can go ahead and be seated.
Again, everyone, we're glad that you're here. We are doing baby dedications at all of our services today. And I know I had a family sign up for this service. I see if they're here. There they are. Jeremy and Davina, come on up, guys. We're going to celebrate the addition to their family here. Yeah, come on up. That'll be good. If you want to get good pictures, you can come right over here. That'll be great. Yeah. It's good to get pictures. Right in the middle here. In the spotlight right here. All right. Get next to each other. Look like you like each other. There you go.
All right. We are thrilled to have you as a part of our church family and to be able to celebrate with you this beautiful addition to your family. This is Jeremy and Davina and their baby girl, Lydia. What a beautiful girl. Let's greet Lydia as well. Welcome her. Yeah.
Each time we do this, I want to share with families. I have a gift Bible just to commemorate that time. It's got a place you can write in the day that you did this. It's a baby dedication and everything. And then I have a book I want to present to you because one of the things that will be most important, and I know you know this, but we want to encourage you in this, is not only pouring God's word into her heart as she grows up, but praying for her and for what God's plan is for her life.
And so we've got a book that we give each family for these baby dedications by Mark Batterson called *Praying Circles Around Your Children*. It's got some great guides there for how you can pray for your children. And I want to share a passage from Deuteronomy. That is a great reminder to all of us.
And here's the thing. This applies to parents and grandparents, no matter what age your children are or your grandchildren are. This is an ongoing, continual thing that we are instructed to do for our children. And God was giving instructions to his people as he was taking them into the land that he had promised to give them. And he said, there's some important things you need to do as you go into that land and establish yourselves as a people.
And here's what he says. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. So that's where it starts. And I know that's where you guys are. You love the Lord and you entered into your marriage to honor God and to honor him with your family now for this baby girl.
But then he goes on with the instructions not only to put God's word in your heart, these commands in your heart. But in verse seven, impress them on your children. The word impressed means to use great force and intention on a consistent basis to put these things in the hearts of your children and press them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up, tie them as symbols on your hands, bind them on your foreheads, write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
So that covers everything all the time. It's an ongoing part of being a parent. It's to pour this into your children. And I know that's your goal. And we want to come around you as your church family to support you in that, encourage you in that, to help build you up and encourage you and then to help you with that teaching for your children in the Lord as we do that as a church together as your church family.
Let's pray together for this family as they dedicate their beautiful girl to the Lord.
Father, we thank you for this family, for the love they have for you and for each other. We thank you for blessing this family with this beautiful girl. We just pray that you would help us to come around them as their church family, to be an encouragement, to be supportive of the teaching of your word and helping to guide this young life into the plan and purposes you have for her. We know that you've got good things planned for her, blessings planned for her, and you gave her to this family so they could be a part of what your plan is for her.
So give them wisdom and discernment. It's a challenging thing, Father, but you entrusted them with this great opportunity to pour themselves into her. May we be that support and encouragement we need to be for them. In Jesus' name, amen.
God bless you. Let's congratulate them again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Well, again, we want to welcome all of you. Welcome to Smyrna Campus. We love you guys. Glad you're there. Everyone that's connecting with us online, we're so happy to have this connection with you as well.
As we continue our message series that we're in, going straight through the book of Colossians with the theme of the supremacy of Christ. I love these Sundays when we have recognition like a dedication of children and things like that because it reminds us of how parents always want the best for their children. Good parents will always try to make sacrifices, invest in, do what they need to do for the good of their children.
Now, we don't always get it right. We don't always do the best thing every time. But we're certainly wanting to do that as much as we can as parents. It reminded me of these actual elementary school excuse notes that mothers wrote for their children for some problems they were having at school or absences and things like that. These are some actual notes that teachers got.
Jerry was at his grandmother's yesterday, and she did not bring him to school because Jerry couldn't remember where the school was.
Ronnie would not finish his homework last night. He said his brain was tired of spelling. I can relate to that one.
Eric hurt his knee in a karate tournament over the weekend. He won his age group but was in too much pain to do his homework. He had to get in there that he won, you know, that's a proud mom.
Amy did not do her homework last night because we went out to a party and did not get home until late. If she is tired, please let her sleep during recess. Very responsible mom there.
Henry stayed home because he had a stomachache from eating too much frosting.
