Western Hills Christian Church: “You are family here!”

Message II

For this reason…we are asking God to:

• Fill you with the Knowledge of his will

• through

• Which leads to the question: how do we gain spiritual wisdom and understanding?

We pray this so that:

• You may live a life worthy of the Lord, and may please him. This is the main goal for our lives and all of creation.

• Which leads to yet another question: how do we live worthy lives to please God? If grace has made us clean and perfect, how then can we please God more?

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

• But now I return to the initial question, how do we live lives to please God? Well Paul addresses this to the Colossian believers; in fact he makes a list!

How do we please God?

1. Bear fruit—in every good work

2. Grow in the knowledge of God——scripture study, fellowship, devotions, “faith books”, testimony, wise counsel, music, etc.

3. Being strengthened with all power…

a. Romans 1:1-4

¹Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God— ²the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, ⁴and who through the Spirit^[a] of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God^[b]

b. NIV: So that you may have

c. NET: For the display of

4. Great endurance and patience

a. All the while(my inference)

5. Joyfully giving thanks to the father.

Why should we live in this fashion, what do we have to be so happy about?

God has:

• Qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light
• Rescued us from the Dominion of darkness

Dominion: supreme authority, no say so, the image of servitude

• Brought us into the Son of God’s kingdom
• So that we can have redemption and forgiveness of sins.

Lesson  I, Wednesday July 15th

Problem: Believers everywhere are losing heart. People are selfish and are hard pressed to help anyone but themselves. And because of this our generation is both depressed and discontent. Apathetic and inept.

Why do we have this problem?

It says in Colossians 1:3-6 that from the moment the Colossians believers heard the Gospel of Truth faith, hope and love were manifest. Interesting: seems like Paul’s mentioned this before. 1 COR. 13:13 After describing the marvelous nature of Love and before he prepares to launch into the gifting of the Holy Spirit, he wants to make one thing clear. Now these three remain he says, if you took away everything else that is part of faith-you would have these three things: Faith, Hope, and Love.

-Adam in the Garden

• Productive by God’s command before the fall
• Productive for self after the fall-ignores God’s voice

-Elegantly productive universe

• Everything yields something, serves a greater purpose

-Jesus and the fig tree

What does it mean to be productive?

• Does it mean that we do good works
• Does it mean that we try to live upright sinless lives in accordance with the Law

What does it mean? I would simply say yes. It means exactly that, just not the way you might assume.

Galatians 5

1-15 Not by law

16-25 But by the Spirit

We are compelled out of gratitude to produce good works. In fact Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 ¹⁰For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. Let me be clear that this is not a salvation issue. We could never do enough to earn our salvation, after all who among us is perfect? No, we do good works out of gratitude to Christ, who secured our salvation through his perfect life and sacrifice.

The Gospel Bears fruit

-Jesus and the parable of the Sower Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23

The hope that we receive from the Gospel bears fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, if you are not yearning after the spirit and listening to his voice—Then maybe you aren’t living fully as a Christian but simply playing the part. Be productive, yield good fruit, not for salvation but out of compelling gratitude. Let it be an outpouring of your soul.

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom,that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:28

Discipleship is personally transferring the full dimensions of your relationship with Christ to the person you are walking with.  It is not the imparting of spiritual disciplines as much as it is acquainting another with a Person you love.  Paul said that he would teach and urge with all his strength that every person God placed in his life would come to a complete experience of the person of Christ (Colossians 1:29).  He was not satisfied with people becoming partially like Christ.  He would not rest until those around him were perfect, or complete, in Christ.  That is, that the fruits of the Spirit were being fully expressed through each life and the character of Christ was reflected in each person (Galatians 5:22).

We can mistake Christian activity with becoming like Christ.  Christian activity and Christlikeness are not the same things.  We must not assume that because our friend attends church and reads her Bible, she is growing as a Christian.

Christian activities are an important expression of your relationship with Christ.  They can lead you to a relationship, but the danger is assuming that your religious activity is the relationship.  If you are only encouraging those around you to attend Christian activities, then you have not “discipled” them the way Paul did.  You do your fellow Christians an injustice by teaching them that Christian activity is equal to Christian maturity.  Do not rest until those around you have become “perfect” in Christ.  If God has put new Christians under your care, you have an obligation to “stay with them” until they have reached Christian maturity.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
2nd Corinthians 4:7

Knowing God and having Him reside within you is a treasure of infinite value. Jesus likened this value to that of a perfect pearl. The collector would readily sell everything he had in order to possess this one matchless pearl (Matthew 15:45-46). Your relationship with God places an immeasurable value on your life. The treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are available to you through Christ (Colossians 2:2-3). His love now fills you. His incomprehensible peace surrounds your heart and mind (Phil. 4:7). When Jesus dwells in your life, everything available to Christ dwells within you (Ephesians 3:19).

Paul was comparing our lives with the clay pots commonly used in his day. The contents of the earthen vessels, not the containers themselves, were of great value. The jars would become chipped and broken and would deteriorate over time, but nobody thought of the jar—they were interested in its contents. Paul noted that our great possession is that which God has placed within us. When people focus on us they see a frail, imperfect, and deteriorating vessel. Nothing that come from our flesh is worthy of praise. Our bodies are aging and losing strength (2nd Corinthians 4:16). Only as we allow God to fill us and renew our inner self will people see a treasure of immeasurable worth.

Don’t focus on outward appearances and physical strength, for these deteriorate. Rather, allow the Holy Spirit to convince you of the infinite treasure that is within you because of God’s presence.

Henry and Richard Blackaby
Experiencing God Day-by-Day