We Live Here So Others Hear (Colossians 1:3-8)

This episode covers Colossians 1:3-8 and what it looks like when the Gospel takes root in a church, transforms individual lives, and continues to grow through people who faithfully share it.

Paul begins by thanking God for the Colossian church and praying for them. His example reminds us that praying for our church should become normal—not casually, but always, often, passionately, and with faith. We are in a spiritual war, and prayer is part of the work God has called His people to do.

The Colossians were known for their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for God’s people. But that faith and love didn’t originate within themselves. They sprang from the hope stored up for them in heaven. The Gospel leads to salvation, salvation leads to the giving of the Spirit, and the Spirit becomes a source that is continually flowing and growing in the life of a believer. Jesus remains the ongoing source of our faith and love.

We also see that the Gospel is meant to be heard. People hear the Gospel from other people, and there are still people around us who have never heard its true message. As the Gospel goes throughout the world, it bears fruit, changes lives, produces holiness, and invites every believer to participate in its growth.

Finally, we look at Epaphras—a faithful servant who carried the Gospel to others—and ask a personal question: Who has heard the Gospel from you? Sharing Jesus isn’t pressure; it’s a privilege, a purpose, a passion, and a deep pleasure.

Additional Resources

• Watch or listen to Past Sermons
• Start With 7 (Daily Audio Devotionals)
• GOOD.GOD.GOSPEL. (How to Have Conversations Toward Salvation)
• Learn about Church Project Network and follow our NEW Instagram (@churchprojectofficial)
• Read this book by Jason: “A Church of House Churches: An Articulated and Applied Ecclesiology”
• Website

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, thanks for joining us on the Rethink and Return podcast. We're just trying to rethink through scripture and return back to what Jesus wants us to do and how He wants us to live. So that's what this is about. Every once in a while we'll have some good conversations about leadership. But pretty much every week we will sit down and dig into a passage of scripture that we preach to a lot of people locally and some people from around the other places are watching it. And I get to do it with me amigo DeVito every week.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Always good to be here every week. I love journeying through the word. Such a good, good, rich experience.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

It's good. Thanks for watching. Let's jump into it. We're studying through Colossians, new book in the Bible, and uh second week into that, the Apostle Paul is riding from a prison cell. And uh, dude, I mean, I don't know how I would write if I was in prison, but I don't think it'd be this good.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

I I I I know it wouldn't be. I mean, most of the scripture was written by people that were under great duress and stress in prisons, in caves, on the run, in the wilderness. And these guys, I mean, God moved on these guys in an incredible way. And yeah, I'm blown away by the our start in Colossians because you know, with Paul, a salutation is never just a salutation. This, these opening verses, yeah, it's never just a greeting.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yeah, I mean, last week, just two verses, and we got deep into it. And here we are again, just in the next verses. Yeah, he's just starting off. I mean, this guy was something else. So he says in verse three, we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he prayed for you. I love that Paul is riding from Rome in a prison cell to a local church in Colossae. Here's how it got planted. Uh, he was in Ephesus, dude named Epaphras came to Ephesus, heard the gospel, get saved. Paul's discipling him, and he's like, Bro, your hometown, a hundred miles from here, Colossae. No, no, no gospel there, no church there. What are you doing here? Go back there, plant a church. Uh Epaphras goes back, shares the gospel, plants a church. So Paul, like, sent the church planter, if you will, but he had never been there. And so he's writing to this local church, but he's heard about them. Epaphras brings a message back to Paul in the prison cell, what's going on. And Paul's like, I'm thinking about you, even though I've never, I've never seen you in person. You know about me, I know about you, and I'm praying for you. I just love Paul's heart to pray for a local church. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I do too. And I think that, you know, one of the things you unpacked was the different forms of prayer that were found in this verse.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Yeah, I mean, he's got at least three different forms of prayer here, like thanking God, Lord Jesus Christ, which is a confession of Jesus' Lordship, which is really submission. And we're we're praying for you, like we're interceding for you. So we have praise and lordship, submission, and then we have intercession. And I think um it's really good for us to know there are more types of prayer than petition.

