Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM - A Little Help From My Friends - Pastor Ryan

Good morning. Good morning. Okay, just want to make sure you're all hearing what's going on. I love hearing that hymn while I go, holy, holy, holy. Heavy duty, duty. Amen.

Would you stand and join me in prayer? Oh, Father, it's a good thing to be here with you this morning. Of course, wherever we are, you're with us. But, oh, as we gather this morning to worship you corporately, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit you would fill us afresh this morning to worship, to study your word, to fellowship with you and one another, Lord. Grow in your grace.

Be encouraged and experience your mercy because you pour it out on us all the time, Lord. Father, would you give us a mind to look to you this morning, those things which are above, to set our minds there, Lord, this morning, would you, Lord? Realizing that we positionally are seated in the heavens,

co-resurrected and co-ascended and co-seated with Christ in glory as far as our position in you is. We're still living in this old earth, Lord, this world, but it's not our home we're passing through. And we thank you for the work of the cross.

There's a wound wasted.

You're not finished with us. You may be seated. Father, we just thank you that you had a plan before the foundations of the world that would involve sending your son, Jesus Christ, on this earth to live among us, to minister among us. In fact, one of his names is Emmanuel, God with us. And we know that the boys there in John chapter 6, they started asking us, how are we going to know the way?

Thomas and the boys, he said, name the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Have you not later, he says, along the lines, have you not been so long with me and you don't know? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. See, God with us, you see. He came down in that human form, the minister, to example from the dead and ascend up to the Father.

Right there at his right hand, making intercession for us. Praise you, Lord Jesus. The name accepted is within those again. I'm forsaken, it's within me.

The way to our forsaken. We want to make a difference, Lord. People to take notice that we spent time with you by the way we live and act. Words prove that our, our actions prove that our words are true, Lord. And whether they speak negatively about us spending time with you, oh, those people are Jesus people, we used to say in the old days, you know. Or whatever, Lord.

May they take note, as in the book of Acts, with those boys, that we spend time with you. Bless, Lord. We're nothing, Lord.

He is so, yes, Lord.

He sends nothing less, no. Jesus for the one cross for us. Jesus, this morning.

Salvation. Jesus, you saved us. Holy Spirit, we know you sealed us.

As our Lord Jesus promised, you wouldn't leave us as orphans. He sent us. Holy Spirit, to convince us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Jesus, would you all stand? A little stretch before you sit a little while longer, yeah? Oh, Father, we praise you. We thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy. God's riches at Christ's expense. Thank you, Lord, for the power of the resurrection.

Praise Lord Jesus. Our hearts to abide in you, Lord. To look to you, the author and finisher of our faith. To know that you are the Lord. You are the Lord. I take two.

As I... It is on my heart in the earlier service, Lord, that you allow things in our lives to bring us to that point of abiding sometimes when we're not maybe doing so. Maybe a little trial here or there. A little need to endure. A little experiential knowledge of endurance and the character that's built as a result that encourages us in the hope we have in you, Lord.

That assurance. That assurance. You're with us all this time on this top side of this earth. And then on that day you take us home, we're with you there, Lord, in glory. Strengthen us now to be your servants, Lord. To walk for you. To talk for you. To express who you are to others. To make a difference wherever we are that they may know. Bless now, Pastor Ryan, as he comes up.

Bless the children's teachers as they are teaching down there. And the kids, listen. And the kids, listen. But as Pastor Ryan comes up, just anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit. Bring forth your word and power. And we give you all the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's have a little fellowship now.

Good morning.

If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. As always, on the left-hand side are the things that are going on throughout the week. So find a spot to get plugged into. In the middle section of your bulletin, just a couple things. A reminder about Grief Share starting back up. And then also, since next Sunday is September the 1st, we have new Our Daily Breads out there for you.

So take note of that. Pick up on one. Grab a few to hand out to your friends. Also, if you are interested in a Bible reading program, especially if you're newer and you're like, Hey, I want to get into the Word more, we have a through-the-ear Bible reading program on the backside of the bulletin as well. And then one thing that is not in your bulletin. Is that there is a movie out at Cali Cinema 8 that you should check out.

We weren't even sure if it was going to come here, but it did. And so it's called The Forge. Full disclosure, I've only watched the trailer, but the trailer was amazing. And everybody that I've talked to that's seen the movie has said, You absolutely have to see that movie. We've got a poster of it for it hanging up out in the foyer. So go check that out. We especially want them to know,

Hey, when you bring movies like this to the theater, people are going to come watch it. So go check that. Get out, support the theater, and let them know that's the kind of thing we want showing up there. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 85.

Psalm 85. Looking at the New American Standard so that we sound the same. If you need a copy of the New American Standard, it should be in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 85, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

We'll read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 85, for the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah. O Lord, you showed favor to your land. You restored the captivity of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin. Selah. You withdrew all your fury. You turned away from your burning anger.

Restore us, O God, of our salvation. And cause your indignation toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not yourself revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your loving kindness, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will say. For he will speak peace to his people, to his godly ones.

But let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation will be with us forever. His salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Loving kindness and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its produce.

And read verse 13 with me. Righteousness will go before him, and will make his footsteps into a way. And Father, we do praise you that you are the God who, who restores, and so Lord, our nation is in need of restoration right now. And so Lord, I just pray for a fresh work of your Holy Spirit to take place in our community, to take place in our state, in our nation, and throughout our world, Lord.

I pray that as churches gather today, that your Holy Spirit would move through the time, that your Holy Spirit would move through those that are truly giving out your word. And Father, that we as your people would grow closer in our walks with you, and that we would see your work continue to spread throughout this land. And so Father, speak to us now through your word, we pray, and continue that work in our hearts, in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians, chapter 4.

