Him We Proclaim

Colossians 1:24-29

Transcript

Wow, alright, that good. Goodness. Felt like I was at a rock concert there for a second. With all that shouting. Can we do something? We don't do this often and we don't do it for some reasons, but also don't want us to not do it for bad reasons.

Let me explain what I'm talking about because that's getting confusing. We don't always clap for or make a big deal of much of what we do on the human side of things when we get together, but there is an appropriate amount of that, an appropriate amount of appreciation for the people that put in and serve and work, and we actually get to praise Jesus in praising people. That's an appropriate thing to do, and so can we just for a second, can we just clap for everybody that just helped lead worship, and everybody that just... It is okay for us to appreciate that, and they put a lot of work into it, and are very...

They love Jesus, and they want to help us love Jesus, and they want to point to Jesus and everything, and that's not always found, especially among people that are talented in different ways, and so I just want to... We appreciate all of that, and we need to, and it's good for us to. We're in Colossians. It's our fifth week of walking through the book of Colossians, and so grab your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there should be some at the end of the row, and so if you need one, look at the people down the row from you, get them to pass one to you, or do like a weird shimmy thing where you crawl all the way down to the end of the row and grab one.

So we'll be in Colossians. It'll be... We'll be in chapter one. It's our fifth week in Colossians. So how...

How are we doing? We've been in Colossians for five weeks. Are we... Are we growing? Are we changing? Are we seeing Jesus for who He is?

Are we learning that we're a y'all, that we exist in community with one another? Are we putting knowledge into practice? And as we practice that knowledge, are we learning more things like how to do stuff, how not to do stuff? You know, are we? Are we doing that? Has it been good for us?

Are we growing? Are we learning? It is our fifth week, so we're at half to today. We'll be halfway through. And I know some of you may be looking at the book of Colossians and doing some maths. We've been five weeks in chapter one, and there's three chapters left.

And so some of y'all might be calling lie on us being halfway through. But the last three chapters are going to move a little more quickly. The first chapter was pretty dense. And so we'll actually spend two weeks in chapter two, two weeks in chapter three, and a week in chapter four. So the maths currently is working out.

We're in Colossians 1. I'm excited about what we're going to get to talk about tonight because it's foundational for how we are as a church. Kind of who we believe we are and how we operate. And so it's something that actually this passage went into part of how we operate and part of what we talk about all the time when we talk about being a gospel-centered community on mission. And so I'm excited to get to talk about this passage in the context of Colossians because it's affected our thought process and how we do what we do as a church family. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop in looking at Colossians 1.

God, we thank you. We're excited to be able to gather as your people, to be church family. And so we just pray that we would make much of you and that you would teach us and lead us through your Holy Spirit to understand clearly your word as we walk through this section of Scripture. So we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Colossians 1, starting in verse 24.

This is the Apostle Paul. He's writing to the church at Colossae. Every time he says you, he's saying y'all. He's using the Greek word for y'all, which is a plural you. And so verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

And in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church. All right, we're going to stop. We're going to walk through this section. We have a problem sometimes when we come to Scripture. I think we get used to it.

Sometimes studying Scripture. We're going to get together on Sundays and we're going to open it up and we're going to study Scripture. We're going to read from the Bible. We read from the Bible on our own and we read from the Bible in our community groups. And I think sometimes we get used to the Bible. And so we don't always approach it in such a thoughtful way.

And so we'll read something in the Bible that honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And our response will be, hmm, okay. Like we just don't think about it. We're like, hmm, sounds good, Apostle Paul. Like it doesn't affect us and like we don't have to approach it thoughtfully. And so what Paul says here is I rejoice in my sufferings.

I rejoice. I rejoice. I'm excited. I'm pumped about. I have joy in my sufferings. And we'll read that and go, hmm, sounds good.

When we should read it and go, do what now? I mean, really, if he's rejoicing in suffering, we have one of two options when it comes to the Apostle Paul. If he rejoices in sufferings, either he's crazy or he knows something we don't know. It's possible it's both because a lot of times crazy people know things you don't know. But that's just because they're crazy.

So that really gets smooshed into option one. So really, either he's crazy or he knows something we don't know. And so when you read that, when you read that he rejoices in sufferings, don't go, hmm, sounds good. Let's look at that a little bit. And so what is he saying? How can he rejoice in suffering?

That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make sense to us. That's not how we operate. Now, for those of us who have been around the church for a while or been in a community group for a while or studied the Bible for a while, this concept may not be super new to us. We may understand that that's something that Christians ought to be able to do. But we're not good at it.

