SPEAKER_00: Well, if you have ever run a marathon or if you're a fan of marathons, I am not.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a runner.
SPEAKER_00: I hate running.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever see me running, I'm either playing basketball or there's danger.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are a fan of marathons, or if you've watched one, you probably are familiar about what they call mile 20.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone familiar with that by any chance?
SPEAKER_00: Mile 20?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a couple of runners in the room, huh?
SPEAKER_00: This is where what some would call when runners hit the wall, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real physiological phenomenon.
SPEAKER_00: You're, according to the experts, your glycogen stores are depleted at this point.
SPEAKER_00: This is when your muscles start screaming and aching, and your brain is telling you, hey, what are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: We need to quit.
SPEAKER_00: And yet elite runners continue on.
SPEAKER_00: They describe it as running through concrete.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what marathon coaches will tell you the crowd in a marathon matters when runners hit mile 20.
SPEAKER_00: There are studies that actually have shown that runners actually speed up, not slow down, when they reach a large crowd that is cheering loudly for them.
SPEAKER_00: That encouragement isn't just psychological, it's measurable.
SPEAKER_00: It literally changes a marathon runner's performance.
SPEAKER_00: I read one runner who described it like this At mile 20, I was done.
SPEAKER_00: I had nothing left.
SPEAKER_00: Then I turned a corner, and there were hundreds of people lining the street shouting my name from my bib number, telling me I could do it.
SPEAKER_00: And somehow I found another gear I didn't know I had.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want us to see this morning.
SPEAKER_00: There is something special about God honoring encouragement that does something to us.
SPEAKER_00: Just like if, you know, if you're we're a kid and you played a sport and maybe you kick a goal or you make a shot, and what's sometimes the kids' first response when they do that?
SPEAKER_00: They want to look at mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
SPEAKER_00: And if they get a grin, they get a thumbs up, they're like, oh, I'm about to drop 20 now, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's something about God honoring encouragement that does something to us.
SPEAKER_00: And here we have an apostle, Paul, as we looked at last week, who never met this church in Colossae.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't, he doesn't know them.
SPEAKER_00: He knows them secondhand by way of uh epaphras, but he's writing to encourage the Colossians who are presently struggling with false teachers, trying to lead them away from the true gospel and add to their faith in Christ, you know, the law, the worship of angels, and other weird things uh of mysticism and religion.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is writing to encourage these saints and what he sees God doing amongst them.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, he shows us what a gospel-shaped church actually looks like.
SPEAKER_00: So, what did Paul see in these Colossian Christians?
SPEAKER_00: What marks a church that's truly in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul kind of has this logic in these first eight verses where he says, so first, this all begins with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith then leads to genuine love, and that love is based on this eternal hope laid up for us in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That hope comes by way of the gospel, and that gospel produces fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start out just looking at verses one through three, and let's look at this flow of logic Paul uses in encouraging these dear saints.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we looked at last week how Paul, you know, being an apostle, is writing to a church he has never met.
SPEAKER_00: He's making it clear that, you know, Timothy is delivering this letter.
SPEAKER_00: He knows this church by way of Epaphras.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse two and three, verses two and three, he says to the saints, in Christ at colossi, who are faithful brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: This is an interesting verse because it actually can be literally translated in Christ at Colossi.
SPEAKER_00: So if you just survey Paul's letters, he's real big on the doctrine of union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most fundamental ways he describes Christians are those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So he's essentially saying they are geographically located in Colossae, but spiritually they are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think of yourself that way?
SPEAKER_00: It's like we are geographically in Greensboro or in Guilford County, but spiritually we are in Christ, which means this is this is uh an identity-shaping theology here.
SPEAKER_00: So you can say, like, I raise my family here, I work here, I serve there, I do this.
SPEAKER_00: However, I am in Christ at Greensboro.
SPEAKER_00: I am in Christ at Guilford County, whatever you want to say.
SPEAKER_00: My fundamental identity is I am a saint who is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is encouraging these dear saints based on the testimony of their faith that he has heard by way of other gospel partners in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00: When you look down at verse three, he says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we prayed for you.
SPEAKER_00: For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Paul often prayed for other believers.
SPEAKER_00: If you really pay attention to some of the introductions of his letters and even some of the portions of his letters, like Ephesians has a significantly long prayer, Paul made it a habit to pray for the churches that he had a hand in, and even churches like Colossi, he did not directly have a hand in.