Colossians, chapter 4. Today we come to our last study in the book of Colossians. It's been a lot of fun. We've learned a lot in the book of Colossians. I'll give a quick recap, kind of of the major themes that we went through. Of course, it started out, Paul wrote the book because of false teaching that was beginning to emerge in that area, false teaching that was beginning to come into the area of Colossae,

that were pulling people away from Christ, pulling people away from the reality and the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the first thing he did is he reminded them of the incomparable Christ, and he showed that Jesus is 100% God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, far beyond our finding out, and yet revealed himself to us by coming down to live among us. He then warned us to not be deceived by the philosophies of the world, by the wisdom of the world, by the legalism of the world, and the philosophies that are oftentimes prevalent. And then he reminded us that the best way to do that is that we would seek those things that are above, to keep our minds, set our minds on things that are above and constantly be seeking those things.

And then, of course, we learned about godly relationships, about godly relationships within the home, as far as a marriage is concerned, godly relationships within the home, as far as children and parents are concerned, and then godly relationships in the workplace, as far as having a good relationship between employer and employee. And then, of course, last week we covered those final instructions. And today we come to a section in the book of Colossians that's easy to read over. I've simply entitled it, In Conclusion, but because of the nature of it, I've given it a subtitle, A Little Help From My Friends, because this is one of those sections that's really easy to read over, and it's just a listing of names,

and you kind of go, well, there's really not much for me to learn from this, but really there's a lot to learn from this, because what he's going to do in this last section is he is going to give endorsements for certain people that are coming to visit them, and then send greetings from the people that are with him. And in each of these we see stories. We see stories of God's grace. We see stories of how God has moved in people, and we are reminded that the gospel wears flesh and bones, that the church was not just a nameless, faceless group of people.

It was an actual group of people that lived in, a real place, in a real time, real people that were really affected by the gospel of Jesus Christ and saw real change take place in their lives. And so we pick up in verse 7 of chapter 4, and this is what it says. As to all of my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord, will bring you information. For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances, and that he may encourage your hearts.

And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings. And also, Barnabas' cousin, Mark, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And also, Jesus, who is called Justice. These are the only fellow workers for the kingdom of God,

who are from the circumcision. And they have proved to be an encouragement to me. Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings. And also, Demas. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that's in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. And you, for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord,

that you may fulfill it. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you. A lot of people that Paul lists there. So let's work through these people because each of them carries their own story of grace. The first name that's mentioned for us is Tychicus. Notice what it says. It refers to him as a beloved brother, a faithful servant,

a fellow bond servant, and he's going to bring you information and he'll tell you everything that you need to know about our circumstances and he will encourage you. This first fellow is kind of an interesting guy. He was both a companion and a messenger that Paul used often. I suppose, the first interesting thing about him is his name because I heard it pronounced three different ways.

I heard it pronounced Tychicus. I heard it pronounced Tychicus and I heard it pronounced Tychicus. The last one I couldn't even do with a straight face. So I stuck with Tychicus because it felt like the right thing to do. It's what my sense of humor could handle. But he's a fascinating guy because he was always a companion and a messenger of Paul. He just seemed to kind of always be alongside Paul

and he was carrying lots of letters for Paul. As a matter of fact, he would also carry the book of Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians back for Paul. And even when you get into 2 Timothy, he's going to deliver some messages for Paul. So he's just that kind of guy. He's the kind of guy that you could trust. And you can tell because Paul refers to this fellow

in three different ways. And I want to point these out to you because these are fascinating ways to think that someone would think this is who you are. The first way that Paul refers to him is he refers to him as a beloved brother, a beloved, beloved brother. Now I love that because when we think about the body of Christ, we are reminded that we are not just individuals attending the same building together on a Sunday morning.

We are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ because we have a bond in Christ that should go deeper than any other bond, even the bonds of family, because the bond of family is a physical blood bond, but the bond of Jesus Christ is an eternal Christ blood bond. And we are bonded to each other in that way. And there's something deeper about that because we share the same experience of knowing that our one hope is in Jesus Christ. And when Paul thinks of Tychicus, he thinks of him as his beloved brother.

And wouldn't it be a beautiful thing if within the church of Calvary Chapel of Ark City that we all started thinking of each other as just simply beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, not people that show up at the same place once or twice a week, but as people that you truly invest your lives in because they're more like a brother or a sister to you than they are just somebody else. Somebody that you attend church with because that's how he thought of Tychicus. The second thing he refers to him as is as a faithful servant, a faithful servant. Now, Tychicus is about to carry this letter from Colossae all the way to Rome.

And we don't think too much about that, but I want you to think about how long of a journey this is going to be. I looked it up this morning and from Tychicus to Rome or from Colossae to Rome was about 1300 miles. 1300 miles, he's going to have to carry this. Now, just to put a little perspective on that, I looked up a distance for us in the United States and I thought that would be a really long ways away.

So I looked up from where we are all the way to San Diego, California. That's 1127 miles. So that's a really long way to carry a letter and he didn't have a car. He might not have even had a donkey. He had to cross bodies of water in treacherous times all to carry this letter. And you can imagine along the way him going, I mean, it's just a piece of parchment, right?

It's a piece of parchment. Maybe if I get there eventually, I'll summarize it for them, right? And maybe he thought of all kinds of reasons why it wasn't an important thing to do, but that's not what he did because he was a faithful servant. There's a little kid's book that I really liked. There's a lot of little kids' books that I really like because they're written on a level that I can understand.

