All right, we are in a new year and we're starting a new sermon series in
Colossians and I'm excited about this because our focus this year is all-on
discipleship and
Colossians does a great job of explaining what it actually means
to be a disciple of Christ and
How to help other brothers and sisters in Christ in their walk with Christ and it starts in a very interesting way
It starts by addressing a huge problem that we have in the church today
And it's what I like to call the problem of conveyor belt Christianity
When I think about the conveyor belt
I think of Henry Ford who he didn't invent the conveyor belt
But he kind of revolutionized it because he added it to the assembly lines in his automotive factories
And it really worked well for him because it sped everything up and it increased his output
And that was kind of the basic idea behind the conveyor belt. We speed up production
We increase output and it's a win-win for everybody and I will say this a conveyor belt
It works great in an automotive factory
You know where it doesn't work great
In a church right and when I look back over the
20th century in the church and into the 21st century
I see the church adapting this conveyor belt model
Of Christianity. What did we do? We wanted to increase production and output
And so we created some ways to make that a reality
It started with creating what's known as the seeker friendly model of church
Basically our focus was no longer going to be solely on
Exalting Christ and making sure that we sing songs that are exalting to Christ and preach the word of God faithfully
Now we're just gonna make church all about what's gonna attract the most people
What's gonna get the most people in the door to the church rather than focusing on Christ?
So so that was step one and then we added certain things to make this even more efficient
We added the center's prayer. We got rid of meaningful church membership
We eliminated membership interviews and baptism interviews and we basically failed to provide any sort of long-term
discipleship oversight
Basically what we did is we put people on a conveyor belt and we said the conveyor belt starts here come to church
We just have to get people in the doors and once they're in the doors the conveyor belt continues down the line
Now you walk down an aisle now you fill out a card now you pray the center's prayer now you get baptized
Now you join a church and you know what comes next
Nothing that's it
That's where the conveyor belt ends for the majority of churches in America
It's all about getting people in the door and getting them on your membership role and then after that there's nothing and
That has failed the church for the past hundred years
In other words, we became very focused on getting people into the church and creating converts
But we have neglected discipleship entirely and this is why we have people today
Who will claim that they have been a Christian for 10 years?
20 years 30 years and
They have not matured in their faith at all
They look around at people who've been a Christian for only three or four years and they go what's happening?
But why is this person more spiritually mature than I am?
Why do they know more of their Bible than I do? Why are they more obedient than I am?
Why are they more committed to Christ? I've been a Christian for longer. I've been a Christian for decades
Why is this happening and the whole reason is happening is because Jesus didn't say go and make converts
He said go and make disciples
There's actually a pretty big difference
You see every disciple is a convert, but not every convert is a disciple a
Convert is someone who has accepted the gospel and has made an initial pronouncement of faith in Jesus
But a disciple is someone who is actively walking with Jesus
Who is learning from Jesus who's following Jesus and becoming more like Jesus every day
Basically a convert hops off the line at joining the church, but a disciple says I want to see what's next I
Want more I want to know more. I want to learn more. I want to walk more closely with the Lord
I want to feel the the presence of the Lord more and more in my life. I want to see
What the Lord has to offer me?
And it's interesting when Paul is talking to the Colossians here the whole idea that he's making in the first few verses
Here's that a disciples life is characterized by deepening roots and producing fruits
The disciples life is characterized by deepening roots in
producing fruits
This is what our lives should look like
We should have the roots of our faith ever deepening in our lives
And we should see more and more the spirit producing fruit in our lives and the question might be well
What does this look like practically?
It's one thing to say this, but what does it actually look like practically or you could say it like this?
What are the characteristics of a growing disciple?
So if you're here this morning and you're wondering am I a complacent convert or am I actually a growing disciple?
What are the things that you should be looking for in your life to determine?
Which one you are?
I want you to start with me in verses one through two notice what Paul says he says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus
By the will of God and Timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae
Grace to you and peace from God our father now
We need to do a little bit of context here because this is a new book for us. We're jumping into it
Paul is writing this letter from prison
He is behind bars as he is sending this letter to the Colossians
So you might be wondering why didn't he go there himself?
