Admonishing Everyman

[0:00] man if you would uh open your bibles to colossians chapter one you're gonna think to yourself it's like wait wait you said we were done with colossians one i know i did i know i did we just got to go back and look at a couple of things but before we do let's let's pray lord more than anything else in this world we acknowledge that you are the king and sovereign ruler of all things as adonai master and lord you have done for us all that you have desired in your heart and we praise you that you are sovereign that you're king over all things we praise you that nothing happens apart from your direction and guidance and it is our prayer that you would use your word today in us that your spirit who inspired these words would use these words to convict us and to shape us and to mold us and to help us to be more like christ and we pray this in christ's name amen now we're going to come to colossians in just a little bit but i'm also going to go to revelation 7 in just a second but before i do i think you've probably heard the story of the little boy who went home after church one sunday and told his mama that jesus was not very nice his mom says very confusedly like why are you saying jesus isn't very nice and he says because he won't let the father move and she says what do you mean he won't let the father move and he says because jesus is sitting on his right hand all right so maybe we're not really confused you know if you hadn't laughed at that then you would have been confused but that's okay it does bring a question to mind it's a question i think that we need to think about and that's the question of what is it that jesus is doing he's there seated at the right hand of the father and there are a lot of things we could talk about because there are several things that jesus is doing currently right now we could talk about his ruling and reigning over all creation as he sits there upon the throne we could talk about his intercessory ministry for god's chosen to the father however i want us to think about another passage that talks about what both god and christ are doing revelation chapter 7 this is verse 9 through 14 after these things i looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cry out with a loud voice saying salvation to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne worshiping god saying amen blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our god forever and ever amen then one of the elders answered saying to me these who are clothed in the white robes are they and where they and where have they come from who are they and where have they come from and i said my lord you know and he said to me these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the

[4:06] lamb now listen whatever your view of the end times is is kind of irrelevant at this point the point though is is that there is going to be and there currently is people who are standing around the throne worshiping the lamb who have been bought with the blood of the lamb and if i were to say what is it that god is doing currently what is it that christ is doing currently this is the way i would say it god is currently right now by the crucified risen ruling reigning jesus christ gathering people from every nation tribe tribe peoples and languages by the blood of the lamb so that they might worship him that's what god is doing let me say that again and i might read it two or three more times just so that we we get this because if you get nothing else today this is the thing you should get what is it that god is currently doing he is currently by the crucified risen ruling reigning jesus christ gathering people from every nation tribe people and languages by the blood of the lamb so that they might worship him this is what he's doing this is why every sunday there are churches that meet and preach the gospel this is why we send missionaries out this is why we feel convicted and we look at the person sitting next to us and we we desire and maybe even seek out and begin a conversation with them to share the gospel with them because god is gathering people from every nation tribe and language and he is gathering them together and bringing them together to worship him so that he is worshiped for all eternity and he's doing so by the risen resurrected christ's blood two weeks ago i challenged you with a thought that we need to be doing what jesus is doing but i use the words of paul the apostle where paul the apostle says that we proclaim him admonishing and teaching every man with all wisdom that we may present every man complete in christ and what i talked about just so we can review is that our mission should be to be building lives that treasure christ that's what we should be after that every life should treasure christ every person should worship christ every person should love christ be thrilled with christ be satisfied with christ but it takes building a life it takes working and equipping a person's life for them to get there they need to be saved and they need to be discipled and that ministry comes from both the pulpit and the pew that every one of us have a responsibility in this that the preaching of the word is necessary but not sufficient and that's why you have to take up your responsibility to proclaim him and admonish and teach and i think i remember that what we talked about is we had three p's that we need to prayerfully depend upon the holy spirit patiently wait upon the lord while we proclaim him but here's the problem the problem is is that we have a wrong perception of the church and there's a lot of ways we could go with this but i just want to go a couple of things there's a lot of people who view the church like it's a cruise liner it's a cruise liner right there's lots of fun entertaining things to do a smorgasbord of options to choose from by professionals who are trained to help you get the most for your money and a lot of people will go to churches and they want to get what they can get out of it they want to see that smorgasbord of options available to them so they can choose the things to be involved in and not choose the other things they don't want to be involved in and take those

