SPEAKER_01: All right, Colossians chapter 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.
SPEAKER_01: There's only four chapters in Colossians, so we are about to round this out.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have your phone or your Bible, go ahead and turn there.
SPEAKER_01: If not, you can follow along.
SPEAKER_01: You ready?
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 4, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Masters, be just and fair to your servants.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that you also have a master in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for us too that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That is why I am here in chains.
SPEAKER_01: Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.
SPEAKER_01: Live wisely among those who are not believers and make the most of every opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Let your conversation be gracious and attractive, so that you will have the right response for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus will give you a full report about how I am getting along.
SPEAKER_01: He is a beloved brother and a faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_01: I have sent him to you for this very purpose, to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people.
SPEAKER_01: He and Tychicus will tell you everything that's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas' cousin.
SPEAKER_01: As you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the one we call justice, also sends his greeting.
SPEAKER_01: These are the only Jewish believers among my co-workers, and they are working with me here for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what a comfort they have been.
SPEAKER_01: Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings.
SPEAKER_01: He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God.
SPEAKER_01: I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Heropolis.
SPEAKER_01: Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas.
SPEAKER_01: Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house.
SPEAKER_01: After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it.
SPEAKER_01: And you should read the letter I wrote to them.
SPEAKER_01: And say to Archipas, Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.
SPEAKER_01: Here is my greeting in my own handwriting.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, remember my chains, grace and peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: All right, before we go any further, if you have tuned in for the entire series, caught up through the entire series, or been here for the entire series, I would like you to give yourselves a round of applause.
SPEAKER_01: You just completed an entire book of the Bible, and that's really cool.
SPEAKER_01: And that is not a silly thing, that is a serious thing.
SPEAKER_01: For some of us, it may have been the first time that we have read through an entire book of the Bible, which is really neat.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do that a few more times this year in a few other books in the New Testament of your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: But today we're gonna look at kind of a three-course meal, so to speak, of Colossians chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I say that is because if you caught as we were reading through together, there are sections here that don't seem like they go together.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna say maybe one phrase seems like, okay, great, and then we've got this over here, and then there's this, and okay, why would that be in one consolidated chapter of the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because your English translation of God's Word, Old and New Testament, uh specifically these New Testament letters, is where we see it kind of pop up and we can understand it a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: They're written as letters, and we in our English translations have divided them up as chapters.
SPEAKER_01: But when they were written, it wasn't in that form.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like um here's the best way I can explain this.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so Robin likes to bake, uh, which is awesome because I like to eat, and it's it really works out well.
SPEAKER_01: And because Robin likes to bake and I like to eat over time, I have also liked to learn how to run.
SPEAKER_01: And so that comes with the territory.
SPEAKER_01: When she bakes things and she will bake cake, and there's an interesting phenomenon here that happens when she bakes cake, and it reminds me of some of these New Testament letters because we get the whole thing, but then we slice it up into these chapters.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody do that, right?
SPEAKER_01: You you bake a cake, you make a cake, and then what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: You you make slices out of it and you serve it up to people.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't like to do that, and for some reason, Robin disagrees with me.
SPEAKER_01: So when she makes a cake and she puts it on the like cake stand and she puts the, it's I think it's called a cloche, the thing that goes over top, like a food helmet.
SPEAKER_01: It goes over top of the food, keeps it fresh.
SPEAKER_01: What I do after she bakes a cake is I go up to the counter, I remove that, I go to the drawer and I get a fork and I just start eating.
SPEAKER_01: And then because it's strategic, I take the fork and then I put it right in there, and then I seal it back up so that I can come back to it later when I get hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Now, she frowns upon this.
SPEAKER_01: Our children frown upon this because apparently that's not the way you're supposed to do it.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, you're supposed to slice it up for everybody.
SPEAKER_01: But in my view, there's the cake.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: Have at it.
SPEAKER_01: Our English translations of Scripture have these letters spliced up into chapters, but the reality is it's all one big cake.
SPEAKER_01: It's all one big letter.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first part of chapter four is actually a continuation of the last part of chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say we're going to approach it like a three-course meal today, as we teach through chapter four, we're gonna look at the first part being kind of the free bread they give you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you like Texas Roadhouse, you get that, you know, cinnamon butter and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's second service, so I like to make you hungry before we gather on together.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: And I like to do it at the first part of the message so that your tummy rumbles the rest of the time through.