unknown 2:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

That's right. God help me. That's right. Yes. God give me something. Right. But we should do that. Yeah. He wants us to do that. He's told us to do that. He's like, you need something? Ask me. I'm your father. And more prayer than just confession. God, I I confess to you. You know, but I mean, there's a lot more there. There's meditation where we're just silent, considering things. There's this prayer of submission, which could fall under this lordship of Jesus Christ, which is essentially, you're my Lord. I mean, I I started my day off this morning like that. I know a lot of people who do. I think we all should. And um, and then there's praise, thanking God for things, and then he's interceding, which is a beautiful thing. You know, intercession is uh modeling, following the example of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is interceding for us. It's just that the Spirit of God intercedes for us, goes between God for us with words that we don't even know how to use. And when we're interceding for somebody else, we're going to God on their behalf with words that they they don't even know how to say, or maybe they're too weak at this point to say, you know.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

I mean, uh people call it standing in the gap or somebody. Like you're taking up their needs and taking up uh their their needs to the Lord on their behalf. And I I and I I think you know, Paul's one of the things I learned by walking through this with you is that where Paul says we prayed for you, and I think he's setting a pattern for all Christians to pray for the church.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

And what why why is that important? Why would you why do you think that matters?

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Well, I mean, we talked about yesterday the church is at war, it's in a constant war. Wow. Yeah. And so if we ever if we need to intercede for anyone, we also need to intercede for the local church. Paul told the church in Ephesus, where he did spend a lot of years, more time than anywhere else, two, three and a half, whatever, people have, you know, different range, but he said, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Right. And they had a lot of struggle with a lot of people. Yeah. External and internal. But he's like, no, it's not against flesh and blood, it's against rulers, principalities, forces of evil, spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. So Paul's like, we're at war, man. And so we need to be praying for a local church. Paul was telling the Ephesians, you're at war. He's telling the Colossians, I'm praying for you. And I just said, Hey, you need to be praying for your local church. Wherever you go to church, if it's here, if it's there, wherever it is, wherever you are, you need to pray. We need to pray for our local church. I think we should be praying for the church in general, the movement of God around the world. We need to be praying for the church, the believers in America. We need to be doing that, but we need to be praying for whatever local church God has called you to plant your life in, to love, right, to help grow. Whatever God calls you to do, wherever God's called you to be in a local church, pray for that church.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

I mean, I think it reminds me of that the illustration you used to use about spurgeon. I think you remember you recall that.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Oh, remind me, please.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Where he had he had hundreds of people in the boiler room beneath the pulpit while he preached. That's right. I remember you talking about that somewhere, that he attributed the success of his sermons to the prayers of the church. Even though he was a master orator, fantastic, but he had all these people underneath the platform praying for the church. And I I I love the idea, you know, you said that we don't just pray because it's a good idea, but we're at war. And we're not at war with people or categories of people, we're at war with a force that is trying to undo everything God's doing.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

That's right. And I mean, we're not at war of people, but you know, Satan uses people among other things.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Right. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

So I mean, we but we have to recognize what's going on, and we need to take Ephesians 6.12, and we need to combine it with Colossians 1.3 and go, I'm gonna pray for my church.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

That's right. And uh go ahead. Well, no, yeah, I mean you said uh uh you'll experience the war more when you pray. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Yeah, I mean, the reality is when you start to pray and you start to pray seriously, and you start to wrestle in prayer, like it it was set of epaphras, and he he wrestled in prayer. Wow. He's mentioned here twice in Colossians and once in another New Testament letter that Paul wrote. And when you start to wrestle in prayer, like you will that means you're stepping into the war more, and you're gonna feel it. You'll feel it in your own life, and then collectively as a church, you feel it. And so the more we have ramped up prayer here over this last year with a lot of intentionality, yeah. You know, yeah, you will enter the war more the more you pray. And uh I that just for us reiterates the truth that prayer is war. It's warfare.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

