Video Transcript: Partners in God's Mission

Continue steadfastly in prayer, be watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas concerning whom you have received instructions. If he comes to you welcome him, and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of a circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God and they have been a comfort to me. 

Epaphras who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician greets you as does Demas.  Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea. And to the Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I, Paul write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen.

Does anyone here know what this is? There's a hand in the back row and I suspect,  what is it Sam. It is the emblem of the Navy Seals and it has a number of elements to it. It's got an eagle, an anchor, a pistol and a trident. And the Navy Seals are an elite unit of warriors who are specially trained on very, very dangerous missions. And their job is at least twofold, to take out some very challenging and deadly enemies and also to rescue people in some very, very difficult situations. And if you're among the Navy Seals, you need to have some weapons you need to have a ton of training and you need to get in there and deal with some terrible enemies and at the same time, make sure that you're not gunning down the people you're supposed to rescue while you're in the process of dealing with the enemies. And so the Navy Seals are one of those military units that has that dual purpose of warfare and of rescue and they need to be able to work together. They need to be able to use a variety of kinds of equipment. Sometimes even when they're working as individuals they still need to know how they're part of the larger team of the bigger effort and every individual knows where he fits in a mission of a larger team. Every Seal team has to know how to carry out its mission and each member of the team has to know their role in that mission. 

And what I want to do today is reflect on the mission that we have been given. It is a dangerous thing not to know who you are or what you're up to. The apostle Paul was the head of an elite team and a lot of these people whom he's giving greetings from or greetings to are members of that same team and he wants to keep them coordinated. He wants to keep them encouraged and he wants to keep them battling the enemy and carrying out the great rescue mission for which God has commissioned them. He has spoken earlier in the book of Colossians about the Lord Jesus in his great rescue in delivering us from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son and Jesus is the main rescuer. But now in chapter four, we get a bigger sense of what's going on in this mission endeavor and we as believers today still listening to this letter and still getting from it marching orders need to understand that not everything is as it seems, and we may not wear the seal emblem. 

But if you have been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, you have been baptized into God's mission. You are called to be part of a team. Really, if you want to consider the way things are in this world, you either are part of God's mission team, his squad of rescuers or else you're still among those who need to be rescued or worse yet, among those enemies who are dead set against the cause of the gospel. And so this is not something where you should just be listening to the book of Colossians as, man  I'm glad that series is coming to an end. He talked on it forever. And Paul is one of these theologians who got all these deep thoughts. You need to understand Paul is not just a great thinker or theologian. Paul is on a mission. He was one of the most elite Seal team leaders ever. And he had his people with him and he had his strategies and he was in danger a lot. He was in prison when he wrote this particular letter. So don't just think of him as some big ivory towers scholars. Sometimes you use words and ideas you couldn't quite follow. He was a dangerous man. It was dangerous before he was converted. But when God got a hold of him, he was very dangerous against the cause of the devil and very powerful in rescuing people from the grip of the devil and leading them into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so as we think about God's mission, God's calling to be his soldiers, I want to reflect on three main things three main divisions of this particular passage of the Bible. One is how we relate to God and how we connect with him and how we depend on him. A second is how we relate to non Christians that is extremely important because sometimes when you're dealing non Christians you are going to be dealing with people or downright enemies. But on the other hand, you're going to be dealing with people who also need to be rescued. And one thing is, you're on a Seal team or even if you're just a kid playing video games with one of these shooter games, you always get docked very severely if you start gunning down citizens. You're supposed to be getting the bad guys, not the ones that you're supposed to be rescuing or even shooting down your fellow seals. And so the way we relate to non Christians is very important as well as the way we relate to our fellow witnesses, the fellow members of our mission. 

