Details
Nothing to say, yet
Comment
Nothing to say, yet
Listen to Colossians 4:10-18 Fellow Workers by Cross City Church MP3 song. Colossians 4:10-18 Fellow Workers song from Cross City Church is available on Audio.com. The duration of song is 42:47. This high-quality MP3 track has 25.717 kbps bitrate and was uploaded on 6 Sep 2024. Stream and download Colossians 4:10-18 Fellow Workers by Cross City Church for free on Audio.com – your ultimate destination for MP3 music.
Comment
Loading comments...
The speaker talks about his back pain and how it goes away while preaching. He discusses the importance of having friends and mentions some specific individuals who were close to Paul. He briefly mentions biblical slavery and how it differed from the slavery in recent history. He introduces characters from the book of Colossians. Well, good morning. Good to see you this morning. It's been a good morning. Thanks for praying. My back was not good. But strangely enough, after I stand up for a while, it usually hurts, but it doesn't hurt now. So, when I'm preaching, nothing hurts. So, I knew I'd be all right if I could just get to the pulpit and make it fine. Now, I didn't get to tell everything I wanted to tell a while ago. I really needed another hour. My first draft of what I wanted to say was 37 pages, and that's obviously too long. But it'll be in the archives. So, if you want to read my summary of the period, it'll be there. But I want to tell you how we got this corner property where we're right next door here. There were 13 acres there. I meant to tell it, but I looked up to that clock. I said, oh, me, I don't have time to tell this. But this is a good story. We had built this building, I believe. Yeah, then this building over here, we had started, and it just put in the piers. It had steel sticking up out of the concrete. And we had an opportunity to buy that 13 acres. So, when we talked about it with the deacons, Don Brown, who was principal over at Vail, said, Pastor, I think we need that 13 acres more than we need that new building. And that was pretty much the same with everybody. So, I took that seriously, and I took my Bible. I didn't tell anybody until after I did it. Didn't want anybody to think I was crazy. But I read Joshua 1, where God told Joshua, everywhere the sole of your feet will tread, I will give you. And I walked around that 13 acres, asking God to give us the 13 acres. I did make a mistake. I did not walk around the mobile station. And consequently, Popeye's is there today. But that's the only piece of the property we didn't get is what I didn't walk around. But anyway, I told them we at least can get a meal. Now, by the way, I'm at the age where I need to say something when I'm thinking about it. We're going to start on verse 7 of Colossians 4, which is where we stopped last week. And Ray and Ed have made copies of the notes for last week that they didn't put out. They didn't want to confuse you. But they can put it out on the table. And if you want a copy of that, you can pick that up from last week. Because we're going to start at verse 7. And hopefully, we get through. It'll be like my message this morning. We're running out of time. We're through. So, we'll go as far as we're going to go Colossians. Next week, I'm not sure what's going to happen. Jack always – I always love for him to do a context for every book. The city and the culture of where it was – who was going to read this and all of that. Well, he's going to do that with Philemon. But he came up with this screwball idea of he'll do that, and then he wants me to teach Philemon that day. So, if it works that way, he'll set the stage, and I'll tear it down next week. So, we'll see how that works. I'd much prefer him to do whatever he wants to do, and then he'd teach Philemon. But we'll see. We'll be there next week. And there's some interesting things when we come to Colossians. There's some things that really pop up that are interesting. One is that he was never alone in ministry. He always had somebody with him. Just think about that. He had a – even when he was in prison, he had somebody with him. And he had the incredible ability to draw people around himself and then point them to Christ and involve them in ministry for the Lord. In the book of Acts and in Paul's epistles, he mentions over 150 people. That's amazing. Sixteen – 26 names in Romans 16 and ten names here in Colossians 4. So, he always had people around him. And some he simply mentioned as saints or brothers and sisters and chosen ones and pronouns and other words that speak of persons without naming them. So, he's always around, which is just a good reminder to us that we need each other. It's not good for us to act alone. The New Testament has no place for Lone Ranger Christianity. We belong together. That's why Hebrews says, don't neglect the gathering of yourselves together. And I don't like having microphones between me and folks. Wayne and Burdine were in this class when we came – retired, came here back in 2006. And he did lead singing. And it was Chairman Burdine's one year. And we literally drove them to Korea with us for a trip. And it was a memorable trip because Wayne got deathly sick in Seoul. And we were in the Sheila Hotel and the