The Christian's Partners

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I invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the fourth chapter of Colossians and find your place at verse 7.
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Last week we talked about the fact that, as we've been going through Colossians verse by verse, we talked about the fact that Paul identifies outsiders, meaning he identifies those who are not part of the body of Christ, and he says that we are to walk in wisdom toward outsiders.
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And by using that phrase he identifies the fact that there are those who are of the faith and those who are not of the faith, those who are in the body and those who are outside of the body.
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And we talked about last week the importance of going to those who are outside of the body and, in a wise and gracious way, being able to give an answer for the hope that is within us.
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And to not be a reclusive church but to be an intrusive church, a church that goes into the world, intruding into the world, taking the gospel out into the world so that God's gospel can be believed and men and women can be saved.
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And today we're going to adjust our attention because last week was so much attention was given to the outsiders, today we're going to focus on those who are inside the body.
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While we cannot divorce ourselves from those who are outside, our deepest relationships, our most fruitful blessings of friendship come not from those who are within the world but from those who are in Christ.
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And I think about the fact that when we think of relationships, the first thing I think of when I think about this whole concept of relationships is that relationships are hard.
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Okay I was waiting for an amen but I thank you David, you're my amen corner, I appreciate you.
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Relationships are hard and I don't know about you but the last few years have been very strange on the world stage and there's been a feeling within the world stage that there seems to have become almost a disconnection of intimacy within friendships.
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As we begin to run away from the communities and hide ourselves behind our house and our front doors and live inside and only communicate to each other virtually, we come to a place where our relationships have become digital rather than physical.
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And more and more our connection, while we may know more people and be connected to more people, and I get emails from people in Africa and Asia and all kinds of places, while we may be connected to more and more people, it seems like our relationships are becoming more and more shallow.
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And that feeling of isolation is very much making its way into the church as people begin to divorce themselves from the local body and find themselves spending more time having church through online experience and more through the virtual experience.
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And I saw recently, and I know that this is not a shot at Roman Catholicism, but I saw a drive-through confessional which is, you know, you can go get a burger and go get a blessing, you know, you can do it all in one shot.
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But the church can never be virtual.
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The church can never be truly digital.
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Ministry is something that must be done together.
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Paul always had companions.
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You realize that? No matter where we see the Apostle Paul, save one time that I can think of, and if you can correct me later, I'm willing to be corrected as always, but I could only think of one time that Paul was alone, and that was when he was in Athens, and you know what he was doing in Athens? Waiting for the guys to get there.
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He was doing ministry, but with the purpose of, he says, I've got guys coming who are gonna love me and support me and minister with me.
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I'm not doing this alone.
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I'm only alone for a short time.
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I've got my entourage on their way.
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And we think about the Scripture, which is so clear.
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The Bible tells us in so many places that we are not in this alone, and no one man makes a ministry.
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The book of Ecclesiastes says that two are better than one, and they have a good reward for their toil.
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For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has no one to lift him up.
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Ministry is not alone.
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Ministry is not one man.
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The Bible says the body does not consist.
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This is 1st Corinthians 12.
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It says the body does not consist of one member, but of many.
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As I was studying for this week's message, and obviously you know the title that's on the board, the title this week is the Christians Partners.
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This is the third in a series in Colossians.
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We talked about the Christians prayer life.
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We talked about the Christians, last week we looked at the Christians public witness, and this week we look at the Christians partners as a good Baptist that's an alliterated series.
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But as I was studying for this week's message, and I saw Paul give his list of men that are serving alongside of him at this time in his life, I began to think about the years and the men that God has provided here at our church, and God has been very gracious.
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I became the pastor in 2006, and at that time I served with only one man who is still here as not the only man who's still here, but the only man who was an elder there, who's elder than who is still here, and that's Brother Jack Bunning, who has served this church longer and more faithfully than any of us in the sense of time, having been an elder for over half a century.
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This church began in 1958, and he served as an elder off and on during all that time, and he served with me, and he was a good friend and continues to be a good friend to this day, and I wouldn't be standing here likely if he wasn't there to support me through a very difficult time in ministry, and I think about Richard Taylor.
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We need to pray for Richard Taylor.
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He was diagnosed this week with Parkinson's disease.
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It's very difficult.
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He was one of our elders for many, many years, and now he's suffering.
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His son called me and said that they may have a need in their family, so we need to pray for them and pray that that need would be met.
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He obviously is no longer here with us serving, but served for many years.