And we don't really do it. So even though the concept may not be new to us, we can't act like we understand it or completely have it down when it comes to actual suffering in our lives. And for those of us who've just started hanging around church stuff, just started being, maybe just became a Christian or are just learning, checking this whole Jesus thing out, that's a pretty ridiculous statement to rejoice in suffering. To actually, not bears. He doesn't say I bear suffering or I put up with or I find some sort of a purpose in. He says I rejoice in it.

Like I'm excited about it. And that doesn't make any sense. And so, especially when it comes to like Americans, we're told that the American dream is the pursuit of our happiness. If our goal, if the most important thing in life for me is my happiness, is self-fulfillment, suffering beats that every time. Every time. Suffering always beats half my happiness.

So when my happiness and suffering lace up their shoes and head to the court, suffering dunks on my happiness every time. That's how it works. My happiness never comes away with a W on that one because happiness and suffering, happiness loses. And so what Paul is saying when he says I rejoice in suffering is that obviously he's not banking on his own self-fulfillment and his own happiness. He's writing this from a jail cell and he says I'm excited about my suffering. So he's not banking on what we're banking on.

It's not based off of his own self-fulfillment and his own personal happiness. Now, what we're going to see as we go through this passage is that this is not the point of what Paul is talking about. His point here is not how to rejoice in suffering. That's not what he's telling us here. He's talking about something completely different. But him saying that he rejoices in suffering illustrates for us what he is going to be talking about.

It pointedly shows us and demonstrates for us that what he is going to be talking about is real and it affects every aspect of his life. So I just wanted to point that out because it's a little bit bizarre for us and we can't just brush past that. And what we're going to see as we walk through is that he's actually in saying that indicating the weight of what he's going to spend the rest of the time talking about. So what's his reason? If he can rejoice in suffering, he's got to have some sort of a reason. So he says it.

Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. So it's for y'all's sake. For y'all's sake. Or when Anna and I lived in Virginia, they would say y'all's. Which is the plural, plural version of y'all. And so she worked at the bank and they'd mess up money stuff and somebody would look at her and be like, well, I think it's y'all's fault.

And Anna would be like, that's not a word. Although y'all's maybe not isn't either. If you ever have to text y'all's, it just looks ridiculous. But anyway, what he says is for y'all's sake, for plural, your church's sake. So he says, I rejoice in my suffering for y'all's sake.

And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church. Quick time out. That last sentence is confusing. What he is not saying is that he is completing the atonement for sin. So that's not what he's saying.

When he says the afflictions, filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. What he's not saying is that he somehow has to suffer to help continue to atone for sin. Or that we as Christians have to continue to suffer to atone for sin. That's not what he's saying. So Jesus, when he died on the cross, fully and completely forever paid for our sin.

Atonement was finished. When Jesus on the cross said, it is finished, he meant it. When he uses the word affliction, which is actually a different word than what is used when it talks about Jesus' suffering in the Greek. He's talking about the continuation of the effect of the cross on the world. That he is suffering. He's facing afflictions to continue to spread the gospel, to continue to move this forward.

And so what he's saying is he's taking part in affliction as a Christian, as part of the body of Christ, and for the sake of the church, the body of Christ. And so he's not saying he's continuing atonement. Is that clear? We don't need to get super bogged down here, but that's what he's saying. So what he says is it's for the sake of the church.

It's for the sake of those who would become believers, those who would place their faith in Jesus. So when he says for y'all's sake, he's talking about the church in Colossae. And so he's saying basically that he can suffer because of the mission to see more people meet Jesus. That he can suffer because the mission to see more people meet Jesus, to see the church grow is actually bigger than his own personal comfort, his own personal self-fulfillment. But what we'll see, and when it comes to mission, is that yes, the mission is bigger, but there has to be a reason for the mission.

And as he keeps going, we'll see that there is a reason for the mission. We just recently, in June 6, celebrated D-Day, the 70th anniversary of D-Day. And so there were some cool things that happened around that. There was a guy in Britain who was 89 years old who wanted to go to the Normandy celebrations. They were all the people that had stormed Normandy were going to go celebrate. And the people whose caretakers weren't able to kind of organize something for him to be able to go.

And so he just put on his best suit, pinned his medals to his suit, put on a raincoat, and dipped out. He was 89 years old, and he just left where he was because they weren't able to work it out. And he made it over to Normandy. They were looking for him later, and it was like, I went where I wanted to go. I'm a grown man. I do what I want.

