Christ Calls Us to Serve Him

Many of us are familiar with the work of Martin Luther, maybe not the first Protestant reformer, the first to protest against the Catholic Church, but definitely the most bold in his protest against the Catholic Church, nailing the 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg in 1517. We owe him a lot in rediscovering the great truth that Scripture teaches, that we are built upon. Scripture is our sole authority. We do not need another authority outside of Scripture to tell us what to believe and how to live. It is in Christ alone that we are forgiven, by faith alone, through grace alone, for the glory of God alone. He pointed out that we are all priests called to God. We do not need a high priest other than the great high priest, Jesus Christ, who has access. to the throne of God. These are some of the great truths that Luther, he didn't create them, he rediscovered them in Scripture. We also, another aspect to our life that we may not always recognize comes from Luther and that is the Protestant work ethic. We, or our Luther, He fought against the distinction that anyone called into pastoral ministry, that's a calling from God, and then secular vocations, well, that's just what you do. And so we have some great quotes where he shows that all vocations are callings of God. Let me read two of these. A cobbler, a smith, a farmer, each has the work and office of his trade, and yet they are all alike consecrated priests and bishops. And every one by means of his own work or office must benefit and serve every other. That in this way many kinds of work may be done for the bodily and spiritual welfare of the community even as all the members of the body serve one another." End quote. Another quote. What you do in your house is worthy as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God. Not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. Every vocation is a calling from God, an opportunity to work as under the Lord, an opportunity to glorify God. There's not a separation. There is a calling to pastoral ministry, but every vocation is ordained and we are all called to serve God in our work. He consecrated all work. He rediscovered this as well. Now, an outflowing of this is that we are also all called to work within the church. We're all called to serve in our unique way, however we can, however God has gifted us in the church. A great danger and temptation is to think, the pastor, he's called to minister and I'm called to be ministered to. That's what I'm warning you against today. Having that dichotomy. Having that difference. No, we're all called to serve. We're all called to minister. The only difference in what I do is I will be held to a higher standard. Which is very scary. So, this morning I want to guard against this mentality that pastors are called to minister and we're called to enjoy that ministry. No, we're all called to minister under the headship of Christ. We're all called to be united in working under Christ for his body. Our message this morning is quite simple. Christ, our head, calls us to serve him by serving his body, the church. Christ our head calls us to serve him by serving his body, the church. Now a couple weeks ago we looked at the great Christ hymn where he is the head of the church. He is the firstborn from the dead. Then we looked last week and how he has called us out of, well not just darkness, but called us out of alienation and into reconciliation. And then Ball kind of goes into his kind of unique Pauline grammar. He kind of continues to qualify and qualify until in verse 7 he talks about the gospel that has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, became a minister. Verse 23. Here we're going to look at Paul then extrapolating and explaining what his ministry is. He's going to unpack his ministry. And this is why it's important for us not to say, okay, this is Paul's ministry, that's a pastoral ministry I'm going to check out today. No, I think we see in Paul a model of a Christian servant, a model of a godly man who sets himself aside to do what God wants him to do. So, this morning we're going to be looking at how we can minister to one another and to our neighbor under the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me read our passage. We'll be looking at chapter 1, verses 24 through 29. Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of His body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known. The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of the mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 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. He's been called to proclaim the gospel that reconciles. He's been called to serve the kingdom of God in a very unique way. And that's what we're going to be looking at here. We have five points that go along with our verses. You can find them on page 10 of your bulletin. We provided that outline for you to help you follow and listen without making sure you catch my apparently quick stated outline. The main focus here is that Paul models a Christian servant. So let's learn from Paul how we can serve Christ. First, Christ called us to serve his body, the church. Let me read verse 24 again. Now I rejoice in my suffering 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, one of the theories here is that the Asians, the folks he's writing to here, the Colossians and the Ephesians, they're embarrassed that Paul's suffering. They're embarrassed that their apostle has been imprisoned. And so, Paul is emphasizing, it's for your sake, the church, which is very emphasized throughout this passage, you, the church, that I am suffering. Well, what kind of suffering did Paul have? We can see a nice list of his suffering in 2 Corinthians 11. I'll read it. You can look at it later if you like. It's 2 Corinthians 11. I'll begin in verse 24. