COLOSSIANS 4 I WILL PUT EFFORT INTO MY RELATIONSHIPS2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Colossians 4 I Will Put Effort Into My Relationships

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. You can turn with me in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4, and we're going to...

be spending our time together finishing up the book of Colossians and really finishing up this whole series, the Foundations for Christian Living, that we began at the beginning of the year, working our way through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. And through each book, the Lord has been giving us an emphasis and some particular things to consider. And so here in Colossians, we've been talking about my completeness in Jesus. And so here in Colossians, we've been talking about my completeness in Jesus.

How Christ has done for me everything that I need, that I am complete in him because of the fullness of who he is and the fullness of the Godhead that dwells in him. Also, because of the fullness of the work that he's done on my behalf, there's nothing I can do to add to what Christ has done.

There's nothing I can do to become more than what is already offered to me through faith in Jesus Christ and through walking with him.

And so we have in Christ everything we need. And meanwhile, in the region of Colossae, there was the false teachers who were coming in and saying, well, Jesus is great. You need Jesus, but you also need this extra information. And you also need to practice these extra things and, you know, withhold these things from yourself and do these other things. And in order to reach a higher level and to really know

what God wants for you, or to really have access to God, to have an extra special and kind of exclusive relationship with God. And Paul here has been stating the fact that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, already have the best access to God we can get.

We already have the most forgiveness that we can have, and that's all that is necessary, and then more. We already have all the grace that we need. We already have everything that we need to be the husband, to be the wife, to be the employee, to be an employer. All of these different aspects of our lives, we have everything that we need in Christ.

And so we'll continue to consider that and the application of it really here as we finish off Colossians chapter 4 this evening. We're going to start here in verse 2 of Colossians chapter 4 and work our way through the remainder of the chapter. Let's go ahead and read through that and then we'll dive into the message that God has for us. Colossians chapter 4 verse 2 says, "...continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving."

Meanwhile, praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

He says,

Verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you.

always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church that is in his house. Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans.

Here as Paul wraps up this letter, he's in the portion of the letter where he's focusing on the application. He's taught us the doctrine about Christ and our completeness in Christ.

We have a new nature. We have everything that we need. We've been using the illustration of puzzle pieces, right? They may not all be in place, but you have all the pieces that you need to be the man, to be the woman, to be the husband, the wife, the child, the parent, to be the Christian that God has called you to be. All the pieces are there. You're not missing anything. You have it all in Jesus.

And we got to see that applied to some of those specific relationships as we looked at the end of chapter 3 and verse 1 of chapter 4 last week. Now as we move on into the rest of chapter 4, we're going to continue to be talking about relationships, but not those specific relationships, but more generally some of the relationships that we have. And so I've titled the message tonight, I Will Put Effort Into My Relationships.

One of the things that you always hear before you get married is that marriage takes work, right? The marriage relationship takes work. And then you think you understand that, and then you get married, and then you realize, whoa, now I understand. I thought I was prepared for the work. I thought I knew that's fine. No problem. Old people, they're just tired, and so the work is hard. But it'll be no problem for us, right? But then you get married, and you get married, and you're hanging out in your marriage for a couple years or whatever, and then you start to realize, oh,

This takes work. And then you start to tell other single people, hey, you need to know that relationships take work, right? It's something that we know that we're experienced with, but we need to be reminded of. It's not just marriage relationships that take work, but all of our relationships. And so here the Apostle Paul challenges us and reminds us to put some effort in.

to put in some energy, to set aside some of our reserves to be able to develop and pursue and maintain the relationships that we need to have. And so we're going to look at three kinds of relationships tonight. Starting in verses two through four, we get the first kind of relationship. And here's point number one. I will be vigilant in my relationship with God. I will be vigilant in my relationship with God. We all have the opportunity to

To walk with God, to know God, to have a real relationship with God. And I would remind you this evening that it takes effort. Although we have full access to the Father and the way is open for us by Christ and we have all the pieces because we're complete in Jesus, that doesn't mean that we all automatically live and walk and enjoy that full relationship with God that is available to us.

And there is a part that we have to play and some effort that we get to put in, not to earn the relationship with God or earn the right to walk with God, but to enjoy and to experience that relationship with God. Jumping back to verse 2, Paul says, As Paul talks about prayer, notice he's talking about it in a way that while we're instructed, we're commanded to continue prayer.

