Purpose in the Pain

Introduction

We live in a world where people love to pick and choose. We pick what we like, what sounds convenient, what looks attractive, and we often reject what we don’t like, what looks hard, what sounds like suffering. As we read our Bible, though, we see that God often does the opposite based on our viewpoint. He routinely chooses to use people who have severe issues - in the Old Testament, God promised Abraham and Sarah that they’d have a son, even though they would have been considered double nickels by South Gate’s standards, God used Moses to be his mouthpiece… even though Moses had severe speaking problems. God used the youngest, not the oldest. The weak, not the strong. The powerless, not the powerful. God uses weak, fallen, frail people because they are the only type of people out there! As we get to Matthew 1, we begin to learn of the birth of Jesus… and we see even more how our God does things that don’t necessarily make sense. The King of Kings is born, not in a palace but in a manger. He wasn’t raised in the house of a king but a carpenter. He lived a sinless life, but was hated by many people.

As we look at the people that have done much for God’s Kingdom, we see that many of these people have suffered greatly for the Gospel. Jim Elliot, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Lottie Moon, I pray these are names that each of you know… but here’s one you might not have heard of: Karen Watson. Missionary to Iraq in the early 2000s. She wrote this letter, “Dear pastor, you should only be opening this in the event of death. When God calls, there are no regrets. I tried to share my heart with you as much as possible, my heart for the nations. I wasn’t called to a place; I was called to Him. To obey was my objective, to suffer was expected, His glory my reward… I was called not to comfort or to success, but obedience.”

Obedience is our objective… and suffering is to be expected along the way! This morning as we continue working our way through Colossians, we’re going to see God’s plan for His people is to simply be obedient to what He calls them to do. As Christians, that plan is for us to share the Gospel. This age old message of hope, redemption, life, and salvation. South Gate Baptist Church, it doesn’t matter your past… God has a message and a mission for each of us to join in on today - let’s read from His Word.

Colossians 1:24–2:5 CSB

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church. 25 I have become its servant, according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. 1 For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. 2 I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. 3 In him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with arguments that sound reasonable. 5 For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see how well ordered you are and the strength of your faith in Christ.

The Message of the Church (Gospel) (24-29)

Do you remember where Paul is as he is writing this letter to these Colossian Christians? He’s in prison, likely in Rome. He’s under what is called house arrest in the ancient world, not what we think of prison today of being in a jail cell with other inmates in a separate structure in the middle of your town. This is different. Paul is likely living in a rented house, but his only way of gaining access to food was for people to bring him food. The only way that he had access to writing items like pencils and papyrus was by people bringing those things to him. Not only this, but Paul was constantly accompanied by a guard, and talks about this reality as being an ambassador in chains as he was chained to someone all the time. Paul lived this way for nearly 2 years in Rome. This man knew what it was like to experience difficulties. Listen to his story

2 Corinthians 11:25–28 CSB

25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. 26 On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; 27 toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing. 28 Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my concern for all the churches.

This man knew what it was like to suffer hardships. Think about some of the things that classify themselves as persecution today:

The air conditioner wasn’t working as well as it normally does and it was 72 degrees in the sanctuary… suffering!

This person was sitting in MY seat… suffering!

We only did 3 verses of my favorite song, not all 5… suffering!

Paul knew what it was like to suffer, and to suffer greatly! Look at what he says about his sufferings in our text in verse 24, “I rejoice in my sufferings for you.” Notice, Paul doesn’t say that he rejoices about suffering, that would be crazy! He says that he rejoices IN his suffering for these people.

As human beings, we know for a fact that we will suffer in this life - it’s just a part of being a person.

There was a story of an American who traveled to visit a friend in China who is a Christian who his friend took him to an underground church. The man was excited for this service even though it was going to be in Mandarin and impossible for him to fully understand… the service starts and the pastor goes to preach and he’s thinking, “This pastor seems boring… soft-spoken… no expression in his voice… no excitement.” After the service, he asks his friend “Is your pastor a good preacher?” The friend shared, “YES! He is a great preacher… he spent many years in prison for Christ.” What made the pastor a good preacher wasn’t his gifting, but his character. He lived a faithful life for Jesus, even though it meant suffering for Jesus Christ. If you look in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 at the qualifications for pastors/elders/overseers, we see that these men must be able to preach… but that is the only gifting qualification, everything else is centered on character! Sadly, many churches and people prioritize and exalt the gifting over the character and this regularly leads to burnout or spiritual fallout that we see blow up on social media whenever a pastor disqualifies himself from ministry or whenever a church splits. Character matters!