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
SPEAKER_01: I love you enough to do that.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at the free bread part, which is kind of a continuation of chapter three.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's the appetizer.
SPEAKER_01: There's some there's some moments here in chapter four that are very important and we'll miss them because they sound like pleasantries, but they are very powerful for us.
SPEAKER_01: And then we're gonna look at kind of the main course, and it's it's different than you might think.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that a lot of us are gonna learn some things that we didn't know coming into the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: But the first thing that's kind of a continuation of chapter three is right out the gate in verse one, he says, Masters, be just and fair to your servants.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, servant was doulos uh in the Greek.
SPEAKER_01: That's a word that means a bonded servant, someone who worked for another person who was responsible to them.
SPEAKER_01: That person's responsible for them, and there were wages of some form in return.
SPEAKER_01: And then from there it goes to devote yourself to prayer and be gracious and attractive.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, well, that's okay, I'm a little confused.
SPEAKER_01: It's because the last part of chapter three, if you recall, Paul is giving instructions to the family unit.
SPEAKER_01: And it was necessary because, unlike us, family units a few thousand years ago culturally and contextually were run a certain way, and that way was very much the paternal figure.
SPEAKER_01: Dad, his word was word, there was no explanation needed for instructions given.
SPEAKER_01: Meaning it was just we do it this way, even if you don't understand why.
SPEAKER_01: And the goal wasn't to teach, learn, or develop or raise, the goal was to accomplish the A to B, this is our family, you just watch, follow, and then do exactly what I say and do.
SPEAKER_01: And that uh not necessarily that there was anything wrong with that, but what happened was you've got this situation in these family units that are now being told Jesus is in charge of your life, and that was a paradigm shift for them.
SPEAKER_01: So the family units were kind of looking at it, okay, well, so we're all supposed to submit to Jesus, but this is how this works.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, okay, let me break it down for you.
SPEAKER_01: Your behaviors with one another should reflect your submission to Christ and your love of him in all areas.
SPEAKER_01: And so he doesn't present this in a way of here's kind of the formulaic path to follow in your family.
SPEAKER_01: What he is doing is he's getting to the heart of it, and he's talking about, okay, here's how wives should interact with husbands, husbands should interact with wives, here's how children should interact with parents, and here's how parents should interact with children.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, Children, obey your parents as is right before the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes that's tough for us because, and I know we've got students in the room, um, oftentimes our kids forget that we were kids.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, just so you know, sometimes you have to remind your kids that you were a kid because they don't believe that, because you're old.
SPEAKER_01: And they forget that you weren't always old, your knees didn't always hurt like this.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a little bit of experience there.
SPEAKER_01: And so the posture is to obey your parents as is fitting to the Lord because you're recognizing, kids.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: You're recognizing your parents are a blessing from God.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it may not feel like it, and there's tension there, but they are a blessing from God.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're told parents how to treat our kids, specifically fathers.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, in the context of the families at this time and place, dads were the ones doling out all of the instructions.
SPEAKER_01: So he makes it a point to address fathers specifically in this letter.
SPEAKER_01: And he tells them, Dads, do not aggravate your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Now, speaking from experience, it is easy to aggravate your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Let's have some real talk.
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna bless the kids and adults in the room.
SPEAKER_01: So you're welcome for all of this because we're just going there.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, I know you know what I mean when I say this.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it easy to aggravate our kids?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we get aggravated.
SPEAKER_01: We get aggravated.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, oh no, it's gonna be uncomfortable because my, you know, mine is sitting in the room with me.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This is out of love.
SPEAKER_01: We get aggravated, and I'm gonna tell you why we get aggravated.
SPEAKER_01: Just pull the curtain back.
SPEAKER_01: Because for years and years we have given instructions, and we would love for you to follow those instructions.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, we know this.
SPEAKER_01: I asked you to put your shoes on 42 times.
SPEAKER_01: We're late.
SPEAKER_01: You come out with one shoe.
SPEAKER_01: Where's the other shoe?
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Did you look where the other shoes go?
SPEAKER_01: Did you look where the shoes go?
SPEAKER_01: Where did you find the one shoe?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the one place.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Was the other shoe next to the shoe that's on your foot?
SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
SPEAKER_01: Well, where is your shoe?
SPEAKER_01: And then you get this.
SPEAKER_01: You get this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where you put it.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, no, you did not.
SPEAKER_01: No, you did not.
SPEAKER_01: And so you walk them back to their room, and where is the shoe?