[8:10] things and run with them and they're happy because you know they've gotten their money's worth that's a wrong conception of the church another wrong conception of the church is a family reunion a family reunion you know it's either a fun or not so fun depending upon your family time of seeing all these people that you're supposed to see on a regular basis and there's food there's games and maybe there's even nice memories thrown in and so we walk into a place hoping there's going to be this opportunity to maybe get those memories relived while we enjoy one another's company but that too is a wrong conception of the church what is the church then well if i move away from the image of building lives treasure christ because that really says that we're a bunch of contractors let me change the analogy for a second and say it this way as the church we're navy seals and we're on a rescue mission rescuing enemy soldiers in order to turn them into worshipers we're navy seals on a rescue mission rescuing enemy soldiers and turning them into worshipers of christ that's who we are and i think that's a sobering thought because it brings up the idea that we are in a war and always have been the church has always been at war that's why jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against because he knows there's a war going on this war this war is for the glory of god and for the salvation of sinners it's for the increase of our own delight in god and and i want to really narrow this sermon to really kind of one thought here because i i laid out for you this this idea that we need be making disciples but i want to narrow it a little further into saying who who are we supposed to make a disciple of who should i if the if the pew and the pulpit are both responsible for this then who and so i want to look at first who paul was aiming at and then talk about what does that mean for us and you'll look in colossians chapter 1 verse 28 where paul says we proclaim him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in christ he says every man three times admonish every man teach every man present every man so what is it that paul means here by every man i know last week i said a little bit about this but i'm wanting to go a little deeper with it for us okay here's the first thing i think paul means number one no one is excluded in paul's mind no one is excluded in paul's mind he by mankind i told you last week it's it's this word this every man is a word kind of like mankind where we mean everybody regardless of their their sex right so males females everyone is a part of this paul wants every man woman boy and girl to be admonished and taught and presented to god as mature in christ no one is to be left out the second thing that this means is that since paul is looking at everyone he's interested in more

[12:15] than just members of a local church it's important to have members of a local church but it's important to look past that as well paul is using language in an expansive way he was going from city to city sharing the gospel he was an ambassador for christ with a ministry of reconciliation and when he says every man he means all of them you know here's here's one of the things that we talked about um we talked about how over here on this side of things this side of the cross this is where lost people live right just just this is just a conception right they don't actually live right here this would be like too small of a place for all the lost people to live don't take me literally right you with me okay that that as you look at people and we think about where people stand now right there when i say that when i say when we think about where people stand a lot of people in this world are going to be like oh well we shouldn't judge where people are like please stop that that's that's from the world that's not from scripture okay we need to be able to understand where people are so that we know how to help them and there are people here before they come to the cross that they're lost and what we want to see is we want to see lost people come by way of the cross right and be converted to be here we want them to be saved we want them to trust in christ we want them to no longer be headed to hell but be headed to heaven we want them to see their sin we want them to trust in christ and we want them to to become believers and that does not happen just because you're a nice person it happens because you see your sin and you see what christ has done for you and you trust in him repenting of your sins this is the moment of conversion and there may be some people in here who are over here but i would guess the vast majority are over here right here next to the cross on this side of the cross meaning that you're saved meaning that if you were to die today you would you would be in heaven with the lord right to be absent from the body is be present with the lord and and and what we want for here is we want to be able to go from here all the way out to eternity but this is all about growing in your faith and not being a baby christian anymore and and there are some people who are here they've just gotten saved they're baby christians and they're people who are over here and and they are super mature in their faith and the difference between here and here is not how long have you been saved but how much of god's word is in your heart right because you can have somebody who's 70 years old and be a baby christian still and you can have somebody who's 30 who's very mature in the faith and it's all about how much word is in you not about how much life you've lived and so when we start talking about and saying as paul is saying everyone paul is looking at people there and there and there and there and there and all the way up to here and these people and these people and these people and all the way up he's looking at all of them he's willing to start with where they are and help them move in the direction of maturity he wants to present them all complete in christ and the thing is is that as paul is talking about this he does the

