Ministry Transformed - Colossians 1:28 (Sept 8) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists.

Glorify God for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

The spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

So good to be with you this morning.

Amber asked me this week.

She said, Are you excited for launch Sunday?

I told her it's gonna be bumpin'.

And she looked at me confused because that's not one of our distinctives.

Some of you guys know that.

But now I'm tempted to make it our seventh distinctive bumpin' worship.

And she did lean over to me after the second song and she said, This is bumpin'.

So 100% certified bumpin' worship.

And it's so good to give the Lord the worship that he deserves.

I don't know about you, but especially more recently than ever, I feel like I'm ready to be done with just pointless things, aren't you?

I recently had to install Facebook again onto my phone so I could go on marketplace.

I said, I'm done with Khajiji, I gotta go to Marketplace.

And I started, you know, doing what I hadn't done for years, scrolling through what's apparently called reels now, and I couldn't believe how pointless some of the things that I was seeing were, and yet I found myself continuing to scroll.

You ever do that?

Just continuing to scroll, seeing if the next thing I could watch would be more pointless than the last thing, and you find yourself there for minutes, just it's like a pointless competition.

What video can I watch that is the most meaningless video in the whole entire world?

Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and I woke up out of the coma and I said, I'm ready to be done with pointless things.

Now, my question this morning is this in a world that is full of pointless things, living lives where we're very willing to just keep scrolling past pointless things.

My question is this has church become one of those things?

Is it possible that in your life this this whole Sunday morning experience, the participation in the ministry of the church has just become another thing that really has no meaning to it, that is just another time filler?

I don't know about you, but I personally am not interested in any more time fillers.

Wouldn't you agree?

We don't have enough time as it is.

And so if we're gonna do something, let's make it meaningful.

And as we this morning celebrate ministry launch Sunday, this is exactly the question I want to ask.

What's the point of ministry?

It's really important for us to stop every once in a while and ask this question: what are we doing here?

Have we fallen into a routine of ministry?

Are we doing things just for the sake of doing it?

Or is there a real purpose here?

Is there a real point to ministry?

Well, in order to ask that question, I want us to turn to Colossians chapter 1, verse 28, where we really find the most clear ministry statement in all of Scripture from one of the most effective ministries of all time, apart from that of Jesus's.

Colossians 1:28

It's the statement that Paul makes, really a mission statement of what his ministry was.

I want to read it for us, and I'm gonna actually give us some context here.

So look with me from verse 24 to 29.

As I read, I want you to notice that that Paul here is speaking in the first person.

This is very personal to him.

It's his personal ministry, having a life that's been captivated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

It says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.

My flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church, of which I became a minister, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known.

The mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.

Church, look at verse 28 again.

We're gonna spend most of our time this morning here, and and in a real concise verse, Paul gives us his ministry statement, him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Paul was given this ministry by God.

If you know the story of the Apostle Paul, you know that God met him on the road to Damascus, and Paul was living his life, persecuting the church, and Paul received a clear vision from God that would be described as the person who shared the gospel with God as this.

God would speak to this man and say, Go to Paul, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.

This was a mission that God had met Paul on the road to Damascus to give him.

It was a ministry handed by God to Paul.

That's why in Colossians verse 125, when Paul says this, of which I became a minister, he says that it was according to the stewardship from God that was given to me.

God had been given this mini, Paul had been given this ministry directly by God.

It was as though Paul had a ministry statement, a piece of paper that had floated down from heaven and Paul was reading that.

You know what that means?

That means that as you and I study this statement here, as you and I come to understand Paul's heart for ministry, what we come to understand then is the God's heart for ministry.

This is God's heart for ministry.

It was a stewardship given by God for, Paul says, the church.

Now listen, we can get really creative as human beings, and many ministry leaders have getting creative, crafting ministry statements, crafting a vision for the church.

But I want you to understand that God has given us our vision.

We don't need to reinvent anything here.

In fact, if I say anything new to you, you can be sure of this that it's false, that it's heresy.

God has given us everything we need to know.

And if we want to know how to do ministry, then we look to verses like this where God says this, I've told you how to do it.

If you want to know what effective ministry is, then look to my word, God says.

And so here we have such a crystal clear statement.

This is the ministry given to Paul by God, the way that ministry is intended to be done.

There are many human-crafted ministry statements that are creative.

Perhaps they're well-intentioned, but they lack power because they're not from God.