SPEAKER_00: We can learn a lot from Paul's example of having a heart posture of wanting to labor on behalf of other saints for their spiritual good.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul is very specific.
SPEAKER_00: Well, but but he starts out by saying, if you look carefully at verse 3, he says, When we pray for you, which is implied, Paul has a regular pattern of praying for other Christian churches.
SPEAKER_00: Not that Paul is just spending all his time praying unceasingly for every church.
SPEAKER_00: He's essentially saying, When I do, when it when you come across my mind, when I do pray about the church of Colossae, I am thankful to God for these specific things.
SPEAKER_00: He's thankful for their faith and for their love and for the hope that they have in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine just what encouragement that would do to you and your walk with Jesus if you got a letter from the Apostle Paul and he, you maybe, I don't know, maybe if Paul wrote us a letter today, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's say we were the church in Colossae and we heard Timothy show up and said, Hey, Paul wrote y'all a letter.
SPEAKER_00: I might get a little nervous because I'm like, I don't know what he's gonna talk about.
SPEAKER_00: Is he gonna name me, right?
SPEAKER_00: But instead, he opens it up saying, I give thanks to God for you guys.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for you, because I have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: That would that would just encourage you, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like, wow, Paul has heard about our church and how we are trying to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Paul often did this.
SPEAKER_00: For example, in Philippians chapter one, he does the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.
SPEAKER_00: I am sure of this that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that encouraging to hear an apostle say, I am grateful for your partnership in the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, We're on the same page.
SPEAKER_00: We're both trying to serve and exalt Jesus and his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So, what did Paul celebrate?
SPEAKER_00: What marks a church that's truly in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Three things, as I mentioned: faith, love, and hope.
SPEAKER_00: That's not just a nice sign to put in your kitchen or something.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, love, and hope.
SPEAKER_00: These aren't just nice virtues, they're the heartbeat of the gospel transformation, according to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on in verse 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's start with faith.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul says faith, he is not celebrating some generic faith in faith.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we get faith mixed up, like faith is just this like secret mystical thing out in the sky somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's celebrating the fact that they have trusted in the object of their faith, which is Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying you have believed in Jesus, you have expressed faith for the specifically for the forgiveness of your sins.
SPEAKER_00: So faith to Paul is not some intellectual assent to a statement of faith or to a creed or to some form of religious system.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying, no, you have faith in something.
SPEAKER_00: The object of our faith is what's vital.
SPEAKER_00: So when we say we have faith, that's not enough.
SPEAKER_00: We don't just have faith in faith.
SPEAKER_00: The object of our faith matters.
SPEAKER_00: And the object of our faith for Christians is the person and work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So faith is not something, you know, it's not like possessing property.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, you can't go to Costco and buy a can of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the object of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical faith is a vibrant, living trust in the content of the gospel that then shapes how we live.
SPEAKER_00: And the Colossians were surrounded by false teachers who would try to add to their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They were saying, yes, believe in Jesus, believe in the gospel, but add to your Jesus the worship of angels, or add to your Jesus the keeping of the law.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus plus anything is nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus plus something else makes that Jesus no longer the Jesus of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus plus some form of philosophy, Jesus plus angel worship, Jesus plus religious rituals, whatever we want to add in there, as we'll see when we get to chapter two of Colossians, is no gospel at all.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is encouraging, this is very strategic as a good pastor or apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wants to encourage them in their, I guess you could say, somewhat embrace of false teaching, by first starting out with affirming them for believing in the true gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Like Paul starting with, let me remind you of who you are and what you've been saved from, your identity in Christ, before he starts addressing some of the false doctrine that was creeping in.
SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, Let me celebrate that y'all came to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You came to faith in Jesus Christ by way of the true gospel and Christ who is the object of your faith.
SPEAKER_00: But then he applauds and celebrates their love, their love.
SPEAKER_00: God honoring gospel-empowered love for others is a definitive mark of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of sad in our day and age we even need to say that as Christians.
SPEAKER_00: But God honoring gospel-empowered love for others is a definitive mark of a true Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Don't believe me, go read 1 John, where John gives these three tests for genuine faith.
SPEAKER_00: How someone can know or should have assurance that they're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: One of them is love.
SPEAKER_00: In 1 John 4, he says this, dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
SPEAKER_00: Then he gives the warning.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty simple, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: If you claim to belong to God, cool.
SPEAKER_00: God is love.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you should love because that shows that you were born of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if you don't love, that's evidence that you're not born of God.
SPEAKER_00: No debate there.
