Bear With One Another (Colossians 3:12-17)

Hello, I'm Pastor Crayton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel center church in Porter, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Our second reading this morning is from the book Colossians in the New Testament, verses 12 to 17.

Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another.

Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.

Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ to which you were also called in one body rule your hearts.

And be thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all your wisdom teaching, and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual psalms.

Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

And whatever you do, in word or indeed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Give thanks to God through him, the word of the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of your word.

We thank you, Lord, that your word has power in its day and it has power in our day to transform hearts and to reveal who you are in all your love and in all your goodness.

We pray, Lord, that we would uh catch a renewed glimpse of how glorious and good you are towards us and give us hope and assurance through your word.

Bless our brother Rob as he opens it for us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, if you just keep that passage in front of you, either within your bulletin there, Colossians 3, 12 to 17, or if you have your Bibles, I would encourage you to take your Bibles as well.

And you know there's so much in this passage I'm only going to cover probably 12 to 15, but it's a great passage.

So when you stop listening to me, just keep reading your Bibles, and uh that'll be very, very good.

As I uh uh enter into this uh message, um Audrey and I love music, so we listen to a lot of music.

We prefer sacred, we prefer sacred choral, would be our favorite.

Um yeah, and that's for Jonathan, yes.

And uh so we listen to a lot of music, but there's a lot of great old hymns and songs that deal with the church.

And we're gonna talk about church relationships today.

Hymns like The Church's One Foundation.

I'm not gonna sing them, okay?

So I want to sing them, but I'm not going to.

Um The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ your Lord.

Okay, so that's a great one.

We are one in the bond of love.

Okay, so you're thinking about that one.

There's a there's one, there's an old one, they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.

They will know we are Christians by our love.

And then there's uh there's this one.

We are God's people, the chosen of the Lord, born of his spirit, established by his word.

And in the first verse, the words we find these words, He wills let us be a family, diverse yet truly one.

Now, but one of my favorites, and we've sung it a lot in a lot of our churches, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

Now, how many people would know, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God.

I've been washed in the fountain, cleansed by his blood, joint heirs with Jesus as we travel the sod.

I'm part of the family of God.

Now, the first verse, that's the chorus.

The first verse goes like this.

Um, you will notice we say brothers and sisters round here.

Now that that's not Port Perry-like, but it's like you'll notice we say brothers and sisters round here.

It's because we're a family and these folks are so near.

When one has a heartache, we all shed a tear and we rejoice in each victory in this family so dear.

I'm so glad I'm a part.

Okay?

It's a great old chorus, but it really gets to where I want to go with you today, and that is how we treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

So there's many one another.

Creighton's covered a lot of them.

Mike took forgiveness a couple of weeks ago, forgive one another.

And so today I'm going to be talking about bearing with one another, and it really is how do we relate to each other.

Now, the church, since its inception in Acts chapter 2, uh has after Peter's great sermon, uh, has always been a unique relationship experience.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Okay, so if you think about the church and how we relate to each other, even Jake and I may not know each other well, but but we're brothers in Christ.

And that makes our relationship different than even my own brothers.

I have three brothers, a sister.

And and when we talk about church and how we relate to each other, it's it's a unique relationship.

I'm gonna read part of Acts chapter 2, and it goes like this.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Okay, the church is getting shaped, formed.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayer.

Everyone was filled with awe.

Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles.

All the believers were together, they had everything in common.

They sold their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone in need, and every day they continued to meet together in the temple.

They broke bread in their homes, they ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So the church is this unique body.

And I've been in the church all of my life.

A lot of you probably have as well.

And I'm always really comfortable in going to churches when we go and visit.

So even recently we were in Massachusetts.

Yeah, we're gonna go to church this morning.

And very quickly, very quickly, these are brothers and sisters.

You're talking about faith.

You're praying with each other, you're singing with each other, you're testifying of what God is doing in our lives together.

And we had a great morning, and I can tell you lots about that morning.

It was kind of an incredible morning.

But I mean, no matter where you are in the world, whether it's North America or whether you go to some place in Europe or Africa, no matter what color the people are, no matter what language they speak, no matter what culture they come from, these are brothers and sisters in Christ.

And very quickly, I don't know about you, but very quickly, I feel very akin to these people because they know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

So that's what makes the church different.

Now, today I'm going to explore this next one another in the series to bear with one another.

And after last Sunday, I did go home thinking about Jake and thinking, okay, bear with one another.

Does Jake want me to talk about being grizzly bears or black bears or teddy bears or brown bears?

And I couldn't do it.

Okay, so I just couldn't put so there are no bear images that I'm gonna give you this morning.

But I do want you to think about what it means to bear with one another.

And so as we look at this passage in Colossians chapter 3, it does describe the sacred fellowship that we have with one another.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

And I want to break it up into three pieces.

