Colossians 1:1-14

hope you guys are doing well. My name is dan. If I haven’t met you, one of the elders here, as you should be aware of by now, um still thankful for the church and the gifts and the letters man, what a joy it is to be a part of the body of christ. Amen. Well this morning we are going to kick off a new series. Looking at paul’s letter to the colossians and we’re gonna look at chapter one verses one through 14, so go ahead and turn there and while you’re turning there, I I got a couple of questions I want to pose to you guys first. I wanna, I wanna ask the parents in the room, there’s a few of you in, in the room this morning and um, I just want to ask you, you know, could you imagine what it felt like for you when your child went off on his or her own for the first time? Can you imagine the feelings you felt at that time, the burden you had for your child, wondering if that child would indeed be successful and whatever it is they were going off to pursue, wondering if that child would surround him or herself with the right people, the right folks to be in their life to help them, that they could be a blessing to as well, wondering if your child might encounter the wrong kind of company that might try to lead them away. People meaning to do harm to them, people, meaning to lead them him down a path that that wouldn’t lead to blessing and God, do you remember what that feels like now for some of you in here who have younger Children, you may be saying yourself, well, I don’t really know what that’s like when my kid leaves my sight for a few minutes. I am concerned that he’s gonna do something to himself or my house. Okay. I know what that’s like having young kids. But you can still relate, you can still relate because if you can think back to the first time you left home or the first time you took on a new venture or the first time you stepped into something that was completely new that you’ve never done before. The feelings you felt at that time, The insecurity that you had at that time? The questions you had about whether or not you might meet the right kind of people to help you to be a blessing to you, that you could be a blessing to or if you might meet the kind of people that might cause you harm or lead you away or lead you astray now, wouldn’t it be helpful for you? Young people and parents if the child or in the case of the young people, if you were reminded of the fact that it’s not your job to please everybody, wouldn’t that be a comfort to you? Wouldn’t that be something you’d want as a parent for your child going out into this world, that there’s some people that are gonna be difficult to please. There are some people that are gonna mean to do you harm, and then there are gonna be some good people, but ultimately, you need to know you have the freedom that it is not your responsibility to try to please everyone. And as a young person, that would simply be something I would want to be reminded of to be encouraging. And the fact that man, it’s not my job to try to please everybody. So this morning, the title of my sermon is you can’t please everybody logically, you can’t, but spiritually as it relates to our relationship with God, that should not be your goal, That shouldn’t be your goal to try to please everyone. But and I’m drawing this from The passage this morning in verse 10, that it would be your goal to please God, to pursue the things that pleases God, that that would be your goal. So, the title This Morning, you can’t please everybody. The main point I want you to get this morning is that it is your desire. It should be your goal to please God and to pursue the things that pleases your God. And so, we’re gonna look at this letter, verses one through 14, and we’re gonna see very early on in this letter, Paul, having this burden for this young church, being concerned about this young church. A deep love for this young church, wanting this young church to grow up in christ, wanting this young church to be oriented around the same goal that they would pursue christ, That they would pursue the things that pleases christ, That christ would be their greatest treasure, that their witness would reflect that they are pursuing christ above all else, so that’s his burden. And so in the beginning the first two verses, he wants to remind them of who they are in christ. And then as we work through the passages verses three through eight, we’re gonna see him unpacking the gospel that we believe and what it calls us into, and then he brings it home and verses nine through 14 talking about how we do this, what we are to do as the people of God, if we are to pursue the things that please God. So without further ado, let us read the passage this morning and then I will pray for us. Beginning in verse one, it says paul an apostle of christ jesus by the will of God and timothy, our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in christ at colossi Grace to you and peace from God, our father. We always thank God the father of our Lord jesus christ when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in christ jesus and of the love that you have for all the Saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this, You have heard before, in the word of the Truth the Gospel which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the Grace of God and truth, just as you learned it from a path, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of christ on your behalf, and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Being strong, strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. Given thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints and light. He has delivered us from the domain of Darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins, that is the Word of the Lord. Let us pray Father in heaven. Thank you for the Gospel of Grace. Thank you for the Gospel of Truth. Thank you God for your truth God! It’s our desire this morning that your word would bear much fruit this morning. Fruit that would please you, that it would bear fruit in our lives, that our lives would continue to produce. Fruit, multitude of fruit that is pleasing to you. But God, we ask you for this moment, this moment that we have together as your people, God bear fruit. Bear fruit in the Holy Spirit, in our lives, in our souls. The way in which we think about living before you got bear fruit this morning, I pray in jesus name Amen. And then so the apostle paul kicks off this letter with his typical apostolic greeting. But that greeting, if you notice when you look at previous letters that he wrote or letters that are before this in your bible that are written by paul. He starts them all in a very similar way. This typical