Latest / Simply Christ Podcast / The Study of the Book of Colossians Part 18 - Simply Christ Podcast
Transcript
- 0:08to the Simply Christ podcast hosted by Leon Martin, along
- 0:12with Aaron Keaton, Melvin Martin, Andrew Schrock and Dan
- 0:15Blatz. Let's get right to it.
- 0:18All righty, I guess we're ready to go.
- 0:20Welcome back to another study of the Word of God.
- 0:25Welcome each of you to come along as we go through this.
- 0:30Like I've always said, you can find previous links to or links
- 0:35to previous episodes at Simply Christ Ministries if you so
- 0:38choose, and see the whole series there if you are interested.
- 0:44It's also on podcast, it's on YouTube, it's on Facebook Live,
- 0:50all the different podcast platforms, whatever you choose
- 0:52there so you can check in. We're going to go into
- 0:55Colossians Chapter 4. There's five tonight.
- 0:58But before we do that, that'll kick us off with a war prayer.
- 1:02Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, giving thanks for
- 1:05the great sacrifice that you have made for us.
- 1:08We're thankful that we belong to you because of what you've done.
- 1:11We're thankful for your word that you preserved down to the
- 1:14generations. And Lord, we're thankful that
- 1:16all of the groups of people that the four of us come from all
- 1:20have your word. We pray God that as they open it
- 1:23and more and more people from our background and and
- 1:27persuasion or a heritage as they come to understand and know your
- 1:31word, that you would liberate them as only you can do.
- 1:33Lord, we recognize that we were once in bondage through the the
- 1:39things that were handed down to us by our fathers, and many,
- 1:43many people in our own cultures and in our own life's circles
- 1:49are still stuck in that same religious bondage.
- 1:51We pray, God, that as we speak the words of truth, that as the
- 1:55gospel is proclaimed and as the word of God is dug into, that
- 1:58you would free up some souls again.
- 2:00Lord, we're grateful that we get to be a little part of what
- 2:03you're doing, and we're just thankful that you have not left
- 2:06us the Mennonite and Amish and Hutterite and Plain folks and
- 2:10anyone else who may be Tooting in that You've not left us
- 2:12without a witness and without influence by your word.
- 2:16Pray that you bless us as we speak and bless the hearers.
- 2:18We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.
- 2:23That's right. We're all all one in Christ.
- 2:28That's the church. Yeah.
- 2:30So we'll get this kicked off. We were talking before we got
- 2:35started. This will be the last Monday
- 2:39evening session. We are going to switch to
- 2:42Wednesday mornings. We're going to do it live.
- 2:46Of course, we'll still put the podcast out the same way we
- 2:49always do, but we are going to start the live on Wednesday
- 2:53mornings at 6:00 AM central, which would be 7:00 AM Eastern
- 2:59Time zone. So if you don't see us on Monday
- 3:05nights, of course that's where we're going to be Wednesday
- 3:07evening from here on. We find as family men, all of
- 3:12us, that this evening time cuts into our family time a lot.
- 3:16And so we're just going to go early in the morning and have a
- 3:19cup of coffee while we enjoy God's Word.
- 3:23So that's what we're going to be doing from from here on as we
- 3:28consider also what our next subject or our next book is.
- 3:33If anybody has any input on that whatsoever, you can reach out to
- 3:38me a text me if you know any of us, text any one of us, let any
- 3:42one of us know or into the chat here or into the comments on
- 3:45wherever you're listening to this.
- 3:47That would be awesome. If you have a question or a
- 3:49subject and you would like to see discussed.
- 3:53If not, we'll probably do another book, but we're seeing
- 4:00what comes next. Colossians was really, really
- 4:04good, learned a lot, was blessed a lot by the words that we found
- 4:09there. So, but anyway, before we kind
- 4:12of get into it, I was talking this today, just pondering about
- 4:17the local economy. Like it seems around here in the
- 4:20Midwest, we're a little bit behind.
- 4:23Our economy here focuses a lot on the ag industry.
- 4:27If the farmers are doing good, we're doing good and it has
- 4:32definitely kind of cooled off from what it was.
- 4:36That was kind of curious how it is in y'all's area if it's the
- 4:38same way because we're heavily AG, you know, grain prices were
- 4:42down, but cattle and livestock on the other side were really
- 4:44good. And but we're seeing that that
- 4:47middle market that we talked about like the middle range
- 4:51housing probably or the OR the lower quality farms are really
- 4:56kind of sliding back. The good stuff is still good and
- 4:59the high dollar increases are still moving like they were
- 5:02before. Is, is that something similar in
- 5:04your areas or is that kind of isolated here to the Midwest,
- 5:10Melvin? Yeah, I think here in the South
- 5:14we are pretty. We're pretty good, I'd say as
- 5:18far as economy wise, I think I think it's a little bit softer
- 5:25in the construction end of it a little bit.
- 5:27I think the war in Iran might have affected that.
- 5:31But as far as the properties and farmland and stuff is still.
- 5:37Out of this. World, I mean it it you got to
- 5:40you got to it's not like it was at the end of code, of course,
- 5:43where there was literally hardly anything available and you had
- 5:46to jump on it like next day or you wouldn't get it.
- 5:50But it's still, you got to hop on something if you want it or
- 5:54it's probably going to disappear.
- 5:56So we're pretty solid here as far as properties and an AG
- 6:01goes, which we're not as AG driven here.
- 6:04We've got some big stuff coming in through here like they're,
- 6:08they're planning on making the, the highway just, oh, maybe only
- 6:12a mile or so from here. They're going to make that a
- 6:14freeway. And they're kind of a lot of
- 6:16your big companies are going to put warehouses in this area to
- 6:21ship because we're kind of central for all over the United
- 6:24States, more Southeast and West. And so that that seems to be
- 6:29driving our economy quite a bit. So.
- 6:32But your economy is probably powered a lot more by like
- 6:35retail type of stuff, you know, a lot shipping there in that
- 6:38central, central United States are all freeways.
- 6:41Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense.
- 6:43Dan, how about up in Canada? I, I draw houses and draw
- 6:48blueprints for new construction homes and shops and garages and
- 6:51stuff. And I would say probably May and
- 6:54June were some of my busiest months ever.