So let's look at each of those. First of all relating to God. And if you just take that picture again of how Seal teams operate, they are their own squad and they have their own assigned mission, but they are sent by somebody from somewhere. They are Navy man. So in some cases they may be sent from an aircraft carrier, and they want to be in touch with that. They don't just want to say well, I'm really well trained now. I can do my job. I know how to take out bad guys. I know how to rescue hostages, I'm going to do my thing now. If you are sent out you want to be in touch with headquarters for a number of reasons. One is you need to stay in touch with strategy and find out if things have changed and what you need to do next. And prayer is a big part of our communication. 

Another reason is that you may need some supplies, dropped in to wherever you are, whether it's more food or more weapons, whatever that might be. You need your supplies. And the people back on the carrier are the ones who can deliver it and in some situations, you just may need a bunch more firepower and they've got it big time. And so you relate to God as part of his mission because you need his direction and orders. You need the supply that he gives you daily or you're going to run out and dry up and you need the firepower that God and His angels can bring to bear on this situation. That's one reason by the way that you should pay careful attention. We've been reading the book of Revelation. At one point he sees a vision of an angel in midair carrying the eternal Gospel. Whenever we're carrying the gospel, we're not just on our own, we have air support. And of course we have the power of God Himself and of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit standing behind us and working within us. 

So relating to God. Paul says to continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving and to pray for the continuing mission that he's involved in. So I want to highlight four things about that. Prayer needs to be continual, watchful, thankful, and missional. It needs to be continual. Sam Storms in his book of meditations on Colossians has one section titled what's the easiest thing about prayer. What is the easiest thing about prayer? His answer was quitting. I think most of us could relate that it is very easy to just plow through life and just not pray much or to toss off you know, those few sentences we rattle off to say, Okay, I pray today or I got the food covered or something like that. But to spend time in prayer, continue steadfastly in prayer. We need to do that. And for the reasons I already mentioned, we need to be communicating with God, getting supplies and energy and nourishment from him and getting the air force that the air support coming in to help.

Being watchful in it. What are we gonna be watchful for in prayer? Well, there's a number of ways that you can understand being watchful or alert. In prayer you need to be watchful for what God is up to. And be watchful for the coming of Jesus Christ. The Bible will use this word watchful in connection with those things. Being alert to what God is doing and expecting Jesus coming. Another reason to be watchful is to be on guard. The men's Bible verse be self controlled and alert or watchful. Why? Well, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. You've got enemies. There are attacks coming. And if you snooze, you lose. That's what it boils down to. You need to be watchful in prayer, and you pray because you have enemies and you pray for God's power to deal with those enemies. At the end of the great armor of God passage in Ephesians six the Apostle Paul says that you have to put on all this armor and use the sword of the Spirit with prayer in the Spirit. So be watchful in prayer. 

And be watchful also of simply for opportunities. Your watch for what God is up to and what Satan is up to. But then you're watching for openings and opportunities and people that God puts in your way and situations that come your way. Now you can read a book and say, Oh, there's another announcement don't have time for that. Or you can say, well, there there's an opportunity. Or something happens in your life and you just can either go through it oblivious to what's going on and say what's God up to? Why did he have me meet this particular person who was little ornery, and it's kind of a pain in the neck. But maybe he had a reason for me meeting that person. What is that reason? And so you're watchful for opportunities to serve and to witness and you're watchful for how God works and for his answers to prayer. That leads to the next one. 

Thankful. I won't go into that again, because in Colossians, Paul says it six or seven times to do things with thanksgiving. But certainly a big part of prayer is being thankful when God gives the answers to those prayers. Some of us find it helpful to keep a journal of sorts and write down what God is impressing on our hearts, what God is moving us to pray for. But then another benefit of that is then writing down what happens, seeing okay, I thought that that was a really rotten situation. But now looking back, I can see the things I prayed for and the ways that God worked amazing things out in that situation. That helps you to be thankful.

