Our Exalted Calling as Believers in Christ

Last Sunday in the morning and again in the evening, we talked about the fact that Christ is the preeminent one. He is identified in the scriptures as the firstborn of creation. And that, of course, refers to his position of priority and authority, not to any possibility that he was created because he has always existed from fact that he came in the flesh to become our savior. And so Paul is dealing with some problems that he had become aware of in the church. This is pretty typical of a lot of the letters that Paul wrote, particularly dealing with the issue of false doctrine related to Gnosticism.

The word Gnosticism comes from a Greek word which means knowledge. So basically, what these people were saying was, we need special knowledge above and beyond this personal relationship with Jesus Christ in order to draw near to God or to have an understanding of who he is or to even have an awareness and assurance of salvation. Now, Paul has highlighted and emphasized the person and work of Jesus Christ in the first two chapters. In this chapter three, he's going to be dealing more with now that we know these facts about who Christ is and what he has done, how does this affect our lives as Christians? How does it enable us to live lives that bring glory to God?

How does it help us to overcome this false a long passage. It's all of chapter three and goes to verse six of chapter four. So we're going to be reading and looking at the various sections of this lengthy passage as we deal with each part of it. So I'm not going to read the whole thing, this passage, in its entirety right now. But I do want to read the first four verses of chapter three.

So would you please make sure you have Colossians chapter three. Let us stand as we read the word of God in order to show reverence and respect for God's word. Colossians chapter three verses one, two, three and four. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Alright. Before you're seated, let's just pray and ask God's blessing on the message this morning. Lord, we we come to you to acknowledge our need as your children.

We are spiritually weak. We are prone to wander away from you. We are very susceptible to the old fleshly nature that still is a part of those of us who have been born again. And we sadly Lord unfortunately all too often yield to the lust of our flesh please forgive our sins Lord Jesus please speak to our hearts this morning through the word of God Please fill me with your holy spirit. Enable me Lord Jesus to preach with power.

I ask these things so that Jesus Christ can be exalted in our midst today and we pray particularly for souls who may be present here in this auditorium right now or who may hear this message on the, Internet sometime in the future, that you would draw them to yourself, that you would help them to see their need for a savior, and that you are that person who can be their savior. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Alright. Please take your seats.

So, a brief review is in order here before we jump into this message. Remember that the apostle Paul is dealing with an incipient form of the heresy gnosticism. We won't mention all the details of this false teaching, but at the very least, it demeaned the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is the very reason why Paul devoted the first half, the first two chapters of his letter to the church at Colossae, emphasizing and clarifying who Jesus is and what he did. Now, he turns to applying this information in a practical way.

In other words, so what? We learned all this about Christ, the doctrinal study in technical terms, the study of the doctrine of Christ is known as Christology. Oh, so what? Well, we will look at the so what in today's message. There is a big so what.

This is very important. So in chapter two, Paul exposed the wrong reasons for self denial or asceticism. In chapter three, Paul explains true Christian behavior as opposed to the kind of lifestyle that you might lead if you get misled misled by the false doctrine of Gnosticism. So what is true Christian behavior? How can we identify it?

What sorts of things can we expect to see in a Christian who is living a godly spiritual life? And so it's putting on the new nature by accepting Christ as your savior and regarding the old earthly nature, the fleshly nature as dead. So we change our moral and ethical behavior by letting Christ live within us so that he can shape us into what we should be. Okay? So all of us have this an innate awareness within us that there are things that we ought to do or should do and we regularly fail to do, okay?

So, the only way that we can ever measure up to this standard of righteousness that God has established is to surrender and say, I can't do it. I'm helpless and I'm hopeless. I need a savior. Please save me, Lord Jesus. When you've come to that point in your life and you now have this new relationship with God through faith in Christ, then, you can begin to live a life that pleases God.

Because you have the holy spirit dwelling within you. The spirit of God, spirit of truth, the comforter. He is the one who will guide us into all truth. Well, suffice it to say right now that correct doctrine leads to correct living. So our Christology, our understanding and what we believe about the person on the work of Jesus Christ will show itself in how we live as believers in Jesus Christ.