I didn't need permission to come here the first time. I don't need permission to come here the second time. And so I thought that story was interesting. Whenever I think about the storming of Normandy or Operation Overlord, I always think about my favorite Vin Diesel movie, which is Saving Private Ryan. It's my favorite Vin Diesel movie because he's only in it for like 20 minutes, and he dies, and it's great. But that movie does a really good Job of showing what that looked like, what the Operation Overlord looked like when the Allied troops took back the Beechins of Normandy, France.

And here's the thing. The Allies knew what they were doing. They knew what they were doing. They knew how to do it. So they knew what they were trying to do.

They were going to take back the Beechins of Normandy to begin pushing out the Germans. They knew how to do it. They knew how to operate the machinery and the weaponry that they have. And they knew how to work in relationship to one another. But in order to do it, they had to know why they were doing it.

They had to know why it was worth all of the loss of life, all of the pain, all of the suffering that would come with it. They had to know why. And so when Paul talks about the mission, and when he talks about how he walks through this, and how he can rejoice in suffering, he's going to tell us that it's for the mission, but then he's going to explain why it's worth it. So they suffered in the mission of Operation Overlord, but they knew why it was worth it. They knew what they were going after. Why it was worth celebrating every year since.

Why we celebrated it this year is because of the why, not because of the what and the how. And so what we're going to look at is, yes, we're going to talk a little bit about the what. We're going to talk a little bit about the mission. But we're going to land in, and Paul's going to land in, why. So, what we see first is the mission. That's what he's going to talk about, and then we'll talk about why.

He says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I, Paul, became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, for y'all, to make the word of God fully known. So he's still talking about the mission, and here's what he says. He says, I was given this because of the stewardship of God. So God, creator of the universe, who's working to redeem and to save people and to bring them back in relationship with himself, has a stewardship.

He commands and controls his mission, and he invites humans into that. He invited Paul into that because of the stewardship from God. So God, who's overseeing all of this, gave some of it to Paul. And Paul says, It was because of the stewardship of God that was given to me for y'all. So he's talking about the Colossians church.

Now this is how this worked for Paul. Paul was a Jewish guy, super smart, had the equivalent of like several PhDs, was on the fast track to go be a part of the Sanhedrin, maybe even high priest one day, fingers crossed. And he was super zealous for Judaism. So he began to persecute all Christians, all of those who rose up against and began to proclaim that Jesus was God, that he died in our place for our sin, that he rose again three days later. So he began to persecute them.

And he was very zealous for it, which means he enjoyed it and liked it and was good at it. And so he was persecuting the church, deserved to be destroyed and crushed by Jesus, who's in control and in charge of everything. Jesus shows up, knocks Paul off his horse, makes him blinds and says, Why are you persecuting me? And then he says, I'm going to show you how much you'll have to suffer for my sake. Jesus, instead of crushing him, rescues him, gives him grace, saves him from his sin and invites him into his mission, gives him the stewardship of his mission. And so Paul becomes a missionary for Christ.

In Christ's name begins to proclaim the gospel that Jesus gives grace to those who don't deserve it. He goes to Ephesus. In Ephesus he's proclaiming the gospel. We know that Epaphras most likely becomes a believer in Ephesus. Philemon may have been with him. It's possible that Epaphras led Philemon to Jesus when he went back to Colossae.

Ephesus begins to proclaim the gospel in Colossae. The Colossian church is born. Those who submit to Jesus, repent of their sin and are rescued by grace by him in the Colossae. People begin to meet in homes, Philemon's home and some other homes. And Paul looks at the Colossian church, writes this to the Colossian church, whom he hasn't met and says, God in his stewardship gave it to me for y'all. And what's really exciting, heavy and intense is that each of us who know Jesus have a for y'all.

We have a for y'all that God in his good stewardship of his mission has handed over part of it to us for a y'all. So Paul says it was given to me for y'all. So there was a guy named David Thomas who became a believer. He lived in South Carolina. It's not Dave Thomas who made cheeseburgers. It's David Thomas who lived in South Carolina, started serving as a part of his church, started working with students and small children.

While he was doing that, one of the students he was working with named Matt Freeman became a believer. Repented of his sins, accepted Jesus as his savior, as his substitute for his sin, became a believer. And so Matt grew up as a Christian, felt called into ministry. Eventually, while he was in college, started working at a church where he was serving. At that church, he met a female that he was picking up what she was putting down. And he talked to his roommate, who was a complete prophetic genius, about dating this girl.