And then fourth, and what is spent what gets the most attention here is being missional in our prayers. And it is appropriate to thank God regularly for the daily blessings of life for our food and things like that when we pray at meals or when the kids go to bed and we always thank God for the day and pray for a good night of rest and to be ready for the day tomorrow. And and it's fine. It's valuable because it's acknowledging God as the giver of every good gift and of everyday life that we have. But if we only pray for our daily bread, and pray for the stuff that is just, you know, food and sleep that's not the full range of prayer. The Bible calls for Paul says, Pray that God will open to us a door for the word. Prayer is praying for the mission. And that's why you know, among other things, in our family, we pray for one missionary, every time we pray together at devotions. Pray for one family in the church, one missionary or one person in our neighborhood. We pray that God will open the door for the word and Paul, this great missionary, this man of enormous genius and energy and courage is saying I need prayer. Pray for us. 

What's he praying for while he prays the doors will open. And one way that doors can open is that entire regions of the world can open up that were previously closed. Some of you who are older here will remember how we thought that the Iron Curtain seemed like it was going to be there to stay and they were going to all these communist countries that would persecute the gospel forever and ever. And then all at once one dictatorship after another after another after another in 1988 89 just toppled. And countries opened very wide with opportunity to bring the gospel. That's one way of praying for open doors. It's just that opportunities will open up and that regions that were closed to the gospel or were opposed to it can have opportunity. 

Another reason to pray for doors open is simply the doors of individual hearts. There's a little phrase in Acts chapter 16, where Paul is preaching and it speaks of a woman named Lydia and it says the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. And those of us who are preachers, those of you who are witnesses in your daily lives need to know this that everything you do for the Lord is going to be an utter waste of time, unless God opens doors, unless God prepares the opportunities ahead of you. And then I must say he opens the doors of the people whom you deal with. That starts right with your own kids. You can read all the books on parenting that you want, and you can strive and do all the things you can as a father or mother to impress the gospel on your children. But that will have no effect unless the Lord opens the door of the child's heart. And so one of the most important things, maybe the most important thing you can do is not just to talk to your kids about God, but to talk to God about your kids. And do it a lot. And keep on praying and don't give up. Make your prayer missional. Alright, start it right with your own family. And I'm just going to be selfish here. 

Pray for your preacher. Because if Paul said he needed prayer, then I think it's safe to say that we lesser pastors, we lesser missionaries need it too. Why does he ask for prayer? Well, there's a few obvious things. One is he needs doors open as I just said. Another is that he's in prison. It's not all that much fun to be in prison. But he says the main thing he's praying for is that he'll make it clear which is how he ought to speak. Now, why wouldn't you? I mean, that's simple enough, isn't it? No, it's not. When you are a person talking to other persons you want to be liked. And so there are some things you don't want to make too clear, because you can already predict that somebody's going to get a hissy fit about it if you do. And so you need to pray for your preacher to speak without regard for popularity.

 You also need to pray for your preacher because we live in a certain time when it is very tempting to accommodate your message to whatever the latest thing is. I'll just give you a quick example. If you find that a lot of people in the schools and of the knowledge class say well, it's impossible to believe anymore that the earth was created in six days. Then you're tend to say, well, if I want to make the gospel believable to people, I'm gonna have to trim that little part off and make it more believable. And then a little later, you find that that same set of scholars are saying it's really impossible to believe that Adam and Eve were historic persons, because that's just not credible in light of the latest research. And so there are scholars that yeah, we're Christians, but we want to make sure that Christianity is believable, so we got to cut out that Adam and Eve stuff too. After a while, in your effort to make the gospel believable to people you make it not worth believing. You just trim it to whatever they already think anyway, and you wind up not speaking clearly. And in terms of our own time, the idea that there is salvation in one name Jesus Christ and no other and that all other paths lead to hell. You want to try something that's not popular nowadays. That is very unpopular to be called a religious bigot. And you will have people very angry at you. And so for a variety of reasons, it is very important that you pray also for your preacher. Because your preacher can always face many temptations to change the message to change God's calling. 

