Conveyor Belt Christianity Doesn't Work - Colossians 1:1-8 

All right, we are in a new year and we're starting a new sermon series in

Colossians and I'm excited about this because our focus this year is all-on

discipleship and

Colossians does a great job of explaining what it actually means

to be a disciple of Christ and

How to help other brothers and sisters in Christ in their walk with Christ and it starts in a very interesting way

It starts by addressing a huge problem that we have in the church today

And it's what I like to call the problem of conveyor belt Christianity

When I think about the conveyor belt

I think of Henry Ford who he didn't invent the conveyor belt

But he kind of revolutionized it because he added it to the assembly lines in his automotive factories

And it really worked well for him because it sped everything up and it increased his output

And that was kind of the basic idea behind the conveyor belt. We speed up production

We increase output and it's a win-win for everybody and I will say this a conveyor belt

It works great in an automotive factory

You know where it doesn't work great

In a church right and when I look back over the

20th century in the church and into the 21st century

I see the church adapting this conveyor belt model

Of Christianity. What did we do? We wanted to increase production and output

And so we created some ways to make that a reality

It started with creating what's known as the seeker friendly model of church

Basically our focus was no longer going to be solely on

Exalting Christ and making sure that we sing songs that are exalting to Christ and preach the word of God faithfully

Now we're just gonna make church all about what's gonna attract the most people

What's gonna get the most people in the door to the church rather than focusing on Christ?

So so that was step one and then we added certain things to make this even more efficient

We added the center's prayer. We got rid of meaningful church membership

We eliminated membership interviews and baptism interviews and we basically failed to provide any sort of long-term

discipleship oversight

Basically what we did is we put people on a conveyor belt and we said the conveyor belt starts here come to church

We just have to get people in the doors and once they're in the doors the conveyor belt continues down the line

Now you walk down an aisle now you fill out a card now you pray the center's prayer now you get baptized

Now you join a church and you know what comes next

Nothing that's it

That's where the conveyor belt ends for the majority of churches in America

It's all about getting people in the door and getting them on your membership role and then after that there's nothing and

That has failed the church for the past hundred years

In other words, we became very focused on getting people into the church and creating converts

But we have neglected discipleship entirely and this is why we have people today

Who will claim that they have been a Christian for 10 years?

20 years 30 years and

They have not matured in their faith at all

They look around at people who've been a Christian for only three or four years and they go what's happening?

But why is this person more spiritually mature than I am?

Why do they know more of their Bible than I do? Why are they more obedient than I am?

Why are they more committed to Christ? I've been a Christian for longer. I've been a Christian for decades

Why is this happening and the whole reason is happening is because Jesus didn't say go and make converts

He said go and make disciples

There's actually a pretty big difference

You see every disciple is a convert, but not every convert is a disciple a

Convert is someone who has accepted the gospel and has made an initial pronouncement of faith in Jesus

But a disciple is someone who is actively walking with Jesus

Who is learning from Jesus who's following Jesus and becoming more like Jesus every day

Basically a convert hops off the line at joining the church, but a disciple says I want to see what's next I

Want more I want to know more. I want to learn more. I want to walk more closely with the Lord

I want to feel the the presence of the Lord more and more in my life. I want to see

What the Lord has to offer me?

And it's interesting when Paul is talking to the Colossians here the whole idea that he's making in the first few verses

Here's that a disciples life is characterized by deepening roots and producing fruits

The disciples life is characterized by deepening roots in

producing fruits

This is what our lives should look like

We should have the roots of our faith ever deepening in our lives

And we should see more and more the spirit producing fruit in our lives and the question might be well

What does this look like practically?

It's one thing to say this, but what does it actually look like practically or you could say it like this?

What are the characteristics of a growing disciple?

What are the characteristics of a growing disciple?

So if you're here this morning and you're wondering am I a complacent convert or am I actually a growing disciple?

What are the things that you should be looking for in your life to determine?

Which one you are?

I want you to start with me in verses one through two notice what Paul says he says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus

By the will of God and Timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae

Grace to you and peace from God our father now

We need to do a little bit of context here because this is a new book for us. We're jumping into it

Paul is writing this letter from prison

He is behind bars as he is sending this letter to the Colossians

So you might be wondering why didn't he go there himself?