Again, it's the effort that's being implied here, that you need to make a deliberate choice and to continue earnestly, that there's to be a fire in your prayer life. And you need to persevere in that and press forward in that earnestness to spend time with God and to be vigilant in it with thanksgiving. There's a vigilance that's required, an alertness, an awakeness. And he says, while you're doing that, while you're praying,

Verse 3, And so here Paul challenges us to be praying and to have some certain characteristics to our prayer and some certain subjects for our prayer. Now, when it comes to prayer, praying for myself comes fairly easily. Praying for my immediate needs is

And the crisis that's right in front of me, that comes pretty naturally. And there are some aspects of prayer that are very easy, that come naturally, that are not difficult for us. And we don't have to be like stirred up and reminded and encouraged to do that. Some aspects of prayer are fulfilled by us with ease. But to be faithful in prayer is going to require some deliberate effort. There's some hard things to do in prayer as well.

And the hard aspects of prayer, Paul kind of touches on here. One of the things that's hard when it comes to prayer is to continue earnestly. That word earnestly, it speaks of great effort being applied steadily. Earnestly talks about effort being applied. It talks about energy being expended. It talks about that, you know, investment of your time. But it's not just that.

It's not just a spike of effort. It speaks to the steady application. That there's a consistent, steady, faithful prayer life that takes effort to engage in and maintain.

That's not so easy to do. It's easy for us to get fired up and pray once or twice, right? It's easy for us to get fired up and pray, just like, you know, all the New Year's resolutions that we're going to be making in a couple weeks, right? It's easy for us to get fired up and go, okay, I'm going to change my life, and I'm going to pray every day, and I'm going to, you know, pray this way. I have this new method, this new approach, and it's going, and then to watch it fizzle out, right? We all have experienced that. Here, Paul would challenge us and encourage us, look, you're going to need to put in some effort.

to be vigilant in your relationship with God and to continue earnestly in prayer, to apply yourself steadily, consistently, continually. Keep yourself in a close connection to God, a close relationship with God. And it's going to take some energy, some effort to make this happen. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, there is no power in dull, listless praying.

If there is no fire on the altar, the incense will not rise to God. Real praying demands spiritual energy and alertness, and this can come only from the Holy Spirit of God. Routine prayers are unanswered prayers. Interesting things to consider. There's no power in dull and listless praying. You know, sometimes prayer becomes an obligation for us. We know we're supposed to pray. We know we need to pray. We know we have to pray.

And even that we want to pray, but there's not much effort being applied. And so our prayers are dull and listless. I like the way that he describes it. If there's no fire on the altar, the incense will not rise to God. If we're not on fire, if it doesn't burn within us, if we're not invested in this prayer, like the fire and the incense, the incense doesn't rise when there's no fire. There's not that sweet smelling aroma.

But when it comes to our prayer life, we need to apply some effort and to apply the fire and to be earnest in our time with God and our relationship with the Lord. We also need to be vigilant. To be vigilant means to watch. You remember when Jesus told Peter, James, and John, hey, stay here and watch with me there in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He went and prayed. He came back. And what did he find? He found them not watching, right? He found them sleeping. That's the opposite of being vigilant. They were asleep. Now, the idea of vigilant when it comes to prayer, it kind of lends itself naturally to consider the physical falling asleep. Let's just embarrass ourselves for a moment by a show of hands. Has anybody ever fallen asleep during a time of prayer? Anybody? My wife's the only holy one. She didn't raise her hand. Okay.

There's something that is kind of tempting about sleep in the time of prayer, isn't there? There is those occasions where you want to pray, you go to pray, and so you close your eyes, and then the next thing you know, your alarm's going off for the next morning. It's like, what happened?

Or you wake up in the morning and you begin to pray and then you fall asleep and your backup alarm is, you know, going off that you need to get up and get to work, right? It's so easy, so natural for us. And so there's some vigilance required to keep yourself awake. That's what happened to Peter, James, and John. They were tired. Jesus says, you need to watch and pray.

You need to be vigilant. You need to stir yourself up and wake yourself up. And the physical temptation that we experience and the physical struggle that we experience is a great illustration for us to consider about the spiritual aspect of falling asleep in prayer. Because just like it's easy to fall asleep physically, it's really easy for us to fall asleep spiritually in prayer.