So if you just look at the passage, it's very easy, verses 12, 13, and 14 in particular, that we we, these three essential characteristics of the church, the first being we are a chosen people, a chosen by God, and then we are to be clothed in his grace.

And then the third part is going to be we need to care enough to bear with one another.

So that's where I want to go.

So if you want to keep your Bibles open, that first section here, we are chosen of God, holy and beloved.

Just dwell on that for a minute.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are chosen of God, you are holy and beloved.

That's almost intimate language, isn't it?

It's beautiful.

We are holy, we are beloved.

So the people of God, the church, those who have placed their faith in Christ, those of us who have repented of our sins and asked Jesus into our heart, those who are born again by the Spirit of God, we are the chosen of God.

Now it mentions chosen in a couple of places in Scripture.

I'll read two of them to you.

Chosen in Ephesians 1, 3.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

For he chose us in him.

Now, when?

When did he chose us?

He chose before the foundation, the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in his sight.

But then also let me read to you 1 Peter 2, where it talks about being chosen, and Peter writes, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.

Why?

That you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So just great, great verses about we are a chosen people of God.

Now that word holy, of course, means set apart.

So we are set apart, we are holy, we are chosen, and it's for God's purposes.

We are chosen for God's purposes.

I didn't choose God because I had a purpose for God.

He chose me because he had a purpose for me.

So that's a really big thing.

So being chosen isn't the same as going to the grocery store and you're thinking about getting some fruits and vegetables, and you start lifting it up, maybe smelling it, maybe feeling it, how ripe, how hard, how soft, okay, all that kind of stuff.

Or me going to Home Depot and needing some lumber for my back deck, and I'm gonna check to make sure every piece of wood, you know, I'm gonna choose the straightest, the least naughty, the least cracked.

It's not like that.

Okay, it's not me choosing.

We are chosen by God.

So that's an interesting thing that we are chosen.

So the question you might have is why did God choose me?

It's a good question.

Why would God choose any of us who are here?

Why does he choose us?

Well, in 2 Timothy 1 9, we read this: God has saved us.

He has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works.

So it's not according to go, but look how good I am or how powerful or strong, how much money I have.

It's got nothing to do with that.

He chose us with a holy calling according to his purpose and his grace.

Okay?

It reminds me of the Ephesians 2 passage, so I wore it just so you can see it.

Okay, the Ephesians 2 passages, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast.

It is a gift from God.

Amen?

Okay, it's a gift.

So we are chosen, it's a gift.

And then earlier in the Colossians passage, uh in chapter 1, verses 21 and 22, we read this.

He says, Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation if you continue in your faith established and firmed, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.

Just great passages of scripture.

So, a question we could ask is well, what could possibly motivate God to do something so inexplicable as to take his own son Jesus Christ and to have him nailed to a cruel Roman cross for a people who are hostile and evil.

Just think of the crowd around him, think of the people at that time, the Romans, all those.

Why would God do that?

Well, he would do that so they in turn would know Jesus Christ and then be found blameless and faultless before him.

And so the answer to the question is I believe that God has chosen us.

We are apart and set apart.

Why?

To reach a world that needs Jesus' love.

That's why.

So just before I leave that section, you know, how can I know I'm chosen?

How can you know you're chosen?

Well, the Bible very simply says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

So faith in Christ.

Let that truth change your life.

So the second characteristic that's essential for the church, and we'll just see it in the passages it rolls through, holy, dearly beloved, then it says, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience, bearing with each other and forgiving whatever grievances you may have against each other.

So here Paul says, clothe yourselves.

And the best image I could have of that is if you've ever been to either an Argo's, I'm gonna talk Toronto because I'm from Toronto, okay.

If you've ever been to a Maple Leaf game, if you've ever been to an Argos game, if you've ever been to a Blue Jays game, and why not right now, right?

The Blue Jays are so hot.

Okay, you kind of know who's who's favoring the team, right?

You know, before you even get on the train, let alone the subway, or you're walking to the stadium, because of what they're wearing, right?

They've all got the jersey, whether it's the Jays or the Leafs or the Argos, and usually a number and their favorite player.

And so whenever there's a great play going on during the game, they all stand up and they're hoop lying and you can tell, right?

The sea of light blue or dark blue or or whatever.

So you can tell.

So think about that.

Think about that when it says clothe yourselves.

So I'm gonna sort of like promote, let's let's be Team Jesus.

And Team Jesus has a cloth, a jersey.

Uh hard to tell what it's gonna look like, but the jersey is described in all these seven virtues.

So let's just briefly look at these seven virtues that we're supposed to be wearing.

Okay, and I think that's all self-explanatory in a way, but let's just talk about it.

Paul says, be compassionate.

Okay, seldom do we understand full, and then compassionate in how we treat each other, how we relate to each other in the church.

