I'm going to start with you
today. When I was a study in
north Greenville I remember
filling a great sense of
urgency. And responsibility
because I knew that God had
called me to pastoral
ministry and I knew that step
one was to go to north
Greenville get an education
and then I could start pursuing
a pastor at after that and so
I remember while I was there.
I was a pastor at the time and
I was more responsible and kind
of like I needed to work extra
hard because I was a fairly
recent convert and pretty much
everyone around me had been in
the faith most their lives and
so I thought I'm going to have
to work just to even catch up
and so my college experience
was not like other people's
because I was looking around and
everybody was making friends
and socializing and going to
things together and I had a
plan to go to a church and I
used to go to the library and
sit there for hours reading and
studying and preparing because
I wanted to make sure that I was
actually prepared to fulfill
this calling that God had placed
on my life and my plan going into
north Greenville and this was
my naive mind at the time I
thought hey God's coming to be
a pastor I kind of need a Bible
degree for that so I'll go to
north Greenville and then I'll
go to a church. I had no thought
of seminary but while I was at
the church I realized how much
I didn't know and how unprepared
I was and thought so like the
whole reason I even went to
seminary was so that I could be
even more prepared to one day
serve God's people in a church
and so when I look back on all
of this I can see that all of
my long hours studying in the
library were ultimately for you
and me laboring to memorize
all of my work and I was so
excited about that that's on you
because that was for you as well
and even those times when I
fell overwhelmed with
responsibility and super busy
that was ultimately for you God
was using that to prepare me for
one day being in ministry and so
all of that was preparation to
one day be able to serve you and
what's interesting if you look
at this passage Paul's going to
say that he's going to be a
devotee of the difficulty of
discipleship and the hardships
of walking with Christ and he's
going to make it clear that
following Jesus in a world that
hates Jesus is not easy and so
what he's saying to us is we
need to be on top of our games
so we can actually fulfill the
calling that God has placed on
our lives you see the point he's
making here church is that God
is the only one that's willing to
equip others and this is really
clear when you begin to notice
some repeated phrases in this
passage so if you have your
Bible is looking there I want to
point out a couple things to you
notice how Paul says he rejoices
in his sufferings for your
sake.
That was not Paul.
He says that he was given a
stewardship from God for you and
then in verse twenty eight he
says him we proclaim warning
everyone and teaching everyone
with all wisdom that we may
present everyone mature in
Christ that's the goal for us as
a church that's a goal for us as
Christians our aim must be to
be able to be able to be a
believer in Christ and in order
to do that you need to make sure
that you're equipped for the
task that God has put before you
and so the question is what does
that look like how do we do that
how does God equip us to equip
others.
That's what I want us to
consider this morning as we look
at this passage in Colossians
how does God equip us to equip
others and I want you to to
understand that this is 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 now I
know you didn't come to church
this morning wanting to hear a
sermon on suffering but
unfortunately for you that's
what comes next in Colossians
and we preach straight through
books of the Bible so the
problem with preaching a
sermon on suffering is that in
America we have virtually no
concept or
familiarization with true
suffering but we like to think
we do don't we anytime
something goes wrong in our
country anytime someone says
something that's unbiblical or
puts forth a law that goes
against you know the Bible or
Christ we throw up our hands
and go well this is it this is
suffering we are suffering for
Christ we are suffering for
Christ we are really not what
we have people who oppose us we
have inconveniences in our
lives but very rarely do we
have true suffering and even
more rarely do we have true
suffering for the sake of
Christ and for instance if you
want to just take a moment let's
compare our experience in
America with Paul's experience
and then let's see if we can
share the experience in America
with Paul's experience chapter
eleven. Are they servants of
Christ. I'm a better one I'm
talking like a madman which is
just great to see his honesty
there. With far greater labor
for more imprisonment with
countless beatings in often
near death. Five times I
received at the hands of the
Jews forty lashes less one
three times I was shipped
from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from gentiles,
danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers,
in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, and often without
food and cold and exposure. That's what true suffering looks like. That is the call of a
Christian. Should we just give the altar call now, you think? I mean, who wants to sign up for that?
