Book of Colossians: Don t Mess with Jesus (Part 4) August 27, 2017

Transcription

1 Review: A. Week One - Chapter One: We talked about How Unbelievers and False Religions Mess with the Name of Jesus. Don t Mess with the Supremacy of Jesus or Saving Power of Jesus B. Week Two - Chapter Two: (Really addressed cults and even Christians who have cultic mindsets can sometimes unintentionally mess with the name Jesus by adding Unnecessary things to their Faith so they can Experience a more Fullness of God. If you believe in Jesus, you have the Fullness of God already Living in you. Don t Mess with Jesus by Adding Philosophy, Legalism, Mysticism or Asceticism to your Faith C. Week Three Chapter Three We talked about how believers mess with Jesus, particularly in His Lordship within the Inner-World of our Soul (which consist of our mind will and heart. Don t Mess with Jesus in His Lordship by Misdirecting your Mind, Misrepresenting Him in Your Will, and Mismanaging your Heart. Transition: Today, we will talk about how to not Mess with Jesus in our Outer-World. Our outerworld consist of our family life, work life, and mission. 1

2 Introduction: Col. 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. This verse is the premise for today s message. It all revolves around our service to Jesus. It s all about serving Him in the various realms of our mission. We are to represent Him in everything we do and in everything we say. His words need to be our words and His deeds needs to be our deeds. In order for us to do the right things and say the right things, we have to have our inner-world in check and that is why in the last message we focused so much on our soul. Why? because the sensitivity to our soul to His presence absolutely effects how we live for Him in our Outer World. This is why we have to embrace a Kingdom mindset that desires with our heart and will to want to partner with what God is doing. And God is certainly interested in wanting us to be good ministers in ministering the kingdom within our home life, work life, and ministries that He places us in. 2

3 I. Don t Mess with Jesus When It Comes to Serving Him in Your Home (vs.18-21) Kingdom Mindset. Having a Kingdom Mindset means learning to model Jesus within the home. I say learning, because all of us are on a continual learning curve. It is not natural for us to die to ourselves. Serving our family members absolutely requires servant-hood and servanthood absolutely requires humility in dying to yourself, biting your tongue, and constantly checking the condition of your inner-world in not misdirecting your mind, not misrepresenting Him in your will, and not mismanaging your heart. Satan. Satan wants nothing more than to destroy your family. Your family life can be the most rewarding element to your life or it can be the most crippling component to your life. Family. It s where values are formed, traditions are learned, habits are engrained, and generational behaviors of curses and blessings are passed down to the next generation. Family. It s what shapes your identity, convictions, and belief systems. One of the components to my dissertation really targeted on how unresolved family pain creates deep soul issues as the need of belonging, security, love, and trust are formed early in life. Yet, the danger of fragmented soul pain gets magnified when we turn to a pluralistic culture to try and find security. Pluralism has some good components, but in the negative sense it holds everybody s belief as equally valid, it focuses on giving every belief equal footing of importance, and disregards any point of view that claims ultimate truth. (For more on this topic, see sermon series: Pluralism, Sex, and God by Billy Doray at newlifepomona.com) Again, if biblical values are not being instilled within the home life, you should not expect you, your children, or grandchildren to learn biblical values from a pluralistic culture. Transition to Biblical Support: If we would follow the Biblical Model prescribed in Scripture for God s recipe in the home, life would be so much more pleasant. However, we must die to ourselves. Wives must die to themselves in humility, Husbands must learn to die to themselves in humility Children must learn to die to themselves in humility Parents must learn to die to themselves in humility. 3

4 A. Role of the Wife and Husband (vs. 18) For those of you who want peace in your marriage, here is the Scripture remedy. 18Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Wives submit to your husbands Husbands love your wives be tender Most guys I talk to just want peace in the home They do not want drama, arguing, and chaos. At the same time, most ladies just want security, love, and to know that their husband can be trusted and pro-active in taking care of them. Focus on the Wife first: Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 1. I want to say upfront, we can t interpret the Bible through the lens of American Culture. This language sounds offensive. It sounds like it is harsh and strictly opposes the women s rights movement. It seems like it is slap in the face against the feminism movement. As a result, I have heard several messages that try to downplay the real meaning of this text such as really it is talking about being in submission to one another and as a result we minimize the emphasis on the main point of a wife, which is submission. I have heard some messages that wives should only submit to the love of their husband, because the next verse talks about husbands loving their wives and if the husband loves the wife, she will then just want to always submit. Ideally, that sounds good. However, there is no condition. The text does not say wives submit to your husbands only if they are loving you like Christ loves the church. It does not have a condition tied to it. 4