This is a mom trying to take the hit. It was my fault Mike did not do his math homework last night. His pencil broke, and we do not have a pencil sharpener at home.
This is an interesting one. Scott didn't practice last night because he lost his tooth in the mouthpiece of his trumpet.
Diane was late on Wednesday. She fell asleep on the bus and was taken back to the bus yard. I'm sorry.
Cody was absent yesterday because we were out bowling until 2 a.m.
Tommy wasn't in school yesterday because he thought it was Saturday.
Obviously, parents are trying to do, most parents are trying to do what they think is best for their kids. And we're going to look at an example of that today as a part of the message from Colossians as we continue our study there.
Be opening up your Bibles, if you would, to Colossians. We're going to finish up the last part of chapter 1 and go into chapter 2 today as we look at a pattern to follow from the Apostle Paul's life and his concern for the church there that he was writing this letter to and for all Christ followers for the ages to come.
There is this pattern to follow. Let's pick up in chapter 1 and verse 24.
He says, Now I rejoice in what I'm suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness, the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord's people.
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
In this pattern to follow, we're going to look at four things in particular that we see in the life of the Apostle Paul. The first is our position in Christ.
When you think about positions, I'll talk to people all the time. You're thinking about, you ask people, what do they do? And usually you talk about work. You know, what's your job? What's your occupation? And we try to find out about people by asking them what they do.
And sometimes for some people, they try to make it sound more impressive or more important than it really is by giving some title to a position that makes it sound like it's higher or more important position than it really is. Because in our culture, the way you mark success, the way you mark progress is by working your way up a ladder into certain positions that are seen to be higher than other positions that you think are kind of starting out positions. They're not the ones you aspire to over time.
And so we measure our position. We measure our lives sometimes by our position. Now, the danger with that is, is we can bring that into our spiritual lives as well. And sometimes even within the church, we can let this become a driving force of what we do or don't do within the church.
But here's the thing we're learning from the Apostle Paul, and we learn it all through scripture. And that is within the kingdom of God, there is no ladder to climb. There is no lower position or higher position. There is no higher position in the kingdom of God.
In fact, it's pretty much the opposite of what we see in the world. If you do want to talk in terms of levels or positions in the kingdom of God, what he reveals to us is that there is no higher position in the kingdom of God than servant. That's as high as it goes.
If you are serving in the kingdom of God, you have reached the pinnacle. You have reached the pinnacle of the position you could have in God's kingdom.
And so we have to really work at, because we're in the flesh and we live in a culture, in a world that elevates people and recognizes people by what positions or titles they hold. We have a hard time not bringing that into the church and thinking of ourselves or others in the church based on position.
And we might give greater honor or greater respect to certain titles or positions in the church. But here's the thing. If someone is a servant, that's the highest position they can have.
And so all servants of Christ should be honored and treated with dignity and respect, no matter what title they hold. It's the thing to aspire to in the kingdom of God is that God allows us to serve him in his kingdom.
Now, it's a hard mindset to grasp because, again, in our culture, servants, that title is not one that we elevate in our culture. In fact, among a lot of people, it's one we look down on in our culture. You're there to serve me or to serve other people. You're not one of the important ones in our culture.
And yet most of the real work is done by whom? The servants, right? That's where the real work takes place that allows everything else to happen is among the servants.
And so we have to get a mind shift here in God's kingdom that only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we begin to change how we think about positions and about honor and recognition in the body of Christ.
This past week, I learned of someone dying that Sue Ann and I knew as a friend. And he had been a real encourager to us. His name was Alan Algram. And Alan has served in the kingdom for a long time. And I didn't know Alan for a lot of years, but I knew of him. But then I got to do a mission trip that Alan was on as well.
And on that mission trip, I got to know this man a lot better. And what I found on this mission trip was I would ask about him to find out more about him. And he would always turn the subject back to me. And what do you know about me? And what do you hear about the work I was doing? He wanted to hear about where I came from and how our church was doing and all of that.
While he himself was serving in the kingdom just like I was. But what I understood was Alan had the heart of a servant. He wanted to pour into others. That's why he was on that mission trip. And that's why when we had a conversation, he would always turn it to encouraging me.
And he didn't just do that with me. When Alan passed away, you could see all the tributes from all these people all over the country that Alan had encouraged and poured into over the years.