SPEAKER_00: But notice Paul doesn't say he celebrates their love for some of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You love all, your love for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, hey, I celebrate that you love the saints in your church who are just like you, or that you love the saints who are in the same season of life as you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, I celebrate your love for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a countercultural element here when you think about it, because Paul is writing in a Greco-Roman context.
SPEAKER_00: In their culture, which is very similar to ours in some ways, you love those who could benefit you the most.
SPEAKER_00: You were very strategic about your relationships, where it's like, yes, I will serve and love this person because they can give me something.
SPEAKER_00: This is something we can be guilty of as well.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel, though, flips this upside down, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You love fellow believers not because of what they can do for you, what they can offer for you, but because you believe Jesus purchased them with his own blood on the cross the same way he purchased me.
SPEAKER_00: They are my gospel inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: They are my brothers and sisters in Christ who I will spend eternity with.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, it is my joy and privilege to serve and love those made in God's image, because of what Christ has done for them.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I am willing to serve and disciple others, even if they don't reciprocate back towards me, which is hard because we live in a culture that says, hey, manage your relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Like pour into people who are going to give something back.
SPEAKER_00: Because if they don't, if you don't reciprocate, if there's no return on your investment, then you might want to recalibrate and make better use of your time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, was it really worth Jesus' time to come to earth and live and die to purchase a church who were his enemies?
SPEAKER_00: Yet he is our standard for how we love one another.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is saying, I've gotten wind of your love.
SPEAKER_00: I've gotten wind of your faith, and I am encouraged because it is genuine, it is empowered by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You have love for all the saints, and it has spread to my ears as I sit in a Roman prison.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the point here is that the gospel has transformative power.
SPEAKER_00: A Paphrist, by the grace of God, came to faith in Jesus Christ, likely under the ministry of Paul, went back to his hometown, preached the gospel to his hometown.
SPEAKER_00: People came to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This church is birthed, and lives are changed because they had an encounter with the gospel being proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel has both a transformative and reverberating effect.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give some thoughts of application here.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that saving faith is not solely a one-time decision, but an ongoing trust in Christ's finished work?
SPEAKER_00: Paul does not encourage these Colossians for reciting a prayer at some point during the service or signing a card or just because they grew up in a Christian household or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: No, he is affirming an ongoing lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying these saints have a credible profession of faith because their fruit has borne witness to what they profess.
SPEAKER_00: So this is more than a one-time decision.
SPEAKER_00: It has ongoing fruit because the gospel is transformative for those who have been saved by it.
SPEAKER_00: Or let me ask this where are you tempted, like the Colossians were, to add on to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Now, in face value, you might think, I would never add on to Jesus because that sounds absurd.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure the Colossians would have said the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: The way we can add on to Jesus is by asking us or asking ourselves questions like, what am I trusting in in addition to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know Jesus will take care of me, but I gotta do A, B, and C to make sure this outcome happens.
SPEAKER_00: That's a form of potentially adding on to Jesus, not solely trusting in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying as Christians, we just sit on our hands, we don't work and engage and try to do things.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we can add on to Jesus in subtle ways.
SPEAKER_00: Or we are trusting in Jesus, we say, but we're also trusting in something else for the foundation of our acceptance before God.
SPEAKER_00: I believe Jesus died on the cross for me, he rose on the third day and redeemed me by his blood, but I have to keep this list in order to maintain God's favor over me.
SPEAKER_00: That is adding on to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I think one we're guilty of, I'm guilty, certainly guilty of often, is sometimes when we know we need to confess sin or the spirit convicts us of sin and we feel guilty and we want to go to the Lord in confession, we might think, well, I need to kind of like sit on this for a little bit and just wallow in my guilt and shame before I confess.
SPEAKER_00: So that way it's more genuine.
SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is you're adding on to Jesus subtly because you're saying Jesus' death on the cross was not sufficient to atone for all of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: I need Jesus' atonement on the cross, and I need a little bit of groveling before the Lord to kind of show him my penance and then he'll receive my confession.
SPEAKER_00: No, that actually minimizes what Jesus did on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: His death and resurrection was sufficient for all of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Or to think of it another way, how does faith in Christ Jesus express itself in your daily decisions, your relationships, how you spend your time?
SPEAKER_00: Does it show what you profess that Jesus is supreme?