SPEAKER_01: Right next to the other shoes.
SPEAKER_01: And you just look at them like, hmm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm responsible for making sure you make it to adulthood and prayerfully through adulthood.
SPEAKER_01: And so you get aggravated.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have a long day at work.
SPEAKER_01: Moms or dads, we got a long day at work.
SPEAKER_01: It was tough.
SPEAKER_01: And we come home and we're like, I just need to see the bowl in the dishwasher.
SPEAKER_01: Please, Lord, let the bowl be in the dishwasher.
SPEAKER_01: It was on the counter this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Please let it be in the dishwasher.
SPEAKER_01: And not only is it on the counter still, there's flies on it.
SPEAKER_01: And you're frustrated and you're aggravated.
SPEAKER_01: And so what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: Moms and dads, what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: Dads specifically, we're guilty of this.
SPEAKER_01: We operate from our aggravation.
SPEAKER_01: So thus we aggravate our kids.
SPEAKER_01: We're not patient, we're not gracious, we're not kind.
SPEAKER_01: We can't see past our own aggravation, and it spills out, and the way we treat our family is a reflection of our aggravation, not our affection.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what Paul is teaching in the moment.
SPEAKER_01: Parents, here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Before you parent, pause.
SPEAKER_01: Pause before you parent.
SPEAKER_01: The way you love and lead your family should be a reflection of your submission to Jesus first.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, we run the risk of letting our emotions and our issues and our struggles be what we lead and love from.
SPEAKER_01: So, as we interact with each other, moms and dads, children, as we learn to interact with each other in a way that honors God, pause before you react.
SPEAKER_01: Pause before you answer.
SPEAKER_01: Pause before you fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_01: And let God work in you in the pause to see that other person the way he sees them, so you treat them the way he sees them.
SPEAKER_01: That's the instruction for us as we're we're given.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, from there, which again it doesn't seem like it fits, but that's because we're slicing up the cake and the cake wasn't sliced.
SPEAKER_01: The cake was actually, if my wife hears this, the cake was actually meant to be eaten just with a fork.
SPEAKER_01: As we read this, it's meant to just be a continuation.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I've talked about this, now I've talked about this, now I've talked about this.
SPEAKER_01: He's hitting things in this big letter that's supposed to be absorbed properly so that we can do something with it.
SPEAKER_01: The next part he says, devote yourselves to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You notice that he doesn't say, hey, if you get a chance to pray, I hope you do it.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, there's open prayer from 6 30 to 8 at the church every Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like praying, that'd be cool.
SPEAKER_01: No?
SPEAKER_01: He tells this church to devote themselves to prayer.
SPEAKER_01: For those of you who might be new to sunrise, prayer is a value here because we believe there is no powerful church without prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that is prayer postures our hearts to rely on God in all things, to honor God through all things, and to submit ourselves to his leading in all seasons.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
SPEAKER_01: When you pray, do you thank God for things in your life?
SPEAKER_01: And do you ask God to reveal to you things that need to be removed or refined in or from your life?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we treat God in prayer like we're ordering from DoorDash?
SPEAKER_01: God, I really need this.
SPEAKER_01: Or, God, here is a thankful heart and reveal to me what might need to change in my life so that we can grow.
SPEAKER_01: He says, pray for us too, that God would give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan.
SPEAKER_01: Do you pray for each other?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say this very clearly because we've talked about this before, and I'm going to sound like a broken record, and I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I know because I've talked to some of them this morning.
SPEAKER_01: There are people in a church this size, because you know there's a whole nother service too.
SPEAKER_01: In a church this size, people need prayer.
SPEAKER_01: There are people who are hurting.
SPEAKER_01: Do you pray for each other?
SPEAKER_01: And when you do, be bold and loving enough to let that person know that you pray for them.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Paul who says, Look, devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for us too.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray for each other.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, uh, that's why I'm here in chains.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm in prison for sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So pray that I'll be able to proclaim the message as clearly as I should.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is, I mean, Paul is in prison, and his response is, How can I take this opportunity to share the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: That's a picture of something we don't do very often, and it's this how often do we pursue spiritual growth on the struggle bus?
SPEAKER_01: Most of us don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us don't sit around thinking, God, I've been hitchhiking out here trying to get on the struggle bus all year.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so happy that you brought these trials to me.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't even make me wait to go at the bus stop.
SPEAKER_01: You brought them right to my house.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to be on the struggle bus now so I can share Jesus with you with other people.