And his roommate, who's really smart and ruggly handsome, told him, you should not date someone that you work with at a church. That would be stupid. And because Matt completely appreciated this prophetic advice and because he knew the wisdom that his roommate had, began dating her anyway. Which totally worked out for him. They got married. Her name was Katie.

They then felt called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia. Felt called by God, who in Acts 17, it says, sets our boundaries so that God knows where we are, has us where we are on purpose, knows where you live, knows your address, knows why he has you in relationship with the people he has you in relationships with. So he set your boundaries. So God who set our boundaries, Matt and Katie feel called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia, and since they feel called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia, they moved to Northeast Columbia because that's what you do. Made no sense to me.

But God who sets their boundaries had an idea of what he was doing. And so while they lived in Northeast Columbia, they became friends with the Gillens. While they became friends with the Gillens, they invited them to be a part of community group, invited them to start being a part of church family. Daniel Gillen becomes a believer, repents of his sins, and follows Jesus, accepts Jesus as his atonement for his sin, begins to follow Jesus. Daniel invites DJC to come be a part of things. DJ starts hanging out with their community group.

DJ meets Jesus, repents of his sins, and starts following Jesus as his sacrifice, as his atonement, as his king, because of the stewardship from God that was given to David, that was given to Matt, that was given to Daniel, that was given to DJ for y'all, for a y'all that's not over with yet. That's how that works. And each person in this room has had the king of the universe extend some stewardship of his mission to us for a y'all. And he sets our boundaries, and he knows who we know, and he knows why he has us on the street that we're on, and it's been given to me for y'all, as Paul says, and each of us has a for y'all that we toil, struggle, pray for, build with, spend our time chasing after because of the stewardship of a great God and king who knows what he's doing when he hands out his mission.

That's what Paul says. Paul says, first of all, the mission's bigger than my personal self-fulfillment, than my personal enjoyment and my personal happiness, so that I can be in prison and I can rejoice because of the stewardship of the mission that was given to me for y'all. So, what that means for us is that the mission's bigger. Mission's bigger than how we want to spend every weeknight. Mission's bigger than how we want to spend our money. The mission's bigger than how we want to be viewed by people.

I know my wife and I have this conversation all the time because I harass my neighbors because I'm just trying to talk to them, just trying to build a relationship with them. And they'll look at me and go, they're not going to come outside anymore. I can see people from my backyard. And so I'll see people. She's like, they're in their backyard. You can't go talk to them.

And I'll be like, watch me, which I do creep people out. And so I got to work on it. But the mission's bigger about whether or not I want to be seen as creepy or not. Like, we got to start talking to people. We got to build relationships with people. It's bigger than how we want to spend our time, how we want to spend our money.

And we know that. And now Paul's going to tell us how it's bigger, why it's bigger. Why it's worth it. Why it's worth the suffering. So we'll start in 25.

Of which I became a minister, just means servant, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for y'all, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints, all those who have placed their faith in Jesus. That's what saints are, holy ones, made holy by Jesus. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles, Gentiles are all non-Jewish people, so me and most everybody else in this room are Gentiles. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So what Paul says is the reason the mission is bigger, and what he's been called into, is to proclaim this mystery, the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul says it's about the gospel. And the two ways he describes that, the two ways he puts that out, is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you is a profound mystery. A couple weeks ago we spent some time talking about how big Jesus is, how he rules over everything. And what Paul says is that, yes, that's true, and he dwells in those who have placed their faith in him.

That's crazy. It's a profound mystery, but it's been revealed that the God of the universe would indwell, would live in, those who place their faith in him. And so what he says is, when he does that, that's our hope of glory. So, glory is, it kind of just means like shining. And so like, if you took a hot red poker and stuck it in a fire, and then you pulled it out of the fire, it would glow for a while. It's glorying with stuff coming from the fire.

But what he means here is that we, one day, will spend eternity with Jesus in glory. Where there aren't, there isn't pain, and there isn't shame, and there isn't guilt, and there isn't brokenness anymore. And so what he says is, the reason he can do this is because of the gospel, which is that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a life in perfect relationship with God, died for our sins, so was crushed, as he says earlier in Colossians, that he, through his body of flesh, by his death, was crushed on our behalf, so that we might place our faith in him, and so that our sin that deserves to be punished, might be punished on him, and his righteousness, which deserves God to love, and share, and glory in Jesus, can be given to us, and that Christ can dwell in us, and that we have hope of glory. Our hope is not in this life.

So that's why Paul can say he rejoices in suffering, because his hope isn't here. He has a hope of glory because of Christ. It's not here. It's not in his personal satisfaction. It's not in how everything works out for him. It's not in his happiness.