- 6:57Even April was very busy. Now it's tapered off quite a bit
- 7:00for my personal turnover. There's quite a few less jobs
- 7:04coming in and just kind of staying steady enough to where I
- 7:07can work every day. But it's not like I'm, I'm
- 7:09buried in work anymore. And I think a lot of the
- 7:13construction workers had a slow spring and now they're probably
- 7:16catching up to some of the work that I had drawn up previously,
- 7:20right? But yeah, overall, I would say
- 7:23it's definitely the economy's slower than it was a year or two
- 7:27ago overall. And we got lots of local farmers
- 7:31around here that do a lot of vegetables.
- 7:33So a lot of workers get imported from Mexico or South America and
- 7:38and all that. So a lot of them are just
- 7:39showing up now for the apples and the cucumbers and Peppers
- 7:43and all that kind of stuff. Plus a lot of Mennonites come
- 7:45from Mexico back up to Canada to have their families fill up a
- 7:49roll of cucumber machine and they pick cucumbers all summer.
- 7:53So just getting. So, so also AG, but not as much
- 7:58commercial AG like here with corn and beans basically almost
- 8:01we. We do have a good share, a good
- 8:04share of corn and beans and stuff like that here as well.
- 8:07But the just in this local area, there's lots of vegetable
- 8:10farmers as well. So some of these Mennonite
- 8:12families will come up with eight or 910 kids and they'll make
- 8:153040 grand in in the next two or three months and head back home
- 8:18and live like kings in Mexico. That's neat.
- 8:24That's neat. Andrew, I'm assuming yours is
- 8:26probably similar to ours there in Ohio, a lot of AG kind of
- 8:29related or no? Quite a bit the the market that
- 8:34I know more than the AG would be logging.
- 8:36I know logging's been sluggish for a couple years, quite a
- 8:40several years now. It's really sluggish during
- 8:43COVID, right? And after COVID, railroad ties,
- 8:46man with gold. And he could, he could sell
- 8:50railroad ties, you know, like hotcakes.
- 8:54And now everything's on quota. I think if I wanted to sell
- 8:58railroad ties, I'd be lucky to sell a load a month right now
- 9:02just and the lumber prices, the pallet prices, it's just it's
- 9:07pretty rough for sawmill businesses right now.
- 9:09So not a good time to sell your camper.
- 9:13So, so that actually also related to retail, right,
- 9:16Because pallets that's stuff that that's what stuff gets
- 9:20shipped on. So if retail is moving, that's
- 9:22moving and railroad ties, that's when the frames are putting new
- 9:26ties in. Or why was that so?
- 9:28I kind of gave up on trying to figure it out, but it's by the
- 9:31time I thought, OK, we can predict the market like I
- 9:36thought two years ago it would already jump back.
- 9:39Usually dips down and stays there for a while.
- 9:42And then a bunch of big businesses, big sawmill
- 9:44operations will go out of business.
- 9:46And then all of a sudden there's a vacuum and now air like the
- 9:52prizes go crazy and then everybody gets back in and it's
- 9:55booming for a couple years and then drops back down and well,
- 10:00it hasn't come back in a long time now strong.
- 10:02So I'm not sure what's going on. Whatever, I was just going to
- 10:09say, one of the thing that drives our AG here is tobacco.
- 10:14There's a lot of tobacco that gets growing here.
- 10:17And so people still smoke cigarettes and and chew snuff a
- 10:22lot. So that that's, that's probably
- 10:26probably not half, but quite a bit of our AG economy here is
- 10:30tobacco. 30-40 years ago ours was as primarily tobacco.
- 10:35We had a huge tobacco plant in our local town and everybody
- 10:38worked on a tobacco farm and then almost everybody got shut
- 10:41down for a bit. Now there's a few around.
- 10:46Why did they get shut down? Did the government shut them
- 10:48down? Or I think it was government
- 10:49intervention and trying to share, you know, talk about how
- 10:52bad tobacco is and whatever else.
- 10:54And so a lot of local farmers went under for that reason and.
- 10:59Yeah, there for quite a few years like the Pennsylvania, but
- 11:02a lot of those guys quit raising tobacco what, 15 years ago or
- 11:07something. It just, it was a 5-6 year,
- 11:09seven-year period in there where it was almost not worth the
- 11:11picking. But I've heard tell that it's
- 11:14the guys that stuck it out. It's pretty good again.
- 11:16But yeah, that's quite a crop to raise this.
- 11:21It's a lot of work. It may have a lot of fun.
- 11:23Like it's the county. I know that.
- 11:25So the first time, the first summer we lived here, if you go
- 11:28to Walmart here on Saturday night, I thought, I thought the
- 11:32Mexico was taking over. Like there was bus loads of
- 11:35Mexicans in the in the Walmart in town on Saturday evening and
- 11:40then come to find out that that's just a normal, like it's
- 11:43the tobacco workers, they come out they Saturdays evenings they
- 11:46have off and so they go to Walmart, stock up for the week.
- 11:50It's just running the Mexicans all over the place.
- 11:54Interesting. Yeah.
- 11:58No, I don't know. Go ahead.
- 12:00I was just going to say when I was 14 and 15 years old, it was
- 12:03the job to have like you'd get back and then you know, this is
- 12:0630 year, almost 30 years ago you'd get 6080.
- 12:09Some places paid 80 to 100 bucks a day prime and tobacco you'd
- 12:13leave with your hands covered in tobacco tar and wearing a, a
- 12:18rain suit in the morning. And it's hot, hot as anything by
- 12:21afternoon. And it was quite a job.
- 12:25Yeah, I I worked a lot of Tobaga fields when I was young in
- 12:28Pennsylvania. The old guys like the young guys
- 12:31to help clip and pick the stocks up for them to string up on the
- 12:34last. Did that a lot.
- 12:39Yeah. All righty.
- 12:40Well, let's get into Colossians chapter 4.
- 12:44We're going to start with verse 5 there, but I was thinking
- 12:49about chapter 3, verse one kind of get a running started to
- 12:54this. I mean, it's such a good such a
- 12:56good book and I'll let you go with verse 5 and Andrew, But
- 13:00verse 1 of chapter 3 says if you then be risen with Christ, seek
- 13:03those things which are above where Christ sit us on the right
- 13:06hand of God said your affection all things above and not all
- 13:09things on the earth. So really good advice and I, I
- 13:14love it that he says that if we are then risen with Christ, like
- 13:17he's assuming that we as believers are risen with Christ
- 13:22and we are to seek those things which are above.
- 13:25That is natural for our, our virtual being the way we are.
- 13:30And and just the last couple studies was now a little bit
- 13:35more the nuts and bolts of it where it was having us, you
- 13:38know, how to actually behave and what to do and not to do.