Well, it's because he is in prison literally in chains as he's writing this
But it's interesting to note that Paul had never actually visited the Colossian church before you see Paul
Was actually a person who was training a man named Apaphrys and Apaphrys was a minister
Who had come to Paul and Paul had trained him and then basically sent him out so Apaphrys was Paul's pastoral intern
We got that. Yeah, I've got my interns
This was Paul's intern and so what he does he sent Apaphrys out to go plant some churches and one of the churches that Apaphrys helped plant
Was the church in Colossae and so he had been there training them teaching them working with them
And now he's writing to Paul to give him an update about what's going on in Colossae and Paul is now
Writing back to them to address a lot of what's going on and he's gonna correct some false teaching
But he's also gonna encourage them and I want you to notice that that's how he starts here in verse 3
He begins to encourage them. He says we always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints
Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this you have heard before in the word of the truth the gospel
Now I want you to notice the three gospel essentials that Paul mentions here
He mentions faith hope and love
The same three that he mentions in 1st Corinthians 1313 where he says so now faith hope and love abide these three
But the greatest of these is love
And at the time of Paul's writing these three were considered to be the essential marks of the Christian life
And it is because of these three things that Paul thanks God for the Colossians
Now I want you to know church
These are the three things faith hope and love that you need to be looking for in your life to determine whether you are a
complacent convert or a growing disciple
And so let's start with this first one and consider what does Paul actually mean when he says faith here?
He talks about their faith in Christ Jesus, but what does he mean by faith? Well? I can tell you what he doesn't mean
Paul is not referring here to a mere affirmation of the facts of the gospel
Nor does he mean a one-time profession of faith that has become our
understanding of what faith is in our day people think that as long as they just
Acknowledge that there is a God and he exists and as long as they can quote the facts of the gospel and as long as they made a
One-time profession of faith at some point in their life
They are convinced that they are Christians now
It doesn't matter if they made that profession and then their life never did ever look anything like a Christian's life should look
They look back and they said I made that profession of faith when I was 12 years old
Therefore I'm good. That is not what Paul is referring to here
I mean you think about how we even to go about evangelism today people go around and they ask a common question
They say do you believe in Jesus?
Does that question actually tell us anything I?
Mean I tell you if someone's just an outright atheist
But but keep in mind we're in the south right we're in the Bible Belt
I mean we're on the buckle of the Bible Belt, okay?
It doesn't get much more Bible Belt than South Carolina
That's where we are if you ask anyone in the south that they believe in Jesus their answer is
Yeah, of course
I mean it's so frustrating because everybody does answer. Yes, it reminds me of that scene
From the the Sholshank Redemption if you've seen that movie when the prisoners are all eating at a table together
And the new inmate comes in and he's kind of bragging about what he did to get busted
And he asked the main character. He's like and what about you? What'd you do? He said I had a bad lawyer
Everyone's innocent in here. Don't you know that?
And that's what it feels like trying to talk to people about Jesus in the south you go up to anyone you go
Hey, do you believe in Jesus and their responses? Well, of course
Everyone around here believes in Jesus. Don't you know that?