Character is often revealed in times of suffering and, as Christians, we know that our suffering is accomplishing something!

Philippians 1:29 CSB

29 For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,

Our pain is not wasted. It is not purposeless. What does our suffering accomplish? Suffering provides us with opportunities that we wouldn’t have otherwise to let our light shine for Jesus Christ. Suffering provides us with opportunities to share the Gospel that we wouldn’t have met had it not been for our suffering. Suffering provides us with the opportunity to tell other people who are suffering that there is hope and there is joy even in suffering because of Jesus Christ. We all suffer, but can we have joy while we suffer? The Christian answer to this question is unequivocally “YES” we can because God promises to provide for His children and that He is working all things for our good, even when they might not feel good - we can trust in His plan. Can you think back to a time in your life where you were suffering, where something didn’t go your way, maybe as a child whenever you didn’t understand why something was happening, maybe as an adult whenever you were let down by someone and not given a reason why, yet in the midst of that pain, there was a peace that only comes from Jesus Christ.

Paul shares that even in prison, he can rejoice in his sufferings, because of what God is doing. Paul’s task in life is found in verse 25 - his calling is to make the Word of God fully known. Literally he says that this is the “stewardship”that he has received from God. We usually think of stewardship in terms of financial giving and we know that the Bible does call on us to give with cheerful hearts and to support the work that He is doing in our local church, but stewardship isn’t just financial. We are called to be good stewards of what God has given to us. What is Paul saying that God has given to His people? Not just our possessions, but Paul shares that God has given us this mystery that was once hidden but that has now been revealed to His saints and this mystery is the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

For years and years, the Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah to come. They had hundreds of prophecies, some of them we know well from places like Isaiah 9, Isaiah 52, and Jeremiah 31 that talk about the the Messiah being a descendant of David, suffering for the sins of His people, and bringing about a new covenant. The people were waiting, but they didn’t know who they were waiting for until God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, at the right time and revealed the Messiah to the Jewish people… but this isn’t where it stopped! The Gospel wasn’t just good news for the Jews, but for all nations and all people’s… including the Gentiles, like those in Colossae.

Fast forward to Colossae in the 1st century, and there were many people saying that there was this secret knowledge (gnosticism) out there that would save you and help you. Essentially, there was hidden conspiracy knowledge that only the most devout people could find and if you found it, you had to keep it to yourself. Gnosticism was a threat to the early church because it was a common practice in the ancient world, looking for this secret knowledge and keeping it to yourself - there were some people who felt the same with Christianity. There is some secret knowledge in Christ, and once you find it you have to keep it to yourself. This is the opposite of the Gospel - we once were separated from God, but God has revealed WHO He is to us through Jesus Christ. The mystery is no more. People feel a lot of different ways about John Calvin, but he was right when he said this, “If we move away from the simplicity of the Gospel, we immediately become corrupted.” The Gospel is simple - we have sinned against God, and God sent His Son Jesus Christ into this world to seek and save lost sinners!

The message of Christianity is not “here is some secret news that will unlock your best life now, but you’d better keep it to yourself.” - it’s “Here is news that will flip your life upside down and change you from the inside out! Tell everyone.” We don’t keep our doors shut about something secret, we welcome people into our churches with open arms because we have the best news of all to share: There is hope, salvation, and transformation found in Jesus Christ - let me tell you about what Jesus did, let me tell you about what the Bible says! Let me tell you about how there is hope at all times because of Jesus.

We proclaim the true Christ - not the many false christs that are out there

The Prosperity jesus

The Philosophical jesus

The Provider jesus

The Political jesus

We don’t proclaim a political maxim, we don’t focus on a program, we don’t promote a preference… we worship a person whose name is Jesus! We proclaim HIM and we do this to all people! We proclaim Christ because Jesus alone is able to save souls and Jesus alone is able to change hearts. The message of the church, the message of South Gate Baptist Church, must be Jesus Christ! It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about exalting our Savior - you’ll hear a whole lot more about that in the months to come at South Gate.