Miss Universe contest was going on in that hotel. And we didn't see any of the contestants. But they said that's what happened. It was really busy. And we hadn't had anything to eat. So, we went down, had a bite to eat. And before midnight, he was deathly sick. Now, good thing Burdine's a nurse. But she nursed him. And he was sick the whole week. And if the airlines had known how sick he was, he would still be in Seoul because he had high fever. But Doug Jackson had set up the trip, and he managed to get us upgraded to first class. Thank God for that. And we got Wayne on board, and he was almost comatose. We landed in Tokyo. He does not remember Tokyo, though we did get him out. Go out of security area to find something to eat and drink. And then back to work. But he came home and went straight to the hospital. And what, you were in the hospital seven days, eight days? And he called me one day and said, I know now why I had to go to Korea. I said, why? He said, because one of my nurses is Korean, and she accepted Christ today. So I knew why I had to get sick and come to the hospital. Anyway, they've been dear friends forever. And they joined right after we came here. 1975, they joined. We came in November. They joined sometime in the spring, I think, or pretty quick. But they're cherished friends. Isn't it good to have friends? You know, I'm not surprised Paul mentions 150 people because friends are just wonderful people to have. And real friends are friends that when you get with them, it's just like you've never been away from them. You just enjoy being together. And God's blessed us in so many ways. And I remember we were in Argentina several years ago. And a young man came down the aisle, probably in his early 20s, gave me a big embrazo, big hug. And he said, one day, he said, in heaven, he said, you'll see me coming. I want to give you a big embrace. I see you coming. The gospel is made for friends, and it makes friends. And so Paul is identifying people. And so let me see where I am here. I said I was going to start with verse 7, but I didn't bring my notes for verse 7. Anyway, let me just read it to you. Tychicus, our dearly beloved brother, faithful minister, fellow servant in the Lord will tell you all the news about me. I sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts. And he's coming with Onesimus, my faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you about everything here. So he's sending Tychicus. And by the way, Tychicus also traveled with him a number of times, including went with Paul to Jerusalem to deliver the gift from the Macedonian churches to the church of Jerusalem when they were in great straits. And so he's a very close friend. And Onesimus is a runaway slave. Philemon, that we'll see next week, was his owner. And we've had two lessons in the last six months dealing with what biblical slavery was. And I'll repeat again that it was unlike the slavery we're familiar with in Europe and America in the last several hundred years, because slaves did have a lot of freedom. They could work for and buy their freedom. And the governor of Syria that threw Paul in prison, Felix, was a slave and rose to be governor. So it did not have the oppressive, brutal issue that our current slavery in recent years have. But it was Paul is making a point to Philemon, I want you to treat him like you treat me. While Christianity didn't defeat slavery itself, the gospel itself worked out in the lives of Christians did do that. With us, in America it took a civil war. It took Wilberforce and England 30 years, and they finally passed the anti-slavery law three days after he died. So it comes sometimes at a slow pace. But Onesimus was a slave, and Paul is writing Philemon and says, don't receive him. Now, the reason was, runaway slaves could be put to death. I mean, there was severe punishment for running away if you were a slave. And so he said, you know, don't treat him like a runaway slave. Treat him like you treat me. And that's kind of the golden rule, isn't it? Treat others like you want to be treated. And so Onesimus is there, and we'll hear about him next week a little bit more. But Aristarchus was Paul's fellow prisoner and co-worker here in verse 11. He was raised in Thessalonica, which is in Macedonia. And Acts 19 to 20 tells us that he risked his life during that riot in Ephesus when the crowd sought to kill the apostle Paul. And he had traveled with Paul through Syria, Greece, and experienced a shipwreck. He was with him when he came back to Rome and the shipwreck they had on the way back to Rome. And he never flinched when the going got rough. He'd see it through. It's interesting that Paul describes him as my fellow prisoner. Now, how was that true? Well, it could be that he was in prison for preaching the same gospel Paul did. Paul was in prison for preaching, and the Gentiles didn't have to conform to Jewish regulations to be saved. And he says very plainly, that's why I'm in prison. Well, maybe Aristarchus was also involved in that preaching. Or he may have come just to be a companion to Paul, and he had a lot of liberties. He had a soldier assigned to him all the time, but he was under house arrest. And so he may have come just to be there to encourage the