And so, here, as we set our attention on Colossians 1.28, what we find is this ministry God's way.

At this church, we put a lot of effort into ministry.

Every week we talk about the process of stepping into ministries of the church, of participating in step one and then participating in step two, and then becoming a member and joining a small group and serving and kids being a part of kids' ministry and youth being a part of youth ministry.

And we labor to get you into a place where you're being ministered to because we believe that God has a special grace for you in that.

He has a special mercy for you in that, and that the way God wants to transform your life is through the ministry of the saints.

Can I say it again?

Like, can I be as clear as possible?

That the God is reaching down from heaven right now.

He wants to sculpt your life so that you look increasingly like Jesus Christ.

And the tool that he uses is the ministry of the church, the body of believers speaking the truth into one another's lives until we grow up into him who is the head.

This is what God is doing.

This is what ministry is all about.

It's God's grace to us.

You see that in verse 25?

You see that Paul says, I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.

Church, you know, God is really speaking to us this morning.

He speaks to us through his word by his spirit.

And the word that he is saying to us this morning is this I have a ministry for you.

I want to transform your life.

And so I have created this thing called the church.

And the church is to be filled with children of God who minister to each other, who serve each other, who build each other up, who speak the truth in love.

But if this ministry is going to be effective for us, we need to do it the way that God calls us to do it.

And so I want to spend our time this morning thinking about ministry as God calls us to do it.

And before we do that, would you turn to the Lord in prayer with me?

Father, we bow before you.

And God, we submit ourselves to you because you are God and we are your creatures.

We are created.

Which means, Lord, we are under you.

Lord, you know all things.

You have all power, all wisdom, all insight.

God, you even know each of our various challenges.

Lord, you know what skepticism sometimes we look at faith with.

God, you know what anxieties we carry around with us daily.

You know what roadblocks we have to stepping deeper into a relationship with you.

And God, you are filled with grace and you're filled with mercy.

And you have a word for us this morning.

And so, God, my prayer is that as you are a God who loves to speak, you would find here a people who would love to listen.

Who are eager to hear you.

Who are eager to hear words as we read it from your word, Lord, from the very mouth of the Creator.

So, God, we need to worship you.

And pray speak, God.

I pray that's all in the name of your son.

Amen.

Well, here's the first thing I want you to understand about ministry, and that is the purpose of ministry.

That's transformation.

Again, we're looking at verse 28, and I'm actually going to do things backwards here.

I'm going to start at the end of the verse.

Notice at the end of verse 28, Paul really tells us the purpose of ministry.

He says that he will proclaim Christ, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Mature.

Maturity.

Transformation.

That's the goal.

That's what ministry is all about.

That's the purpose.

The word in the Greek here is telios.

It means an end.

It means perfection.

It means maturity.

It's like a child who has fully grown into an adult.

They have arrived.

This is the package deal.

Paul says then that the goal of ministry is to grow and shape and transform believers into their final destination.

It's to bring them to the end.

Remember in Philippians as we walked through that Paul rejoiced because the work that God began in him, in them, he knew he would bring to a completion.

In Ephesians 4, which deserves even greater study beyond what we can do this morning, but it's sort of Paul's handbook of ministry.

He says in Ephesians 4, verse 12 that the church, the leaders of the church are to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:12

But listen to this in verse 13 of chapter 4, he says, until we attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

And so, in other words, what Paul is saying is, how do you know you need ministry?

Well, once you have the fullness of Christ within you, once you are perfectly like Jesus Christ, you are no longer in need of other people ministering to you.

And so let's just take a quick survey here.

Is anyone there?

Is anyone's life perfectly like Jesus Christ?

Has anyone arrived?

Well, because there are no hands up, then the outcome there is that we need ministry.

We need ministry.

This is the end.

It's perfect transformation into Jesus' likeness.

Now, some of us love goals.

We love January.

We love to, you know, make resolutions, we love to craft goal statements, whether it's for our business or our personal life, or we're driven by these goals.

And here is exactly what God is doing for us.

He's telling us our goal for our lives.

God has a goal for you.

God has a mission statement for your life.

He has a destination that he's bringing you.

And let me tell you what it is exactly.

From scripture this morning, we're hearing this.

God's goal for your life is perfect transformation into Christ's likeness.

This is what God wants.

He wants the glory of transforming his children into the likeness of Christ because nothing glorifies God like Christ does.

