Colossians chapter 2. Please open there.
Excuse me. We each need someone.
We sheep. Sheep don't do good on their
own. And I ask someone as Jesus
Christ, he's the saviour of the world.
But we also need the church. That's why you're here today.
You're a unique group. You're sitting here today, those
of you that know Christ and you're you're unique in the
world. Think about pre the flood, how
many billions of people there were and there were billions of
people living prior to the flood and only 8 souls were saved out
of that. While we live in a world now of
eight point something billion people and somehow God has
called you and you sit here in church today and it's had
nothing to do with you. It's been the grace of God has
called you. You're unique and he's put you
in a place and this place is the body of Christ, the church and
Jesus set up this living Organism of believers.
Excuse me again, only happens when soon as you get up
something grabbed you by the throat and God has given each
one of you at least one gift and as part of Christchurch, that
one gift that you all have. I don't care how old you are, 6
or 70, you bring that gift to be a blessing to those seated
around you. When Christ ascended into
heaven, he left his apostles to guide the church, to feed the
church, and the apostles explained how the church was to
operate for our blessing. We need to know that how it's to
work, even naming the machinery, the mechanisms, the strategic
structure. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse
11, Paul wrote and he himself gave some to be apostles, some
prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
Why For the equipping of the Saints.
Why? Why equip the Saints for the
work of the ministry? So you have a job to do as a
Christian. You're to serve.
How are you to serve for the edifying of the body of Christ?
You're to serve in some way that benefits everybody else in the
church till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God to be a perfect man.
That means a mature man to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. Then it goes on to say that we,
you and I, should no longer be children.
When you grow up, when you, when Christians get saved and they
begin to serve in the church, they grow up.
Now you don't have to be 18 to grow up.
We have people serving in the church here of of young ages
1011 and so they sit in the media room and they operate
things like that. They help us in the Sunday
school. So it's not an age thing, but
we're to be mature now and not not behave like people in the
world who live purely for themselves.
So I'm to grow up, stop living for myself, and now to start
living for everyone else in the body of Christ, to no longer be
tossed to and fro either, carried about with every wind of
doctrine. I need to know what I believe
each and everyone of you. You should have family Bible
studies. You should have home nights.
Couples should read the Bible together.
You should study the Bible together, study yourself.
Besides coming out to church and all the messages and services
that we provide. That we should no longer be
children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of
doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of
the deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, that
we may grow up in all things under Him who is the Head,
Christ. He's the head of the Church from
whom the whole body, the church joined and nipped together by
what every joint supplies. So that's whatever part that you
ought to do. Some were ushering this morning,
some clean the church, some after will clean the church.
Some will serve coffee, some serve communion.
Each one of us, we had worship team.
We each have a task to do that every joint supplies according
to the effect of that's how a church works, effectively
working by which every part does its share.
You've got to ask yourself, are you doing your bit?
If your big toe decided I'm not going to, I'm not participating
today, or one eye said I'm not working for you today, or your
voice just said I'm not speaking today.
You're you're, you're shot without it.
So each one of you, you, you and I, we've got to put on our as I
say, be a big boy pants and go, what am I doing?
What's my task? I don't care if you're you're
1011 or 80. We each have a task.
Each part does its share, causes growth of the body because when
you do your bit, everyone else is blessed and the church grows
for the edifying of itself in love.
This morning we're going to go to the heart of one of those
vital pieces God has designed, set in place for the church to
operate as Christ intended. Let's read Colossians chapter 2,
verse one. I want you to know what a great
conflict I have for you and those in lad to see, and for as
many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may
be encouraged. He's writing this to encourage
them. How that you be knit together,
united in love, attaining to all riches, of the full assurance of
understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God.
What is the mystery of God? Both of the Father of Christ, in
whom? In Jesus Christ that's been the
theme, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Are you a person that wants to
learn? You know, I'd like to learn, you
know. But are you learning useless
stuff? You know, just like useless
stuff. Now this I say, lest anyone
should be deceive you with persuasive words.
For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in
spirit, rejoicing to see you. Your good order, Colossi was a
church that had order. We like to have order here in
the church and in the steadfastness of your faith in
Christ. We're going to do a spiritual
endocardiogram on the heart of the apostle Paul.