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews a forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers 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, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is a daily pressure on me of my anxiety." For all the churches What would make him get back up after once being lashed, once being beaten with a rod, once being stoned? It's a conviction that Christ is the only Savior and that he must be shared. What keeps him driving? What carries him to have this burden? It's a burden for the church, the anxiety over the well-being of God's people and making sure that all who God is calling are hearing the gospel. are responding. Paul talks about suffering a lot. I've tried to emphasize that if you're a Christian, you're called to suffer. The prosperity gospel gets it all wrong. If you're a Christian, you're called to suffer. Suffering has many benefits for the Christian. One we could look at is Romans 8, where he says, I get to participate in the suffering of Christ. I get to see and feel what it was like for Christ so that I can understand His suffering more, so that I can appreciate what He has done in His suffering for me. Here, Paul talks about it a different way. It's not participating in the head's suffering. It's actually suffering on the sake of His body. It's suffering for the body of Christ, for their benefit. Our first two statements really need to be understood together. I rejoice in my suffering for your sake. I am filling what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body through my flesh or in my flesh. Here we see that he's clearly contrasting what he's doing in his flesh and what he's doing for Christ's body, the church, the metaphor. Notice he's not saying what he's lacking in Christ's incarnate ministry. We have to make very clear as to what He does not mean when He says, He is fulfilling what Christ is lacking in His afflictions. We have to be very careful that it's impossible because of what Paul said elsewhere when he's going to say all through Colossians that He is doing anything to perfect or complete the work of Christ. Christ's death on the cross was perfect, was complete, and needs no addition. We need to make sure that when he says, I'm feeling what is lacking in Christ, he's not saying his death wasn't good enough. We need to add something to it. The whole book of Galatians is written to fight against this very concept as if our works can somehow complete the perfect power of the gospel. The whole Christ hymn that we read before. He has absolute authority as the creator of everything and as the Savior of all God's children. Christ needs no help. So what does he mean if he's not saying he's adding to the incarnate death of Christ? I believe here he's focusing on what is lacking in the body. If we read verses following this, and if we look at Paul's own ministry, the adding is taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus Christ died as the King of the Jews. But he dies so that he could become the Savior of every nation and of every people. To get clarity on this, we could turn to Acts. Let's go to Acts 9. This is the conversion of Saul. Saul became Paul. Saul was a persecutor of the church, one of the chief persecutors of the church. I'll read this passage in its entirety, verses 1 through 19. But Saul, Paul, sorry, But Saul, still breathing, threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus. So that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? He said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. He said, here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might again regain his sight. Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man. How much evil he has done to your saints of Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests who bind all who come on, calling your name. For the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house, laying his hand on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales sprayed from his eyes and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food he was strengthened." Here we have this very miraculous, powerful testimony of Paul's conversion. Notice that Christ says, why are you persecuting me? He doesn't say his church. Christ is the head and the church is his body. Whenever the church is being persecuted, Christ is being persecuted. It's a personal, united connection. Who are you? I am Jesus, who you are persecuting. Very important is this declaration that Ananias gets. Go and tell this one that you're scared to death of, that he's going to bind you and take you away. He's an instrument chosen for a special task to take the gospel to the Gentiles. See, the apostles were told to take it from Jerusalem to Samaria to all the world, but does that mean all the Jews in the world? It wasn't yet clear who was going to be incorporated into the body of Christ. Was it a Jewish religion? Was it fulfillment of just the Jewish religion? Or is this for all peoples? Well, in the Old Testament we can see many promises that it was for all peoples. Here, God calls out an apostle of an untimely manner for the special purpose of proclaiming the gospel specifically and uniquely to Gentiles. This is very important for us because, well, I look out and most of us are Gentiles. Most of us are from the heathen nations that raged against God that are now being brought into the kingdom of light rather than being bashed against the rocks in judgment. What I was encouraging about this is that Paul is called to a special people and it's us. We get to hear. We are the beneficiaries of Paul's ministry. What we see is a beautiful picture of God opening up the kingdom. As Ben read in Isaiah 60, all nations come unto the one God to worship Him and know Him as Savior. Now, no one here is Paul. No one here has this kind of special task. This was a special moment in the redemptive history of God where He