Nothing brings glory to God like his own son, Jesus Christ.

And so in heaven, what's gonna be there is all of these children who have have arrived, the day has come, they are completed works, and what they are doing is they are radiating glory like Jesus Christ, bringing glory to God the Father.

See, here's where the wholeness of your life is to be consumed.

With God's mission for your life.

Listen, believer or unbeliever, you need to understand this.

This is what God has created you for, to be a reflection of his image, bringing glory to his name.

This is God's goal for you.

This is why when the New Testament rolls around, the title that is given to followers of Christ is this is disciple.

What's a disciple?

Isn't a disciple a person who walks in the way of the master, who's looking to a leader and following them?

We're looking to become like them.

You know, that's what we say with the people who train us.

The student has become the master.

That's what we're looking for.

We're looking to become like the one who is discipling us, and this is what Jesus calls us.

A disciple is a learner.

So this is critical for you to understand, okay?

If you are here and you're not in heaven right now, then you need to understand that you have not arrived yet.

You know, one of the things that we do in our family, and this is probably I do it more, it's probably not a great positive parenting technique to do, but I remind my kids constantly that soon they will be moving out.

I have, and they're young, okay?

They're seven, five, and three.

This is way too early.

But, you know, I know the statistics, I know that it's harder to move out, and so I just keep reminding them the time the countdown's clicking.

11 years, you're out of here, all right?

And you know, I say that jokingly.

There's a little bit of grace there, there's a year's worth of wiggle room in there.

But it's this understanding that right now they are a child, and the purpose of the point of parenting is to bridge the gap from childhood to adulthood.

I love this.

Some of their parents are nudging their kids right now.

Listen to this, okay?

You're gonna have to be an adult soon.

That's the point.

And when you're seven, you don't, you know, it's not time for you to leave yet.

There's still a lot of growing to do, there's still a lot of maturing to do.

And what you need to do then is submit to the loving care of your parents who are crafting you, hopefully, sometimes better than times better than other times, hopefully, crafting you to be a contributing adult to the society.

But you're not that yet.

We tell our teenagers often, you don't know everything yet.

You haven't arrived yet, you're not an adult yet.

And you need to understand that that in your faith, you are in the childhood phases, like you are being crafted by God.

You have not arrived yet to full maturity, Paul said in Ephesians 4, right?

To to full manhood, adulthood, he said.

You are still growing.

So, what you need then is the nourishing care of ministry.

I cannot tell you how many pastors believe that they have made it.

And so they pull themselves out of this nourishing care of the ministry of other people, and because of that, they fall greatly.

We need it.

If we haven't arrived, we need ministry, we need other people pouring into us.

And so the question then is this when do we stop?

So long as you are not in heaven, you need ministry.

And the sad reality of our day is that there are many who believe that they can live the Christian life without the ministry of other believers pouring into them.

And I have talked to countless people who have lived like that for weeks, for months, for years, not really having true intentional ministry in their lives, kind of being around it, but not being a part of it.

And they come to me and they say, I don't know what's happening, I'm just not growing.

And I say to them, I would be shocked if you came to me and you said, I'm not really any a part like uh intimate a part of any ministry and I'm growing like crazy.

I've never heard that before.

It would be a complete anomaly.

See, the regular way that God works is through the ministry, the service of other other believers pouring into our lives, speaking the truth in love to us, knowing us intimately, having an authentic relationship, having a spirit of vulnerability, keeping us accountable, encouraging us when we're down, convincing us of the ways that we're living in sinfulness, reminding us of the gospel and of the grace and of the mercy of God.

This is the way that we are intended to grow.

It is through ministry.

Now, listen, you can be around good and healthy ministries, but not be plugged into it.

And you need to understand that until you are plugged into, into relationships that are giving you life like this, you cannot grow.

I mean, it does not matter how good soil is, if a plant will not root deeply down into that soil.

No matter how good that soil is, the plant will die so long as the roots don't go deep.

And this is the reality.

That it requires your work.

It requires you to plug in, it requires you to put effort in.

It requires you to become a part of the community, it requires you to be willing to be ministered to, to be available to be ministered to, to be teachable to be ministered to.

And so here's the question we need to ask then.

Am I plugged into genuine community?

Am I being ministered?

Are you?

Are you are you are you are you really in a place in your life where other believers are like ministering to you, where ministry is happening in your life on a personal level?