Well, it's because he is in prison literally in chains as he's writing this

But it's interesting to note that Paul had never actually visited the Colossian church before you see Paul

Was actually a person who was training a man named Apaphrys and Apaphrys was a minister

Who had come to Paul and Paul had trained him and then basically sent him out so Apaphrys was Paul's pastoral intern

We got that. Yeah, I've got my interns

This was Paul's intern and so what he does he sent Apaphrys out to go plant some churches and one of the churches that Apaphrys helped plant

Was the church in Colossae and so he had been there training them teaching them working with them

And now he's writing to Paul to give him an update about what's going on in Colossae and Paul is now

Writing back to them to address a lot of what's going on and he's gonna correct some false teaching

But he's also gonna encourage them and I want you to notice that that's how he starts here in verse 3

He begins to encourage them. He says we always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you

Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints

Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of this you have heard before in the word of the truth the gospel

Now I want you to notice the three gospel essentials that Paul mentions here

He mentions faith hope and love

The same three that he mentions in 1st Corinthians 1313 where he says so now faith hope and love abide these three

But the greatest of these is love

And at the time of Paul's writing these three were considered to be the essential marks of the Christian life

And it is because of these three things that Paul thanks God for the Colossians

Now I want you to know church

These are the three things faith hope and love that you need to be looking for in your life to determine whether you are a

complacent convert or a growing disciple

And so let's start with this first one and consider what does Paul actually mean when he says faith here?

He talks about their faith in Christ Jesus, but what does he mean by faith? Well? I can tell you what he doesn't mean

Paul is not referring here to a mere affirmation of the facts of the gospel

Nor does he mean a one-time profession of faith that has become our

understanding of what faith is in our day people think that as long as they just

Acknowledge that there is a God and he exists and as long as they can quote the facts of the gospel and as long as they made a

One-time profession of faith at some point in their life

They are convinced that they are Christians now

It doesn't matter if they made that profession and then their life never did ever look anything like a Christian's life should look

They look back and they said I made that profession of faith when I was 12 years old

Therefore I'm good. That is not what Paul is referring to here

I mean you think about how we even to go about evangelism today people go around and they ask a common question

They say do you believe in Jesus?

Does that question actually tell us anything I?

Mean I tell you if someone's just an outright atheist

But but keep in mind we're in the south right we're in the Bible Belt

I mean we're on the buckle of the Bible Belt, okay?

It doesn't get much more Bible Belt than South Carolina

That's where we are if you ask anyone in the south that they believe in Jesus their answer is

Yeah, of course

I mean it's so frustrating because everybody does answer. Yes, it reminds me of that scene

From the the Sholshank Redemption if you've seen that movie when the prisoners are all eating at a table together

And the new inmate comes in and he's kind of bragging about what he did to get busted

And he asked the main character. He's like and what about you? What'd you do? He said I had a bad lawyer

Everyone's innocent in here. Don't you know that?

And that's what it feels like trying to talk to people about Jesus in the south you go up to anyone you go

Hey, do you believe in Jesus and their responses? Well, of course

Everyone around here believes in Jesus. Don't you know that?

We're all Christians if you're born in South Carolina, you're born a Christian basically

But I want you to understand this the Bible says in James chapter 2 verse 19 you believe that God is one

James 2:19

You do well

even the demons believe and

shutter

See believe in God you believe in Jesus. That's great. So do the demons and they actually shutter because of their belief

You see church faith is not simply affirming the facts of the gospel true faith is

trusting in Jesus and then living in a way that proves that trust to be true and

Unfortunately today, there are many people in our world who have mistaken an intellectual

intellectual understanding of Jesus for a saving faith in Jesus

And I want you to notice the point Paul is making here

He's saying that disciples build their faith on the foundation of Jesus alone

So if you want to look for a characteristic in your life to determine if you are a growing disciple or a complacent convert

I would encourage you to start here because true disciples build their faith on the foundation of

Jesus alone at a conversation about foundations recently with my son Judah

We've been building a lot together with Legos because we got him a bunch of Legos for Christmas and

