Plod on

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great privilege to preach the Word of God to the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church.

I’d like to begin this morning by having us all think back. Go back in your minds to when you were a child. I want you to think about what is was you wanted to be when you grew up. The answer to that changed quite a bit for me growing up. I may have shared this before but at any given point I wanted to be a lawyer, or President of the United States, maybe a videographer, and at one point I really thought I was going to be a nuclear engineer. What about anyone else? Call out something you wanted to be as a child, Troy? Anyone else?

Some of the classic answers include “astronaut,” “teacher”, “pro athlete”, “firefighter”, or “doctor.” Interestingly enough, the answer to that question has changed over time. According to an article from the last couple of years, those in Gen Z aren’t as interested in the traditional vocational aspirations. The most popular vocational aspiration for Gen Z is to become a YouTube Star! If you’re not familiar with the type of work its basically producing your own videos and gathering a following of people that are dedicated to watching your content. This is a type of job that would have been unfathomable even just back to when I was in grade school. 54% of Gen Zers said that if the opportunity presented itself, they would lunge at the opportunity to become a social media influencer. It seems this next generation strongly desires to become celebrities.

Now, its really easy for the older generation to look at this and think it is ridiculous. You might think that its a lost generation that just “doesn’t get it.” If you’re tempted to shake your head at the next generation, you have to ask yourself, where did they learn to value celebrity so much? From us! It was over two decades ago that Time Magazine Film Critic Richard Schickel noted that celebrities have become “the chief agents of moral change in America.”! From a broad, cultural perspective, the celebrities are giving the moral guidelines, setting and changing the moral standards for society. And this is nothing new! Society often follows the whims of those who are popular! It is no wonder that our next generation would seek to become celebrities! We have put them on a pedestal and proclaimed them to be the tastemakers!

But the question is, should we really lift up celebrity status so high? Should we take them to be our moral compass when they have no standard for morality? Should reaching celebrity be our desire?

On the macro level, society on this side of glory will almost certainly continue to follow the way of pop culture and society. But on a personal level, I would like to present to you a better way. A counter cultural way. A higher purpose.

Today’s sermon has been entitled Plod On and as we look at some of the final instructions Paul gives to the church of Colossae, we are given very simple ways to live meaningful, purposeful lives. Let me warn you, it is not flashy. In fact it may be so simple that the outside world would call you foolish. But this high calling, heavenly direction, and humbled living is the greatest height we could aspire toward.

“Spirituality is a matter of understanding our identification with Christ, having our lifestyle transformed, and honoring Christ in our relationships. Ordinary sounding stuff, but with Christ at the center, it becomes extraordinary indeed.”

Take to heart what is written in 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 ESV

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

If you would, turn your Bibles to Colossians 4. We’re often so tempted to get swept up in celebrity culture, we often even apply it to our faith. We think that we are rather insignificant because we pale in comparison to King David or the Apostle Paul. But we see there from 1 Corinthians that God has called us, even us who are not particularly wise, powerful or noble. He has called us and chosen us to accomplish His will. To save us and commission us. To give our lives Godly wisdom, sanctification, and redemption, not by our own ability or aptitude, but by the Lord of our Salvation! This is true for all those who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus and confess Him as the Risen Savior. The highest calling in this life is to plod on for the glory of God! What should you want to be when you grow up? Someone who presses and plods onward and upward for the glory of God! Let’s see how this practically works out in our lives. Beginning in Colossians 4:2

Colossians 4:2 ESV

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

The first priority in the life of the redeemed is prayer. I think that Paul must have been a baptist preacher because in this verse we are given three points on prayer for our practical application!

First, we read, “continue steadfastly.” This means that we are to be “diligent” in prayer! You may have heard another Bible verse that reads “Pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17).” The same idea is being presented here. The redeemed are to be in a continual posture of prayer. We hold fast and don’t let go to communication with God.

This should lead us to two questions. 1. Why do we need to do this? What’s the big deal about prayer? and 2. How do we do this in a practical way? I have a job, I have kids, I have responsibilities. I can’t spend all day in a prayer closet.

Let’s answer those questions in order. First, Why is prayer important? One pastor wrote that prayer, “is the most important speech the new man can utter. Prayer is the strength of the believer’s fellowship with the Lord and the source of his power against Satan and his angels. Through prayer, believers confess their sin, offer praise to God, call on their sympathetic High Priest, and intercede for each other. Prayer from a pure heart is to be directed to God, consistent with the mind and will of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Christ, and for the glory of the Father.”