- 13:41And so, but it's a trickle down. You know, we can do this is kind
- 13:46of where my mind was going with this whole thing is we can do
- 13:50all these things, right. But let's let's make sure that
- 13:53we actually are then risen with Christ, though before like and
- 13:57we can we can do all these things, which is what religion
- 13:59does. It goes all through this this
- 14:02right stuff and misses the mark and the heart of it here is
- 14:07actually that we would be risen with Christ and that and then we
- 14:11would seek that because of that, we would see the things which
- 14:13are above. We would look to the that are up
- 14:16there not to the world around us for our stability and our love
- 14:19and our peace and our joy and that kind of thing.
- 14:22So because because if you look just at the latter part of three
- 14:27in the first part or there, it looks kind of Dewey, you know,
- 14:32but it's but it's actually a response to and an action of a
- 14:37lever. And it just gives us guidelines
- 14:41on how we should do some of these things.
- 14:43And that brings us to verse 5 where it says walk in wisdom
- 14:47toward them that are without redeeming the time.
- 14:50And I remember when I preached through Colossians, this was one
- 14:52of the verses I spent a little time on.
- 14:55And I'll let you go, Andrew. But I just I just really had to
- 15:01dig into it. Like, what does it mean to
- 15:04redeem the time? Because we can spend our time
- 15:08however that we want to and it's going to pass.
- 15:12One minute is going to pass, one hour is going to pass, 1 is
- 15:14going to pass whether we redeem it or not.
- 15:16And I just, yeah, that's an interesting verse in my, in my
- 15:19estimation. Go ahead, Andrew.
- 15:22Well, what's interesting, it says walk in wisdom toward them
- 15:27that are without. So I guess I don't know if
- 15:34exactly what he's getting at, but one thing that inspires me
- 15:38is to see how Jesus Christ walked towards people that he
- 15:42confronted or that confronted him and he always went and
- 15:47exposed the heart. And that's something that I want
- 15:51to grow in more to not just jump to conclusions and do a
- 15:58response, like focus on a response, actually redeem the
- 16:02time. Take enough time to actually
- 16:05read the situation, get a good read of the person.
- 16:09Use some discernment before you just think about a response.
- 16:12Like how can I rebut this? How can I cause ignorant people,
- 16:16like people that are not walking wisdom, they want to just do a
- 16:20big quick. It's easy to just do an
- 16:22emotional response and then later you realize that you just
- 16:26lost a lot of time. Like you wasted a lot of time.
- 16:30You're not redeeming the time. So I've seen Mike Pearl do that
- 16:36a lot. I've seen Jesus Christ do it a
- 16:38lot. Remember when he confronted the
- 16:40Pharisees and John 8 and they were talking about, well, who
- 16:45are you? Where are you from?
- 16:46And he says I'm from above and you're from beneath.
- 16:51If you would if, if you would believe that I am he like if, if
- 16:55you would believe in the one above, you would believe on me.
- 16:59But he just exposed their hearts like went right and put his
- 17:02finger on the actual issue that they actually don't even love
- 17:06the father that they claim to love.
- 17:08And then the woman that was caught in adultery, completely
- 17:13different response. Like he looked at the situation.
- 17:16He's trying to help people. He's trying to practice wisdom
- 17:22toward people that will help them that that take removes all
- 17:29the the scales or the fuss or anything that's blinding them or
- 17:34anything that they're hiding behind that doesn't expose who
- 17:38they really are. He kind is good at lifting it up
- 17:41and say, OK, right here. We're going to open up that
- 17:44heart and we're going to we're going to show you what's going
- 17:47on. We're going to point look at
- 17:50walk towards you and wisdom and you're going to go wow, like
- 17:54anybody that's open at all, be like, wow, that was so helpful
- 17:58to see. Like, yeah, that's exactly what
- 18:00I'm dealing with. And man, I see it now.
- 18:03Like so is that a way of redeeming the time?
- 18:06Now that person is not living a lost like a just to and fro
- 18:13stupid life. You know, there's so many people
- 18:15that are just wasting their lives.
- 18:17Well, is it redeeming the time to make them all of a sudden
- 18:21useful? Like they're, they're using
- 18:23their time wisely. And we're using our time wisely
- 18:25because we're not just trying to get a good argument or trying to
- 18:29get a good rebuttal. No, we're going down to the real
- 18:31issue. We're reading the situation,
- 18:33we're using wisdom, and we're getting down to the actual issue
- 18:37that if we can solve that problem, that person's going to
- 18:40be changed for the good. That's good.
- 18:45Absolutely. Damn.
- 18:47Yeah, I I find it interesting that the the Lord Jesus tells
- 18:52his disciples to go out into all the world and preach the gospel
- 18:56to every creature. And they do it.
- 18:59They just head out into all the different areas of the world,
- 19:01partly because they have families scattered abroad,
- 19:04partially because persecution just drove them from place to
- 19:07place. But then the apostle Paul makes
- 19:10it a point to go out to all these different lands and places
- 19:13and cities and towns and regions.
- 19:15He preaches the gospel in every city and it there's no clear
- 19:19instruction for them to go out and preach the gospel like Jesus
- 19:23told them, like the the Great Commission isn't really
- 19:26reiterated by the apostle Paul, at least not directly.
- 19:29And so I was teaching through book of first Peter on my
- 19:33WhatsApp group and he says this in First Peter 315 sanctify the
- 19:37Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer
- 19:41to every man that asketh you the reason of the hope that is in
- 19:45you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that
- 19:48whereas they speak evil of you as evil doers, they may be
- 19:51ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
- 19:55And so both Paul and Peter, they kind of teach how to evangelize
- 20:00in more of a roundabout way, like almost like.
- 20:04Paul, and I mean Peter, James and John were sent out into all
- 20:07the world, and some of us are also sent out into all the
- 20:10world. But the vast majority of us
- 20:13don't head off starting in Jerusalem and in Judea and
- 20:16Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the world.
- 20:18Most of us stay put right where we were born and raised.
- 20:22How do we then be an influence right here?
- 20:24Redeem the time. The days are evil.
- 20:27Make sure that the people around you notice that you're not
- 20:29wasting your time, your resources, your family, your,
- 20:33the way that you're doing life should capture their imagination
- 20:37and that it should make them wonder how do these people live
- 20:40this way? Especially in a day like now
- 20:42where we live in a culture that is so departed from Christianity
- 20:47and the the morals and tenants of our faith that they're more
- 20:51and more blown away by a simple thing like a good marriage, by
- 20:54obedient, happy children, by kids that want to actually
- 20:58follow in your footsteps and that kind of thing.