So we've been building a bunch of stuff and a couple Saturdays ago

I was in his room on Saturday morning

We're in there building with Legos for a couple hours and at one point

He starts building this giant tower and he wanted to make it as tall as he possibly could because that's what five-year-old boys

Wants to do they want to just build a tower as tall as they can so he's building this tower and I look at it

And I'm like buddy that tower is gonna fall over and he's like no it's not I'm building it right up

I'm like I know you're building it right up that tower is gonna fall

He said why is it gonna fall? I said because you picked the smallest block in that entire case

To be your foundation

It was like literally the smallest block and his whole tower was built on this small little block

And I said if the foundation is weak the tower will not stand you have to build it up

And I tell you that to tell you that in the same way one of my biggest concerns as a pastor and as a Christian today is

That too many Christians are building their entire faith on a weak foundation

Too many Christians today are

Building their faith on a weak foundation and if we don't get the foundation right then we're going to be building up a faith

That will ultimately collapse and if Jesus is not the foundation of your faith

Then your faith will not be able to withstand the final judgment of God because all of us are gonna have to stand before God one day

And give an account and if your faith is not built on the foundation of Christ your faith will collapse in that moment

And so a good question to ask yourself this morning is what is my foundation?

What am I building my faith on a?

a good way to think about this is to think about

What gives you assurance?

If you're here this morning and you say I am sure that when I die I will get to be with the Lord forever

My question to you is

What is it that makes you so sure of that?

And how you answer that question will tell you what your foundation is

If you believe that you'll spend eternity with God

Why do you believe that is because you are trusting in a confession that you made when you were younger?

Again as a pastor I hear this all the time

I'll have people come to my office and talk to me and they'll say pastor. I know I'm good

I'm living in sin, but I know I'm good because when I was 12

I went to a youth conference and they gave this awesome invitation and I went down front and I filled out a card

And I prayed a prayer and like that's great. Anybody can do that

It's what you do afterward that actually matters not what you do in the moment

Is it because you're trusting in the fact that you've been baptized?

This is the second most common thing I get as a pastor someone will say to me. I know I'm going to heaven. Why because I've been baptized pastor

Good

That's fantastic. I know people who've been baptized ten times

Anybody can go in there and get baptized

Your baptism does not save you do we understand that church?

It is not a way to be saved your baptism is a public declaration that I have repented of my sins

I have trusted in Christ and I am depending on him entirely, but it has no

salvific effects for you

For other people they're trusting in their church attendance and their religious activities

This is number three on my big list of things I get as a pastor. This is number three

Someone comes to the office. They say hey, I'm struggling, but I know I'm good. Why are you good?

Because I come to church

I've been a member here

Since it was formed in 1855

My well, that's fantastic

Anybody can go to church

It doesn't take a Christian to go to church and just by going to church that doesn't make you a Christian

They're gonna be people. I've told you this so many times before there will be people who spent every single Sunday in church

Who will spend an eternity in hell?

That's because your church attendance cannot save you

That is a weak foundation and it will fail you

Some people say well, I know a lot of Bible. That's also fantastic Satan can quote scripture too

That doesn't save you folks all of these things the most common things people come me with these are weak

foundations and

They will fail you

The only sure and true foundation is Jesus alone. It's saying I'm trusting in Christ alone

I'm trusting that the perfect obedient life he lived

Was sufficient to please the father on my behalf

And I am trusting that the sacrificial atoning death that he died was sufficient to appease the father's wrath towards my sin and pay

My penalty I'm trusting in the fact that because he was raised bodily from the dead

One day I too will be raised bodily from the dead

I'm trusting in the fact that he is ascended on high seated at the right hand of the father right now and that he is

Interceding for me this very day and every day I have been alive my hope my trust

Everything I have is in Christ alone

That's it

That is our foundation

Is the only one that is sure to stand and this is the kind of faith that Paul is talking about here and

Notice this he also says he gives thanks for the Colossians because he has heard of the love

They have for all the saints now if you're the type of person to write in your Bible. Here's what I want you to do

Either underline or circle that phrase

Love that you have for all the saints. I

Want you to notice Paul didn't just say I've heard of your love or

I've heard of your love for some of the saints or even I've heard of your love for most of the saints

He said I have heard of your love for all the saints

Now I want us to just take a second to appreciate

How special and difficult this actually is

And maybe you don't realize how special it is so I'm gonna put it in terms that pretty much everybody can understand

But here's what I need you to do first. All right, you know, we're always open and honest here

We don't shy away from that. So can we all be honest with each other this morning? Yeah

Yes, yes pastor Alex. Oh, that sounds great guys. Happy new year to you too. Good to have you here

Let's make sure you're awake. Let's go. Come on. All right, so we're all honest with each other, right?