So since we believers have indeed been transformed by the power of our Lord and savior, there will definitely be a difference in our daily lives. Paul writes in great detail about several aspects of our lives that should be impacted by our relationship with the living savior. Alright? So remember, we're looking now at our exalted calling as believers in Jesus Christ. The first section of this message deals with the certainties of our calling.

In other words, the believers union with Christ in resurrection life and glory, which is what we read about in Galatians excuse me, Colossians chapter three verses one through four. So I'm gonna read these once more. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth for ye are dead. And your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. So these first four verses set the tone for the rest of this section, which deals with how then shall we live. So we'll go into a bit more detail with these particular four verses. Verse one a, the first part of it where it says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. This if then condition, okay, it's a conditional clause.

Then is not there. Well, if ye then be original Christ. So if then. So I want to emphasize the fact that there is no uncertainty implied here. So there's no doubt.

If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have been born again, you have been risen together with Christ. It's not if or maybe or I'm not sure. It's if since. Right? So the grammatical formula assumes the truthfulness of this command or excuse me, this condition.

So Paul is saying, since you then be risen with Christ. Right? Since this is already an accomplished fact, not that we have done anything other than we have acknowledged our own sinfulness and our need for a savior and Jesus takes care of everything else. He says, now, you have been risen with Christ. Just like Jesus Christ rose again from the tomb on the third day, a victor over sin and the grave death, we too have risen again from death with Christ.

The next part of that says, seek those things which are above. Well, that word seek marks the practical striving. Okay? So we we have this spiritual reality that we have been raised again from the dead. We are no longer subject to our sins and the control and the power of sin in our life.

And yet, we don't always, practically speaking, experience that on a daily basis. So seeking those things which are above indicates that there is indeed supposed to be some effort on our part to put into practice, so to speak, this spiritual reality. So it refers to our daily struggle to not be overcome by this world's way of looking at things. If you were here for Sunday school, Jeremy was talking a little bit about that. Okay?

So we have a tendency because we live in this world. We are part of this world. Sadly, many of us have been educated by this world system and many things that we have absorbed in the course of our lifetime are not in line with God's word. They're not in accordance with the truth. So we have this tendency to look at things from the world's perspective.

In other words, how do you live your life? We're gonna live it the way the world suggests we should live it? We're gonna live it the way God's word demands that we should live it. Okay? So we have to keep these true spiritual realities that Paul discusses in verses three and four in the forefront of our mind.

So in other words, it's it's so easy to forget about the spiritual realm in which we are actually living and breathing now as newborn Christians, as new creations because of our faith in Christ. It's easy to forget about it because we don't see it. The spiritual realm is not visible to the human eye. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It exists.

For sure it exists. But we don't see it. And so we could easily forget about it when we get wrapped up in the affairs of life, the problems that we face, challenges of just life. So Paul encourages believers to make every effort on a daily basis to keep yourself aware of the facts as they relate to you now that you are a Christian. What he's saying here is, now that you've put your trust in Christ, you are going to begin to experience a practical transformation of your daily life.

You have a role to play in this process. You can't accomplish it on your own. You need the power of God within you. Now that you've trusted Christ as your savior, you have access to that power of God, the Holy Spirit of God. It's a person.

It's not just an inanimate force. Okay? So keep focused on the true spiritual realities. So verse two, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. So that literally, set your affection, literally means to be minded.

That is to think or set your mind on. This is the the inward impulse and disposition of your heart. The idea is to keep on thinking about this. Because if we don't, we forget it. We overlook it.

We become oblivious to it because as I said, it's not something that we see physically. So keep thinking about it. It does matter what we think. And we are responsible for our thoughts. If you think about those things that are disgusting, they're impure, they're perverted, they're ungodly, guess what?

That soon has an influence on the kind of life that you lead. So we are responsible as Christians to watch what we think about because we are gonna be responsible for those thoughts. If you think about those things that are pure, that are just, that are right, that good as it talks about in Philippians chapter four there, then guess what? You start to yearn for those things. You start to be that type of a person and that's what we're looking for here.

So instead of setting your affection on things upon the earth, what does Paul mean here? Verse two, the second part there. Paul does not mean that we should never think the things that are upon the earth, but that these should not be our aim or our goal or our master. The Christian has to keep his feet upon the earth but his head in the heavens. He must be heavenly minded while here on earth.

