Colossians - Consequences Of A Good Ministry, Part 2

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October 8, 2024

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Daily Bites Of God's Word - Part 3 - Psalm 119:3

00:01: I want to ask a question as I get started, as you, yep, the colors came through good. So as you see this picture before you, you obviously see the various stages of growth in this plant.
00:12: How many of you among us are willing to admit today, raise your hand and say,
00:18: I know without a shadow of a doubt, I have a green thumb. Do we have anybody?
00:29: Wow. This is going exactly like I thought it would. Now how many of you would gladly admit, if it's green,
00:38: I'm going to kill it. And then everybody else is, you know, somewhere in the middle.
00:48: Something like now, look, my mother -in -law, Gina's mom, great. All of you are hereby required to have a good field trip at some point in your life to Gina's mom's house because she has the most flowers, the most plants, just,
01:03: I mean, she's won what, how many yard beautification awards in Rohnert Rapids back when they did those, uh, two.
01:10: I've even seen, uh, her dad brought out the paper and showed me one where she's been awarded it. I, I, it can be like the, the plant you've given up on, you could give it to her and like in two weeks later, it's blooming and beautiful.
01:21: And like, that's just not me. And most people I think would really, you know, most of us fall into that category of, you know, if it's green,
01:29: I'm going to kill it, but be that as it may. Traditionally, if you're trying to get something to grow, there are typical things, even those amongst us that would probably end up killing it.
01:40: We would all agree that if you want it to survive, if you want it to grow, there are certain things a plant is going to need for growth.
01:48: You know, sun, water, some people play music for their plants.
01:53: I don't know if there's scientific research behind that one, but some people play music. Some people will talk to their plants.
02:00: Some people will sing to their plants, tell how much they love it and all this, that, and the other. Whatever you do, everybody's different, but you can make the arguments that everybody probably has their own way of doing it.
02:12: You know, this is how and why we need to do this. And you know, it's interesting, you know, in the church, we all as Christians need the same things to grow.
02:21: We need Christ, grow up in Christ, Christ likeness. We need instruction in the
02:27: Word of God. We need personal study in the Word of God. We need prayer. What's interesting though is just like people that would grow plants or flowers, so on and so forth, each one of them you talk to would probably give you a different way of how they did it.
02:41: Everybody in the church is uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit, and each individual
02:47: Christian's ministry is going to look different. If I were to do shoebox, like Ed and Kay do shoebox,
02:53: I may do it slightly different than they do. If I were to do say, maybe teach a Sunday school class, or teach let's say
03:00: Ray's Sunday school class, if I were to teach I may teach it slightly different than Ray, his ain't wrong, mine ain't wrong, it's just different because we are uniquely gifted in different ways.
03:10: Each ministry may be different, but everything that a Christian needs to grow is always the same.
03:17: That's ultimately what we are talking about here. Now our next sermon in Colossians is going to go on to a different point, a different application, and we'll be looking at something different.
03:25: But as we wrap up what started back in chapter 1 verse 24, where we picked this up, and now we're all the way in chapter 2, well we end up in verse 3 today.
03:34: We've been talking about ministry, and ultimately in ministry you are growing up and being built up in Christ's likeness.
03:42: And we are to be living out that Christ's likeness. It will manifest itself in our life and in our service to Christ.
03:50: We build up to and live out that Christ's likeness in the three primary ways I've already covered, instruction in the
03:56: Word of God, personal study in the Word of God, engaging in ministry which includes everything from prayer, so on and so forth.
04:03: Now last week we've already noted two of the consequences or results of a good ministry that is rooted in Jesus Christ with the goal of being more
04:11: Christ -like. Because we normally think of the word consequences, you think of something negative, right?
04:17: So you know, bad consequences, or like I said, if you get in trouble at home growing up, there's going to be consequences or restrictions or punishment or whatever it's called in your home.
04:28: Not all consequences are bad. Consequence is just another way of saying results. And we noted last time that two of the results that come from having a good ministry that is rooted in Jesus Christ, number one was that you'll have visible fruit, or you'll have impact well beyond visible fruit.