Prayer is important because it is our communication with the God of our Salvation! Think about it like this, before you are saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ the Son and given the Holy Spirit, you are separated from God. Your relationship with true divinity is separated by iniquity! Your sin has cut you off from God!

I’ve illustrated this many times using the Three circles Graphic.

Three Circles Graphic

Without Christ we are stuck in the circle labeled brokeness. We try vice after vice looking to escape brokeness, but it just leads to more brokeness. In that state of our sin, our relationship with the Holy God is severed.

Isaiah 59:2 ESV

but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

In our broken condition, we have no communication with God! Sin has severed our fellowship with God. But praise be to God who loved us, even while we were still separated sinners and expressed that love through sending Christ to pay for our sins! Through faith in Jesus Christ we are restored to God! We are given fellowship with the God to whom we were once separated! Through faith in Christ we are finally able to truly pray to God! This is why we the redeemed should cherish prayer! Because your prayers are being heard by your heavenly Father! Why do we pray? Because through the grace of God we CAN pray! If we cherish being restored to the Holy God, prayer is the expression of that restoration.

Hopefully you now see why it is important to communicate with the God of our salvation through prayer. Now lets go back to the text and answer how to go about steadfastly continuing in prayer.

BACK TO Colossians 4:2

You would find it highly unpractical to spend all day in constant prayer even though that may very well be a great use of a vacation day. When we talk about praying without ceasing, we are not declaring that you must spend every waking moment reciting a prayer with no cognition of the world around you. Rather, we are talking about actively living in a state of God consciousness that relates everything in your life, every experience, to Him. It is acknowledging the sovereignty and providence of God in every moment and actively seeking to do so. This plays out in the day-to-day but lifting a simple praise to God after your heart is warmed by the learning experience of your toddler. Or maybe its seeing a need in someones life and lifting a silent petition to the Lord. It could be realizing something you did earlier in the day was not right. In that moment of realization, offer up a prayer of confession and repentance. Further, if you offense was against someone else, reach out to them, confess, and make reconciliation. This is not to say that there is no need to take special time to pray in long form, that is good and valuable and I encourage you to do so! But praying diligently is living your life in posture of prayer and God consciousness. It ties back into the Coram Deo we discussed last week.

Paul’s first point in this verse is to pray diligently. The second point we see here is to “Pray Watchfully”. This is an interesting phrase because it literally means to stay awake, to be alert. It is the same verb that Jesus used in the garden of Gethsemane when He told His sleepy disciples,

Matthew 26:41 ESV

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

In Colossians Paul is writing to them and to us today, to be alert in our prayer!

Really think about this. I searched for statistics to back this up, but I couldn’t find a specific survey that looked at this so I am just going to postulate from personal experience. What time of the day do people pray? When is it that people consistently and regularly pray? I can think of two times. Before a meal and before bed. Or to put it other ways, when you’re hungry and when you’re tired. To put it bluntly these are awful times to be your primary times in prayer. CS Lewis noted, “No one in his senses, if he has any power of ordering his own day, would reserve his chief prayers for bedtime—obviously the worst hour for any action which needs concentration.” I’ll add to that that I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people rush through a prayer before a meal because they just want to eat. Or the people around them aren’t listening and praying along because they just want to eat!

Now, did the pastor just tell you to stop praying before bed and before you eat? NO! We have already seen that we are to pray without ceasing! It is good and right to give God thanks for providing you with sustenance and to dwell upon His goodness as you go off to bed. But if those times are the totality or primary emphasis of your prayer life, I must implore you to think bigger! God is worthy of your undivided attention. It is good and right to be alert when we pray. Pray Watchfully.

Then we are given a third point about prayer in verse two. Pray thankfully. Any time I think about praying thankfully, I am reminded of the Spurgeon quote shared with me by Miss Judy. “We are permitted to bring our requests [to the Lord], therefore we are honor bound to bring our thanksgiving.” I have that quote on a handwritten scrap of paper hanging above my desk in my office. It is such a grace that we have been reconciled to God through faith in Christ. It is such a grace that here’s our prayers, listens to our petitions and gives us exactly what we need to serve Him. It is such a grace that His eye is on the sparrow and I know He’s watching me. If we recognize the magnitude of His grace and we know that all things are for glory, then how can we not give Him thanks! Giving God thanks is the right and humbled posture we should all have! When we see His greatness we are only left with gratitude because all the good we see ultimately comes from Him!