And going back to Warren Wiersbe's point that it becomes dull and lifeless, that we're not really awake. We're just repeating things. We're just, you know, going through the motions, but there's no vigilance. There's no alertness. There's no awakeness to our connection to God and what he's doing. And for us to be vigilant, we're going to need to apply some effort. We're going to need to wake up. The apostle Paul talks about in the book of Romans, right? Wake up.

The time is at hand. It's high time for us to wake up, for us to stir ourselves up, to be alert, to be connected to God, and to continue earnestly. Well, another difficult thing that can happen for us in our prayer lives is the attitude of thanksgiving and gratefulness.

Again, it's easy for us to come to the Lord in our times of need and we're desperate and, oh, there's the crisis and there's this situation and it's so difficult and I don't know what I'm going to do. And God, you have to come through. And we all run, everybody runs to the Lord in those circumstances, right? There's that old saying, there's no atheists in foxholes, right? You're in the crisis, you know, being shot at. And yes, everybody's praying. But what's more rare is for us to pray with thanksgiving and to come back and

After the crisis. To come back even in the midst of the crisis. And not just pray with that urgency with the crisis that is before me. But to be able to express gratitude to the Lord. To appreciate who he is and what he's done for me. To appreciate the work that he continues to do in our lives. And the way he continues to move and minister. Paul says you need to pray with thanksgiving. Continuing earnestly. Being vigilant and being grateful.

Well, the last thing that we'll consider here in these verses is it can be very difficult to remember people far away, out of sight, out of mind, right? And it's really true. We are easily forgetful about the things that are not right in front of us, especially in our prayer lives.

Paul says, as you're praying, pray for me. Hey, I'm far away in Rome. I'm way far away from you. We don't get to talk every day. You don't see me on Facebook, right? Like that's not happening. So remember me. Make an effort. Make a deliberate choice, a conscious choice. Stir yourself up and remember me and pray for me specifically that I would fulfill the ministry that God has given to me.

He wasn't praying for his release from prison. He was praying for a release to fulfill the ministry, a release to accomplish what God had for him. This is one of the reasons why we take time on Wednesday nights and devote it to praying for our missionaries. Because if we didn't, I mean, we all know the missionaries are on the website. We could put the missionaries in the bulletin every week, right? And it would just soon become background noise that we know it's there, we see it,

but we need to be stirred up because we forget to be praying for our missionaries. It's also one of the reasons why we started doing the missionary of the month so that we would have an occasion to be stirred up and reminded that there's people far away that are part of our family that God has sent out from here, but they're out doing the work and we need to be praying for them. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, Paul was not ashamed to ask his friends to pray for him.

Even though he was an apostle, he needed prayer support for himself and his ministry. If a great Christian like Paul felt the need for prayer support, how much more do you and I need this kind of spiritual help? A great example for us. And as we pray for the missionaries, like if we were back in Colossae thinking about, the apostle Paul doesn't need our prayers. Like he's the apostle Paul, right? No, no, no. Our missionaries need our prayers.

And people, they might be far removed from us. We don't get to see them all the time or see their activities, but there are people that are far away, but God has connected us too. And it's important that we remember them in prayer. So I will be vigilant in my relationship with God. It takes effort. To be faithful in prayer requires some deliberate choice, some deliberate effort to engage with God, to continue earnestly, to be grateful.

and to remember people far away. Well, continuing on to verse 5 and 6, we get point number two for this evening. Point number two is, I will be missional in my relationships with unbelievers. I will be missional. That is, I will have a missionary mindset. I'm going to be going about things with a mission, and the mission is to bring forth the gospel message and to represent Christ in

specifically in my relationships with unbelievers. Verse 5 and 6 says this, And so here as Paul goes on, now he gives us a different set of instruction. First talking about our prayer life, but now he's talking about our walk. He's talking about our behavior.

our conduct, the way that we live. And it's a specific focus that he has, he says, toward those who are outside. Talking about those who are outside of Christ, those who are unbelievers. He says, look, you need to be continually focused on and considering the mission. Don't forget the mission.

Our mission is not to achieve the American dream. Our mission is not to achieve this career or that career. Our mission is not to graduate with this degree or that degree. Our mission, those are all things that God may have for us and things that we work towards and put deliberate effort into, but they're not the mission. They're not the primary thing, the primary purpose of our life. The primary purpose of our life always goes back to

our relationship with God and his desire for our lives. And God not only wants to work in our lives personally, individually, you know, with us internally, God wants to use our lives to be a megaphone, to be a declaration, to be a light, to shine upon the world around us. And so here Paul gives us a few insights on how to be a missionary, how to have this missionary mindset in our approach to life.