That's a challenge. I really confess that I don't always successfully achieve this goal on a daily basis but the point is put your mind on this. Keep thinking about this. Let this be the inward disposition of your heart that you want to be more like Jesus Christ. You want to live a life that is godly and that pleases your heavenly father.

So setting our sights on the realities of heaven means striving to put heaven's priorities into daily practice. Matthew six thirty three, we read, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Right? So putting heaven's priorities first in our life, making them our priorities. The things that are important to God should be the things that become important to us.

I realize, this is a process. It requires a transformation that is ongoing in each Christian's life and it it takes place over a period of time. For some folks, it goes at a faster rate than others. But there should be a progress in Christ likeness, in godliness as time goes by. It should be something you can look back over your life and say, you know, I used to think this way.

And I realized as I learned God's word and study God's word that that really wasn't accurate. That's not what God would have me to think. And and praise God, as I look back, now I realized, I don't think that way anymore. And if you don't think that way, guess what happens soon? You don't act that way.

Alright? So so setting our sights on the realities of heaven means striving to put heaven's priorities into daily practice. Letting heaven fill our thoughts means concentrating on the eternal rather than the temporal. Maybe you've heard this criticism of some people. They're so heavenly minded they're no earthly good.

That's kind of a false criticism because God's word tells us, set your affection on those things that are above, not on the things on the earth. But it's true. We still live in this world. We still have a life to live here. It's not like, I'm a Christian now.

I'm gone from earth. All I have to care about is heavenly things. We we kind of like caught in between for the time being as long as you're alive. And so we we do have a life to live here on Earth. But what God is trying to get us to see and understand is there's more to this life than what you see.

And now that you have been born again, you should endeavor to learn as much as you can by reading God's word, by studying God's word, by taking time to develop a relationship with God through prayer so that you can be prepared for that time when you are actually in heaven. The time of our being in heaven is sooner than we realize. God's word says three score and ten years is the typical average lifespan. That means I have only about six more years. If you go by the averages before I'm going to be in heaven walking on the streets of gold, I better be prepared.

So, God gives us that privilege, that opportunity while we're still alive here on this planet right now to get ready. You know, I've heard it said like this. Some some Christians spend so little time with the savior that when they die and go to heaven, it's gonna be like they're meeting a stranger for the first time. You don't want it to be like that. You want it to be, woah, Jesus.

I'm so glad to see you. I've been looking forward to this day. Oh, I'm so thankful for what you've done for me. Thank you for making it possible for me to be here. You did it all Lord.

There's nothing I could do. You wanted to be a reunion with somebody that you haven't seen but have longed to see for all your life that you've known him. That's what this is talking about. Now, in verse three, where it says, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. That that phrase, you're dead.

Your new spiritual life is no longer in the sphere of the earthly and sensual, but is with the life of the risen Christ who's unseen with God. Just because we no longer see Jesus Christ does not mean he no longer exists or that this is all a fairy tale that has been made up and dreamt up by people long long ago that we don't know anything about. No. All it says is, well, Jesus was here. He rose.

He went back to heaven. He's there right now. He's seated with God. He's so our life is hid with Christ in God. Look at Philippians chapter three.

That would be the book right before Colossians. So turn just a few pages back to chapter three verse 20. Philippians chapter three verse 20, there we read in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's let's see here. Verse 20, for our conversation is in heaven.

See that? From whence also we look for the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Conversation there means our our manner of living or our citizenship. We are citizens of this country, United States. When I lived in Japan or when I visited in other foreign countries, I was still a citizen of The United States.

We are citizens of heaven. That's what this is talking about here. So we currently live here on earth but our citizenship from God's perspective now that we've been born again is heaven. When we lived in Japan, we got to come home every so often every few years. It was always neat to come back to America because it was home.

Right? Can you imagine what's gonna be like when we get to go back to heaven? It's like, you know, there are some people who even though their citizenship is a certain country, they were maybe born overseas and they've never been back to their home country till one day they finally get to go home. There are people like that. That's kinda like what we are.

We were born in a foreign country, but we're citizens of heaven because of God's grace, what he's done in saving us, allowing us to be adopted into his family. So if we are indeed dead to this world system, then we should have no further interest in it nor should it exert its control over our lives. That's the hard part. What I just said there is incredibly difficult for us to do. Have no further interest in this world system.