SPEAKER_01: No, we don't do that, do we?
SPEAKER_01: Because struggle's real.
SPEAKER_01: We're focused on the hurt, we're focused on the pain.
SPEAKER_01: That's normal.
SPEAKER_01: Not beating you up.
SPEAKER_01: That's normal.
SPEAKER_01: What is Paul doing?
SPEAKER_01: He's in prison and he's like, hey, pray that I would be able to proclaim the good news of the gospel as much as I should.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you a way to look at struggle that might help you grow in your faith, bring you closer to Jesus, and see God work in and through your life.
SPEAKER_01: When we are on the struggle bus, when we are facing trials, when the stuff gets real.
SPEAKER_01: There's power in a mindset shift when we go from God, why are you doing this to me?
SPEAKER_01: God, what are you trying to do in and through me?
SPEAKER_01: There's a shift there.
SPEAKER_01: And every trial is training.
SPEAKER_01: And God might use it to grow your faith so that when the next comes, you cling tighter to him and maybe help others who are watching your life find the hope that you have in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: There's the free bread and there's the appetizer.
SPEAKER_01: We have it right here.
SPEAKER_01: He says to live wisely and to make sure that you're living with gracious and attractive conversation so that you will have the right response for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: There's a misunderstanding when people read this verse.
SPEAKER_01: They think it's to have the right answer for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Does it say right answer for everyone?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: It says right response for everyone.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what that means: it means oftentimes as Christians, somebody tells us you have to have all the answers for everybody in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me when the end of the world is going to come.
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me if this person's the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me how old exactly is the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me how many animals did uh Noah actually have on the ark.
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me, was Moses really this?
SPEAKER_01: You need to tell me this.
SPEAKER_01: You need to make sure what is ecclesiology, what is soteriology, what is philineology that some of us don't even know what those terms mean.
SPEAKER_01: And we feel like we're supposed to have the right answer.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith is a journey and you're constantly learning as you grow.
SPEAKER_01: He says, to have the right response.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what the lesson is here?
SPEAKER_01: He says this look, people are watching your life.
SPEAKER_01: So when they watch your life, does it look like you love Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Does it look like you follow Jesus in a world that wants to cancel everybody and throw stones on the internet with our thumbs?
SPEAKER_01: Are your conversations and your interactions with people filled with grace and kindness?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Does your life look like you love Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because the right response is what he's teaching.
SPEAKER_01: You don't necessarily have to have all the right answers, but the right response is to not look like everyone else when you treat people the way you treat people.
SPEAKER_01: But to look like you treat people the way God sees people, which is love, kindness, grace, and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And if your life looks like that, it will be attractive as he says.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's the first part.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the big chunk of the lesson that we want to look at.
SPEAKER_01: We want to look at a man named Ticicus.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there are names in the Bible you know of.
SPEAKER_01: I say David and why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you know the story, you've seen the movie, you've seen the veggie tales, you've seen it.
SPEAKER_01: But I say Ticicus, and you say, bless you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't know who Ticicus is.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to get to Ticacus, but in order to get there, we have to go through Paul's Southern goodbye.
SPEAKER_01: I call it a southern goodbye.
SPEAKER_01: He writes in his own greeting and he starts naming all these people.
SPEAKER_01: In the South, this is what we call it.
SPEAKER_01: You're at an event, you're at a uh a cook, we call it cookout, we don't call it barbecue in the South.
SPEAKER_01: That's a different thing.
SPEAKER_01: Uh you're at a party, you're at something, and here's what you do: you say, okay, it's time to leave.
SPEAKER_01: We're leaving.
SPEAKER_01: And 45 minutes later, you are halfway to the door and still in the middle of a conversation.
SPEAKER_01: It's called a southern goodbye.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know what you do?
SPEAKER_01: You say you go up to the first person, hey, we're taking off.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see you guys later.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, oh, did you ever find out about oh no, but did you know what happened to so and so?
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, oh, I'm neck deep in a conversation now.
SPEAKER_01: And then we move on to the next one.
SPEAKER_01: And 45 minutes later, you are halfway out the door, and your spouse is jingling their keys as loud as they can.
SPEAKER_01: It's time to go.
SPEAKER_01: You're like Joey from Friends.
SPEAKER_01: I wanna go.
SPEAKER_01: Paul has this southern goodbye, and it's personal.
SPEAKER_01: Not only is the letter instructional.