called out a unique man who writes a large portion of the New Testament. It was a dynamic conversion for a dynamic ministry. And he had to suffer for that ministry. But we all are called. Some may be called to Ethiopia. Some may be called to China. All of us here are called to Jefferson Park and to Charlottesville. What I want to think about is the fact that what God is doing at this stage of redemptive history, it is bringing all people under the headship of Christ. It's not just one kind of people. It's all people. And we're not united by anything that is apart from Christ. We're not united by our generations. We're not united by our social status. We're not united by our nationalities or our race or our language. We're supposed to be united under Christ. That's the beautiful part of what is taking place in Acts and that now Paul is reciting for us in Colossians. Now the challenge here is for us, does this local body represent and reflect what God is doing in the universal kingdom of God and what heaven will be like? My vision, my hope is that Jefferson Park will be a small taste of what heaven is going to be like. We'll be worshiping, we'll be experiencing, we'll get to see God closer and closer, not face to face yet. With a clear and clear vision of who He is and how great His love is. Being purified by His Spirit. Being washed by His Word. But one of the things that's going to be keeping us from tasting heaven is that if we stay alike in our culture. You see, often times we come into a church and we look around and we want to see things other than Christ. Are they like me? We have to be on guard against being a homogenous people. I'm very thrilled that we have multiple generations here. That's one of the greatest aspects, one of the greatest things that actually I loved about Jefferson Park when I got to know you. There's multiple generations, which means there's different cultures. And we're all united, not because of our culture, not because we have the same ideas and opinions, but because we're united under the one salvation of Jesus Christ. But what our challenge is to is that we need to reflect and be focused on reflecting that universal kingdom and what heaven will be like. I think we need to pray for diversity. We need to pray that we will be a diverse people, more diverse than we even are now, but then more united under the gospel. This is one of the most exciting parts about our Southwood ministry. We're partnering with a Hispanic church. They're going to come onto our campus and do ministry with us. We'll get to actually get a little taste of it that way. But that's not enough. See, my fear is that we get too comfortable with people who are like us, and we don't stretch ourselves to go out of our comfort zone to love others who are in Christ, but of a different nationality, of a different race, or of a different vocational status. One of the things my wife and I talk about in our home, we did it much earlier. We would ask ourselves, what is the aroma of our home? Now that's not the physical smell. I'm not referring to the actual smell. We actually lived in a very smoky apartment in our first apartment. And I smelled like smoke. I think there was a rumor around the seminary that I was a smoker. I'm not talking about the smell. I'm talking about the atmosphere of the home. What is the aroma of home? When you walk into a home, you get the atmosphere, you get a vibe and a feel. You know, did we want a house that was contentious or happy? Do we want a home that's chaotic or orderly? Do we want it to be welcoming or museum-like? Is it full of grace or is it stuffy? See, every church has an aroma. Every church has an atmosphere. Every church has a feel to it. And what is the atmosphere? What is the aroma of Jefferson Park? Because I look around and I see numerous individuals who have all different kinds of backgrounds and different opinions. And when we walk in the door, we have to make sure that what we're trying to promote and what we're seeking is the aroma of Christ. We must be seeking to experience Christ and seeking to let other people know about Christ. Because if we come in with other opinions, if we come in with something other than the desire that Christ be known, that Christ be the head, that Christ be the center, we're making something else our religion. Now, we all have personal opinions. That's why we all have personal homes. That's where your personal opinions can have their own unique smell and their aroma. When we come to Christ, we have to make, when we come to church, when we come to fellowship, we have to let the aroma of Christ be so pervasive to permeate, to saturate our fellowship so that it covers the stench of our sin and our personal opinions. That's our challenge. When we come, are we more concerned about other things than Christ? There's a lot of C's that I came up with. Are we more concerned with choirs, cantatas, the carpet color, or our clothing? Or are we concerned with Christ? Are we concerned that we're fellowshipping and uniting in Him? Are we concerned about other things that are cultural expressions? Because we can let these cultural expressions dominate our concern, or we can use them to promote Christ. Now, I don't want to leave this example of suffering, Henry. More so, the fact that Paul says, I rejoice in my suffering. How can we suffer in a way that's parallel to Christ? Well, I hesitate to say this because it's so much less than the way Paul suffered, but it's a clear way. The way we can suffer is to get out of our comfort zone. And that's very mild suffering when you look at that list from 2 Corinthians 11. But how often do we actually go out of our way to suffer in that way? How often are we trying to look out for those who need some fellowship on Sunday morning? How often do we go out of our way to talk to those who are not like us, who we don't normally fellowship with? Are we going out