apostle Paul. We don't know that much about him, but he was with Paul through a lot of his experiences and was there when he needed him. It's interesting that in Philemon, he refers to Aristarchus as our fellow soldier. So he could have been a volunteer prisoner who shared Paul's imprisonment to give him assistance and encouragement for the sake of the gospel. Or maybe he was there for the same reason Paul was. He preached against Jewish rituals and all the Jewish requirements to be necessary for salvation. Mark is the next he mentions. He was a Jew, a native of Jerusalem. He went on the first missionary trip with Paul and Barnabas, and he was commonly known as John Mark. Now, whether he's referred to as Mark or John Mark, you need to know he is a very important person in the first century church. He wrote the Gospel of Mark. Now, I mean, that makes him pretty significant right there. John was his Jewish name, and Mark was his Roman name. And on the first missionary journey, he decided not to stay with Paul and Barnabas, and he went home. Left and went back to Thessalonica. No reason is given for why he left. We don't know why he left. Apparently, Paul felt like it was inappropriate for him to leave, because when they started on the second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas had made the first missionary journey. On the second missionary journey, Barnabas came to Paul and said, I want to take Mark with us. By then, Mark apparently had been restored. Well, maybe he hadn't been restored completely at that point. I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, I guess. But Mark, Paul just said, no, no, he deserted us, and I won't take him with me. That's when Paul and Barnabas split up, and Paul took John Mark and had a missionary journey, which we have no record of. But we know they did go on a missionary journey, and there's probably some record historically of that journey, but it's not included in the Bible. And Paul took Silas on the second missionary journey. There's no doubt that Barnabas was the mentor who helped Mark realize his mistake and restore him to fellowship with God and with Paul, because Paul says in one of his epistles, he says, bring John Mark with you, for he's profitable for me. So there had been a reconciliation, which probably we ought to remind ourselves that Christians may disagree, but it ought never become a means of separation. And yet today, one of the main problems in the church in America today is nearly every church is fighting about something. I said this morning, I believe that this is maybe the best health our church has ever been in, because to my knowledge, we don't have any battle we're fighting with each other. Now that's significant. And so you know how much throughout all the epistles, especially Colossians, Paul has emphasized that unity, unity, unity, unity. It was a pet peeve of his, and it's because it was the topic of the last prayer Jesus prayed before he went to the cross. In John 17, his whole focus was the unity of the church. He prayed for us, those who will believe because of these disciples are going to share. And may they be one as we're one. He prayed that we would have unity. So unity is a big deal. And we all know this, but God is never the author of chaos. He's the author of peace. In every one of his epistles, the Apostle Paul speaks of grace and peace. In Colossians, he started with grace and peace, and he ends up with the peace of God be on you in chapter four here. So they split up. And then Paul obviously did have a chance to mend things with John Mark later on. And he proved himself faithful and was a comfort to the Apostle. And so that's John Mark. It's likely that he was led to Christ by Simon Peter, because in 1 Peter 5.13, Peter refers to John Mark as my son. Well, he obviously wasn't physically his father, but he must have been his father in ministry. And so there's always a close fellowship that you have in ministry. When I was 14 years old, I publicly committed to God's call to preach the gospel. The man who was preaching that night was Bailey Stone. I was 14 years old. He was 19. We became fast friends until he died. I preached his funeral. My life was never the same because he was there when I submitted to God's call for my life. There's just a kinship in ministry that is very, very strong. So John Mark now has been reconciled. And he asked for John Mark. By the way, Barnabas was John Mark's cousin. So they were related. And there's no doubt, you know, the name Barnabas means son of encouragement. And everywhere you hear Barnabas going, he's encouraging people. Aren't you glad that they sent Barnabas to Antioch to check out the heresy? They've been hearing about Jews, Gentiles being saved without becoming compliant with Jewish regulations. They sent Barnabas up there to find out about it. And he encouraged them, came back and gave the report and celebrated. They were just Barnabas. You know, all of us, don't you have somebody in your life that you just look forward to seeing them? It doesn't matter how long, you just enjoy seeing them. They encourage you. And I used to have a guy when I was here, still a good friend, but he was very negative. I mean, if there was a problem, he'd find it. Glass is