But one of my favorite kids' books is Horton Hatches the Egg. Have you ever read Horton Hatches the Egg? Most people know Horton because of his more famous work, Horton Hears a Who, but there's a little less famous work called Horton Hatches the Egg. And I remember reading this to my oldest daughter when she was just a tiny baby and I'm going through this book and as I'm reading, I'm like, wow, I'm pretty sure I disagree with all of Dr. Seuss's political opinions,

but this book's pretty good, right? And if you don't know the story, let me tell you the story real quick. So Horton has a friend that's a dodo bird and she has an egg that needs to be hatched and she has to sit on the egg, but oh my, it's stressing her out and she needs to go on vacation. So she knows that the egg needs to be taken care of. So she comes to Horton and she says,

Horton, will you sit on this egg until I come back because the egg needs to hatch? And Horton, the elephant, sits on the egg, right? He says, I'll do it. And everybody comes along and wants Horton to go do things. Some people want him to go swimming with them. They want him to go play games with them. The weather's really bad. He gets blown all over the place

because this giant elephant sitting in the whole tree on top of an egg, right? But throughout the book, one line is constantly repeated. I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, 100%. And so no matter what came along that made him want to not sit on the egg any longer, he was bound and determined to do it because he made a promise and he was faithful.

That's kind of what this guy's like. And brothers and sisters, that's what we should be like. The problem in our culture today is nobody's faithful 100%. Nobody means what they say and nobody says what they mean. And nobody's faithful 100%. It wouldn't be a beautiful thing if an elephant was faithful 100%. If in the body of Christ there began to emerge a group of people

who always said what they meant and who always meant what they said and the people said, you know what? I don't agree with their theology but I know that they're faithful and so maybe I'll look into what's going on in their life because I know they can be counted on and there must be something different about them. And that's who this guy was. He was a faithful servant.

And then the third thing he's referred to as is a fellow bond servant. In other words, somebody that Paul had served a lot of times. He said, this guy you can trust because we've shed blood together. We've sweated together. We've worked together. I know what it's like to work with him and I know that he's somebody that you can count on. He says, I'm sending to you Tychicus

because he is a beloved brother, a faithful bond servant or a faithful servant and a fellow bond servant and he's going to give you all of the information that you need about me as well as this letter. And then he goes on to bring up the second name. And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother who is one of your number, they will inform you about the whole situation here. Onesimus, just another name, right?

Except if you were to turn to the right, you don't need to. If you were to turn to the right a few pages, you would come across a book. And that book is called Philemon. And in the book of Philemon, you learned that Philemon had a slave whose name was Onesimus. And this slave Onesimus had run away from Philemon because he was going to rebel against his master.

And he ran so far away from Philemon that he ended up coming across Paul in Rome. How does it happen? I don't know. How does it ever happen? It's almost like the Holy Spirit orchestrates certain things to where you end up in the right place at the right time. Maybe it's happenstance. Maybe it's Maybelline. Maybe it's the Holy Spirit, right? But no matter what,

we see God at work through the whole thing. And God brings Onesimus to Paul. And Paul ends up leading Onesimus to the Lord. And now he's going to send him back. And he's not going to send him back as a slave. He's going to send him back as a brother. Matter of fact, go with me real quick over to the book of Philemon. Go to your right. You go past 1 and 2 Thessalonians,

1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. If you hit Hebrews, you went too far. And I want you to start in verse 10. It's a beautiful letter. I want you to notice what Paul writes. Philemon, verse 10. He says, I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to me, but now is useful both to you and me. I have sent him back to you in person,

that is, sending my very heart, whom I wish to keep with me so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my presence. In my imprisonment for the gospel. But without your consent, I didn't want to do anything so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but of your own free will. For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever.

No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. You see, Philemon was a member of the church of Colossae. And so when he sends Onesimus back, this runaway slave, this slave who thought he was running for his freedom, but ultimately found his greatest freedom, who thought he was running from bondage, but ultimately found freedom from the bondage to sin, there with Paul, as he learned of the gospel, he's now coming back because the gospel not only reconciled him back to Christ, but the gospel is going to reconcile him back to Philemon. And now there's going to be a different kind of relationship because no longer is he a member of the church,

no longer will it be slave and master. Now it will be brothers in Christ. He said, because I'm sending him back to you, no longer as a slave, I'm sending him back to you as a brother. And now this man who ran because things were too hard, who ran because he was seeking freedom, is coming back. And when he's coming back, he's not coming back as a runaway slave.

He's coming back as a faithful friend and a brother in Christ, one of your own members, because friends, that's what the gospel does, is it sets people free and keeps them free and reconciles people to each other. Now, I want you to know that when this letter was read, it was actually read out loud. Imagine if you will, you're the church in Colossae and I've received this letter from Paul and I'm the pastor standing up in front of you and I say, guess who got a letter, right? And I open this thing up, wonder who it's from.

And I open it up and I start reading it. And as I'm reading this whole letter to the Colossians, Onesimus is standing somewhere nearby. And you can imagine Philemon because Philemon is only looking at Onesimus and going, what a lazy loser, right? He ran away from me. What's Paul going to say about this? But probably his heart's getting softened as he goes because remember,

he's focusing him on Christ, the incomparable Christ. He's focusing him on the things that are above. He's reminding him of godly relationships. Kind of wonder why he talked about master and slave. Amen. He talks about godly relationships and he even talks about forgiveness. And you can imagine that as Philemon is hearing this letter read and he says, and I'm also,

I'm also sending Onesimus. And Philemon probably kind of goes, oh, he's a faithful brother or he's a faithful friend and he's a brother. And you can imagine Onesimus holding up the letter of Philemon and saying, by the way, this is for you. And this amazing time of healing takes place between these two guys. And he says, I'm sending Onesimus not as a slave,

but I'm sending him as a faithful and beloved brother. He's one of you guys. Beautiful what the gospel is able to do. Now we come to the next one. We come to Aristarchus. Notice what it says in verse 10. It says, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings. And also Barnabas's cousin, Mark. Oh, got ahead of myself. Aristarchus sends his greetings.