Uh-huh. Sure. Right. When it constantly is in your face. It's like you can't get away from it.

And so it shouldn't exert its control over our lives. Well, that's where we have the conflict between the old man and the new man. The old fleshly nature and the new spiritual nature. There is this constant ongoing conflict. So we do not ever have to, excuse me, we do not ever want to put down our guard, so to speak.

Because as soon as you do that, guess which is gonna win? It won't be the spiritual nature. It's gonna be the old fleshly nature. Okay? So we have to constantly be involved with this spiritual battle.

So in this verse three here, for you're dead and your life is hit with Christ. What believers are told is develop this spiritual life in practice. Here's the spiritual realities. You have a new life in Christ. Now let's begin to develop it so that you can actually have personal firsthand experience of what it means to be a new creature in Christ.

No one longs for eternal, incorruptible, and immortal life unless he be wearied of this temporal, corruptible, and mortal life? Guess who said that? Augustine, a Christian who lived about sixteen hundred years ago. So how do we develop the spiritual life? How do we keep our mindset on things above?

How do we keep looking at heavenly things and desiring them? Well, you get tired of this temporal corruptible mortal life. You're fed up with it enough, then you long for the eternal, the incorruptible, and the immortal life. That's what he's saying. Verse four, when Christ who is our life, just look at that phrase there.

I want you to notice, look into your bibles. Do you see who is appears in italics? You see that there? Is that marked that way in your bible? If you have a King James version bible, you will see that is in italics.

What that means is those words were not actually there in the original Greek manuscript, but when the translators translated this, in order to make clearer sense for English readers, they felt it was important to add those words. Okay? You see what I'm saying there? Colossians chapter three verse four. But you can still read that and understand what's going on there if you drop out those two words in italics, which I'm gonna do that right now.

Okay? So listen carefully. When Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. That still makes sense. Right?

When Christ our life. When Christ who is our life. Right? So the life is not only with Christ. This new spiritual life is Christ.

Remember what Jesus said to his disciples, John fourteen six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Yes. So who is our life? It's not what is our life. It's who is our life.

Our life is Christ. So when Christ, our very life, we don't live without him spiritually speaking and of course physically also. So when Christ shall appear, that is whenever Christ is manifested. It's a reference to the second coming of Christ as longed for and looked for but wholly uncertain as to its time of occurrence. So when Christ shall appear, guess what?

You will also appear with him in glory. Now, these are the certainties that we have as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The certainties of our calling, The believers union with Christ in resurrection life and glory. Now, I told you I was gonna spend a lot of time on those first four verses. We're moving on to the next section and because of time constraints, we'll do more of an overview and less of an in-depth study for the rest of this section.

I'm just gonna be calling attention to the major points and we may not have time to read all the verses. But now, we're gonna look at the characteristics of our calling. In other words, this life that we have now as Christians is the fruit of our union with Christ. And this is in Colossians chapter three verse five to chapter four verse six. So first of all, there's a characteristic of our calling.

In other words, how how does our life look different in everyday life? Okay. I'm going to quickly read this passage, chapter three verse five through 17. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience in the which he also walked sometime when he lived in them But now he also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

Lie not one to another seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him where there is neither Greek nor Jew circumcision nor uncircumcision barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you're called in one body and be ye thankful let the word of christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the father by him. So, verse five, let's take a look at that.

Mortify your members. Since we are factually dead to our former life and alive in Christ, we must treat our body as if it were truly unresponsive to the lust of its now dead flesh. Remember, we're talking about the true spiritual reality, things that we cannot see with our eyes, but God has declared to be true. We have to bring our life and our way of thinking into line with God's word. So, we still have this old nature.

The word of God says it's been put to death on the cross with Christ. So, we we still have these temptations that appeal to our body, to our mind, to our heart. For each person, it's somewhat different perhaps but we all generally speaking have the same kinds of temptations. So what happens when you sense that you are being tempted to do something and you know it's not right? You know it doesn't please God.

What do you do? You treat your body as if it is truly unresponsive to these temptations. Now this is a challenging thing to do. You will not always achieve success, particularly when you first begin to do this. You will find that you're failing a lot, but you will also find, as you endeavor to do this, that you will have victories.