SPEAKER_01: It's personal.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions multiple people by name, a man named Onesimus, who we're going to learn about when we go through a book called Philemon later on this spring.
SPEAKER_01: It's a man who has a really unique arc of a story.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be fun to teach through.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions Aristarchus, who's in prison with him.
SPEAKER_01: Aristarchus was in prison with Paul because they're preaching the gospel and a riot broke out and they arrested Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And Aristarchus says, if you're taking him, you got to take me.
SPEAKER_01: He was that ride or die friend.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us had that friend when we were younger and got into some stuff with that friend.
SPEAKER_01: Aristarchus is one of those.
SPEAKER_01: These are real people.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions Luke.
SPEAKER_01: That's the same Luke you might be thinking of.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew, Mark, Luke, same man, physician here, wrote the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions Nympha, who's a woman who hosted a church in her home.
SPEAKER_01: We have groups that meet in homes all over our community who gather together to learn God's word, to pray, to fellowship, to study together.
SPEAKER_01: We ripped that off of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's been happening for thousands of years because the ministry of hospitality is important.
SPEAKER_01: It matters.
SPEAKER_01: And it's available to some of us who have that ministry gift.
SPEAKER_01: He mentions a guy named Justice.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Jesus, who we've called justice, and there's not much known about justice.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have his baseball card.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't make an all-star team.
SPEAKER_01: He's not one of those.
SPEAKER_01: But what is known about justice is very simply, Paul vouched for his character.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to say this because I think some of us need to hear this, and it's a bigger lesson with Tychicus as we dive in in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Justice was known for his character.
SPEAKER_01: Today's social climate reinforces, celebrates, promotes, and encourages clout over character.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone is seeking attention for the things they do.
SPEAKER_01: So we posture ourselves and put out things, whether on the internet or in social situations, in an effort to impress people we know or, in some cases, don't even know.
SPEAKER_01: So we filter our lives online or we conflate things about our lives in our interactions because we are desperately seeking validation and affection from others, oftentimes trying to impress people we don't even know.
SPEAKER_01: So we live in this cycle of desperation and disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: We're desperate for the attention of others, we're desperate for the affirmation of others, we're desperate for the validation of others.
SPEAKER_01: How many clicks did I get?
SPEAKER_01: How many views did I get?
SPEAKER_01: How many followers do I have?
SPEAKER_01: And when we don't get that, like we want to get that, we're disappointed because we didn't get it, and so we end up living in this cycle because we are more concerned about what people think about us than who we actually are.
SPEAKER_01: Not only are we told that choices are more important than commitments, but clout is celebrated over character.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the reality clout, fame, money, attention, all that goes away, can be taken from you and manipulated.
SPEAKER_01: But your character is stone.
SPEAKER_01: Your character is what really counts.
SPEAKER_01: It's who you are when no one's looking.
SPEAKER_01: It's doing the right thing when nobody's gonna know about it, or when everybody knows about it.
SPEAKER_01: What a compliment to be spoken of in such a way as this man Justice, who you've never heard of, whose character was vouched for.
SPEAKER_01: For some of us, we need to just hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on your character because that lasts longer than Clout.
SPEAKER_01: It always does.
SPEAKER_01: And that brings us to Tychicus, the man you've never heard of.
SPEAKER_01: But he spent over a decade with Paul, serving with him, and Tychicus had a job.
SPEAKER_01: He was a courier, he would bring letters.
SPEAKER_01: And this man, I want to show you.
SPEAKER_01: I have a map because I want you to actually picture this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just say it and then you not get it.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at the map.
SPEAKER_01: These are letters that Paul wrote to churches, churches, uh, Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, but you can see that the the letters of your New Testament here represented in these countries, and you've got Rome, you've got Greece, you've got Galatia, you've got the Middle East over here.
SPEAKER_01: That's quite a bit of distance.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking thousands of miles, whether by sea or on land.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus is the guy who delivered several of these letters.
SPEAKER_01: So, in reality, the functional uh I guess kind of production end of the ministry of Tychicus is you and I have this letter to eavesdrop on.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus never made an all-star team.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know what his stats are.
SPEAKER_01: But Tychicus is a major reason we even have this letter to eavesdrop on.
SPEAKER_01: He traveled thousands of miles.