So thinking about that, you know, seldom do we understand what other people are going through, what they've experienced in their lives.

Seldom do we fully grasp what they've endured hardships, pain, suffering, trials.

So what we need to do is cut people some slack, right?

We need to, you know, we need to be compassionate, we need to be patient, we need to be uh tender, more understanding and loving.

So let's be compassionate.

Be kind.

Charles Spurgeon wrote, kind words bring no blisters on the tongue that speak them, nor on ears that hear them.

Kind words, like kind deeds, are never wasted.

Like scattered seeds, they spring up in unexpected places.

Be kind.

Just be kind.

Don't ask to be kind, just be kind.

You know, very tight.

We were just with some friends up in the French River, and uh her mother just passed away, and she had some neat videos of these last hours with her mom.

And one of the things that her mom, and we know we know the mom, and one of the last things with her arm around, I think it was her husband, or was it around Sue?

I think it was around the husband, was one of the last things she said was, kindness is like good surgery.

She meant kindness is like good medicine, okay, but kindness is like good surgery.

And under the power of that truth, when you are kind, when you extend kindness to people, how it touches people, it gets into their heart.

So kindness, very important.

Be humble.

Three times in Peter's letters he urges the saints, that's us, to be humble.

1 Peter 3.8, be humble in spirit.

1 Peter 5.5, clothe yourselves in humility towards one another, and 1 Peter 5.6, humble yourself, therefore.

So Peter, Paul, Paul in Philippians chapter 2, it's always consider the other person above yourself.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Have this same mind that is in Christ.

You know how we need to lift other people up.

So be humble.

Very important.

And as people who are ourselves far from perfect, okay, let's just admit it, we're far from perfect.

We're sinful, and yes, we're often selfish.

So let's treat the other imperfects around us with some humility.

Be gentle.

Just from, I just thought about the golden rule in Matthew 7 2.

Okay, treat others as you would have them treat you.

Very important, which is the opposite of don't be harsh, don't be rude, don't be quick, don't be hard-hearted.

Okay, be patient.

Oh, this is a good one, isn't it, in our society today.

Be patient.

Can you believe that I haven't got an answer on the phone yet?

And I've got the fastest phone, right?

It's it's like we live in this, I wish they were all green lights and no red lights, but what a crazy world that would be.

Uh microwave, right?

Everything has to be done quickly.

So this be patient.

Give others time.

Time to grow, time to understand.

So be slow to anger, slow to judgment, quick to forgive.

Which leads me to, I'm gonna do forgive number six, number seven first.

So Mike Mike Tweedless just gave us a great message a couple of weeks ago on how we need to be forgiving as Christ forgave us, and how important that is that we are forgiving.

Because if we don't forgive, unforgiveness will rot in your soul.

That rot of resentment, that rot of bitterness, and it just eats you up.

So let's we let's forgive, okay?

And then number seven is bear with one another.

So that's where we want to go.

That's gonna be my third point.

So we need to bear with one another.

So this is my third essential characteristic.

We are chosen by God, we are to be clothed in his grace, and we are to, I'm gonna add the words care enough to bear with one another.

So just think about that.

The meaning of to bear is to endure with, okay?

To put up with, learn to live with that other person.

It's really at the core of loving one another.

And if any of you have been to a wedding, and I'm sure all of you have, many of you have probably heard 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is often read at weddings.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Love is.

Let me just go over those.

1 Corinthians 13, 4 to 8.

Okay, love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, love does not parade itself, love is not puffed up, it doesn't behave rudely, it doesn't seek its own, love is not easily provoked, it thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

And then it kind of wraps it up.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Now that's really a picture of perfect love, a picture of God's agape love.

But it's a it's a love, like we read it at every wedding almost, but it's how we are to love each other, especially in the church.

So just think about that.

And uh another picture I had was when we're thinking about bearing with something, is like maybe you live with a chronic pain.

Maybe you live with a medical condition.

It got me thinking about Paul, who goes to Jesus and says, Jesus, I got this thorn.

Can you do something about it?

And God said, No, my grace is sufficient, right?

So he says, My grace is sufficient.

So when you're thinking about that, if you've got uh a medical condition and you you've been living with it for a while, you bear with it.

Okay, you just live with it.

You you you You can't fight it, so you put up with it.

So getting the idea of bearing with one another.

When we bear with one another, we recognize that everyone, yes, every one of us, every one of us.

We can be a pain.

You know, we have our strengths and weaknesses, we have our irritations and weird foibles, we have this and we have that about each other, and and we have ways of getting under people's skin.

But when we when we put on love, when we are clothed in those seven virtues that Paul mentions in the passage, we endure, we live with, we care for in spite of our differences, whether we want to or not.

We get along anyway, with kindness and love, because that's what God would want us to do.