of his writing, but by the time you get two versus two and possibly into verse three, he does something he adds a personal touch. He gives you a little bit of an indicator light of what he’s wanting to accomplish, what he hopes to see produced in the life of the church. And so he begins there in verse two by referring to the colossians as Saints as faithful brothers in christ. He wants them to know who they are in christ. They are called Saints. They’re called Faithful brothers. And he touches on this again and again in verse four referencing that they are now part of all the saints. And then further on in the passage, making mention of it again, having an inheritance and being called Saints in light. So he wants them to know who they are and why is that important? Well, think about that. If you were a parent and your child left home and your child being confronted with all of the pressures and the temptations in life, you would want them to have a sense of who they are. So they don’t fall into the temptation of trying to please everybody wants them to know who they are in christ. We can’t please everybody, but we must pursue the things that please our God, We belong to him. He says Saints, faithful brothers, grace to you, peace from God, our father. So this church, this small church plant this young church and its infancy, know who you are, what paul is saying, remember who you are, remember who we are so important, paul didn’t plant this church, it was planted by Paphos. Paphos came to faith through the ministry of Paul and Ephesus, Paul spent three years in Ephesus preaching the gospel and making disciples, one of them being a path wrist, but apophis is from colossi. So he returns with the gospel like a disciple, the fruit that was born in his life, that fruit can’t be just contained in him only. It must spread, it must produce more fruit. So he plants this church by preaching christ and paul wants this church to know, remember if you have believed if you have heard this gospel, because we’ve heard of your faith in christ, jesus know that the same gospel is bearing through all over the world because they also are hearing this gospel, you small young infant church plant, You’re important to God, remember who you are, remember who you are. And remember what we believe with this gospel that was preached to you, this gospel that was preached to you. It taught you that you were now a part of the family of God. That’s why he says All Saints. It talks about your love for the family of God, that you have this love for them. Now in christ jesus, you now love God and you love the saints so you can’t live to please everybody, but that’s not licensed to be a jerk that’s not license to just be unteachable to not care about your brothers and sisters. No, you must pursue the things that please God. And it pleases God, that you love his people, that you love his church, that you love his brothers and sisters. And that’s what the gospel that was preached to you has brought you to the place of recognizing and receive leaving and walking in. And paul says, I heard of it and the world is hearing of it and you need to know that the same gospel is bearing fruit all over the known world at that time and that fruit is pleasing to God when people are pursuing the things that matter the most to God. They want them to remember who they are, he wants them to remember what they believe several times here, he references the Gospel Verse four, he says, we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, this is a reference to the gospel, not directly, but the Gospel presents Christ Jesus to us. Clear right verse five, he says of this, You heard before in the Word of the Truth, The Gospel second time references the Gospel. And then, as you read on, it says in verse six, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it is bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God In truth, a reference again to the Gospel. A reference into the Gospel. This Gospel, that you believe, it has taught you that Jesus is first that he is the key to your relationship with God, that he is the key for how you are to now live. That it pleases him that you have this love for the Saints, that it pleases him that you remember that he is truth. He is truth. So he speaks to this idea of the Gospel being the God, the grace of God and truth. And then he says, it is um the Gospel, the word of Truth. And so he wants him to remember what it is. They believe. It starts with the Gospel. This Gospel don’t depart from it. Don’t forget it, don’t go entertaining new forms of spirituality or another Gospel don’t give way to it. But this Gospel, this is the truth. And with this gospel of truth, there is a grace for you to now walk in it. So he wants him to remember who we are, what we believe. He also wants us to remember what we do. And that’s when he jumps into verses nine, all the way down to 14, he says. So from the day we heard we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, pause there for a moment. I’m gonna pick up the reading again here in a bit, but it’s gonna pause there, those two verses so much filled in those two verses. Um this idea that you would be given some light into what the Apostle paul is praying should be for us. An indication of how we ought to pray for others and ourselves, paul is saying, Hey guys, this is what I’m praying for you and it’s not just something that I am doing for you. It’s something that you should be praying for yourselves and for the rest of the body of christ. So what should you be doing? You should be praying for God’s spirit to fill you with all knowledge and wisdom of understanding so that you can walk in a manner worthy of your Lord bearing fruit pleasing to him. It’s not your job to try to please everybody. But it is your call to do the things to pursue the things that please your God because you belong to him. In verse nine, he says, knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding that’s very spiritual. It ought to be translated Holy Spirit. He’s not talking about some mystical spirit, some subjective spirit out there. Some strange form of spirituality or anything. Somebody lighting a rock and calling it, you know the releasing of spirits or whatever. He’s not talking about anything like that. He is talking about the whole Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity sent to in dwell believers because of our faith in christ as a seal. And as a testimony that we belong to God. He says, you want to have a fellowship and a communion with God in the Spirit and the Holy Spirit. He give you wisdom and understanding what God wants you to do when and how to do it. Knowledge, wisdom, knowing and when and how because