OPEN: So last week we started our journey through this wonderful book named Colossians. And I've got to tell you this is an absolutely wonderful passage of Scripture to dwell on. - Get a handle on this book and it will produce in you that which God has planned for you. It will grow on you, better yet -- it will grow in you.
What specifically is God trying to produce?
We started out last week by asking the question, "Have you grown?" But maybe there was a question that needed to be asked about the question: "Grow into what?"
What is it that I am to be growing into?
God has a goal for all us -- and that goal by the way is the same for all of us. It's been the same goal for every single saint since the Church was birthed. (Rom. 8:29)
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God's goal for you is to do have the heart and the mind of Jesus. He wants you love like Jesus loves. To have compassion like Jesus had compassion. To stand for the truth like Jesus stood for the truth. To serve others the way Jesus served others. To teach, encourage, to train, care for others the same way Jesus did. Are you growing into Christ- likeness?
What's the Big Idea? The Comprehensive Sufficiency of Jesus Christ.
To possess the Lord Jesus Christ is to have every spiritual resource you could ever need. All strength, wisdom, comfort, joy, peace, meaning, value, purpose, hope, and fulfillment in life now and forever is bound up in Jesus. Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Savior. We are complete in Christ. When Jesus completed his work on Calvary He cried out triumphantly "It is finished!" Nothing was omitted. Peter says that we have been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ.
We talked last week about the problem Epaphras was facing in his church. He was facing ongoing constant challenges this basic reality. People were coming to the church with what they thought were sophisticated approaches to the issues they were facing. Every generation of Christians are going to face their battles. Epaphras had his, and we are going to have ours. Every generation has new set of novelties and man-centered philosophies and approaches to the issues they face. Every generation has to rediscover the Comprehensive Sufficiency of Christ as the head of the Church for the issues of their time. Every generation has to rediscover the comprehensive sufficiency of Jesus Christ in relation to their unique problems, circumstances, the issues they face -- both individually and as the people of God collectively. -- the unique times in which they live. The greatest discovery any person can make is awakening to the reality that Jesus is sufficient. His power and His wisdom and His strength and His grace and His mercy and His love and His faithfulness and His counsel and His knowledge and His compassion and His forgiveness all come together in one word -- sufficient! - the only reliable answer for the problems we face are going to found in Christ.
- Jesus is the only perfect blueprint for the issues we face as individuals and as a congregation. If we try to build according to any other plan we are erecting a structure that will unacceptable to the Master Architect.
Now the problem Epaphras was facing is there were people in his congregation that were either attacking this one basic fundamental truth of Christianity. If you asked them about the sufficiency of Jesus Christ they would say,
"Yes He is sufficient, but..."
And what they were trying to do was add to Jesus that which was their particular interest. The prominent ideas of their culture was beginning to infiltrate into the Church. For some is was philosophy, for some it was the Old Testament rituals and shadows of Christ, for some it was some kind of paranormal experience. And it's no different in our day -- the specific issues may have changed but the basic reality of what is being said hasn't. For some it might be psychology, or a new methodology or a new or an old tradition or whatever novelty presents itself. Basically it is someone saying, "Jesus is sufficient but ...." Church listen to me, anytime you hear someone saying something equivalent to "Jesus is sufficient, but . . ." Reprove them. Correct them. Set them straight.
So someone might ask, "Is there nothing to be learned outside of the Bible and Jesus that can be useful for us?" Useful, perhaps. Necessary, no. If they are necessary, they are the Scripture. Otherwise God has left us short of what we need and that would be unthinkable. Human ingenuity occasionally intersects with truth. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. But that's far short of the total, comprehensive, absolute, complete sufficiency of what we find in Jesus.
- The best defense against the confusion of conflicting ideas and the unrelenting attacks upon the church is a thoroughly biblical Christology.
Any attempt to add anything or take anything away from Christ always ends in spiritual
disaster.
Notice what Paul says as he starts teaching them: We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, OK so my first question is this: Why did Paul do that? Do what? Not "Why did Paul thank God for them?" but "Why did Paul pray for them?"