5 2. Even if the husband totally loves his wife, there are going to be times where she will NOT want to submit. There are few reasons to this: There is first the nature to be totally independent. This can be because you are culturally conditioned to be independent. It can be because you have a strong personality and gifting of leadership. It can be because you have been trained to do so. There is also the fear component on where a wife may resist their husband s every move because there is a deep fear or insecurity about the unknown. There is also the Pride and Disrespect component. Pride comes in and says, I don t need to do what you are asking me to do, nor will I because what you say is stupid. Finally, there is the Hurt component. I refuse to submit because I have been taken advantage over and still have unresolved emotional pain. 3. Submission is not something you should fight, it is something that should be welcomed. Elsewhere, Paul writes that in the nature and order of creation that the men are to be the head. The leadership of your family is the husband s responsibility and he is to make his decisions in submission to the Lord. This does not mean that the husband should not be in discussions with his wife about big decisions. There should be mutual consideration of one another; however, the ultimate decision of responsibility and accountability is on the husband s shoulders. Personal example 5

6 4. Now does this text mean that you submit to sinful actions? Should you submit, if your husband is asking you to rob a bank? Should you submit if your husband is violating your God conscious and aggravating the Spirit of God in you? These are very real issues, and I do recommend counseling. However, I want to say this that by submitting to your husband, you are really in submission to the Lord, and God would never violate your conscious or ask you to submit to Him in sin. So, there will be cases, where you may have to respectfully decline submitting to your husband because you are feeling violated, or grieving the Holy Spirit in you. However, in a general sense, wives are to die to themselves in humility and submit to their husbands. 6

7 B. Role of the Husband (vs. 19) 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. 1. The husband is to love his wife. 2. That means he is not to dominate her, boss her around, or manipulate her. He is instructed to love her. 3. In Ephesians, Paul brings more clarity to the husband s role in that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. 4. That means we have some growing to do men. Here are some things that the husband needs to demonstrate to his wife in how Christ loves His church. A Husband needs to Defend his wife. (Physically, even if that means dying for her but also, emotionally in fending off any accusations. A Husband needs to Emotionally Make Self Available to Listen If you think about how often do we complain, and talk to the Lord about our issues, struggles, and pain. And He is faithful to listen to us. We should model that to our wives. A Husband needs to Sacrifice themself to Minister to the needs of his wife. A Husband needs to Lead his Wife towards godliness. The mission of Jesus was to lead us to the Father and as we are led to the Father, He conforms us more and more into the image of Christ. A Husbands need to be Tender to his wife 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. 7

8 C. Role of the Children (vs. 20) 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Ephesians 6:2-3 Honor your father and mother D. Role of Parents Both parents are to Train their Kids in godliness, and a big part of that is by you teaching your kids the Scripture. Teaching your kids the Scripture is not to be delegated to just a Bible Kids or a VBS program. We love our children s department and we love our youth group; however, it is the parent s role to train their kids in godliness. Parents teach their kids the Scripture and how to conduct their lives. 2 Tim 3:14-16 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Prov. 1:8 Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Prov. 22:6 Train a child in the way they should go. Training is NOT JUST Correcting. Deut. 11:18-19 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8

9 Moms and Grandmas Titus 2:3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands E. Roles of Fathers (vs. 21) 21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. 1. This does not mean to ignore correcting them or teaching them to do what is right. 2. It more deals with not riding them in their shortcomings as they are learning something. It can be as practical as kicking a soccer ball in a net, or as spiritual as teaching them to journal. You are not their coach. You are their father. When they do it wrong, do not ride them to a point of discouragement. Rather, you should do the opposite. Your role as a Father should be their number encourager. We need to develop a Kingdom Mindset that sees what God sees, and hears what He is wanting us to do so we can release His presence into our immediate family members. 9

10 Transition to Second Point: We talked about not messing with Jesus in our family life, but now we are about ready to talk about our second point, which is not messing with Jesus when it comes to serving Him in our workplace. A. Before we do so, I want to go ahead and pause for a moment and talk about a sensitive subject in our culture and then tie it into the workplace. We are going to address an area in Scripture that can seem confusing to us as Americans living in a Racially Charged Society. I want to go ahead and briefly talk about slaves and I will tie it into the workplace. B. Slavery has been around for thousands of years. The theme of slavery is tied throughout the Scripture. C. A slave in its basic form means to voluntarily or involuntarily be a servant to a singular Master. The whole concept of slavery can biblically have either a positive connontation or a negative connotation. D. Slavery can be associated to bondage. We think about the slavery of God s children serving Pharaoh in Egypt. This type of slavery was racially charged. We think about how the Hebrews or what we know as the Jews had to endure radical discrimination. We think about how they had to endured deep injustices, harsh abuse, and worked in very harsh conditions. This type of slavery is, no doubt horrible as the Scripture says they moaned and cried out to the Lord for deliverance. 1. The Scripture makes it clear that this type of slavery is definitely associated with bondage and God absolutely hates it! If He did not hate it, then he would have never delivered His people from slavery as the people of God would cry out for freedom. 2. I venture to say that most Americans have this one-sided negative interpretation to this topic as view slavery through the lens of the civil rights movement as blacks were highly discriminated against, abused, and suffered injustice. 10