We proclaim Christ at South Gate, to borrow from George Whitfield, “Other pastors may preach the Gospel better, but no pastor preaches a better Gospel.” The preaching of Jesus reigns supreme because that is the message of the Church. We don’t just proclaim Him from the pulpit, though, we admonish (correct/warn) people with the consequence of getting Jesus wrong and we teach people how to live a life that honors Jesus and we do this with wisdom, so that our church is built up, disciples are made, and saints are presented mature in Christ. This is Paul’s ministry philosophy, and this is the responsibility for every pastor today as they oversee and lead their flocks

Acts 20:28 CSB

28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

What is our hope in this process, church? Jesus.

The Church’s message is the Gospel. And we know that we labor as we share this message as a church. It is hard work (v. 29), but we know that we don’t work alone as we share the Gospel… notice the end of this verse, we strive with HIS strength that works powerfully in us. We have the right message, we have the right man (Jesus) giving us strength, but do we have the right mindset? In the United States, we are what many call a microwave society. We want instant results. We want things our way, right away! But notice what Paul says in verse 29 - I’m striving, I’m contending, I’m slogging, I’m sweating, I’m exhausted but I’m working… this work is hard. So often we try to find shortcuts whenever we’re faced with hard work. Students today are tempted to try and use an AI software to help them with an assignment so that they don’t have to write a paper or read a book. Workers today are tempted to cut a corner in order to avoid a long weekend of work. We see this in churches as well, what happens with many church maintenance projects? What do we try to do? Bandaid the problem to pass it on for another year or another person! We try to find quick solutions to fill up buildings and draw crowds and generate conversions, but our God is not always a microwave God of immediate results and He’s definitely not the God of cutting corners. Often, our God is in the business of using crockpots more so than microwaves. What does that mean? Of slowing His people down, using them intentionally to share the message of the Gospel, and reminding them that it isn’t our power that matters… it is His power in us. Like Paul reminds this church, our message is the Gospel. We will never have a better message than the Gospel. We will never have a more important message than the Gospel. The Word of God does the work of God among the people of God for the glory of God.

The Mission of the Church (Go and Grow) (1-5)

The message of the church is the Gospel - Paul is called by God to proclaim the Gospel and this is what pastors today are called to do as well, to suffer and proclaim the Gospel and help people grow in their faith so that the church would grow and share the Gospel as well. The message of every church is the Gospel, what about the mission of every church?

When you love Jesus, you want what is best for other people who love Jesus, even if you haven’t met them before! Paul hadn’t met these believers face to face… If Paul loved these brothers and sisters whom he had never met, how much more should we love our brothers and sisters who belong to other Christ-Centered Congregations in our area as they do kingdom work? This morning, you are at a Southern Baptist Church. This means that at South Gate, we partner with nearly 48,000 other churches around our country to unite together in ministry and missions to do more together than we could ever do apart. You know how there are still communities struggling in the Southeastern United States from the hurricane a few weeks ago? Did you know that as a SBC church here in Missouri, we belong to the Missouri Baptist Convention, and that you have been supporting disaster relief taking place in Augusta, Georgia. Did you know that you helped provide over 700 meals on the first day that our disaster relief team arrived in Georgia? As of Wednesday, our team is producing over 10,000 meals a day to distribute to people in need. Not only are there food efforts taking place but disaster relief teams fixed roofs, helped clear trees, set up phone charging stations and are preparing to do much more work in the days and weeks to come to help people in need! I love being a Southern Baptist because there are always things going on that we support, but sadly many of us have no clue about it. Paul is sharing how he desires for the Colossians and Laodiceans to be encouraged and united because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Church, this is the mission of the church - to work together in order to GO and GROW in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What is South Gate Baptist known for in our community? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself that question? I asked your search team that question - what is the reputation of South Gate Baptist Church. I didn’t do this because I’m from this area and might get recognized, but I’ve heard stories of pastors whenever they get to a new church and they go to the nearest Walmart and they ask people “What do you think about this church up the road?” One pastor heard some interesting stories when he did this. “That church splits all the time”, “That church doesn’t care about the community”, “Let me tell you about some of the power struggles at that church!” If someone were in our community asking around, what would they learn about South Gate? Can I tell you what I pray they’d hear?