- 21:00So I think those are all different ways that we can
- 21:02redeem the time and produce some of those questions in our Co
- 21:07workers and in the family and people around us so that they
- 21:10will ask these questions and we can, you know, with clear
- 21:12conscience, give them reasons for why we believe what we
- 21:15believe. And he's going to expand on this
- 21:17further, how with speech and different things like that, how
- 21:20we can do this. But I think there's a lot in
- 21:23this one passage about taking your life seriously, being
- 21:27sober, living on purpose, redeeming, purchasing that time
- 21:31that you have. That's really good, Melvin.
- 21:35Yeah. That's kind of similar avenue.
- 21:38I was thinking, Dan I the key I think to this verse is walking
- 21:41wisdom. So when you're walking, you are
- 21:46walk. You do whatever you do in your
- 21:48day, whether you're a mom raising children or you're a dad
- 21:52on the job site or you're working for.
- 21:54Your boss or whatever you're walking so.
- 21:57Walking wisdom in my mind is like what you do every day.
- 22:01Like what? In other words, I don't think a
- 22:04lot of people think that, oh, OK, I need to redeem my time.
- 22:07So I'm going to, you know, set as I'm going to make sure I
- 22:11redeem my time here. I think he he wants us to walk
- 22:14in wisdom and redeeming our time throughout our life as we're
- 22:18going throughout our day. It's not something that we just
- 22:22stop and do, you know, and then and then stop redeeming your
- 22:26time and then do something else. So I think it's, you know, I
- 22:30think it's our life. It's your life because look
- 22:32what's what we just went through, right?
- 22:33We went through what it looks like to be a new man.
- 22:38And so I think that's the key right there.
- 22:42I like what it says in James Cut speaking about wisdom.
- 22:46I think wisdom is the key here. And in James three it says this.
- 22:53But if you have bitter and envying and strife in your
- 22:56hearts, glory not lie not against the truth.
- 23:00This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
- 23:05and devilish. For where envying and strife is,
- 23:09there is with confusion and every evil work.
- 23:13But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then
- 23:17peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and
- 23:21good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
- 23:26And so there is actually a wisdom that does not come from
- 23:30God. And it explains here what that
- 23:33looks like. It's it's, it is envying and
- 23:37strife, and it is bitter and boring.
- 23:41Not in God. And and so that's wisdom that is
- 23:46not from above, but the wisdom that we should be walking in
- 23:50here in redeeming our time is to be peaceable, gentle, easy to
- 23:55being treated for mercy, good fruits, without partiality and
- 24:00without hypocrisy. That that really convicts me
- 24:03right there. Without partiality and without
- 24:06hypocrisy. No, no.
- 24:09Yeah, that's that's really good and I agree with that because
- 24:14remember what we said back in Colossians 322 servants obey in
- 24:18all things your masters according to the flesh, not with
- 24:21eyeservice as men please your been singleness of heart fearing
- 24:25God. You know, if we walk, you know,
- 24:32in wisdom toward those that are without we're we're honest.
- 24:36We're, you know, it's it's not to it's not to put on us, but
- 24:41it's who we actually are. That's that's one part of it.
- 24:45And I remember that about the re redeeming the time.
- 24:48I just I had to think about coupons.
- 24:51Every one of us gets that chopper that's full of coupons
- 24:54and it is worthless. It's only good for starting fire
- 24:57unless you clip those coupons out and go and redeem them.
- 25:02We actually go and extract the value by handing them back to
- 25:06the person that put them out. And I think that is exactly what
- 25:11he's talking about. And you guys covered it well.
- 25:14But it is simply taking that time and giving it back to the,
- 25:19the purpose that it was actually made for by the maker and that
- 25:22is to tell others about him. The, the in other words, extract
- 25:26the value of that minute, extract the value of that hour,
- 25:29extract the value of that day by by using it as it was designed
- 25:35to be used. And that is to glorify and
- 25:37worship God. Part of that.
- 25:39Just tag them about Jesus. Don't you think so?
- 25:42I mean, if you look at very literally that is, that is what
- 25:45it that is what it really is. If the only way that we could
- 25:48redeem the time is to use it the way that the maker intended it
- 25:52to be used, right. Sometimes that's raised in the
- 25:55family. Sometimes that's right in the
- 25:56business, in whatsoever you do, you do it heartily as unto the
- 26:00Lord that's redeeming the time. Sometimes it's sharing the
- 26:04gospels that. Yeah.
- 26:05That's being useful. There's Melvin brought out an
- 26:09angle that I didn't think of that is, I think, really
- 26:11important. There's different types of
- 26:15wisdom. There's wisdom of man that the
- 26:18Bible talks about. There's the wisdom of the world.
- 26:20There's the wisdom that is from above and there's wisdom that is
- 26:23from beneath. It's all wisdom.
- 26:24So we can't just generalize wisdom.
- 26:26Some of the best speakers, some of the most gifted, what do you
- 26:30want to call it, a gift? Some of the most gifted, most
- 26:33influential people are false prophets.
- 26:36They're false teachers, but they're really good at it.
- 26:40The reason they're really good at it is because they're good at
- 26:42like they're, they're good at deceiving people because they're
- 26:45really good at speaking. They're really good at conveying
- 26:48a point better than most believers.
- 26:50So they can, they can go like 10 miles around the circle and wrap
- 26:57you around to get you to believe something you would have never
- 27:00believed. They would have just come walked
- 27:01up straight to up to you and just told you exactly what
- 27:04they're going to get you to believe.
- 27:06You would say go fly a kite. But by the time you listen to
- 27:09their whole spiel and they come around and around, all of a
- 27:12sudden you're like, Oh yeah, that sounds pretty good.
- 27:15You know the wisdom of God is wants to get look at any angle,
- 27:24any Ave. To get into a a person's heart
- 27:28to help that person eyes to be open or you see the truth of the
- 27:33Lord Jesus, or if they know Jesus, to help them see things
- 27:38in their life that is holding them back to where they're not
- 27:42redeeming the time. Yeah, that's right.
- 27:50Good stuff. All right, Verse 6 says let your
- 27:55speech be all way with grace, seasoned with salt that you may
- 28:00know how he ought to answer every man.
- 28:06That's that's a good one for me. We were talking and this is I
- 28:12was listening to a podcast and the discussion was whether a guy
- 28:18should be absolutely like. So if you're in a Bible study
- 28:23group of people and the King James Version was used as an
- 28:28example, like should you be hard and fast?