11 E. Slavery, in some cases, can be associated to Hope. When we get to the New Testament, in the time of Jesus and after Jesus, slavery was very popular. However, it was not the same type of slavery of bondage as illustrated in Exodus. This type of slavery provided hope for the disadvantaged, provision, and security. 1. Slaves were still slaves in their devotion in that they had to be devoted to their master with their very soul. i Further no slave was considered greater than his master. This was echoed by the words of Jesus, I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his Master..., (John 13:16; 15:20). When Jesus spoke these words to a Roman influenced culture, there was no confusion about what he was saying. 2. Even though slaves had fewer rights and were considered the property of their Master, the majority of their Masters treated their slaves very good. This is why the New Testament uses a lot of examples as Christians being servants or enslaved to Jesus our Master. 3. In the New Testament culture, slaves were very common and could be extremely successful. The Romans capitalized their economy with slavery. As many as two million slaves were domestic servants or agricultural laborers. ii Slavery was so well practiced that many adults would sell themselves for the opportunity to become a slave so they would not have to live on the streets and die of hunger. Upon becoming a slave, many could then have the future potential of being successful by having honorable roles. For example, Roman physicians who were slave owners could be succeeded by slaves whom they trained. iii Further, a slave owner could choose to free his slave in which they could inherit and enjoy the luxury of a big estate, much wealth, and great influence from their previous owner. 11

12 F. Slavery can be Associated with Freedom. I know it sounds like an oxymoron. But, its true 1. Think about the Words of Jesus, Whom the Son sets free will be free indeed. (John 8:36). Yet, He also says to those on Judgment day, Well done, good and faithful servant/slave. (Matt. 25:21). 2. If you really want to be free, you have to be a slave to the right master. 3. No matter how much we want to resist this truth, it still biblically remains. The Bible, especially the book of Romans, makes it very clear that we are all slaves. Slave to sin (this is who we are before Christ) Slave to righteousness (this is who we are after Christ) 4. Jesus is the Ultimate Master, and we are slaves to Him and as slaves to God we also have the full citizenship of heaven and are co-heirs with Christ. 5. Some slaves are good and faithful to Him and some are wicked and lazy and this can easily be applied to our work environments. No matter where we are planted, He wants the consumption of our outer life to model well what it means to be a servant because its Him that we are slaves too and that is the mind-set that we are to have in our workplace. So even though this next passage specifically addresses those that are slaves in the Roman Empire, it can still be applied to our workplaces in the attitude of our hearts as we serve God sometimes in unpleasant work environments that may or may not treat us that well. 12

13 II. Don t Mess with Jesus When it Comes to Serving Him in Your Workplace (3:22-25) Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. A. How to be A Servant in the Workplace Follow these components and it will most likely give you favor on the job as you embrace a slave mindset of the Lord. 1. Follow Instructions Slaves, obey your earthly masters Listen carefully, get clarity on the things that you need clarity on. Sometimes you are going to have to ask questions. It is better to ask questions because you are unsure, rather than to get a write up or reprimanded for doing something wrong. 2. Execute Every Last Detail Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything If you are not sure how to do something, ask. Never assume. Get clarity and execute everything with excellence. This also includes never leaving a job half way done. 3. Don t Slack off Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you. When we are not being scrutinized, there is a tendency to want to take our foot off the gas petal and want to slack off. But then when the boss comes around, we perk up and want to impress. We have to always remember, it is the Lord we are serving and He is always watching us. Allow that to be the motivating factor. Corporate Audits. Hated it, because we put on a front as the CEO or Auditor watches. We want our servanthood to be perfect. Well, how about when he is not watching? 13

14 4. Be Wholehearted 23 Whatever you do (for a living), work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. Your Job is not just about receiving a paycheck, but it is also about receiving rewards in Heaven. It does not matter if you are bagging grocieries, delivering pizza, or working in the government. Whatever you do (for a living) work at it with all of your heart. Because you are going to receive rewards in heaven. 5. Know that The Lord Repays Wrongdoing 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. This applies to both workers and employers. If you do wrong as a worker on the jobsite, there are consequences. Yet, there are also consequences for the employers or boss that unfairly treats his employees. This is why it says Col 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. 14

15 III. Don t Mess with Jesus When it Comes to Serving Him in Your Mission (4:1-6) A. Listen, we all have a mission in this life. That mission is to influence other people towards the eternal hope found in Jesus. B. God wants to impact other people s lives through us, and if we are neglecting the purpose of our mission, we are not encompassing the full scope of our Christian existence. C. The power is in the gospel, but it takes people to communicate the gospel. This is why Paul says Col 4:2-6 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 1. This would be a good kingdom prayer to pray for ourselves. Paul had a kingdom mindset of wanting doors of divine appointments to be opened so they could proclaim the gospel very clearly in the words they speak. I want to encourage us to begin praying for divine appointments and for eyes to see those divine appointments for the purpose of clearly communicating the gospel. How cool is that, God can use us to impact the outcome of someone s eternal destiny by delivering the gospel. 15

16 2. But not only should you communicate the gospel through your speech, which is more of a skill that needs to be developed, we should live the gospel through our deeds. We need both. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. This ties everything back to the beginning verse of today s message: Col. 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. i Billy Doray, Level Two Serving ii Ibid., p. 33. iii Ibid. pp