There's a few questions you can ask yourself as you think about that.

Do you have authentic relationships with people in the church?

Are there people who know your struggles?

You struggle, right?

Like are there people who know it?

Are there people who know your deepest like hardest?

Like I would be embarrassed for everyone to know this, but but man, a few people need to know if I'm gonna grow.

Man, it requires courage.

It requires courage to say, I'm gonna be I'm willing to be ministered to, and so I'm gonna embrace this vulnerability.

And let me tell you that the burden is not on other people to make you vulnerable, the burden is on you.

The burden is on you to find someone and to have the courage to tell them your weakness, to tell them what you're struggling with, to believe that God's grace is sufficient to meet you and their ministry to you if you have authentic relationships.

Let me ask you this do you do you speak words of grace and truth to anyone?

When was the last time you comforted a believer with words of encouragement?

Like you were intimately aware of what was happening in their life in a way that you could speak words of encouragement and say, brother or sister, I want you to know that God's grace is sufficient.

To meet you in this trial that you're facing.

You know, this is a real issue.

We can stay so surface level, can't we?

When was the last time you spoke words of comfort?

When was the last time you spoke words of challenge to someone?

You were so close to them.

You had worked to build such a foundation of meaningful relationship with this person that you had the platform to do ministry in their life and to say, brother or sister, I I see this sin in you.

And I want to help you walk through it.

Let me ask you one more thing.

Where are you showing radical love and service?

Who comes to mind right now that you're serving with no expectation of anything in return?

You know, you're in a place of ministry when you have an answer for those things.

Where there are people you're pouring into and you're like, this person can give me nothing, but I am in this place where I'm giving this person everything.

And you're in this place of speaking truth and love to people, grace and comfort and challenge.

You're in this place of authentic relationships where there's mutual vulnerability.

These are the things that we strive for in a small group.

And this is why as we think about ministry, all of our ministries are really centered around this idea of Christians meeting together.

Because we want this to happen and we believe that this happens most effectively, not on a Sunday morning, but in small group ministry.

This is the purpose of ministry.

It's our transformation.

I want you to see next the perspective of ministry.

Notice here, Paul says this.

He says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

As Paul did ministry, there was this nagging thought in his mind that kept his eyes wide open.

He was constantly awakened to this reality, and this reality was that the people that he was ministering to were eternal.

That there was not a single human soul to which he spoke that was not an eternal soul.

There was not a single person who would not pass on from this life and into eternity.

And Paul had this thought that I think kept him awakened and alive in ministry.

And it was this idea that everyone is going to stand before the Lord.

Everyone.

So he said these words that he labored.

Look at verse 29 with me.

Look at the intense struggle that Paul said.

He said, It says, For this I toil.

Struggling with all, with all his energy, all of Christ's energy.

Paul's confident to say he doesn't just struggle with his own energy, he struggles with the energy that Christ powerfully works within him.

Chapter 2, verse 1, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those that lay Odyssea.

Paul is toiling because he recognizes that every person he comes across will one day stand before the Lord, and that shapes his time with them.

Paul believes this: that this life is only temporary, and that you and I, and everyone we interact with are eternal souls.

And so what this does is it shapes ministry for Paul.

And so my question as we start to think about this is this do you believe that?

I mean, we just sang it, right?

We just sang it pretty loudly.

I was listening to many of us sing it.

I believe in the resurrection.

And man, it's so easy to say it, but as I considered Paul's words this week, I came to realize like it's one thing to say it, it's another thing to have your life invigorated by this reality that that is true, that we will all be resurrected, that we will all stand before the Lord one day.

C.

S.

Lewis believed it.

He wrote a quote.

I want to read it to you.

It's it's long, but it's so helpful.

C.

S.

Lewis said this it is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses.

To remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to, point to the person if they're in that room, the most dullest.

I'm just kidding, don't do that.

Especially don't point to your spouse when we say that.

To remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.

He's talking about, you know, Christians as they become fully transformed to be like Jesus Christ, radiating such glory like Moses did when he met with God in the tent of meeting, that you would be tempted to worship this creature because they've been transformed in the likeness of God.

He says, or else a horror and a corruption, such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

He's talking about those who have been cast to eternal destruction.

C.S.

Lewis goes on to say this all day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities.

It is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another.

All friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations, these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.

Immortal horrors or everlasting splendor.