Now, he served in important roles. He was a pastor of a large church that he started. He planted it himself. And then he started a retreat center campus where pastors and their wives could go to be encouraged when they were struggling in ministry. He did so many important things. Things that you would think deserve great recognition. And certainly they do.
But he never did anything with that intent of making it about him. To get recognition for him. And that's why I think he was so well loved and so much honored. It's because people who get it, who understand the way the kingdom works, understand that that's the highest thing you can do.
Is serve other people. There's no more important role than that. Than to pour into the lives of others as an encourager to them.
Jesus spoke directly to that in Matthew chapter 20, beginning with verse 25. Now, I want to give you a little of the context of the verse we're going to look at. I was talking about parents, right? Wanting what's best for their kids.
Well, Jesus has been talking about his kingdom. He's been teaching about it. And he's just said that he's going to have to go to Jerusalem. He's going to be crucified. And then he's going to rise again. And they're thinking, well, they didn't understand all that. But they were getting the idea that it was connected to ushering in his kingdom in some way.
And so there's this, these two disciples whose mom obviously was concerned about her sons with this new kingdom Jesus was going to establish. And so this mom of James and John went to Jesus with James and John, her sons.
So Jesus, you know, when you come into your kingdom, here's what I want you to do for my boys. I want you to get Jimmy and Johnny seated at your right hand and your left hand. The positions of greatest honor in a worldly kingdom, the way a worldly kingdom would work.
I want you to make sure they have those positions when you come into your kingdom. You see, this is just a mom who loves her boys. She's just wanting what's best for them, right? In her mind, what she thinks is best for them.
And she didn't grasp or understand that in order for Jesus to usher in the kingdom, it required him to go to the cross, be brutally beaten and nailed to a cross, to bleed and die there. And to die there. And she didn't grasp, but that's what it was going to take to bring this kingdom in.
And that's what Jesus was doing, even as the one who was going to lead this kingdom, this new kingdom that was being established. And so when she asked for her sons to have the right hand and the left hand position to Jesus, who was ushering in his kingdom, she didn't know the sacrifice that was going to be called for to do that.
And that's what Jesus said in reply, you don't know what you're asking for. You don't understand what this kingdom looks like, how this kingdom works. You're thinking of power and prestige and recognition. And what it's really about is sacrifice and service.
Be careful what you ask for. And so he says to James and John, can you suffer what I am going to have to go through? Are you ready to accept what it's going to take to serve in this kingdom? They say, oh, yes, we'll do it. Lord, we'll be ready and willing to do that.
And he says, well, you are going to have to suffer like I suffer for this kingdom if you're going to be in this kingdom with me. And then he picks up in verse 25, calling all the disciples together to teach them a lesson.
Jesus, because the other disciples, I just want to tell you, they were all in this together in one way. It says they were indignant with James and John because they went to Jesus and asked for this.
Now, think about why they were indignant. We didn't think of it first. Right. We didn't line up our position before they got in ahead of us. Right. They're upset about this because they want to have prestigious jobs in this new kingdom. They want to have positions and titles in this new kingdom because they're still thinking worldly kingdoms like they were used to worldly kingdoms functioning.
And then Jesus called them together and said, you know. Know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them.
So first, he says, you know how pagan kingdoms work. You know how the rulers in those kingdoms operate. You know how they take advantage of people. You know how they abuse their power. You know how they use their position and titles to get what they want for themselves. You know how that works. Right.
But here's what he goes on to say in verse 26. Not so with you. That's not how this kingdom is going to work. If you're going to be in this kingdom, that's not how it's going to work for you or for this kingdom overall.
This kingdom is a different kind of kingdom. It's an upside down kind of kingdom. Here's what he says. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your what? Servant.
And whoever wants to be the first must be your what? Oh, that's a hard word, isn't it? Must be your what? Your slave.
What do you aspire to when you grow up? Did you ever say, I really want to be a servant, a slave to everybody? Is that ever what's poured into your heart or into your mind as a kid growing up? No, that's not the goal that we have for us or for our kids, is it? Not in America, especially.
And yet he says, if you want to be great, you must be a servant. If you want to be first, you must be a slave. But he says, listen, it's just as the Son of Man—that's the term he used for himself—he's going to set the example for us. Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to what? And to give his life as a ransom for many.