of our way to make sure that all the saints gathered here are cared for and loved? There's a couple of brothers and sisters that I see. They have a sensitive heart. They look around and they don't try to automatically migrate towards their close friends. They look for those who are sitting by themselves. This is the attitude that we should all have. This is the desire we should all have. It is, in a way, suffering because it's uncomfortable. We must make ourselves go out of the way to care for those who are not like us. There's another prayer, the challenge for us. We need to pray that the gospel will be the first and foremost desire of our hearts. We need to pray that everyone who gathers with us will have the gospel at the center and focus of their lives. It's only then will we truly be unified. We must be unified by the head of the church with a foundation of scripture. My prayer is that God will lead us, as I prayed already in the Passover prayer, in our vision and our mission, that we'll be unified with a vision that is from Scripture, that is clearly taken from Scripture. The only way that's possible is if we have Christ as a center. My bigger prayer is this, that we must start sharing the gospel as a church. There's dangers that take place when a church becomes isolated. and only focus internally. We need to focus on a people group here in Charlottesville. Maybe it's Southwood. Maybe it's working with Jim Kiner at Hearthwood. But we need to be united together for the purpose of evangelizing. And I ask you to pray for us. Pray as a body that God would make it all clear to all of us who that people would be. and how each of us can participate in that outreach. Let's unite together praying for clarity from God and His will who we should be focused on in loving and sharing the gospel and how we all can be part of that. Let's go to our second point. Christ gifts us to serve the church. Christ gives us all gifts to serve the church. Let's look at verse, let me read verse 25. Here again, he continues to kind of add on, of which, that is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known. Now here, he starts with an interesting word. He says, I became a minister. Now, the word is actually the same word for deacon, a servant. It's translated here as minister. That's a possible translation. It's a servant who ministers, someone who cares for other people. We all need to recognize that there is an office of deacon, there's an office of pastor, but all are called to serve. What's amazing about Paul is, you know, we see him as this great giant and his greatest identity marker from his writings is that he's a bondservant, a slave to Christ because he's compelled by the love of Christ. What we first see in this declaration, I.A. became a minister, is the humility. It's the humility we see because he sees how great Christ is and he sees the grace that God has actually called him to be part of his plan. He doesn't look for greater opportunity, he looks for what God has called him to. He seeks to pour himself out as Christ poured himself for his church. Paul's just a faithful Christian. He's a faithful man of God who loves Christ and wants to emulate Christ. He wants to share Christ. Again, we can often think, well, that's Paul and that was his special calling. No, he had a special people group he was focused on for the purpose of sharing it with us, the Gentiles. But he's just a faithful Christian. He's doing what a Christian should do. He is humble in the service of God. As we think about the humility, do we choose to serve ways that actually meet other people's needs? Or are we choosing ways that are convenient to us? As we look to serve Christ, as Paul sought to be a servant of Christ, are we looking to serve in ways that meet our needs in a convenient way? Are we seeking to meet the needs, the real needs of others? The key question here is, are we consumers or servers? When you come, are you seeking to consume or to serve? Now, I'm very thankful. I regularly hear from Steve Morales. Have you been fed today? I hear him asking this question. And we are supposed to be coming to hear the Word of God, to be fed on the Word of God. But we're also supposed to be coming to help others hear the Word of God, to help others be encouraged by God's truth. So, are we coming seeking to serve others We're coming to be served. The second part of this verse that we see, I became a minister according to the stewardship from God. The root here is responsibility. He's been given a gift and he is supposed to be a good steward of it. He has a responsibility. Now we're a gifted church. We have many members. We have many visitors who are wanting to join. Many gifts are present within this body right now. But the greatest gift He's given all of us that's equal is time. How are we using our time? Are we spending our time for things of God or things of the world? Because it doesn't matter how gifted you are, if you're not committing your time, you're not using your gifts. How are we using our time? Here's a very practical way you can use your time. You can redeem the time. Ask your deacon how you can help him serve the church. We have three deacons and this is not necessarily a three deacon church. We're growing. We need help and leadership. These men are stretched. Love them and care for them. Love their wives and care for their wives by asking them How can I come alongside of you? What can I do? Who can I visit? What do you need me to do? Don't say, I would like to do this. Ask them, what would you like me to do? It's a very practical way we can serve the body and serve our leaders who sacrifice their time. The third thing we see in this passage is that it's a clear mission of Paul. He had the stewardship from God that was given to him to make the Word of God fully known. That's what the world has to hear. It's not good words and good deeds, it's the Word. The