The first thing he says is to behave wisely. That is, walk in wisdom toward those who are outside. Walk in wisdom. To use wisdom in the way that we behave is really important when it comes to relating to those who do not know the Lord. Because, well, as it's often been said, you are the only Bible that some people will ever read.

They're going to be looking at your life and reading the Bible through your behavior. Oh, that's what the Bible says to do. Oh, that's how the Bible says to handle that situation. That's how the Bible says to have those conversations. That looking at us, observing us, unbelievers, are reading the scriptures if our lives are measuring up to and following the scriptures. Now, maybe what they're reading as they watch our lives is the tabloids or the

philosophies of man or whatever was on the latest TV show last night or whatever. Maybe that's all that they're reading. Paul says you need to be behaving wisely, walking in wisdom, having strategy to your decisions, to your conduct, to what you do, recognizing I am

a witness. I am a representative of Christ. And all throughout the scriptures, you can see some really great examples of this. We considered Daniel a couple of weeks ago on Sunday mornings, and he behaved wisely. They wanted to get rid of Daniel. And so they examined his life to see, you know, where was he falling short in his responsibilities, in his conduct, but they couldn't find anything. He behaved wisely. You can think about Joseph.

Much affliction, much adversity, you know, all kinds of things against him. But everywhere he went, Joseph behaved wisely. He was very careful to conduct himself in a way that was in agreement with the character and the nature of God. Jesus behaved himself wisely amongst his, you know, opposition and the things that came against him. Paul the Apostle behaved wisely. And there's a variety of circumstances that we can see here.

You and I, we need to behave wisely, to walk in wisdom. Pastor Warren Wiersbe describes it this way. It means that we are careful not to say or do anything that would make it difficult to share the gospel. It also means we must be alert to use the opportunities God gives us for personal witnessing. I think this is important for us to grab hold of and to remember it, to be careful to not say or do anything that would make it difficult to share the gospel.

And so the way that you treat that cashier at the store, would it be difficult then to share the gospel? The way that you talk to and the attitude that you convey to that co-worker, would it then be difficult to share the gospel? Do we behave in a way and do we relate to people in a way that would compromise our ability to share the gospel? That's the idea here. To walk in wisdom means to conduct ourselves in a way that

At any point, at any time, after any conversation, if there is the opportunity and the Lord wants us to redeem the time, well, then we're able to share our testimony, to share about the Lord, to share what the scriptures say. And it's not contradictory. It's not like, you know, all of a sudden, you know, here's this hypocrite who like, you know, can quote the scriptures, but the way that they behave, you would never knew that they read the Bible, right? Like that is...

That is not the way that God has called us to be. We're called to be missional, to behave wisely, and to look for opportunities, to be on the lookout, to be always looking around to see, does the Lord want me to pray for somebody? Does the Lord want me to share with somebody? Is the Lord wanting to use me in some way? Do I need to just work hard so I can be a good example and a witness to my coworkers? Or what is it that the Lord wants? And redeeming the time is about buying up those opportunities. It's like an excellent shopper.

Who sees a good deal and it's like, oh, that's a good deal. And they take advantage of that good deal while the opportunity is there. We're to be like that when it comes to our outreach. Looking for those opportunities. Always being ready. Doesn't mean we force opportunities every turn we get, right? But...

We know the Lord's at work. And so we're looking for those opportunities. We're looking for those things that God has set up for us to minister to the people around us and to represent him, to share his love and express his kindness. Well, that brings us to the next thing. And to be a missionary, we need to speak with kindness. Paul says, let your speech always be with grace. Grace. Let your speech always be with grace. Grace always.

we usually talk about is God's goodness towards us that we don't deserve. You know, sometimes we give people a word that they deserve, right? Paul says, never do that. They deserve to be told off. They deserve, you know, yeah, maybe they did, but that's not grace. Let your speech always be with grace. That is always speak to people in a way that is kinder than they deserve to be spoken to. Let your speech be with grace. You know,

This is something that was a characteristic of Jesus and his ministry. In Luke chapter 4 verse 22, it says, "...all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son?" What people marveled about with Jesus was his gracious words. Now, if anybody had the right to be sharp and critical with people, it was Jesus.