We're going to look at the heart of the pastor, the apostle Paul,
in this context. This is so vital because we're
now living in the last days, biblically, the last days.
Peter referred to him being in the last days, Paul being in the
last days. Soon the rapture will occur when
we don't know, but we need to be ready.
Following the rapture will begin the the, the tribulation period,
77 years, sorry, seven years, the 70th year of Daniel's
prophecy, 7 year period where this world, we think it's bad.
It's going to be beyond what we could even imagine or think.
And following that seven years of tribulation, at the end of
that, the second coming of Jesus Christ, then he'll establish
his, his throne, rule and reign in Jerusalem and he'll rule for
1000 years, the Bible tells us. Then lastly, at the end of that
thousand years, this world that we know, Secret Harbour and
everything else, Hawaii, you think of an England, America,
and all the places that you think of now will be gone.
This world will melt with a fervent heat, and a new heaven
and a new earth will be established.
So that's what lies before us, and we're involved in all those
things. Except for the Tribulation
period. We're out the way.
But what comes along with us living in the last days, the
time in which you and I live now?
Deception, Deception. People knock on your door.
They want to have you follow their church because their
church is the only way. Paul wrote to Timothy and said
for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
People don't like the Bible so much.
People don't like coming to Calvary chapels and other
churches where the Bible is just taught because they go, oh, it's
boring. Plus, you know, it's just, well,
I can't understand it. I can't understand it because
I'm not born again. You need the Spirit of God to
hear the word of God speaking to you.
But if you're here today, you want to hear the Bible, then God
has done something with your heart.
But there are people who are going and they're on a they're
on a religious voyage, cruising from place to place where they
can get their ears itched, that scratched.
It says for the time will come when they will not endure a
sound doctrine. That's good teaching, but
according to their own desires. This is not what I want because
they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves.
Teachers, I'm going to go somewhere where that person will
tell me what I want to hear and they will turn their ears away
from the truth. Jesus said I am the way, the
truth and the life and be turned aside to fables.
Can you imagine putting your eternal life in the hands of the
old woman that lived in the shoe?
Well, she said that I would go to heaven.
The old woman in the shoe said it.
I've been to that old woman in the shoe church for years.
I'm a faithful member of that. And Mother Goose has been going
there for years too. Hans Christian Andersen was the
elder there. He, I loved everything that he
said. In Jeremiah chapter 5, verse 30,
Jeremiah says a horrible and shocking thing has happened in
this land. Speaking of Israel, the prophets
give false prophecies and the priests rule with an iron hand.
Worse yet, my people like it that way.
But what will you do when the end comes?
Today I speak to you both as a warning and as an encouragement.
False teachers are coming and they're already here and they're
coming for your souls. It's interesting.
You can tell a false teacher when they come to your door and
they're trying to sell you their magazine and you say I'm already
a Christian. They don't move on, do they?
They don't go, oh, that's great, move on.
They go, oh, and what church do you go to?
And the nostrils flare a little bit, smell blood, and they stay.
And whenever I have two of those, usually at my doorstep, I
always there's a learner and the teacher.
And I always look, say, I find out who's the learner, who's the
teacher. And then I concentrate on the
teacher, on the learner. And I say, what church did you
used to go to? And they'll always tell you, I
used to be a Catholic. I used to go to this, I used to
go there. I said, what might you leave
the, Oh well. And the, the, the, the teacher
gets very uppity about that because they're losing control
of the whole scenario. It's a tragedy, but you know,
you're the sheep and the sheep are what the wolves are looking
for. This is why we do Bible
exposition, why we always study the Bible, the word of God.
Every time you come to church, you should hear.
And now let's open our Bibles too, because we don't want
anyone who calls Calvary Chapel Secret Harbour, their local
church to be spiritually illiterate.
We want you to be the best loved and the best fed sheep in the
land. Pastor Chuck Smith used to
always tell us that you need to teach and feed the sheep.
They need to be the best loved and the best fed.
