(August 15, 2023) Richard Winter challenges…

This happened to me in college –

We all had to take two art classes, one painting and the other pottery. I thought I knew how to draw and paint – but not well, and pottery was something I knew nothing about, so I went for it.

We threw a lump of clay on a spinning wheel and squeezed, pushed and pulled that clay until it resembled a pot of some sort.

Jeremiah 18:4 says that God has an illustration of how a potter can make a pot of his choice and,  if he doesn’t like it, can squash it down again and make another pot.

This is a life message!
In this world we can be squeezed, pushed and pulled to conform to the image that it wants to make of us. But this is not what God wants for us so He makes a new life for us –  we are to be born again by the Spirit and not the flesh.

Newborn babies need several things to grow…

• Loving
• Food
• Caring
• Protection
• Teaching about life.

These roles are given to parents and that’s why a true family is critical for children. Similarly the family of Christ will do the same for spiritual babies –

• Love
• Feed
• Care
• Protect
• Teach about Christianity.

But these activities are not done by only one or even two persons – it takes the entire church family to make each young person grow with wisdom and values.

The apostle Paul wrote to all the churches he started… but sadly the Corinth church that he had kicked off was characterised by groups who had attached themselves to certain personalities – some to him, some to Peter and some to Apollos (1 Corinthians 1:12).

We are all drawn to personalities – even in the church world personalities still exist today. Some people like the modern contemporary style of a Joel Osteen, others like the biblical expository teaching of a Chuck Smith, many young people like hard driving music. Others like a church like ours, balanced and dedicated to truth!

Critical roles
When Paul was writing to further establish the church in Colossae he dealt with several crital issues. For example, if the church is to grow –

• It is to be built on Christ!
• It must share the truth about Jesus, a joint commission for all, not just for church leaders!
• It may incur some problems and some pain.

From his prison in Rome,  Paul used the best communication devices of his day  as a way of sharing the truth – pen and paper… and his visiting friends who travelled for him.

Today pen and paper has mostly been replaced with electronic means of communicating. How we do it and how much we do it is a personal decision… but it is something we can do with great ease.

Actually, if you text or email you don’t have to see a face reject your invitation to come to church with you – the reader could just block you. But God will bless you for being obedient!

Paul’s instructions
Writing to that small new church of Colossae, Paul shared this: ‘Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:24-27).

Paul then adds a focused lesson on personalities within the church… who we should honour, be focused on, teach about… and uses himself as an example even though he’s in prison! ‘He [Jesus] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me’ (v28-29).

Who do we (you… I) follow? What do we follow? Is it –

• A personality?
• A music performance?
• The size of some congregation?

Paul would be an ideal personality to follow… well educated, articulate, pioneer pastor to many churches, an apostle chosen especially by Jesus. But he rejected any personality cult being built around himself – his preaching was a simple message around only one person: Jesus!

Self-aggrandisement never really works! Oh it may for a season but times and seasons change… we don’t build many cathedrals today, music styles change, and opportunities to worship can change. Paul’s dislike for self-advertisement cost him dearly – he was dismissed by some as not being a really topflight apostle; he chose to associate with the simple hard workers of the gospel such as Epaphras, ‘my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus’ (Philemon 1:23; Colossians 1:7, 4:12).

Servants serve!
I would like to suggest we can see several things here. Paul has attempted to show us the beautiful balance of a Spirit-filled life. His ministry was to be a servant of Christ… and so should ours, in fact a two-fold ministry:

• A servant of the gospel making the word of God fully known.
• A servant of the church making the people of God fully mature.

1) Servants serve – every Christian is called into service.
2) There are no spectator Christians in God’s kingdom.
3) Ministry means service inside and outside the church!
4) We do not sit back and let others do all the work.
5) We all form a team and we all do our part.
6) Team members know what part of the team they are – forwards, centres, shooting guards.
7) Each one does his or her part to make the team successful!

In life you never becomes anything by just standing near the one you want to be like. You’ll never become a surgeon by standing next to a doctor, or an engineer or a pilot! To achieve your goal of personal accomplishment you need to prepare for that future moment by training, studying and practising. Even as there is an apprenticeship in every profession, so is there regarding growing and maturing as a Christian.

And note that as well as praying, reading scripture and listening to God’s voice, Christians mature when they’re with other Christians – we will never mature as saints of God if we avoid assembling together. And this involves more than just a Sunday morning!

A squeezing, pushing and pulling world!
To mature we need to be servants of Christ and servants of His church – it’s the training ground, the molding ground for maturing in Christ.

And be aware that the world in which we live has its molding ground! A powerful force for molding people into its worldly images through the devil’s –

• Reality!
• Deceptions!
• Imitations of the things of God.
• Presentations of counterfeit spiritual gifts.
• Connivings of false gods to worship.
• Divers opportunities to sin.

Make no mistake – this world in Satan’s hands has the power to squeeze, push and pull people who don’t know God into a life that is not what God has ordained for us!

Paul was labouring with all his Holy Spirit-empowered strength. And because the Spirit was given to the church (Acts 2) so we too can all be Spirit-empowered witnesses!

How to act…
From his prison cell, Paul wrote about how we are to act when we find ourselves being squeezed, pushed and pulled into a lifestyle that damages the testimony of Christ:

‘Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will’ (Romans 12:1-2).

Simply put this means putting Christ first! The things that draw us into a worldly lifestyle will be sacrificed to demonstrate that we have a new life, that we’ve been born again, that we are growing and maturing in Christ.

Many Christians ask the question ‘What is God’s will for my life? What am I supposed to do?’ Well, one result of growing and maturing in Christ is that we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is for us!

And then there are Christians who dip out of service with excuses such as –

• ‘Isn’t it enough that I believe in Jesus?’
• ‘Isn’t it enough that I read my Bible?’
• ‘Isn’t it enough that I come to church?’
• ‘Isn’t it enough that I take communion?’
• ‘Isn’t it enough that…’

The test of life in the Spirit is to enable you to decide regarding activities, persons, thoughts and speech so that God will be pleased by what we do.

Serve where you are planted
Coca Cola may want to teach the world to sing and proclaim it’s the real thing – but it has no guarantee of eternal life. That only comes from Jesus the Saviour!

It’s not what we do, what we learned at school or college, or who we are related or connected to that counts!

Christian maturity recognises what the world needs – salvation! It’s also about being born-again men and women who are servants of Christ and servants of His church!

We do not need to live in Colossae… we live very near our church. Let’s pray for souls to be saved – and for souls to mature in Christ and in His service until He returns. Let’s strive to serve Jesus where we’re planted!

One other thought… don’t be afraid of being squeezed, pulled and pushed by the Holy Spirit so that we will be conformed to the image that God wants us to be for Jesus! (Jeremiah 18:6).
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Dr Richard Winter pastors The Connection Church, Huntington Beach, California. Link: OnlineConnect@gmail.com
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