It it's warfare, it's not just some little devotional practice that you do somewhere away from everything. It's you're entering into a real battle. Yeah. And it's one of the reasons why uh we have 247. Like I think that's a good thing for people to know. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Yeah, I mean, like today we're in a we're in a leadership team meeting here, we've got a lot of people in a room, and uh all of our phones go off or almost all of them at the same time, and we all, you know, some of us chuckle because we're like 247 alarm on my phone. Right. And um and like that's when we're praying, especially for people who are lost and to to know the Lord. That's where, you know, where I'm praying generally for my list of people. Yeah. But uh, and that's not the only time I do, but it's good to set some reminders. I love that Daniel like had several times a day where he would just go and pray. That's right. And I mean, if we need to do it by spontaneity, which we should, if we need to do it by discipline, which I think is also good, but we need to be praying. We need to pray for a local church. Somebody sent me a picture uh today. They sent me a picture of yesterday at the end of our you know, gallery here uh before both gatherings. You know, I have people that will just pray, pray over me. Yeah. And um, I'm not the only thing to be prayed for, and other people are praying for other things, but I'm I'm grateful for that. So the church is to be prayed for and praise God for. Like we should thank God. Paul's like, I'm thanking God for a local church. It is a gift. A local church is a gift. We should care for it, we should take it for granted. Right. Like a local church is a gift. When with all of its flaws, with all of its stuff, a local church is a gift. There are places. I spoke with two of our missionary families over the last, you know, 10 days or so that we're in from around the world. Yeah. And they're talking about the condition of local bodies of believers where they are or the absence of it. And they, you know, are so thankful for our church. Yeah. And um we would be more thankful for our church too if we had to live where they live without a body of believers. So we should be thankful for our local church wherever you go to church and pray for it.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

And the privilege to pray for the church as well. And like, how do how would you say that people make a practice of praying like this? How do we make prayer a practice?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Well, uh I mean, I guess the way you practice anything, you you you start, you just get you get convicted and you get convinced, and then you get committed to it. It's good. So for me, that's why I put it in my in my phone at 247. I got an alarm. I have a list of things, you know, people to pray for. Yeah. And so I would just say take it seriously enough that you got to set some reminders and until it becomes just a regular part of your rhythm.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

I think that's great advice. I I think that, you know, I mean, what are the options? If someone's not gonna enter into warfare prayer, then where does that lead the believer?

unknown 10:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, I mean, you can you can get apathetic like the rest of America. Like if you don't want to pray, then I I would say, um, if you don't want to pray for your church, I think you're not entering into the greatest battlefield of a church. And so that's strong. I think there are a lot of ways that we serve our church, but uh, we should do those things because all those things are real and needed, but we should also be praying. And so, yeah, so we're trying to get our podcast moving along more than we were before. So here we go. Next one, verse four. We've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all God's people. I just love that these people were known for heard of your faith, and we're heard of your love.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, yeah. That's right. I mean, I I love that you talked about the role of faith and love. And that you use that phrase about it says, What does he say? I will obey. That I mean, that whole just talk about that. I, you know, last week, you know, you took the last, those last words, uh grace and peace. And this week, faith and love. I love the simplicity of how they become directions to how we're to live.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, I mean, I do love how Paul is like grace and peace to you. Like we're gonna, wherever we go, we're gonna bring grace, we're gonna be bring peace. And then Paul's saying here, hey, I want to give you grace and peace, but also what I'm hearing from you is your faith and your love. And, you know, for faith, how do we know we really have faith? How do we know we trust Jesus? Jesus is like you love me, you'll obey me. And it and it's just we'll know that we're following Jesus, that we have real faith in him if we obey him. That's why for me the question is, what does Jesus say? Let's obey. That's how we know. And so these people, it would have been known of them, man, they are they're following Jesus. They trust him enough to obey him.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And then they loved it, they loved others.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Right? Faith and love. The other the other side was that they followed Jesus, but they also loved their church and the people in their loved one deeply.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, I mean, the real question becomes uh how do you know, how do you know if somebody has faith? Well, they're obeying and following Jesus. How do you know somebody has love? I mean, it's real easy to say, I love, I love this church, or I love my church wherever you go to church, or I love these people, but how do you know? I mean, all the things that we're called to do, all the one-anothers in church, I mean, how do you know if you love your church, you forgive one another? Yeah. You know, how do you know if you love your church, you serve one another? You know, how do you know if you love your church, you bear with one another or put up with one another? Yeah. All the one-anothers in scripture can only happen in if you're if you know people's names. I like to say, here's how you know your community. You know people's names and they know yours. Yeah. You know people's needs and they know yours. We're being honest. And you know people's next steps and they know yours. Like, I know your name and you know mine. Like we really know each other. I know your needs, like I know what's going on in your life and you know mine. We're gonna be honest and open with each other about our our struggles. And I'm gonna know your next steps. Like, I'm gonna know where you need to grow in your walk with Jesus, and you're gonna know mine. And we're both gonna know that we both need to grow. So I'm gonna know what yours is, and you're gonna know what mine is. And so this is how we know we're loving each other. Is I'm gonna know you well. I'm gonna live life with you enough. I'm gonna know you. I'm gonna know what is going on in your life if you have a need. And if you do, I'm gonna try to meet it. That's how the early church, we knew it, like they were meeting each other's needs because they knew each other's needs.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