It's in Christ. He has a hope of glory that's in Christ. I am. My granddad's name was Chester Phillips. It's actually who I'm named after. He was a pastor.

Bob Jones, Independent Baptist pastor, for a long time. He graduated from Bob Jones, so he went to, let me see, let me tell you some of his story. He went to, he was in World War II. He was in London during the bombing of London. He spent most of his time on a ship. He was a medic because he made glasses beforehand.

He and my grandmother got married like the week before he left. And so he left. World War II ended. He came back. He went to Bob Jones, learned how to be a pastor, went through their school. When he graduated on Friday, he began preaching at his first church on Sunday.

So he graduated on Friday. They moved on Saturday, and he started working with his first church on Sunday. He was not super comfortable with public speaking, and so my grandmother one time came down in his office, and she said in his office, he would always have his Bible laid out, his notes laid out, and he would have a brown paper bag over here on the right. And so she asked him one day, finally, after he'd been pastor for some years, she'd been married to him for a while, she said, what's the brown paper bag for? And he said, well, sometimes when I'm working on a sermon, I have to throw up.

Because I don't feel good about it. And that's why the brown paper bag's here. And so, but he was a pastor for a long time. I remember I was a part of his church when I was little, and he used to go to his office after he taught, and he'd open his drawer and give you a moon pie, because he loved Jesus, and moon pies are great. And so he'd give you a moon pie. And when I was seven, six-ish, five-ish, somewhere around in there, he started having trouble driving.

And my grandmother started noticing that he was drifting some, and it was like he wasn't seeing very well. And so she taught him to go to the doctor. He didn't like going to the doctor. He went to the doctor, and he had a brain tumor in his head. And so they said, we've got to operate. It's big.

It's just going to be a problem. And so they operated. They removed it. When they removed it, it was as if he had had a stroke. And so his whole left side of his body no longer worked. And so he had to do a lot of rehab to even just be able to walk.

And talk in a coherent manner. And so he found out he had a brain tumor. And then within just a few months was no longer pastoring and was not going to be able to. He wasn't able to open the Bible and proclaim God's word anymore. He was doing well to walk and to kind of communicate. And so they did not think he would have much longer, live much longer after that.

But he lived for another 15 years. Was still a complete trip. He was hilarious, enjoyable to be around. I remember one time we were at the beach, and I was about to go out swimming, and he called me over. He said, Jack, come here. So I came over to him.

He said, Now look. He's sitting in his wheelchair. He said, If you start drowning, I want you to call me. I said, Okay, yes, sir. He goes, Because I've never watched anyone drown, and I'd love to see that. I was like, Yes, sir.

I got you. That's just what he was like. But I remember about two years ago, he passed away. He was 87 years old, had been confined to a wheelchair for a while. Pretty much every day he'd had since his brain tumor operation was grace. And when God called him home, it was grace.

And I cried. And we knew it was coming. And I was genuinely sad and broken over it. And I cried. And I don't cry over much. Because there's something about death and suffering that strikes all of us as wrong.

There's just something in it. That even though we know it's coming, and even though 100% of people are going to die, and even though it happens all the time, it is as common as births. It is as common as getting colds. It is as common. It happens to everyone. There's something in us all the time that screams, this is not how this ought to be.

This is not how this is supposed to work. All of us, when we come to death, when we come to suffering, when we're faced with pain. And what the Bible says is that you are correct. That is not how it's supposed to be. That God created the world in a relationship with himself, and that we as humans rebelled. We ran from him.

The Bible says that we're the problem. That because of self-fulfillment, because of our desire to be God, because of our desire to prop ourselves up, that we rebelled, and that we're the problem. I read a thing the other day that was talking about the deadliest animals on earth. Wolves, sharks, elephants, hippopotamus, mosquitoes came in second to humans. Because we kill more people than anything else. Because we're the problem.

We're broken. We're greedy. I saw a picture of a shark swimming next to a scuba diver, and it said, one of these is the most deadly animal on earth. And the other one's a shark minding his business. Because we're the problem. But what Paul says, and what scripture tells us, is that Jesus didn't stand far away from our suffering.

Didn't stand far away from death. Didn't just crush us for our rebellion, but that he came to earth, he gave up all of his good things, so that he could live as a human, in the relationship with God that we could never accomplish. That he could live perfectly on our behalf, and that he could be crushed. That he could step into suffering, pain, and death. That he could bleed and die on our behalf, and that in him, not only can we face suffering, not only do we have purpose in suffering, but we also have hope of glory, that one day it'll be worked out again. That it'll be back right.