This doesn't play well in America because in most American churches today, the pastor is going to
get up there and he's going to preach a message about how God loves you, he has wonderful plans
for your life, and if you just become a Christian, your life is going to be super easy, everything's
going to work out for you, you're not going to have any troubles, any hardships, any difficulties,
life is going to be good and it's going to be easy because now you have made a decision for
Christ and the Bible says none of that is true. The Bible says that you will suffer for the sake
of Christ. Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. I want you to understand that suffering
is not uniquely reserved for standout Christians. It is a promise to every single believer in Christ.
Notice Jesus says in John 1633, I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace, so
not peace in the world, not peace in your circumstances, peace in Jesus because in the world
you will have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world and he reveals through Paul
in Philippians 1.29, for it has been, what's the word church? Granted. It has been granted to you
that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
Notice how that mindset is completely different from the American mindset. We say it's been granted
us that we get to be included in the family of God, it's been granted to us that we can believe in
Jesus and Paul says it's also been granted to you that you should suffer for the sake of Christ
and we know that in this world and especially in this country we will have those who oppose us
and we will have those who hate us. We know this is true, don't we church? People in the world today
hate Christians and you might ask the question, well why do they hate Christians so much? And
the answer is very simple. They don't actually hate you, they hate Jesus. The world doesn't
actually hate Christians, the world hates Jesus and this is exactly what Paul means there in verse
24. Look at verse 24 again. Paul says, 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. Now that's a confusing verse, is it not? Because it seems to be saying that there is
something lacking in the atonement of Jesus that we need to add to by our sufferings. But that is
not what Paul is saying here. That's a heresy, the Catholic church holds to that heresy, but that is
not what Paul is saying and we know that's not what he's saying because when Jesus died on the cross
he said it is finished. Meaning his atonement is a definite atonement, it is a finished atonement.
There is nothing you can possibly add to the atonement of Jesus because it is finished. So what is
Paul saying here? What does he mean by this? Well I want you to pay attention to your Bibles here.
This is where context really comes in. I want you to notice how Paul had just referred to Jesus as
the head of the church and he referred to the church as the body of Christ. So there's a head
and there's a body and the problem for us, and actually it's good news for us, but it also ends
up being a problem for us, is that the head is now in heaven seated at the right hand of the Father
and the world wants to punch the head but they can't reach the head because the head's in heaven,
so who does the world punch? The body. And so the desire of the world is not necessarily to hurt
Christians, the desire of the world is to inflict pain upon Christ and since they can't get to Christ
because he's in heaven, they come after his body. This is exactly what Satan does too. We read in
Revelation 12-13, and when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the
woman who would give him birth to the male child. So can't get Jesus anymore, he's in heaven,
Satan's been thrown down, what does he do? He pursues the woman. In Revelation 12-17,
then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring,
on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. So again,
can't get to the head, you have to go after the body, but I want you to understand this church
that Jesus as the head still feels every bit of anguish and pain that his body experiences.
And we know this is true because if you remember when Saul of Tarsus was on the road to Damascus,
Jesus appeared to him, revealed himself to him, and the first thing he said to Saul of Tarsus was,
Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now here's the question, who was Saul actually persecuting?
He was persecuting Christians, he was going around killing Christians, persecuting the church,
trying to end the Christian movement, and yet Jesus felt that anguish and that pain so intensely
that he could literally say to Saul, why are you persecuting me?
Me. Jesus feels our pain and the pain is for a purpose. Paul says here that he is rejoicing in
his sufferings for the sake of other Christians. So here's what you understand, the point he's
making is this, God uses your sufferings to equip you to comfort others who suffer in the same way.
And we need to learn to have this perspective in our own lives. I've kind of entered into this new
phase of life, which is really surreal for me, but I've been having a lot of young guys reach out to
me who were going into ministry, and I'm getting phone calls, text messages, and I'm getting
calls from people who are going to the ministry, and I'm getting calls from people who are going
to the ministry, and I'm getting phone calls, text messages, and emails from these young guys
who are wanting advice from an older guy because they're going into ministry.