And um, and then like we're gonna know each other's next steps. Like, I'm gonna know where you need to grow in your faith. All of us have places to grow.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

And this is how they were loving each other.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

And uh that simple act pushes people out of isolation. You know, you said, you know, you gotta you need to get into a house church so you can get hurt and learn how to deal with it. Yeah. You know, and I wrote down, you can't learn how to forgive until you have something that needs to be forgiven.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Right? I mean, you you can't learn humility until you have something that you have to be humbled by. That's right. I mean, all these skill sets of Christianity aren't learned in isolation, they're learning a connection with a community.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

That's right. Yeah, I mean, we continually stay committed to the body, and we work through these things. So good. And over an extended period of time, it just develops, it develops this maturity, and and then we have this this rich love. I mean, there is a there are different words for love. You know, you got you got uh some shallow love, right? That's just an initial attraction, you got some medium kind of love that has some connection, then you got this like covenant kind of love that's like man, we're gonna be in this, it would, it would take a whole lot, virtually nothing could break this. And so I think you know, they're loving each other. And the thing that we have in the early church, I the the the word can't speak to it as directly for us. We have to take the principles because they were all they had. Like you're all I got.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

I mean, they couldn't be like, I'm gonna leave, you know, first church of Colossae and go to second church of Colossae. That's right. Like it was just this is it, man. That's it, we gotta work it out. And so I just love how they knew they loved each other. And then, but Paul's like in verse five, the faith and love, he just said you have faith and love. And then he said the faith and love that spring from the hope sort of for you in heaven, which I think I love that Paul's like, hey, you got a lot of faith and love, but let's remember where it came from. Yeah, it didn't come from your own natural self, man. Right on your own, and on your own, you you didn't get this kind of faith on your own. Yeah. Like you can't conjure this kind of faith up, it's not natural. It's got a source. And you you can't get this kind of love in your own. It's not natural. It's not natural, it's supernatural. So, this stuff that you have, this faith and love that you're living by, it's it's phenomenal. And it's supernatural. It's a source outside of your own sinful self that gave this to you. Yeah. And so Jesus talked a lot about this. I mean, first he said the world, the way the world lives together, they're gonna know you're Christians by the way you all love each other. Like you don't treat each other, you're not gonna do that the way the world does it. Right. That's right. And so you, I mean, there is a supernatural thing that he expected to be happening in the body, the way they loved each other. And and, you know, I I I wrote here, the gospel leads to salvation. Yeah. Salvation leads to the giving of the spirit, and the spirit becomes a source, like a spring, flowing and growing. Like Jesus said, Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

I I like I highlighted this on my jumbo note page because I thought it was so powerful. Because if you took that verse five out, verse four would just be something you had to do in the natural. Try to try to have more faith, try to love people and put up with people and white knuckle it. But he says, no, it's super like what you said, it's supernatural, it has a source. So every believer has to learn to live from that source.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

That's right. Really good. You know, Galatians, as we studied through it last year, told us like he, I I'm gonna, I'm gonna send my spirit to live inside of me. Yeah, that's right. This is the concept that we as believers, we got to go. How much more do I need to understand of the spirit? Yeah, like what am I missing about this understanding that the spirit of God lives in me? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