SPEAKER_00: He is sufficient for all things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing this up because what Paul is doing here is he's using this God-honoring praise and encouragement to encourage these Christians to continue to walk with Jesus because they're tempted to wander away from Jesus, which is very strategic.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: If your default is when you're discipling others, if your default is to like slip into teaching mode where you hear a problem and you like a hammer, you see a nail, and you're just like, well, let me just throw a verse at them, let me just teach them, just do this thing.
SPEAKER_00: Learn from Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Learn from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is, we're gonna get to it in later chapters.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to teach them, he is gonna instruct them in some of the dangers they're they're succumbing to.
SPEAKER_00: But before he does that, he encourages and praises them for the evidence of God's grace he sees in them in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: How often do we lead with that?
SPEAKER_00: Like, let me, I see something in this brother and sister that troubles me, and I want to, I want to help them with, but let me start by just encouraging them, by helping them see, hey man, hey, sis, I am so blessed to see how the Lord has just borne fruit in your life in the past year in this way or in that way, before just hitting someone over the head with the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Just tuck that away for another time.
SPEAKER_00: But this is countercultural, the instructions that he is giving.
SPEAKER_00: But I love Paul's prayers because they give me examples of how my prayer time should look, how I should be praying and thinking about other Christians when I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself this question: how often do you give regular thanks to God for other Christians in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Or who do you thank God for regularly?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul makes a habit of doing.
SPEAKER_00: He is regularly thinking about other Christians and their churches and telling them this is what encourages me in my faith about your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Or ask yourself this: who in the body of Christ is hardest for you to love?
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at them, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Who in the body of Christ is the hardest for you to love?
SPEAKER_00: Is it the person with different political views than you?
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know I always get on my soapbox on my love-hate relationship with social media, but it is interesting to see how professing Christians just seem to throw love out the window when they carry themselves over social media.
SPEAKER_00: I have yet to see, maybe there's someone out there, I've yet to see a Christian, or anyone for that matter, change their theological views based on getting in an argument with someone in the comment section on Facebook or Twitter.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we keep trying.
SPEAKER_00: Or someone says, I love Jesus, I'm a Christian, I'm a healthy member of my church, but then they're sharing things publicly online, condemning people on the left, condemning and speaking poorly and demeaning people on the right.
SPEAKER_00: Or it's like, well, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We're all made in God's image.
SPEAKER_00: What happened to honor?
SPEAKER_00: What happened to love?
SPEAKER_00: If we have been born of God, we love.
SPEAKER_00: Which means loving people who are hard to love.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of people who are hard to love, and if you don't know anyone, anyone who's hard to love, someone right now might be thinking of you.
SPEAKER_00: So just know that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people who have a different preference in worship style, different second-tier or third-tier theological convictions, different socioeconomic backgrounds, whatever we can think of, sometimes people are difficult to love.
SPEAKER_00: But according to the gospel of Jesus Christ, we recognize wait a minute, that is someone made in God's image, designed for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: How could I ever think less of them?
SPEAKER_00: My prayer as a pastor is that by God's grace, Redeemer would be a Colossians 1:4 church.
SPEAKER_00: Look what Paul says in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking about him and his gospel partners, him, Timothy, and others, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: That is my prayer on behalf of this church family.
SPEAKER_00: That people outside of our membership would hear of the members of Redeemer Church and how you live your lives as broken, flawed sinners who are imperfect, and that they would give praise to God because of the witness that you're bearing to the world and how you live your life as a disciple of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That would be the greatest marker of a church, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That is what happens here, was what's happening here with the Colossian church.
SPEAKER_00: They are just seeking to faithfully follow Christ in a fallen, broken world as imperfect individuals who didn't even have the full Bible yet, and they're telling.
SPEAKER_00: Testimony of faith and love and hope reached all the way to a Roman prison to the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And now we have the benefit of reading today in 2026 here in Greensboro, North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: That is amazing, friends.
SPEAKER_00: So never think that one single church has little influence.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: And who cares?
SPEAKER_00: If your influence is smaller than another church's, the key should be what is the aim of your influence?
SPEAKER_00: And that is leading our lives in a way that exalts the glory of Jesus Christ and proclaims his gospel as well.
SPEAKER_00: But notice, and let me just say a quick word here.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, here's what's interesting about Paul's words.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are commanded and expected to love one another and to love those who are not of the household of faith, those who are not following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: John 13, 35, out of Jesus' own mouth, he says, By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not a Christian this morning, I would just submit that you tuck this away and just think about this.
SPEAKER_00: What Christians do you know?
SPEAKER_00: And just observe their lives and see, is there something distinct about the way that they love others that's different than how you think of love and how you love one another?