And there was occasions where the words of Jesus were very harsh and brutal as he dealt with the religious leaders. And yet at the same time, it was still words of kindness. And it was words that were better than they deserved. That Jesus always spoke to people in grace, even when he was bringing correction, even when he was protecting, you know, and defending the innocent from those who were preying on them.

They marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And so to be a missionary, we need to be like Jesus and to have gracious words, to speak with kindness, to treat people in a way that is better than they deserve. Well, the last point on here is to speak intelligently. He says, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Again, the idea here is looking at those opportunities and those occasions to give an answer, to give a defense where people say, why do you do that? Why do you act that way? It relates to what Peter says in 1 Peter, to always be ready to give a defense. And we often can think about that as a defense as in like apologetics and, you know,

defending the faith, but it really is talking about always be ready to give an answer for when people ask the question, why do you have so much hope? You're going through all this difficulty. There's all this chaos in the world. Why do you have so much hope? And Peter says, always be ready to give an answer for that. Now, of course, in order for you to prompt that question in people, you need to be one who has hope and trust in the Lord to that degree.

In a similar way, Paul says here that we're to let our speech always be with grace and seasoned with salt so that we may know how to answer each one. That's presuming that questions are going to be asked. How is it that you talk this way all the time? Why do you say these things? And why do you quote the Bible so much? And, you know, those kinds of things. And the idea is that, well, you have an answer. But this idea of speaking intelligently is,

I'm attaching it to this phrase, seasoned with salt. Seasoned with salt. This phrase and this idea of being seasoned with salt was, in Greek culture, an expression of wit. When someone would describe, you know, someone's speech as seasoned with salt, that it was witty, right? It was like something that was intelligent, right?

So J. Vernon McGee says, Christians should never have dull conversations because our speech should be seasoned with salt. It's not so much that we have to pretend intelligence or anything like that, but the point is that salt brings flavor. It brings interesting. Where something is bland and boring, salt can bring out that flavor. And now it's interesting. Oh, it's exciting. Sometimes we can be boring and bland.

We can be robots. You just, you know, quote things and we don't really bring any flavor to the conversation and not much intelligence. Paul says, no, no, no. Be seasoned with salt. There's great opportunity and great room for you to have some intelligent conversations, some real discussions, maybe even some feisty debates. It doesn't eliminate the grace. It doesn't eliminate, you know, the need to be on the lookout for those opportunities to share the gospel. But

But at the same time, there needs to be that salt, that flavor. Put effort into your relationships. To be missional, to give someone a taste of something, to bring up some flavor, to stir up some conversations, to be faithful in outreach is going to require some deliberate effort. Behave wisely, to look for those opportunities to share the gospel, to speak with kindness, and to speak intelligently. We need to put forth some effort.

with all that Christ has given to us, to tap into those resources, and then to represent him well to the world around us. Well, the closing verses, verses 7 through 18, that's what gives us point number three. Here, Paul the apostle is really, you know, doing his wrap-up. He's giving his greetings, and sharing his with them, and addressing certain people, and so we're

The third point that we'll consider tonight as we look at these is I will zealously maintain fellowship with believers. So we're looking at a few different kinds of relationships. Our relationship with God, and we need to be vigilant in it. We need to put in some effort to stay persistent and consistent and faithful in our relationship to God. We need to be considering our relationship with unbelievers and be deliberate and missional when it comes to relating to those around us who do not know the Lord.

Now considering our relationship with other believers. And just like all the other relationships, these are relationships that require some effort, require some zeal, some passion to maintain the fellowship that God wants us to have. Let's start looking at verses 7 through 9. It says,

I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you, they will make known to you all things which are happening here. So here in this portion, we're going to be considering some important aspects of fellowship.

And through these relationships and through these connections and these names that Paul is mentioning and what he says about them, there's some important things for us to consider about our relationships with one another. And one of the things that is important for us when it comes to this idea of fellowship is we need to have some close friendships. As Paul introduces Tychicus, he describes him in verse 7 as a beloved brother. This is not Paul's biological brother.

And he's not just his brother in the Lord, right? He's his beloved brother. This is someone who is close to Paul, someone who is special to Paul, someone who is important to Paul, someone that Paul loves.