Another reason is and this is reason to pray for one another as well. But for pastor too. It's easy to get discouraged, to become spiritually dry in your efforts to bring the gospel to others. And for those and many other reasons. Pray for your pastor and then pray that the anointing of the Lord will be among us when we gather together then when we leave and witness to others because you never know what God is going to use. One of my favorite stories is about a preacher who was preaching. A guy came up to him after the service and said, Pastor, that sermon was a huge help to me. What you said has changed my life forever. And the preacher was thinking, oh, man, I love to hear that. And I must really been sizzling with my sermon today. So we asked now, what was it in particular that really you found life changing? And the guy said, well, there was that part where you said, I have now finished the first part of my sermon and I'm moving on to the next part. And I thought, well, that's me. I've got to leave behind that other part. And I've got to move on to the next part. And God just showed that to me. Well, okay. That's what happens when a door is open, shall we say. That somehow a casual comment Okay, I'm done with that part of the Sermon. I’m on the next point is used and the person says, Yeah, I've got to leave the old behind, and I've got to move on with the Lord. 

So when you pray, you never know what the Lord is going to do. Someone once asked the great preacher Charles Spurgeon, what is the key to your ministry and its effectiveness? His answer was, my people pray for me. 

Relating to God make your prayers continual, watchful, thankful missional. And don't just pray for this preacher but think even more of those missionaries. When I print the names of those missionaries that are listed out and pray for them, don't say I am Mmm. Those people are off on their own in many cases. They are like one seal or two traveling around in hostile territory with not a lot of immediate support and encouragement. It is really hard to be a cross cultural missionary. It is also hard to be missionary your own culture when there is fierce opposition to the gospel. So be missional in your prayers.

And then as we relate to non Christians. I want to highlight three things that Paul says about that. Walking in wisdom in a way they understand others, locking in opportunity and using the time and opportunities that you have well and then talking gracefully using salty language. 

First of all, just understanding others, and that's really important. I've mentioned it a couple times already, but I'll say it again. When you go out you need to understand who's shooting at you and who needs rescuing. Sometimes even some of the shooters are going to be saved by the Lord later as Paul himself found out as a persecutor of the Gospel who was saved. But when you go into a situation Jesus said, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You need to be able to recognize when you're working with outsiders, who is the danger and who has a desire for God implanted in them by the Holy Spirit. You won't always be able to tell right away but you want to walk as wisely as you can. In that day that was really important because certain witnessing opportunities could get you killed. You kind of have to risk it anyway, in some cases. But you needn’t try to take needless risks. 

If you knew that Caesar had troop of 50 guys out there looking for you with swords drawn. You didn't say here I am, I would like to witness to you about Jesus at this time. You know, there was an occasion, remember that riot at Ephesus where the whole stadium is screaming for two hours. Great is Diana of the Ephesians. And Paul wanted to go in and address the crowd. The brothers would not let him. I think the brothers were right that time. There is a time to address the people but when they're having a full scale, full throated multi 1000 people riot, it may not be the best moment for the sermon. And so you walk in wisdom and so you don't take needless risks. And at the same time, you're saying now you have in mind Jesus saying, don't throw your pearls to pigs, or they may trample them under their feet and then turn and tear you to pieces. Now that's sounds rude. But there are certain people who are not at least not yet ready to listen. And they may do more harm than good if you even try with them. 

And so you want to be wise about what the Lord is doing in someone's life and where he has been preparing somebody to be able to really move forward and seize that opportunity. You need to understand that as Paul talks about becoming all things to all men in order to win some you're trying to identify with people, you're trying to connect with them. You're trying to downplay needless differences between you because you don't need to make a big deal of how you're different from them. The biggest difference is that you know, Jesus and they don't. and so downplay the other stuff for as long as you can while you're dealing with whether they know Jesus or not. 