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Byron Starkweather served as a faithful elder.
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Mike Collier, who stood here just a few moments ago and prayed for me and Andy, was praying for the three elders that serve right now.
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Andy, of course, could spend...
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I could write a book about both of these men, several comedic chapters for both of you, but wonderful chapters as well, but it's not just the elders.
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It's everyone here, the deacons.
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The service doesn't happen on accident, and we're going to get to the text in a moment.
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I'm just telling you, I'm trying to build up the idea of what Paul's going to do.
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I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to say that there's a time where we need to step back and consider the fact that God has blessed us with partners, that God has blessed us with friends who want to minister together, who want to serve the Lord arm and arm and charge the gates of hell together.
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What a blessing that is, and as we look at this section, as we finish out today the book of Colossians, and we look at these miniature biographies, and that's what it is.
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It's 12 miniature biographies.
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As we look at these words that Paul writes about these men, we are reminded yet again that while Paul was certainly a massive figure in the history of the church, Paul was not alone, and neither are we, and neither should we be.
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So let's stand together and read God's Word.
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We're going to begin in verse 7.
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We're going to read all the way to verse 18.
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I normally don't cover this much, but for the sake of the fact that this gets all of it, all of the men Paul talked about, we're going to read verses 7 through 18, and it says, Titchicus will tell you all about my activities.
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He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
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I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.
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And with him is Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.
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They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
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Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you welcome him.
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And Jesus, who is called Justice, these are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
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Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf, and his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.
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For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.
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Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas.
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Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house.
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And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.
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And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.
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I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
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Remember my chains.
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Grace be with you.
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Father God, I pray that even now, as we begin to open the word together and consider all that it says, Lord, that you would keep me from error, knowing that I am a fallible man, capable of preaching error.
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I pray that you would keep me from that for the sake of your name and for the sake of your people and for the sake of my own conscience.
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I pray, Lord, for the believers in the room, that they would understand the need for fellowship, the need for partnership, the need to be part of the body and not be a severed limb, straying, but Lord, to be united with the body.
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And I pray, Lord, for those who may not yet be a part of the body of Christ, those who may still be on the outside, those who may still be yet unconverted.
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Lord, that you would, by the work of your Spirit and the power of God, give them the gift of life, the gift of faith, that they would turn from their sin and that they would receive Christ.
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For your word says, as many as have received him, to them he gives power to become the children of God.
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We pray this in his name.
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Amen.
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Today we are concluding a lengthy exposition of the book of Colossians.
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This is our 40th message in the book, so this brings us to an end.
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I am going to do one additional message next week entitled, What Have We Learned?, because we are going to do an important re-overview because sometimes I think we miss the forest for the trees.
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We miss the big picture because we get so focused on the minute parts.
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So we'll have in total 41 messages, but this is what brings us to the end of the exposition today.
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Paul is concluding his letter with greetings from his companions to his audience, which is the church at Colossae.
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And in this we get a glimpse of Paul's entourage.
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As I mentioned earlier, this is a section of people that we often read through quickly.
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We just, I don't know about you, but when I'm doing my Bible reading a lot of time I'll come to these lists of names and I just sort of just read through the list and I'm not necessarily always considering each man and what each man means and who he was.
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I just sort of just as I'm reading, but this is a time to stop and focus on something that Paul felt important enough to write, God the Holy Spirit felt important enough to preserve, and we should feel is important enough to study.
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A lot can be learned by looking at who Paul surrounded himself with.
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This passage contains 12 names.
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I put the names up here.
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Two of them are the letter bearers themselves, that is Tychicus and Onesimus.
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Two of the men are gospel writers.
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I put those in red.
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You'll see Marcus, the cousin of Barnabas, is the author of the Gospel of Mark, the writer used by the Holy Spirit to write a theological biography.
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That's what the Gospels are, a theological biography of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And of course Luke who also wrote a theological biography of the life of Christ.
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So this is the list of men that Paul mentions including of course himself.
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Now in addition to this list we also see three letters mentioned.
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Well let me let me say it this way, we see one letter mentioned, one letter implied, rather let me back that up because I said three.
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We see one letter specifically mentioned, one letter mentioned by a different name than what we're used to calling it, and one letter that's implied and I'll help understand that as we go.
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And as I said you've you you have several faithful brothers in this list and what we're going to do is we're simply going to look at this amazing list and learn from these men something about the type of men that Paul surrounded himself with in his earthly ministry.
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So let's look first at verse 7.
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The first two men on the list are the ones that we call the letter bearers.