always half empty, not half full. And he'd come and dump all that on me. And finally, more than once, I'd actually look. I don't want you to come back for a while. I have all the negatism I need and I don't need to hear your negatism. So I said, why don't you rest for a while and give me a few weeks at least before you come back. You know, you just don't like people that are going to always be negative and never get over it. You know, I'll never forgive you. Why? You can never forgive anybody any more than God's forgiven you. So why would you not forgive somebody else? But it's likely that Peter led John Mark to the Lord. And that was his desertion of Paul and Barnabas in the first missionary trip is why they split up. Now, in verse 10, Paul makes an incredible statement that's easy to miss. But it's one we need to hear. He said, There's where we meet Mark. And it's unexpected. I mean, we breeze right over there. This is Mark that John didn't want, that Paul didn't want. This is the one that forsook him in the first missionary. This is John Mark. Now Paul wants to see him. It's amazing. It's something we need to practice. And I think I've told you a little poem my daddy always said is so much bad and the worst of us. So much good and the best of us. It doesn't behoove any of us to talk about the rest of us. Who are we to bad mouth somebody? Just what degree do you have that gives you that privilege? Why would you? Why would you criticize someone else's servant? You don't like this preacher, that preacher, this person. They're believers. They're serving the Lord. So why would you criticize one of his servants? You know, you don't have to agree with somebody about everything. You couldn't be married if you agreed about everything because you couldn't do that. You're going to disagree. But just don't fuss about it. Don't make a big deal about it. A lot of things, we ought to treat each other with kindness. My daddy always said treat everybody with kindness because everybody's having a hard time. That's true. Everybody's having a hard time. We're hurting people dealing with hurting people. So we need to recognize that. He mentions epithets. Well, Jesus is justice. Jesus is a common name in Jewish life. Justice was his Roman name. We don't know anything about him. He's just a great illustration of someone who was a devoted and cherished believer whose ministries is not well known. We just don't know much about him at all. But I've told you before. I'll tell you again. I tell young preachers and I tell all of us frequently, embrace obscurity. It's amazing what we can get done if nobody's got credit for it. One of my seminary professors told us one day, he said, you know, I think if we change the rules and if you led somebody to Christ, they ought to join somebody else's church. He said, I feel like personal evangelism will come to a screeching halt. Well, we don't do that, do we? And we ought to just serve the Lord regardless and do it with unity and with praise to the Lord. And like I said this morning, you know, everything that's happened in this church since 1904 has not been pleasant. But everything that happened that corrected things and brought us to where we are was God's doing. God did it. And we ought to be grateful for that. So he was a deeply committed Christian. But nobody knew much about him. Epiphras was probably the one who started the church in Colossae, also in Hiapolis and Laodicea. Because he mentions both those in Colossians here. And so it's likely that he was the one who started the church in Colossae. And he talked about praying for them in verses 12 and 13. Paul says, Epiphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling for you in his prayers. That wrestling is a pretty strong struggle. Struggling with you in prayer. Most of us don't struggle in prayer. But if we pray enough, we will. Satan hates to see us pray. But he said he was always wrestling for you in his prayers so that you can stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills. And he says, I testify about him that he works hard for you, for those in Laodicea and those in Hierapolis. So Epiphras, deeply committed Christian, longed for them to be fully mature and perfect in Christ. And the Greek word there means complete or fully developed. He wants them to be fully grown up. Sometimes people do something they shouldn't do. And they say, well, that's just who I am. Well, quit being who you are. That's not the real you. If you know Jesus, that's not Jesus in you. But Epiphras was known for his prayer. He's the only one in the people that Paul mentions here that he mentions him because of his prayer life. That's kind of interesting. Not that the others didn't pray. He was a man that really struggled and fought and labored in prayer for him. And so that is Epiphras. Luke is the Luke that wrote the Gospel. Luke and the Book of Acts. He was a Gentile physician and he was of great importance to the church because he accompanied Paul. He wrote Luke and the Book of Acts. And he's likely the only Gentile writer in the New Testament. All the other writers are Jews. He joined the missionary team in Troas. And the reason we know that is because up until Acts 16, which finds Paul and Silas in Troas, he has