- 28:30And if someone uses a different verse, should you like explain
- 28:35why you don't use why you should use the King James Version and
- 28:38not others you know? Should you bring this to a point
- 28:41and teach people it always or should you should your goal be
- 28:46to move people closer to God and in doing so, maybe you're not as
- 28:50point. Maybe you would rather just, you
- 28:53know, when it's your turn, you would read it in King James and
- 28:55expound on that and not make a point of maybe maybe making.
- 29:02To me, that's actually a challenge to me because part of
- 29:04that kind of feels like compromise, Like so if you're
- 29:08not telling somebody something that you know to be true, that
- 29:11it's almost compromising to not in a way.
- 29:15But I don't know. It's interesting to see what you
- 29:17think when you think about let your speech be always with
- 29:20grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer
- 29:25Internet. That's interesting because I I
- 29:28I'd be much more black and white generally.
- 29:29I know there are people that are much more graceful in that in
- 29:32that way graceful and. Yeah, this is an area that I
- 29:36have a lot of growing to do myself.
- 29:38And it it's tied again, I would say, to the previous verse where
- 29:43he talks about walking in wisdom.
- 29:44It takes wisdom to have to know how to walk in grace and you're
- 29:50with salt like that that that situation with the Bible
- 29:56versions, it's easy to quickly flare up about all the things
- 30:03that you know is wrong with those those different versions
- 30:05and stuff. But what with the wisdom of God
- 30:09does is it looks at hearts and souls and it puts away the flesh
- 30:15and the emotions and it's like, OK, how can I make the best of
- 30:18this situation without my flesh and my emotions getting too much
- 30:23involved where I caused more harm than good?
- 30:27There's KJV people that make me not want to be KJV just because
- 30:31of how they act. That tells us what I'm saying.
- 30:34Like there's people that are so dogmatic about KJV that they'll
- 30:39ruin any kind of relationship. They've destroyed believers by
- 30:44being ridiculous. Doesn't mean that they're not
- 30:47right, doesn't mean that it's not true.
- 30:50So probably we can make a truth seem awful.
- 30:53By the way, we are not seasoned with Graves.
- 30:56That's a really good way to explain this, I would say.
- 31:00And again, I think it comes back to not responding out of
- 31:03emotions. When someone tries to have a
- 31:08gotcha question or they try to, to get into your emotions, you
- 31:13can look right past and reveal their heart, 'cause you're,
- 31:17you're, you're a man, You're, you're grown up, you're not
- 31:20baited. You have control of your
- 31:23emotions. And I'm still learning to not
- 31:26take the bait. So.
- 31:31It's easy to yeah, I know another another example where a
- 31:34guy was, you know, in such a way that he could have hardly
- 31:39fellowship with somebody if they knew, if he knew that they
- 31:43occasionally struggled with anger or had some kind of a
- 31:46shortcoming that he was like, well, you're not ugly.
- 31:49So I can't really, you know, kind of the same, the same
- 31:52attitude there. That's that's not quite right,
- 31:55but just overlooking sin all the time isn't right either.
- 31:57So there's there's a middle Rd. that's that's actually wisdom
- 31:59from about damn. Yeah, I find it interesting that
- 32:03he ties our a redeeming of the time together with our speech
- 32:07because I think a lot of us feel like we didn't have time to
- 32:10minister. We don't have time to serve our
- 32:13families. We don't have time to take our
- 32:14wives out on dates. We don't have time to spend with
- 32:17our children. But if you redeem the time, it
- 32:19allows you opportunity to speak. And when you speak is when
- 32:24people are actually won by the gospel.
- 32:26The Amish in our area, they feel like they should just wave to
- 32:29people. That is they're witnessing to
- 32:31the to the world around them. Show them that we're friendly,
- 32:33show them that we are cheerful people and that's it, which is a
- 32:37good start. Like if you're redeeming the
- 32:39time, spending your time wisely and leaving a good impression on
- 32:44people, that's a good start. But then you also have to speak.
- 32:47You know, sometimes they say preach the gospel and use words
- 32:50when you have to. That's not quite true.
- 32:51You, you can share a lot with the, that you live, but
- 32:55ultimately you have to open your mouth and you have to speak.
- 32:58And that's where your speech is what they're really going to be
- 33:01won or lost by. And so when you're speaking to
- 33:05them, make sure that you're seasoning your speech salt with
- 33:10grace. And salt does irritate wounds,
- 33:13but it also brings out flavor in people.
- 33:16You know, it brings out flavor meat.
- 33:17We, I put salt on my watermelon. If it's not a super sweet
- 33:20watermelon, it just brings out the sweetness of the watermelon.
- 33:23And so salt will do that world around you.
- 33:26If you can speak to people in such a way where they feel good
- 33:29to be around you or they sometimes feel convicted, but
- 33:33it's something comforting. It's almost like it's it's life
- 33:35giving, it's hope giving. It's this idea of grace, you
- 33:38know, unmerited favor. So you show people favor and
- 33:42love and tenderness even when they don't deserve it.
- 33:45And your speech is just scattered with that kind of of
- 33:49tenderness and graciousness to people.
- 33:51It can be the springboard of someone else's eternity.
- 33:55The way that you speak to them, the way that you interact with
- 33:58them. Like you, you're there.
- 34:00You're the point at which they read.
- 34:02They, they actually come in contact with eternity because
- 34:06they're living this world of deadness and they're dead in
- 34:08their sins. And they come across your life
- 34:10and something feels different. Something looks different.
- 34:13And then you speak to them with grace, seasoned with salt.
- 34:17And it's, it's the way that we win the world with the gospel.
- 34:21We we live a life that's worthy of people's attention.
- 34:25And we speak the truth in our in our speech has to be seasoned
- 34:29with salt and grace constantly. That's really.
- 34:33Good, Delvin. Yeah, I think if you're if
- 34:36you're living for Jesus and wanting to share Jesus with
- 34:40others, then your life will show it.
- 34:43But your speech was well, right. That's why he says here, let
- 34:48your speech be always with grace.
- 34:51And like you said, Dan, it's tied in with redeeming the time
- 34:55with those with that or without right.
- 34:58So he's he's talking that you may ought to know how to answer
- 35:02every man, not just your brother in Christ or someone that you're
- 35:06comfortable talking with, but someone on the street or someone
- 35:10that maybe you're not so comfortable talking with.