[16:22] same thing with all of them he proclaims and admonishes and teaches that means that a person who's lost is a person that we can proclaim christ to that we can admonish and that we can teach and a person who's mature in their faith but needs more maturity we can proclaim christ and admonish and teach them you see here's here's the problem we've grown up with this thought that the gospel message and all the things about what jesus did on the cross it's for these people over here but these people over here they need to hear something different that is so wrong paul paul talking to the corinthians said i would know nothing among you except jesus christ and him crucified paul in the book of hebrews says that we must consider him who endured such hostility against himself so that we may not grow weary and lose heart the gospel for the christian is the fuel for the fire the gospel for the christian is the motivation to run the gospel for the christian is the empowerment of the spirit to do we must have the gospel as christians it's not a different story here's what i'm narrowing down to i may start differently with where this person is but there's pretty much going to be the same thing i'm telling them as i'm telling them and it's the same methodology proclaim admonish teach proclaim admonish teach paul used one method with everyone so the question is okay we understand what paul and who paul was aiming at so who should we aim at so we have this image of this continuum here now i want to put another image in your head how many of you know what concentric circles are some of you are like i'm not sure that sounds strange that sounds like you're doing some sort of witchcraft you need to go away no concentric circles take a pebble throw it in the water and you watch the ripples run away those are concentric circles right where the where the rock or the pebble hits the water that's the center and then it goes out from there right so here's what i want you to do i want you to begin to think about your own life you are the pebble where you land in the water there are ripples that run away from you okay and we're going to talk about we're going to talk about that in just in a couple of levels and let's talk about it then you need to overlay this on this continuum here and i'm going to show you how that's going to work okay first of all i want you to think that the very first circle these centric these concentric circles this is your circle of responsibility it's your circle of responsibility you you are the center you are the center what does that mean it means that you're supposed to grow it means that we're interested in building your life so that you grow in christ it means that at one time you were over here but because you're saved you're now over here and you need to be concerned with your growth you need to know that you're growing in christ and how does it work for you to grow in christ prayerful dependence upon the holy spirit patiently waiting and proclaiming christ see in your life

[20:22] in your life as i'm preaching to you you're getting some proclaiming and that's good and it's necessary but it's not sufficient you need more in your life than just the preaching you need the word in your life on a daily basis and you should be reading from the word now some of you say to me but i can't read okay that's right that's right we're talking about you need the word in your life so maybe listen to it right and you need that in your life if you're going to grow we god has not said he's going to grow us by some other means than by the word of god and so in this center circle is you and it's important that you grow it's not one of these things where we're trying to say listen whatever happens to you doesn't matter just as long as you reach out to other people no no no it starts with you you are important you're vital you're necessary you have dignity you have worth and you ought to grow in christ because he has shed his blood for you and that's your center circle and in your circle of responsibility of people who you need to make sure are being having their life built so that they treasure christ your first person that you need to make sure is built is you it's you but then you have a second circle now now we get to meddle this second circle is your household the second circle is your household it could mean that you've got a spouse it could mean that you live alone it could mean that you've got kids it could mean that you've got whoever lives in your household you have a responsibility for them sort of and here's my sort of husbands husbands you have a responsibility to build your wife's life so that she treasures christ ephesians chapter 5 let me say it with gentleness but also very firm what i'm saying to you is baseline christianity what i'm saying to you is the baseline commitment it is an obligation and a duty for every husband to help disciple his wife it's not optional it's not just for the pastor and deacons as husbands but it's for every husband who says they belong to christ now wives you do not have the responsibility to disciple your husband by god you do not have that responsibility however that doesn't mean you don't have to be unhelpful you certainly can be helpful to him in this you can help him know what it is that you need but husbands have this responsibility now some of you if you say to yourself you know i'm not so sure that's true read ephesians 5 if you don't understand it from there come see me i'd be glad to share it with you but what i'm just trying to say is that that's the baseline if you have kids in the home if you had grandkids living with you you'd be responsible for them and so each of us need to make sure we're growing we need to make sure our household is growing now i've got three more circles for you okay the third circle are close relationships close relationships and the reason i said it this way is because i recognize that sometimes