That's your job. Now coming to the first few
verses of the 2nd chapter, we read Paul is in the midst of his
argument and remember he's writing this letter because
there's false teachers are checked attacking the Church of
Colossae and they're saying well, Jesus doesn't have it all
down. Just like the Jehovah Witnesses
today, they're Jesus, the Mormons Jesus, everyone else is
Jesus. Even Islam has a Jesus, but he's
not the Jesus of the Bible because the Jesus of the Bible
is the Son of God, God Incarnate.
And Paul is arguing, of course, for the deity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's spent chapter 1 telling us
that in him is the fullness. He's the icon, He's the he's God
in the flesh, fully God. And he's told us in chapter 1 of
the sufficiency of Christ. He's everything that you need.
There's no needed additions. I want you to know, he says in
verse one. What a great conflict I have for
you, those in Laodicea and those who have not seen my face
because Paul hadn't been to Colossae, he hadn't been to
Laodicea. He didn't start those churches.
They had started as an offshoot from Paul being in Ephesus, and
Epaphras had started the church at Colossae.
The word conflict here is the Greek word AGONA, Agona.
It's where we get our English word agony.
And the word, the word in the Greek here great is the word
magnitude. I want to tell you the of the
magnitude of the agony I have for you as a church.
Why is he saying that? Well, we get to see the heart of
God. We get to see the heart of Paul
as well, and the very heart of every pastor, I believe, who's
given the responsibility to shepherd, to feed and protect
those for whom Christ died, his church.
If there was one quality so I asked you a question now if
there's one quality that a minister that a pastor must
have. What would you say it was to be
if you were handed a sheet once you're all right down what you
think the one thing is that a pastor should have a minister
should have. What would that one thing be
that would make the shepherd the true shepherd.
What would make the pastor the true pastor of the flock of
Christ? Is it academic know how they
need to have intelligence so that we can understand the
Bible. That would be important or would
you say knowledge? He should already know the word
of God, not learning it. Is it experience?
Others might say it needs to be experienced in the world.
No. Any minister or any Christian
servant surely must have leadership ability.
They're going to be able to lead.
Surely That would be important. Others might say boldness.
I want a preacher, a pastor, to be bold, to be brave.
We need, we need them to have holiness and they need to be
pure in their living. They need to have preaching
power. They need to have sympathy and
whatever and whatever. And you can add and add and add
in the recipe multiples of combinations of all these
things. They all fit in somewhere.
They're all good points the Bible would tell us.
The Bible would show us the most basic, the most effective, the
most necessary ingredient in the life of any minister is the love
of the Church of Christ, the love of the Church of Christ,
the love of the church because that becomes the catalyst that
motivates him in every other dimension, the love of the
church. In Ephesians chapter 5, marriage
is spoken of as being a mirror image of our relationship and
the church with God. In Ephesians 5, and speaking
about husbands, it says husbands is the command, love your wives.
What's the example? Even as Christ also loved the
church, how did he love the church?
And he gave himself for it. So that's the role of a husband,
that's your job. You got one thing to do, guys.
That's it, one job. It was Christ's love for the
church that prompted him to give up his life for it.
That's why I say all these other ingredients that we spoke of
that come into play when a man gives himself with the church.
They are all predicated based on the foundation of the fact that
he loves the church. In Acts chapter 20, verse 28,
Paul speaking to the Ephesian pastors or elders.
There'd just been this huge furo in Ephesus where all the, the,
the Smith, the silversmiths who made the little idols of the,
the goddess Diana there. And Paul, because he's preaching
and setting up the church in Ephesus, people weren't going to
idols anymore. And so they were losing out big
business. So they had this huge ruckus and
they, the town of Ephesus stormed and you can still go to
the Colosseum like assembly there and, and, and sit in the
place where where all this happened.
And they began to say, great, as the God goddess of Diana, great.
And they shouted out and Paul said, you know what, I'm going
to, I'm going to go in there and talk to these people and, and
the, the disciples are anxious. Stop Paul.
You can't go in. They'll tear you apart.
So they stop Paul from physically going in there.
So here we pick it up and what Paul does, Paul says, because
they say you need to leave here because they're going to kill
you. And Paul gathers the elders and
he says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, flock over
which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.
And here, what does he say as he leaves them?
Last words to feed the Church of God which he has purchased.
How? With his own blood.