We're all Christians if you're born in South Carolina, you're born a Christian basically
But I want you to understand this the Bible says in James chapter 2 verse 19 you believe that God is one
You do well
even the demons believe and
shutter
See believe in God you believe in Jesus. That's great. So do the demons and they actually shutter because of their belief
You see church faith is not simply affirming the facts of the gospel true faith is
trusting in Jesus and then living in a way that proves that trust to be true and
Unfortunately today, there are many people in our world who have mistaken an intellectual
intellectual understanding of Jesus for a saving faith in Jesus
And I want you to notice the point Paul is making here
He's saying that disciples build their faith on the foundation of Jesus alone
So if you want to look for a characteristic in your life to determine if you are a growing disciple or a complacent convert
I would encourage you to start here because true disciples build their faith on the foundation of
Jesus alone at a conversation about foundations recently with my son Judah
We've been building a lot together with Legos because we got him a bunch of Legos for Christmas and
So we've been building a bunch of stuff and a couple Saturdays ago
I was in his room on Saturday morning
We're in there building with Legos for a couple hours and at one point
He starts building this giant tower and he wanted to make it as tall as he possibly could because that's what five-year-old boys
Wants to do they want to just build a tower as tall as they can so he's building this tower and I look at it
And I'm like buddy that tower is gonna fall over and he's like no it's not I'm building it right up
I'm like I know you're building it right up that tower is gonna fall
He said why is it gonna fall? I said because you picked the smallest block in that entire case
To be your foundation
It was like literally the smallest block and his whole tower was built on this small little block
And I said if the foundation is weak the tower will not stand you have to build it up
And I tell you that to tell you that in the same way one of my biggest concerns as a pastor and as a Christian today is
That too many Christians are building their entire faith on a weak foundation
Too many Christians today are
Building their faith on a weak foundation and if we don't get the foundation right then we're going to be building up a faith
That will ultimately collapse and if Jesus is not the foundation of your faith
Then your faith will not be able to withstand the final judgment of God because all of us are gonna have to stand before God one day
And give an account and if your faith is not built on the foundation of Christ your faith will collapse in that moment
And so a good question to ask yourself this morning is what is my foundation?
What am I building my faith on a?
a good way to think about this is to think about
What gives you assurance?
If you're here this morning and you say I am sure that when I die I will get to be with the Lord forever
My question to you is
What is it that makes you so sure of that?
And how you answer that question will tell you what your foundation is
If you believe that you'll spend eternity with God
Why do you believe that is because you are trusting in a confession that you made when you were younger?
Again as a pastor I hear this all the time
I'll have people come to my office and talk to me and they'll say pastor. I know I'm good
I'm living in sin, but I know I'm good because when I was 12
I went to a youth conference and they gave this awesome invitation and I went down front and I filled out a card
And I prayed a prayer and like that's great. Anybody can do that
It's what you do afterward that actually matters not what you do in the moment
Is it because you're trusting in the fact that you've been baptized?
This is the second most common thing I get as a pastor someone will say to me. I know I'm going to heaven. Why because I've been baptized pastor
Good
That's fantastic. I know people who've been baptized ten times
Anybody can go in there and get baptized
Your baptism does not save you do we understand that church?
It is not a way to be saved your baptism is a public declaration that I have repented of my sins
I have trusted in Christ and I am depending on him entirely, but it has no
salvific effects for you
For other people they're trusting in their church attendance and their religious activities
This is number three on my big list of things I get as a pastor. This is number three
Someone comes to the office. They say hey, I'm struggling, but I know I'm good. Why are you good?
Because I come to church
I've been a member here
Since it was formed in 1855
My well, that's fantastic
Anybody can go to church
It doesn't take a Christian to go to church and just by going to church that doesn't make you a Christian
They're gonna be people. I've told you this so many times before there will be people who spent every single Sunday in church
Who will spend an eternity in hell?
That's because your church attendance cannot save you
That is a weak foundation and it will fail you
Some people say well, I know a lot of Bible. That's also fantastic Satan can quote scripture too
That doesn't save you folks all of these things the most common things people come me with these are weak
foundations and
They will fail you
The only sure and true foundation is Jesus alone. It's saying I'm trusting in Christ alone
I'm trusting that the perfect obedient life he lived
Was sufficient to please the father on my behalf
And I am trusting that the sacrificial atoning death that he died was sufficient to appease the father's wrath towards my sin and pay
My penalty I'm trusting in the fact that because he was raised bodily from the dead
One day I too will be raised bodily from the dead
I'm trusting in the fact that he is ascended on high seated at the right hand of the father right now and that he is
Interceding for me this very day and every day I have been alive my hope my trust
Everything I have is in Christ alone
That's it
That is our foundation
Is the only one that is sure to stand and this is the kind of faith that Paul is talking about here and
Notice this he also says he gives thanks for the Colossians because he has heard of the love
They have for all the saints now if you're the type of person to write in your Bible. Here's what I want you to do
Either underline or circle that phrase
Love that you have for all the saints. I
Want you to notice Paul didn't just say I've heard of your love or
I've heard of your love for some of the saints or even I've heard of your love for most of the saints
He said I have heard of your love for all the saints
Now I want us to just take a second to appreciate
How special and difficult this actually is
And maybe you don't realize how special it is so I'm gonna put it in terms that pretty much everybody can understand
But here's what I need you to do first. All right, you know, we're always open and honest here
We don't shy away from that. So can we all be honest with each other this morning? Yeah
Yes, yes pastor Alex. Oh, that sounds great guys. Happy new year to you too. Good to have you here
Let's make sure you're awake. Let's go. Come on. All right, so we're all honest with each other, right?