SPEAKER_01: These are dangerous journeys, too.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking shipwrecks and being in the elements, and Tychicus was bringing letters to God's people on behalf of Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Now that doesn't sound like it's this great accomplishment.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't kill a giant with a slingshot, he didn't get on a boat when the earth flooded, he didn't hit a rock and water come out, he didn't see the seas parted, he didn't see the sun stand still.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus had the ministry of a mailman.
SPEAKER_01: But how powerful a testimony it is for all of us to learn, and I don't care what age or stage you are, what your background is, where you are in life, you can embrace the things that Tychicus embraced.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at three of them and experience what I call the ministry of faithful service.
SPEAKER_01: Not flamboyant service, not famous service, faithful service.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes we go through life and we think, I can't make that much of a difference because my personality isn't this and my gifts aren't this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not built like this and I'm not good at this.
SPEAKER_01: But notice how Tychicus is referred to, because he pops up in other letters as he was delivering other letters.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus is called a faithful friend, a beloved brother, and a faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: When I ask you to think about someone who is beloved in your life, a person pops up and you get a certain sense, a feeling in your spirit when you think about that person.
SPEAKER_01: That word beloved was a it was reserved for a certain person in your life that was just, it it hits.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Greek word agapitos, and it meant to be uh endeared, loved, deeply.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually the exact word that when the voice is heard from heaven in the gospels, and it was believed to be the voice of God, who says, This is my son Jesus, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is careful to use that word as he describes Tychicus.
SPEAKER_01: He is beloved.
SPEAKER_01: He was in it, he was in the thick of ministry with him.
SPEAKER_01: And then he calls him a faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the word servant there is a Greek word that we get about seven or eight English words from.
SPEAKER_01: One of those words is a word minister.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our English understanding, we would hear minister as somebody like myself who does this vocation day in and day out.
SPEAKER_01: That I am a minister of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality here is Ticekus was not leading a church.
SPEAKER_01: Ticekus was the courier.
SPEAKER_01: So why would Paul refer to him as a word that gets translated minister?
SPEAKER_01: Because that word minister has its roots in servant, which means this.
SPEAKER_01: If you serve, you are ministering to people.
SPEAKER_01: You do not have to wait or pursue a title to be a minister.
SPEAKER_01: If you are a Jesus follower who wants other people to know and follow Jesus, if you engage in serving others for the purpose of shining the light of the gospel in their lives, you too are a minister.
SPEAKER_01: As Paul writes, here is this faithful servant, this faithful minister, this beloved brother.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that important?
SPEAKER_01: Because too often we have assumptions about what God can or can't do with who we are.
SPEAKER_01: God, I'm not good at this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not built for this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I don't like talking to people here, I don't like doing this.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then that means God can't use me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even like to pray out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus was the courier.
SPEAKER_01: You'd never heard of him, probably, when you walked in the door.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it's one of those names when you read the Bible, you're like, we'll give you a full report.
SPEAKER_01: Because you don't want to try to read it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, mm-mm, not attempting that.
SPEAKER_01: And then you forget the name.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Tyrone, Timothy, Telenova, Tyrannosaurus Rex, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Now we make light of that, but he's in here.
SPEAKER_01: And we wouldn't be reading this very letter if he didn't do what he did.
SPEAKER_01: Never underestimate the profound impact potential of service.
SPEAKER_01: And all of us can do that.
SPEAKER_01: All of us can serve someone.
SPEAKER_01: And why is service so important?
SPEAKER_01: Because, as that root word tells us, service ministers to people.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been on the other end of quality service?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just above and beyond service.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it makes you feel a certain way, makes you feel special, valued.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks to you, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because service ministers to people.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we are afraid to serve because we don't think that what we have to offer by way of service is enough or as good as what others have to offer.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the reality of service.
SPEAKER_01: Service is never small, it is always significant.
SPEAKER_01: And even when it's unseen, it is still impactful because you never know what God will do in and through it.
SPEAKER_01: How many people didn't see the work of Ticicus but were blessed by his service?
SPEAKER_01: On the other end, there's other churches, other people who would hear the gospel because he brought a letter, and that letter was read to these people.
SPEAKER_01: And they took it and they lived it out.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Thank you, Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if Ticicus ever got a thank you card.
SPEAKER_01: But he wasn't in it for that.
SPEAKER_01: Ticekus did three things to embrace faithful service, and all of us can do these three things.
SPEAKER_01: One, Tychicus, if you're a note taker, here it is.
SPEAKER_01: Ticacus was available.
SPEAKER_01: Ticicus was available.