That's your job. They're the last words, words of
Paul. Paul is saying, remember, you
have an obligation to feed the church.
What church? The church that Jesus purchased
with his own blood. If he loved it that much, if he
loved it that much that he would give his blood for it, then the
under shepherd can do no less than love it with his entire
being. Jesus loved the church and gave
himself for it. It wasn't the structure he
didn't like. Oh, I just love the buildings,
man. That's just cool.
He loved the people that are the church, and he was willing and
able to die for them. This is the heart that we see of
the apostle Paul. Now.
Paul was beheaded in Rome, executed.
Paul's death was not substitutionary.
It was not atoning, it was not divine.
But Paul died simply because he loved the Church of Jesus
Christ. And again, it wasn't the
institution that he loved, it wasn't the denomination that he
loved, it wasn't the organisation that he loved, it
was the people that he loved and gave his life for them to the
people in the thriving, growing church in Corinth past Israel's
teaching. Through that.
Again tonight Paul said to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 2,
Paul wrote to them and said, you are our epistle written in our
hearts. You are inscribed in our hearts.
In other words, we care about you.
In Second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 11, Paul says, are you
Corinthians? Our speech to you is candid.
Our heart is wide open. We love you.
In Two Corinthians chapter 12 verse 15, Paul said, I will very
gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly
I love you, the less I be loved. I'll die for you.
Paul said, even though the more I love you, the less you love
me. And there was conflict in Paul's
second letter in the church. People say, well, Paul, he's not
really a minister after all. I mean, he didn't get to take a
salary while I was here. He's just kind of like a lie
person, just doing stuff. He's not really one called of
God. And Paul builds his argument to
say no, no, I loved you and I didn't take a salary because I
was showing you my love for you. Parents, this is a great verse
for you if you have a team because Paul says even though
the more I love you, the less you love me.
How often when teens go through a certain period of their life,
they go, well, if you love me, you let me go to the party.
If you love me, you let me do this.
You don't love me because you just want me to tell me stay
home. You just want me to to do this.
You just lay out all these rules and each time I go somewhere,
you tell me what to do and what not to do.
You don't love me. Wow, it's actually the reverse.
Because if they don't care, they just don't do what you like.
Don't do what you like. Parents, don't give up.
Don't stop. Paul didn't.
Even though the more I love you, the less you love me.
It's a great verse. Parents for your teens, keep on
loving them, keep on guiding them, keep on admonishing them,
caring for them, telling them no matter what comes back.
Paul loved the church. He loved the church so much that
in the pursuit of it and the maturity of it, he gave his
life. Paul suffered all the way along
until finally he was executed. This is God's call to shepherds.
Maybe that's some of you here this morning.
You think, well, I'm thinking you're going into the ministry
or I'm thinking of being, you know, doing this or something
like that. Guess what?
It's a life sentence and the reason Paul loved the church so
much. Why did he love the church so
much? Remember he tried to kill it,
first of all. Remember he was going around
having them all put to death, locking them up.
Why did Paul now love the church so much?
It's because He loved the Lord so much.
And if you love the Lord, and here's where it gets all falls
into place, if you love the Lord, you'll love whom the Lord
loves. That's why when you see someone
now who before you wouldn't give the time of day for a person on
the street, you know someone's struggling in the shopping
centre, a mother with a couple of kids or an elderly person
before you just go on about your business, don't have time.
But now some something grabs your heart and you see them.
You think that's someone that Christ died for because
something has happened and you know you love them now in a
different way because God is using you and showing you, I
love them, that person I died for, and so you now love them.
There's been a change in your life.
You're no longer just all about you.
First, John 5 says whoever loves him will love him who has
begotten of him. That's why John says in one
John, it's impossible to say you love God and don't love the
brothers and sisters of the body of Christ because whoever loves
him will love who has begotten of him.
Let us remember it was never really Paul's church.
It's always Christchurch and he loved Christ so much that he
loved what Christ loved and Christ loved the church.
He gave his life for it that he would give his life for what
Christ gave his life for to you this morning who believe you are
part of the church. I don't know if you are you're
part of the church. If you're born again.
If you consider this place, Calvary Chapel, your local
church, some you may just visit it on occasions.