Yeah, that's what we're hoping for. All right, so can we just all be honest and admit
That certain people in the church are easier to love than others
Okay, good. You said you could be honest, right? Yeah, we're not hiding anything here. We're not playing church. We are who we are
There are certain people in the church who are easier to love than others and I'm gonna list their night
Can you imagine?
Monday would have been fun then
No, but you know the people right people respect them people look up to them they talk to everybody
They serve they volunteer they help out. They're always there if you need them
Like there are certain people who are just really easy to love
And then there are other people and you know the ones I'm talking about right?
Some of you are thinking of a name. I'm gonna encourage you not to say it, but you know the ones
They're the ones who like to stir up trouble
The ones who like to sow dissension and cause drama
The ones who insist on their own ways the ones who always have something to say even when they don't need to say anything
Those people they're hard to love
And now the easy way out is just to say that we're gonna love the ones who are easy to love
But as Christians God has called us to love the ones who are hard to love as well
And we can get even more specific when Paul's talking about loving the saints here
He's not just talking about loving them in a generic way, and he's not talking about
Tolerating other people because you know that's our other cop out right a Christian will either say I love everybody and they don't mean it
Or they'll say oh, yeah, I love everybody and what they really mean is I love some people and I just kind of tolerate the rest of them
That's what we do and that's not what Paul is talking about here
I want you to notice the point he's making he is saying true disciples don't pick and choose which members of the church they will love I
Don't know which one of you needs to underline this point and put a star next to it for this new year, but
This is a characteristic of a growing disciple true disciples do not pick and choose which members of the church they will love
And we do this not simply because we're called to but because this is how God has loved us in Christ
I mean can you imagine if God just loved the people who were easy to love?
He wouldn't have loved anybody if that were the case. I
Mean even even some of the standouts in the Bible right you could think of any name
And I can give you a reason why God should not have loved them you think Abraham was easy to love
God takes him outside. He says hey look at the stars of the sky
Your descendants are gonna be more numerous than the stars of the sky and Abraham said that's awesome
And then he went and slept with his wife's maid
What about Moses you think Moses was easy to love?
From the very second God told him I'm gonna use you to deliver the people of Israel
Moses started giving him every excuse why he could not do that and why he should find someone else
And then he ultimately sinned against God and couldn't go into the promised land. What about David? You think David was easy to love?
The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart
The Bible says he was also a man after the flesh because he went and slept with another man's wife and then had that man murdered
So that he wouldn't be found out
What about our boy Peter you think Peter was easy to love?
That's the easiest one right like I mean man bless Peter like he does so good
Sometimes and initially but then you look at Peter and he's rebuking Jesus
Or he's putting his foot in his mouth and he's doing something wrong like Peter was not an easy guy to love
None of these people were the easy to kind of easy to love kind of people and yet God still loved them
included them in his family
Now if you want to make this personal
My question to you is do you think that you're easy to love?
If you answer that question, yes, I'd love to have a conversation with you after church today
Um, I think it'd be enlightening, but I'll just be personally honest with you
I know for a fact that I am not
Easy to love to this day. I do not understand how my wife loves me let alone how God loves me
I look back over my life and I see all the times I have failed God
I see all the times I have sinned against God
I've rebelled against him. I've turned away from him. I look at all the times. I have promised God
I'm like God I will never do this again or God. I'm gonna do this and then I go back on my word
Or God if you'll do this for me, here's what I'll do for you in exchange and then God comes through on that promise
And I'm like, well, guess what I'm gonna still do what I want to do
I know
That I'm not an easy to love kind of person and yet this is what the bible says in romans 5 verses 6 through 8
For while we were still weak
At the right time christ died for the ungodly
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die
But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners christ died for us
So while you were still in your sin
While you were in glad rebellion against god while you were still in the midst of disobedience
While you were still an enemy of god according to the bible the bible says that god showed his love for you
In the fact that jesus died on the cross for you
You see when we look to the cross of christ, we are personally witnessing god's great love for hard to love people
And so this means for us as a church
That we are called to love those who are hard to love which means you're called to love those
Who aren't as mature in their faith as you think they should be
You know how we get frustrated with them and we go man, why don't they get it?