And you will see as time goes by remember, it's a process of spiritual growth. You will be able to look back in time if you have been endeavoring to do this. Treat your body as if it truly is unresponsive to its dead, fleshly, old nature. You will see, you know, I'm not so troubled by this particular temptation anymore as I used to be. I I find now that when it comes, I'm I'm better able to ignore it.

I'm better able to put it away and not be knocked off track. Look at verses eight, ten, and 12 because here is the key to the spiritual victory over our flesh. It's found in those verses eight, ten, and 12. Alright? But now you also put off all these.

Alright? Verse nine, you have put off the old man with his deeds. Verse 10, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. In verse 12, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering. Those are all the things we don't naturally do.

But God's word says, get rid of what used to be natural, what you did without even thinking about it. What are those things? Wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lying. Put those things off. That comes oh so easily and naturally to us, doesn't it?

One of the most frustrating experiences I have as a Christian is when I I like to think I've gotten the victory over a certain sin and all of a sudden I realized, oh man, I fell victim to it again. How did that happen? I let my guard down. I started thinking it was not a problem anymore. Right?

So as long as we're alive in this body of flesh, we still will deal with the old fleshly nature but the key to it is putting it off. Treating it as if it truly is unresponsive because it's dead and putting on the new, the new nature in Christ that's been renewed. That's the key to spiritual victory. Put it off, put on. Instead of letting our old dead flesh continue to dominate and direct the course of our lives, we must deliberately choose to yield to the controlling influence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the master of our new nature.

The verses 12 through 17 here, right? The key to getting along with fellow believers, indeed, all other people is found right here in this brief passage verses 12 through 17. So, this is Paul's or read it this way. This is actually God's strategy to help us live for God day by day. Verses twelve and thirteen, we want to imitate Christ's compassionate, forgiving attitude.

Right? Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering, forbearing one another, that means putting up with each other, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Have you been forgiven your sins? Don't forget that when somebody trespasses against you.

Be quick to forgive even if they don't ask. It's better for you if you do. Truly is. Verse 14, and above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. So let love guide your life.

That's the second point, getting along with fellow believers and all other people. Verse 15, let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called in one body. So let the peace of Christ rule in your life. Christ has given you peace. That word literally means two warring individuals have now been reconciled.

They were separated from one another and now they are brought together. That's the concept of peace. So, we were at war with God but now because of what Christ did for us on the cross, we have peace with God. So, let that peace of Christ rule. Take control of your life and also the latter part there.

Be ye thankful. Always be thankful. Even when it looks like you're getting some bad things happen in your life just realize who's really over seeing all of these things. Who is the one who's allowing them to take place? It's God.

You can always be thankful to God because he doesn't ever make mistakes. Even if we can't figure out why is this happening, God. You can still be thankful. Lord, I don't understand why this happened but thank you that you still care about me. Thank you that you're still watching over me.

Thank you that I don't know how this is going work out but you're going to work this out for your honor and glory. Verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. So keep God's word in you at all times. Read God's word. Listen to God's word.

There are there are just so many avenues by which this can be accomplished today. In my cell phone, I've got a bible and I can listen to a dramatized version of it where different actors read different parts and there's music and it's really nice. I can listen to it with some guy speaking with a British accent if I desire that or some lady with an American accent. You know, there's just so many options available to us that Paul didn't have these available to him. So, if you can't read, if your eyesight is getting poor like mine is, listen to it.

You got a you got a cellphone? You got a smartphone? Download an app, a Bible app. You can do it. You can listen to it, right?

Verse 17, whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God and the father by him. Live as Jesus Christ's representative on this earth. Now, we're going move on to the next passage chapter three verse 18 through chapter four verse one. Here, Paul gives rules for three sorts of household relationships.

Husbands and wives, parents and children, servant and master relationships. In each case, there is mutual responsibility to submit and love, to obey, encourage, to work hard, be fair. So first of all, we see this relationship in the home verses eighteen and nineteen. Again, well, I'm not taking time to read these. You can look at them.