Prayer is a yardstick that measures one primary reality -- our real dependence upon God.
Prayer reveals whom we really trust -- ourselves or God. There is no better way to measure the spiritual water table in a person's life or in a church's life then by looking at commitment to prayer. Prayer is a declaration of our trust and out total dependence upon God. And that by the way is the person whom God blesses. That is the church that God blesses. God flows his power and wisdom and blessing towards those whom are dependant upon him. And that is expressed in our lives through prayer. It is the independent spirit that says "I have no need to pray." Why would God bless that? He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. "I've got problems in my life" Then you pray. I've got confusion, I've got weakness, I've got anger. I've got hurt. Then you pray. -- And you will - if you really believe God can change and control those problems. Prayer is an invitation for God to take control of a situation. People who don't respond to the call of prayer are quite happy handling their issues on their own. They don't need or don't want God to take control. If you don't want God's involvement you don't pray, right?
Paul says- ever since I've heard about you -- I've not stopped praying for you. Now remember where Paul is -- He's under house arrest in Rome -- and what he is doing is responding to a visit of the church's pastor Epaphras who has come to him seeking counsel. You remember from last week we talked about the fact that Colossae was a place Paul have never visited -- but that doesn't mean he wasn't involved with them. And it doesn't mean he doesn't care about them. He can't be with them -- but he knows One who can. So he prays.
He can't solve their problems -- but He knows One who can. So he prays. And these are people who are actually doing well - we tend to neglect the people who are doing well and growing in Christ and we really don't cover them with our prayers and they're the ones in the midst of the greatest struggles because probably they're getting the greatest resistance. We tend to pray only for troubled people. We look for our prayer requests in the desperate category. And yet the greatest battles and the strongest resistance of the enemy is going to come against the people who are most successful for God's sake and those are the ones we ought to uphold in prayer. Paul says - Since I heard you're doing so well, I haven't stopped praying for you. --- You have no idea how badly I need you to pray for me. I know how badly you need my prayers so I pray.
I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. (Palm 121:1-2)
This is where the anxious hearts looks for comfort. This is where the troubled heart looks for reassurance. This is where the weak heart looks for strength. This is where the uncertain heart looks for guidance. This is where the confused heart looks truth. This is where the drowning heart looks for safety and rescue. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He's dependable -- he's strong, he's constant, He's wise, He's loving, He's compassionate, He's merciful -- and more important He's mine. So I pray -- I go to him. and I express my dependence upon him.
Now why is Paul praying to God? He's thankful for what he sees developing in the lives of those who are in Colossae. There's been real growth and development. Now what I want to do is look at the areas where they were growing and use that as a springboard for our exploration of the passage.
Are You Growing In Faith?
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
The first area Paul address is the area of faith. Now, this is where all growth begins. Paul says - I want to thank God that you believe. I want to thank God that you have faith. I want to thank God that you've heard the good news and you believe it. Paul was saying, "Your faith in Jesus has changed you." You're hanging on to the right thing.
Ill. - Spurgeon use to tell a story about two men in a boat. They were caught in a very, very severe rapids and they were going to a place where there was a waterfall and even worse rapids and there was really no way, if they ever hit those rapids, that they would ever live. And they began to struggle for their lives. And as they were carried swiftly down stream, they were carried toward the perilous rocks and the falls and some men on the shore saw them and tried to save the two men and they threw a rope out. By this time the men had fallen out of the little boat, were struggling in the current. One man caught the rope and was saved. At the same instant, said Spurgeon, the other man who could have seized the rope, in the panic of the moment, grabbed onto a log that was floating by and that was a fatal mistake. One man was drawn to the shore because he had a connection with the people on the land. The other clinging to a log was carried down through the rapids and never found again. Now, you see, what faith does is faith gives you a connection with the shore. Faith gives you a connection to Jesus Christ. Grabbing a hold of anything else is grabbing a log. It doesn't go anywhere but along with you to your doom. And Paul says, first of all, Colossians, I want to thank God that you got the rope, not a log.