So that's the point of life I'm in now. I'm officially the older guys. Guys, I'm not even
33 yet, okay? Give me a break. But apparently I'm the older guy, and so I've been having these
conversations with these guys. And what's really interesting to me is that all of the situations
they're talking about, I've already been through. They're saying, hey, I'm running up against this
challenge. I've experienced this kind of pushback. I've been going through this kind of situation,
and I don't know what to do, and I'm like, well, brother, let me tell you, I've been there, I've
done that. You want to talk about problems in ministry? You want to talk about contentious
Deacons meetings? Brother, I've been there, okay? I've been in Deacons meetings where we've almost
come to blows, okay? They're not like that anymore, by the way. All our Deacons meetings,
they're very nice and friendly. We love each other. But in the early days, and some of the guys in
this room can attest to it, there were some contentious times. So it's interesting because
I've been in these situations, in the comfort for me, in these conversations, as I realized that
I didn't go through that situation for no reason. At the time, I wanted to throw my hands up and go,
oh, God, why is this happening to me? Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to anger you?
But now looking back on it, I can see that God was using those situations not only to build up
my faith and equip me, but he was equipping me to one day be able to help others who were going to
go through those same situations. And this is how we need to view our sufferings in life. We never
need to think that our suffering is purposeless or meaningless. I know that hindsight's 2020,
but we need to learn to recognize in the moment that God is going to use whatever trial or whatever
difficulty this is, not only to build our faith, but to equip the faith of others,
which is why I'm so thankful for this church because I know personally, because I know you personally,
that God has allowed so many people in this room this morning to go through so many different
challenges and sufferings. And what that's done is it's made us uniquely qualified and enabled
to help others. So if we have someone who comes into this church and they say, hey, I just,
I'm feeling like the Lord's really impressing upon me my need to follow Jesus and I'm ready to follow
Jesus, I want to walk with him, but I'm struggling with addiction. I'm struggling with alcoholism.
I'm going to say, well, brother, let me introduce you to Doug Angel and Brian Huffstetler because
they've been there and they are uniquely qualified to be able to speak to that situation. They will
be able to know how to talk to you and help you through that situation. Or if you have someone
in here who's lost a spouse and they're saying, hey, listen, I love Jesus, but my faith is really
rocked right now because I never thought that I would outlive my spouse. And here I am now.
I'm going to say, well, hey, I want to introduce you to Steve Bright, Don Cruz, Mary Sue, Miss
Dottie, because they all know exactly what that's like and they will be able to minister to you
in that situation. Or if you're struggling financially and you're trying to figure out how to
trust God without basically having any money whatsoever and learn to depend on him for that,
I'm going to give you my mom's number. I'm going to say, hey, you go talk to my mom because we know
exactly what it's like to have the bare minimum and need to learn to trust God with the bare minimum.
Or if you're at work and you're working in a secular situation and you're saying, hey, listen,
I love Jesus, I'm trying to follow him, but every time I go to work, I'm surrounded by unbelievers
and it's really making it difficult on my faith. You can come talk to me. You can come talk to Mark
because we know exactly what it's like to be a Christian surrounded by a bunch of non-Christians
and trying to live for Christ in a secular work environment. The point is, church, I can guarantee
you that almost anything that you are battling this morning, almost any struggle you have,
almost any trial you are going through, I can almost guarantee that there's going to be someone in
this church who's already been there, who is uniquely qualified by God to be able to speak to you
in the midst of that situation and help you out. And you see, this is why discipleship is so important.
This is why we need each other. Every Christian is called to suffer, but we are never called to
suffer alone. We are one body with one head. And so sometimes that means the hands are going to
have to hold up the legs. It means other times the feet are going to have to lift up the torso,
but the point is we are all one in Christ, which is why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, 26,
if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.
And so God is going to use our sufferings to equip us to be able to help others
in that situation. And there's another way too. Look at verse 25.
Paul says,
Let's take a poll real quick. Everybody on board? Who here feels like they are called to go into the
ministry? All right, we're going to try that again. We're going to do right answers only this time.
Who here is called to the ministry? Yeah, okay, so we've got a few more. Yeah, the correct answer is
everybody. So if you are a Christian, you are called to ministry. This is exactly what Paul
is saying here. He's been given a stewardship by God for others. And I know that in our day,
we've kind of just reserved this language for the pastor, right? Like he's the one who's called to
ministry. He's the one who's been given this stewardship by God. But Paul is saying that this
is true of every single Christian. God has called you and he has gifted you to be able to serve
him in ministry, which means if you're a Christian, service to God and to the church is not an option.