- 35:12And one of the things that comes to my mind, even in previous
- 35:16verse, we were talking about redeeming your time and and
- 35:19approaching those. What does it say?
- 35:21Approaching those that are without towards them that are
- 35:24without is one of those things to me is like having a smile on
- 35:29your face and just looking at people and actually smiling at
- 35:34people. That is very rare today.
- 35:36Everybody is in their own little world.
- 35:38They're in on their phones or they're on a mission.
- 35:42And I am like that too a lot of times.
- 35:44But I tried to remind myself to look at people and if they look
- 35:49at me, I smile at them. And I think that is how would
- 35:53you say is a starter so that she got that's so unusual.
- 35:59But the main thing here is that your speech be seasoned with,
- 36:03with salt, that in Proverbs it says this, the wise in heart.
- 36:10And again, here we're still talking about wisdom.
- 36:12I mean, this is part of the wisdom.
- 36:14The wise in heart shall be called prudent, and the
- 36:17sweetness of the lips increases. Learning, understanding is a
- 36:24wellspring of life. Unto him that hath it.
- 36:27But the instruction of the fools is folly.
- 36:30The heart of the wise teaches his mouth and addeth learning to
- 36:35his lips, and pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the
- 36:40soul and health to the bones. So that I think sums that's up
- 36:46pretty well. And there's many other verses
- 36:48that talk about our speech and and our what we say.
- 36:53It should be learning, edifying, it should be sweet, it should be
- 37:00health, it should be uplifting and race right like you said
- 37:06that so. That's good stuff.
- 37:12Easier easier to read and talk about than it is to actually
- 37:15practice. Though.
- 37:18This is a tough one probably for most people because it is so
- 37:22easy to be focused. And if something breaks that
- 37:26focus, you get irritated. And it's just is, yeah, I, you
- 37:31know, since I was down in Mexico there for two weeks and back
- 37:34home now. And I just promised in my heart
- 37:36to walk slower and look around, take a little bit of time in
- 37:40your life to just, like, notice what's going on around you.
- 37:43And I tell you what, it makes a difference on how you look at
- 37:46it. It really does.
- 37:47And you will see me a lot fewer than if you're just fucking on a
- 37:51long hammer now, busy all the time.
- 37:54You've been in your own family of kids, for sure.
- 37:56And by the way, this applies to that, too.
- 37:58This is not every man includes your wife and your family and
- 38:02your kids and your siblings and family.
- 38:04That way to your spike. Amen.
- 38:05I was going to actually mention that it's sometimes easier to do
- 38:08this than those that are without than those are.
- 38:10Actually that are with you. Amen, Yeller.
- 38:16All right, I'm going to read a little chunk here.
- 38:19We're kind of into the last part of the Colossians 4 where
- 38:23basically the salutator. But verse 7.
- 38:27All my states shall hitechus declare unto you, who is a
- 38:31beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in
- 38:35the Lord, who might have sent unto you for the same purpose,
- 38:39that he might know your estate and comfort your heart with
- 38:43Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.
- 38:47They shall make known unto you all things which are done here
- 38:52again, you know in the flow of the I mean it's not an accident
- 38:57that he just got done talking about walking in wisdom towards
- 39:00those that were without redeeming the time, letting our
- 39:03speed be filled with grace and season salt.
- 39:06But then he owes any and he says these things.
- 39:09He shall make no note to you all the things that are done here.
- 39:11Any any comments on these few verses here Andrew?
- 39:16Well, you can always tell when Paul, he usually does the
- 39:21greetings things here at the end and here he does it more than in
- 39:26most of his letters. You can tell that Paul was
- 39:29really close with his fellow servants and fellow believers
- 39:33that were in a ministry. Man, they were close and he's
- 39:35like man in one place. He's like, I would almost pluck
- 39:38my eyes out for you and the other guys.
- 39:41Other places like my bowels were refreshed.
- 39:43I don't know how many times he talks about his bowels being
- 39:45refreshed. He's like man, coming together
- 39:48and fellowshipping together meant so much to Paul and he
- 39:52really appreciate it. And he said, you know this guy,
- 39:56however you pronounce that, he said that guy there, he's he
- 39:59knows what your situation is and he's going to come over, he's
- 40:03going to comfort your hearts. So I think that's what believers
- 40:07do. They comfort the hearts of the
- 40:09people. Even if I'm in bad shape and an
- 40:14unbeliever if I. Interact with a believer.
- 40:18I should feel something that is different, like Dan was saying.
- 40:24I really like, really like how Dan explained that last verse we
- 40:29just discussed. I just got to thinking, you
- 40:32know, there's people that can confront you about what is wrong
- 40:36in your life. That is done in a graceful,
- 40:39ministering way, in a spirit that actually is.
- 40:42Even though it's a negative, it's a positive where it
- 40:46actually, you know what, that's true.
- 40:50It hurts, but I'm glad I'm no longer hiding behind this false
- 40:55idea that I'm getting away with it or that I'm it's a good
- 40:59exposing of like, you know what, that's right.
- 41:02And that's kind of refreshing that someone just said it.
- 41:04Like it's about a time someone just said it out loud, but I
- 41:07already knew my heart was there and and then just not.
- 41:14I want to learn how to do it or it's not feel like I'm just
- 41:18always negative and bringing judgement on people are like,
- 41:21why can't you guys get your act together?
- 41:23You're always just trying to see we can get away with that season
- 41:27with salt. Definitely a challenge that is
- 41:29far greater than talking about it like you guys said.
- 41:32But I just like how Paul really always names everyone by name
- 41:37like he's doing here and says, look, these guys, they're good.
- 41:41Hear what they have to say. They they got your best interest
- 41:44in mind. They will comfort your heart.
- 41:46And I want to be that person that someone would say, hey,
- 41:50Andrew's going to be in town. You should have them over for
- 41:52supper. That should be the case.
- 41:53But that somebody would note, if they invite me over, it's going
- 41:56to be a positive time. And I don't know that it's that
- 42:00way. You know, I I'm sometimes a real
- 42:02butt, you know, so. Oh, I'd have any time, Andrew.
- 42:08You can come over at my house, Andrew, anytime.
- 42:13But it's just, it's just, it's, it's the way it is, you know?
- 42:16It's it's a good reminder for sure.
- 42:18Yeah. I, I like their what he says
- 42:20their purpose was, according to Paul, was that he might know
- 42:23your estate so he might know how you're doing and that they might
- 42:27come for your hearts. That's pretty cool.