I mean, I I think it's powerful. And I I think every believer needs to be reminded because I think most people trust Jesus for their salvation. They're like, I can't save myself.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

And once they do that, then they go, okay, now the rest is up to me. Yeah. And they revert back to all this self-effort.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Paul says, No, wait a minute. It's all you always have a source, it's always springing up.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

Oh, that's right. That's what Paul said in Galatians 5 7. He said, Who cut in on you? You were running such a good race. What you began by the spirit, are you naturally now doing in the flesh? Yes. You know, what you what you began by the spirit, you can't do in the flesh. So let the spirit keep working this out on you. And then he's like, Oh, and the hope, yeah, the hope that you have in you is stored up for you in heaven. Like, you know, we have this hope of heaven, and we have this hope stored up for us in heaven, which is a wild thing. Yeah. I mean, in fact, the Bible says our salvation is like set apart for us in heaven, secured for us up in heaven. And so I mean, we have to go, I have some storehouses of hope up in heaven that I have access to. Hope stored up for me in heaven. Wow. And I I just thought, you know, it gets us thinking about heaven. We know some things are true about heaven. One, we know heaven's better than here. Right. As we mentioned, you know, as we were walking through this passage together, the the disease that somebody's been diagnosed with, it's not there. The divorce that we're going through or have gone through, not there. Um just the pain that people cause one another, not there. Death, none of that is there because no residue of sin. Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't leave, it doesn't leave this place. It may go down, it doesn't go up. Right. And so heaven, man, it has it has none none of that. And so it's the place we'd rather be, but hoping in heaven doesn't make us want to get out of here in a hurry. And that's supernatural too.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Right. That then that's powerful.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Well, yeah, I mean, because it it would make sense to us if heaven's better than here, I want to get out of here in a hurry. But what the spirit does is it takes the hope of heaven and it it brings it into our life to say, you got it, it's it's waiting on you, it's there, it's not going away, it's secured and sealed for you, but you don't need to get in a hurry to go there. It'll come soon enough. Our life is a mist, a vapor. It's gonna, it's like a a blink of an eye. Yeah, it's gonna happen. But what keeps us from getting in a hurry to go to heaven is the Spirit of God going, Hey, I just I'm giving you this hope so that here you can persevere with passion and you have a purpose now.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yeah, yeah. I th I mean, I I I wrote in my notes, heaven's got a hold on me. You know, I feel like that's that's what that reminded me of is that we're not just hoping one day that there'll be hope somewhere out there, but the hope of heaven is that it's deposited within us. Yeah. And then I of course, you know, I wrote down, you know, what you said, he gives us passion, purpose, perseverance, and power. Yeah. You know, it's it's more annoying when it's alliterated.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

It must be, it must be, since since that's your deal, which has helped me over the years. Um, when you teach to remember that, I can't do it or don't do it, or no, I can't do it as good as you.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Well, I mean, I just quoted you. That was that was your in your notes.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So But I I think um, you know, for some people were like, well, why would God not just take me home? Yeah. I mean, this world's too hard. It's hard, like I say, it's hard to be a human being here. Right. It's hard to be human here. So why does God not just take me home? I got a purpose for you, and I can that's That's why man, the apostle Paul was like, I'm glad you want to kill me, I'm glad to go home. You know, but as long as I remain, I'm here for Christ. Yeah. And so I got the hope of heaven secure. So as long as I'm here, it's going to be about Jesus. And then Paul said in verse five, the rest of verse five, about what you have already heard in the message of the gospel that has come to you. Like Paul's telling them, you already heard the message of the gospel. Like you heard it. Yeah. How do you my question is, how'd you hear it? Well, somebody told you.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Like somebody decided to come and tell you this message of the gospel. Yeah. And there are a lot of people, Dave, who have never heard it. They've just never, I mean, where we live.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

We run into that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

I um I don't know why I continue to get surprised. It's because I I got to hear the gospel from an early age. Yeah. But it surprises me now the amount of people who have never they've never heard the gospel.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