Some you think, no, I'm part of this, I want to be part of the
church. I believe in God.
And well, God wants to take you another step.
That's why we're going through this today.
He's revealing to you, well, if this is where you are, that's
what you're at. This is what God expects.
If you believe you're part of the church, that Paul love, that
Jesus heads Christian, you will never serve God on the behalf of
God's people with any kind of motivation rather than an
outright and total love for the church.
It's necessary. Christ poured his life out
loving the church. Paul poured his life out loving
the church. In Second Corinthians, as I
said, there was an attack on Paul's ministry and his
authority. And Paul says to those who are
questioning him, they even some in the church were saying we
don't want to be part of Paul. And he was saying of the false
teachers. He says, well are these false
teachers ministers of Christ? 2nd Corinthians 1123.
It's a little, Paul's being a little sarcastic here.
He's talking about his critics. So are they really ministers?
Are they ministers of Christ? He says I speak as a fool, of
course. And here Paul uses sarcasm a
little bit. He says I am more in labours,
more abundant in stripes, beatings above measure in
prison, more frequently in death and the threat of death.
Often he says, compare me to these false teachers who just
cruising through looking for money, looking to RIP you off
just purely for themselves. People speak.
Paul speaks of the qualifications of leadership, of
being given the role to pass to those for whom Christ suffered
and died. What?
What were Paul's qualifications for?
For the school of ministry to go to Paul, he says.
He goes on to say, and 2nd Corinthians. 5 times I received
39 strokes. 5 times he was flogged, given 39 lashes 5 times
that's a that's a beating. Three times I was beaten with
rods. They still do it in Singapore at
this large cane publicly flogging 3 times.
Paul says I had that suffered shipwreck at sea.
I spent a night and a day in the ocean, journeys and perils of
waters and robbers and his own countrymen and Gentiles, in the
city, in wilderness, in the sea, from false brethren.
And he goes on, and I've suffered weariness, painfulness,
thirsty, naked, fasting, on and on.
He says. Then in verse 28, he says this
besides all these things, and he just rattles them off.
These are Paul's qualifications. They're not bits of paper
hanging on a wall, are they? The scars and wounds, besides
all these things that are without, he says.
Outside things that I've suffered and gone through the
main anxiety of my life. Oh, what is that?
Paul? Is that which comes upon me
daily, which is the care of all the churches.
Oh, that's the greatest pressure that Paul had.
Paul says daily. It isn't the outside stuff.
Beatings, floggings. I mean, you just sit with this
guy and how many times you've been in gaol.
Oh, well, so many times. Yeah, I just get used to it.
Got my own coffee cup in all the gaols.
It isn't the outside stuff that Paul struggles with nearly as
much as the inside anxiety. The daily pressure.
Daily pressure. What's Paul got?
It's the heart of Paul being revealed here.
So pastor's qualifications, what are they?
What seminary you went to? What Bible college you went to?
No, a pastor's qualifications are his wounds, his wounds, the
scars of ministry, the tears of being a shepherd who prays.
Explain, Keith, You may be thinking, what precious?
What precious the pressure that comes automatically on a man of
God who loves the church because he lives and dies with every
success and failure in the life of the people he loves that
Christ puts them over. I tell you, the called minister
of Christ will spend most of his life broken hearted, and he will
spend it broken hearted. Why?
Because there will be that many people in the church who will
break his heart. How he will try to balance that
off with being joyous over the people who are doing the right
thing that God wants them to do. But it's like Susanna Wesley who
had John and Charles. Susanna Wesley and Samuel Wesley
had 19 children. That's a footy team with a spare
on the side. And she was asked one day,
Susanna, do you have a favourite?
How do you look after 19 kids? And what she did, she did have a
patent as a mother of nineteen children, she said every night I
have a special time with one of the children, so I have a 19.
She would go through the Monday she said with and that and that
one night Monday is so and so Tuesday is so and out of that
she would spend that special, special time as a mother
speaking and administering. But she says who's my favourite?
That's easy. Whoever's suffering with the
sickest or going through difficulty at the time, they're
my favourite. And this is what happens with
the person who's over church. It says of Demas that Demas
broke the heart of Paul. How?
