and “patience”.
Godly Power – Godly Might to overcome worldly temptations and ANYTHING that would SEPARATE us from living a life worthy of the Lord.
4.‘joyfully giving thanks’ - 12
READ 1 THESS 5.16-18
Are you allowing God to train you? Are you working to live a life worthy of the Lord?
ILLUSTRATION: SPIRITUAL GROWTH
There was once a farmer who went to town to purchase seeds for his farm. As he was returning home one of the squash seeds he had purchased fell from his pocket onto the ground. It happened that within a few feet was another seed of a different type. The place where the two seeds lay was rather fertile, and miraculously they took root.
After about a week the squash seed showed signs of growth. The second seed showed none. After two weeks the squash began to sprout leaves. The second seed showed none. After seven weeks the squash began to show fruit.
The second seed still showed no progress. Four more weeks came and gone. The squash plant reached the end of its life bearing much fruit in that time, but the other seed finally began to slowly grow.
Many years later the squash was all but forgotten, but the other tiny seed, an acorn, had grown into a mighty oak tree.
So many people want their faith to be like the squash. They want to experience it all right now… Spiritual training – like Epaphras understood, requires hard work – as anything worthwhile does.
A life of bearing fruit, putting into practice Godly knowledge & wisdom – BUT FOR A LIFETIME AND NOT A SEASON…
III. BE THANKFUL AND REMEMBER!
Finally, Paul closes his letter of introduction by reminding them WHY. Why do we strive to bear fruit, or pursue Godly knowledge and spiritual wisdom? Why does he ask us to live a life of equal weight to Christ – something that we will never achieve?
READ VERSES 12b-14
-Why did he close the introduction with these two verses?
-Why is he calling on the CHURCH to live a life worthy of the Lord?
-Why … bear fruit and to grow
WE FORGET! WE FORGET THE COST!
‘who has qualified you’ – through Christ, we have been enabled to participate
‘he has rescued us’ – He has delivered us once and for all.
‘brought us into the kingdom of the Son’
‘we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin’ (Eph. 1.7) – We have been bought back.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 … You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Why do we live as though WE BELONG TO OURSELF? WE FORGET! WE FORGET THE COST!
SUMMARY
Suppose you walked into your kitchen one morning and found Jesus sitting at the table. What would you do? Would you say: "Jesus! I’m thrilled to see You! I just wish I had time to talk, but right now I’m running late for work. When I get home tonight, we’ll have a nice visit"?
Later, you rush into the house from work to pick up your son for his Little League game and dash back out. Finally, you return home from the game, but the children need your attention, the laundry needs folding, or you are having a splitting headache, and before you know it, you’re just plain too tired to talk with Him. You crawl into bed and fall asleep.
Of course, you probably think if Jesus were to physically come to your house, you’d stop everything to sit with Him and visit, right? Maybe you would. But maybe you wouldn’t. But when you neglect to spend time with Christ in His Word and prayer, or constantly put Him off for some other excuse (mean that literally) surely you can understand that you give Him the impression that He’s not important to you.
Staying in daily communion with Jesus must be the No. 1 priority of one in Pursuit of Godly Living. It’s the key that opens every door to a fruit-bearing, blessing to this life and the next.
