Sermon Tone Analysis

“*LEAVING YOUR MARK*”

(A Message from Colossians)

 

Westgate Chapel 1~/08~/04 a.m.

Colossians 4:7-18

 

PROPOSITION:  If you knew that your life in Christ was going to be encapsulated in one verse of Scripture, recorded for all to see and read for generations to come, how would you then live?

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i. introduction

!! -     2005 lies ahead of us like a road that quickly disappears into the fog.

!! -     NONE of us knows what it will bring; what twists and turns, what mountain passes, what valleys.

!! -     WE have no control over that.

!! -     WHAT we do have control over is the mark you and I will leave as we travel that road.

!! -     MANY of us don’t feel like we are significant enough to leave any kind of a mark....so we don’t aspire to anything.

!! -     THERE are some who think too highly about themselves and the apostle Paul has some strong words for that.

!! -     BUT in the kind of world we live in, I believe that we have the opposite problem most of the time.

!!! ~*     The country is so big.

!!! ~*     And superstars are so larger-than-life that who of us could ever aspire to leave our mark on America?

!! -     BUT that is true only if you and I are measuring by the world’s standards.

!! -     REMEMBER that the kind of significance that the world values is here today and gone tomorrow.

!! -     TWENTY years from now they will be saying, “Jessica Simpson who......?”

!! -     THAT is because “this present evil world” is a fleeting kingdom.

The Bible says it is like the grass, of the field that flourishes for a moment and then is gone.

!! -     ON the other hand the Kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom.

!! -     IT is not a kingdom made with human hands.

It is not based on human measurements or assessments of greatness.

!! -     IT is a kingdom whose builder and maker is God.

!! -     AND some day soon, the Bible says, God’s Son will break through the clouds of the air and...

!!!       “*The kingdom of the world *(will)* become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever*.”

(Revelation 11:15)

!! -     BUT in the mean time He has assigned us, as citizens of His kingdom living in a foreign land, to the task of investing ourselves in those things that are going to live forever.

!!! ~*     When you share the message of Jesus with someone through your life or through your witness....you are dealing with things of eternal significance.

!!! ~*     When you give your tithes and invest your offerings to the ministry of God’s Kingdom, you are laying up treasure where neither inflation nor depreciation exist.

!!! ~*     When you lay at the end of your child’s bed and explain the wisdom for living God’s way from Proverbs....or tell them what Jesus means to you...you are laying the foundation for the next seventeen trillion years just for starters.

!!!! -     How does that compare to the value of them learning violin or soccer?

!!! ~*     When you stand in a Tuesday night prayer meeting and your child sees your hands lifted in praise and tears running down your face.....you are leaving your mark for eternity.

!! -     WITH enough blood, sweat and tears you can leave your mark in the business world, in the field of education, in the sports world, in the Guinness Book of World Records.

!! -     BUT those marks last less than a lifetime.

!! -     *WHAT if you knew that your life was going to be singled out and encapsulated in one sentence of a permanent record that would be studied for the next 2,000 years by millions of people......HOW WOULD YOU CHOSE TO LIVE*?

!! -     TURN with me to Colossians 4:7 (page 1167) and discover the mark left by ten people, each of them captured for all eternity, in a single verse of Scripture that will never pass away.

!! -     EACH of them the Holy Spirit chose....out of the thousands of verses selected for inclusion in Scripture....to devote a verse to their story.

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! ii.

leaving their mark

!! 1.   TYCHICUS....verses 7&8,

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!!       “*Tychicus will tell you all the news about me.

He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.

*(7)* I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts*.”

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!!! ~*     This is the man who carried the epistle from Paul’s prison cell in Rome to Colosse....and probably was the courier for the Ephesian letter as well.

!!! ~*     If it were not for his faithful, hard, simple delivery job we would not have two of the most significant epistles of the New Testament.

!!! ~*     He was trusted also to give the Colossians an accurate account of what was happening in Paul’s life.

!!! ~*     He is Paul’s special envoy to the fledgling, struggling church in Colosse.

What a responsibility!

!!! ~*     Was he well known in the massive political machinery of the Roman empire?

No.

!!! ~*     Was he written up in Pliny’s history of the glory that was Rome?

No!

!!! ~*     But he traveled with Paul from the province of Asia in Acts 20:4, carrying the special benevolence offering to Jerusalem.

!!! ~*     And on two occasions Paul sends him as an emissary of the kingdom of God...to Ephesus with a word for Timothy, and then to Crete, with a word for Titus.

!!! ~*     So, Paul has been with Tychicus on the road, handling finances, carrying epistles.

!!! ~*     And in the two verses devoted to him he is recorded, for all eternity, as....

!!!! •     “dear brother...in the Lord”

!!!! •     “faithful minister...in the Lord”

!!!! •     “fellow-servant....in the Lord”

!!! ~*     And Paul says to the believers in Colosse, “When he comes, he will encourage your hearts.”

!!! ~*     That is the mark that Tychicus left.....*faithful servant.*

!! 2.   ONESIMUS....verse 9,

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!!!       “*He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you.

They will tell you everything that is happening here*.”

(Verse 9)

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!!! ~*     Here is a brother that came from Colosse.

!!! ~*     When he left town the law on his tail.

!!! ~*     Onesimus is a run away slave....and his owner is in the congregation at Colosse, Philemon.

!!! ~*     Onesimus runs away to Las Vegas.

That is what Rome was in those days....the fast lane.

!!! ~*     But somehow when he gets to Rome he bumps in to Paul.....and that was the beginning of a new life for this fugitive.

!!! ~*     In fact, the transformation in Onesimus is so dramatic and so fast that Paul, who does not just throwing bouquets at everybody, as we will see later on in the chapter, says of him that he is...

!!!! •     Our *faithful*.....

!!!! •     And *dear brother*....

!!!! •     He is *one of you*....

!!! ~*     And Paul says, I am sending him back for reconciliation and restitution for anything that he did wrong.

!!! ~*     What happened to this fugitive from the law out on the lamb...this no good bum...this *quitter*?

!!! ~*     Historians believe that later he became the bishop of the Church at Ephesus.

!!! ~*     His name means useful.

We know that he is the reason that the New Testament book of Philemon was preserved for inclusion in Scripture.

!!! ~*     Onesimus left his mark...*making costly wrongs right.*

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!! 3.   ARISTARCHUS....verse 10,

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!!!       “*My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings*...”

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!!! ~*     Here is a good man to have around.

Aristarchus is the man to have with you when your back is to the wall.

!!!! •     In Acts 19:29, he is with Paul in the middle of the riots in Ephesus...and helps bring him through safely.

!!!! •     In Acts 20:4 he is with Paul when he is arrested in Jerusalem and almost killed by the mob.

!!!! •     When the going got tough, Aristarchus got tougher.....and he accompanied Paul on his heavily guarded trip to prison in Rome.

!!!! •     He was in the shipwreck with Paul in Acts 27:2.

!!!! •     And voluntarily or not, we don’t know, but he is a fellow-prisoner with Paul in Rome.

!!! ~*     This is the kind of man you want as a friend when your back is to the wall.

!!! ~*     When things were tough for Paul...there was Aristarchus.

!!! ~*     Nobel Peace prize?

No. Front page of Time?

No. Running for office?

No. Who’s Who of American Religion?

No.

!!! ~*     But written up in the Word that will never pass away.

!!! ~*     He left his mark....*unshakable friend.*