Because he forsook him. Paul loved Demas.
Demas took off the Judaizers came in infiltrating the
Galatian church and made Paul so furious he poured out that wrote
the letter to the Galatians, which is just the floor of anger
against false doctrine. And those would seek to destroy
the church. If you read the book of
Ephesians, you sense Paul's tears for the church at Ephesus.
As you read the book of Acts, you can see Paul's tears for the
church. And as you read 1 Corinthians,
which we're going through Sunday nights, you can hear and feel
the heartbeat of Paul as he pours out the truth to
counteract the sins that were happening of man in the Church
of Corinth. I was asked some time back by
someone. I said, oh, can we catch up?
I said, yeah, what do you want to catch up there?
Well, I'm thinking about going into the ministry and taking on
a role as a pastor of this church.
I said, yeah, sure. So we caught up and he said, you
know, what do you think? You know, this is the church and
this is what I'm thinking. This was my response.
You should only accept that position of pastor in that
church if you love the people that Christ died for in their
congregation. I mean, you love them so that no
matter what, where and how happens, you'll remain faithful
in pastoring and shepherding that church.
It's the same as in a marriage. There's no well, it's for
richer, for poorer, sickness and health, for better, for worse.
That's that's the reason to be over a fellowship in one
Corinthians chapter 4 verse 11, Paul says until this present
hour, we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted.
That's literally in the Greek punched in the mouth and have no
place to live and we labour working with our own hands.
Paul was a tent maker being reviled being when we're
reviled, we bless being persecuted, we endure it being
defamed, we entreated. We are made as the filth of the
world and the garbage, the refuse of all things to this
day. That's what we go through.
That's what we endure. Many people would say, oh Paul,
well, why do you do that? Verse 14, Paul says, I write not
these things to shame you, but as as my what?
As my beloved sons. The reason I do it is because
you're beloved to me. I love you guys.
The role of a pastor as such is long term.
It's not just a fad. I'm not just here while things
are good. Suits me and my family at this
time. Now it is the duration until
Christ calls you home. You see, that's the difference
between the professional Jesus calls on the highland in John
chapter 10 and the true shepherd one called by God is that false
teachers are always seeking to gather under themselves.
The focus of the ministry is them.
It's about their ministry. It's not about the church
people. It's about, well, I'm thinking
of doing this for my ministry. And this is how I mean, how we
can, you know, expand my ministry?
Sorry, John 10 One most assuredly, I say to you, he who
does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some
other way, the same as a thief and a robber.
The true shepherd came to save the sheep, but the false
shepherds take advantage of the sheep and exploit them.
I remember talking to a pastor of a large church in Canning
Vale area. You won't know who it is because
it's moved, he says. The church people, they're just
the they're they're the scaffolding of what I'm doing
here. I'm building something.
Scaffolding. I couldn't believe my ears.
Yeah, they're just the scaffolding.
That's the difference between the one who cranks it out and
fulfils it only on a professional level.
It's a job. Or the one who just wants a
position of power. I just want to have that title.
Are seeking to do their own thing to gather people to
themselves compared to the one called by God, gifted by God,
the one for whom it is their hearts passion can't do anything
else. A youth pastor at David Rosales
church. He was the the youth pastor
Calvary Chapel Chino Valley came to David pastor David Rosales.
He's still preaching there David he said well you know pastor
David I want to see you about a couple of things church down the
road. They've offered me a position to
be youth pastor down there and the salary is a little bit
higher. And Dave said, Lord, I pray for
my youth pastor now. I pray that he can move and go
and, and, and enjoy this new job.
He said, you can leave straight away.
He said, I don't want someone who's going, yeah, so I can stay
if you, you know, up, up the ante a little bit.
He says, I want someone who stays and wants to be the youth
pastor because I love the youth. So I I quit him right there on
the spot. Pray for him.
He says off you go have a good time.
Otherwise it's just the highly who's who's paying the most.
Paul couldn't minister without emotion because he loved the
church so much, because Jesus loved it and anything Jesus
loved and anything Jesus would die for, the apostle Paul would
die for. I want to ask you today, how
about you? What would you die for?