See, as Lewis understood this, Paul understood this, and we need to come to grips with this: that the people that we interact with are eternal.

They have an eternal destination.

You know what's really exciting about ministry?

Is that God is calling you into ministry so that you can play a part in the eternal destination of the people that you are ministering to?

Can we just take a moment to say, like, what's more exciting than that?

What's more exciting than that?

What community is there to be a part of that it is more exciting than the community that is shaping the eternal destinations of people?

The community of your work, it's gonna pass away.

It's gonna fall away.

Some of your communities already have.

There's no community like this.

And so, you know, as I was on Facebook looking at all this pointless stuff, I ran across a video of a person talking about how, you know, they experienced this life change and they didn't think life change was possible until, you know, and they were a pastor, so I was expecting big things here, until they said I went to CrossFit.

And there I experienced change.

And listen, I you know, I've been a part of communities like that, and I can tell you this: you can change yourself there.

You can become part of communities and change your life.

All sorts of communities.

We're not gonna take credit away from them, but here's my question: what eternal profit is there?

What eternal profit is there?

And here's God this morning calling you to this community, to this ministry, to this work, to this labor that you can toil after, this work that you can do, and God says, there is an eternal profit here.

You can change the eternal destination of the people that you're sitting beside.

What other labor is there that's so worth it as that?

This is what ministry is.

And and so here's a few ways that this shapes our ministry.

Then I want you to understand this.

If it's true that ministry is with eternal souls, I want you to understand that ministry is worship.

Ministry is worship.

I love this idea of Paul that he says, I want to present.

I want to present everyone mature in Christ.

It's kind of it kind of reminds me of like show and tell.

You remember show and tell?

You show up, you're so proud of your little thing, and you're showing the class.

And it's this idea Paul has of like, man, I've labored, I've poured like blood, sweat, and tears over the lives of these believers, and God, here they are.

I I couldn't save them, but God, I did my best.

I I, you know, hours and hours and hours I spent with this brother crying over the suffering they were facing.

Hours and hours and hours I spend in small groups counseling with my sister in Christ about how to act wisely in the situation they were.

And God, here they are for you.

God, this is what you love, lives that are shaped like Christ for the glory of your name.

Here it is, God, Paul's presenting these believers to God.

That's why in Romans 5 15, verses 15 to 16, Paul says this at the end of his letter, but on some points I've written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given to me by God.

Listen to this, ministry is a grace, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God.

Paul says, He's like a priest in the tabernacle, and his offering is the people that he's ministered to.

He says, God, here they are.

And so we take a second to pause and we ask ourselves this question, knowing that God is filled with grace and mercy and forgiveness for all of our shortcomings, knowing that God's grace will always meet us in our weakness.

That question is this what does your offering look like?

God doesn't care about our religion.

God doesn't care about the works that we've done.

What God cares about, and this is what animated Paul for ministry.

This is the offering.

It's the believers that you've influenced for eternal worship of Jesus Christ.

And so here's, you know, the illustration we're getting.

You and I have been given a paintbrush by God, and we are called to paint beautiful pictures of glory for Him.

And the pictures are the lives of other believers, and the paintbrush we use are the words that we speak in truth and love into the lives of those believers to shape them in Christ-likeness.

This is what ministry is.

Ministry changes the eternal destination of souls, and so it's worship.

Ministries, I want you to see this is compassionate.

You see this here?

Paul's like drive, I think it's key that Paul is driving this home.

Three times in this short verse, he says, Him we proclaim, warning everyone, and teaching everyone, in order that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

You know what Paul knew?

He knew that in the church at Colossi there were some weird people.

Can we admit that at Redemption New Market?

Don't look at them right now.

All of you are looking at me, so I know exactly what you're gonna do.

There are some weird people.

Don't you look like, okay, let's be honest, okay?

Completely honest.

Don't you look around this room sometimes and say, like, what is bringing us all together here?

This is the weirdest group of collection of people I've ever seen.

And yeah, see, what happens is the church is not a social club in which you're, you know, just trying to bring the most popular people that are kind of like you and that you like.

It's not a social club that you're gathering these same sorts of people.

What the church is, is a group of compassionate believers who are looking to the world and saying this the gospel is for all and calling all to come, no matter how much of a challenge you are, no matter how much, like in, you know, outside of church, we'd never be friends.

No matter how much, like if you were my neighbor, I would be very annoyed by the way that you're acting.