That's how Jesus would love this person.

Like some people are hard to get along with.

Some people are more aggravating, some people are a real challenge.

So thinking about bearing with one another, you know, as different as we all are here at Newsong, as different as we all are, we are to bear with each other.

So turn that different feeling into an appreciation or a valuing of each other's differences.

Okay, that's really where it's getting down to.

We need to value each other's differences.

And God will help us to appreciate and to be thankful no matter how different we are.

We bear with one another for the important reason of unity.

It's for the body of Christ to be unified.

We bear with each other.

We know we're chosen, we're clothed in his grace for one another.

And here we're called to bear support, which includes the strong and the weak, the easy to get along with, the not so easy to get along with, because as the body of Christ, we must be for each other and not against each other.

Amen.

I mean, that's sometimes hard.

I mean, I don't understand this person.

I we just, every time I've tried, I just can't.

But we need to be for that person and not against that person.

So I got thinking about another image, and that would be body parts.

Okay, so Paul uses body parts to talk about the church and all the different parts of the church.

And so I won't go through all of it, but part of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he says this.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Well, the eye cannot, okay, just think about people you can't get along with and how you kind of wish they weren't here, right?

Sometimes, maybe.

And um the in 1 Corinthians 12 it says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.

The head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.

On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker and indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor.

And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable body parts need no special treatment.

But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern.

Get this equal concern for each other.

So if one part suffers, every part suffers.

If one part is honored, every part rejoices.

You are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

That's the passage.

That's that's we bear with each other because we are part of the body of Christ.

So so bearing with one another isn't about feelings because we're so driven by I don't want to, right?

That bugs me, and I don't want to have to do this, and it's if I have my rights.

Okay, we're big on that.

But this passage really says, live in obedience to God's word.

And obedience says, live God's way, love as God loves.

So if you're thinking about bearing, we are to bear with one another, just not those who are easy to love, but those who are not so easy.

If I use words like little prickly, okay, uh the unusual, the loud, the quiet, the demanding, the tender, we are commanded to love them all and bear with one another.

So that's that's really the crux of where Paul's going with in this passage.

And by bearing with one another, getting along with each other, we put on love, as you can see in that passage, verse 14.

Put on love, as difficult as it may be, but in putting on love, we will create a harmony and a unity in the church that makes us powerful.

Okay, the more unified we are here at New Song, the more powerful our witness will be to reach New Song for Christ.

The opposite is also true.

If we're not so harmonious, if we don't kind of get along very well, we become weak, ineffective, we become divided because we're fighting with each other, and that wrecks anybody's witness.

Amen?

Okay, I think we understand that.

So we need to bear with one another.

So let me just give you these three closing points here.

How do I bear with three, just three basic things?

Um listen actively to those people that you might not get along with so well.

Listen actively to those we need to bear with.

Try to give your full attention, which is the opposite of ignoring them.

Okay?

Give your attention when that person is talking, acknowledge their feelings, don't be afraid to enter into their lives, don't get impatient, but give them the time of day.

Listen actively.

Offer encouragement.

We touch lives when we say and do things that lift other people up.

Positive words, affirmations, especially when they're struggling, words that help them.

Encouragement can come in many ways with words, with deeds, a phone call, a card, a text.

Okay, just something.

And number three, pray together.

Okay, listen actively, encourage them, pray together.

Don't just say, you know what, I'll be praying for you.

That's that's okay.

I mean, I'm I'd rather that than nothing.

But I mean, move it up an inch and just go from praying for you to maybe we need to take some time and pray with each other.

Let's just sit down and let me pray with you.

Enter into a spiritual connection, and then praying together can be so powerful.

This way, we let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.

Okay, verse 15, the peace of Christ will rule in our hearts, and then we put on the love, the greatest unifier in the body of Christ.

So God has not set us apart and called us his beloved according to our own strength.

Let's get that truth.

Okay, it's not because I have it in me.

I often don't have it in me.

Just like Paul says, I can't do this, and God says, My grace is sufficient.

When we when Jesus reconciled us, when Jesus made us blameless before the Father, by his shed blood on the cross, he began in us a process we call sanctification, which means we're not perfect yet, but hopefully we're becoming more and more like Christ.

And that's the goal, isn't it?

To be conformed into the image of God's Son Jesus.

So that's my prayer for myself.

That's my prayer for our church, that we are people who know we are chosen by God for a purpose, okay?

That we are clothed in his righteousness, and that we are people who care enough to bear with one another.

May that be said of you, of me, and we do it in God's strength and for his glory.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to us this morning.

We know it is true.

God, I pray that let my words fall, Lord, but let your words, the words of Scripture, the words of the Bible, Lord, carry into our hearts, into our day-to-day living.

So all that we do honors you and brings you glory.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's Word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.