And they're they're living right here in the same city that we're in, surrounded by technology and podcasts and books, and and yet, you know, isn't it Romans that says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How can they hear unless someone is sent? You know, someone's like you asked the question, who who's heard the gospel from you? I think this is a good question for everybody who's a Christ follower.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that I think we I asked that in that way in verse seven. But again, yeah, how did you hear the gospel? There are people around you that haven't heard. And we live here so that others can hear.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

We live right here so that others can hear the message of the gospel. And I'm talking to people, I mean, I talk to people, I pray for it, I look for it, I love it. That's not natural for me. I didn't like become a believer and all of a sudden I was excited about sharing the gospel, nor was I confident about it. I wasn't comfortable doing it. For that to become a part of my life was a lot of sanctification, a lot of growth, a lot of maturity, a lot of prayer, a lot of feeling like I did horrible at it. And sometimes still, then I'm like, I wish, I wish I would have done a better job there. I wish I would have taken advantage of that opportunity more. But I just know I live here so that other people can hear. And I'm gonna be in a conversation that you'll never be in or nobody else will be. And the same for everybody else. So we're in the place we are so that people can hear the gospel.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

And the answer you said yesterday, you know, the answer is always the gospel. Like I know that I know that in theory, and I I get it, but like you applied it in such a way, like when people ask real questions, you're like, the answer is the gospel. Yeah. You know, you went through that little kind of that application section that it helped me to think, oh, that is it's not just the answer in theory or theologically. It actually is, what am I gonna do about this situation? The answer is the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah. I mean, we put the icons up on the screen and I'm like, yeah, went through them, and then I'm like, well, what part of this do we not want to tell people? Right. Do we not want to is do we not want to say God made the world incredibly beautiful? Do we want not to do we not want to give the reason why there's brokenness in the world? I mean, when people are like, did God do all this? Let me tell you what what sin did in the world. Well, we're hopeless then. No, let me tell you what God did for us.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

I mean, I can't get to God, I'm not good enough. Neither am I, none of us are. So he came to us. You know, what's next? The gospel answers everything. The gospel is the answer for everything. It's powerful and that's why we need to know it. And we need to be it. There are conversations we're having all the time around us where if we know the gospel and we're sensitive to the Spirit of God, people are ready and many people around us are wanting it.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

I think this it gives me my mind a lot of ease because you know it helps me to stay in that flow when when I know that no matter what someone's gonna say, that some part of the of the gospel story answers that dilemma.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Some Christians are like locked up because I don't know what to say and I can't debate. But wait a minute. Every part of the gospel answers every situation that's that is true.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Yeah, I'm very confident that I there's no spiritual conversation I have. Right. There's no human conversation I have where one or several or all aspects of the gospel can't be brought into it.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

So good.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

We just need to know it.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

And that's why we're trying to do good God gospel, right? Teach you the gospel icons, because we just want people to know it and be comfortable with it. And that gospel, in verse six, Paul said, in the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world. I mean, it's just crazy how the gospel has never been stopped. And this is the work that God's doing. The gospel is what's doing the work around the world. There's a lot of good work happening all around the world, but the the goal of it all, or what the work that God is doing, is through the gospel. The gospel is bearing fruit and it's growing all around the world, and it's not gonna be stopped. That's right. Other work will be stopped, but gospel work will not be stopped. Not ever.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Not by any system, government. That's right. And nothing's gonna stop it.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

That's right. And so, like, I want to be a part of the work God's doing in the world. Therefore, I want to be attached to gospel work. Yeah, that's what we should be. There are a lot of people who don't know the gospel who are doing a lot of good things. And I don't think those things are bad. Right. But I I but the work that we as believers need to be doing is attached to the gospel. We need to, we everything needs to be carried by, covered in the gospel. And Paul said at the end of verse 6, it's growing throughout the whole world. It's been doing that among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. Like, um, you know, I just mentioned I'm like, I understand God's grace right now more than I did a year ago. Yeah. And I understand God's grace a year ago more than I did 10 years ago. And, you know, I think I was around eight when I became a follower of Jesus. I understood very, very little at the time. Thank God, you know, the entry requirement for understanding is really, really low.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

