Introduction
*Colossians 1:28-29, “28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”
We have torn these verses apart word by word and have seen the importance in everything that Paul tells us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These two verses are easy to simply skim over if you are reading through Colossians 1 in your quiet time. The amazing thing is how we can see God’s hand in the smallest details of His scripture.
Let’s do a quick review over what we have studied:
“Him we proclaim”, what does that mean for us? We have to be confident to proclaim something. It takes commitment. You can’t half-heartedly proclaim something! How do we become confident in God? We have to spend time with Him.
“Warning everyone” A warning has a sense of urgency. Warnings are supposed to grab your attention to keep you away from harm. Are you really warning people of the dangerous situation they are in before God?
“Teaching everyone with all wisdom” You have to know what you believe to be able to teach someone else about it. Beyond that, we need to use wisdom in how we approach teaching others about Christ.
“Present everyone mature in Christ” Our job is not only to simply tell people about Christ, but it is to help them grow into mature believers. What does that mean? We have to help them sculpt a Biblical worldview. We have to help them grow in the knowledge of who God is and how they need to respond to God. How do you do that without having that kind of relationship with God yourself?
“For this I toil” We have to work hard at it! It will not come to us as an easy thing, but we can’t decide to not start or give up because it is hard or because we are uncomfortable with it. We have to press forward towards the goal that is found in Christ Jesus.
“His energy that He powerfully works within me” God doesn’t leave us alone to do His work. He equips the people that He calls. Are you called? If you are a Christian, you are called. If you are called you will be equipped, but God will not equip us until we say “Here I am Lord, send me!”
The Plea
Here is the deal, there will be some of you that decide to try this out. Some of you will take God’s command to tell people about Christ seriously and you will put this into action. You will actually pursue this dynamic relationship with Him and see awesome things happen!
Others of you won’t. This is what breaks my heart. Some of you will find ways to get out of it. You will justify yourself by either ignoring scripture, or by taking it out of context. You will decide that this doesn’t apply to you, or you will push it off indefinitely.
This isn’t an easy thing is it? God doesn’t just say, “Come on in to my family. Oh, and just so you know it doesn’t matter what you do from here on out.” God expects us to glorify His name before men so that He will be exalted. Not because He is an egotistical maniac, but because there is no hope outside of Him!
A few of you went to see the show “Dead Serious About Life”. We are going to take some time and talk through the issues portrayed in that show over the next few weeks. Tonight I just want to focus on one of the characters.
Justin is one of the characters in the show that is a “Christian”. I use that term very loosely with him and you will see why here in a moment. Justin is happily living a double life. He is involved in his church youth group, but denies it in front of his non-Christian friends.
One day Andrew, who is struggling with thoughts about suicide, comes to Justin for help. He asks Justin if anyone at his church could help him and Justin flat turns him down. He says, “Church is not the answer, no one there is going to help you.”
What is your opinion of Justin? Is he a struggling teenager that is a Christian? Let’s look at it in light of this verse:
*Matthew 10:32-33 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
This is pretty serious stuff isn’t it? Jesus is saying that whoever accepts me before men, then I will accept them before my Father in heaven. But whoever denies Jesus before men, He will also deny before God.
Here is the thing that bothers me. If we are truly saved, why do we need to discuss this? Why are we not overcome with the incredible nature of God to the point that we can’t wait to spend time with Him? Why are we not overtaken with the amazing power of God in our lives that we can’t stop talking about Him?
Francis Chan video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIG8JHT_hWY&feature=youtu.be Specifically from 25:10 – 27:37, but the whole message is good! If you love someone, you don't just let them go down a path to eternal destruction. You have to speak up!
Paul said this about the church in Colossae:
*Colossians 1:3-6 3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,”
The people in the church at Colossae didn’t need to be told to get excited about God! They were overcome with the truth of the Gospel and the grace of God that now was theirs! The love that they had for each other was heard about beyond their town walls. There was fruit produced because of their walks with God.
Is that something that marks you? Is that something that marks our youth group? Our church? Or is it more about the drama? Why is it that we get more excited about the new gadgets that Apple puts out than about salvation? Why do we put more time and effort into doing our hair or our video games than in spending time with God?
Life is a vapor. As you get older you start to see how true that really is. Our meager 70-100 years here on earth doesn’t last very long at all. My life is already a quarter of the way gone, if I live to be 100.
What do you think will last after you die? Your wealth? Your influence? Your name? Maybe after a generation. If you are lucky. Maybe two. What do you think will matter 1,000 years from now? How about 100,000 years from now?
Scripture has an answer to this question:
*1 Peter 1:24-25 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
Grass withers and flowers decay. The only thing that lasts forever is the word of God.
Victoria and I watched an episode of “Doctor Who” last night. The entire show took place at the end of earth. It was supposed to be 500 million years in the future. After Earth explodes one of the main characters says something pretty profound. “All of that history is gone, blown into bits of rock and dust.” Nothing will be remembered of earth after that point.
The point I am trying to make here is that there is nothing in this lifetime or 100,000 lifetimes that is more important than sharing Christ with someone else. It is the only thing that will make an impression on eternity and will be the only thing that will last.
*1 Peter 1:22-23 22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Did you catch that? You have been born again through Christ, not of a substance that will die away, but of something that is eternal. You have been born again into something that will last forever!
The only thing that will last in eternity is how faithful you were to God in telling others about Christ.
Let me revisit my question from earlier. Why don’t we get more excited about salvation and the incredible truth of God? We have started looking at everyone else around us and said, “Well, God only works like that for other people. No one I see has that kind of dynamic walk with God. Let’s just stay comfortable like everyone else.”
If you are excited about what God is doing in your life than why would you stay silent about it?
Example: I am excited because God is at work through the Bible study at GCCC. The superintendent has told the teachers involved that they cannot afford to lose the Bible study. Several of their main trouble makers have been coming to our Bible study regularly for the past year. They don’t go to church anywhere else so this is the only connection to God that they get during their week.
These troublemakers have been staying out of fights and have been looking for godly wisdom from our Christian teachers! God has begun to work in their lives to the point that the school’s demeanor has changed.
Students are stepping up for each other when someone is getting bullied. Other non-Christian teachers have been consistently giving us prayer requests because they know that God is really at work.
Guys, we have a dire need to understand that God is still at work amongst His people. We don’t live in the dark ages. We have a God that is working and that is eager to work in your lives. The only way that we will see change happen within our lives, within our youth group, even within our church is if we start to get excited about what God is doing.
If we do not share, everyone else assumes that we are in the same place they are. If we don’t speak up here in church and boldly tell our brothers and sisters what God has been doing, why on earth would you think you will be able to share Christ before men?
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