SPEAKER_00: Just tuck that away.
SPEAKER_00: But moving on to verse five, Paul talks about this eternal hope reserved in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: In verse five, he goes on, because of the hope.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sorry, let me back up to verse four.
SPEAKER_00: He says, For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints, because of the hope reserved for you in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel, that has come to you.
SPEAKER_00: It is bearing fruit and growing in all the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it, and came to truly appreciate God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Let's focus on verse five.
SPEAKER_00: The faith and love that Paul celebrates in verse four is grounded in the hope of verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Hope is the foundation of their faith, not the result of it.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, as Christians who love the Bible, hope is isn't wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Like when you woke up this morning, you probably hoped it wouldn't rain.
SPEAKER_00: That's wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: That's not Christian hope.
SPEAKER_00: This hope in the Bible is a settled confidence in God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: It's a real tangible thing, not wishful thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And for these Colossian Christians, the hope that is reserved for them in heaven, this is interesting language because what Paul is doing here, he's using a completed action, he's describing a completed action that has ongoing results.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying you already have hope because you're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what comes with that hope is a package deal.
SPEAKER_00: There is something laid up for you in eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, you were saved, you're now in Christ, you're saints who are set apart.
SPEAKER_00: However, that salvation has ongoing benefits and results that will finally be culminated in the last day.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying your inheritance in heaven is already secured, and God has set it aside specifically for you in a future time.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a perfect illustration, but think of like when you were a kid and Christmas is coming, and your parents start putting trees under or presents under the trees, and you go up and you see a present with your name on it, and maybe you pick it up, you know, oh, this is heavy.
SPEAKER_00: You start shaking it.
SPEAKER_00: You can't open it, obviously, but maybe you're trying to, you know, lift up a little bit of the tape to try to see if you can get a peek.
SPEAKER_00: But leading up to Christmas, there's this anticipation, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: Because you're going to school with an extra pep in your step, because you know, like, I got a good, I know I got a good present.
SPEAKER_00: I picked it up, it was heavy, I shook it.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that on Christmas Day, you get to have the prize, the gift.
SPEAKER_00: You get to open it and benefit from it.
SPEAKER_00: That pells in comparison to what Paul is encouraging these Colossians with.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that the hope that God offers them is laid up for them and reserved and secure in eternity, and they one day will receive it and benefit from it.
SPEAKER_00: But that hope that's coming in eternity is to shape how they live presently today.
SPEAKER_00: And that hope, therefore, is changing them, changing their perspective, but also changing how they lead their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you don't have to turn here, but I I love Hebrews chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn here if you want, but Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the best examples of this, I believe, in the life of Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And Hebrews 11, the author is describing all these faithful saints who put their hope in God, and some of them didn't even see the fulfillment of the promise, and yet they still believed, and it was uh accounted to them as faith.
SPEAKER_00: But here's an example of a future hope leading to a transformed life in the present.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at my man Moses in Hebrews 11, verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: The text says, By faith, Moses, after he was born, was hidden by his parents for three months, because they saw that the child was beautiful and they didn't fear the king's edict.
SPEAKER_00: By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and chose to suffer with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin, for he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead to the reward.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have a careful eye, you might be thinking, wait a minute, Moses didn't have the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Moses didn't understand the mystery of the gospel in its entirety as we do.
SPEAKER_00: So how is it then in verse 26, the author of Hebrews is convinced that he considered the reproach of Christ to be greater than the treasures of Egypt?
SPEAKER_00: That's hope.
SPEAKER_00: The content Moses did have, he trusted in God for.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, us American Christians do not think like this.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to pay attention to what Moses chose to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just let's modernize this, okay?
SPEAKER_00: The new Cam Urban translation.
SPEAKER_00: Moses could have had a lit life, okay?
SPEAKER_00: He could have had all the wealth, all the prestige and influence.
SPEAKER_00: He could have had anything, his his desires, whatever fleshly desires he had, he could have had his his beckon call if only he chose to identify as a son of Pharaoh's daughter.
SPEAKER_00: All of that would have been his.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, not only did he reject that, but look at what he chose in place of it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: And chose to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just stop there.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us would sign up for that?
SPEAKER_00: If we had everything that Moses had in front of him, but what did what led Moses to make the decision?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, verse 26, let's start there.
SPEAKER_00: For he considered reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: He considered the reproach for the sake of Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, since he was looking ahead, there's hope, to the reward.