Now this guy, Aristarchus, is another pretty interesting guy because he seems to always be Paul's fellow prisoner. Like he's sort of that, like I'm your Huckleberry sort of guy. Like anytime something's going down, like he's right there with him. He was arrested with him in Thessalonica. Matter of fact, he was beaten in Thessalonica in place of Paul. When he gets arrested and in Rome,

he gets arrested or in Jerusalem, he gets arrested with him there. He's on the ship that gets shipwrecked on their way to Rome in the book of Acts. He's just always with him. He's just always down for the struggle. He's always down for the fight, right? Aristarchus is always just like, what are you doing today, Paul? I don't know, but it's probably going to get me arrested.

Let's do it, right? It's just the kind of guy he is. Like you kind of need that sort of person in life. You kind of need that guy who's always going to be with you in trouble. Who's like, man, I know this is probably going to end really bad, but let's do it anyway. Only about positive things, right? Too many of us have friends that are willing to throw down on the negative things,

but you need somebody that's alongside you in the positive things. Like, hey, let's go minister to the Lord. Dude, that's going to be really hard. I know, I'll go with you, right? You need those people with you. And he says, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, well, he sends his greetings to you as well because he understands what it's like to be in prison. He understands what it's like to be

alongside me for the difficulty. And he just wants to say, how you doing? Well, the next one that we come to is we come to Mark. It says, and also middle of verse 10, Barnabas's cousin, Mark, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. Now, this is another one of those loaded, another one of those individuals that has quite the backstory behind him.

Mark, who will go on to write the gospel of Mark, was the cousin of Barnabas. And Barnabas was the encourager that always took Paul under his wing. This is the one place that we learned that they're cousins. That's how we know that. But in the book of Acts, there comes a point in time after Paul got saved that they're in Antioch and they're praying together.

And the Holy Spirit says, separate unto me Paul and Barnabas for the work that I've called them to do. And so they go out, on this missionary journey. And we're given this one little line that says, and they brought along with them John Mark, who was a young guy at the time. Well, as the missionary journey begins, things are rough, right? Like they're preaching the gospel to a world

that doesn't want to hear the gospel. And Mark's not an Aristarchus. He's actually having a little bit of a hard time dealing with the struggle. And so at some point in time, if I remember correctly, it was Iconium. Mark finds it's really difficult. First of all, they seem to get beat up everywhere they go. Second of all, Paul has developed some sort of a sickness.

And he's really struggling. And he just goes, I can't do this anymore. This is too hard for me. I'm just going to run. I'm going back home. And we're given this one little line in the book of Acts that says, and John Mark left them. And this really hurt Paul because he had poured his time into him and he needed somebody who could stand beside him. And Mark failed.

And so he goes back home. Well, they go on their, they finish their first missionary journey. They come back and they give the report to the church in Jerusalem. They let them know what's going on. And then Paul gets back together with Barney when he gets back to Antioch. And he says, hey, I have an idea. Let's go back to all those churches that we started.

Let's see how they're doing. And who knows? Maybe we'll screw around and start a few other churches as well. And Barney's like, great. Let me, let me shoot Mark a text and he can join us. And he's like, dude, Mark's not coming. He goes, what do you mean he's not coming? Of course he's coming. He's going to come with us. Listen, you don't understand how much he's grown.

You don't understand how much he's grown. He's changed. He feels really bad about what happened. He feels really bad about the fact that he departed from us. I think we should take him along with us. And Paul says, I can't take the chance of somebody else bailing on me again. I can't take the chance that somebody's going to leave me when I need them the most.

He's not coming. He's not going along on this journey. And the rift became so great between Paul and Barnabas that they had to part ways. And Barnabas took Mark and Paul took Silas. Now it was a beautiful thing because the gospel continued to spread and God used a really bad situation. But there was a rift that was pretty great. Would Paul and Barnabas ever really be friends again?

Would Paul ever trust Mark again? Well, God did an amazing work. God did an amazing work in the life of Paul. And God did an amazing work in the life of Mark. Because I'm here to tell you right now, if you are truly seeking and pursuing the things of God and surrendering to him and everything, you cannot continue to hold on to that unforgiveness. It's impossible.

Because God is a God of forgiveness and if you're really surrendering to him, he'll eventually work that forgiveness in your heart. And listen, if you're truly seeking and pursuing God, if you're really surrendering to him, you can't live a life of laziness. You just can't live that life of spiritual laziness. Not if you're really surrendering to the Lord because God is always calling you to something deeper.