of the Holy Spirit. Communion with him. Prayer, study of his word, he says that then will give you the discernment, the wisdom to know how to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Now, some of y’all got rhythm and some of y’all don’t. So your walk is a little out of step. You know, there’s a there’s a spiritual walk. There’s a spiritual rhythm. one that does not resist the things of God, One that does not resist God’s commandments. One that does not resist God’s truth. And there’s a grace that helps you to get that rhythm so that you can walk an amount of worthy of your Lord bearing fruit pleasing unto him. The kind that he likes to see, the kind of he delights to see in his people, the kind that he enjoys feasting on from the lives of his people. There’s a rhythm to that wall and it starts with a surrender to God. You see, that’s why you can’t live to please everybody. That means you’re surrendering to this person, that person, this thing, that thing and that thing over there and that thing over there. And ultimately your displeasing the Lord here, he’s saying no. Um the rhythm you want, the walk you want is one of surrender to God in the spirit according to the truth of God, relying on the grace of God to empower that walk. You can’t please everybody, but you must pursue the things that please God because you belong to him. He’s given you a spirit to help you to do that. So in verse 11, he has been strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. Given thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints and light. Wow! He not only wants to give you knowledge and wisdom, but he also wants to give you power and endurance and strength and need that. You need that. Because I’m gonna tell you sometimes your obedience to christ is gonna make some enemies, not because you want to be an enemy, it’s just gonna make some enemies for you. Sometimes your obedience to christ, it’s gonna hurt a little bit. It’s gonna cause some sacrifice in your life. You need some strength, endurance and some glorious might at work in you. But if you know who you are, that you belong to God in christ, if you remember what it is that you believe the power of the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And if you understand that, this is what you’ve been made for. This is what we do man. You will pursue the things that God is pleased to see in your life. And God’s grace will keep you and strengthen you in that pursuit. So much so that he says that you will have a patience and a joy. You have a joy. You might have joy with some tears, but you’ve got joy. You might have joy with a big scar on your heart. But you’ve got real joy nonetheless, God is glorified in that. And people see that strength and that power and that glorious witness and say, I want to know that God, that you know. And so the pastor says that it leads us to give thanks to the father because he has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the Saints in life. Give thanks if you’re living to please everybody. Eventually, you’re going to displease the one somebody who really counts. And that’s God. And if you continue down that path, amen the inheritance, you risk that you want to put that on the table. You want to lose that. That’s why he begins his passage by saying faithful brothers. There is a call to faithfulness Jesus speaks of when he returns, will he find faith on the earth? Look, the Holy Spirit gives assurance. He gives assurance that we are his. But we are called in first Peter to make that election and assurance sure be as qualified as we are. To make that sure certain. Then he ends the passage Verse 13 and 14, talking about what God has brought us into as his dearly beloved people transferring us from under the domain of darkness. That’s the sin in this world. The unbelief. That’s the ways of satan. That’s going and running in the opposite direction of God God delivering you from that, bringing you into the kingdom of his dear son, giving you an identity as a son and a daughter and giving you the forgiveness of sin, the redemption that he purchased with his own blood. He’s saying God is powerful enough to do that. You need to believe it and walk and stand in that power faithfully. One of the ways you can do it is by not trying to please everybody, but pursue the things that please God because you belong to him. So church, monday morning, you get out of bed. I hope that you find your rhythm. I hope you find that walk that that glorifies God. And I hope you find it as you give yourself to communion with christ in the Spirit through his word, Coming to this place of total dependence upon God. Total dependence upon his spirit to lead you and to guide you according to the truth that is presented to us. Now when you step onto that job, or now when you set foot onto campus, or now when you have to deal with the same oh, you know same issues at home. There is in your renewed confidence not doing this alone. I’m pursuing the things that please my God. I’m gonna trust him to give me the strength and the grace to endure it and to do it with joy in my heart. And so I want to leave you with this passage in closing the second Corinthians five verses seven through nine. All talking about dying and living. But I want you to notice what he says in regard to both conditions, both states which you know we This will become a reality for us at some .7 verse seven for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage. And we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. He’s speaking of death here verse nine. So whether we are at home or away, this isn’t a football game, This is life and death. Home with the Lord away meaning being away from the Lord life here. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim. We make it our goal. We make it our aim to please him. Not this world. We make it our aim to please him. We make it our aim to pursue the things that please him. Make it our aim. We trust that he’s gonna give the grace that we need, the guidance that we need. He’ll be with us as we pursue this life of pleasing him. Amen, man! No spray Father, I thank you God! You you haven’t left us alone. You’ve given us your word. You’ve given us your holy spirit and you’ve given us got one another. God! May it be our aim to please you in all things. It indeed become Lord. Our aim and our desire to pursue all the things that please you God where we have felt since the Holy Spirit saying, you need to let go of this thing so that we might please you, that we might pursue the things that please you. I pray God that we would be obedient. I pray God that it would be our great joy to be humble and obedient. It’s your call, greatest in christ’s name. Amen.