Why can't they mature? Why aren't they more committed to the church? Why aren't they reading their bibles?
Why aren't they praying? Why are they so quick to anger? Why can't they just get on with it?
Why do they still need milk when we want to serve a t-bone?
Yeah, you're frustrated with them, but god says you're called to love that person if they're a brother or sister in christ
You're called to love all the saints
You're called to love even those who disagree with you on certain points of theology
Because you know this is one of christians favorite things to do right like christians love to fight with each other
about theology
And we have this tendency to think that we're always right and the other person is always wrong. Yes? Yeah
Of course i'm right. It's my point of view. I'm right. He's wrong
And so we get frustrated with the people who disagree with us and we go well, how can you not get this?
It's so clear in the bible. How could you disagree with this? Like why are you like this?
And and so we have these fights about theology
And let me tell you something if if your view of theology
And your personal perspective on whatever the theological category is if that leads you
to stop loving
a brother or sister in christ then you have elevated theology over the command of a christian
You've elevated theology over the basic command to love your brother or sister
in christ
It is possible to disagree with someone and still love them. I was looking for my father-in-law. He must have stepped out
Because he's my example for this. I love my father-in-law. I think that god bless me with the best in-laws you could possibly have
I'm not just saying that because they're here. I truly mean that I love my father-in-law. He has been a great father to me
Since I've been married to anna, but I'll tell you this
Jean and I
We don't agree. I'm pretty much anything related to theology
I mean you could go through the categories and I guarantee you gene and I are going to disagree on pretty much every single
aspect of theology and yet
I still love my father-in-law
Because we know at the end of the day we both trust in jesus christ and we know that jesus died for our sins and we know
That when we die we will get to be with jesus forever and that is the common core that holds us together
It is the fact that we have salvation in christ
And so we are called to love
all the saints
Not just some of the saints
It means that we should be as devoted to the hard to love people as we are to the easy to love people
It means that each member of the church is entitled to the same amount of devotion
attention care and help as everyone else
I want you to see what paul says here. He says that this hope or that this love and this faith that's grounded in hope look at verse 5
He says that the colossian christians have this faith and love because of the hope that's laid up for them
In heaven which means that our hope is not in our
Circumstances or in any other worldly thing
Paul is saying here that our hope is in jesus and all the promises of god that he has
Stored up for us in heaven and is guarding until the day of the lord
The promises of eternal life
The promises of the bodily resurrection
Of glorification of getting to be with god and enjoy him forever. This is our hope
However, if you look at verses 5 and 6 you'll notice that
Arguably the most encouraging thing paul says about the Colossians here is that he has heard that the gospel that they heard and believed
Is bearing fruit among them and increasing
And this is one of the truest if not the truest evidences of a disciple
Is that the gospel bears fruit in their lives and increases always
Jesus says this throughout the gospel. He says a tree is known by its what church?
By its fruit a tree is known by its fruit. And so if I planted a bunch of fruit trees
And they never bore any fruit
You wouldn't actually know what kind of tree they were
In fact, if they never bore any fruit, you'd say it's probably a pretty useless fruit tree
You should probably just pluck it up and get rid of it, right?
And the same way
The tree is known by its fruit
And the same way we are known by our fruit
I want you to see this final point of discipleship here
He says that the fruit in our lives bears witness to the roots in our hearts. That's the point he's making here
The fruit in our lives
bears witness
To the roots in our heart
So let me ask you this question if I planted a tree
And I put a sign out in front of that tree that said
This is an apple tree. Does that make it true?