That that thing inside of us that screams that this is wrong, will be straightened back out, and it won't be wrong anymore. That we'll have hope of glory, where we'll spend eternity, with our great God and King, who's rescued and redeemed, and has made everything right again. Who's wiped every tear from every eye. Death and pain are no more. And that we get to celebrate and worship him for eternity. That's what hope of glory means.

And that's what the gospel is for us. And that's why we can suffer. That's why we can face pain. And that's why we can rejoice. Because God and his good stewardship has given this message to us for a y'all. And suffering isn't the end of it for us.

Suffering has purpose for a Christian. And we have hope set somewhere else other than on ourselves. It doesn't terminate on us. And it doesn't terminate on our happiness. Our hope is set with him in eternity. So that's why Paul says he can rejoice in suffering.

Because of Christ in him. Christ in us. And our hope of glory. So, here's what this looks like for us. So it's the gospel that empowers us for mission.

It's the gospel that empowers us in life. It's the gospel that lets us walk through suffering. That lets us walk through pain. It's the gospel. It's that Jesus stepped into our suffering. That he rescues us.

And that in him is our hope. Jesus. It's not set in anything else. It's in Jesus. And so here's what Paul says this looks like. We'll start in 27.

To then God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory. Him. Jesus. Him we proclaim.

Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. So Paul in this passage talks about suffering. He talks about affliction. He talks about toil and struggle. And he says it's all about Jesus.

And he says it's him we proclaim. Warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we can present everyone mature in Christ. This is foundational for us as a church. What he's talking about is that it's the gospel that we point each other to. It's the gospel that we point ourselves to. It's the gospel that we point each other to in community.

It's the gospel that we point everyone to. It's Jesus. We talk about Jesus. We make much of Jesus. All the time. That's it.

That's all we do. It's how we view the world. One of the ways we talk about this is gospel fluency. So fluency is when you can speak a language without having to think about how you're speaking that language. Does that make sense? So I took Spanish classes in high school and in college.

I'm not fluent in Spanish. I took like years of this stuff. Not fluent in it. Like if we're ever I can say ¿Dónde estás la biblioteca? And Puerto del Baño, por favor. So if we're in a Spanish speaking country and I get lost go to the closest library and check their bathroom because that's all I know how to say.

And I honestly may not even be in the bathroom but I'll have permission to go there. Because that's what I can say. I can ask where the library is and I can ask for permission to go to the bathroom. I can say other things like the cake is moist but I don't know how often that's going to come up in a conversation. So I mean if I say it enough people might give me money to go away.

Like I don't know. But I can't. I'm not fluent. So what happens when I speak Spanish is I have to think English words. I have to then match that up with a Spanish word and then say Spanish words. And then when someone says Spanish words to me I have to catch the Spanish words match them up with an English word so that I understand what we're talking about.

That's not fluency. Fluency is what's happening right now in English where I'm saying English words and your brain's got concepts. Like you understand what's being said. And then you when you were talking to me would think concepts say English words. I would catch English words think concepts. We wouldn't have to line it back up.

Does that make sense? And so what he's saying is him we proclaim. We talk about Jesus and we talk about gospel fluency. What that means is is that's how we view the world. Through the lens of the gospel. It's Jesus that we see everything through that we point everyone to.

All the time. I've seen those commercials for night view glasses. Have y'all seen those? It's glasses that are yellow. And they act like they're somehow going to give you night vision. I love those commercials.

People give actors in infomercials a hard time. But you've got to know how to act in an infomercial because you're selling garbage. And you've got to pretend like it's good. So you've got to at least have some acting skill. But in those commercials I love it because they'll be like it's like look at how dark it is.

And then they put yellow glasses on someone and they're like I can see everything. Or they'll just show like looking at nothing and then they'll show sunglasses fall over it with yellow and then everything like lights up. And that's ridiculous. That's not how that works. It just makes everything yellow. And so I really want them to put the glasses on someone and then be like wow it's dark and everything's kind of yellow now.

But the truth for us is that that's what the gospel is. The gospel is our night view glasses. It tints everything. It affects how we see everything. It's how we communicate. It's how we think.

It's how we view the world. It's the gospel. It's Jesus. We point to Jesus in everything. It says him we proclaim warning everyone teaching everyone so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So what that means is that the gospel is primary for us.

We point to Jesus primarily in everything. So when we gather with our community groups we talk about gospel fluency. What that means is when somebody confesses sin or when somebody's struggling with something we don't pop off with just good advice. We don't just look at someone and be like well if you ate better and exercised more you'd be happier. Maybe that's true. And that may be really good advice for 97% of Americans.