South Gate loves Jesus

South Gate loves its community

South Gate wants to see lives changed

South Gate stands on Scripture

South Gate works with other churches

South Gate welcomes people of all backgrounds

South Gate has people of all ages, and has lots of noisy babies - because that’s a good thing!

In the days to come, I pray that these things become our legacy in Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Strafford, Willard, and throughout all of Southwest Missouri! Not so that we can pat ourselves on the back. Not so we have to launch another building campaign because we’re bursting at the seams. But because we fundamentally realize that in order to fully know and love Jesus, we must know and love the body of Christ! The church must be joined together in love… without this love, we can’t fully understand God. So many want to know God and grow in their knowledge of God, but they do it in isolation instead of fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ. They want to know Christ but they do so while being divorced from His bride - and this doesn’t work! Friends, we must love Jesus, we must love His Word, and we must love His Church so much that we continue to grow in all of these areas day by day. What is our hope in this process? The Gospel of Jesus Christ! This isn’t easy, spiritual maturity and being united with other people, these are hard things! Yet this is Paul’s prayer.

Paul wants to:

Encourage Hearts

Unite believers in love

Enable believers to attain understanding

Know the “mystery” of Christ

As we know, we will grow. The more we know the Word, the more we should desire to grow alongside one another. The more that we grow spiritually as a church, the more we should grow missionally as a church as we desire to see lives changed by the Gospel and souls saved! Our mission is to Go and to Grow. To Exalt Our Savior and Engage Our Society! But what happens whenever we engage our society? What happens whenever you stand on Scripture? You will be opposed.

How are we able to stand firm against arguments that sound reasonable? Paul has given us 2 ways to shore up the defense against these threats:

The Gospel

God’s Word is truth. Colossians 1:5 previously told us that the Gospel is the word of truth. We are able to stand firm against false doctrine by knowing true doctrine. Jesus, in His High Priestly Prayer in John 17 prays for His body to be ONE

John 17:17 CSB

17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

There are many people who say things that sound close to truth… but there’s just a little twist. This is what Satan did in the Garden, “Did God Really Say…?” This is what people do today as well. In order to be saved you have to do… Actually, God does… What should our response be to messages that sound nice but might be new to us? Examine the Word like Acts 17 tells us the Bereans did with Paul. The way to smell out false doctrine and to stand against it is to know what the truth says and to stand unashamedly and unwaveringly upon it.

The Church

Yes, we have God’s Word! But we also have God’s weapon and that’s His Church. This whole section of Colossians is sharing the importance of relationships. Both our relationship vertically with Christ, but also our relationship horizontally as we grow together. The church matters! This is why God gives such strong warnings to pastors/elders/overseers in the New Testament. Consider what God commands of these men in Titus 1:9-11

Titus 1:9–11 CSB

9 holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it. 10 For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party. 11 It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly.

Paul is concerned for these believers. He doesn’t want them to be led astray into false doctrine and deceived with these clever arguments. What are the barriers that God has given us in this fight? His Word and the Church. That is why as we gather each week at South Gate Baptist Church, we will hear the Word of God proclaimed and preached in this pulpit because it gives us life. It keeps us safe. It protects us.

Paul shares in verse 5 that he rejoices that this church is ordered well and that their faith is in Christ. Though there are threats and enemies who would love to lead them astray, he is confident that they will remain sound and solid in the Word, in part because they are ordered well. This is a military term - this speaks of soldiers being prepared for battle. They are ordered correctly. In other words, the Colossian church not only was ready for the spiritual battle that was before them, they not only had the right people on the bus, but they had the right people in the right seats on the right bus,

In verse 5, Paul shares that this church is ordered well and he rejoices as these leaders are ready to shepherd the church through a season of spiritual suffering. Not the type of suffering that we might think of today of being martyred for your faith, but the suffering that comes in the form of false teaching that lures people away from the light and into the darkness.