And so uh that's why I said the quote yesterday from Augustine of Hippo, the Bible is deep enough for an elephant to swim, yet shallow enough for a child to wade through. Yeah. And I think um, you know, that he was talking about the scriptures, but it's true of the gospel. I mean, the gospel is shallow enough for a child to wade through. That's why Jesus said, You got to come to me like a child.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Right. Well, you know, even with good God gospel, we did a series of cards for kids and reduced it to colors. Yeah. You know, I mean you could take something as deep as the gospel and reduce it to a series of colors that students, when they look at it, yeah, know the verse and what it means in the verse that goes with it. Yeah. I mean, it's that simple.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

Well, the gospel is simple. And, you know, uh for me, one of the most encouraging things for me about the gospel being, you know, available to all, whatever they understand, is um a friend of mine who, you know, came to Christ, had a lot of conversations. I got to baptize him, and he was like, I it was a it's a mountain that I don't think I can climb it. Yep. And I'm like, uh it's that's your metaphor. Jesus' metaphor was a mustard seed, and it was a super small seed. Yeah. And I'm like, your metaphor is a mountain to climb. Jesus' is I just need this much, man. And I will take this much. I will take this much. And I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna grow something out of that bigger than you ever thought. Yeah. And um I think we need to we need to know that God's grace is a continuing deepening of understanding.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

And that's why Paul said, it's been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. Like I'm growing in understanding grace. Like I would have theologically and accurately described God's grace 30 years ago to you, but it continues, it's depth and richness, it continues to grow in all of that for me.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Well, I think for me, like the more I understand my mistakes, the more aware I am of the need of grace. Yeah, I mean, the more I like, oh man, I screwed that up. And I become more uh aware of just how rich and deep the grace of God is towards me because of that.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

You know? Woe is me, Isaiah said. I'm ruined. That's right. And Paul's like, I'm the worst of sinner. Yeah. And um, understanding God's grace more does require understanding our depravity more. So the more we understand how far away from God we were, how lost we were, how broken we were, the more we understand that, the more we're gonna be in awe that he would ever consider loving me at all. Yeah. And so I think it's really good. You can tell, you can tell the believers who who who have really deeply understood God's grace, because when you when you really deeply understand God's grace, you give a lot of it out.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

That's right. And that's the proof, isn't it? Yeah, is that you bec when you understand God's grace, you become more gracious in return.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Yeah. I mean, that's powerful. Because I realize, man, I'm there's no way ever, ever I could ever get here on my own. So thank you, Jesus, for doing that for me.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

So good.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

And then finally, we wrap this section up, verse seven and eight. Paul said, You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, who told us of your love in the spirit. And so Paul said, You heard it from Epaphras, and then I asked, Who's heard the gospel from you? Yeah. I mean, statistically, man, it's really sad how many Christians never ever talk about Jesus with people who don't know Jesus. Yeah. Like they may talk about Jesus at church, but when it comes to like the sharing the gospel with those who don't know him, talking about Jesus at all, you know. So I think it's something we need to say how the church there heard it from Epaphras. Who's heard it from me? And for us, we need to start praying about that for ourselves. We need to start working on it, growing it in ourselves. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

I mean, it's I I know that you practice this every day, you know, with people like you've got regular people you see, people you built long time relationships with to earn the right to share the gospel. And I do too. Like I have certain contexts that I do that in. And uh, but it's something like you have to you have to know it and you have to live it so you can talk about it comfortably.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

Yeah. That's right. I mean, it has to become a part of our life. And yeah, and not every day am I sharing the gospel, but a lot of days. A lot of days, and a lot of time. And I think it's a great practice to get up and say, Hey God, I want to, I want to walk by your spirit today. I want to be led by your spirit. Would you lead me, use me, uh, connect me with somebody? And then we start to think, we start to look, we start to listen, we start to be aware. Really good. And I start to, I pray for myself. Even still, I'm like, when I'm praying at 247, uh, on there, I have written down three things. One, I'm praying for myself that I'll become a better evangelist.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