world needs the Word. Because if we give them good deeds, they may have a happier life, but it's a life that's still going to hell. The world needs the Word of God. This whole passage, and much of what Colossians is going to say about Paul's ministry, it's about proclaiming him. Let's move on to our third point, which elaborates more on what this means to proclaim the word. Our third point, Christ serves us with his word. He continues to explain this word, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of his mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." It was hidden, but now it's revealed. There's still great mysteries in the gospel that are going to entertain our minds and our hearts for the rest of our life. The incarnation, the trinity. There's still some great mysteries that are revealed, but we can't comprehend them. But here Paul is saying, the mystery that was hidden for ages is now revealed. If you were with us in Genesis, God made a promise early on, I will reverse the curse. I will send a son. And the mystery was always, who will this son be? How could he possibly fix all that's wrong in the world? Well, we actually live on the side of the revelation of that mystery. We have a great benefit, a great privilege today to be able to look at not just what the Old Testament was saying was going to happen, but all of Scripture so we can see the New Testament declares what has happened and what is yet still to happen. We get to know the gospel of Jesus Christ, the mystery revealed, the riches of the glory, the hope of glory. Well, what is that mystery? What is that revealed truth? It's that Christ is our righteousness. God Himself looked down upon us and saw that we had gone awry, we had gone astray, we had rebelled against Him, and there was no way we could help each other or ourselves. We were destroying ourselves, and we were doomed for ultimate destruction. So God Himself, the Father, sent His Son, who is fully divine, to take on a nature just like us, fully human. So that He could live the life we were supposed to. He could live the life of obedience. Perfectly obeying God as a man. So that He would die in our place. The innocent man dies the death that he doesn't deserve so that we who deserve death could have life. Because on the cross the Father poured out all His wrath on Jesus Christ. The innocent man who is also God. so that whoever believes in Him is no longer guilty of their sin. The wrath of God has been satisfied. A good God must punish all sin, and the sin will either be punished when we see God face to face in our own judgment, or if we believe in Him, that sin is punished in Christ. That's the beauty of the Gospel. That's the riches of the glory that we no longer face a judgment if we believe in Christ because He was judged for us. And the way we receive the benefit of the life that He gives and the judgment that He takes is by believing in Him, depending upon Him. Christian, Paul talks in great language here. It's the riches of the glory. It's the hope of the glory. Is your greatest treasure Christ? Is that truly what you treasure most and long for most? To know Christ and His risen nature? To know Him and His resurrection and the benefits that He bestows upon all His children? Or is there anything else in this world? Are we hoping for the glory that is to come? Or are we glorying in things of this world? If you're not a Christian this morning, where is your hope? Where is your hope? Your hope beyond the destruction of your own sin? Your hope beyond the grave when you'll be judged for your sin? There is no hope beyond or outside of Jesus Christ. Your hope alone is in Jesus Christ. What you must do is see your need of Him, see His absolute sufficiency, and trust Him. It takes a humility to see that there's something wrong with me that I can't fix. I see this man who is also God and he says he can fix it. He can free me from it. He can save me from it. We must lean and depend upon him. That is what faith is. Let's go to our fourth point. Verse 28. We serve one another with our words. Verse 28 makes it very clear. Him we proclaim. What is there better to talk about than Christ? What is there better to talk about than His Word and how He revealed Himself and the glory of the hope that we have? He modifies our proclamation in two ways. Warning and teaching. Now, a warning is saying, this is what's so negative. This is what's so bad. This is what's so scary. We're supposed to be warning one another of the sins that can so entangle and entrap us. We're supposed to be warning one another of the deceptions and the lies that can so easily trick us and fool us. We're supposed to be warning one another so that we have a clear no. Sin is dangerous. Do not play with it. It is dangerous. Be warned. And then teaching. What's the positive side? It's telling us what we should do. We should believe in Christ. We should trust Christ. We should follow Christ. We're warned against the dangers of sin and we're taught the benefits of Christ that overcomes sin. These two things have to go hand in hand. These two must be together because if we're only warning one another, we'll become self-righteous or fearful. For only promoting Christ, we never have the reality of how great His love is and how evil our sin is. These two must be proclaimed together. Now, how do we do this? One of the most simple places is your homes. Fathers, be warning your children and teaching them. They need to be disciplined and taught. We have a lot of no's in our home. Whenever Lillian was was very young, she would walk around and she would slap her hand when she saw an outlet. Because she learned that it was a no-no. It was very good. It was a self-disciplining child. I don't know what happened. Those were the glory days. We have a long list of no's, but we also have a clear teaching. This is what you believe. This is what you do. It's not just saying