He's a beloved brother. It speaks about a closeness. And you do see Tychicus with Paul the apostle throughout the book of Acts, through his letters he's mentioned. He's someone who remains close to Paul and stays close and maintains that relationship with him. He also says in verse nine, he's sending Onesimus, who also is a beloved brother. Onesimus was a new convert. He was the slave who ran away from Philemon

who got saved probably under the ministry of the Apostle Paul and now has been with Paul for a little bit of time. He's not been around forever like Tychicus, but here is this new guy. And Paul says, oh, we've grown close. He's beloved. Sometimes for us as believers, we can slip into the mode of keeping people at arm's distance. We don't have these beloved relationships.

We don't really have these close relationships, these close friendships. We need to have those. Those are important. Who are you close to? I would suggest if the people that you are closest to are not believers, there's a serious lack in your fellowship. We need to have believers. Going back to the previous point, we're to be missional.

And we have family. That's great. And that's important. Our family, you know, biological, marriage, relationship, family, however you want to look at that, right? Like those are important relationships. But we also need those beloved brothers, those beloved sisters that we would maintain and have close relationships with other believers. Those close friendships are important.

But also we need to have those kinds of relationships where we can talk about life's events. And I think it's interesting as he talks about Tychicus in verse 7 and 8. He says, look, Tychicus is going to tell you all the news about me. He's going to tell you everything that's happening here with me. Now, what I find interesting about that is Paul's writing a letter. And if he wanted to, Paul could write to them all the news about him.

There's things going on and, you know, I want to let you know the things that are happening, the events that are going on. Paul could have written those things. But instead, he said, Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. Talking about life's events, it's more than just, you know, seeing each other's posts on social media. It's more than just hearing the word through other people. But Tychicus had to be there with them. And face to face with them, he could share the news.

He could let them know what's really going on in Paul's life and all the things that are happening around him. And so he said, I'm sending him to you for this very purpose. Tychicus was the one who carried the letter, but he wasn't selected for his letter carrying skills, right? He's the best at carrying letters. No, he was selected to go because Tychicus would be a faithful messenger to let them know this is what's happening in Paul's life.

But also, verse 8 says, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts. And so it's not one-sided, it's two-sided. He's going to tell you about my circumstances, and he's going to hear from you about your circumstances. That there's going to be a sharing on both sides of what's happening in life. This is an important aspect of our fellowship. And sometimes we need to have those occasions where

where we just talk about life's events. Here's what's happening. And I think sometimes that becomes real easy for us, especially, you know, if there's crazy events happening in our lives, it's easy for us to talk about our circumstances. But I would look at this and be reminded that we also need to hear from others about their circumstances.

You know, there's some people who have no problem talking about their circumstances, and they go from person to person to person to person, you know, telling them, this is what happened in my life, this is what happened in my life, this is what happened in my life, this is what happened, you know, and it's just me telling you all about what's happening in my life. And that's one aspect of fellowship. But another aspect is, what's happening in your life? We need to make occasion, make opportunity for that. Paul says, I'm sending Tychicus to you for that reason. Do you listen to other people? Let them talk about their circumstances.

Sometimes you know how it is, right? Sometimes we are listening to people just so that we can say what we think, or we're not even listening. We're just waiting for a break in the conversation so we can say the next thing that we wanted to say, right? But being attentive and listening. He says he's going to know your circumstances and then comfort your hearts, right? He's not going to listen to the people at Colossae and say, oh yeah, this is what happened, and yeah, the farm got destroyed by a tornado and everything, and

Oh, that's, oh, wow, so sorry. Okay, well, anyways, about the Apostle Paul, right? Like, he's going to comfort your hearts. What's going on in your life? He's going to be there to minister to you. We need to maintain this balance and this perspective. We need to be able to share. And sometimes we're the kind of people who, we don't share anything about our lives. We'll just only listen to other people.

And sometimes we'll be the kind of person who only shares and we don't listen to anybody. And Paul says, we need to have the balance here. Tychicus is going to show you how it's done. He's going to share with you about me and he's going to listen to you about you. And through that, there's real fellowship that will be had. Well, another aspect of fellowship that is important and also requires some effort, some deliberate choice is to serve together. Again, Paul describes Tychicus as a fellow servant, right?