- 42:28Yeah. Yeah, we live in a day of
- 42:31technology and communications as as you guys are all seeing right
- 42:35now, I can see how Andrew's do and I can see how Leanne and
- 42:38Melvin are doing to a degree. But it was very important to the
- 42:43Apostle Paul. Like he said, I long to see your
- 42:46face and the flesh at some points, right.
- 42:48And so on one hand, he he's pointing out all the people who
- 42:51he really appreciates. He's not afraid to name names
- 42:53and give them praise and and tell the church to pay attention
- 42:56to such and such and such and such.
- 42:58You know, like he's very quick to do that.
- 43:00And he wants to know genuinely how they are doing at Colossae.
- 43:05He had had a good report of them already.
- 43:07He had heard of their faith and their love and all of that.
- 43:10And so it's from the day he, I've heard of it.
- 43:12He hasn't ceased to give thanks. And yet he still wants to know,
- 43:16are you still doing well? Are you still doing well?
- 43:19How are you doing now? Right.
- 43:20And so I know years ago, I had kind of started a habit.
- 43:23I don't know if I heard someone else do it first or what.
- 43:25But, you know, my opening conversation was like, hey, are
- 43:29you still rejoicing? And it can be a little bit
- 43:32obnoxious sometimes, but sometimes a question like that
- 43:35is a little bit differently than how are you doing?
- 43:38Good, good. OK, we're all good.
- 43:40So sometimes if you have a pointed question like, hey, are
- 43:43you doing well? You know, just phrasing it
- 43:46different can sometimes bring out some of that.
- 43:48And I think the Apostle Paul was concerned about their estate and
- 43:52he wanted them to know also actually how he was doing.
- 43:55He wanted somebody to come from his group and go and tell them
- 43:59this is what Paul's actually going through.
- 44:01You've heard this and this and this, but this is really where
- 44:04he's at. And so I think it's it's
- 44:06important that we share those kinds of details in each other's
- 44:09lives and be open to share where we're at with with different
- 44:13things, right? Yeah.
- 44:15No, that's pretty good. Yeah, I one thing I noticed
- 44:19about Paul, he he is very like you said, he's very adamant
- 44:24about the people that ministered with him and the church and the
- 44:28body, but he's also about those that are without right.
- 44:33And so I but I think it almost seems like he's, I don't know if
- 44:38this is totally true like throughout the Scriptures, but
- 44:42it seems like if we do good to the household of faith, like it
- 44:46says in Galatians 610. If as we have therefore
- 44:49opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
- 44:53that are the household of faith. So if if we are concerned about
- 44:58our fellow believers in Jesus and our brothers in Christ and
- 45:04sisters in Christ, then that is going to should flow
- 45:09automatically into those that are without as well, right?
- 45:12And so that's one thing I noticed about that.
- 45:14I noticed about Paul. He really is concerned about the
- 45:20body and the church and how they're doing and comforting
- 45:23them and wanting to see them again and speak to them and
- 45:28have, I know in Thessalonians, I just thought First Thessalonians
- 45:323 and there he sent Timothys to comfort to it says comfort
- 45:39wherever they're lacking in their faith.
- 45:41And there's things like that. You see that throughout the
- 45:43scripture. Yeah.
- 45:46I was cracking my I was cracking myself up about what happened
- 45:50Sunday at church. My neighbors, my neighbor came
- 45:58for the first time, him and his son, they were never here before
- 46:04and afterwards it's like, man, this was so uplifting.
- 46:09I've never been a part of something where actually just
- 46:12uplifting. It's like I'm used to getting, I
- 46:14thought churches where you go get beat up and you feel like
- 46:17crap when you leave. So it's like, yeah, you were all
- 46:22bend over waiting to get smacked and I never came, did it?
- 46:30Kind of it's kind of like sad, you know, the churches are have
- 46:35kind of thought the way to get people to repent and to get
- 46:38serious is to tell them how awful they are and how that they
- 46:42need to get their act together and get a good spanking and get
- 46:46all convicted and get try to stir up some revival and
- 46:50seriousness again. But the way he was lit up and
- 46:53his son were lit up, by just hearing the good news again,
- 46:58it's that's in my mind, season with salt and grace and love.
- 47:02I hope so. Amen.
- 47:05That's right. I like what Dan mentioned a
- 47:07little bit about, you know, asking how we how we really are
- 47:11doing because oftentimes like we'll walk in into work morning
- 47:14and hey, John, how you doing? You know, Yep, doing good.
- 47:17But every once in a while it's actually good to pause.
- 47:20And I'll ask especially like the leaders, like how you doing?
- 47:23Like actually, are you feeling overwhelmed?
- 47:26Too much load, not enough, you know what's going on?
- 47:28Tell me how many how you're feeling because that's important
- 47:31to not only me, but to our organization.
- 47:34Because if you're not doing good, I don't I don't know how
- 47:36you can expect to handle the load or whatever.
- 47:39And that really should be our attitude to each other as as
- 47:43brother, like we should actually take a little bit of interest in
- 47:46how you actually are doing because that that affects that
- 47:50body. If you have an ouchie there, I
- 47:52mean, if what around it, it does in some way or another.
- 47:54So, yeah, all right, I'm going to read a bunch more.
- 48:00You're trying to wrap this up. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoners
- 48:08to Barnabas, touching who he received commandments, if he
- 48:12came unto you, receive him and Jesus, which is called justice,
- 48:16who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers
- 48:20unto the Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort to me.
- 48:25Epaphos, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you,
- 48:29always laboring fervently with you in all prayers, that you may
- 48:33be, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of
- 48:37God. I'll stop here, but just
- 48:40briefly. To me again, it's showing me
- 48:44what Paul's purpose was here when he says things like always
- 48:48laboring fervently for you in prayers.
- 48:51Why was he praying for him that you may stand perfect and
- 48:54complete in all the will of God. That's kind of where he started
- 48:57in chapter 1 with actually his will is Paul wanted the
- 49:02believers to be standing in perfection and complete will of
- 49:08God that that's a noble goal, isn't it really when we get
- 49:13about we'd like them to act right, but he wants them to be
- 49:17completed all the will of God. That's that's noble, Andrew.
- 49:21Yep. His fellows.
- 49:22Prisoners salute you, you know, and names.
- 49:25All these people. Receive them.
- 49:27They're got your best interest in mind.
- 49:30He comforted me. He's going to comfort you, You
- 49:33know, they're they're fellow workers into the Kingdom.
- 49:36It's good that we can recommend people.
