Colossians 1:24-2:5 – Running on Empty
I have preached through Colossians before. The first time was in my first church, in northern Maine, and it was the first time I preached through a book verse by verse. It changed my preaching style forever, so I remember it fondly. The next time was in 2001, when I went to preach on the Miramichi. It was then I switched to preaching from manuscript instead of outline, being more careful to choose the exact words I wanted. That was a good thing too.
But in preparing for today, as I read my former sermons, I realized that I was missing something then. I was missing the refining experiences of burnout. A person goes through changes when he or she burns the candle at both ends for too long. They begin to look at God differently. They look at the church differently. And I want to show you, from this scripture in Colossians, what that means for us.
Let’s read Colossians 1:24-2:5.
In this section of the book, the writer Paul begins to speak somewhat autobiographically, writing about himself and his mission. He said he was a servant – God had spoken to him, and his life was changed. Paul, who had once persecuted the church, had become a servant to the church, to God’s people. The image used is that Christians are Christ’s body, and he is the Head. Like the brain for the physical body, Jesus tells His followers what to do.
And Paul’s mission was to help that body, by preaching and teaching, by helping people cross the line of faith, to receive Jesus as Saviour, to help people know what God was asking of them. Paul said that he was meant to present God’s word in its fullness, to proclaim God’s mystery.
That word “mystery” means several things. It means things that used to be hidden that have come to be seen and understood. It also means things difficult to understand. In the NT, Paul uses it to refer to several things: that God became flesh and blood, that saved Jews and saved Gentiles are actually one group of believers together, and that someday our bodies will be resurrected from the dead. The word “mystery” really refers to all of God’s wonderful plans for us: we understand better than we used to, but the best is yet to come!
And Paul didn’t so much make it his mission to tell people about this mystery, this good news, as he received that mission. When it says in v24 that something is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, it doesn’t mean that something is faulty. The thing lacking is that people need to hear about them, that Christ suffered and died for you, for me, to receive forgiveness.
That’s why Paul considered it so important to proclaim Him, v28, teaching others to live full lives. That’s why Paul wanted people encouraged in heart and united in love, 2:2, knowing the full riches of a life lived for Jesus. That’s why he delighted to see people with a firm faith, 2:5. Because he knew, from personal experience, that living a life to please Jesus is more satisfying than living it to please yourself. In a real way, you will have a more pleasing life if you try not to please yourself, but live to please Him.
And part of pleasing Him is giving your life away in service to others. Not necessarily in death, but in regular service to Him. A ministry, a service, providing a service, in church or not. We’ve been looking for a Sunday school teacher for ages, and it looks as if we may need another teacher as well. Your job is a ministry if you choose to treat it as one. Your daily duties like cooking, cleaning and yardwork are a ministry if you choose to think of it as serving God. Ephesians 6:7 tells us to “serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving God, not men.”
I think at least on some level, we all know this. We’ve all been told that we need to reach the world for Jesus. We’ve been told that each of us has a ministry, a way for each of us to serve God and serve others. We’ve been told we have a part to play. The problem is, for many of us, that’s now a been-there-done-that cliché. We’ve tried it, it didn’t really work out, we didn’t enjoy it, it was too hard, it didn’t satisfy, it wasn’t worth the effort, and so on.
I think that most of us know what to do. The problem is that we tend to do only what we can do. If we can’t do it, we don’t try harder. It’s like that old country song, “If it don’t come easy, better let it go.” If teaching isn’t easy, I’ll move on. If it’s too hard, I just won’t bother.
I don’t think many would argue that we all have a part to play. It’s an important part, that can change the lives of all those around us. But doing our part, serving God, serving others, working to build God’s kingdom, working to change lives on earth for the better… it can also get tiring and stressful. It can be thankless and draining. And it costs.
When we function for too long doing only what we can do, when we begin running on fumes, just barely getting by, just holding on until someone else can relieve us, things change inside us. When you start doing things to get the applause of others, you’re headed for a crash. It’s OK to accept it when it comes, but if you start living for that encouragement, appreciation and thanks, you’re headed for a meltdown.
When you say yes to everything, just because you like being wanted, you’re on your way to burnout. But when you say no to everything, because it would be too much of an inconvenience, you miss out on being used by God as well. Neither is better.
When you don’t want to do something, you figure that God doesn’t want you to do it, so you don’t bother to trust in God’s strength – you don’t need it.
I know what burnout looks like. I’ve been there. I left pastoring once. It seems like a good idea at the time, and I don’t regret my time teaching, but how would things have been different if I hadn’t been running on fumes? Burnout looks like: anger, frustration, a lack of desire to do anything, the desire to go to another church, pulling away from your own church, fault-finding and finger-pointing, judging others’ motives, and so on. I know what it feels like to want to love God but not love His people.
I don’t have a simple solution. I have no secret formula. But I see what Paul did. 1:29 – “To this end I labour, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Paul didn’t try to do things in His own strength. He wasn’t running on fumes. He wasn’t burning the candle at both ends. It wasn’t that he was sitting around, doing nothing. He was preaching, teaching, writing, travelling, and doing missionary work. But he wasn’t counting on his own strength to get him through. He was being lifted up by the strength of God, working inside him.
We quote Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” And we try to tackle things. But, what that verse means is not that just assume Christ will help us – it means that we totally depend on Him to do it. It’s expressed in prayers like, “Lord, if You don’t help, I can’t do it. I need you today, Lord.”
And here is the flaw with so many teachings about spiritual gifts. When you only do things that you think you’re good at, you’re not trusting in God’s strength. You’re only doing what you can do, not what God can do. So you assume that if you don’t have the talents or the gifts, it must not be what God wants for you. When in fact, what God wants for you is to rely on Him.
So often we run in our power, and then when it runs out, we’re done. But God has something better for us than that. He wants to give us strength to go on. He wants us to realize that we already have access to all the power in the universe. Paul says in v27 that Christ Himself is in us. The Creator of all we see, living inside our hearts, giving us strength from the inside out, if only we would tap into that. And if Christ living inside us is the hope of glory, the promise that things will be better, the guarantee that God has a bright future for us, then why in the world do we need just barely to get by, to scrape along here on this miserable world, just barely hanging on till the rapture?
I read verses scattered all throughout the Bible that tells me that God will strengthen me for what God has in store for me, but I can’t just presume on it. I need to ask for it, to wait for it, to go to God for it, and to spend time in prayer until it arrives.
Look at this from Isaiah 40:29-31: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” The more-familiar KJV says that we need to wait upon the Lord. Yes, the everlasting God will give you strength when your strength is gone, but you need to wait on Him, spend time with Him, go to Him in prayer, for you to receive His strength for you.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” You need to spend time with God in order to enjoy Him, to find joy in His presence. You don’t get the joy of the Lord, staying at home, moping about how rough life is. No, of course you don’t need to come to church to spend time in God’s presence in worship, thinking of His word, praying and being thankful, getting encouragement from others. But if you don’t come to church, are you really going to do all that somewhere else?
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 says, “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” Our strength comes from God. For every good deed you are called to do, you need God. Stop trying to do your service to Him in your own abilities and talents.
And I love 1 Peter 4:11 – “If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” Stop trying to serve God in whatever strength you can muster. You’re not good enough. You’re not strong enough to keep it up for long. You will grow bitter and angry and resentful and judgemental. Serving God will become a chore if you don’t go to Him for strength.
The grand invitation from Matthew 11: Jesus said, “Come, everybody who’s tired, and whose burden is so heavy, and I will give you rest. Willingly accept the task I give you, because we will be working together, you and I, and we will accomplish the task side by side. Stop trying to do this by yourself!”