There's no such thing as a Christian who just sits on the bench and does nothing. If you are a
Christian, you are called to service. And I know that many people don't like to think this way today.
In the American mindset, we like to think of our duty to God as being attendants, right? I'll attend
on a Sunday morning. I'll attend occasionally on Wednesdays. I will certainly be there for all
the fellowship mills. And I'll attend whatever I feel like attending, but that is where my duty
to God begins and ends. And yet the Bible says you have been gifted and equipped by the Holy
Spirit to serve the church. And here's the very interesting thing about Christians. Every single
Christian that I've ever met is interested in spiritual gifts, right? Everybody wants to know
what their spiritual gift is. They want to take all the tests and the quizzes and everything else.
They want to find it out. But here's the problem with Christians today. What I've noticed is that
most Christians are more interested in finding out what their spiritual gift is rather than
actually using their spiritual gift. So I want to know what it is. I don't really care that much
about actually exercising. But have you ever noticed this really important detail in 1 Corinthians 12-7?
Paul writes this. He says, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for what?
For the common good. And this is in reference to spiritual gifts, which means church that even
your spiritual gifts are not for you. They're for the church. You think about your different
spiritual gifts. God has given me the stewardship of preaching and teaching. But let me ask you a
question, church. How does that spiritual gift benefit me? Do you think I'm in my office writing
sermons to myself every day and then preaching them to myself every day? And then I'm going, oh,
man, that was a good one. That really benefited me. Like, I don't do that. All right. I write sermons
for you. I think about you. I pray for you. Of course, I preach the gospel to myself, but I'm
not writing separate sermons for Alex to preach to Alex on a daily basis. My spiritual gift is
only for your benefit, not for my own benefit. And so the point Paul is making here is that what
God gives to you is meant to be used in service to others. What God gives to you, it's not for you,
it's a stewardship that you were meant to use in service to others. And so there are really two
questions that you need to be asking yourself right now. Number one is, what has God entrusted to me?
In other words, how has God gifted me? What abilities, what talents, what spiritual gifts
has God entrusted to me? That's the easy part, right? That's the go online and find a quiz,
take a quiz. Anybody can do that. The second question is, how am I stewarding what God has
entrusted to me to build up others? So it's one thing to know how God has equipped you and how
He's gifted you. But the second question is, what are you actually doing with it? If God has
entrusted you with musical gifts and abilities, I promise you we can use that in the church. Amen,
Mazzan? All right. So sign up with Mazzan after service today. If God's entrusted you with hospitality,
we can use that in the church. If God's entrusted you with wisdom, I promise you we can use that in
the church. If God's entrusted you with teaching, acts of service, mercy, or even the ability to
build things and create things, we can use that in the church. And you're not doing anyone any good
by keeping it to yourself. All right? If you want another just way of thinking about this, let's
imagine we wake up tomorrow morning and the headline across all the news stations is,
a man discovers the cure to cancer. We'd immediately rejoice, right? We think this is the greatest
thing that man's ever discovered, the cure to cancer. But here's the question. Is that cure
worth anything if it's never actually administered to anyone? No, it's worthless, right? Like the
only value of a cure to cancer comes from its administration to people who have cancer. If
you keep it to yourself, it is no good. And in the same way, the stewardship that God has given to
you is worthless if you're not actually using it for the good of others and to build up his church.
And so ask yourself, how am I using what God has given to me to build up the church? And one of the
main ways we can do that is by faithfully proclaiming and teaching the Word. Notice what he says here
in these final verses, verses 27 to 28. 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. Him we proclaim
mourning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Now you may read this and think to yourself, this was only for Paul, or this is only for the
preacher. He's the one who's supposed to proclaim the gospel and teach. But again, look at your
Bibles, get your pens ready, get ready to circle or underline. Notice that Paul does not say,
him I proclaim. What does he say church? Him we proclaim. Meaning that this is the responsibility
of every single Christian we are called to proclaim, to teach and to warn. If you want the
different way to think about this, proclamation is saying, hey, here's the good news. Warning is
saying, here's the bad news. And teaching is saying, and here's what we do about it. Here's how we
actually live this out. And so you could think about it like this, proclaiming would be telling others
to put Christ first because he alone is worthy and greater than all things. Warning would be
telling someone of the dangers of not putting Christ first in their life and what they can expect
when they don't put Christ first. And then teaching would be to say, now let's talk about practical
ways to start putting Christ first in your life. Let's talk about what it looks like to put Christ
first in your marriage, in your parenting, in your finances, in your time and in your schedule.