04:47: And we discussed at length the fact that we so desperately desire that microwave type thing, the instant gratification.
04:54: We want to be able to see results. And in ministry, largely your impact will go far beyond any visible fruit.
05:01: Now we had some wonderful visible fruit of some ministry that's been going on for many years that was told to us this morning, and it can make you feel good, and a lot of times
05:11: God will peel back the window of Heaven and just let you see some of the things that He's doing, some of the things that He's accomplishing, either through you or through your ministry or through your church.
05:23: Or maybe He'll show you something another Christian is doing to inspire you to get into the ballgame.
05:29: But a lot of times the impact that we have will largely be well beyond any visible fruit we'll get in this lifetime.
05:37: And we also noticed that hearts are encouraged or strengthened by a good ministry. Now I talked about the fact, you know, when you have really experienced a ministry where someone is sold out for Christ, and you can tell they're serving for the right reasons.
05:50: They're doing it out of agape love. They're doing it out of wanting to put others' needs above their own.
05:56: Whether you're involved with it or not, if you're just a spectator at that moment to that ministry, your individual heart can be encouraged and strengthened by that.
06:07: And now today we're going to see a third result that I want to bring out, that I believe Paul brings out in these first three verses of chapter 2.
06:16: And that result is that a consequence or a result of a good ministry rooted in Christ is that Christians will mature into a full assurance of understanding.
06:29: Let's look at our verses. Verse 1 says, "...For I want you to know how greatly a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face."
06:40: This is where we picked up the impact beyond visible fruit, because there were people that Paul ministered to that he hadn't even met face -to -face, and they were impacted by his ministry.
06:51: Christians will mature into a full assurance of understanding. Your impact as a father, your impact as a
06:57: Christian will have impact far beyond visible fruit. He goes on to say, "...that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is,
07:14: Christ Himself." See, sort of a sideline tangent thing for a second, we've covered this before,
07:19: I want to say it again in brief, that was the whole purpose of Paul's ministry. He was revealing something to the
07:25: Gentiles, and to the Jews that would listen to him, a mystery that had previously been a mystery.
07:31: It was something that had not, mysteries in the Bible are things that at one point in time are not clearly revealed, but then through the progressive revelation of God, He makes them revealed at some point.
07:39: So up until that point, you know, the Holy Spirit didn't permanently indwell any believers. But the whole point of the
07:45: Gospel, the whole point of this New Covenant, was that now Christ Himself, the second person of the
07:51: Trinity, was not just going to come upon believers for a certain amount of time, but He was actually going to come in the person of the
07:57: Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, eternally God, one eternal being, but existing in three distinct persons.
08:04: Jesus was going to go away, go back to the Father, and He was going to send the Comforter, the Paraclete, the
08:09: Holy Spirit, to permanently indwell believers. So when
08:15: He says, and Christ says, you know, I'm going away, but you're going to get something that is me, it's just as good as me, it's better than me in a lot of ways, because I'm going back to the
08:25: Father. So that's what He's picking up on here when He's talking about the true knowledge of God's mystery that is
08:30: Christ Himself. And then verse 3 says, "...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."
08:36: Everything that we need to know. So remember the picture of the plant. If we want to be the little Christian that starts out as a little plant, you know, just a little sprout, and then you want to grow, and then grow into full bloom, grow into full maturity, you need every single thing that is available to you in Jesus Christ.
08:55: Now this is not a mystical or sort of like a Gnosticism where Gnostics thought they had a superior knowledge, an elite knowledge, a special knowledge that only the
09:06: Gnostics could have. No. When it says, "...all the treasures of wisdom and understanding are found in Jesus Christ," it means that everything you need to know, everything you need to know in terms of righteousness and instruction for Christian life, and living it out, every single bit of it is found in Jesus Christ, and He gave us
09:24: His Word. And that's what carries the authority in the Church, the authority in the Christian's life.
09:30: And then to the degree that we submit ourselves to the Word of God, growing in our understanding and knowledge of it, we'll see ourselves grow, as this result that we're looking at says, into maturity.