The first way we plod on through this life God has given us is to pray diligently, watchfully, and thankfully.

The next way we plod on for the glory of God is to share. Read with me verses 3 and 4.

Colossians 4:3–4 ESV

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.

So we saw in verse 2 a 3 point explanation of prayer. Here in verses 3 and 4 we are transitioning from prayer to share. This direction still informs some of the content of our prayers, but it is looking outward from what we directly effects us individually.

Paul asks the saints of the church in Colossae to pray for Him! Why? Did he ask for prayer so that he would be healed of an affliction? Did he ask for prayer so that he would gain a higher position in the workforce? No! He asks for prayer so that God would give opportunity to share the Word of God! He wanted God to use him to make the mystery of Christ, that is salvation for the gentiles, clear and plain. We can tell there is not a hint of selfish motivation in this request for prayer because he says I want you to pray God to use me in the same ways that have already put me in prison! He wasn’t requesting prayer for his release, but for even more bondage if it meant proclaiming salvation to all people by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ!

We apply this in two ways! First We share our prayer. By that I mean that it is good and right for us to pray for other people! Specifically we should be praying for God to use other people to share the message of salvation. Each week in our bulletin we highlight a family to be praying for. Pray for them that God would use them to share the message of salvation clearly and directly with a lost and dying world no matter the cost! I don’t tell you this next thing for your congratulations but rather to spur you to do the same, but this week we had a deacon’s meeting and we went through and prayed for each and every family of the known, active membership of our church. It is good and right to pray for other believers and not just for their prosperity, but for their kingdom mentality! Pray for God to empower them to steward their lives for His glory. If you want to pray through the families of the church, and I encourage you to do so, you can start with the family in the bulletin, but you can also ask me and I’ll print you a list of every family I know. One of the ways that we spur one another on to love and good works is by praying for one another!

The second application from these verses is that We individually desire to share! Paul would say in his first letter to the Church in Corinth, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.” When we read Paul’s request of the church here in Colossians, we see a God honoring request that is worthy of our imitation! The question we have to ask ourselves is, do we really desire for God to use us to share the gospel?

It seems like this would be an easy yes! Of course I want to be used by God to share the gospel! I’m a Christian! I have C-H-R-I-S-T in my H-E-A-R-T and I will L-I-V-E E-T-E-R-N-A-L-L-Y! That’s from an old Bible school if you don’t know it. But the point is its really easy to say at Bible School, or in Sunday School, or after a church service, or in a small group, or in a one on one with the pastor. It’s easy in those times to say that we want to be used by God to share the gospel! That’s because in those times, unless you’re the pastor, you rarely have to actually do it! It’s easy to be bold when you’re surrounded by people who share the same faith as you. But our calling is to let out light shine out there in the darkness! Our calling is for the fallen world to see our good works so that they may be drawn to give glory to our Father who is in heaven. Our true calling is to implore others on behalf of Christ as His ambassadors to implore them to reconciled unto the Holy God from whom their sin separates! And you know what, that is a difficult task! It will undoubtedly be met with opposition. Here in Colossians Paul shares his desire to be used by God to tell others about salvation with the understanding that doing that is what has already landed him in prison!

We must ask ourselves, do we really believe what we say we believe enough to see its value even when things are not going a direction that would give us earthly success! You see, if we were to look at Paul’s situation at the time of writing this letter, we would think he’s got it pretty rough. He’s under house arrest. Some of the well to do’s in society hate him. We’d think man, I bet you can’t wait till you can be past all this! But Paul is like no! bring it on! Bring on the persecution. These iron chains weigh nothing compared to the spiritual bondage my God has already delivered me from!

When our identity is fully in Christ, when we have a kingdom perspective, we begin to define success not by earthly measures, but by faithfulness. When you understand that you exist to proclaim the gospel, that you exist to give God glory and enjoy Him forever, you begin to define the wins in your life not by how things benefit you, but by how they give glory to God.

May we be a group of believers in which we share our prayer. That we pray not just for ourselves but for God to work magnificent things through our brothers and sisters in Christ. May we also begin to have a personal desire to share the gospel. No matter the cost. This sharing is expounded upon in the next few verses. Look at verse 5.