I've read it already but here we're dealing with the relationship between husbands and wives. Did you know the Bible really does have a lot of practical, down to earth, useful, wisdom, dealing with everyday relationships and challenges that we all face. And right here, God's word says to husbands and wives, the key here is mutual submission and love on the part of both. Okay? It says, yes, wives submit yourselves under your own husbands.

It says in verse 19, husbands love your wives and don't be bitter against them. So it's a mutual thing really. So God is saying for wives to be submissive to their own husbands. God is not saying that women are to be the doormats for men. They should never be subjugated, degraded or treated like personal property.

There are religious and political systems in this world that horribly mistreat women. Christianity is the only one that has liberated and lifted up and exalted women. First, the idea of submit to idea of a range in order under duly appointed authority. It's a military term denoting that the soldier must yield his individual plans and goals to the overriding plans and goals of the general, the commander in chief, with the idea being that there will be a common victory that everyone will share in. But if all the soldiers are going about doing whatever they want to do, how are you going to successfully defend and defeat an enemy?

Alright. So arranging yourself in order under duly appointed authority. Yielding your own plans and goals to the overriding plans and goals of the one in charge. Second, God has truly constituted men and women in a general way so that they each face a particularly difficult challenge because of the sin nature that we all have. First of it's hard for a woman to submit herself to the leadership of her own husband.

God's word says, it's the fitting and proper thing to do for a Christian woman and it is hard for a man to be the kind of leader God demands of him but it can be done with Christ's help. You know with all the talk we regularly hear about love in the world, you would not expect the apostle to have to relay a direct command from Jesus for husbands to love their wives. Obviously the kind of love and view here is God's self sacrificing love that always puts the best interest of the other first. That kind of love is not an easy thing for any man to demonstrate consistently. That's why it's commanded and we can do it with the help of God.

Verses 20 through 21, the next relationship between parents and children. Here the important points are for children to be obedient and respectful toward their parents. This is a challenge for kids. We were all kids at one time. It's hard to be obedient and respectful towards your parents.

On the other hand, for parents, especially fathers but also mothers, not to exasperate and provoke their children by being unreasonable and demanding so that the child loses heart, becomes dispirited and gives up wanting to try to please its parents. Believe it or not, most kids do want to please their parents. Most kids are thrilled to death when they get praise from their parents because they've done the right thing But sometimes we can be unreasonable and demand more than they're capable of at that stage in their life. So parents should not aggravate their children by nagging them, deriding them or destroying a child's self respect so they just plain give up trying. How many children do you know like that?

There's a lot of them out there. The next relationship is the servant master relationship. Now, in our modern time, it's considered this the employee employer relationship, okay? So, one point here, Paul does not condemn or condone slavery. But he does explain that Christ transcends all divisions between people.

In the time which Paul lived and in time which Christ lived, the Roman Empire ran on slave labor. Even more so than self part of our country did during prior to the Civil War. They they lived and survived literally. They built that empire on the backs of slaves. And you know what?

Christ never specifically said, slavery is an evil that needs to be done away with. Neither did the Paul, the apostle Paul or any other apostles but amazingly due to the gradual leavening influence of Christianity over the years, guess what happened to slavery in the Roman Empire? Disappeared. So verses 22 through 25. Slaves or employees are told to work hard as though their owner, that is their employer, were Christ himself.

Verse four, excuse me, chapter four verse one. Owners or employers should be just and fair. Don't take advantage of the worker. Just because you're paying his salary doesn't mean that you should treat him like he's a machine or that he has no rights whatsoever. And you know you employees, yeah, it's true.

You're you're expected to get paid because of the work you're doing but even if you're not quite getting what you think you deserve, continue to work for your employer as if that employer were Jesus Christ himself. When I was about to start bible school, I had a job that was pretty dirty. Worked for construction company and I was basically cleaning up messy equipment. And I did that with a smile on my face. And joy in my heart because I took it as this is a job.

I I prayed for a job. I needed a job and God gave me this job. So, I was thankful to God that I had this job and I could do it with a smile on my face. I remember one of the guys I worked with said, how can you do this job with a smile on your face? You you act like you enjoy this work.

So, you know, the work's not the greatest but you know, God's going to give me the job and I'm grateful for it. Right? So, work for your employer as if you were working for Jesus Christ. It's the point I'm trying to make. So, since the creation, God has given us work to do.

