Intro: Today we wrap up our time in the Book of Colossians. It’s been a great journey, and we’ve seen a lot of important scriptures that inform the way we do church and the Christian life. Today, we wrap up with a list of greetings from those who were with Paul.

Paul ends the letter with these greetings to remind and establish the unity of the churches across the known world. He also wants to show that he’s not going about this whole Gospel ministry thing alone. Believer, if you take nothing else away from this sermon, take away the fact that you are not alone in your calling to make God’s name great.

Gospel Work is Teamwork

Vv. 7-11

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Notice how Paul lists his many compatriots in the effort for the spread of the Gospel. He knew he could not accomplish God’s wishes on his own.

List the accomplishments of the people in his entourage: SEE BIBLE

Tychicus is the one delivering the letter from Paul’s prison.

Onesimus is the slave of Philemon, who escaped and became a believer while he was away with Paul. (Philemon 10)

Three Jews are working with Paul (v. 11) They are described as being workers for the kingdom of God.

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I know I spend a lot of time harping on being Gospel ambassadors. It’s what I’m passionate about, and it’s what the Bible wants us to be.

Paul’s work was Gospel Work. What is Gospel Work? It is making sure that the Gospel is always going forth.

Conversation with Andy

The helpful thing about this command and the truth of what we see here is that it isn’t any one of ours to bear alone.

I think this is the hardest part of evangelism and Gospel work. We all assume we have to do it by ourselves.

God has granted us all different giftings for the purpose of making Him known.

It’s all of ours to bear as believers. And we are to bear it together.

It’s said that it takes, on average, seven times for someone to hear the Gospel before they internalize and believe it.

Now listen, this is what we are called to at Cassville Baptist Church. The next series we do will be going through Ezra and Nehemiah, and we’ll see the vision for Cassville Baptist Church come up through that.

The great thing about Teamwork is that discouragement takes a backseat to the needs of the team.

Others on your “team” step in to encourage you in your weakness.

The hard part is that some of us just don’t want to join the team. Or we halfway commit to the team.

We refuse to allow others to minister to us. We have a problem with “receiving.” We substitute community with ministry. That’s the path to burnout.

We refuse to get involved with ministry work.

Some aren’t even a part of the body of believers. Not making the effort to make some form of commitment to the church body. If I can say for a moment, one of the missteps of our movement as modern Christians was the lack of commitment to the church body. We have an epidemic of church-hopping or even church non-attendance. Somewhere along the way we told people to pray the prayer, and that was as far as their commitment to Jesus needed to go. We sold them a bad bill of goods. If you look in the Scripture, you will find no place where a believer is blessed by being cut off from the church. It is a punishment to be cut off from the church body.

The church should be a place of love, support, and joy for the believer.

Some of us are a part of the team, but we fail to be good teammates

Some of us seek the glory for ourselves in ministry. We want to take lead or be up front so that people can fill our buckets with their encouragement.

Some of us can’t say a positive thing to save the lives of others. When you withhold encouragement and only offer critiques, I don’t care how much else you’re doing for the church, you’re robbing the people of God of the joy they require to be faithful servants.

Some actively work against the cohesion of the team. When you go about gossiping, backbiting, or otherwise being a poor brother or sister in Christ, you are failing in your responsibility to the Good News of Christ. New Life doesn’t JUST mean a renewed relationship with your Creator, though that’s primary. Renewed Life means renewed relationships to everyone!

Some don’t carry their weight on the team. Laziness, or dependence upon the hard work of others and hoping that the others don’t notice.

Gospel Work is Lifelong

Vv. 12-13

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Notice how Paul describes the work of Epaphras in vv. 12-13:

Struggling in prayer; toward the end of believers’ maturity and assurance. Also: that Epaphras has worked hard for them and the other churches.

The work of Epaphras was that of someone who truly cared for the church and its wellbeing, to the point of selflessness.

Epaphras knew that this was no short task ahead of him. It would be hard work without end. That’s one of the beautiful, though at times trying things about ministry.

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We have a lot to overcome in being a selfless people in our day and age, for the message of the world is to be true to oneself over and above being true to God and true to others.

Our Gospel work does not end at salvation, but it continues on in discipling those in the faith to full maturity. And it’s not easy work, it’s hard work, no matter which way you spin it. Calling people to repent of their sin is hard whether they’re believers or not. Sometimes it’s even harder with believers. But we don’t mature without it.

Gospel work isn’t just hard work as if we can be self-reliant. It’s a very spiritual work that depends on the move of God, so people are called to pray.

Listen, my biggest priority at Cassville Baptist Church isn’t just to help this church grow. It’s to get this church healthy, because healthy things grow. But just because something’s growing doesn’t mean it’s healthy, either.

Believer, are you living a lifestyle of prayer, Gospel Work and selflessness? Or do you get distracted by all of the other “stuff” in life?

In Discipleship Journal author Elaine Creasman writes:

Pursuit of “good things” can hinder obedience. It has been said that “the good is the enemy of the best.” I think of times my husband has asked me to do one thing for him during the day. When he gets home from work, I tell him all the good things I have done. But the question he always has for me is, “What about the thing I asked you to do?”

Many times I have answered, “I forgot,” or “I didn’t have time.” Or I’ve dismissed his request as trivial.

God asks that same question of us: “What about the thing I asked you to do?”I’m sure Abraham could have thought of a lot of good things to do instead of taking Isaac to be sacrificed. But I see no excuses in Genesis 22. God commanded; Abraham obeyed.

Gospel Work is Obedience

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In Paul’s command to Archippus, he’s seen telling him to “fulfill his ministry.”

At this point, Archippus has a choice. Will he do what the Lord has entrusted to him, or will he go about his own way?

This Gospel Work that was given to him would be something that he would have to choose to fulfill.

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Much of life is like that, too. Obedience doesn’t always come easy.

We work against the flesh, which actively works against God. But we are called to be obedient in spite of how our flesh causes us to feel.

Was this the struggle Archippus might feel? Would fulfilling his ministry be something to which he would have to actively work against his flesh to do?

This is one of the things that’s almost lost on our generation of Christ-followers. We’ve mixed self-help with the Good News and it doesn’t quite work that way.

Self-help says find yourself and you’ll find happiness.

The Gospel says Find God and joy will follow.

Listen self-help just pushes you further into yourself, further into the flesh. It also has the dangerous tendency to cause us to trust our feelings over what we know to be true, or to trust our proclivities and inclinations over the Word of God.

Archippus was to set aside his desires for the sake of the ministry he had received.

Perhaps there’s someone listening this morning that has received a ministry-calling on their lives. Here’s my question to you, if you’re listening: What are you fulfilling right now?

Do you seek to glorify God and are you willing to do what it takes to be who you’re called to be for Him?

Or are you seeking your own desires, and taking a more passive attitude toward that ministry to which he’s called you?

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Paul was willing to fulfill his ministry to the point that he was in chains.

Today, I ask if you’re willing to give up a good-paying job. To give up a certain lifestyle.

That’s not to say that obedience is performance… Remember, performance is about results, obedience is about the action.

Performance leads to death, obedience leads to life.

Some of you believers live your life by performance, and you come up empty time and time again, when God is not calling you to performance but to obedience.