Yeah, that's what we're hoping for. All right, so can we just all be honest and admit

That certain people in the church are easier to love than others

Okay, good. You said you could be honest, right? Yeah, we're not hiding anything here. We're not playing church. We are who we are

There are certain people in the church who are easier to love than others and I'm gonna list their night

Can you imagine?

Monday would have been fun then

No, but you know the people right people respect them people look up to them they talk to everybody

They serve they volunteer they help out. They're always there if you need them

Like there are certain people who are just really easy to love

And then there are other people and you know the ones I'm talking about right?

Some of you are thinking of a name. I'm gonna encourage you not to say it, but you know the ones

They're the ones who like to stir up trouble

The ones who like to sow dissension and cause drama

The ones who insist on their own ways the ones who always have something to say even when they don't need to say anything

Those people they're hard to love

And now the easy way out is just to say that we're gonna love the ones who are easy to love

But as Christians God has called us to love the ones who are hard to love as well

And we can get even more specific when Paul's talking about loving the saints here

He's not just talking about loving them in a generic way, and he's not talking about

Tolerating other people because you know that's our other cop out right a Christian will either say I love everybody and they don't mean it

Or they'll say oh, yeah, I love everybody and what they really mean is I love some people and I just kind of tolerate the rest of them

That's what we do and that's not what Paul is talking about here

I want you to notice the point he's making he is saying true disciples don't pick and choose which members of the church they will love I

Don't know which one of you needs to underline this point and put a star next to it for this new year, but

This is a characteristic of a growing disciple true disciples do not pick and choose which members of the church they will love

And we do this not simply because we're called to but because this is how God has loved us in Christ

I mean can you imagine if God just loved the people who were easy to love?

He wouldn't have loved anybody if that were the case. I

Mean even even some of the standouts in the Bible right you could think of any name

And I can give you a reason why God should not have loved them you think Abraham was easy to love

God takes him outside. He says hey look at the stars of the sky

Your descendants are gonna be more numerous than the stars of the sky and Abraham said that's awesome

And then he went and slept with his wife's maid

What about Moses you think Moses was easy to love?

From the very second God told him I'm gonna use you to deliver the people of Israel

Moses started giving him every excuse why he could not do that and why he should find someone else

And then he ultimately sinned against God and couldn't go into the promised land. What about David? You think David was easy to love?

The Bible says he was a man after God's own heart

The Bible says he was also a man after the flesh because he went and slept with another man's wife and then had that man murdered

So that he wouldn't be found out

What about our boy Peter you think Peter was easy to love?

That's the easiest one right like I mean man bless Peter like he does so good

Sometimes and initially but then you look at Peter and he's rebuking Jesus

Or he's putting his foot in his mouth and he's doing something wrong like Peter was not an easy guy to love

None of these people were the easy to kind of easy to love kind of people and yet God still loved them

included them in his family

Now if you want to make this personal

My question to you is do you think that you're easy to love?

If you answer that question, yes, I'd love to have a conversation with you after church today

Um, I think it'd be enlightening, but I'll just be personally honest with you

I know for a fact that I am not

Easy to love to this day. I do not understand how my wife loves me let alone how God loves me

I look back over my life and I see all the times I have failed God

I see all the times I have sinned against God

I've rebelled against him. I've turned away from him. I look at all the times. I have promised God

I'm like God I will never do this again or God. I'm gonna do this and then I go back on my word

Or God if you'll do this for me, here's what I'll do for you in exchange and then God comes through on that promise

And I'm like, well, guess what I'm gonna still do what I want to do

I know

That I'm not an easy to love kind of person and yet this is what the bible says in romans 5 verses 6 through 8

Romans 5:6–8

For while we were still weak

At the right time christ died for the ungodly

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die

But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners christ died for us

So while you were still in your sin

While you were in glad rebellion against god while you were still in the midst of disobedience

While you were still an enemy of god according to the bible the bible says that god showed his love for you

In the fact that jesus died on the cross for you

You see when we look to the cross of christ, we are personally witnessing god's great love for hard to love people

And so this means for us as a church

That we are called to love those who are hard to love which means you're called to love those

Who aren't as mature in their faith as you think they should be

You know how we get frustrated with them and we go man, why don't they get it?