If we could regard our work as an act of worship or service to God, such an attitude would take the drudgery and boredom out of it. We could work without complaining or resentment if we would treat our job problems as the cost of discipleship. Always there's going be some sort of conflict with fellow employees or your boss. Okay, what what's going on here? I'm being discipled by Christ.

I'm learning how to be more Christ like. I'm learning how to interact with people and deal with these problems. If you have that attitude, it's a whole lot easier. Another aspect of our relationship here with Christ has to do with prayer. In chapter four verses two through four, So, look at verse two.

Continue in prayer and watch in the same with Thanksgiving. Have you ever grown tired of praying for something or someone? Paul says, we should devote ourselves to prayer and be alert in prayer. I fail on both counts there. I frequently get tired.

Do you ever get overwhelmingly fatigued or your brain just like goes to sleep when you start praying? Man, it happens to me all the time. It's hard. It's hard work but our persistence in prayer is an expression of our faith that God indeed does answer our prayers. Look at verses three and four.

With all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Now, here's a prayer request truly worthy of being mentioned and prayed for. So, we must ask God to give every one of his children opportunities to speak on his behalf of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Even though Paul was a prisoner at this time and wasn't freely able to move about as he would wish, the message of the gospel did freely spread throughout Rome, the capital city and indeed the entire empire. Notice that Paul sensed the need to be able to preach the gospel ever more clearly.

Perhaps, he was conscious of the obstacle of different languages or dialects that he countered as he traveled throughout the empire that made it difficult to clearly communicate or maybe he was thinking about the need to communicate in such a way with such words that his audience would be able to grasp the spiritual truths he was proclaiming. In any case, God's servants including us always need these kind of prayers. That God would give us the boldness to grab hold of the opportunities to share the gospel and that he would enable us to clearly present spiritual truth. That the people we're witnessing to would the light would come on and they would understand and be saved. And so, the final two verses, five and six, deals with our witness and our speech.

Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Verse five, we should be wise in our contacts with non believers making the most of our opportunities to tell them the good news of salvation. Verse six, when we tell others about Christ it is important always to be gracious in what we say. No matter how much sense the message makes, we lose our effectiveness if we are not courteous.

Just as we like to be respected, we must respect others. We want them to listen to what we have to say. Brothers and sisters, we we have the most important message that will transform a person's eternal destiny if it is received and believed and accepted and acted upon. So you you do not want to deliberately offend and push people away by the manner in which you're sharing the gospel. Now, the gospel message in Jesus Christ himself is offensive enough.

Jesus said, it'll be an offense. If they hated me, guess what? They're gonna hate you. So, just preaching the gospel by itself can drive people away but you don't want to be particularly personal offensive. You don't want to be crude in the language to use.

You want to be kind and gracious and respectful just like you would want them to be towards you as you're trying to share this most important message of life with them. So, So it is certainly true that believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is just the first step in living a life that is well pleasing to God but once we have a correct understanding of who Jesus is and what he did for us, then, we're able to productively and successfully move forward in our Christian life. God gave us much guidance and wisdom for this spiritual task through the words of his faithful apostle. Let's take heed to what we've learned today. Let's pray.

Lord, we never feel like we have adequately grasped all that you want us to learn when we study your word, when we preach the word of God but we have seen at the very least in today's message that when we know who you are, we understand better what it is you've done, that we need to live lives that demonstrate the difference that you have made in our life. We understand also that if we ignore the voice of your holy spirit who now indwells us once we have trusted you as our savior. That we will not only not live lives that please you but we will eventually lose any assurance of salvation or of our eternal destiny being heaven. I have personally experienced that early in my life as a Christian Lord and it's a it's a scary thing. So, I pray for my brothers and sisters here before me today.

I don't know where each person is in that pathway of maturity but I do know that if they have put their trust in you, they have taken that first step. I pray that you will bless each one of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Help all of us, Lord, to be more like you. Help us to put into practice the truths that we have read about and study this morning in your word. Lord, if there's anybody here who has not taken that first step of acknowledging their their lost condition, their utter helplessness to do what is right, to be acceptable to you, that they they have not yet come to the realization that they desperately need you as their savior.

Please, Lord, won't you work in the heart of that individual today and draw them to yourself. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.