Now the reason Paul is thankful for them is their faith is still alive and growing. Paul says, "I've heard about it -- I've heard about it is growing and changing you and how it still excites you." The danger for us is that we do forget - once in a while - what we have. The newness wears off of our excitement in Christ and our attention drifts off. Ill. - How many of you remember the first time you moved into your house? Do you remember how exciting it was. How pleased you were to have the extra room in your closets, the size of the garage, the cabinets in the kitchen? But then after a couple of years or so, the newness wore off. You began to notice things that you'd never seen before and you started to become disenchanted. The kitchen was no longer large enough, there was this musty smell in the basement you couldn't get rid of. The light switches don't work right. And on and on and on. The newness wore off and so you got bored with what you had and even wished for something more than what the house offered. Sometime that is how we get with our faith... if we forget what we have. If we forget what we have, we get distracted/ bored. And when that happens, we tend to drift back into the old ways of life. Instead of growing forward -- we tend to grow backwards.
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" (Num. 11:4-6)
Ill. of Israel being freed from slavery in Egypt. They were oppressed, miserable, beaten down and in despair. Then God sends a rescuer, Moses, to deliver them from bondage. With a might hand and through miraculous power God led them out of Egypt and slavery. He supplies them with all their needs: water, food and even miraculous bread that falls out of the sky. But they weren't walking with the Lord more than a couple of months when they start to grumble and complain and say, "Why didn't you leave us where we were? We liked the food back in Egypt -- and we enjoyed eating cucumbers and melons and leeks and onions." Are you kidding? Had they forgotten what it was really like? Had they forgotten the death and despair they had endured? They had been walking with the Lord for only a couple of months and the thrill was gone. They began dreaming of going backwards and not forward with God.
Now listen to what they were saying with their complaints:
Dysfunctional Comfort Is Better than Unrealized Gratification.
Talk about something that will stunt growth! The issue isn't that they were really hungry -- the Lord had provided sustenance in the desert -- he had given to them what they needed. The reason they were complaining is they wanted their particular tastes satisfied. "Our taste buds aren't being tickled." They were focused on going backwards instead of forward because self-gratification was of greater value than moving forward with the Lord. Never mind the slavery, the bondage, and the yoke of constant unrelenting oppression that was upon them. "We want self gratification!" "And we are willing to pay the price of that oppressive life-style as long as we get what we want." Their value system was self-oriented instead of being heavenly oriented. Their marvel over the wonder of God dwelling and being among them was lost on their incessant preoccupation with themselves.
One of the stranger things I've encountered in my walk with the Lord is that some people who have been in the faith a long time look at people who are on fire for Jesus rather suspiciously. As if the longer you walk with the Lord the more reserved you should be and the less joy you should show. Folks, I'm here to tell you "that just ain't so." Your faith in Christ ought to thrill you more and more as each day goes by. The world around us should see our joy and our love and our trust in the Lord just exploding all over the place. We should be getting more and more excited as the years go by not less and less. Are you growing in the area of faith? Or have you plateaued? The reason God has given us periodic reminders (communion) is to remind us to marvel all over again at what Jesus has accomplished for us.
Are You Growing In Your Love For Others?
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people
I love what Paul says here. He says, "I've heard of the way you love one another." Notice the word "all" here. Why does he say that? What really catches his attention is the nature of their love - It was a non-selective love. They loved everybody the same way. If I asked you to look around the room this morning and then asked, "Do you love the people who are here?" Chances are your answer would be yes, right? But then if I asked you, "Do you love everyone you see in the same way?" How are you going to answer then? "Well I don't know if I love everybody the same way." "There are some people I have a nature affinity with and they are easy to love. And then there are others that I love because I have to love them as a brother or sister in the Lord.." What ends up happening in our lives is that we end up with at least two categories of people in our lives. Those that we love and those that we tolerate. Those we consider lovable, and those we consider tolerable. The ones we love -- we extend ourselves towards them and we want to spend time with them -- we'll make sacrifices on their behalf -- we'll be there for them when they have a need -- we'll invest in them. But the other category -- the ones we consider tolerable -- we'll say that we love them. But in reality what we are doing is loving them in a diminished way. It's more like a casual, friendly, acquaintance but if truth be known, when they walk into the room we'd be just as glad if we had an exit. We don't throw up or run for the door -- but there is no real investment in their lives. Maybe there is something about their personality that bugs us or maybe they've dinged our relationship in some kind of conflict. We've haven't exactly cut them out of our lives, but neither have we've really invited them in either.