referred to this traveling team as they. But in chapter 16, he refers to them as we. So he apparently became a member of the team in Troas and was with them through all of his ministry. It's interesting. Paul had the power to heal people, but he took a doctor with him, which ought to be a great comfort to all of us. There's nothing wrong with us visiting doctors, except paying for them, I guess. But, you know, it's not a lack of faith to have a doctor. Paul traveled with a doctor. And that is interesting, to say the least. So Luke was with him from Troas on and very much a part of the team. Demas is mentioned. He is mentioned in three of Paul's epistles. Or in fact, three times in all of Paul's epistles. And he was an exciting participant in the third missionary journey. But 2 Timothy 4.10 simply states, Without any explanation, Demas has forsaken me since he loved this present world and has gone to Thessalonica. No explanation. We don't know why he left, but Paul called and made an emphasis about that. And then he mentions, let's see here, Demas Nympha. Now, Nympha, we don't know much about. The name itself is not clear whether she's a man or a woman. Some people think that's a male name. Some people think it's a female name. Most scholars would probably say this is a woman. But we do know she lived in Laodicea and she had a local church in her home. She had a church meeting in her home because Paul mentions that the letter was to be read to that church. And so we don't know much about her. Archippus appears twice in the New Testament, here and in Philemon. And he's reminded by Paul, Pay attention to the ministry you have received from the Lord so that you can accomplish it. He may have been in Philemon's family since Aphia, who was Philemon's wife, received greetings in this book, in this letter. So he had received a special ministry from the Lord. And Paul told him, now, pay attention. God has entrusted you with this ministry. And he'll say that you've completed it. If you stay faithful, you need to do that. And let me pause just a minute. By the way, we need to respect God's merchant, a mission, his ministers that minister to us. It grieves me. Do you know that Southern Baptists are still firing 125 pastors every month? 1,500 every year. And the very thought that any church would get to the place where they would fire a pastor is just almost inconceivable. Because, hear me, you don't hire a pastor. You call a pastor. The pastor does not work for you. He has to work with you. And with you, he is supposed to train you to do the work of the ministry. He's not there to do all the visitation, all the soul winning, all the members do. That's what all the way. By the way, the best thing that happened to me when I left you is I learned to be a church member in Nashville. I hated it. I looked one day at the priest. I said, look, that means I have pencils in this book rack. How can anybody fill out a minister's card? Carol Ann just noticed me and said, it's not your responsibility anymore. But I learned to overlook things like that. I don't even look to see if there are any pencils in the back of the fuse now. But, you know, we ought to respect the ministers that serve us. Every sincere minister is worth something to you. Now, you may not like everything he does. Remember, Jesus got in a little trouble while he was here. Ended up on the cross. I guess if people couldn't be happy with Jesus, they might not be happy with you or with your minister. But but it's a call. And that's why that's why the book of Hebrews in the 13th chapter says that you ought to obey those who rule over you. Now, let's not you get the idea that you ought to do everything somebody some preacher tells you to do. That's not the idea. But but every minister, you owe respect for him. I mean, it's not easy being a pastor. I've had weddings and funerals on the same day. It's not easy doing that. I've had multiple meetings on the same day. Lots of opportunity to mess up. I mean, you never you know, you're never trained for things that you don't expect. And so we ought to give our ministers a break. They're just like us, except that God called them and we accepted that call. So we treat them like special ministers of God to us. And if we ever get to a place where we can't follow a pastor, then go somewhere else. Early church didn't have that privilege. We do. The Baptist church is on most corners in most cities. So just find somewhere else to go. Don't stay around to create difficulty. That's a whole nother story. OK. Remembering these cherished partners and ministers has a special warmth now to the book of Colossians. It was a heavily doctrinal book until this closing part. And this is a representative group of believers whose character still forms the pattern for all believers. John MacArthur described these people that Paul mentions here like this. In this message we meet the man with a servant's heart, the man with a sinful past, the man with a sympathetic heart, the man with a surprising future, the man with a strong commitment, the man with a single passion, the man with a specialized talent and the man with a sad future. All of those in this time. He closes his epistle in verse 18 with three reminders. He said, I'm writing this