Message by Kevin Russell
Check out the Facebook LIVE broadcast of this message here.
I was anticipating us going another direction for this
message by covering one of the topics he had outlined previously, but God
intervened and tweaked the direction to be discussing the importance of the
church, or as we have been describing it as family in preparing us to stand
before God on judgment day. and so
todays message is entitled “Motivated Toward Completeness”
I want to start today by reading the Word READ
Colossians 1:24-29 EMPHASIZE V28
When Jesus returns and the final judgment comes every
person will stand before the Lord, and we will stand complete or
incomplete. We will stand a spiritual
failure or a spiritual success.
It is the job of the church, of family, to make sure we
stand to hear well done good and faithful servant.
Paul in Colossians 1 states the goal for his ministry,
he calls that ministry the ministry to the church. If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your
savior, and for eternal life then you are a part of the family, you are a part
of his church, his body.
And now you worship and participate in service, but
why? Paul says that his goal, and it
should be the goal of every church and every church member that I might present
every man complete in Christ. So that
when your life is over and we stand before the Lord we will stand complete in
Christ.
This happens at the judgment seat of Christ, when we
stand before the Lord and our goal is to be presented complete in Christ. Our view of that day is supposed to influence
what we do today.
So that when we stand eyeball to eyeball with JC at the
judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the life we lived as believers
while on earth.
Side note on spiritual warfare: That is why the enemy works hard to get us to
forget that day, so he can control you today.
If we lose sight of or lose concern of standing before Christ on
judgment day then we live today for today, not today in light of that day.
Paul is sharing his goal that for all of the churches
that he is responsible for that they will stand before the Lord complete.
I want to emphasize v 28 here and so let me share it
again, this time from the AMP translation “ We proclaim Him, warning and
instructing everyone in all wisdom [that is, with comprehensive insight into
the word and purposes of God], so that we may present every person complete in
Christ [mature, fully trained, and perfect in Him--the Anointed].29 For this I
labor [often to the point of exhaustion], striving with His power and
energy, which so greatly works within me.”
Note that every man/every woman who is
a part of that church family is presented complete in Christ. Please note there are no exceptions, he
didn't say I want to do as many as I can, he says that every part of the family,
the body.
So lets looks at what does it mean to be presented
complete. The word complete means mature
it means grown up. The word means to
have reached a mature stage in your Christian experience.
God didn't save you and me to stay spiritual
babies. Everybody know your
chronological age does not necessarily mean maturity right. We all know grown folk who are still babies
in terms of how they live and the decisions they make.
To stand before the Lord complete means that you have
become a spiritual adult and did not remain a spiritual toddler. Maturity is the process of growing up
spiritually, going deeper spiritually, the process of becoming more like Christ
in character, conduct attitudes and actions.
Paul chides the church on numerous occasions for their
lack of growth where various churches should have been further along in their
faith but they were still sipping on bottles like babies. Lets look at one example READ Hebrews
5:11-15.
He says there milk Christians and meat Christians. So
what is a milk Christian vs a meat
Christian. A milk Christian, is not
accustomed to the word of righteousness.
What does he mean?
A milk Christian has not developed the habit of going to
the Word to answer the issues of life.
That's not their default setting, meaning they go to their friends 1st
or to the world, or to Google/siri or to Oprah, because they have have not developed the
habit of appealing to God on what he has to say about what they are facing and
so they stay on milk.
A milk Christian can hear 52 sermons on Sunday and go to
weekly bible study and still never change.
A meat Christian is a Christian who has learned to
discern good and and evil through their practice of the use of the Word. Here is how you know your a meat Christian:
the ability to spiritually discern informed by truth of Scripture.
The mature Christian is one who by practice has learned
to discern. So God sends us into
practice sessions, situations where we are confronted and we have to use the
Word to get through them.
Sometimes we resent the Word, we are dealing with with
some issue and folks bring up some verses and we bristle cause we are a milk
Christian. Because meat Christians
welcome and embrace the word, in fact they want to know on the front end what
God says so they can apply that divine truth to my scenario.
Milk Christians say that is too hard, I don't want to
work that hard, or I don't want to face that conflict.
Milk Christians just want to feel good, they don't want
pastors or their small group to give them anything they have to apply or that
challenges them, don't get in my business and tell me when I am wrong. Just give me something that makes feel good,
and therefor there is no maturity.
The motivation to become a meat Christian is that one
day you and I will stand before him and give an account relative to our
maturity, or did he save us and we refused to grow?
Our job, Paul says, is to prepare you for that day when
as he says in 1:22 that we are holy, blameless and beyond reproach.
God wants to be proud of you on that day, so the role of
a church ,and this church is to get you ready for that day.
Our job is do life as family based on on the Word so
that we keep that day in mind so it influences us today, so that we stand to
hear well done good and faithful servant.
You guys know I am a “but how?” kind of guy. Praise God that Paul tells us how this
transformation happens.
In v28 “we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and
teaching every man with all wisdom”. 3
words preaching/teaching/admonishing.
Preaching…we proclaim Jesus Christ and it should be our
center point, our focus, everything is to be brought back to Him, the hub of
every spoke of our lives. We proclaim
him.
To preach means to declare with authority a truth in
order to invoke a response from the hearer.
To motivate you to respond.
That's why some churches and some cultures utilize a
call and response such “can I get a witness”, or the listener may response by
saying Amen.
Quick story, at my dad’s funeral in Arkansas the
congregation was steeped in this tradition and as various people proclaimed the
word you would hear all kinds of responses such as “well” or “make it plain
sir” These responses were so resounding
that we had to explain them to Raven after the fact because she had never
experienced the call & response.
So preaching means to declare with authority a truth in
order to invoke a response from the hearer, not necessarily a verbal response,
but some action for sure.
Teaching is a little different. Teaching’s goal is deepening your
understanding, so teaching is more content driven, whether or not there is a
call for response. Preaching is a call
for a response. Between the preaching
and the teaching he throws in another word…admonishing every man.
To admonish is to guide someone in their use of the
information. Between the proclamation
and the teaching he says there must be the admonishing. That is to come along side and help somebody
to use the Word that they heard, preached or taught. By inspiring you, challenging you to admonish
everyman. Most times its not that we
don't believe what we just heard from the pastor, its just that when we get to
the real world we don't know how to use it or apply it.
Church is not just so that you can hear sermons or
teaching, TV/Radio/Podcasts all can provide that. The reason we need the church, the “family”
is to be in the context of admonishment.
Where somebody is coming alongside you pointing out that
we shouldn't be going that way, that's not the right decision based on the word
of God.
Oh but we don't want admonishment do we? We don't want the church all up in our
business. The problem is without
admonishment it wont stick, because the Bible tells us that Satan snatches the
word away, and keeping it from sticking with you. Doing life in the context of family will help
keep you tethered to the truth of Gods word you will drift from it.
You need the church for community to keep from saying
amen on Sunday and drifting on Monday.
Its real when you're here but we don't live in here do we? Its only out there where growth happens.
This happens when the indwelling Christ the living word
connects with the written word that we have hope of glory translation when we
will learn to discern and we will grow, and mature and when we spend our lives
in this place then we end up in front of Christ in glory hearing well done good
and faithful servant.
