The Gospel According to You Colossians 3: 1-17
Here at our church we are constantly talking about the mighty acts of God.
How He created everything….you and me and all the birds and animals…How he destroyed the world by water when man proved to be too sinful…..How he sent Jesus His son to die for us…..Just to point out the high lights of some of his acts. We also talk allot about the acts of Jesus Christ
1. His virgin birth
2. Healing sick
3. Raising people from the dead (Lazarus)
4. His dying on the cross for all mankind paying for their sins
5. His resurrection and victory over death
6. His ascension
We also talk about the acts of the Apostles. Most of the New Testament records these acts. I don’t want to belabor the point, but the Apostles, their ministries, their lives and deaths were a response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yes we talk about the Acts or Actions of everyone evolved in the Covenant of God. But there is someone missing. It is you and me. What are your Acts? If someone wrote a book in the bible about you, what could they say about your Acts? I remember hearing this statement: If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Think about it? Would they say you are a new and changed person because of Jesus Christ or would they say you are a Poser. A want to be. An imposter, not a real Christian.
Several years ago, Reverend Ted Gartrell recited a Poem by Pastor Leroy Brownlow in worship at Normal Presbyterian Church that I think makes the point…….. that in order for Gods Mighty acts to have meaning, it requires that we must consciously respond to those acts by allowing God to work through us. Our Personal Acts become the Acts of God, Himself. Let me read the poem to you:
"The Gospel According To You"
There's a Gospel according to Matthew; To Mark;
To Luke; and John too.
There's another gospel that many are reading...
The Gospel according to You.
All teachings we find in the Bible
Are facts we know to be true;
You must live them to make them the Gospel...
The Gospel according to You.
Many read not the words of the Bible;
I will tell you what some of them do.
They are reading the book you are writing...
The Gospel according to You.
There's Great Power In Gospel Preaching
The Bible teaches that this is true.
But the sermon most likely to influence others
Is The Gospel according to You.
God help us to be faithful to Jesus...
To live all His teachings so true,
So that all may see His Spirit
In the Gospel according to You
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day;
By things that you do; By things you say.
Others read that gospel, whether faithless or true!
Say! What is the Gospel According To You?
The Apostle Paul goes to great lengths to explain how important our response and obedience to God’s work of salvation really is. He writes: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Set you minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Why would we want to do this? What would be our incentive to put our minds on heavenly things? Paul writes: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.” That is why. We are not of this world, we are of heaven, by virtue of Jesus Christ, so why worry about the earth? Why act as though we are lost like the others who love to sin? Paul is saying to distinguish yourself by not living as sinners do, but as of Children of God himself.
He writes :
12 "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
This is Obedience to God. Can anyone say that these things are evil, or wrong? No. If you live according to the statutes of God, only good can come to you and every life you touch. If you want to be happy, use your will power to change you ways. Stop living as a child of the earth, and start living as a child of Heaven. Listen to God and be Obedient to Him.
This, my friends, has nothing to do with works. That somehow by our works we gain God’s favor. No this is about a way of thinking and a new and different perspective on life. It is about finding our place in God’s kingdom.
Here is what I mean, we as Christians, now live our lives not in a way as to gain God’s favor, we already have that, but we live our lives in response to God’s love for us. Our motivation then, is not to earn a place in heaven, that is selfishness and stealing God’s glory, we are only thinking of saving ourselves which we do not have to power to do, instead our only goal is to serve our Father and please him with our way of thinking, our way of life.
Ours then, is to allow God to work through us, to bring others to salvation in Christ. Our works then are not ours but God’s preordained works for us. Realizing this, we can really understand our relationship with the Great I Am.
I want to finish by reading to you a part of a very famous Sermon by Charles Spurgeon. The sermon is entitled “A Sermon and a Reminiscence,” Sword and the Trowel (March 1873)
“If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child’s ear. You will be telling it to your husband. You will be earnestly imparting it to your friend. Without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent: your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of His sweet love.
Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about Him. Of course I do not mean by that, that those who use the pen are silent: they are not. And those who help others to use the tongue, or spread that which others have written, are doing their part well: but that man who says, ‘I believe in Jesus,’ but does not think enough of Jesus ever to tell another about Him, by mouth, or pen, or tract, is an impostor.
You are either doing good, or you are not good yourself. If thou knowest Christ, thou art as one that has found honey. Thou wilt call others to taste of it. Thou art like the lepers who found the food which the Syrians had cast away: thou wilt go to Samaria and tell the hungry crowd that thou hast found Jesus, and art anxious that they should find Him too. Be wise in your generation, and speak of Him in fitting ways and at fitting times, and so in every place proclaim the fact that Jesus is most precious to your soul.”
You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day;
By things that you do; By things you say.
Others read that gospel, whether faithless or true!
Say! What is the Gospel According To You?