God, help me share the gospel more clearly. Two, I pray for these people that God, I pray that you'd soften their heart, that they'd seek you, that they'd be dissatisfied with everything else in life apart from you, that they'd want to know you. Would you help me be aware of opportunities or bring other people into their life? Yeah. It doesn't just need to be through me. And then third, I pray for our church, that our church should be it's we want to be a church full of evangelists. And so that's what I'm praying every day. But I I pray for myself first because I want to become a better evangelist, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

Yeah, that's right. And I you know, of course, you know, we already talked about my love for alliteration, but you did, I wrote this down. You said the gospel is no pressure, it's a privilege, it's a purpose, it's a passion, it's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

I put that in there just for you. I knew you did. I mean, it it is it when we start to think of this as pressure, it's all wrong. Yeah, it's a it's a privilege that we would get to represent Jesus in any way. And um we have a we have a purpose now. Like I have a reason for living. No matter how gifted you are in any way, no matter your opportunity or your platform, wherever you go, there are people there who need Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

And and no matter how awkward you feel when you do it, God will use it. Yeah, like I that's the one thing I I want people to know is like you may think, oh, I didn't say that right, but somehow God will use it in the life of people if you'll just talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

Yeah, that's right. And you got to give yourself grace too. That's right. You do give yourself grace. You're gonna grow, you're gonna learn. But I don't want to get to the end of my life and go, I did not grow in that. Yeah. And then Paul said they totally see your love in the spirit. I just love that. Paul's like, man, I'm I'm in, I'm, I'm low, like literally low, like I'm below ground low. And um I'm down here in the bottom of a cell. I've been there, man. It's cold and it's damp. And uh they didn't like them. And yeah, the Coliseum would have like, you know, nobody, no lions were being eaten, uh, eaten Christians at that moment, but pretty soon they would be. Yeah. And it was close enough that people in that same prison would have heard, would have heard, uh, uh heard that. Paul's in a tough place, and it as strong as he is in his faith, I'm sure he needed encouragement. Yeah. And and he said, Hey, Epaphras told us of your love in the spirit. Like he he to he encouraged us, he sent encouragement from you. And I just think it's just really good to just be radically full of encouragement. Just like, let's just do extra unusual encouragement to each other. I mean, I don't know a person on the planet that's right who doesn't need to be encouraged.

SPEAKER_01 36:21

They just I mean, they need it, and it it helps people when you encourage someone, it helps people know that they're they're being seen. Like someone sees me, someone sees what I'm doing, someone noticed me. That's right. You know, I think a lot of people go through their entire day and don't really have any significant interaction like that. So for Christians that are carrying the hope of heaven, yeah, and we see anything in someone's life, it's encourage that.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

You know, I think that's such a beautiful opportunity. I mean, at some point we want to get past the gospel, but even, you know, Brooke and I were walking on the waterway the other day here in the middle of our city for people who aren't from here. And, you know, I I just there were some senior adults walking by, and I said, and then this older man, no wedding ring, and maybe he was married, but I just sort of thought, I wonder if anybody has spoken to that guy in days.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Like he just woke up, so we saw him twice on the well, you know, lap at each other or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Talk to him and try to encourage him. Hey, where you go, good look, good job, keep going.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

I just think there are people who need encouragement, and we come bearing a gift of encouragement. I think we especially should do it for people who are serving the gospel because we know they're in a war. Yeah. So you the people who are hosting your your house church, people have this gift of hospitality. They're gonna open up some battles in their life that other people aren't dealing with. And so um, I think we just need to look for opportunities to encourage people in the gospel. We're wrapping this up, buddy. Anything to say before we close?

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Well, I just I wrote it down. I love the question. Who can you encourage today?

SPEAKER_00 37:58

That's good. Great. That's it. Hey, uh, I love walking through the scriptures. It's a gift. Thanks for doing it with me. Always thank you all for watching it. If it's valuable to you, then keep doing it, like it, share it, subscribe to it. If it's not, then you know, do something else with your time. But we're honored that you may be watching this. We hear great things from people that is encouraging to them. So that's why we keep doing it. Hey, you're great. You're loved. Hope to see you soon. Have a great week ahead.