first. I'm writing this greeting with my own hands. Apparently, Paul had some physical disability. Some think it may be eyesight. Some think it may be back problems. But it's unlikely that he wrote this entire epistle himself. Physically, he probably was not able to do it. But it was not unusual for him to have in a manual instance a secretary. Somebody else to record it for him. But his signature was a verification that he wrote it. So he probably didn't write the whole thing, but he signed it. He wanted him to know. So he made sure, I'm writing this greeting with my own hand. So that likely means someone else wrote it. And for him to have written this epistle would be very, very strange. Second, he reminded him to remember my chains. His chains are a reminder to all of us of the value that Paul placed upon the gospel. He's in prison because he preached the gospel. He's not there because he opposed Rome. He was not there because he had made enemies that unrelated to the gospel. He was there because he had preached the gospel and told people that Gentiles can be saved and don't have to act like Jews to be saved. So he was there for one reason. That's the only reason he was there. He said, don't forget, now I'm here. Remember my chains. His faithful ministry was the reason he was there. If he hadn't preached the whole truth of the gospel, he would not have been in prison. His real slavery was to Jesus Christ. And that's what took him to Rome. He was following the Lord. Third, he concluded with his favorite expression, grace be with you. The entire epistle is a focus on God's grace. He began grace to you and peace from God our Father to ended with grace be with you. It is God's grace that sustains the lives of believers and nothing else. Nothing else. Don Kelly died this week. Many of you know Don Kelly. Yeah. Sad time. But we're all going to die. And we celebrate because Don was a faithful believer of Jesus Christ. He lived in grace. He lived by grace and he died by grace. And he's in glory by grace. I preached a funeral for Brian Lakey, who was on our staff for a while. Brian and Gene remembers here for a number of years back in the late 80s. The pastor at his funeral on Friday was the pastor's sixth funeral last week. A lot of dying going on. And without grace, there is no hope. You can go back and try to figure out how the earth was created and what was used. You can find all the answers scientifically, biblically, anything. You reach a point, though, when you have to say, and then what? What now? Which, by the way, is what I tell every preacher. Everybody's going to ask after he gets through preaching. What now? If you don't apply what you've taught or preached, you haven't helped anybody. Information is not a very good method to encourage people. You've got to tell them, what are you going to do now? Here's what you've learned and here's what you need to do. So I always felt like that. I listened to W.A. Criswell preach. What a masterful preacher. Agen Rogers, Jerry Vines. Great preachers. I'm not like them. I like to be. But I think I have something that Dr. Criswell didn't have. He never really told you what to do with what he preached to you. Now, I love Dr. Criswell. He had a dear, dear soul. One of my dearest friends went through some deep water together. But he never really said, now, that's what you're to do this week. Well, I can't preach like Dr. Criswell, but I do believe that I have the ability to tell you what now. What now is that we're saved by grace. We live in grace and we die in grace and we're in heaven by grace. Never forget, you didn't do anything to get saved. You can't do anything to get lost. You're already lost. If you get saved, you can't do anything to get lost again. Everything's by God's grace. We don't want justice. We want mercy. And that's the message of Colossians. Grace. What happens with grace? Peace. We're living in the time where peace is the most elusive characteristic in our culture. Do you know of those under 30, between 20 and 30, their biggest challenge is a fear of what's going to happen next. A depression. What's coming next? We have no peace. But in Christ, we have grace. And if we have grace, we have peace. And that's what Colossians is all about. So, as I said, Paul mentions this in every one of his epistles. He opens and closes with it in this one. And it's a good reminder. God doesn't use any of us because of us. If he uses us, it's always in spite of us. We can never measure up on our own. Some of these pastors who've had problems in recent days that you know their names are good men, good preachers. Had faithful ministry. But you can't do it by yourself. And every man at some point, if he's not careful, will encounter something he just can't handle by himself. Paul never wanted to be alone. He rallied people around him. Shows us the value of dedicated friends and fellow workers. Always reminds us that it's all by God's grace. We don't deserve the goodness of God. We ought to be grateful for the little things. Things we don't think about. You know, this morning I was thankful. With my back, it was difficult for me to put on my socks. So I thanked the Lord and managed to put my socks on. But, you know, if I hadn't had back problems, I never