Where's the line where? Well, I'll, I'll serve in
church, but there's a line. I've got a lot of stuff on.
What's the line in your life? Where's, where's the measure?
So Acts 20, as I said, referring back to Paul and Ephesus after
the uproar was ceased. And this, the Ephesian uproar,
when they threw away their idols, Paul came to his
disciples and what did he do with them?
He embraced them. The word embrace is literally
kissed. It means to kiss fervently or
affectionately. Now this is the thing that I
believe more than anything else. The man of God must have a love
for the church. This is the thing that I pray
for God to give us some each pastor here at Calgary that
would make me us sacrifice our lives for the sake of the
church. And this is the thing that made
Paul different. This love for God's people.
Paul kept up in prayer each and every night.
Pastors, true pastors of Christchurch don't sleep well
most nights. Why is that?
They're agonising for the sheep that Christ died for and placed
under their care for those they see slipping and I, I see people
slipping. I see it happening.
I and there are people in my mind and constantly now and I'm
praying for because I see that they're drifting off.
I see people looking to the world, they're starting to
dabble on things and I notice they're getting busier and
outside stuff and it's going to happen.
There are those that neglecting fellowship, feeding on God's
word, and not praying at all. People who once walked with
Christ, but do so no more. They just stopped.
That's what broke Paul's heart. This is the thing that made Paul
head and shoulders above any man that ever lived apart from Jesus
Christ. Since the New Testament false
doctrine was working on this church and Paul had such a
tremendous love for this church even though he didn't, he wasn't
the founding pastor there. He says I would that you knew
what great conflict I have, the conflict, the ache, how much
ache I have for you. Paul was bothered by these so
called new fresh ideas about Jesus.
These things bothered Paul as the false teachers were very
persuasive. Mark Twain said a lie can make
it halfway around the world while truth is still lacing up
its boots. Paul pours at his love.
He says, I have this great conflict.
Paul laboured in prayer for the believers at Colossae because he
loved them as Christ. Paul's prayer life was one of
conflict. That is, work.
It was hard work for Paul praying.
Paul here and elsewhere used the figure of an athlete to describe
the toil of his prayer. The great conflict.
It's the word agony agonising. Those who are in athletics know
how much they must agonise to train, to win the event, to be
the best at what they can. This morning as we close this, I
want to ask a couple of things of you.
Prayer, in spite of what many people believe and say, is the
hardest thing for you to labour in.
It's the greatest battle that you face against your foes, for
the forces of the enemy who are resisting, fighting against you
and your family, working against our petitions, our cries of
prayer. I want to ask your children if
they would have turned to you right now and ask you, Dad, Mum,
do you pray for me? Dad, Mum, do you pray for me
every day? Are you praying for me?
What would you be your immediate answer?
What is your answer if your son or your daughter turned to you
right now and said Dad, do you pray for me?
You pray every day for me. Mom, do you pray for me?
You see, when we cease to pray, we cease to fight and we give
him we encapasses. Satan trembles when he sees the
weakest St upon his knees. Paul knew as he prayed for those
in Colossae, it would raise up conflict.
Conflict with the enemies of Christ.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
We cannot all be Apostle Paul's, can we?
No, but we can all love the Lord with a passion whereby we will
give him our lives. Romans 12 We can be living
sacrifices, for He has given His life for us.
We can all pray. Everyone here can, but can our
prayers be driven by a great agony for those we love?
We can't all be great Bible commentators, but we can know
God through His word. Paul senses and believe he had
an obligation. I want to ask, what's your
obligation in your heart today? Where's your heart?
I asked you this morning, what is the obligation that the Lord
has called you to as a parent? It's a life sentence requiring
prayer life sentence. As a husband and a wife, it's a
commandment to give your life for your wife and to love her.
As a wife, it's a call to submission and respect to the
spiritual head of your home. As a son or a daughter here this
morning, it's for you to honour your mother and your father.
You see, these are our obligations.
This is where the church works, but this is where the church
grows and this is where the power of the church and the
power of God is released. In your life, some of you are
struggling. You're continuing to struggle.
I ask you, let God speak to your heart.
He who has is. Let him hear what the Spirit
says to you. God wants you and calls you.