09:44: Understanding, this word understanding when it says, "...Christians will mature into a full assurance of understanding." This word refers to applying
09:52: Biblical principles to everyday life. It's not just, you know, I'm sure a lot of you have probably been through this whole exercise maybe in school or something, they talk about, you know, what's the difference between knowledge and wisdom?
10:02: You know, knowledge is knowing something, wisdom is actually applying it. Sort of the same thing here.
10:08: There's a big difference between knowing something about Jesus, and actually submitting to Him, obeying
10:13: Him, and letting it transform who you are from the inside out. If, you know, as a pastor, if I could get up here and teach from Genesis 1 -1 to Revelation 28 -21, something like the last verse of the
10:27: Bible, somewhere in there, if I could preach from beginning to end with great eloquence, and just drop wonderful truth bombs and knowledge on y 'all, and all this good stuff, and I was just so smart, and I always say, if my living didn't back it up, y 'all would have nothing to listen to.
10:46: It wouldn't be worth listening to. You don't want to sit in front of somebody that may have a lot of facts, but there's no life experience to back it up.
10:56: I've said it so many times in different sermons, would you rather listen to a testimony like what we heard earlier, where there's emotion, there's life experience, there's something to sink your teeth into, or someone that got up here and said, man, you know,
11:10: I've had it pretty easy, got a lot of money in the bank, I've got like five cars, two vacation houses, I don't have to work,
11:17: I just go to the mailbox and take paychecks, I don't know, I mean I've pretty much got it made. I don't want to hear anything that person has to say, that doesn't affect me.
11:27: I mean, God bless them, but you want to hear somebody that's been through something, right? Somebody gets up and tells you about some chronic illness or something they've been through, and despite all the odds, even though God may not heal them, they still stick with it, draw them closer to the
11:42: Father, image Christ, witness to somebody, and somebody gets saved through it. I want to hear that testimony.
11:49: And so it's about applying these biblical principles to your life. John MacArthur said, when the believer experiences spiritual truth by living it, then it becomes truly understood, and actually leads to a full assurance of his or her salvation.
12:10: And then he goes on to say, and I fully agree, and this was very true of my life for a long time, the primary problem for a
12:17: Christian is not a lack of knowledge, but a failure to apply the truths that they know.
12:24: I've been there, I've been that spectator, I've been that sideline Christian. And even at the time, if you had quizzed me,
12:31: I probably would have gotten a 90, 95, or a 100 on just about any Bible test, weren't living it.
12:38: And we could rightfully so, we can't judge people's hearts, but if ourselves or someone we know claims to be
12:45: Christian, claims to be growing in Christ, and their life manifests no change, the rightful question to ask is like, are they serious?
12:53: Do they really mean it? I mean if you believe, the common thing in America we talk about, you know, say if you really believe something you'll put your wallet where your mouth is.
13:02: You know so typically you say, well people that would give money to something that means they truly believe it, or if they give their time to it, or you know whatever you want to fill in the blank with.
13:11: That's sort of the same understanding here. You know a true Christian that sold out for Christ, their life is going to look different than someone that knows a whole lot about the
13:19: Bible, but has never done anything about it. Now that doesn't mean these things aren't important, it's important to know a lot about the
13:26: Bible. But my friends, if you truly understand the Bible, it will lead to a change in behavior.
13:37: You ever heard the expression, experience is the best teacher? Experiential Christianity, and not sideline
13:48: Christianity, is where true ministry is done.
13:56: How many of you sports, particularly football fans, know what I say when
14:01: I say, you take care of it between the lines. And those of you that like wrestling,
14:10: Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Randy Savage, the expression of wrestling is you handle it in the ring. You take out your problems in the ring.
14:17: In basketball, it would be between the lines on the court. Football, I think football is more along the expression, you do it between the numbers.
14:25: You know we always talk about the sidelines there, but you know the heart of the field is where the most tough action really takes place.
14:33: How many people that you know of have sat the bench, never gotten into a game, and won
14:43: MVP of the Super Bowl? I can't think of one.