Today, we face this same level of suffering. People who trade in exposition for entertainment. Sound teaching for smoke machines. Shepherds for speakers. A firm foundation for fleeting fads. Not here. Christ is sufficient. Our standard of truth is not our fleeting feelings, it is the unchanging and unwavering Word of God. While many churches might be tempted to go the way of the world, we will go the way of the Word. Psalm 1 tells us that there are 2 paths

Psalm 1:6 CSB

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Jesus says the same

Matthew 7:13–14 CSB

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. 14 How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Our world is being sold a bill of goods that says to follow your heart, live your truth, and that you are enough just as you are. That’s the wide gate. That makes us feel good. In fact, we’ve seen many churches go down that rabbit hole. First it goes like this:

That’s just Paul, that’s not Jesus

Those are black letters, they don’t matter as much as the red ones

That’s outdated, we live in a different world and the Bible needs updating

Gender is fluid

Anyone can be a pastor, anyone can preach, anyone can shepherd, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it

Sexual immorality doesn’t matter

God’s Word isn’t true

Jesus wasn’t really fully-God and fully-man

God might exist, He might not

God doesn’t exist

Like clockwork this happens around our world. The Bible contains what men hate: the truth. Once you abandon the truth of God’s Word and start down this slippery slope which usually starts with a hatred of Paul’s writings, especially on gender and leadership within the church as feminists and secularists alike hate Paul, you pick up steam and you don’t get back on your feet. We’ve seen this with mainline denominations, we’re seeing it unfold with the United Methodist Church. Not here. We don’t stand on godless ideologies, we stand on God’s Word.

But do you know what happens when you stand on Scripture? When you share the Gospel? When you GO and GROW? You will be opposed. You are going to suffer. You’re going to struggle. How did Paul handle the pain of ministry? He kept his eyes on Christ and realized that there was a purpose in the pain. He suffered willingly because he realized that Christ was using him, in prison, to share the Gospel and make disciples. South Gate, God doesn’t waste our pain, He uses it for His glory, the good of those who don’t yet know Christ, and our ultimate good of becoming more like Jesus! There is joy to be had in the pain. There is mercy while we wait. God gives us manna for today - what we need, maybe not what we want, but what we require. How can we find joy in the difficult seasons of this life? In offering ourselves to Jesus and His Kingdom and serving in His Church.

The question is not will we suffer, it is will we have joy while we suffer? This is unique to the Christian as we rest in God’s providence in our suffering and remember that our suffering is not in vain! God has a perfect plan and God uses suffering, somehow, and someway, for our ultimate good as Romans 8:28 reminds us. Paul rejoices in his suffering because of what his suffering (prison time) is accomplishing (the advancement of the Gospel and the salvation of sinners)!

2 Timothy 3:12 CSB

12 In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Last Sunday was our Greene County Baptist Association meeting and it was such a blessing to get to worship together with pastors and church members from our 89 churches in our county. We sang together. We prayed together. We voted on a few things together. We studied God’s Word together. Dr. Wes Fowler, the Executive Director for the MBC (who one day we’ll get to preach here at South Gate) preached and while preaching shared about his time as a pastor in Mayfield, Kentucky. Does anyone remember what happened in Mayfield, Kentucky a few years ago? A massive tornado traveled over 165 miles and left a trail of devastation in its wake. First Baptist Mayfield, Dr. Fowler’s church, was struck but not destroyed. He shared this, “We can find beauty in tragedy… obviously we don’t like tragedy and difficult times. There’s been a lot of struggle, difficulty, and pain - but in the middle of it we have seen beauty. We’ve seen the Lord provide opportunities for us to serve our community in ways we were not able to before.”

We think of our brothers and sisters today in our country who recently lost everything in flooding and storms and the churches that have stepped up to help those in need. We don’t like pain, but God has a purpose in it. We don’t have to be strong at all times, because God IS strong at all times. His grace is sufficient. He is always at work. We can always trust in Him. South Gate, let’s be about our Master’s Message and stand on His Gospel, Share His Gospel. Let’s be about our Master’s Mission as He wants His people to GO and GROW.

If you’re here today and you’re struggling to see where you fit in, what your purpose is, or what God is up to - be reminded of what Paul shares, in Christ there is joy, hope, and purpose at all times, including the difficult ones. Stop looking at your problem first, look first at your Provider! If you’re here today and you don’t yet know this Provider, realize that there is an answer to the longing and the brokenness we experience. There is satisfaction and life and hope in Jesus Christ. South Gate, let’s be about our Master’s Message and Stand on His Gospel, Share His Gospel. Let’s be about our Master’s Mission as He wants His people to GO and GROW. Let’s remember that our barometer of success is not raised hands, connection cards completed, prayers repeated… our barometer of success as Christians and as a Church is Faithfulness to Jesus Christ. May Christ find us FAITHFUL, in the feast and the famine.