God is always calling you to something greater. God's always calling you to something more. And that usually means you have to get off the couch. Let's throw out the word usually. It always means eventually you got to get off the couch. And you've got to get off the couch. You've got to get out and do what God has called for you to do. Well, that's exactly what happens

in the life of Mark and Paul. Paul eventually forgives Mark. Mark eventually becomes an amazing worker in the gospel. And notice what it says here in the book of Colossians. It says, Barnabas' cousin, Mark, about whom you've received some instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. The beautiful thing is, that's not even the end of the story. You see, God had worked in Paul's heart

to accept Mark back and forgive him and begin to trust him as a brother. But you know, this is Paul's first imprisonment. There will be a second imprisonment that he has that will ultimately end in his life being taken from him. And in that second imprisonment, he wrote a letter. That letter's called 2 Timothy. He wrote it to a young pastor named Timothy. And as he wrote to Timothy,

this very last letter that we have from Paul, he references Mark again. As a matter of fact, go with me to the book of 2 Timothy. Go to your right. Right before you got to Titus. 2 Timothy, I want you to look at chapter 4.

2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 11.

Paul writing to this young pastor as he's in prison, says this, Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you. For he is useful to me for service. Is that not just what God does? Is it not just like God to take somebody that at one point in time he was so frustrated with that he couldn't even imagine bringing him on a missionary journey, that it actually caused a rift in a relationship

because he was so mad at what Mark had done that now he's asking, bring Mark. I know I'm getting near the end. Could you bring Mark with you? God, I just love that guy. And he's really useful to me. That's what God does. And can you imagine what God did in Mark? That Mark went from a loser who found himself not being able to hack the difficulties of ministry,

who gave up because it was too hard, who gave up because... because things were difficult, that now he's become a man who Paul trusts so much that Luke looks at Mark and says, Hey, Mark, why don't you come with me back to see Paul? Why? Because he says he trusts you more than anybody and you're really useful to him. Well, let's go. Because that's what the gospel does.

And I feel like the Lord this morning, as I was putting this together, gave me a couple of words that I need to give out to some people. Some of you here need to be reminded that God is not done with you. Some of you here need to be reminded that just because you failed, that just because things got hard and you quit, that just because you've stumbled into sin, that just because you've not been walking the way that you're supposed to, that just because your life is not reflecting the things of Christ and now you find yourself coming back, God wants you to know he is not done with you. That God can still use you because God takes flawed humans and he turns them into his instruments for service.

And he turns them into his instruments for service. And he wants you to get lined back up with him so that he can use you because God is not done with you yet. We get done with people really easily, don't we? We find ourselves in a place where they're not useful to me anymore. But God's going, nah, I can use them still. I know they've had some failures. I know they've made some mistakes,

but I'm not done with them yet. And if that's you this morning, if you're the one that's run, if you're the one that's fallen into sin, if you're the one that has found themselves in sin, if you're the one that's found themselves thinking, I can't be used by God anymore, I want you to stop thinking that now because God's not done with you yet. There's another word, though, that I want to give to some people in here. Some of you need to be reminded that it's time to forgive.

It's time to forgive. It's time to forgive the person that ran out on you. It's time to forgive the person that failed you. It's time to forgive the person that hurt you. It's time to forgive the person that absolutely let you down. Because the gospel, the gospel does not just restore our relationship with God. The gospel restores our relationships with each other.

And it's time to forgive. What a beautiful line. And Mark, you know, Barnabas' cousin, and if he comes to you, I've told you about him before, just welcome him. He's a good dude. Well, now we move on from there back to Colossians chapter 4. Next we come to justice. Notice what it says. And also, verse 11, Jesus, who is called Justice, these are my only fellow workers

for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision, in other words, they're Jews, and they have proved to be an encouragement to me. Now, the first thing we need to realize is Jesus was an incredibly common name at this point in time when the book of Colossians was written, right? And Jesus is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua. So it would be kind of like a bunch of guys named Joshua.

Joshua, right? If you know somebody named Josh, same thing. So pretty common name at that point in time, but many that started following Jesus because they wanted to be separated from Jesus would usually go by a different name. This guy went by the name of Justice. Now, the interesting thing about Justice is this. This is the only time we read about him in the Bible,

and we really don't even read anything about him, right? There's no details about him whatsoever. There's a couple of other guys with a similar name, but they're different guys. This is the only time we read of this particular man, and we still don't know anything that he did. We only know two things about him. We only know that he was a fellow worker of Paul

and that he was a great encouragement. And I love this because as far as the world is concerned, nobody knows anything about him, and yet God knew everything about him. When I was a kid growing up, I went to school right here at Calvary Chapel. We had a little Christian school here, and we did musicals, and we did musicals every single year. Those musicals were called Salty,

Salty the Singing Songbook. If you've never watched any Salty the Singing Songbook, I'm going to go ahead and recommend an afternoon activity for you, and go ahead and look up Salty the Singing Songbook. And there was one of the, they were called Kids Praise. There was one of them that we went through all of the different Bible characters, and there was one song that we sang, and I told first service this story, and I know that some of the kids are here that were a part of that.

And so if you start singing, that song, it's okay, and you're welcome. You can thank me later. There's this song that we all had to learn. It was called The No Names. And it's about all the people in the Bible that did things that we still don't even know their name. We never knew them. God saw fit to record what they did, but he didn't record their name. In this case, God saw fit to record his name,

but we don't know anything that he did. And just because we don't know what he did, or just because the name's not recorded, doesn't mean God doesn't know, because God takes note of all of those things. And what a beautiful thing. It's the only two things that were known about you is that you are a believer, a beloved brother, and that you were an encouragement.