14:51: Think about the NBA Finals. All right, so we had, God help us, the
14:56: Cavs and Warriors again. Not a word out of you, Will. I know you like Steph, but no,
15:01: I want somebody different this year, and I didn't get it. I really wanted the Rockets, just so we'd have something different. But the
15:07: Cavs and the Warriors played in the Finals again. You know what that means? All the other teams didn't play in the
15:13: Finals. How many players from those teams won the MVP of the Finals?
15:18: None. If you're not in the game, if you're not playing on the field, if you're not engaged, you won't win.
15:28: You won't win, and you certainly won't be rewarded by Christ in Heaven one day for anything you've done in the body if you're just sitting around waiting for Him to return.
15:37: I'm just waiting on the Rapture. I'm waiting on the second return of Christ. I'll get busy in eternity serving
15:44: Him. Well, what you do in eternity for Christ is largely dependent on how well you submit to the
15:51: Word of God, submit to Christ, live out the Christian life now. Why would God put you in charge of anything important in eternity if He can't trust you to take care of the things
16:00: He's given to you now? You say, well, He hasn't given me anything. Well, go back and watch last week's sermon.
16:07: And I cut the list far short, but I read off a lot of different examples of things you can do if you're not in the game.
16:14: Find something. Start small and do something. You can, you know, you can, you know, greet the door.
16:19: You can pray for somebody. You can call on encouragement. Just write off. There's all kinds of ideas. It's never for lack of ideas.
16:25: It's for a lack of willingness. We're not willing to do what we should do. But as we grow in our knowledge of Christ and our understanding of the
16:33: Word of God, as we live it out, we will grow up in all aspects in Christ.
16:39: So we need a growing knowledge of Christ because it is in Christ where all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are.
16:48: And understand, too, that obeying
16:53: Christ and serving others in agape love is the biblical mandate for all
16:58: Christians. It's not just something the pastor does. It's not just something the deacons do, or your
17:03: Sunday school teacher, or the, you know, the youth leaders, so on and so forth.
17:10: It's a biblical mandate for all Christians. All Christians. And to the extent that all Christians are sold out for Christ and involved in ministry, that's when you see true success and growth come to a church.
17:21: Because by obeying Christ and serving other Christians, we, not only as individuals, but as a collective group, will mature into a full assurance of understanding, meaning that it is in an actively serving church that most
17:39: Christians will grow in their knowledge of Christ and grow in their assurance of salvation and understand how to live it out, not in one that is not serving.
17:50: So what I want to look at a little bit is what are some of the primary threats that we see to watch out for as we seek to live out
17:58: Christ's likeness? Because I've said it very often, some of you may have even said this very same thing, but one of the best guarantees you can do to get
18:08: Satan to be aware that you're on planet Earth is to start living for Christ. He will show up at your front door so fast, because as long as you're a sideline
18:18: Christian, does Satan have anything to worry about with you? No.
18:24: For a long time, he didn't have to worry about me. I don't have to worry about him. Yeah, he might have a lot of Bible knowledge, but he sure ain't using it.
18:31: He's not taking ground for the kingdom. So you know what? I don't have to worry about him. I'm going to go over here and worry about this guy or this gal or someone else.
18:41: If a church, if y 'all, yeah, because we're in the South and we say y 'all, if y 'all want to grow into maturity in Christ, if you want to see this church change from the inside out, if you want to see spiritual growth and what
18:57: I believe will lead to a numeric growth, it will take each one of you as individuals, including me, and all of us as a group, growing up into Christ's likeness, and you know what that means?
19:09: Satan's going to come to our doorstep, and he usually comes to it through some of these primary threats, and these aren't in really any random order.
19:16: This is just kind of what I thought off the top of my head, but number one would be criticism. It's easy to complain.
19:23: It's hard to support and build up. Christians, and I've just been in churches all my life, so this is just my frame of reference, but having been one myself, someone that criticizes in my past and did a lot,
19:36: I can speak with authority on this because I used to do it, and I've asked the Lord to forgive me, and I've moved on from it, but Christians are some of the best complainers in the world.