You want to talk about position? That you aspire to and God's plan for your life? Then you better rethink. Because there's so many pastors and churches out there preaching this health and wealth gospel that says if you're really serving God and loving God, he's going to give you wealth and power and position.
Now, he might allow you to have that if he knows you can handle that and still be a what? A servant. A slave to others. There are people that have been given great wealth and great position and great power, but they've used that platform to serve others for the kingdom of God.
There are also people who have no title, no recognition from the world, who, like Alan Algrim, just simply serve for the sake of the kingdom, to encourage others to serve for the sake of the kingdom. And they impact the world in such powerful ways behind the scenes.
You've probably never heard this guy's name, but I knew his servant's heart. So did thousands of other people around the world simply because he served, put others ahead of himself to make a difference for Christ.
Because Jesus set the example. He did not come to be served to aspire to positions. Remember when Jesus was being tempted by the devil after he had fasted in the wilderness for 40 days? You remember that?
And Jesus was there, weakened in his physical condition from hunger and thirst. And here he is. Satan says, I'll look out. He climbed up to this pinnacle. Look out across the area. I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth if you bow down and worship me, Satan said.
If Jesus had wanted power and titles and earthly wealth and recognition, he could have had all of that. In fact, as God, he already owned all of that. But that's not what he came here for. That's not what he lived for. That's not what his life was about. He came not to be served, but to serve others.
Aren't you glad he did? Because that's what allowed him to go to the cross for us. It's that humble servant spirit and attitude that he had of wanting what's best for us, even when it cost him greatly to accomplish that.
It's easy to let our egos run our decisions, control our decisions about what we are willing to do with our lives, with our time, with our money, with our career path. When we let our ego run that, then every decision we make is going to be about elevating us. That's going to be the higher priority every time.
What will give me the great advantage if I do this or that? If I don't do this or that, what's the thing that's going to help elevate me the most? And instead, Jesus, listen to how he made decisions. It wasn't about... Remember, it says in Philippians that he humbled himself and became obedient as a servant, even to the point of death, even death on the cross.
You see, he says, let this mind attitude be that of Christ Jesus, who didn't think more highly of himself, but thought of others ahead of himself. That's the mindset. That's the mindset he wants us to live by in this world.
Now, if we get promotions or we get titles or we get those things, just remember to stay humble with that as a servant in the work of the kingdom. Don't think more highly of yourselves than you ought. Be willing to serve.
I always joke about as a pastor, when you start out being a minister at a church, usually you start out a lot of times at smaller churches, especially in things like that. And you have to do a little bit of everything, no matter what it takes.
And I love that as I was growing up, I worked for a man named B.P. Eads, and he made sure he kept us boys that worked for him very humble. He made us do jobs that we never would have volunteered to do, but that was just part of the job.
It was just part of what you had to do. I cleaned many public bathrooms at our ballparks growing up because I was working for the city of Elberton Recreation Department. So you would go in there and people would have left them a total mess. And it was our job just to go in and clean it up.
Every morning after we had ball games at those ball fields the day before, we had to go in, me and my brothers and other people that worked for B.P. We had to pick up trash with our bare hands off the ground, around the stands and the stadiums of the ballparks that we had there for our recreation department.
I still find myself today when I come into the office here during the week in the mornings, when I walk through the parking lot, we've got people that clean the parking lot, but I can't walk by trash on the ground. That's just near me when I'm coming in without picking it up. I got to pick it up and put it in the trash can. It just bothers me that I can't just walk past it, right?
Now that's not saying that means I stay humble all the time like I'm supposed to. Those are just reminders that that attitude was being poured into me as I was growing up. And friends, more of our children need to be raised that way.
With that humility to serve and not think of themselves more highly than anybody else. But they learn that best when they see it where? In their parents, in their grandparents. When they see us with that humble spirit of service.
That's what they learn most is by watching our example and hearing our teaching as we share the teaching of Christ. So that's the first thing we see from Paul here is our position. And the greatest position we can have is that of a servant.
The second one is our proclamation. What do we see in Paul when it comes to our proclamation? Look at verse 28 and 29.
He says of Jesus, right? He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
We have a proclamation. And he's not just talking about himself. He's talking about the church, right? He's writing to a church and he's saying, here's what we need to be proclaiming. And the center and the core and really the breadth and the depth of what we proclaim, it all comes back to Jesus.