In the following verses, verse 9 and 10 and 11, he speaks about Aristarchus, Mark, Jesus called Justice, and he refers to them as fellow workers. To maintain fellowship, one part of that is to get together and work together for the Lord. But there is some camaraderie in the

The things that God wants to do and we're both part of it. We're engaging in the work. And so, you know, maybe there's events or maybe there's activities or maybe there's studies or maybe there's, you know, evangelism, whatever it might be. But there's something that God wants to do. And so you have your fellow servant. You have your fellow workers. And you join together and you work together to accomplish the purposes of God.

Well, also something important to consider, another aspect of fellowship that can be difficult, is forgiveness and reconciliation. But we see that here in verse 10. Again, verse 10 says, This Mark is significant because this is the guy that caused a fight between Paul and Barnabas.

That caused them to split up in Acts chapter 15. Instead of going on their second missionary journey together, they split up and went separate ways. Barnabas had his own missionary trip with Mark, and Paul took Silas and had his own missionary trip. And that was brought about because back in Acts chapter 13, on their first missionary trip, Mark, also known as John or John Mark, he was with them, but he left them part of the way through.

And that never sat right with the Apostle Paul. And so later on when Barnabas says, we're going to take Mark with us again on our next missionary journey, Paul said, no way. He abandoned us last time. And it was a sharp dispute described there in Acts chapter 15. But now some years have passed. And there's been, we don't know the circumstances behind it, but there's been some forgiveness. There's been some reconciliation. Mark is there with him.

Pastor David Guzik says, the grace of God working in Paul meant that time changed him and softened him towards others that had previously offended him. As Paul is, you know, in encountering the grace of God and growing in the grace of God, the same time John Mark is experiencing the work of God and there's a restoration, there's a renewing of that fellowship that they once had.

Later on, Paul will say, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he's useful to me for ministry. Fellowship with one another is always going to have issues because we are sinful. And we're going to offend, we're going to hurt, we're going to let each other down. It's going to take some deliberate effort to get past those things, to forgive and reconcile. Well, another aspect of fellowship is to pray for each other. Verse 12 and 13, we see this in Epaphras.

He says, So now he brings up Epaphras. And he says, this guy, he is a prayer warrior.

That's a really good example. He labors fervently. Again, going back to the idea of prayer, it's something that requires effort. And he engages with it wholeheartedly, fervently, that you may stand in perfect and complete in the will of God. It's part of fellowship, praying for one another, praying that we would be successful in our relationship with God, in our walk with God, having a zeal for one another, that we would be victorious in our Christian lives.

It's part of our fellowship to pray for one another. Another aspect of fellowship, kind of simple, is say hello. Verse, hi. Verse 14, Luke, the beloved physician and Demas greet you. You know, like Paul could write this letter, leave out verse 14. It's fine. It doesn't add to the doctrine, right? It doesn't add to the application, but he took the effort to write out, hey, Luke says hi.

He's working on the relationships. He's connecting them in fellowship. Luke and Demas, they both greet you. They both say hi. That there is this fellowship that we have. And sometimes it is important to remember even those simple things. And sometimes we are not diligent in those simple things.

In verse 15, Paul goes on to say, So these guys say hi. Hey, make sure you tell other people that I say hi. I wanted Nymphos to know. I was thinking about it. So tell him hi. I think it's a good example for us. Sometimes we just need to say hi. We just need to greet each other, just to be friendly and be a warm face and a smile. And even if it's not a deep conversation or some intricate prophecy from the Lord, but

But we just go out of our way. How much time did it take Paul to, you know, write verse 15? Not much time, right? But he just gave a little bit extra effort as he's writing this letter. And he says, he say hi to those guys for me. Those greetings to one another, they go farther than perhaps we would give them credit. We need those connections to be able to say hello to one another. Well, verse 16 gives us the next point, and that is to hear what God is saying.