this is a no, but you also give the yes. You promote wisdom and godliness. Another obvious place is here. We should be warning one another. This is a public warning not to avoid being warned. This is a public warning of how dangerous your sin is and it will destroy you. And teaching you that Christ has overcome your sin. He can free you from your sin. He will free you from death and judgment. Here's a very clear, hard, practical question. We come for the public warning and the public teaching, but who has permission to warn you? In a one-on-one relationship, who has permission to warn you? Who have you said, I want you to get into my life? Here are the things that I see that I need warned against regularly. What do you see? Will you Commit to warning me. Do you think you're beyond needing warning? Have you matured in Christ to the point where you no longer need warning? For this is what our discipleship focus has been and needs to be. An intense discipleship relationship where we're letting other people see our weaknesses and our sins. The more we become Courageous in the gospel, the more we're courageous in confessing our sins, the more clear we see the gospel truth that conquers sin, the less we're afraid of sin. We need to make sure that somebody knows that they have permission to warn us. Don't think somebody knows they have permission. Make sure they know they have permission. This is very similar to Paul's command to watch in the world, to be watchful for one another. Our own covenant says this, as members of the family of God, we will watch over each other in brotherly love. We will pray for each other because we are all in need. We will aid each other in times of trouble, bearing each other's burdens. We will humbly warn a brother who is in danger of falling into disobedience or error. We will speak the truth in love, be slow to take offense, and be eager to seek swift and lasting reconciliation. We're all in danger of sin, and the key issue here is, are we going to wait until someone is deep in the sin to warn them, or are we going to see who has a flirt with it? Do you want someone to warn you once you've invested in the sin, or do you want someone to warn you while you're still playing with the temptation. Notice the end result of what Paul is saying here. That we may present everyone mature in Christ. It's the same word that Paul used in our previous section. He has now reconciled us in his body of flesh by his death in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach. That's in verse 22. Christ's death is going to present us as holy and blameless because His death covers our sin, removes our wrath, removes our guilt, removes our culpability. Here Paul is focused on presenting us as mature. The way he was referring to it in verse 22 is the final sanctification. Here is the progressive sanctification. We are all to be growing in godliness. We are to be growing in our hatred of sin and our love for Christ. Paul is committed. He has the end in mind. He's playing and working and toiling. He's doing all that he can with the focus on the end in mind that we would be presented mature in Christ. He's pouring himself out for others. If we're going to be loving one another, we must have that end in mind in our relationships. Finally, our fifth point, verse 29, Christ empowers our service. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me. He toils. Can we say that we toil for others? Do we toil and labor Do we go out of our way to do what's uncomfortable and difficult, or do we keep our service limited to what's convenient? Paul, as a faithful minister, who's just faithful, as we are called to be faithful, he toils for others. His courage to do this, to break out of his comfort zone, is from his conviction and calling of God to be a faithful servant. Notice the source, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me. He's not depending on his own strength. There's no way we can depend upon our own strength and actually do anything that's valuable for the kingdom of God. We cannot do it our way and think it's going to affect the eternal outcome. We must depend upon God's strength that He provides, that He works within us with His Holy Spirit, if we think we can do anything of eternal value. Christian work is dangerous. You're stepping into the domain of darkness and fighting the powers and the principalities that want to destroy us. We're stepping into sin the realm of sin, and trying to cure it with the gospel. You're getting yourself in the muck and the mire of other people's lives. And it's dangerous. Once you start really trying to make an eternal impact in the kingdom, you're going to be attacked by Satan. It's dangerous work. What we have to realize is that we cannot accomplish that work. We cannot go directly in attack of the domain of darkness our own strength. We must toil trusting the power of God. And we must know that He is faithful to His children. He is faithful to us who are going out in fear to be bold. We must trust God to give us the words that we need to say. We must trust God to give us the power and the strength to persevere in it. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Almighty God, we thank You, Lord, for this text that I pray challenges us all to consider how we are following You, how we are doing what is convenient or what we're doing by conviction. I pray that the love of Christ will compel us to proclaim You to comfort others with the gospel in difficult situations, to warn others in sin in very difficult situations, with the absolute hope that Your Word will accomplish what You want it to. Give us the strength to be bold. Give us the power to proclaim You. May You empower all that we say. May we be a church that does not seek to come together because of anything outside of Christ. May you unite us so that we are boldly proclaiming you in every way. In your holy name we pray. Amen.