No
Exactly. Okay. Thank you. You're like, oh the pastor went and lied to us. Yeah, but in this hypothetical
I might lie to you. So yeah, just because I put a sign in front of it that says this is an apple tree
That doesn't actually make it true. That doesn't make the tree an apple and I want to just tell you this morning
Just because you've got a sign out in front of your life
Just because you go around telling people you're a Christian just because you wear a cross necklace everywhere you go
Just because you've got a Jesus tattoo or a bible tattoo
Just because you come to church on a Sunday morning. That doesn't actually make you a Christian
Anybody can do those things
Instead you have to look at your life and see what kind of fruit
There is in your life and that will tell you according to Galatians
It says if the fruit in your life is sexual immorality
impurity
Sensuality idolatry sorcery
enmity strive jealousy fits of anger
rivalries
dissensions envy drunkenness and things like these
It means the gospel is not rooted in your heart
It means that the flesh is still rooted in your heart
And it's controlling you because the fruit that's coming forth in your life is saying hey
What's actually rooted in my heart is the flesh not the gospel
But Galatians also says that the fruit in your life is love
Joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control
Then it means the gospel has taken root in your heart
It means that the spirit is working in your life and he is producing the fruit of the spirit in your life
And this is what the Lord Jesus calls us to
He calls us to the spirit of the spirit
He calls us to he calls us to have a growing faith that is bearing fruit and increasing all the time
In other words church, we are not called simply to have a faith of facts. We are called to have a faith that acts
You can't just have a bunch of head knowledge and call yourself a Christian your life has to bear witness to what you're actually saying
And so I want to just give you some questions if you want to know if you're a growing disciple
I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to see how you would answer these
Am I closer to God now?
than I was at this point last year
Am I walking more in step with the Lord now than I was at this point last year
Am I turning away from sin and unrighteousness now than I was at this point last year?
Am I trusting in Jesus even more now than I was when I made my initial
Professional faith and here's the kicker if I never told anyone else that I was a Christian
Would it be evident that I was by the way I live out the faith?
Because anybody can talk the talk
But it takes a work of God to actually walk in a way that backs up what you're saying
And if your answer to those questions is no then it means that your faith has stagnated
It means that you're no longer a growing disciple and you might say well, what do I do pastor?
Well, if you want the answer to those questions to be yes
Then you need to get off the church conveyor belt and start taking discipleship seriously
And one of the best ways you can do that is by taking advantage of all the different discipleship opportunities we have
at this church
If you want to grow in your faith, you want those answers to be yes join a Sunday school class
You'll begin to grow in your faith
Join the women of the word bible study join heartstrings start coming on wednesday nights here. Here's one
And I say it all the time
Join a gospel group that is one of the best things you could possibly do and I want you to just understand
That is for your benefit. I'm not saying that and pushing gospel groups. Look, we don't take up an offering in gospel groups
Okay, I don't know what you think goes on back there, but we're not getting paid for that like we don't take up an offering
We're not counting numbers like none of that matters. We are literally
Doing that for you so that you will grow in your faith
It is one of the best ways for you to start growing in your faith
And here we are at the beginning of a new year and what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to commit to
one of these discipleship opportunities for one year
And if you will do that if you will commit to one of these discipleship opportunities and stay committed for a year
I guarantee you
By the end of this year the answer to all those questions. I just asked you will be yes
I'm closer to God now. I'm walking more in step with the Lord. I'm turning away from sin more
I'm growing in my faith the answer will be yes, and if the answer is not yes, then
I don't know. I'll give you a free copy of my book this year or something like that, but something okay
Whatever it is, but I guarantee the answer will be yes. If you do this, that's the challenge
I want you to take up
This is what God wants for our church
This is what I want for our church. I want us to be a group of growing
Disciples not a bunch of complacent converts
And I've said it to you for years now. I'll say it to the day I die
God wants more for you
God wants more for you than casual Christianity
And the church conveyor belt
He wants you to build your faith on the foundation of christ
He wants you to have a true love for all the saints. He wants your hopes set on the things above
And he wants the gospel to be bearing fruit and increasing in your life
This is what he wants for his people
And so this morning at the start of a new year, let's commit ourselves
To taking discipleship seriously so that we can have deepening roots and more and more producing fruits in our lives amen. Let's pray