Is that the thing that we're most known for that people connect us with and how we speak and how we act and how we're doing our lives and our careers? Right? And our education. And all of those things doesn't stand out that we're not trying to proclaim ourselves but we're trying to proclaim Christ to the world.
We've allowed the world to think we've got to tone that down. We've allowed the world to convince us that it's not fair for us to try to—the way they would put it—push that on anybody else. And we're not talking about being somebody that's pushy with this. We're talking about somebody that's just naturally who you are.
That is how you live. You belong to Jesus. You don't mind letting people know you belong to Jesus. You're not embarrassed by belonging to Jesus no matter who you're around or what setting you're in. You're not embarrassed to be connected to Jesus. In fact, you're grateful.
Now you're humble about it, sure, but you're grateful that that is your idea. You're not embarrassed to be connected to Jesus. Identity is in Christ. That's your real identity.
So the goal is to be someone who with our lives and our words, our actions, our time, our money, we use all of those opportunities to proclaim Christ. And he says part of doing that—and this is the role of the church here—includes admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom.
Now I love that. I'm a teaching pastor at a church that wants to be taught for the most part. Most of the people that come to Lakeshore, they understand we are a teaching church, that we're going to open up the word and we're going to read the word and we're going to teach out of the word and you're listening and you're learning and you're growing.
And I love that because that is the proclamation of this church is to be a teaching church. But part of teaching is that other word there. What's that word? Admonishing.
Now admonishing involves some things that we think of in a positive way, but it can sometimes think involve some things that we think of in what negative way, right? To admonish someone is to encourage them in the good but to correct them in the error of what they're thinking or doing or practicing in their lives.
And so the teaching would involve the admonishing toward the good, encouraging you to do the good things, but it would also involve the correction when we're not lined up with what God's word says.
And most people are real comfortable with the teaching as long as they're doing it in a positive way, as long as it's encouraging. But when it gets to the correction part, that's harder to swallow, isn't it?
That's why the humble spirit of a servant is so important because it allows you to be taught and admonished without resenting it, without kicking back so hard against it. You're more willing to be corrected and instructed when you have the humility of a servant.
But when you think you ought to be in charge, you know, I know none of you have done this at work, but there are people who work—I don't care where it is you work—there are always some people there who think they ought to be running the show, but they're not.
And they always think they can do it better than the person in charge, and they're always complaining and criticizing and tearing down the people that are actually in charge. And Sue Ann and I have run businesses, and we both know that that oftentimes—and even at church as a pastor— we're not going to be able to do it that way.
We're not going to be able to do it that way. He obviously is not knowing what he's doing the way he should, right? It's really easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize and tear down.
But a servant that has the heart that Jesus had, you know what Jesus did? He was willing to accept the Father's plan even when it was the hardest thing he had ever been asked to do. And he willingly went to that cross for us even when it would cost him great suffering, great dishonor, humiliation to go through what he went through.
But he knew it's why the Father sent him here. And so he was, as a servant, humble enough to accept that plan to do it the Father planned for it to be done so that we could be redeemed from our sin.
And if we have the heart of a servant, the mind of a servant, then we'll be willing to be admonished and to be taught. And notice he says to do it with all wisdom.
And here's the goal: so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. Paul is saying when the church is teaching and admonishing, there's a goal that you're trying to achieve with that. It is to help us all grow up into maturity in Christ.
He doesn't want us to stay baby Christians in our attitudes, in our minds, in our approach to service. He wants us to grow up and be mature followers of Jesus, which means that we have to be able to be taught and corrected and then encouraged along the way to be transformed into that servant that God has called us all to be in the body of Christ to serve others the way God wants us to serve others.
And so he says that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end, he says, I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Paul says I'm going to give all that I can give to this proclamation of Christ, all the energy God gives me, all the opportunities that he gives me. I'm going to try to take advantage of all those opportunities with whatever resources he allows me to have that I proclaim Christ and that I teach and admonish and help followers of Christ grow up to maturity.
And the important thing is that's what the church is here for. That's why the church exists. But it does start certainly with like a teaching pastor at a church, but it should never stop there.
You see, all of us have the opportunity to be mature and to be part of that process, to let God use us as servants in this process to proclaim Christ and to teach and admonish others that we have the opportunity to have influence over.
