← ArchiveSunday, September 21, 2014DateSeptember 21, 2014Speaker—TextColossiansPassages in this sermonColossians 21:08Hebrews 6:14:08Colossians 2:55:32Colossians 16:23Colossians 1:106:29Psalms 110:31John 12:24–2614:32Colossians 3:515:072 Corinthians 5:1716:351 Peter 317:22Colossians 323:04TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Goodness, praise the Lord, my, my, my, my, my, whoo, thank you, thank you, Greg, thank you so much, I believe they mean that, huh, I just leaned over to Brad, says, boy, I tell0:28you, there's a freedom in this place today, amen, amen, it's exciting times in the life of this great church, I also told him, said, if you can't preach after that, there ain't no preaching in you, so for those of you English teachers, that is awful grammar, but just get over it, anyway, hey, it is a joy to be here today, right, I am so thrilled about the journey that we're on, I'm so thrilled about the journey that we're embarking on in this transition0:57time, and thank you, choir, man, thank you, Greg, for stepping in and doing what you do, brother, it's what a blessing that is, turn with me to Colossians chapter 2, we're in the purpose series today, the purpose series, we're in the third part of the purpose series, purpose of disciple making, we were created to make disciples of all the nations, it's not an option, just like evangelism is not an option, just like missions is not an option, we are created to1:26duplicate and multiply ourselves, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to develop the character of God in our lives, that is the message truth that you will find on your notes today, the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to develop the character of God in our lives, Colossians chapter 2, beginning with1:47the first verse through the eighth verse, follow along with me, I'm reading the New American Standard version of God's Word, your translation wouldn't, would not be too far off from this, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who are in Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit, knit2:14together in love and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance and understanding resulting in the true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ himself. Verse 3, in whom are hidden all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that I, that no one may delude you from persuasive argument. For, for even though I am absent in the body, nevertheless,2:42I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and stability of your faith in Christ. Verse 6, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him, establish in your faith, and establish in your faith just as you were3:09instructed and overflowing with gratitude. The spirit of God uses the word of God to develop the character of God in our lives. In the Christian life, where there is no such thing as standing still. There's no such thing as I, I'm gonna put it on pause just for a little bit. Either you're moving forward in your journey3:36with Jesus or you're retreating. There's no such thing as saying, I'm gonna take it. And I know some of you Bible scholars out there, you're gonna say, wait a minute, what does it say over there in the book of Psalms? Be still and know that thou art Lord. I am the Lord. Yes, we need to have that time alone with God where we get instruction and, and motivation and direction in our lives. Yes, we do that. But we're either moving forward in our journey with Christ or we're not. We're retreating and4:02going backwards. Hebrews chapter six, verse one says, let us press on in maturity. The Christian that is not making spiritual progress is an open target for the enemy to attack at all fronts. The Christ follower that's not moving forward, we are an open target for the enemy to attack us. As Christ followers, we have a great need to press on in the journey that he's called us to because Satan,4:30the liar, he's out there deceiver. He knows that he cannot pluck us out of God's hand. He knows that he cannot remove our salvation. He knows that he cannot take us, our name off the Lamb's book of life role as a Christ follower. But here's what he does. He tries to rob our joy. He tries to steal our joy. He tries to get us off path. And sometimes during a transition period in church work, when we're going from one senior shepherd to the next senior shepherd, we find ourselves as saying, hey, let's5:00just sit back. Let's retreat for a little bit. Let's just hang on, folks. I do not find that in scripture anywhere. It's for us to move forward. It's a Satan wants to steal our joy. He wants to rob our joy from us. You know, the apostle Paul uses vivid illustrations, does he not? He uses vivid illustrations to drive home the point. Oftentimes he used military illustrations like in this particular5:25passage in Colossians chapter 2 verses 5 and 7. It says, for even though I am absent from the body, nevertheless, I am with you in spirit. Rejoice in your good discipline and stability in your faith. As therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Having been firmly rooted and now being built up, established in your faith, or strengthened in your faith, steadfastly in your5:51faith. We should be moving like an army right now, not sitting back. So Paul is challenging the church at Colossians. Today he's challenging the Colossians church as well as he's challenging the Bethel church and the church in general. He's challenging us to move forward in our faith as an army marching forward in our journey with Jesus. So he uses military terms. He also uses, he also uses this kind of as a6:15walk, as a pilgrimage, as we should say. In Colossians chapter 1, look what verse 10 says. Colossians chapter 1 verse 10, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. To what? Please everybody else? No, it says to please him in all respects. Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing the knowledge of God. Church, let me tell you something. We are created to multiply6:42ourselves. To have gospel conversations with those who do not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Have gospel conversations by telling them our story and getting them involved in what we are involved with already. Call the church. Folks, let me tell you something. As long as it's on my watch, I'm going to challenge us, challenge us to reach the next person. How many more people can we put in this room? One more. Several more, to be honest with you. We got plenty of room, right? So we, and then we can7:11go to multiple services if we have to. Church, it's time for us to decide, are we going to move forward or are we going to retreat? He says we are in this pilgrimage and so believers need to walk in a manner worthy, as he says, of the Lord. So we should walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. So we as Christians should also, we should trust the Lord by faith. That's the same way we did when we accepted him7:36by faith. Now I watched some of you walk in this room. Some of you walked in this room. I turned around and watched you walk in. You just plopped right down on those pews, didn't you? Why? Because you knew that they were going to hold you up. Or at least you had faith in them to hold you up, correct? Well, you see, we should walk by faith, trusting the process that God has for this church. This is part8:00of his plan. We, this didn't sneak up on God. This didn't sneak up on him like, oh my goodness, I've forgotten about Bethel. Folks, let me tell you something. He knew before the foundation of the world that this was going to happen. He knew what's going to happen. He had this all mapped out. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called8:26according to his purpose. So we need to trust God by faith through the process. And we should trust God by faith because we trusted him for what? Our eternal salvation. So not only did he use military terms, he also used this pilgrimage term. He also used agricultural terms. Now he used that. If you'll notice with me, look at the word, the tree, the tree rooted as an agricultural form. The Greek tense of8:56the word means once and for all haven't been rooted. Now I want you to gather in here closely. It is a known fact in church work. During transition, there are some of our brothers and sisters that want to go around and look at other churches. It happens. It's not because they don't like this good looking interim they've got. That's not because of that. Not because we don't have a wonderful staff, great9:24fantastic music, but they want to go around kicking the tires of other churches. And I don't understand that. Have you ever noticed people who go from church to church to church to church to church? I just don't get that. Find one you like. They're not perfect. If you're looking for the perfect church, by the way, if you think that Bethel Baptist Church is perfect, it ain't.9:50That shocked y'all. But we serve a perfect Savior. That's all we're striving to do. And if you're perfect and you're going to come into our imperfect church, please go somewhere else because we're going to make you imperfect. That's not part of the message. That was free. But he is using this term10:12agriculturally. We should not be transplants. We should be firmly rooted. Strong Christ followers have a strength and a stability because their roots go deep. Flip back with me to Psalms chapter 1. Psalms chapter 1. If you don't know what it is, it's open about the middle ways of the book.10:41Psalms chapter 1. And listen to what the psalmist says in chapter 1. Verse 1. How blessed is a man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits, nor sit in the seats of the scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. And his law he meditates day and night. Now that's where you can sit down for a little bit, take a deep breath. Delight in the law of the Lord day and night. Then it goes on to say, church, let me tell you something. Strong Christ followers have their roots deeply rooted in the11:10word of God. The word of God, the spirit of God will use the word of God to develop the character of God in our lives. Not only does he use agricultural terms, he uses military terms, but he also uses11:38architectural terms. This word, it says being built up is an architectural term. You know what I noticed recently? I've been doing kind of a study and a survey, a loosely kind of survey, a loose kind of survey amongst college students. We had a group of college students with us in our ministry in Honduras this past spring from Auburn, and we had a group of college students down there, and they were down there12:05making disciples and working in our organization down there in Honduras, and we were having a great time with them. And I started asking these college students, and you say, well, my goodness, you know, they're just kind of all over the map and all that stuff. College students today, Christ followers, they are returning to an authoritative biblical expositional preaching. That's what they are saying today. They want not the how-to's, but they want to know the why-to's. They're looking for strong biblical principles taught from God's word.12:34They want expositional preaching. That's why churches that have strong expositional preachers are growing and are flourishing. Why? Because the Bible is being taught. The Spirit of God is indwelled in people's lives, and the Spirit of God uses the word of God to develop the character of God in our lives. And that's what he's saying in verse 7, having been firmly rooted, and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed13:02and overflowing with gratitude. The word instructed, that means a, that's a kind of a educational term he's using there. Being instructed or being schooled, the word of God that builds us up and strengthens the Christ follower. And then he goes on in using one other, kind of a liquid, a liquid term here. He says, as overflowing in gratitude. Overflowing and abounding suggests a picture of a river that's flowing.13:30Back to Psalms chapter 1, rivers of living water. Folks, let me tell you something. Paul uses these terms to drive home the point. Now, what are you getting to? Here's the message. Developing the character of God. Now, some people say discipleship. Well, we have that disciple you on Sunday nights. Is that it? Partly. Is Sunday school it? Partly. Is morning worship it? Partly. Is our quiet time14:00it? Partly. You see, every bit of those things, all of those entities help build up the character of God that is indwelled inside of the Christ follower. So, the developing the character of Christ, there's three principles for us to consider today. Number one, the old character must be buried.14:24The old character must be buried. John chapter 12, verse 24 through 26. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls on into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone, but if it dies and it bears much fruit. Verse 25. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world14:48shall keep it till life eternal. But if anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am there, my servant also be. For if anyone serves me, the Father will be honored. Colossians chapter 3, verse 5. Therefore, put to death whatever in you is worldly. Folks, the old character, for Christ's character to be15:16built, the old character has got to be put away. The old character. Now, folks, I want you to gather in here close. I don't want you to miss this. There are a lot of people in America, in North American church today. A lot of people in the North American church, their names are on the church role. Their names on the Sunday school role. They may be on the discipleship role. They may be on the youth ministry role, the choir15:46role, but their name is not on heaven's role. We have a lot of people that have religion without the relationship. We have a lot of folks whose name is on church roles, but they have never repented of their sin and invited Christ into their life. There's a lot of people, maybe some, at the sound of my voice today. We want this disciple-making process. We want to be disciples of Christ, but we do not have Christ16:16in us, the hope of glory. The old character must be buried. Second principle, the new character must be birthed. So if we put to death the old character, a new character must be birthed. Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. You know this, those of you Christ followers. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,16:43he is a what? Say it with me. New creation. New creation. The old has gone and the new has come. If anyone is in Christ, the old is buried and the new has been raised up. Those of you that are Christ followers for many times over the years, you know that. But there's a lot of people who can stand up and quote that, but they quote it from a religious heart, not a relationship heart. We can't make17:10disciples because we don't have Christ in us, the hope of glory. So a new character must be birthed. First Peter chapter 3 verse, chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, which he has given us a new birth into a living hope. Forgive me, but this is the best illustration I could come up with.17:39My son will be 24 in December, 31st. If you want to write that down, send him a card. Or send him money. It'd probably be better, but no, just kidding. He'll be 24. Deb and I tried, Miss Debbie's with me today. We tried and prayed for 10 years and the Lord blessed us with this wonderful strapping little boy named Seth. And I mean, we, I mean, this was back in the day before you could take the video on your phone. And, you know, we, my dad got us one of the18:08those video things and said, y'all need to, y'all need to video this. And I mean, it was the old VCR, you know, the plastic thing. And that, that camera was about this big. You put it up on your shoulder. It had the little thing like this, you know, and you'd walk around. Boy, you, I thought I was, you know, CNN or something. You know, I had that thing around like this. So we're, we're going to video everything, Brad. We're going to video this thing. We're going to video the birth. And that, you know, they, they said18:33that Dr. New, her, her doctor said, Dan, you can come in during the birth. I said, I don't think so. Yes, come on in. Everybody's doing it. This is the thing, man. This is the way. He said, bring your camera in there. And so I'm in there. And you know, Deb goes into labor on December 30th. Now, that's not due to January 15th. But I've been praying, Lord, I think he ought to come in before the 31st.18:59I need the tax break, Lord. I, it would have been, not that, you know, I mean, I'm being spiritual, you know. And so I said, Lord, I need this child to come. And all of a sudden, Deb goes into labor on the 30th, about midnight, and, and wakes me up and says, we got to go to the hospital. And so we get there and 1257 on December 31st, Seth Daniel was born. I mean, I had the video and I'm, and then I'm19:25walking. I forget that I have my, I take it down and I'm walking. It's on. I got everybody's feet in the whole operating room. Man, it's great like that, right? I mean, we got, so we, this part of the story, you know, we're going to show it to him one day and all this kind of stuff. We have this one in VCR. We have, we're going to save this thing for, you know, this is, this is history. Dan Moran's19:48child has been born. New birth. First birthday comes along. We're going to show this and then put some new stuff on it. I rewind it all the way back and tape over the whole birth process. Yes. I said he's, he'll be 24 December 31st. You know how long I've been living that down?20:12Years. It's cost me deeply. You see, God wants to do a new video on your life today. The old things have passed away and all things become new when you receive Jesus Christ in your life. The old birth must be buried20:40before the new birth becomes alive. We need our new character must be born. I wrote something down in my quiet time today. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I am serving him by serving you because that's what he21:03came to do. I want to be like him. I want to be like him. So I came to serve you and you're here to serve others as well. The old character must be buried and the new character must be birthed. That brings me to my final third point. The Christ-like character can be built. It must be built. Colossians 2 verse 6 and 7.21:31He wants us to be built up. That's why we have the word of God. A Christ follower that's not growing,21:42it is not the church collectively's fault. It's not the preacher's fault. It's not the music22:12minister's fault, the youth minister's fault, the Sunday school teacher's fault. If you're not growing in Christ Jesus, it's your fault. We have an opportunity like never before to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ because of technology, because of the multiple translations of God's word, one that you can read. I had a lady come up to me. She said, oh, I love my King James version. I said,22:40oh, do you love reading this thou, this King James version? Do you? Do we speak in Elizabethan English now? No. Read one that's translated that you can understand. Grab a hold of that. The new Christ-like character being built in you. Turn with me also to Colossians 3 verse 12.23:04And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other, whoever has complained against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all23:29these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. If you've never underlined anything in your Bible, underline that, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule your heart to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly indwell in23:53your life within you with all wisdom and teaching and admonishment one for another, one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word as our deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God, the Father.24:15Whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Spiritual growth is not automatic. It takes work to grow spiritually. You must want to grow. You must make the decision to grow. Make an effort to grow. Be24:38persistent in growing. Discipleship is a process of becoming like Christ and always begins with a decision. You've got to decide to become a Christ follower. You've got to decide to become a multiplier or a multiplier or a disciple maker. Come, Jesus said, be my disciples. Matthew got up.25:07Matthew followed. The question begs today, are you going to be intentional in your commitment to be a disciple maker? I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm serving him by serving serving you because that's what he came to do. Discovering who God is, is coming to a gathering like25:37this, getting to know who he is through musical worship and preaching of his word, but being developed a fully devoted follower of Christ takes intentional effort and an intentional commitment to find out who he is in your life. And letting him grow and letting him grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Then and only then26:03will we be fully, fully ready and armed for battle to be deployed for kingdom work. Spiritual discipleship takes a commitment. The question begs today is this. First of all, have you buried the old character? Second of all, if you have and you are a new26:29creation in Christ, are you building up the character of Christ in you? Are you getting what you need? It's your choice and your choice alone. Heads bowed, eyes closed, please. As the instrumentalists come to begin our time of invitation, maybe you're here today and God's spoken to26:59your heart today. Maybe you're here today and God's spoken to your heart in such a way that you're saying, Dan, I'm ready. I want to be, I want to be that fully devoted follower of Christ. Maybe you're here today and you're saying, Dan, God's spoken to my heart. I've never truly invited Jesus Christ into my life. I'd be derelict in my duty today as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ27:25not to invite you to come and invite him into your life. Today is a day of salvation for some of you in this room today. Maybe you're one of those people that I've met time and time again. You thought you were. Your name was actually on the church roll. You even gave tithes and offerings to the church. You were involved in some ministries, but you truly never invited Jesus Christ into your27:50heart. Maybe today is a day of salvation for you. Maybe you need to put on, take, bury the old character and invite the character of Christ into your life and be reborn today. Maybe you're here today as a reborn believer, but you're just kind of showing up and leaving. You're really not committed to growing in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The question is today, what is the decision that you need to make28:19Now that you've identified that, are you willing to make it? Are you willing to stand up and say, Pastor, today, today, I make that total full-on commitment to live for him. Father God, you see the hearts right now. You know the ones in this room that need to stand up and step out.28:53Father, you know the ones in this room right now that are struggling and they're just, they're going through this whole journey and they're struggling and really, Lord, if they would just surrender to your Lordship today, that struggle could be over. They're going to have problems. They're going to have problems. They're going to have problems. They're going to go through times of tribulations and trials. But Lord, right here in this room, there's some in this room that are just struggling for no reason.29:18They're in a battle and they just have not surrendered to your Lordship today. And God, I pray that you give them courage to stand up and step out and grab me or one of the other ministers or the deacons by the hand or just come to this altar and say today, I want to live for God. I want to live for him. I want to be the disciple maker that he's called me to be. I want to multiply what Christ has done in my life in someone else.29:46Maybe in this room today, they'll surrender to you today. Maybe there's some in this room today that have never truly invited you into their heart. Lord Jesus, I pray that you prick their heart right now to slip out into one of these aisles and come to this altar and come down to one of our spiritual counselors and let them speak with them about what it means to become a true Christ follower. And God, whatever decision needs to make, a family needs to join, a person needs to join in this room today, whatever it might be, God, rip down any barrier that's standing in the way from you doing your work in this place, rip down.30:17Don't let Satan interfere with this moment right now, God. Just rip the barrier down, God. Give them courage to stand up and step out. We give you all the praise and all the glory for what you're about to do in this room. God bless you.30:46God bless you.More sermons on Colossians →