Now look at those two circles on the screen -- which circle would you want to be in? The circle of the lovable or the circle of the tolerable? Notice that there are a couple people who just barely make it into the category of the tolerable. Do you have people in your life like that? Now here's the question: Don't you want people to do more than tolerate you? Could you imagine Paul writing to the Colossians and say, "Brothers I've heard how you've learn to tolerate each other -- good job!" That would be ridiculous, right? By the way -- chances are if you've got me in the category of the "tolerable," I probably have you in that same group on my side of the equation. Second question: Is this whole thing biblical? Is having two categories even biblically valid? I don't think it is. Let me show you a couple of verses on the screen:
Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. (Phil. 2:2 NASB)
He's talking about loving everyone the same. Show the same kind of love for everyone. So you say, "That doesn't seem reasonable. I've got some people in my life I can barely tolerate let alone love them. -- You're going to have to show me how to do that." OK, let's do that.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34)
- That's the command. Defining characteristic of being a follower of Jesus. Jesus Christ attracts all sinners to Himself and gets them involved in the process of attracting all sinners to each other.
"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." (Romans 5:5) That's the means by which we have the ability to live out the command. God never gives us a command without also providing for us a means to fulfill the command. He's not going to command us to do that which we can't accomplish. So he commands us to love one another and then he places His Spirit within us providing us with the ability to fulfill the command. Notice the word "into" He has poured his love into our hearts. The love that we show to others is His love flowing through us. So if we are not loving others, it is not because we haven't been equipped to do so. It is a simple sinful choice on our part to resist what God wants to do through us. We are saved by faith -- but we are saved to love.
OK -- so here's the question -- How do you move people out of the category of the tolerable into the category of the loveable? You have to invest in them. You have to be self-sacrificing towards them. You're not really loving someone until you serve them. James taught us that. Some comes in and is cold and hungry --"I'll pray for you -- be warmed and be filled" "Oh I love the lost" but you don't do anything to serve the lost -- that's not a true statement. Love is an action word -- not an emotional state. If Jesus is sufficient for anything -- he is sufficient to teach us how to love one another, right? In John 13 when Jesus commanded them to love one another - How had He just loved them? By washing their feet. God doesn't want you to feel warm fuzzies towards one another; He wants you to minister to each other. Service is the issue.
Are You Growing In Your Hope of Eternity?
"the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you."
Paul says, I thank God not only for the faith that you have -- I thank God not only for the love that you have -- but I also thank God for the hope you have. What kind of hope? -- the hope that is stored up for them in heaven. "Stored up" means reserved. God has a divine lay-away-plan for you. Peter says it's an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, (1 Peter 1:4) It's an undiminishing, perfect, pristine inheritance. He's really commending them because they kept an eternal perspective. That's what they dreamed about -- that's what kept them doing what they were doing. That's why they worked and gave and sacrificed and pour their lives out for other people. Because they abandoned living for instant self-gratification and started living for future reward. They abandoned seeking satisfaction and comfort in the present for living with eternal fulfillment in the future. You see that's the way it is for every Christian -- it's not about now -- it's about then. That makes a world of difference. If you're living for the now -- you are going to protect what you have -- you aren't going to make sacrifices -- you won't serve others -- you're going to clutch what you already have. You're going to try to milk this earthly life for all there is. You're going to rationalize why you should provide for your own comfort instead making painful and difficult sacrifices for others. These people weren't clutchers -- they weren't protectors of the earth stuff. They kept their perspective. They fixed their sight on future glorification not temporal earthly satisfaction.