If you're a parent, what a great and awesome responsibility you have to proclaim Christ to your children, a grandparent, and to admonish and teach them so that they can grow up to be like Jesus, right? Fully mature followers of Jesus.
And the church's role is to come around those parents to help out with that process by giving a greater weight to it because they're hearing it not just at home, but they're hearing it from their church family too. They're seeing it in their church family too, not just in their parents' or grandparents' lives.
And so all of that put together helps accomplish this goal that they grow up to be mature followers of Jesus. But it's not just parents and children. I mean, there are many adults that we don't have children there at home anymore, but what opportunities do we have? Where are there people around you that look up to you, that respect you?
God's giving you an audience, an opportunity. Do you have some notoriety or some opportunity, a platform that you can use to proclaim Jesus?
One of the things I enjoyed most this year—I didn't care anything about who won the Super Bowl or anything—but one of the things I have enjoyed most this year is on the college level and on the pro level as I saw more and more athletes who had that platform of being a professional athlete proclaiming Jesus as the most important thing in their lives, not football, not the NIL deal they just got in college, right? It was about Jesus.
Now that's a platform and opportunity they were given. But friends, for the first time who went to college—and we've talked about that over Arizona—why it was all about Jesus.
And all of us have circles of influence in our lives. All of us do. Now your circle's different than mine. I can preach great sermons week after week—not that I thank you, Jesus. I would imagine I would have seen Jesus in all the last barely a few days.
I have the right to see Jesus a lot of things will happen. Now that's another thing that I don't want to talk about. That's something that I'm going to talk to you about in just a few minutes.
These are some of the things that I don't think I can talk about or to our morning service unit stories about this and all of the other things that I'm going to have a chance to talk about in just a few minutes to bring people with you to hear the message of the gospel at church.
And not just at church, but to your life group or to other opportunities of things that are going on where they will be exposed to the teaching of God's word. You can use your circles of influence to proclaim what we're supposed to be proclaiming with our lives.
And you can do that at work. There are many people over the years since I've been a pastor who have had the opportunity even at work to have break times and times where they can do Bible study with other people who work at that same place. And they're taking advantage of those opportunities there at work.
You see, not everybody has the same circle or the same opportunities, but all of us have some of that in our lives. And we need to be then people who are proclaimers of Jesus, that we're lifting him up and calling people to maturity in Christ.
The third thing we see in Paul is how we should have our perseverance in place. Let's start here in chapter two, beginning in verse one.
I want you to know how hard I'm contending for you and for those at Laodicea. That's another town where there's another church there that Paul is encouraging. And for all who may not have met me personally, my goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the truth, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Any of you have a time where you've tried to sit down and write out life goals? Have you ever done that? Some people like to make lists, right? Here are my life goals. And maybe you did it early in life. You know, you wrote down, here's what I want to do in my life. Here's what I want my life to look like. And it didn't work quite that way. So you had to make a new list, you know, kind of adjust it for the reality of where life was at that time.
And so you made new life goals. And so when you start listing life goals, almost always you're thinking about yourself. But when Paul was talking about his life goal here, he said, I want you to know this is my life goal. I am contending for you and for those at the other churches that I have opportunity to influence.
And for all who have not met me personally, even if they don't know me personally, my life goal, my goal is that they may be encouraged in heart, united in love, that they may have the full riches of complete understanding in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ.
Life goals. Have you made that a life goal? That the people you have the opportunity to influence would know these things, would understand these things, would come to this place in their lives where they know the glorious mystery of God in Christ, that he's a savior for them all.
When you're thinking about life goals, friends, there's no better, higher calling than that life goal that Paul has shared with us there.
But in order to have that life goal, friends, it's going to require perseverance. I have a phrase that I've used for years, and Sue Ann could tell you, she's heard this from me a lot. Consistency over time is what produces the biggest, greatest results. Right? In anything.
Consistency over time. Doing the right thing often enough over a long period of time is what will finally produce the big results that people see. People see people win championships, and they see people win a gold medal in the Olympics, or they see these things, and they don't understand, a lot of times, they just see the result of all of the consistency over time that those people had in their lives. Right?
It took a long time, a lot of perseverance to get to that one moment where you see this big thing being accomplished. Well, the same thing is true in our spiritual walk. We just want to, all of a sudden, have great influence for Christ.