Colossians 4:5 ESV

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

The saints of the church in Colossae are instructed to be wise in sharing the gospel.

First we are to desire to share, now we see we are to be wise in how we share. Wisdom here, is the combination of boldness and tact. It is being willing to see that an opportunity to talk about Jesus has presented itself, while also considering the best way to make the approach. This means meeting people where they are in a way that they can understand. We do this as we make the best use of our time. In other translations its written, redeeming your time. We are to be redeeming our productivity and using each moment of our lives for the glory of God! Some have explained the back half of verse five as referring to “snapping up every opportunity that comes.”

This brings up two points. First, every single second in your life is valuable and an opporunity to glorify God. The way you work is a testimony of your faith. The things you talk about are a testimony of your faith. Every interaction you have with other people in this world is an opportunity to testify what you believe in. Be wise in your use of that time. Don’t make your time centered around serving your self but rather giving God glory.

The second point we need to note here, is that this can seem very daunting! Pastor Brad, you are telling me to individually craft a gospel presentation for every person I come across?? How can I do that? We should try our best to share the gospel with others and seek to find effective ways to do so. But I do wantto give you point of relief. Remember our Scripture proclamation for this month from Isaiah 55. The Lord says, whenever His Word goes out its will not return unto Him void but accomplish that with which He has set for it to do. That’s my paraphrase, but we should all know that we are called to share. We’re going to stumble over words, were going to say things in ways that come out differently then we thought them up in our heads. But when we are proclaiming the Word of God, we don’t have to feel the pressure to force someone to believe us or be downtrodden if they walk away in disdain. The proclamation of God’s Word will do every single thing He intends for it to do. We can rest easy knowing that when we share His Word, He is the one who makes it work. It’s not about us.

Let’s look at one more note about sharing in verse 6 before we conclude.

Colossians 4:6 ESV

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

May we desire to share, share wisely, and then here we see share tastefully and flavorfully. We’ve talked about salt in the ancient world before, but it was used both as a preserver and an agent of flavor. It would keep food from spoiling and aid it in tasting good. Our speech, that ways that we share with others should be interesting, witty, tactful, and appealing. Our speech should be wholesome and appealing. And further, it should taste good in our own mouths to talk about the Lord. If we understand that by grace through faith we have been saved by Christ and reconciled unto the Holy God before whom we stand condemned on our own, we should be overjoyed to talk about Jesus.

Living the Christian Life, as this series has been called, is really very simple. It is profound in that we are reconciled to the Holy God of the universe. But is is simple in that it is a calling to plod on in the roles that He has given us to serve. We spend our time in prayer and in sharing. Communication with the Lord and communication with those He has placed around us.

When we read the Bible we can often be tempted to compare ourselves to the spiritual superheroes we see Throughout. The Abels, the Abrahams, the Moses, The Davids, The Samsons. Even though when we study their stories we can see that they too were flawed people dependent upon a gracious God, we still think they are so much bigger and better for the service of God than I could ever hope to be. What’s the point Of my service? Then you read through the Bible and see all those guys and more collected in Hebrews 11, talking about how great their faith is. We think WOW those are some awesome guys, I could never matter that much to God.

Read through Hebrews 11 some time and really see what I’m talking about here. But I want to conclude by looking at Hebrews 12 For just a moment. In chapter 11 all the “heroes of faith” are listed out and explained. But then we read this:

Hebrews 12:1–2 (ESV)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (Abel, Abraham, Moses, David, etc), let us (the rest of us, all those who believe in the name of Jesus as Lord) ALSO lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (we plod on for the glory fo God whether our name is written in Hebrews 11 or not), looking to Jesus (sure we can learn from David and Moses and the prophets of old, but its not about them! We look to Jesus!), the founder and perfecter of our faith (The only reason we have faith is because of what Jesus has done for us! He is our hope! He is our salvation!), who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (It is finished. Christ completed our salvation, sits at the place of authority beside the Father, and empowers us to serve Him).

You’ve probably felt before that you aren’t special. The great news of Jesus Christ is that He didn’t come to save the special nor is it required to serve Him. Jesus saves the bruised and the broken, the down trodden and down on their luck, the lost sheep and the black sheep, and He calls them to a life a simple service, praying and sharing, it may not be much by earthly standards, but it is a heavenly calling with an eternal reward. If you want to know more about this salvation and this calling, reach out today.

Let’s pray.