When it comes to the church, what we understand is this is that the gospel is for all.

And so I am eager and seeking to minister to all.

Paul says, everyone, three times.

Why?

Because there are gonna be people that you have to do ministry with that are infuriating to you.

Is this kind of starting to make sense of church life a little bit?

It's messy at times, isn't it?

Why?

Because none of us are perfect and we need to like link ourselves to each to each other, handcuff ourselves to each other in order to get there.

So some of you guys have done family trips, and it's like as soon as you're over four hours, everyone in the car is fighting, everyone's angry, it's like, how are we gonna make it here?

We just gotta keep going, and that's kind of like the church.

We gotta stay together, we gotta keep going.

It's gonna be hard, and at times we're gonna be sick of each other.

But man, God is gonna work in us when we stay committed to the family of God that He is creating here.

What a slogan for the church, eh?

Redemption New Market.

We're getting pretty sick of each other.

But we're sticking it out.

Ministry is compassionate.

So here's the application then.

Be careful not to hand select the people that you do life with.

Be careful not to say, okay, I'm gonna do life, but I'm not gonna do it in the church.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna invite sort of my friends, my inner circle.

This is gonna be my group.

I don't want any weirdos in it.

I don't want any people who, you know, when a question is asked, they just go on and on and on and on about how their bunny died last week.

I don't want any of that.

Listen, those people need your ministry, they they need you to speak truth into their life.

They need you.

We do ministry with everyone, it's compassion.

And I want you to understand that ministry is then intentional.

It's intentional.

It ministry has a purpose, it must shape people for eternity.

So I want you to understand this about ministry at Redemption New Market.

We are not interested in anything that doesn't shape people for eternity.

Every chair that is set out by the setup team is set up so someone can sit in it and worship God in it and hear about God because we want to shape them for eternity.

Every kid that's in kids' ministry right now is hearing the gospel because we believe seeds of the gospel are being planted that will grow fruit for eternity.

Every time we gather together as a small group, we are dealing with eternal matters because we believe this is what is important and time cannot be wasted.

We must be intentional because we have such an opportunity as Paul is putting before us right now to shape people for eternity.

You know, this is why I've been a small group leader for many years, and you know, people miss small group all for all sorts of different reasons, and they're always, you know, texting me, calling me, saying, Hey, I'm so sorry that I miss small group.

And I say to them, like, listen, you don't have to be sorry to me, I'm sorry for you, because you know what you're missing is your miss, this is the attitude we have to have.

You are missing the opportunity to sculpt another life for eternity.

Yeah, I get you're not being poured into, but you also miss the opportunity not to pour to not pour into that other person to keep them accountable, to change them.

Ministry, it's intentional.

Ministry then is urgent.

It's urgent.

Notice Paul's words warning and teaching.

Warning and teaching, warning, it carries this sense of admonishing.

It's this idea of like, let's go.

Let's go, let's do it.

And I'm convinced now more than ever that this is what we need.

Yes, 100% we need biblical teaching.

But how many of us know what we need to do?

We're just not doing it.

I'm convinced that many of you are like a step away from radical transformation.

And the step you need to take is a step into accountability with a brother or sister in Christ, where you say this, listen, I know what I need to be doing, I'm just not doing it.

So can you like text me tomorrow morning and say, hey, are you awake reading the Word of God?

That's what we need is this admonishing, this warning, this you gotta do it.

You know what you need to do, just do it.

This is why ministry is essential.

It's a ministry of reminder, it's a ministry of teaching.

Well, what do we teach?

This is what Paul has already said, which leads to our third point the power of ministry Jesus.

You see what Paul says here?

Him that we proclaim.

Him we proclaim.

What's the way that we grow, church?

What's the how do we grow?

How can we be transformed?

Notice this, it is a proclamation.

If you want to grow, you need to hear again and again the truth.

You need to hear the gospel preached again and again.

It is the only way to grow.

And the amazing, beautiful thing is that the very thing we need in order to grow is the very thing that God loves to do.

You know what's an astounding reality?

Is that God loves to speak.

Have you ever thought about that for a moment?

God loves to speak from the very first pages of scripture.

God could have created the world all sorts of different ways, but how does he create it?

He speaks it into existence.

And in John 1, we are told that in the beginning was the word.

The word, and the word was God.

God loves to speak, God loves to reveal himself, and he has created us so that we would listen to his word and find life in his word.