But we give gospel first. It's Jesus we proclaim. It's Jesus that we point to because he's our hope. We don't have hope anywhere else. Our hope isn't in diet and exercise. Our hope isn't in the best type of Job to have.

Our hope isn't in this technique for parenting. Our hope is in Jesus. So it's him we proclaim. So this works on a personal basis. This is what Paul's doing. He's proclaiming the gospel over his own suffering so that he can walk through life.

It's what we do. So what we don't do is this. We don't say here's the rule so follow the rule. We say here's the gospel so follow Jesus. Here's how the gospel applies. Follow Jesus.

So the Bible has rules. It has things that ways that we honor God ways that we live. Talks about generosity. I want everyone in this room to be ridiculously generous but not because that's a rule. I want the gospel to so penetrate our souls that we can't help it. That he who was rich became poor so that in him we might be rich.

That God left everything to be made nothing so that in him we could have everything. If that doesn't make us generous I want that to be what drives us so that we can look at someone else and go absolutely I want you to have some of this because I've already been given everything and my God became nothing and I know that everything doesn't terminate on me. My wealth is not for my enjoyment but it's been stewarded it's been given to me for you for this to move forward and for me to walk in light of the gospel. So yeah we want to be generous but because of the gospel yes we want to love ridiculously but because we've been loved but because we know that he's so loved us that he would die for us he would take our place so that we can love.

Of the gospel yes we want to love ridiculously but because we've been loved but because we know that he's so loved us that he would die for us he would take our place so that we can love. That's just how this works. It works in community it works with us

The y'allness of us that he's talking to. So when we have sin issues you know what that means? The gospel applies which is sin's a big deal so we address it we don't pretend like sin's not a big deal we talk about it

Openly and honestly but there's forgiveness we just assume Jesus is going to do what he does which is allow forgiveness bring redemption bring reconciliation we deal with sin issues as a church family we don't allow weirdness between people that's not okay because the gospel is true not because that's a rule

But because Jesus overcomes all of that so we talk to people we can disagree we can repent we can pray for one another we can forgive because we've been forgiven we just invite Jesus in all of it and it's him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone so this is how

We talk to our friends who don't know Jesus I was working at Sears a buddy of mine asked me he said man I used to get married he said you got any marriage advice I said yeah but I'm going to have to talk about Jesus because otherwise it's going to be confusing as crap my advice only comes from Jesus so I got to talk

To you about him first he's like okay so we talked about it because that's how I view the world that's the only way that makes sense and I honestly have found that that's not a pushy way to talk to somebody about Jesus because I'm telling them true things about how I view the world the reason

A lot of us have a hard time talking about the gospel is because the gospel hasn't penetrated how we walk through life it's clunky and awkward so it's like this weird weapon that we carry and smack people with but it doesn't affect how we walk through life so that's why we only talk about Jesus we proclaim

Jesus we point to Jesus when we get together we're going to talk about Jesus when we gather in our community groups we're going to talk about Jesus and so before you ever heard people be like I just want to go deep I want to learn deep things from the Bible and I always

Grew up thinking that you became a Christian because you learned the gospel because you repented of your sin because Jesus died on your behalf and then you learned good deep Bible things what Paul says is that it's the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in us

The hope of glory you want to learn deep things dig into the riches of the glory of this mystery dig and dig and dig and dig into the gospel you are not going to find the bottom that's not going to be tap dry it's not going to it's not ever going to run

Out that's what we dig into that's what we dive into and that's why we proclaim Jesus all the time it's how we view the world he works in among us all the time so we proclaim Jesus all the

Time that's us I want to point to one more thing before we wrap up tonight he says this him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone

Mature in Christ we're going to grow in maturity we grow in maturity in Jesus we grow in maturity in the gospel penetrating deeply into how we live life and here's the thing maturity in Christ is for everyone it's for everyone

It's not for a handful of people and then a bunch of other people gather together and there's some sort of a big religious organization that's not the goal the Bible does have elders and pastors and people that teach but we teach I spend time each week working on things to teach and to talk about the Bible because

We're called to equip saints and we want everyone to be mature everyone to grow in how the gospel applies to everything maturity is for everybody growth is for everybody that we would grow in our community groups that we would begin to proclaim the gospel to each other Colossians is going to talk about that later that we would teach one another we'd admonish one another we'd lead one another celebrate