Why can't they mature? Why aren't they more committed to the church? Why aren't they reading their bibles?

Why aren't they praying? Why are they so quick to anger? Why can't they just get on with it?

Why do they still need milk when we want to serve a t-bone?

Yeah, you're frustrated with them, but god says you're called to love that person if they're a brother or sister in christ

You're called to love all the saints

You're called to love even those who disagree with you on certain points of theology

Because you know this is one of christians favorite things to do right like christians love to fight with each other

about theology

And we have this tendency to think that we're always right and the other person is always wrong. Yes? Yeah

Of course i'm right. It's my point of view. I'm right. He's wrong

And so we get frustrated with the people who disagree with us and we go well, how can you not get this?

It's so clear in the bible. How could you disagree with this? Like why are you like this?

And and so we have these fights about theology

And let me tell you something if if your view of theology

And your personal perspective on whatever the theological category is if that leads you

to stop loving

a brother or sister in christ then you have elevated theology over the command of a christian

You've elevated theology over the basic command to love your brother or sister

in christ

It is possible to disagree with someone and still love them. I was looking for my father-in-law. He must have stepped out

Because he's my example for this. I love my father-in-law. I think that god bless me with the best in-laws you could possibly have

I'm not just saying that because they're here. I truly mean that I love my father-in-law. He has been a great father to me

Since I've been married to anna, but I'll tell you this

Jean and I

We don't agree. I'm pretty much anything related to theology

I mean you could go through the categories and I guarantee you gene and I are going to disagree on pretty much every single

aspect of theology and yet

I still love my father-in-law

Because we know at the end of the day we both trust in jesus christ and we know that jesus died for our sins and we know

That when we die we will get to be with jesus forever and that is the common core that holds us together

It is the fact that we have salvation in christ

And so we are called to love

all the saints

Not just some of the saints

It means that we should be as devoted to the hard to love people as we are to the easy to love people

It means that each member of the church is entitled to the same amount of devotion

attention care and help as everyone else

I want you to see what paul says here. He says that this hope or that this love and this faith that's grounded in hope look at verse 5

He says that the colossian christians have this faith and love because of the hope that's laid up for them

In heaven which means that our hope is not in our

Circumstances or in any other worldly thing

Paul is saying here that our hope is in jesus and all the promises of god that he has

Stored up for us in heaven and is guarding until the day of the lord

The promises of eternal life

The promises of the bodily resurrection

Of glorification of getting to be with god and enjoy him forever. This is our hope

However, if you look at verses 5 and 6 you'll notice that

Arguably the most encouraging thing paul says about the Colossians here is that he has heard that the gospel that they heard and believed

Is bearing fruit among them and increasing

And this is one of the truest if not the truest evidences of a disciple

Is that the gospel bears fruit in their lives and increases always

Jesus says this throughout the gospel. He says a tree is known by its what church?

By its fruit a tree is known by its fruit. And so if I planted a bunch of fruit trees

And they never bore any fruit

You wouldn't actually know what kind of tree they were

In fact, if they never bore any fruit, you'd say it's probably a pretty useless fruit tree

You should probably just pluck it up and get rid of it, right?

And the same way

The tree is known by its fruit

And the same way we are known by our fruit

I want you to see this final point of discipleship here

He says that the fruit in our lives bears witness to the roots in our hearts. That's the point he's making here

The fruit in our lives

bears witness

To the roots in our heart

So let me ask you this question if I planted a tree

And I put a sign out in front of that tree that said

This is an apple tree. Does that make it true?