This is what we were created for.

And so I want you to understand this that maybe you're here and you don't know Christ.

I want you to understand that until you hear the words of God as He has written them in Scripture, words that all point to Jesus Christ, your life will be completely unfulfilled.

Why?

Because you were created to hear from God.

You were created to hear from God.

And here God has you this morning, and he is speaking.

And the thing he is speaking about is his son Jesus Christ.

And he's saying the very thing you need is this.

It's him we proclaim.

It's him we proclaim.

This is the one message the church has.

It is the message of the gospel.

It's the church's one obsession with him.

I want you to notice, as much as Paul's language here is filled with I and me, do you notice that in verses 24 to 29?

Flip back with me to verses 15 to 20.

Notice here that Paul in these verses is obsessed with him, with Jesus.

Notice how many times he says him in these verses as I read it.

He says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

It is all about him.

And so listen, we can talk about a lot of different things, but nothing will ever begin to compare to the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ.

We would be wasting your time as a church if we were to come up here and worship, sing songs of worship that were about anything else.

We would be wasting your time if I were to come up here and tell you, hey, listen, this is my opinion about things.

The thing that we proclaim is Jesus Christ and him alone.

And so unapologetically, at this church, from the day that it started to the day that it goes, you will hear the name of Jesus Christ proclaimed again and again and again and again.

And week after week you'll come and you'll say, Man, I think I've heard this before, and that's because you have.

Because the very thing you need is Jesus Christ.

Him we proclaim.

Listen, there's all sorts of ways you can transform your life, but only one will last eternally.

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 3.18.

He says, Beholding Jesus, we are transformed from one degree of glory to another.

This is where transformation really happens.

And listen, like we said, you can you can change your life a lot of different ways.

You can create sort of this temporary change.

And so my question to you is this I'm sure that you, like me, recognize a lot of things need to change in your life.

What are you turning to for change?

Maybe some of you are turning to religion.

Not an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, but religion.

You're looking to the Bible as sort of a rule book.

If I just follow these rules, I'll be okay.

God'll guide me.

And you can really change your life with that, but I want you to understand it will never be meaningfully.

Change, it will never be eternal.

Some of us maybe were looking to materialism, and if you read literature and life change today, a lot of it is based on the worldview of materialism that says if you just you know get the right amount of sleep and and you look at the sunlight at the right time of day, then you're gonna have the right dopamine levels, and this is what you need, is you just gotta find equilibrium in your dopamine, and and I want you to understand that can work, and you can feel a lot better physically, but it will not reach you spiritually, it will not change your inner being, and it certainly won't change you eternally.

It's one thing that will change you, and change you eternally into the very thing that you were made to be, and it is Jesus Christ.

So, what do we do?

Well, as an application, I want to turn to worship now and use this closing song as a way for us to apply this word that we have heard that the very thing we need is Jesus Christ.

And I'm gonna invite the worship team up now, and we're gonna sing this well-known hymn, Be Thou My Vision.

And as you're singing this, I would love for you to sing this maybe two ways.

Sing it as a personal mission statement for your life, as a prayer offered up to God, saying, God, I don't want to, I don't want to see anything this year apart from Jesus because there's no other way that I can be transformed.

And maybe a second way that you sing it is in prayer for our church.

May this be a year of ministry that is filled with Jesus Christ because there is only one thing that has the power to transform us, and it is the name of Jesus and Jesus alone.

Him we proclaim.

Would you stand with us?

I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna sing this song.

Father, there is one name under heaven by which we can be saved, and it is the name of Jesus Christ.

And there is one glory that is strong enough and beautiful enough to change us, and that's the glory of Jesus Christ and Him alone.

And we confess, Lord, we've spent our lives searching for meaning, searching for truth, searching for joy, searching for peace, searching for validation in so many other things.

And God, I can just attest in my own life, never I've never found them.

And Lord, you tell us we never will.

Fleeting pleasures.

And this morning, God, to hear from your word, from your lips, that Jesus, Jesus is the one.

He's preeminent.

By him all things were created, he's over all rulers, he's before all things.

In him all things hold together.

He's the head of the church, he's beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might be preeminent.

God, this is Jesus.

And this is the only one who has power to change.

And so we look to him and we proclaim this, Lord, that we want to see no one else other than Jesus.

And we sing this to you, Lord, asking that you would make it true of our lives.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.