SPEAKER_00: By faith he left Egypt behind, not being afraid of the king's anger, for Moses preserved as one who sees him who persevered.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Moses persevered as one who sees him who is invisible.
SPEAKER_00: By faith he instituted the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that's what hope does to someone.
SPEAKER_00: That is what eternal hope does to the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It is reserved for us in heaven, but it shapes the way we live now.
SPEAKER_00: And what we learn from that example and just from our understanding of the gospel is that our salvation is so much more than being saved from hell and having our sins forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: So much more.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give a few examples.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to turn to these because you're just going to miss.
SPEAKER_00: Just listen.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 2 9.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived, God has prepared these things for those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Christian, you are saved from God's wrath, but you are also saved to something far glorious and eternal waiting for you in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: First John 3, one through three, see what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children, and we are.
SPEAKER_00: That's what John is saying.
SPEAKER_00: One more, Romans 8, 18 and 25.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul who suffered much more than we likely ever will in our Christian lives.
SPEAKER_00: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
SPEAKER_00: A lot about the Christian faith has to do with eternity, has to do with patiently waiting for all of God's promises to be finalized in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: All right, this is a lot of hope talk.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, how do we grow in this type of hope?
SPEAKER_00: How do we build our God-centered perspective of our of our eternal hope, the gift laid up for us in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And I would say the answer is you need to know your Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: The more you know your Bible, the deeper your love and appreciation for the hope laid up for you in heaven is.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in Romans 15, 4, for whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that we Christians may have what?
SPEAKER_00: Hope.
SPEAKER_00: Through endurance and through the encouragement from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Are you paying attention to Paul's words?
SPEAKER_00: Hope and encouragement for endurance comes from knowing your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Are you struggling to persevere?
SPEAKER_00: Are you discouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Do you need encouragement?
SPEAKER_00: Engage in the Word of God because it produces hope, endurance, and encouragement, which comes from the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: You learn to hope by knowing the message of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Hope does not come from motivational speeches or positive thinking or affirmations on your bathroom window.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from God's promises in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: The more your Bible intake increases, the more you're shaped into the image of God, the more your mind is renewed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying this is some magical incantation of just read a verse or a chapter and you're just gonna, you know, be sailing in your Christian walk.
SPEAKER_00: But no, God has means by which he sanctifies his children.
SPEAKER_00: And one of those means is through the Spirit illuminating his word to the hearts of his people.
SPEAKER_00: So I say this with all love.
SPEAKER_00: If you feel like you are running your race and you're constantly discouraged, and you feel lacking in motivation, you feel a lack of joy, if you neglect the study of God's word, I'm not surprised.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul says, for whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not in God's word, you're not being instructed by God, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: So just a quick pastoral encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Going back to my marathon runner illustration, if you as a Christian feel like in your walk with Jesus, you're in your mile 20, where your spiritual muscles are aching and you feel like your body, your soul is telling you it's time to quit.
SPEAKER_00: This is too hard.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just end the race.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done battling sin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm done fighting, I'm done fighting discouragement and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering if this is all even worth it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what's waiting for you.
SPEAKER_00: And praise be to God that when we stand before our Savior, we're not going to be judged primarily on, well, what was your joy in the process?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, I mean, you were going to church, but like, man, you were like, you were complaining over here.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus already knows all that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he went to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: All the work, he did it.
SPEAKER_00: We're not graded with some kind of rapport card where he's like, yeah, I know you did the right things and you did finish well, so well done.
SPEAKER_00: However, let's talk about like your form when you were running.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Your form was a little off over here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you had the wrong arm leading and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: We are to remember what's laying ahead, what's laid ahead for us because our hope is reserved in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Philippians chapter 3 real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate this for you guys.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why I always gravitate towards Paul and Peter the most.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like they're just as jacked up as I am, so they they help me.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3, verses 7 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: For those who are truly lay or committed to having a God-centered perspective of what's laid up for them in heaven, this is how you talk.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 3, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Paul, speaking of his own faith, he says, But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
SPEAKER_00: My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do.
SPEAKER_00: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we talk.
SPEAKER_00: If you truly believe that your treasure is laid up in heaven, that's how you talk.
SPEAKER_00: If you truly believe that this life pales in comparison to what God has prepared for you in eternity, that's how you talk.
SPEAKER_00: And that's an apostle speaking like that.
SPEAKER_00: So praise God.
SPEAKER_00: There's hope for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: An apostle who God, who Jesus appeared to supernaturally and called into the ministry, and who is writing inspired scripture that we're studying this morning, Paul said, I know the goal, it's my aim, that's what I'm on.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't arrived.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying, I'm struggling, I'm not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: There is hope for every last one of us.