Then, lock in your opportunities, making the best use of the time. Jesus said work while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. And in many people's lives, the people that you relate to, you've been in their life for a while, but you might not be there forever. You don't know when the Lord is going to take them or when he's going to take you or when you might move you in different circumstances. So be watchful for the opportunities that you do have and then grab those opportunities. You're here. When it says use the time well, it is interesting. We don't want to waste time. But what is our idea of wasted time. For some man, it's wasted time if you weren't putting it into your work and making some money off of it. Paul was saying, our main time and opportunity here is to do God's work and lead others to the Lord. So make use of your time that way.

And then do it gracefully. Let your speech be graceful. Use salty language. Usually the word the phrase salty language means you cuss a lot. But Paul here is saying use salty language in the sense that Jesus said you're the salt of the earth or it's salted with his holiness and His goodness and His truth. The apostle Peter said, always be ready to make a defense when you're asked the reason for the hope that is in you. And do this with gentleness and respect. Do it gracefully, gently, respectfully, but do it. So in our relations to non Christians, there are times when we have to identify somebody almost as a seal would as an enemy and to try to take them out. I mean, not kill them, but there are there are enemies of the Gospel. There are those who speak against truths of the faith where you don't worry too much right away about being nice to them. Your main goal is to show them wrong to stop them in their tracks and to prevent other people from listening to them. I've had to do that a number of years, over the radio and in dealings with people and made a few enemies maybe more than a few along the way. That goes with the territory sometimes. You don't be needlessly obnoxious, but there are enemies of the truth. And you cannot just be Mr. Sweetie Pie nice guy with everybody you run into because these are people who will destroy souls unless they are fought against. And so they have to be dealt with. But always be aware that there's a danger of taking out people who are actually searching for the truth and show them kindness 

And be listening to people. I'll just give an example. This past week, I got an email from a man who said, I am stopping my studies at CLI because I no longer believe the Bible can be trusted. Now, that's a one sentence deal. What do you say to that. You can say Well, the Bible can be trusted. And here's the archaeological evidence here, the historical evidence, here's this, here's this. That's one way to respond. I didn't know where he was coming from. So I said, Well, what's going on? You know, what, you know, did what happened? I didn't. My email was may have been a sentence or two long, too. And then he said, Well, actually, I just had two major surgeries and I'm in the middle of terrible pain and it's really hard and I didn't really mean that. Well, that's you have to be paying attention. And that's why you're gonna have to listen before you talk too much. Sometimes people will say something, but what they said is not really what was going on, and you have to be aware that can often be the case. 

Relating to our fellow witnesses, as I said before you want to shoot your fellow seals. Earlier I had this picture when I was preaching on Colossians two where Paul talked about their hearts being encouraged being knit together in love. And the Roman, the Romans had a formation where they'd have shields all around, and then they'd have shields over top and each one of you holds that formation. It's really hard for arrows to make much of an impact as you're moving forward. And so it is important to be able to relate to our fellow witnesses and I'm going to just highlight a number of these things now. Paul, first of all, I just want to highlight the importance of staying in contact. You know, Paul couldn’t just pick up a cell phone back then or zap off an email. If he wanted to make contact with anybody, he had to send human beings to do it. 

And so in this case, he has Tychicus and Onesimus carry the letter to the Colossians and Tychicus is somebody who also in another setting carried a letter from Paul to the Ephesians. And Paul refers to Tychicus in his letter to Titus as well. And he's not one of those household names. You know, if we do the crossword puzzle Tychicus is one of those it's going to get you to maybe one bright person out there will wave and say Tychicus. But he was somebody Paul trusted enormously as a beloved brother, a faithful minister, a fellow servant of the Lord, and in some ways I can identify Tychicus. His job was to take Paul's letter, and then take it to the people and explain it to them at length and answer their questions. You know, he didn't just do a quick mail delivery and trot it out and say, Okay, here's the letter I'm out of here. Paul's point in saying that He can be trusted is that he's going to be sharing a few more things that Paul had on his mind and bringing them up to date on Paul's situation, everything that's going on