Verse 16 says, now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. So Paul wrote a letter to the church of Colossae. He wrote another letter to the church of Laodicea. We don't have that letter. We don't know what was in it. But Paul says, swap letters. Hear what the Lord is saying to them and let them hear what the Lord is saying to you. And in this, both fellowships are going to be encouraged and

what I often like to refer to as being on the same page. You're going to be on the same page because you got a letter, they got a letter. They're different letters addressing different things, but you read theirs and they read yours and it helps you to understand what the Lord is saying to them and you're able to hear and share what the Lord is saying to you. This is one of the reasons why I would encourage you, especially as we wrap up this year and head into the new year, to pray about joining with us as we continue in the Bible in three years. We're heading into the New Testament for 2020. We'll be

reading through that for the rest of the year and spending time considering that on Sunday mornings together. And there's an aspect of fellowship that is just from hearing the same things from the Lord and knowing what the Lord is speaking in somebody else's life and sharing what the Lord is speaking in your life. This is another reason, some of you guys know, I send out text messages when I finish processing the file for service and

After it's been recorded and everything, and I look through my list, okay, who missed service? And I really want to make them feel guilty for missing service. I know that's probably how it comes across sometimes, but that's not the purpose at all. Listen, it's important for us to hear what we missed. It's a different experience to be here than to just listen to it later on. It's not like it's replacing that, but the Lord was speaking, and we're a body, and we're joined together. And so I would encourage you,

If you're one of those who gets those messages, listen to them so that you can know how the Lord was ministering and what the Lord was saying, that you can be part of the work that God is doing and the things that he is saying. It's to your benefit, but it's also so that you will be informed about what's happening in other Christians' lives. And, you know, Pastor John Corson would always say, we are where we are in the word. And that is so often the case, that the things that we're going through in the scriptures are exactly the things that we need to

as individuals but also as a body and and so there are those occasions that we can't be part of it we can't participate but we can get caught up we can read the letter to them and they can read the letter to us and and we can share and be on the same page about what the lord is saying well finally verse 17 says and say to archippus take heed to the ministry which you have received in the lord that you may fulfill it here's the last aspect to consider about fellowship

Zealously maintaining fellowship with believers includes exhorting one another. Here Paul gives an exhortation. There's this guy Archippus. We don't know a whole lot about him. He's mentioned in Philemon chapter 1. He might be the son of Philemon. He has a church in his house. So he's a leader in the church probably, perhaps. Whatever is happening in his life, he needs this exhortation. But what's interesting to consider about this is Paul doesn't say, Hey Archippus, fulfill your ministry.

He says, hey, church at Colossae, you tell Archippus, fulfill your ministry. You guys need to come around him, come alongside of him and encourage him and help him. And there is a need for us as believers to be those who exhort one another. An exhortation sometimes is a spurring on, hey, you're doing really good. Keep up the good work. Sometimes exhortation is,

Hey, that's a rough path that you're on right there. There's some wisdom perhaps that God wants to reveal to you and you need to come back to the things that God wants to say and to do in your life. And so there is that corrective part of exhortation as well. But sometimes we can be the, I'm not my brother's keeper kind of person and there's no exhortation. We don't really encourage those who are doing good. We don't bring back and correct those who are wandering and straying.

Paul says, you guys, hey, come on, stir yourselves up. Go exhort Archippus. Cheer him on. Help him to fulfill the ministry that God has given to him. Pastor David Guzik says, it's more fitting for the Colossians to say this to Archippus than for Paul himself to say it to him. He needed to hear this from the people around him.

They need to say, fulfill your ministry directly to Archippus, not behind him or not behind his back. And that's something that happens sometimes is we see something, right? We're all talking about it behind the person's back. I don't know why they're making that decision. Yeah, it just doesn't seem like a good idea. No, go that direction. Or, hey, man, he's doing such a great job, you know? But then it comes to the person and we don't tell them anything. Matthew 15, Matthew 18, one of those. Go directly to the person. There's an issue, go directly to the person.

There's an encouragement, go directly to the person. We need to exhort one another. And so much the more as we see the day approaching. And so putting effort into our relationships, this is how Paul ends up the book of Colossians. Encouraging us to be vigilant in our relationship with God, to be missional in our relationships with unbelievers, and to be zealous at maintaining our fellowship with one another. Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would help us.

to put some effort into our relationships. And God, if there's areas where we are lacking, areas, Lord, where we have not been putting in the effort that is necessary and needed, I pray, Lord, that you would bring clarity of that into our hearts and minds, Lord, that we'd be able to recognize it and respond and look to you. Lord, you've given us all the pieces for all of these things.

And we can be close to you and be vigilant in our relationship with you. We can be effective at sharing you and shining your light and your truth to the world around us. Lord, we can have some deep and personal and close and good connections with one another. We have everything we need in you. And so Lord, help us to look to you to find what we need or that we might engage with you, with the world around us,

and with one another in all that you provide. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.