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He mentions Tychicus and Onesimus.
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Notice what he says about Tychicus.
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Some people call him Tychicus, it really matters little.
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But it says this, it says Tychicus will tell you all about my activities.
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He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
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I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.
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Notice the three lofty titles that are given to Tychicus.
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He is called first a beloved brother, but then very quickly Paul adds that he is also a faithful minister.
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The word minister here is the word diakonos and it is where we get the word deacon.
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Now I think sometimes we get confused about the word deacon because oftentimes we think the word deacon always applies to an office in the church.
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We think of the two offices in the church are the office of elder or pastor and the office of deacon.
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And so like in this church we have three elder pastors and we have four deacons.
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But the word deacon doesn't always apply to an office in the Bible.
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Sometimes the word deacon is applying to an action, the action of service, because that's what diakonos means.
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A deacon is a servant in the church and therefore when it calls Tychicus a beloved brother and a faithful deacon it may be referring to the fact that he is serving in that office or it may simply mean that he is serving as a servant in this role.
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But the most important part of that is not the word deacon, however we are to understand it, the most important word is the word faithful.
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The Bible says that a servant is to be found what? Faithful.
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That the Lord calls us not to success but to faithfulness.
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And man who is faithful will be successful because he has been faithful.
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That is success, is to be faithful.
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And Tychicus is called a beloved brother but he is called a faithful deacon or a faithful minister.
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And then Paul uses the word sundoulos.
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The word sundoulos means a fellow slave.
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Remember a few weeks ago we talked about the word slave and we talked specifically about how the Apostle Paul uses the word slave to identify our relationship with Christ.
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He says that we are slaves of Christ.
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We were once slaves of sin.
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We were once servants of unrighteousness.
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We were once those who were bound in darkness.
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Jesus set us free and became our new master.
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We are now his servants.
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We are set free from the bondage of sin and we are now made free to serve him as our master.
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And Paul says he uses the word sundoulos, which sundoulos puts that that that prefix at the beginning of a word in the same way that we use the word like synergy or synergistic to means to be together.
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And Paul says this man is the sundoulos.
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He is the one who works with me.
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He is the fellow slave.
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He is right here beside me working alongside me as the fellow servant of Christ.
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Now I think about this when I think about Tychicus as I've thought about all 12 of these names all week long.
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I think about this one powerful thought.
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What do you want said of you when you leave this earth? Now I've said many times quoting the old Puritan that it is best to preach the gospel die and be forgotten.
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For that is the should be the ministers goal that it not be about us but be about Christ.
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So preach the gospel die and be forgotten.
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But at the same time if you are remembered in what way would you want to be remembered? Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to hear that you were remembered as a beloved brother, that you were remembered as a faithful minister, and that you were remembered as a fellow servant of Christ.
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As I said these are lofty titles that Paul has given to this man and while we won't get to spend as much time on each of these men because there are 12 and our time as always is limited I think it's important for us to just remember that this man is being really introduced to the people of Colossae and he's being introduced as a true man of God.
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And why is it so important that he's being introduced this way? Well I believe it is because he is the one carrying this letter.
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Now I must say that that is reading in between the lines because the text doesn't say he's carrying the letter but it does say that he is the one coming to you.
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And my assumption is because they didn't have UPS and they didn't have the United States Postal Service that the one coming to them would be the one coming to them to bear the letter.
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And many many commentators agree with me not that that makes them right or me right but I I'm just arguing the fact that I think it's it bears witness to the fact that this man is likely not only all of these things but he's also a man trustworthy enough to say here I've written this very important letter to the church and I'm going to I'm going to roll it up and I'm gonna I'm gonna give it to you so that you can take this letter to the church.
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Oh and by the way there's another letter too and we're gonna talk about it later it was the letter to Laodicea or the letter from Laodicea actually.
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And there's another letter this is the one that I said goes without being mentioned but there's likely another letter in Tychicus's bag and that was the letter to Philemon because notice the next man who is mentioned the next man who's mentioned in this list is a man named Onesimus.
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Now who is Onesimus? Onesimus is the person about which the entire book of Philemon is written because the entire book of Philemon was written to a man who lived in Colossae who had a runaway slave whose name was Onesimus and that man Philemon had heard Paul preach the gospel and had gotten saved while his runaway slave also heard Paul preach the gospel and got saved and he became a minister alongside Paul ministering with Paul and Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon to rectify and reconcile their relationship because their relationship was divided over Onesimus' running away.