Onesimus was a former slave. This letter is going back to the Colossians. At the same time that a separate letter by Paul is going back about Onesimus to his former master Philemon. And the letter to Philemon goes back at the same time as the letter to the Colossians and Onesimus I think Paul had an extra reason for making Onesimus one of the carriers of the letter. If you're a Christian named Philemon, and your runaway slave who stole from you, comes back carrying a letter from the chief apostle as the appointed ambassador of Paul, he’ll find it harder to turn him in and have him executed you'd have to say. And of course that's not what we have. We know that Philemon followed the calling that God placed on him to treat Onesimus not as a slave, but as a dear brother. 

So the importance of staying in contact. Still today if you're in a mission endeavor, you want to be in touch with the people that you work with. Paul had all these different teams that were working with him in various areas and going to and from him and the importance of staying in contact as we do God's work. That can't be exaggerated. Aristarchus, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas and Jesus who was also called Justus. Paul mentions them. Aristarchus is his fellow prisoner here. Aristarchus was a guy who traveled with Paul and he got into trouble most of the time that Paul got into trouble. Remember the riot at Ephesus where Paul wanted to go in there and preach. Well  Aristarchus was actually was found and dragged into the arena. But he escaped that one by the skin of his teeth, and later on, we read that Aristarchus was with Paul on the ship that went down after a two week storm. And here Aristarchus is in jail with Paul. You know, he's another of those guys that didn't we're gonna get in the crossword puzzle competition. But he was somebody who God knew. He was one those guys who wore the seal emblem, and he was doing God's work even though he never got very famous in the centuries afterward. 

And now what I want to mention about Aristarchus and Mark and Jesus called Justus here is Paul says these were the men of circumcision. These are my fellow Jews, and in fact, are the only ones among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are Jewish at this point, and they've been a comfort to me. Now, that's a striking thing because Paul really valued his heritage and enjoyed being with people from his own background without being a bigot. Earlier in the letter, he really laid out the people who were trying to force all the Gentiles to become Jewish or who were trying to keep all of the Leviticus requirements and impose them on people even after the gospel had come. So in some ways, he was saying that Old Covenant has to be left behind for the newer covenant. But by the same time he said, Boy is sure something I enjoy, and I'm comforted by when I've got people from my own background working with me. It's something to value your own country, to value people from your own heritage, to appreciate it, even to be encouraged and strengthened by it without despising those who aren't part of that heritage. 

Appreciate the prayer warriors. Epaphras was the person who planted the church in Colossae, read in chapter one that you learned the gospel from Epaphras and here again, he says Epaphras who is one of you is a servant of Christ, he's greeting you. He's always struggling, and that word is agonize, which in the original Greek agonize, which means to fight or to wrestle. He's always fighting for you in his prayers, because he's not with them right now. He's the founder of the church. He is the planter of the church, but he can't be with them right now. But he's still working hard for them and he's fighting for them by praying. An what does he pray for? That they'll be mature and fully assured in the will of God. The very same things that Paul had been praying for. That they'd be mature and have full certainty and full assurance in the will of God. Paul says this guy worked hard, and he worked for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis. 

Now, just real quick, this is where Colossae is right there. There's Laodicea there's Hierapolis. They're all part of what's today called Turkey. Back then was called Asia Minor, and the province of Asia. And so they were there and if you if you have read the book, Revelation just for your information, the seven churches the Book of Revelation, also right here on on this map in this little section of the world. There's Pergamum, Thyatira, Smyrna, Sardis, Philadelphia, Ephesus, which one did I leave out? Laodicea.  So you've got the seven churches in the book of Revelation are also in that territory. And this is real territory, where real people were spreading the gospel in that time and Colossae was one of those and Laodicea and Hierapolis are nearby. 