No

Exactly. Okay. Thank you. You're like, oh the pastor went and lied to us. Yeah, but in this hypothetical

I might lie to you. So yeah, just because I put a sign in front of it that says this is an apple tree

That doesn't actually make it true. That doesn't make the tree an apple and I want to just tell you this morning

Just because you've got a sign out in front of your life

Just because you go around telling people you're a Christian just because you wear a cross necklace everywhere you go

Just because you've got a Jesus tattoo or a bible tattoo

Just because you come to church on a Sunday morning. That doesn't actually make you a Christian

Anybody can do those things

Instead you have to look at your life and see what kind of fruit

There is in your life and that will tell you according to Galatians

It says if the fruit in your life is sexual immorality

impurity

Sensuality idolatry sorcery

enmity strive jealousy fits of anger

rivalries

dissensions envy drunkenness and things like these

It means the gospel is not rooted in your heart

It means that the flesh is still rooted in your heart

And it's controlling you because the fruit that's coming forth in your life is saying hey

What's actually rooted in my heart is the flesh not the gospel

But Galatians also says that the fruit in your life is love

Joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self control

Then it means the gospel has taken root in your heart

It means that the spirit is working in your life and he is producing the fruit of the spirit in your life

And this is what the Lord Jesus calls us to

He calls us to the spirit of the spirit

He calls us to he calls us to have a growing faith that is bearing fruit and increasing all the time

In other words church, we are not called simply to have a faith of facts. We are called to have a faith that acts

You can't just have a bunch of head knowledge and call yourself a Christian your life has to bear witness to what you're actually saying

And so I want to just give you some questions if you want to know if you're a growing disciple

I'm going to ask you some questions and I want you to see how you would answer these

Am I closer to God now?

than I was at this point last year

Am I walking more in step with the Lord now than I was at this point last year

Am I turning away from sin and unrighteousness now than I was at this point last year?

Am I trusting in Jesus even more now than I was when I made my initial

Professional faith and here's the kicker if I never told anyone else that I was a Christian

Would it be evident that I was by the way I live out the faith?

Because anybody can talk the talk

But it takes a work of God to actually walk in a way that backs up what you're saying

And if your answer to those questions is no then it means that your faith has stagnated

It means that you're no longer a growing disciple and you might say well, what do I do pastor?

Well, if you want the answer to those questions to be yes

Then you need to get off the church conveyor belt and start taking discipleship seriously

And one of the best ways you can do that is by taking advantage of all the different discipleship opportunities we have

at this church

If you want to grow in your faith, you want those answers to be yes join a Sunday school class

You'll begin to grow in your faith

Join the women of the word bible study join heartstrings start coming on wednesday nights here. Here's one

And I say it all the time

Join a gospel group that is one of the best things you could possibly do and I want you to just understand

That is for your benefit. I'm not saying that and pushing gospel groups. Look, we don't take up an offering in gospel groups

Okay, I don't know what you think goes on back there, but we're not getting paid for that like we don't take up an offering

We're not counting numbers like none of that matters. We are literally

Doing that for you so that you will grow in your faith

It is one of the best ways for you to start growing in your faith

And here we are at the beginning of a new year and what I'm going to ask you to do is I'm going to ask you to commit to

one of these discipleship opportunities for one year

And if you will do that if you will commit to one of these discipleship opportunities and stay committed for a year

I guarantee you

By the end of this year the answer to all those questions. I just asked you will be yes

I'm closer to God now. I'm walking more in step with the Lord. I'm turning away from sin more

I'm growing in my faith the answer will be yes, and if the answer is not yes, then

I don't know. I'll give you a free copy of my book this year or something like that, but something okay

Whatever it is, but I guarantee the answer will be yes. If you do this, that's the challenge

I want you to take up

This is what God wants for our church

This is what I want for our church. I want us to be a group of growing

Disciples not a bunch of complacent converts

And I've said it to you for years now. I'll say it to the day I die

God wants more for you

God wants more for you than casual Christianity

And the church conveyor belt

He wants you to build your faith on the foundation of christ

He wants you to have a true love for all the saints. He wants your hopes set on the things above

And he wants the gospel to be bearing fruit and increasing in your life

This is what he wants for his people

And so this morning at the start of a new year, let's commit ourselves

To taking discipleship seriously so that we can have deepening roots and more and more producing fruits in our lives amen. Let's pray