But in order to have great influence for Christ, it comes back to, well, what do I need to do today? What are the spiritual disciplines I need to have in my life today that will get me further down the road to having that kind of impact for Christ?
And here's what you've got to know. It's got to be about impact for Christ, not about you. That's part of the humble spirit of a servant, right? So, as a servant, we think, what things can I do today as a servant, humble myself, serve in the way I need to today, and then when you wake up tomorrow, what have you got to do all over again?
Well, how do I do that today? And then the next day, what do you do? You spend that day doing those spiritual disciplines that lead to the impact that God wants you to have in the world with the time that you've got.
And some of you are thinking, well, it's too late for me. I've already lived so much of my life. It's never too late for God to use you if you start right where you are now with consistency with the time that you've got, being that person that God has called you to be.
So, it's to encourage. It's to promote unity and love. It's to promote complete understanding of God's will in Christ.
Now, when you talk about perseverance, I just want to pause for a moment and have you look at the life of the Apostle Paul and the perseverance that he had. Don't have time to go into this in depth, but if you go later on today to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you see a list that Paul gives of all the stuff that he's been through so far.
Now, his life wasn't over yet when he wrote this, but in 2 Corinthians 11, another letter to another church, he talks about all the stuff that he had to go through to have the influence, to be able to encourage others, to be able to build others up. He had to go through all this.
Listen to the list. I'm just going to share it with you. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was pelted with stones. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at the sea, and in danger from false believers.
I have labored and toiled and I've often gone without sleep. I've known hunger and thirst and I've often gone without food. I've been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressures of my concern for all the churches.
Welcome to your best life, right? Isn't that the impression so many pastors give about what it means to follow Jesus? And it requires sacrifice. And it requires consistency of sacrifice.
And it requires consistency of sacrifice over time to have the impact of somebody like the Apostle Paul who wrote over a third of the New Testament himself. He's been impacting the world for the kingdom of God for over 2,000 years.
You see, you don't get there without consistency of sacrifice over time as a servant in the kingdom of God. It doesn't mean he earned his way into heaven because of that. No, that was done by Jesus on the cross. That's not what we're talking about here.
We're talking about how God can use us to impact others for the kingdom as a servant. Following Jesus, listen to me, please, because the American church has done a terrible job of communicating this. Following Jesus does require sacrifice and some suffering.
If we truly follow Jesus. And none of us wants to have to suffer, right? Nobody likes suffering. Well, there may be some people that are mentally got problems that like suffering, but most sane people do not like suffering, right?
It's not something you aspire to. I just want to suffer. No, Jesus didn't want it either. But he knew in order to accomplish the thing that needed to be accomplished, it was going to require that of him. And he chose it for the good that would come from it. Not for himself, but for all of us.
That's the heart of a servant. A suffering servant, but a servant in the kingdom of God. The thing that is the most challenging to the church in America is getting people to embrace the idea of sacrifice and suffering as a follower of Jesus.
Because it goes directly against what we think the American dream life is all about. If we live out the American dream, there shouldn't be sacrifice. There shouldn't be suffering involved.
But in order to give us the opportunity to have the American dream, a lot of people did sacrifice and suffer. We forget that so many times.
And so in the kingdom of God, here's how the kingdom works. There's no higher position than someone willing to humble themselves like Jesus did, to serve him, which leads to the fourth thing, and that's our purpose.
Look at verses 4 and 5. He says, I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.
You see, Paul's goal, his purpose for doing this sacrifice and going through this suffering, is so that people won't be deceived by the lies of Satan and they can experience all that God wants for them and that God's planned for their lives.
And so he's willing to make the sacrifices. He's willing even to accept suffering to help them find their way to know and follow Jesus, to save them from being eternally lost and help them find their way to salvation in Christ.
To promote discipline in the faith, to stand firm together. He says, we delight in your faithfulness. One of the things that brings me the greatest joy as your pastor, but I hope would bring you your greatest joy in relationships with others is to see that God has used you and you can see in their lives the transformation that has taken place and you've had a little role in it.
You've had a little part in it where you see how they've come from the darkness of this world into the light of Jesus and how they're growing and getting stronger and now influencing others themselves for the cause of the kingdom.