Now as you are engaged in mission as involved in the life of the Church, as you're working with teams of people, you need to realize they're going to be surprises. I'll just mention three surprises from this list of names. He mentions Mark the cousin of Barnabas, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas. Some people are going to surprise you pleasantly. If you were part of a military unit, let's say and some guy came in kind of flabby and kind of scared, and you might think, well, I don't see him amounting to much and a couple years later, he's the toughest guy and the bravest guy in the whole unit and say boy that's kind of a surprise to me. Well, Paul had that in dealing with Mark. Mark was the cousin of Barnabas and he accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but he bailed out partway, and he quit. And Paul could not stand having a deserter in the unit. And Barnabas later on wanted to take him again. And Paul said no way. And Barnabas and Paul got into it. And they had such a sharp quarrel that they couldn't work together anymore. So Barnabas took Mark and headed for Cyprus and Paul took Silas and headed off on another missionary journey and God used even there bickering for His glory and for the good of people. And later on we see here that Mark is back in Paul's good graces. It turns out Barnabas, Mr. Encouragement was right after all. Mark wasn't the lost cause even though he had kind of chickened out at first and hadn't been the kind of man that he needed to be at first. But at the very end of Paul's life, in his second letter to Timothy again refers to Mark as somebody who can really count on. So you can get some surprises. Somebody you thought, I don't see much use for him may turn out to be a mighty missionary, may in turn, in fact turn out to write a book of the Bible, which tells about the life of Jesus Christ as we have the gospel of Mark. 

Or Luke, Luke is a physician. Paul calls him the beloved physician, and Luke, I'm sure was a great traveling companion to Paul, but I'm not sure anybody would have seen it coming but he was gonna write such a huge chunk of New Testament. He didn't write as many books in the New Testament, but actually Luke and Acts add up to 1/4 of the New Testament and those are great accounts of the life of Jesus and of the Acts of the Apostles and the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to do that. So you can get some pleasant surprises that people may not have seen that impressive, will turn out to be a lot more than you saw at first glance. And I just want to alert you that there may be some people right here that may not think of themselves all that much. Maybe you'll turn out to be a Tychicus who's very important but not very famous. Or maybe you'll end up doing something very notable, and that people are gonna remember for a long time, whatever it is, expect surprises. 

But be aware of the wrong kind of surprises too. Demas gave greetings in this epistle. By Second Timothy Demas in love with this present world has deserted me. Last thing we hear about Demas. Well, he tried it for a while, fell in love with the world, got taken out by the enemy basically. So I could tell some heart rending stories of people who I've worked with people who were older than I whom I looked up to and boom, they went down big time, and it rips your heart out. And it happens. And so if you're going to be in ministry expect the glorious surprises but don't fall over in shock when you get those negative surprises either. Somebody just turns out to love this present world and bails out on the gospel in deserts. 

When you get something great, share it. That's another important part of mission. When when you're homeschooling mom and you discover some great resource what do you do? Well, I hope you're not so rude and mean that you say I'm gonna keep this to myself, so that my kids are gonna be smart and all those other little nitwits around me. That'd be kind of a rude thing to do. If you find a great resource, you share it. And obviously when it comes to the Word of God itself, Paul says, Okay, those people Laodicea they got a letter too. We don't know what letter that is for sure. It may have been the Letter to the Ephesians. It's very clear that the letter to the Ephesians was a circular letter that was meant to make the rounds so to speak. And at that point, it may have gone to Laodicea. And Paul wanted to make sure that the Colossians also got that letter. But whatever letter that was, Paul says I want you to make sure Laodicea gets the letter I'm sending you and I want to make sure you get the letter that I'm sending to them and read each of it and and share the wealth. And so it is when people in pastoral ministry find great ideas, we like sharing them with each other. When you’re educators of children in the ways of Christ, share great ideas with each other, share anything great that you found. 