19:44: We will criticize anybody, even our own family, if it makes us feel better. You know the songs weren't played the right way, or the choir didn't sing this way, or the preacher didn't preach this way, or I don't like what the preacher is wearing,
19:58: I don't like how the Sunday school class did it, or I don't like how they did that meal, or they didn't have the tables set up right, or you know if I would have done the packing party for shoebox
20:07: I would have done it this way, or fill in the blank with anything you think of. I've been in churches where, I don't even know where this guy got this from, but he said, you know the biblical way for a church is to have the aisle down the middle, so we'd all be going to Hell right now, because our aisles are not down the middle.
20:23: Where do you get this stuff? I don't know, but it's easy to criticize, it doesn't take any effort, why?
20:29: Because it's base to our sin nature, it's just who we are.
20:36: It takes effort and the power of Christ to overcome something like criticism. But Satan will infiltrate a church, he'll get people to grumble, to gossip, and to criticize everything from the pastor to the layperson in the pew, because if he can get people to be critical of each other, it halts progress of growing into Christ -likeness.
20:57: More harm has been done in the name of Christ by complaining and tearing down people trying to obey
21:03: Christ and serving their respective ministries than just about anything else that plagues the church today.
21:08: So many people want to say, you know, if we only had this building, or if we only had this amount of money in the bank, or if we had this type of preacher or pastor, or if we had this type of Sunday school leader, or a
21:19: Sunday school superintendent, or if we had these kind of Sunday school teachers, or the right kind of people in the choir, look,
21:27: God works all that stuff out. And you know what? Of all the churches
21:32: I've studied that have died and closed their doors, none of those things had anything to do with it.
21:37: It's always the same thing. It's overly critical nature. It's lack of people serving. It's a lack of care and willingness for the things of God, and the gospel, and so on and so forth.
21:47: It's always those things. And what is even worse is you see a lot, you know, just from what
21:53: I've seen, I know this was true of mine growing up, and a lot of the articles I read, is you get a lot of these smaller churches that tend to be more elderly.
22:01: And what is sad is in a lot of places, some of those that should be at the point of maturity, sometimes don't operate that way.
22:10: So the examples we should have becomes the examples we shouldn't have. Criticism to Christians as they seek to do ministry can lead to a death by a thousand cuts.
22:21: You ever heard that expression? It's never like that one time where, you know, that person catches you off guard, or they catch you to the side, and you know, maybe they're having a bad day, or maybe they just don't like you, and they say something, you know, to mean to you, or whatever.
22:34: It's never that one time. It's usually the death of a thousand cuts. It's the little things over time.
22:40: It's, man, did you hear so -and -so, or why'd they do that? Why'd they do that? That's why I preach so much, as much as anybody can hear me.
22:47: You know what? It still doesn't happen, so my message is still the same. If there's an issue or a legitimate concern, come talk to me!
22:56: Nothing gets handled in back channels, or behind closed doors, or in gossip. Every single problem we've had since I've been here that has been communicated to me has gotten resolved, solved.
23:06: Now, I weren't necessarily the one that did it, but I can either pray about it, or I can point people in the right direction, or I can say, hey, you know, if you go here and do this, or talk to this person, they'll be the right person to help you.
23:18: This criticism, if it infiltrates a church, is one of the most deadliest things that can happen. Another thing is contempt.
23:25: And then, largely, this one here, contempt, I use a lot when I talk about marriage, and what a marriage should look like, and even if you're thinking about marriage, we usually cover this with you, but contempt in a marriage is one of the worst things you can have, because if you're contemptuous towards your partner, you're not going to be thinking about their needs, you're not going to be thinking about loving them, you're only going to be thinking about what they're not doing to make you happy, and therefore, you almost go into a stonewalling phase where I just ain't going to do nothing else until they do what
23:55: I want. It fits all relationships, even a church relationship. I've been in churches before, growing up, and I'd hear, you know, like I said, adults think, you know, children aren't listening, but I was,
24:06: I'd say, I'd hear them say, I could never forgive so -and -so, what they did was unforgivable, I'll never forgive them, they're not worth it.
24:13: I'm really glad Jesus didn't say the same thing about them, or about me. You see, there's nothing in the
24:19: Bible that allows any Christian to be unforgiving towards their brethren. We're commanded to do the opposite.