[24:22] people who are our family are not necessarily people that we're close to you may have a son or daughter you might have a daughter-in-law you might have a brother you might have an aunt or an uncle that that that's a part of your family but you're not close to them but you instead you have somebody else that you're close to or maybe there's a cousin you're close to and you're closer to them than you are a sibling the point is is that your next level of responsibility are people that you're close to those relationships that that are close to you these are the relationships that if you were to lose those relationships it would be more devastating than other relationships you understand what i'm saying there's a responsibility for those close relationships to pour into them and to help them to build their lives so that they treasure christ then you have people that you know people that you know it's not people who are close to you but it's people that you know and see in both of these categories it could be a family member it could be a friend it could be a neighbor it could even be a church member although i think probably church members fall into this fourth category of people we know because generally speaking most people in churches are not that close to one another they're closer to other people outside the church than they are people inside the church which hopefully by god's grace we will flip that eventually but you have people you know and fifth you have people you don't know you have people that you don't know and so what we're saying then is that as you have the responsibility for yourself as you have the responsibility for your household and then close relationships people you know people you don't know all of those kinds of people they're all over this spectrum up here and wherever they are that's where you start with them and you move this way you read the word together as a matter of fact there's several ways you could do this there's several ways you could proclaim and admonish and teach but i want to give you one simple way because you know i guess i guess i think about it this way michelle and i we got married in 1990 yeah all of a sudden i drew a blank i don't know why 1990 i'm trying to do the math in my head somewhere somewhere at hope we started praying together 2016 2016 took 26 years is that what that is it took 26 years of marriage before my wife and i ever got to the place where we were praying together daily because i was scared to death of her because i felt like my prayers were not very good because i felt like that i didn't know how to pray very well and because nobody for 26 years told me that i should not a single person you see what you did not know when you call me to be your pastor is that i'm gonna be all up in your business not in a mean way not in a rude way

[28:22] but i have a responsibility to shepherd you and to equip you and i don't want you going 26 years without hearing somebody tell you husbands you ought to disciple your wives and if that sounds scary then let me give you something let me give you something to help you let me give you something that's that's simple and easy that i wish somebody had given me i wish somebody had said to me brady you ought to do something like this with your wife and be like really that would have been like where was that nowhere but i don't want you to be there in that place so here's the challenge okay here's the challenge my challenge is primarily to husbands now there's some of you sitting here today there's no husband in your home or you're all by yourself that does not mean you can't come get and pick up this challenge and do it yourself okay i'm not saying that but i just want to focus on husbands because i want to just take a little tiny baby step before we keep moving further out seven week challenge it's a seven week challenge one-to-one bible reading reading through the epistle of first john you start by praying together looking at a couple of thoughts here before you read read the passage out loud maybe take a few notes ask some questions about the passage discuss it together try to understand it try to figure out how to apply it and then pray together it's all lined out for you all seven weeks and i double dog dare you husbands to take it and to take up the challenge for seven weeks i know it's difficult and i know it's uncomfortable but it is biblical and if you're not if you're not a husband right if you're not a husband right now and you're saying like i i want to read that and i want to go ahead i've got plenty up here you come get a copy but when we're done with the service today if you're willing to take up that challenge i have them up here spread out on the pew you pick one up take it home and over the next seven sundays we're going to take a moment in the service just to be praying for you praying about this because because you know i'm telling you it's not an easy thing but it is a good thing and it's a right thing and you know what's you know what's even more fascinating to me about the way that god works and what he's doing is that it's easy to say thou shout right i'll shout to do this thou must do this and i believe that there are things in scripture that we need to say that about and it's easy to hear me saying what i'm saying today and think to yourself it's like well i haven't done that for however many years it's been it's been it's been so many years it's been longer than what what you went brady how how can i even pick up from here and go and it's because because of what christ is doing in the world i told you the gospel message is not just for lost people the gospel message is for christians and i want you to think about this why did christ come to this world he came to die for sinners your sin of not pouring into one another of not pouring into maybe close relationships or whatever that you may be thinking in your mind like i've never done this and i should have done this and why didn't i do this it's covered in the blood he has

[32:24] purchased he has purchased forgiveness for that and you have that already but not only that he has his holy spirit that he pours out upon us to empower us so that we can do what he's called us to do you know i've had a lot of people say to me you know one of the reasons that i want to get back into church is because i look at the world around me and i see how it's going and everything seems to be terrible is the nicest way to put it and i just want to know what can i do about it this is what you can do about it one person taking one person through the bible together that is the only way we change the worldNING