How do I know if I'm growing in this area? Is hope something that is measurable? Can it be quantified? Can you measure the growth of hope? I think we can -- let me show how. What I want you to see is how faith and love is a response to the hope that Jesus has given to us.
Notice the verse says "faith and love springs from the hope stored up for you in heaven." Great expressions of faith -- great expression of love flows from a heart who understands the rock solid, guaranteed, undiminishing, perfect, pristine inheritance given to you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They loved a lot because they thought about heaven a lot. These people had great faith because they thought about heaven a lot. People who think about heaven a lot will love a lot. It's a heavenly-mindedness that causes us to love. The more you think about the stuff of earth the less you will sacrifice for others. The more you think about the rewards and the hope of heaven the more you will be willing to sacrifice for others and thus the more love you will extend. If I'm really focused on heaven, "Let me take my earth stuff and use it to give to others and bless them because I'm not really afraid of loosing anything. I don't have to be concerned about protecting my earth stuff and clinging to the earth stuff because I know that God is going to bless my socks off with a far greater inheritance in heaven. Let me care for others -- because I know my God will care for me." Ill of people explaining why they don't give to help others, "I just like nice things" "Oh, I see you're one of those weird people who just likes nice things -- as compared to the rest of us who really like crappy stuff." We all like nice things. It's not a matter of liking nice things -- it's a matter of being heavenly-minded or earthly-minded. When I think about heaven and my hope is in heaven, then I don't worry about the stuff that happens on earth -- I love, and I give and I serve -- If I'm focused on the things that I love about earth --that's when my love for people goes away.
- One of the Defining Characteristics of Our Time is The Willingness to Sacrifice The Reward of The Future for The Pleasures of the Immediate.
Now what do you call that? Immaturity, right? One of the most basic lessons we attempt to teach our children throughout their life is the principle of delayed gratification. It's worth the sacrifice of time and energy in the present to reap a better reward in the future. You study today so that you will be educated tomorrow. You practice today so that you will play well tomorrow. You invest and sacrifice in the present knowing that you will be rewarded in the future for the sacrifices you make today. But let me tell something folks this is message that sells.
Let me ask you all a question: Does it come as new information to anyone here that following Jesus requires picking up a cross?
Is that new information to anyone? Does it come across as new information that there are going to be many times this side of glory that are going to require plodding your way through difficult situations? Does it come across as new information that sometimes there is going to be pain and difficulty in the journey? And that is an inescapable reality if you are going to be faithful in Christ, right? Let me tell you what is going on in our culture folks. There are people filling stadiums everywhere telling others to arrange their life in a comfortable way in the present -- that the focus of our walk is the here and now. Jesus wants you happy and comfortable and blissful. And the culture drinks it up. People sit in their chairs and nod their heads and we start focusing on the now instead of the necessity of serving others in faith and love and the result is the Church is crippled in its mission. Because guess what -- if I'm focused on the here and now and the present moment instead of pressing forward towards the inheritance reserved for me in heaven -- I'm not going to be focused on others -- I'm going to be focused on me. It's the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. We want future inheritance and we want easy and comfortable today. Jesus said you can't be my disciple if you aren't willing to pick up a cross and follow after me. That means bypassing comfort in the present to serve him while we have breath in this body. But there will come a day when perishable will put on the imperishable and you'll lay down your labors that you've been entrusted with on this earth and enter into the joy of your reward. Don't lay it down today -- the cost is too high if you do. Stadiums are being packed from one end of our nation to the other with people preaching a gospel of present comfort instead of faithfully laboring today for the reward of future glory. Jesus came as a servant and labored with all his might sacrificing himself enduring the cross for the joy of his inheritance in heaven. But we've got these false teachers saying focus on the now not on the hope of heaven. And all across the nation people are choosing to withdraw from serving others because the most pressing issue is my comfort level in the now.
Close: What Jesus has guaranteed in our future inheritance is enough to motivate us for every sacrifice we make today. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Rom. 8:18) From Hope spring forth faith and love for others. Make it your goal: To grow in faith -- hope -- and love.