Wouldn't that be enough for all of us? That God knows that about us? And I know that there's some people sitting here today that probably think, nobody knows me. Nobody knows my name. I feel like someone who nobody sees. I just want you to know God sees you. God sees you, and God sees the things that you do. God pays attention to it. And all of the rest of the world may say,

I have no idea who you are, but when you walk through heaven's gates, he will say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Because, because nobody else saw, but I did. Your name may not be written in anybody else's book, but it's all over mine. Because that's what God does with us, is he takes note of all of those things. And this guy, Justice, all we know,

all we know is he was an encouraging guy, and he was a fellow believer. And that's all we need to know, because that means he's a part of the family of God. And so then we move on to this next guy. His name is Epaphras. Notice what it says in verse 12. And Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers,

that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify for him that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Epaphras is thought to be the man that actually started the church in Colossae. And he is the one who most carried the, the issue, if you will, that was taking place in Colossae to Paul, who went to Paul and said, we have an issue here.

And the issue that we have is that there's some false doctrine that's arising. And I really need you to address this because we need it. We need some apostolic authority to address this false teaching that's going around. And he says, Epaphras is an amazing guy. He's one of your number, meaning he's one of them. But I want you to notice the first thing that he refers to Epaphras as.

He calls him a bond slave. Now, he referred to Tychicus as a fellow bond, a servant, but that's a different Greek word. The Greek word for bond slave that he uses for Epaphras is the word doulos. It's the idea of one who serves his master at the complete disregard of his own will. There are only three people that Paul ever refers to as a bond slave. He refers to himself as a bond slave.

He refers to Timothy as a bond slave. And he refers to Epaphras as a bond slave. That's a pretty big compliment coming from Paul because that meant he knew that this man, Epaphras, was not just your average servant of God. He is someone who had completely disregarded his own will in order to serve his master and to serve his master's people. This is high praise from him.

Now, I always kind of wonder who all was around when Paul was dictating this letter because remember, Paul dictated his letters. He didn't write any of them himself. Someone would record what he wrote down. And I always wonder if maybe like Epaphras was nearby, right? Like maybe Epaphras is somewhere near him and he says, and Epaphras, my fellow bond slaves,

sends you his greetings as well. And Epaphras goes, wow, I don't ever hear him call anybody that. Well, that's amazing. And how humbled he would have been to know that. But I want you to take note of why he calls him a bond slave. He says, Epaphras is one of your number, a bond slave of Jesus Christ sends you his greetings. But notice what Epaphras is always doing.

He is always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers. Laboring earnestly. That word, laboring, that phrase laboring earnestly in the Greek is where we get our word agonized from. In other words, he is agonizing. It's also where we pull our word wrestling from to wrestle with. And the idea is that Epaphras is not just your average guy. He's not even just your average prayer warrior.

That guy is wearing out the kingdom of heaven with his prayers. And he is always agonizing and laboring in prayer for the Colossian people because he wants to see them grow in the Lord. I am once again reminded that we, we have no idea how powerful our prayers are. We have no idea what God wants to do in the world if we will just begin to pray. I don't know if everybody's aware of it or not,

but there's a major spiritual battle going on right here in this community, right here in this area. God is doing a major work with some kids right now. We're seeing it take place here, but we're seeing it kind of all over the community right now because God is on the move in the heart of this community. He's on the move in the heart of this community. He's on the move in the heart of this community.

He's on the move in the hearts of these kids because they know they need something. I'm very active with the FCA out at Ark City High School and they had their club sign-ups the other day and we were praying that a lot of kids would get signed up because we want to get the word out for that. 101 kids signed up to be a part of Fellowship of Christian Athletes. This is awesome.

But listen, that's only where it starts, okay? It only starts with them putting their name on a piece of paper saying, yeah, I want to be a part of that. The laboring in prayer isn't done yet. And so I'm asking you as a body, would you agonize in prayer for the kids in this community? Would you agonize in prayer for the college? Would you agonize in prayer that God would give us this community?

Because Satan wants it. He wants the hearts of these kids and he wants to pull them away from the truth. He wants to destroy them. We think Satan just wants to see us be tempted by evil, but Satan wants to destroy us. And so we need to fight that battle, but we have to fight it on our knees. I could deliver the best message I could possibly come up with in my own flesh.

But if it's not empowered by the prayers of the people through the Holy Spirit, then it won't do any good because only the work of the Holy Spirit can change the hearts of people. And the way that the Holy Spirit works is when God's people pray. And he said, I love this dude. He's such a bond slave because he labors daily in prayer for you. And what's he laboring in prayer over?

Notice what it says, that you would stand perfect and fully assured in the will of God. What does that mean? It means, it means that you would be mature and that you would stand fast. That the Colossian people would be mature and stand fast. You see, when he left Colossae, false doctrine was sweeping in. False doctrine was starting to move in. And that's why he needed this answer from Paul.

And so what was he doing every day? Lord, help them to stand strong. Lord, help them to stand strong against every wave of doctrine. Help them to stand strong against every wave of philosophy. Lord, help them to stand strong against the legalism. Lord, help them to stand strong against the lust that's all around them. Help them to stand strong. And he was agonizing every day for his church

because he wanted to see his church stand in the midst of all of the pressures of the world around him. He said, that's why he's my fellow bond slave because he labored in prayer. And why is he laboring in prayer over those things? Notice what it says in verse 13. For I testify for him that he is a deep concern for you. And for those who are in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

I have a question for you. Do you have a deep concern for people? Do you truly have a deep concern for the people that are around you? Do you know what I hear all too often? Is that everybody complained about how bad the generation is. I hear everybody complain about how it's not like the generation before, the generation before that. And you don't understand kids are different

than they used to be and all these kinds of things. And I'm here to tell you right now, kids aren't any different than they've ever been. Yes, they are right. And I've been around them. I have too. I work around kids all the time and they're exactly the same way they were 6,000 years ago. They have a sin nature and they do everything that their parents allow them to do.