That God used you as a part of that. That he allowed you to be involved in the greatest work in the world of helping people come to know and follow Jesus.
You don't have to be a Bible scholar for that to happen. You don't have to have had your act together all the time in your life. In fact, sometimes your failures that God has healed you from and restored you from become the greatest testimonies to encourage and help others along the way.
Don't think you're disqualified because of something in your life and your past that didn't go the way it was supposed to go. Let God take those things. He says, I can work all things together for the good of those who love me, who've been called according to my purposes.
If you let yourself respond to God's call for his purpose for your life, then all of your life, he's going to take and use for the good of the kingdom of God. For your good and for the good of others in the process.
He's calling. He's calling people not to positions of honor. So I want you to know that right up front. He's calling people to positions of servants.
And if you're ready to come into the service of the king, we invite you today.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. We thank you that in Christ we see the example of a suffering servant. In the life of Paul, we see how that's lived out in an individual who consistently over time after he came to know Jesus, gave himself to a lifetime that involved having to make sacrifices and go through times of suffering.
Yet, yet because of his faithfulness and consistency over time, look at the impact, Father. We thank you for the impact that Paul has had and so many lives for so many years for all eternity.
And Father, I thank you for the people that have influenced and impacted me because they had that servant's heart. They were willingness to make sacrifice, their willingness to sacrifice and serve the way they did.
I thank you that you could use me in any way, but help everyone to understand you call all of us into this process that in your kingdom the greatest are those who humble themselves to serve others.
And Father, I know that even today you're calling people into your service. I pray that hearts and minds would be open and receptive and that they would take those steps even today to take on that role that is the most important and powerful role they could ever take as a servant of Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray, amen.
We're going to stand and sing and offer you this time of invitation. If you have a decision you need to make, just come right up front while we're standing and singing.
Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
And not only does cancer, the treatments, hurt your immune system, obviously that's part of it, but he's also battling, he has diabetes as well, which also affects that with healing from things like surgeries and things like that.
So he's asking that we would cover him and the medical team in prayer and his family, of course, and their concern with prayer as he goes through this surgery on Thursday, not only for the success of the surgery, but for protection against infection and those kinds of things.
And healing taking place like it needs to after the surgery as well. So let's all join together in prayer for Sandy right now.
Father, we just thank you for Sandy's love for you and his desire to honor you with his life. We thank you for his family. We come around him as his church family, Father, just in the name of Jesus to approach your throne of grace on his behalf and ask for your care and your protection that you give wisdom and discernment to the medical team that will be working with him Thursday and that are continuing to work with him with the cancer treatments and other things that he's going through right now.
I just pray, Father, that you would provide that measure of healing as the great physician that only you can and that through this we see your hand at work and others will see that and you will receive glory and honor and praise as you bring him through all of this through your power and your presence and your provision for him.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you, Sandy. Coming up, Tony.
Tony wanted to share just briefly here a few minutes to a praise report. Come on up, Tony.
God bless you. Thank you, Tony. Thanks for sharing, buddy. Thank you.
Never, ever give up. As long as there's life and breath in the body, you keep praying for your kids, your grandkids, those that you know need to come back to the Lord.
This time, Walter is going to come and lead us. And it's time around the Lord's table.
We want to thank you again for being here with us today. It's a joy to have this time together. We have, if you'd like to participate in worshiping through the giving of offerings, we have offering boxes available. One in the back of the auditorium, mounted on a post there. And one in the hallway as you exit there, mounted on a post there.
It's got a slot in the top where you can drop your offerings in there. You can also give online at lakeshorechristian.com or scan the QR code in your bulletin shell. It will take you to that page as well so that you can give online.
And you can mail in your offerings to the church office also. Either way you do it, it's an act of worship and a way to support the work and the ministry of the church. We thank you for that.
If this is your first time with us, welcome. We're glad you're here. Stop by the information counter. Before you leave today, we've got a gift bag we'd love to give you as a first-time guest with us today. We hope you'll be back again soon.
This time, Jeremy's going to come up, close us out with other announcements. Don't forget, we've got a Valentine picture station set up in the lobby. It's in his announcements, I know, too. But I just wanted to remind you, I got cleaned up for pictures today. So we'll get my beautiful bride to join me back there. We'll get a shot, okay? Thank you.
on Feb 16, 2025