would have been grateful that I could put socks on. God's grace is just there when we need it. Now, that's a simple thing. But God's grace covers everything in our lives. In fact, Randy and Elizabeth went somewhere yesterday. They told us in the car. Randy told us, he said, Dad, I prayed like Mom taught us to pray for a parking place today. And he said, we had a good parking place. You know, God's just interested. Isn't God good? Not a lot of people think God's sitting up there trying to zap us and make life miserable for us. No, no. He's trying to help us in every way. He has our best interest at heart. And he says, in spite of everything may happen, all things work together for good. Those who love me are called according to my purpose. Wow. How could God do that? That's just God. It's grace. He does it. We ought to thank him for it. Never get cocky. Best thing that ever happened to me was the night, as dark as that night was, when God showed me there's no sin I would not commit. I did not believe that. But that day, God showed me there's no sin that you're not capable of committing. It broke my heart. But it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Because I realized there's a special stewardship that each of us has to be obedient, to be respectful, to be loyal and faithful to the Lord, and to be beyond reproach in living the life that Christ has implanted in us. And that's true of every one of us. We're saved by grace. We live in grace. We die in grace. And we get to glory by grace. Isn't that good news? That's why it's called the gospel. Gospel means good news. Good news. And Colossians is a great story for us. It's a great gospel message. And I've enjoyed going through the prison epistle. I don't know what we're going to do next. If y'all have any suggestions, pass them along. Sometimes I talk about it. Sometimes he just says, do this. Why don't we just start over here? And I say, okay. As long as it's in the Bible, we'll just do it. And so I'm not sure where we're headed, but we've been through Romans and John and Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians in the last year. And it's not bad for a year. But we still have lots of Bible left. So I appreciate your prayers. I haven't heard from you, but Eddie mentioned something about Barbara wasn't doing well today. And we need to pray for them. And good to see the man's back. No one to have you today, huh, John? I know that feeling. I don't give many invitations anymore. I'm glad y'all are here. John has a key position at Southwestern Seminary. And I'm grateful for him. Sandy has the most important position there because she's the one that makes it attractive and a company. A good place to come to meet and have meetings. Takes care of all the details. Anyway, love you guys. Appreciate you. It's 12 minutes till. I want y'all to realize what time it is. It is 12 minutes till and we're through. So next Sunday, we're not going to come in at 945 because they would like for us to be in the Commons. We have an area that will be the Draper era. There are five different areas. The Anderson era. There will be the early area of the church. And so we'll have a – I'm not sure what it's going to be. We're just going to throw up and be there. But there will be some things there. And by the way, the wall is the wall that you walk down from this hall to the Commons. And that entire wall, I think, is 180 feet. Gosh, it can't be that long. But anyway, it's a big wall. It's going to be full of pictures. They'll stay there permanently. And the things that are in the Commons are there temporarily. When that's over with, we'll bring some things to put there and then we'll take them home. But the wall is going to be a remarkable thing because it tells the whole story of the church, 1904 to right now. And I'd like to say there have been some great things that happened, been some hard things that happened. But through it all, God is blessed and the church kept going. And I will tell you again, people in a church change their pastors. Y'all learned some things from me, but I learned a whole lot more from you. And so we have a lot to be thankful for, that God allowed us to be a church that blessed its staff and pastors. And God blessed us over these years. And what we could report – I ran out of time today. I had too much material. I sure wanted to tell about walking around the property, but I looked up and saw the clock and said, I don't have time for that. So I thought I'd throw it at you when we started. So it was an interesting trip around that. But anyway, thank you so much. Let's pray. God, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for the writings of the Apostle Paul, the leading of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for the grace and peace that comes through and for the value of people and the need for us to share life together and minister together and be forgiving and to be blessed with grace and filled with the Spirit. These are things we could never deserve, and we thank you for it. Bless us this week and let next Sunday be a special day that is a blessing to all. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. I'm a tenor, not a bass.
There are no comments yet.
Be the first! Share your thoughts.