SPEAKER_00: But what motivated Paul was he knew that Jesus Christ promised him a crown in eternity one day.
SPEAKER_00: And that should motivate us as well.
SPEAKER_00: But let's look at verses six through eight and look at Paul describing this reverberating effect of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Picking up in verse six, he describes the gospel as that has come to you.
SPEAKER_00: It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it, and came and came to truly appreciate God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: You learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant.
SPEAKER_00: He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, and he has told us about your love and the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In verses six through eight, Paul uses three definite articles.
SPEAKER_00: He says, The gospel has come to you.
SPEAKER_00: It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is not some system of religion, it's not some vague spiritual feeling.
SPEAKER_00: It is a message, it is content, it is a body of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, you have come to believe in that body of content, that message that Jesus is the Son of God who came and lived a righteous life, died on the cross under the Roman government, rose on the third day, and is seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: When he says the gospel, it, that is what he's referring to.
SPEAKER_00: He is telling them, there is a gospel, friends, and you have been saved by it, therefore remain in it.
SPEAKER_00: There aren't gospels, there is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And notice that the gospel is the subject of the sentence.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is what's doing the work.
SPEAKER_00: It bears fruit, it grows.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: We are not responsible for making the gospel grow, or its fruits rather, to grow.
SPEAKER_00: We're responsible for what?
SPEAKER_00: Faithfully opening our mouths and lovingly and persuasively proclaiming and sharing and instructing others in the gospel with the aim to persuade people to believe.
SPEAKER_00: We're not responsible ever for making it grow.
SPEAKER_00: That should take a load off everyone's shoulders this morning, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Paul understood he wasn't responsible for the church in Colossae.
SPEAKER_00: Even Epaphras who planted the church wasn't responsible for the church in Colossi because Jesus said that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: Their role was to simply instruct in the gospel with the aim to persuade people to saving faith in Christ and go to sleep on the pillow of God's sovereignty, trusting that if God chooses to glorify his name by bringing people to saving faith in this place, so be it.
SPEAKER_00: That is the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, the gospel is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to someone right before the service of how amazing it is that we in 2026 benefit from the faith and the faithful witness of a bunch of uneducated Jews in the Middle East thousands of years ago.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that these brothers, the original disciples, believed after Jesus' resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: They scattered and proclaimed the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: People came to faith, churches were planted.
SPEAKER_00: More people who came to faith preached the gospel, churches were planted, all the way until right here in Guilford County, you and I are here worshiping Jesus Christ because of 12 uneducated faithful men who struggled to even believe during Jesus' earthly ministry and who he said he was.
SPEAKER_00: That is the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I like to summarize it as God's word creates God's people.
SPEAKER_00: God's word creates God's people, and it has a reverberating effect.
SPEAKER_00: I would highly encourage you, if you were like me, I never really cared about history until I became a Christian and started studying church history.
SPEAKER_00: And now I just I love history.
SPEAKER_00: It is fascinating to see how God has sovereignly worked all throughout time.
SPEAKER_00: When you realize, wow, so God planted a seed here and it just spread like wildfire.
SPEAKER_00: Or when you look at things like when governments persecuted Christianity to stop the spread of Christianity, it actually had the opposite effect.
SPEAKER_00: As they killed and imprisoned Christians for proclaiming the gospel, it just led Christians to double down and proclaim it all the more, and even more people came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because people who weren't believers said, wait a minute, these people truly believe that Jesus resurrected on the third day so much so that they refused to recant this belief and even die for it, which led them to consider maybe there's something to what they have to say.
SPEAKER_00: And so for those of you who aren't a Christian this morning, it's really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I get encouraged in my faith by reading the works of atheists because it's interesting how most atheists or agnostic scholars and historians all unanimously agree Jesus really lived.
SPEAKER_00: He really died under Roman persecution on the cross, and they agree that his tomb was empty three days later.
SPEAKER_00: Now, they try to explain it away by saying, well, maybe someone stole the body, or maybe he didn't actually die.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the least believable.
SPEAKER_00: They say the swoon theory.
SPEAKER_00: He looked like he died, but then he kind of, you know, got back to health a couple days later.
SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting is whatever theory they come up with, all those theories are trying to explain why the tomb was empty three days later.