Hey, here's what it looks like to put Christ first. You don't schedule everything for the whole year
and then you figure out where you can put Christ with whatever remains. You say, Christ comes first,
everything else will be fit in around Jesus Christ. And Paul is saying we do this with one goal in
mind. It is to present everyone mature in Christ. So my goal as your pastor is to be able to present
to you mature in Christ. And your goal as a Christian is to present everyone else around you,
fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, mature in Christ. But what you need to understand this
morning is if we're not maturing, we won't be able to present others mature. If we're not maturing,
we will not be able to present others mature. Another way to say that is if you are not growing
in your faith, you will not be able to help other people grow in their faith. We need to learn to
embrace the communal aspect of our faith. Yes, we are all called to have a personal relationship
with Jesus, but listen to me church. The faith is not just about me. You see, when I read my
Bible, I'm reading it to grow closer to the Lord, to grow in my own faith, to learn more about God.
But listen to me. When I read my Bible, I'm also doing it for you so that I will be able to encourage
you with God's word. So I'll be able to correct you with God's word, to counsel you with God's word,
to guide you with God's word, to teach you with God's word. As a Christian, you need to be prepared
to minister to anyone facing any problem at any given moment in time. And the only way you're
going to be able to do that is to make sure that you're prepared to meet that challenge.
You face this all the time as a pastor. You never know what you're going to get. Okay? I get a phone
call, I see a name, and I'm like, I have an idea about what this is going to be. And then there
are other times where I get a phone call and someone will say something out of left field,
and I'm like, okay, here we are, moments noticed. Let's see how much Bible I can actually pull out
of my head right now. Or I've had conversations with people in various places like that, and they'll
say, hey, I'm dealing with this issue. What does the Bible say about that? You got to be able to
write there, moments noticed. Now, the Bible does encourage us and tell us that the Holy Spirit is
the one who brings these things to our remembrance. And I say that to you, to warn you, because I know
that a lot of you have said in previous times, how do you remember so much Bible? It's the Holy
Spirit. Okay? Like you can ask my wife, I forget a lot of stuff. So this is not Alex is just so good
at memory. This is the Holy Spirit is drawing these things to our remembrance for the purpose
of ministering to people in a given situation. And so when you read your Bible, you don't need to
just read your Bible to say, I've read my Bible for the day. You don't need to just read your Bible
to say, I've done the Bible recap, I've done my reading for the day, or I've done my Bible plan,
I've done my reading for the day. When you're reading your Bible, you are seeking to grow in your own
faith. But listen, you've got to start thinking about your brothers and sisters in Christ too.
You got to start reading your Bible with an awareness that so and so is might be going through a
situation and God is using me in this time to prepare me to minister to them when they're in
that situation. And so you're doing it for the sake, not just of your own soul, but for the souls of
others, which means that we need to be intentional this morning. We need to realize that stuff does
not just happen to us by accident. You know that, right church? That everything we go through in life
is overseen by our sovereign God, and he is going to use those events to grow our own faith, but also
equip us to be able to minister to others. We need to also realize this morning that God has given
us each, gives and talents and abilities, not to serve our own ends, but to serve the church
and build up the church. And we need to be intentional and discipleship. Each one of us this morning
is called to present our brothers and sisters in Christ, mature in Christ, and we can't do that if
we're not prepared to meet that challenge. So God has equipped us to equip others in my prayer
and my hope and my goal as your pastor is I want this church to be known for fulfilling that calling
well. I want this church to be known as a church that looks out for their brothers and sisters in
Christ and is always building each other up and lifting each other up and ministering to each
other so that we can present each other mature in Christ. Amen? Let's pray.
Father, I pray that you would help us to enter