Some people just need encouragement. And say to Archippus see that you fulfill the ministry that you received in the Lord. Kind of a simple saying. Sometimes that's the only reason you did come to church. The basic message that you just need is keep going, don't give up. Maybe that week you didn't need anything fancy or detailed. You just needed, see that you fulfill it, keep on going. And in Philemon Paul speaks of him as our fellow soldier. Sometimes the troops just need some rah rah. They need to be told okay keep going you know your mission. Now get with it. Paul writes same kind of thing to Timothy. Don't neglect the gift you have. Says I know sometimes you're timid, but God didn't give us a spirit of being timid but a spirit of wisdom and power and a sound mind. So don't neglect the gift you have. Be bold and use it. 

Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. Remember what I said the easiest thing about prayer is quitting. What's the easiest thing about mission, quitting? What's the easiest thing about serving Lord well, short term anyway, quitting. And so we always need to be reminded, don't quit, keep going. So when relating to fellow witnesses, stay in touch with each other. Just the time we spend together after church are invaluable because you're in touch with people. You find out what's going on in each other's lives. And we encourage each other. Value the heritage that you have and the country that you have, benefit from it. But realize that that's not the gospel itself. Appreciate those who fight in prayer on your behalf and become a prayer warrior. Expect those surprises the positive ones, and unfortunately sometimes the negative ones. But even with the negative ones, keep on going with what you know God called you to do. Share the great stuff. Keep on going. 

And then finally as we wrap up this epistle the personal touch I, Paul write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Paul did not write most of his own letters. He had someone else do the writing for him. We don't know if that's because he wasn't a very good writer with his hands or had bad eyesight or if you just happen to have doctors handwriting, you know that kind of problem where he wanted somebody else to do the actual writing for him. But at the end of his letters, he would always write in his own hand. We have at least five different letters that were Paul says, Hey, I'm writing this last sentence in my own hand and one occasion I'm doing this is because then you'll know it's me. You know, because sometimes there's phonies and fakes out there. And so he writes the last sentence or two in his own hand and signs his name.

It's possible of course that he just couldn't write. You know, he was in Philippi. clamped in stocks. He had been stoned many times. He had too many occasions to receive serious, serious injuries. And so those may also have been why he couldn't write or maybe write while he's writing this letter. He has those chains on, that make writing more difficult. Anyway, he's writing this to make sure they know it’s him, and what's going on. And then this is in a sense, one of most heart rending verses or sentences in the Bible. Remember my chains and he's been writing and encouraging them and loving them and his heart is with them. He's thinking of them all the time and he just says Don't forget me. I'm here and I’m locked up and it's hard. And I think that, that today, you and I are the heirs of Paul. He suffered so much. Of course his master suffered even more, but he suffered immensely. And you and I are the heirs of missionaries who were torn to pieces, who were hated and despised. We are the heirs of reformers who were burned at the stake. Remember their chains. They did this because they were on a rescue mission. And it's because of what God directed them to do that you have been rescued. Be thankful for such heroes of the faith and take encouragement and inspiration from such heroes of the faith. And the last word as always with Paul the first last word is grace. Amazing grace.

We thank You, Father, for the members of your team and above all, the captain of our salvation the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord Jesus for your victory over the evil powers. We thank you and praise you that you have sent your spirit to be Christ in us the hope of glory. We thank you that all the fullness of the Deity dwells in you. And we have been filled in you the head of all rule and authority. And we thank you for the mighty men and women of God who have carried the faith throughout the world, who have announced the glad tidings of salvation in so many places, have paid such a high price and have gone on to such a great reward. And as we follow in their steps, make us worthy of your high calling. Help us to be good soldiers, hard workers, willing sufferers, people who depend constantly on You. Lord, bless the way we relate to you in prayer, Guide our relationships with non believers that we may walk in wisdom and in graciousness. And Lord, help us to march, shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart with one another as we grow mature in you, as we train in your service, as we seek to rescue the perishing, and who oppose their enemies and yours. Make us strong and make us fit soldiers in your army. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.