SPEAKER_00: Which is really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: You should think about that if you don't believe in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, all that to say, what's interesting is how do you explain then why Paul, who we're reading today, was a man who was a Jewish leader persecuting the church, trying to stop Christianity from spreading, goes from that mission to all of a sudden being one of the biggest proponents of the gospel spreading.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was convinced that the tomb was truly empty three days later.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm about to preach in.
SPEAKER_00: Other sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Moving on.
SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting is how the gospel has a reverberating effect.
SPEAKER_00: The reverberating uh reverberating effect is shown in verse 7 with Epaphras.
SPEAKER_00: Apaphras came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know much about this, brother, uh, other than he came to faith likely under the ministry of Paul.
SPEAKER_00: But in verse 7, Paul tells us you he you learned this from Epaphras, our dearly loved fellow servant.
SPEAKER_00: He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: So the gospel came to Epaphras, and then the Lord sparked a fire in Epaphras to share the gospel with his hometown, and then people came to faith.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel reverberates.
SPEAKER_00: The Colossians believed the gospel, and their faith and love became known all throughout their region, a reverberating effect, to the point where Paul heard about it and was encouraged in his faith.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes this letter to encourage these Christians in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are in 2026 in Greensboro, North Carolina, studying the book of Colossians to be encouraged in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: All my point is, over 2,000 years later, God's word is still reverberating throughout the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And praise be to God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the question: what created this ripple effect?
SPEAKER_00: It's right there in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul says, Since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God's grace, they didn't just hear information, they didn't just store intellect in their heads, they heard the gospel and they experienced God's grace in that gospel when the Spirit illuminated the truth to them, convicted them of their sins, and changed them for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give some few thoughts of application here.
SPEAKER_00: One for us as a church collectively, what would it look like for Redeemer Church as a family to create this type of ripple effect in our city, in our homes, in our sphere of influence?
SPEAKER_00: When people hear about us, what will they hear?
SPEAKER_00: What do we as a church family want to be known for?
SPEAKER_00: I would hope that our heart posture is we're not just prioritizing just the members of this church, though that comes first, but also as we follow Jesus, how can we be a blessing to other Christians trying to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What would they say of us?
SPEAKER_00: What is our testimony to the surrounding community?
SPEAKER_00: Would people know us for our programs, for our building, for our worship preferences?
SPEAKER_00: Or do they say, what I know about that church is, man, they they love Jesus and his gospel?
SPEAKER_00: They love people well because of their love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: For us individually, ask yourself, is your life either amplifying or muffling the glory of Jesus and his gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Does your life amplify the ministry of Jesus or does it muffle it?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's no neutral ground.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing one or the other if we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We are leveraging our influence to amplify the glory of Christ or to muffle it.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, the gospel, friends, we need to be reminded of this, is still having a reverberating effect, bearing fruit across the globe.
SPEAKER_00: It is still growing.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is still creating God's people.
SPEAKER_00: It grew in Colossae, it can grow right here in Greensboro, it can grow in your household, in your neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: The same grace that transformed them is available to you today.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, do you believe that enough to open your mouth and persuade people to believe, as Paul did?
SPEAKER_00: So, in conclusion, let me just summarize here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul prayed for the Colossians with thanksgiving because he saw what God was doing in them.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just encourage you guys in your prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: We have a helpful tool.
SPEAKER_00: You can go in the church directory and you can just regularly pray for other members in this church and reach out to them and say, I am praying that God will bless you in this way.
SPEAKER_00: Or tell someone, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I, if you, I'm a big fan of if you see something, say something.
SPEAKER_00: Not in the negative, like me too sense, but in the positive Christian sense.
SPEAKER_00: If you, I mean, do that too, but to be clear, but if you see evidence of God's grace in other Christians, tell them.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, brother, man, I have just noticed a growth in you in the past year.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I remember you sharing with me.
SPEAKER_00: This used to be hard for you, but it seems like God's been kind to you, and that that might still be a struggle, but you seem to have grown tremendously, and I'm just so encouraged by that.
SPEAKER_00: That is very loving.
SPEAKER_00: That is encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: That is what Paul does in his letters when he writes to the church in Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey guys, I'm praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, here's exactly what I'm praying on your behalf for.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells them to encourage them.
SPEAKER_00: May Redeemer Church, by God's grace, be a Colossians 1-4 church, a church that's known for its faith, its love, and its hope.
SPEAKER_00: Its love for all the saints, and its hope secured in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And may we encourage one another towards that end as broken, imperfect sinners who are struggling forward, but doing so together as a family.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.