Because if you don't hold people accountable, that's exactly what they're going to do, whatever they want to do. And so kids have two problems. They're not held accountable and they have a sin nature. That's not unlike any other generation people. And we've got to quit complaining about it all the time. Matter of fact, you got to quit complaining about it and you got to start praying.

You got to start praying about it because all too many people are just angry and you're not concerned. You're irritated, but you're not concerned. And Epaphras was deeply concerned for the people and it led him to pray. I've been going around talking to different groups of people and asking questions. I just really like to ask questions. Believe it or not, I like to hear other people talk,

not just myself. You're like, well, I've never seen that. But I do like to hear other people talk. So I've been going around asking people from, I've asked people all the way from their mid-70s down to about the age of 15, one question. If you could describe this generation in one word, how could you describe it? And it's been fascinating to me to hear all the different answers.

And what's really been fascinating to me is to find that whether it's a 15-year-old kid that I'm talking to or a 75-year-old person that I'm talking to, they say the same thing. They do. Everybody sees the problem right now. These are some of the words that I hear. I hear the word lost. I hear the word hopeless. I hear the word broken. I hear the words, I let them hyphenate,

identity crisis. I hear the words self-centered, entitled, all these kinds of things. I hear all of these words. But the one that got me the most was a young lady that I was talking to about a week or so ago. And I asked a group of kids the same question. And all those words were thrown out. And this one young lady just stopped and said, destroyed. And that what kind of got me.

Well, like, that's a pretty good way to put it. And I thought, that's somebody that has a deep concern for their generation. Because they look, and they're not like, I hate the way that they are. They're like, I'm just, I see the destruction that's taking place right now. And I want to do something about it. And they are doing something about it. And I love it.

And brothers and sisters, sometimes you need to let yourself have that heart for this generation right now. You need to look at them and quit being angry that they're lost and start realizing that they're lost. Quit being angry that they've been destroyed and start knowing that they've been destroyed. And they need rebuilt. And the only way that we can do that

is through new life in Christ. Epaphras knew that. So he labored earnestly in prayer for them. Next, we come to Luke. And I love verse 14. It just says, Luke, the beloved physician, sends you his greetings. Luke, the historian, Luke, the doctor. This is the place where we learned that Luke was a physician. Luke would go on to write the books, actually had probably already written

the books of Luke and Acts. And it's interesting, Paul wrote the most books in the New Testament. Luke wrote the most content in the New Testament. Between the books of Luke and Acts, there's actually more words written, more verses in those two books than there are of any other writer in the New Testament. He wrote a lot. Matter of fact, most people believe that Luke and Acts

were actually written as friend of the court briefs for Paul as he stood before Caesar. They were, if you will, something that he could, something tangible that Caesar could read so that he would know what was going on with this guy named Paul that he really didn't know all that much about. But Luke always kind of found himself right alongside Paul. Most think that he came alongside Paul on one of the missionary journeys when he was having health issues and actually became someone who ministered to Paul in that physical sort of way on a consistent basis.

But if you were, if you were to read in the book of Acts when they're on the ship to go to Rome right before this imprisonment, it switches from being third person to being first person. He stops talking about Paul and the third person. He starts talking about themselves and the first person, meaning that he was there with him on the shipwreck and everything else. And he just refers to him as the beloved physician because he just loved that guy.

But then there's another kind of interesting name. And this is the one sad name in all of this. Notice what it says in verse 14, last half of verse 14. And also Demas. Now we don't read very much about Demas. He's only mentioned twice in scripture actually. But as of now, Demas seems to be a pretty good guy. He sends his greetings, right? And he's alongside Paul in prison.

Things must be going pretty good. But here's the problem with Demas. Demas did not remain consistent in his walk with the Lord. Matter of fact, go with me over to, back to second Timothy chapter four. I want you to look at verse 10. Second Timothy chapter four, verse 10.

Oh, what the hay, start in nine. It says, make every effort to come to me soon. For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. And you always kind of wonder what happened between those two books. What happened between those two imprisonments? Demas seemed to start off really good. He was a faithful friend of Paul at this point in time

when he's writing the book of Colossians in his first book. And he's writing the book of Colossians in his first book. He's writing the book of Colossians in his first imprisonment. He's right there with him. He says, hey, Demas greets you. But then something happened in the life of Demas. And I don't know that I know the exact story, but I think I could probably ascertain pretty easily

based on what I know about people, what happened. He stopped having as close of a walk with Jesus. He started to neglect his time in the word and he started to neglect his relationship with the Lord, that abiding relationship that we sang about. And as he began to neglect that abiding relationship, the things of the world started becoming a little bit more important to him.

He started realizing something. If I keep sticking with Paul and I keep following Jesus, I'm going to become more and more hated by the Romans. I'm going to have less and less of the worldly possessions and my life is going to end up in a prison cell just like Paul. I just don't know that I want that for my life. You know, I think I can still follow God and kind of enjoy the things of the world.

And slowly but surely he starts to drift away until finally he gets to the place where it's said of him, having loved this present world, he has departed. He has departed from me. And this one's a little bit of a warning to us because brothers and sisters, nobody walks away from their faith in one day. Nobody walks away in one instant. Now, the walking away from faith

is a slow but sure process that begins when you decide that your abiding relationship with the Lord is maybe not as important as you thought it would be. And you slowly but surely start to drift away. Don't let that happen to you. And if it's starting to happen to you, then today's the day to come back. Today's the day to get right back into it and say, whoa, I started to drift a little bit.

It's time to get back into the word. And so he says, Demas, well, he sends you a greeting too. Back to Colossians chapter four. He says, greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and also Nympha and the church that's in her house. When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and you, for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea.