Worship with one another and that we proclaim the gospel to each other and that we'd all grow in maturity let's do that as a church let's talk about Jesus so much that we all just grow up in maturity in Christ let's let's have this room of people know how the gospel applies to finances how the gospel applies to our time how the gospel applies to our friendships it's going to be awkward it's going to be clunky there's going to be some confusing conversations there

Are going to be times that we say hey that's really good advice but how does Jesus work here how do we proclaim Jesus in this situation and you're going to go how does the gospel apply to buying a dog it does and it's going to be awkward to try to figure it out and talk about it but it applies to how we spend our time and how we spend our money and how we view the world so it applies to everything and we're going to all talk about Jesus so much that we all grow in maturity and become

Mature in Christ and it's going to be really good and a lot of fun man's going to come back up here and here's what we're going to do we are the y'all that Paul's writing to we are the church we are a group of people that exist in relationship with one another and what happens when you have a bunch of people exist in relationships with one another is that things get frustrating things get weird and sometimes people get their feelings hurt and sometimes there's struggle and there's

Pain and in this room there are people that are going through some things and so what we're going to do is we're going to respond as Christians we're going to respond and we're going to proclaim Jesus into this situation we're going to invite the gospel to bear in our lives and so what that means is some of you in here may just be struggling with some life just may be difficult right now you just need some you need some church family to come around and to pray with you and to talk with you about how your hope

Isn't in this situation but it's in Jesus and how the gospel works to bring life and to bring rejoicing and suffering here so you're just going to invite some people to pray with you you're going to go sit with somebody you're going to go talk to somebody you're going to go open up a little bit some of us in here need to confess some sin we need to have the gospel apply so that we know that sin's a big deal and that forgiveness is inevitable for those who repent that Jesus forgives and that reconciliation and

Redemption happen when we invite Jesus in so some of us are going to move around the room we're going to talk to somebody we're going to confess some weirdness we're going to confess some how we've been upset or frustrated with something it's going to get awkward but it's going to be so good because we're going to invite Jesus to be a part of it some of us just need to pray we just need to talk to some people anybody who's playing an instrument right now feels like they need to talk to someone they're going to put their

Instrument down and they're going to go talk to a person we care way more about being church family and applying the gospel than we do about a baseline no offense Josh that's what we're going to do we're going to cut the lights off we're going to they're going to play some music we're going to pray we're going to talk to each other we're going to move around that little thing that just popped in your head that you don't want to talk about that's what you're going to talk about that person that just popped in your head that's the person you're

Going to talk to we're going to follow the Holy Spirit we're going to invite Jesus to be a part of this we're going to pray with one another we're going to walk with one another and we're going to proclaim him always only we're going to proclaim Jesus because he's our hope. He's our life. And he's how we walk through everything. I'm going to pray and then we're going to move. Real quick before I pray. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, this is open for you to repent of your sin and to have Jesus be your hope and have his death apply to your account. So you can tell him. That seems awkward or you have questions. You can talk to a human.

We'd love to proclaim him. Let's pray. God, we ask that we'd be a church family, that the gospel works in and around everything. That's how we'd view life. So that God, we'd be able to rejoice in suffering because we know the truth of where our hope lies. And God, I thank you that in your wisdom you've given us a for y'all. That each of the people in this room who have placed their hope and their faith in you, that you've extended your mission for those around them, for those that they would toil and struggle to proclaim you to. And God, I pray that we would, that we would proclaim Jesus,

Warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd work right now. Show us who we need to talk to. Enlighten us into how the gospel works in and among us so that there can be forgiveness, so that there can be reconciliation. We're going to move around the room, God. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move around as well. Teaching us, leading us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

He's our life. And he's how we walk through everything. I'm going to pray and then we're going to move. Real quick before I pray. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, this is open for you to repent of your sin and to have Jesus be your hope and have his death apply to your account. So you can tell him.

That seems awkward or you have questions. You can talk to a human. We'd love to proclaim him. Let's pray. God, we ask that we'd be a church family, that the gospel works in and around everything. That's how we'd view life.

So that God, we'd be able to rejoice in suffering because we know the truth of where our hope lies. And God, I thank you that in your wisdom you've given us a for y'all. That each of the people in this room who have placed their hope and their faith in you, that you've extended your mission for those around them, for those that they would toil and struggle to proclaim you to. And God, I pray that we would, that we would proclaim Jesus, warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd work right now. Show us who we need to talk to.

Enlighten us into how the gospel works in and among us so that there can be forgiveness, so that there can be reconciliation. We're going to move around the room, God. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move around as well. Teaching us, leading us, in Jesus' name. Amen.