SPEAKER_01: He was willing to change his plans for God.
SPEAKER_01: God ever uh prompted you to do something, and you're like, mmm, yeah, but I didn't plan to do that, God.
SPEAKER_01: And you have that conversation with him, and he's like, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna ask you to do this.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, that's not on the calendar.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: We got one of those things at home.
SPEAKER_01: It's a calendar in the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: You put it, you see what everybody's doing.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, can we do this?
SPEAKER_01: We got something on the calendar.
SPEAKER_01: No, we can't.
SPEAKER_01: God's like, hey, hey, I want you to I want you to to go talk to this person.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to forgive this person.
SPEAKER_01: That's not on the calendar, God.
SPEAKER_01: You know what is on the calendar?
SPEAKER_01: Bitterness.
SPEAKER_01: That's on the calendar.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Are you available?
SPEAKER_01: Are you available to change your plans if God prompts you to change your plans?
SPEAKER_01: In a moment.
SPEAKER_01: In consideration of what does God want for your life?
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus was available.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing Tychicus was, he was trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that there's a higher compliment you could pay somebody than to tell them they are trustworthy.
SPEAKER_01: I've done hundreds of references for people over the years when they seek internships or jobs or uh, you know, um uh admission to school or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and any of the conversations that I end up having over the years, especially when our kids were really little, you know, they needed babysitters.
SPEAKER_01: And parents, you understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Like, there's only so many people you're gonna let watch your kids.
SPEAKER_01: That's the most valuable thing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you let somebody watch your kids, that's a pretty high honor to bestow on them.
SPEAKER_01: And there are times that people ask me for a reference, and if it's somebody who watched our kids when they were little, that's all I usually need to say is, well, I I trusted them with our kids when they were little, and they're like, that's enough.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Trustworthiness is powerful.
SPEAKER_01: You do what you say you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: You're trusted with information.
SPEAKER_01: You don't betray that information.
SPEAKER_01: You hold it in confidence, you hold it in love.
SPEAKER_01: You are where you say you're gonna be when you're supposed to be there.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you that I can come to you and share things I'm struggling with, and I'm not going to get judgment, I'm gonna get compassion.
SPEAKER_01: Are you trustworthy?
SPEAKER_01: What a high honor! Do people consider you trustworthy?
SPEAKER_01: Tychicus was available, he was trustworthy, and the last thing, everybody can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Ticus was encouraging.
SPEAKER_01: It says not only is he gonna tell you what's going on, he's gonna deliver this letter to you, but he's also going to encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Ticekus is delivering letters, he's delivering money, resources, but you know what he was also delivering?
SPEAKER_01: His own faith.
SPEAKER_01: He had to put feet to his faith to take these letters places, and he did.
SPEAKER_01: And so as he encountered these churches, as he would deliver these letters, his faith was being lived out, and so it encouraged them.
SPEAKER_01: Do you encourage people in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us can.
SPEAKER_01: Every one of us can be available, every one of us can work on being trustworthy, and every one of us can be encouraging.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: We're sitting in this room, congratulations, you finished the book of Colossians, way to go.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason you have it in this library of books, inspired by God, we call the Bible, is because a man named Tychicus, who you've never heard of, was available, trustworthy, and encouraging, and understood the impact potential of faithful service, just like you and I can embrace availability, trustworthiness, and encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine that's what God did with one mail carrier.
SPEAKER_01: And 2,000 years later, we're reading the very letter he wrote to this group of people.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine what God can do with your life if you're available, trustworthy, and encouraging, and never underestimate the significance of service.
SPEAKER_01: I hope God gives you opportunities this week to be available, trustworthy, and encouraging and put that service on display because he'll shine the light of his gospel through your service and it will impact the lives of others.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you again for another day and for your word.
SPEAKER_01: Pray that you're honored by this time and that it helps us grow in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that what we did learn here doesn't get left here, but that we indeed take it with us.
SPEAKER_01: It's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us today at Sunrise Church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope this message encouraged you and blessed you.
SPEAKER_00: If one of the ways that you choose to worship with us here at Sunrise is by giving online, there's a link right here that you can follow and it'll take you to that payment portal.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you donate helps not only go towards reaching people in the greater San Diego area, but also all around the world through our ministry partner.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to get further connected, whether in person or online, you can email this email right here, and either myself or some one of our team members will be there to answer it and help you get connected in any way that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll see you next week.