24:27: We're commanded to be forgiving, and be loving, and be graceful. Another one's fear.
24:37: There's a great song out right now called, Fear is a Liar. It's a liar, fear is paralyzing.
24:45: It's bad enough if an individual Christian is battling fear, but if you get a church that battles fear, it needs to be dealt with.
24:53: Fear can keep change from happening that would propel a church forward in serving Christ in ways they can't even imagine.
25:00: With Christ, the possibilities are endless. The only people that can stop Christ from working in a church are the people in the church, up to and including the pastor.
25:13: Fear will cause people to sit on their hands and not engage in ministry. They won't want to try anything new, or get behind someone who is trying something, because they want to take, instead of getting ground for the
25:26: Kingdom, they almost just want to give ground up to Satan. It's like we just want to allow Him to have
25:31: His progress. You know, with the verse that talks about, you know, this Gospel will go out and be preached to all the world, and the gates of Hell will not defend against it, or stop it.
25:41: That means that the Kingdom of God is on offense. It doesn't say that the Kingdom of Satan will be advancing on Christ's people, and that we'll somehow just hold firm.
25:50: No, we're to be taking the offense to Satan. We're to be taking the offense to the world system.
25:57: We're supposed to be engaged and living for Christ, and leave all the consequences to Him. Last two
26:04: I want to cover, and you know, there's probably a lot more than these, they were just the ones on my mind, but another one is pride, or thinking too highly of yourself.
26:12: This can happen in individuals as well as groups. Sometimes you'll see, you know, particular groups, you know, and this is where if you get like,
26:18: Paul handled this in 1 Corinthians, you know, he said, you know, you're so factious and so divided, and he says, you know, did
26:25: Apollos die for you? Did Paul die for you? No, Christ did. He said, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you, because then you might be running around saying that Paul, you're of Paul, and he says,
26:36: I'd rather you just be of Christ. Pride is one of those things that's sneaky and dangerous.
26:43: It's a dangerous foe in the church, because pride creeps into a person's life slowly, and over time, they barely notice what is happening until they are full of it.
26:56: This has got Andy Cain 101 written all over it. Pride doesn't show up at your door and say, hello,
27:03: I'm pride, and I'm going to make you swell your head and be full of yourself, and nobody else is going to be as good as you.
27:10: You're going to be the best thing on planet Earth, and it's going to affect all your actions. No. It starts slowly.
27:16: It creeps. It sneaks. Last one is, I've already kind of touched on this, is stonewalling.
27:22: People stonewall with their time, their abilities, their money. One of the things that, as a pastor, that discourages me more than anything else is if you ever hear the statement, well,
27:30: I'm not going to give that church until they do XYZ, or I'm not going to give that church until they get a pastor, or I'm not going to give that church, you clearly don't understand what biblical tithing is all about.
27:41: Well, I'm not going to give my time unless they do for me. That's not how it works. They've decided that they will withhold these things until the church, or pastor, or whoever, you know, does what they want.
27:54: When God's people stonewall, good ministry halts, and the church won't see the good results that can come from good ministry.
28:00: So what is needed? More than anything else in this life right now, not just in our church, but in all churches across the world.
28:11: Well, very simply, we need people that love Christ, love His church so much that they're willing to humble themselves, end all criticism, end gossip, be supportive and uplifting.
28:24: We need Christians to see each other as beloved brethren, and be willing to do whatever it takes to meet their needs.
28:30: We need everyone to be 100 % in on discovering, developing, and faithfully using their spiritual gifts in obedience to Christ and in service to others.
28:44: There's no holding back. I've said the culture of ministry for 2018. My goal is that every single person at Calvary Baptist Church, whether you're a member or not, on the official rolls or not,
28:56: I don't care. We want you to join, but for this point, I don't care. If you attend faithfully, if you're a part of our group, be involved in something.
29:05: One thing. Start somewhere. We are better together.
29:12: And that is how Paul viewed ministry. It's how he went about doing ministry. And Paul saw the good results that come from doing a ministry just like that.