This would be a circular letter. In other words, it should be read in other places as well. And as far as this letter from Laodicea, nobody's totally sure what that is. Some think it might be the book of Ephesians or just simply a letter that was lost and we didn't need to have canonized. But he said, make sure that this spreads around. And then we come to verse 17.

In verse 17, we come to the last person that he addresses. He says, say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord. That you may fulfill it. Now, again, I want you to picture something. I want you to picture this letter being read aloud. And let's say your name is Archippus. It'd be weird living in Kansas having that name, but let's say that's your name.

And the letter's being read and maybe you're kind of, you know, like right now, like, okay, he's probably about to wrap up. So you're kind of drifting off in thought. And all of a sudden you hear your name. Wait, what did he say? Repeat the last line, please. And say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry that you've been given. By the Lord, that you would fulfill it.

And we don't really know who this guy is. Something, maybe he was the guy that took over the church after Epaphras left to go talk to Paul. Or maybe he was a guy who was being called into ministry and he was fighting against it. Whatever it is, it's the message that I think is really important here. Take heed to the ministry that you have been given by the Lord.

Because brothers and sisters, there comes a point in time where you really are all Archippus. Because you've been given by the Lord. Because you've been given by the Lord. Because you've been given by the Lord. Because you've been given by the Lord. Because you've been given a ministry by the Lord. And I would venture to say that there's a good handful of people in here

that aren't taking heed to it. Because it certainly sounds hard. Certainly sounds like a little bit more than you can do. But you've been given it by the Lord and it's time for you to step up and do it. Some of you in this room this morning are supposed to be teaching a Sunday school class down there with the kids right now. And God's been telling you you're supposed to do it

and you've been fighting against it. Because after all, kids are hard. And you're not ready to deal with jam hands just yet. And you're just not sure if you're able to do that. Well, what if I don't know enough? What if they ask me questions that I can't answer? They're kids. It's going to happen, okay? It happens to me all the time. Some of you are being called to lead small groups.

To start a small group ministry in your home. And you're fighting against it right now. Because you say, I don't know enough. I don't know enough to do that. I'm not bold enough to do that. I'm not smart enough to do that. Listen, if I can be the pastor, anybody can lead a small group, okay? Just do what God's called you to do. Because if God's called you to do it,

He's going to equip you to do it. Some of you in here are being called by God to work in the sound and video ministry. And you're nervous. Because, well, what if I screw something up? It's okay. I do it all the time when I go back and work on the board. Just ask the sound guys. And they still love me. So, you're being called to do that. Some of you are being called to be ushers.

Like, hey, we need people out here greeting folks. We need greeters. God's calling you to do those things. And you're not doing it because you're scared. And you think, I can't do that. That's going to take a lot of work. Yeah, it is. But if you're really scared, surrender to Jesus Christ. I mean, sometimes He's going to call you to get off the couch. Some of you are maybe even being called

into the mission field to go be missionaries somewhere. And you're like, oh, but they eat weird food. Right? That's my biggest hold back from missionary work. I'm going to be completely honest. They eat weird food there. That's okay. Rice and beans is great. Do what God's called you to do. And then He closes like this. Verse 18. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

Remember my imprisonment. Grace be with you. Again, remember Paul's dictating this. But to show that the letter really did come from him, he takes and signs it. And I kind of appreciate this because I don't have very good handwriting. And that's an understatement. I write like a five-year-old. And when we used to have a college group at our house a real long time ago,

actually, we didn't have it at our house yet because Aaron and I weren't even dating at this point in time. When I first got into college ministry, I would write down everybody's prayer requests during prayer requests. And then we would pass this piece of paper around. And eventually, Aaron looked at me and said, would you like me to write those down for you?

And I was like, that would probably be a fantastic idea so that everybody could read them because you always knew the difference between our handwriting. That's kind of what it is with Paul. He says, this is my writing with my own hand so that you know it really is from me. And then he says something fascinating. He says, remember my imprisonment. I actually don't prefer that translation

of that word right there. In the New King James, it says, remember my chains. Because even though Paul, even though Paul could write an epistle about joy called Philippians, even though he could write an epistle about our position in Christ in Ephesians, and even though he can write an epistle about the incomparable Christ to keep your focus on things above like Colossians, he was still chained to a Roman guard. And you can imagine as he picks up his hand to say, this is Paul, he hears the chains clink against the desk.

He hears the chains clink against the table. And he's reminded that no matter how much he loves Jesus, he's still human and it's still hard. And he says, hey, just don't forget I'm in chains. Can you guys pray for me about that? Just remember my chains. And then after that one little moment, he says, in God's grace, be with you all. Because it's truly amazing grace.

And it's his grace that's brought us safe thus far. And it's his grace that's brought us safe thus far. And it's his grace that's brought us safe thus far. And it's his grace that's brought us safe thus far. And it's his grace that will lead us home. Amen? Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you that you have blessed us with your word. And Lord, even in lists of names that sometimes seemingly can be uninteresting, Lord, there is still stories of grace written all over the pages of scripture. Stories of grace that always point us back to a savior who loved us enough to die for us.

And so Lord, would you keep our hearts close to you? And Father, if there are those here this morning that need to receive that grace, that need to come to you in faith, believing that you are their savior, may today be the day that they do that. Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Accomplish what concerns me today. Thank you, Lord. As we go out now from here, we look to you. We trust you, Lord. Use us for your glory. Glory, Lord. Strengthen us. Help us be where you'd have us be. We look to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Lord, bless y'all. Have a great week.