- 49:39I'm glad that I know might the group of people that I can
- 49:42recommend to people is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and
- 49:46I hope to see it's just keep spreading bigger and bigger
- 49:49names and people that I can say. Yeah.
- 49:52What are you at? Well, go you should go check
- 49:54this guy out. He's legit.
- 49:56He's he's got your interest in mind.
- 49:58How did that? I was just talking to guys just
- 50:01before we came on here about, you know, a pastor's role, about
- 50:05getting out and doing stuff like you almost have to be a paid
- 50:09pastor in order to do a good job.
- 50:11And I said, no, you don't. I was like the people, when the
- 50:14people reach out, when the people have people over, when
- 50:18the people, the church members, they go and visit the sick, It's
- 50:23a ministry like it's a body of believers.
- 50:26I don't have to go visit the guy in the hospital because 10 of
- 50:30the families went and visited him and you know, you know,
- 50:34we've made it to where all the pastor has to do this and the
- 50:37pastor has to be there. No, the body of Christ is there
- 50:40for everyone. And man, I, I like that that's a
- 50:44grassroots approach that can the, the church can spread
- 50:48across the whole country. But I can still go to work and
- 50:52have a family life and do my own thing and I can minister without
- 50:56getting paid because I got time to work.
- 50:58Because there's other families that are biting people over for
- 51:01supper. There's other families going,
- 51:02visiting the sick, the poor and meeting needs.
- 51:05It's not, we don't need to be paid to minister.
- 51:08We can spread the work around. Amen.
- 51:12Hey, man, that's good right there, Dan.
- 51:15Yeah, there's a lot of little points here that we could touch
- 51:18on, but I'll I'll skip over some of the things that I would like
- 51:20to that. I think you already did very
- 51:22good job on Leon about the standing complete and all the
- 51:24will of God. The thing that I would like to
- 51:26point out is that Epaphras is one of you.
- 51:30And so I like to always pull out this and say, do you belong
- 51:34somewhere? Is there a group somewhere that
- 51:36we can say he is one of them? You know, sometimes we've used
- 51:41that almost as a derogatory term, like, oh, he's an Amish or
- 51:44he oh, he's this kind of group or he's that kind of group.
- 51:47But there should be a group of people somewhere that recognize
- 51:50you as one of them. And so I like that Hypophorus.
- 51:54He, he was one of the Colossi people.
- 51:57He belonged there. He was maybe born there, I don't
- 51:59know. They recognized him as one of
- 52:02their own. And then it says there, and I
- 52:04don't think you read this verse, but he says I bear him record
- 52:07that he hath a great zeal for you and for them at Laodicea and
- 52:11them in Higheropolis. So this Apophis fella, he was
- 52:15really passionate about those folks in the Colossi area and
- 52:18those other towns. He, he just bore a lot of, he
- 52:22had a lot of zeal towards them. He wanted all of those people in
- 52:25that region to come to know the Lord and all those that already
- 52:28know the to know already know the Lord, to be comforted and
- 52:31encouraged in the faith. Amen.
- 52:34That was his goal, Delvin. Yeah, you guys cover it pretty
- 52:38well. The only thing that stood out to
- 52:41me, what you were saying that as well, Andrew, is that in verse
- 52:4511 he said he stopped talking about Jesus, which is called
- 52:50justice. He says these only are my fellow
- 52:53workers unto the Kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto
- 52:56me. So he calls them fellow workers
- 52:59and I like that. You know, the Paul was not the
- 53:02only one. He was in prison most of the
- 53:04time, right? So he couldn't be out there, you
- 53:06know, sharing the gospel and there was people that he brought
- 53:09to Christ that were doing that. And I think that is key right
- 53:13there. The whole body needs to be
- 53:16working together, ministering, sharing the gospel, not just the
- 53:19pastor or the elders or whoever is in leadership.
- 53:25Why does it say these only are my fellow workers in the Kingdom
- 53:28of God? I don't know, that's a good
- 53:33question. I noticed, I don't know if those
- 53:38were ones that were like just beside him, like working hand in
- 53:43hand with him, you know, as opposed to those that were in
- 53:46other areas or what I don't. Know yeah, right after that he
- 53:49mentions Epaphyrus and Demas and Luke and a bunch of others yet
- 53:52also, but he just mentions these couple these few and and a
- 53:56particular these ones that were of the circumcision these only,
- 54:01you know, and some might say that the Kingdom of God was the
- 54:04Jewish thing, which I always I know the Kingdom of heaven is
- 54:07the Jewish thing, but is he making some kind of Jewish
- 54:10reference there or is it just he's just he's listing them all
- 54:14and he's just happens to mention in the middle of that list that
- 54:16all these people are my only fellow workers.
- 54:19I'm not sure. Maybe they were his only Jewish
- 54:22fellow workers. Yeah, that could be.
- 54:25I don't know, I don't know for sure, I don't know. 13 For I
- 54:34bear him record, that he has a great zeal for you and them that
- 54:38are in Laodicea, and though them in Hierapolis.
- 54:43Luke the beloved physician, and Demas greet you, salute the
- 54:47brethren which are at Laodicea and Memphis, and the church
- 54:50which is in his house. When this Epistle ran among you,
- 54:55cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans,
- 55:00and that they that ye likewise read the appeal from Laodicea,
- 55:05and say to our Chippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou
- 55:09hath received in the Lord, that thou fulfill the citation by the
- 55:14hand of me. Paul, remember my bonds.
- 55:18Grace be with you. Amen.
- 55:21Any other comments on that before we close, Andrew?
- 55:25This more of encouragement and keep name more and more people
- 55:29and you can very clearly see that he's completely resolved in
- 55:33one cause and that is to bring bring more people into the fold
- 55:37into the body of Christ. And he's using all his weapons.
- 55:41He's naming all his weapons in the warfare, all the people that
- 55:44are involved and he's just there's a bunch of them.
- 55:46There's a whole you can tell there's a whole group and their
- 55:50their vision is not just just in that area.
- 55:54They're going out. They're going to all these
- 55:56different villages, different towns and he's like, look, don't
- 55:59just read this there to read it here and there and everywhere.
- 56:02Like let's get the word out. Let's part of that might have
- 56:07been, hey, they need to know who's who's good, who Paul
- 56:09basically endorses as this evangelist.
- 56:13Like this is one of the good ones because they're remember
- 56:16there was a lot of false prophets right at that time.
- 56:19There's a lot of false teachers that Paul had a real issue with.
- 56:22There's a lot of those that would desire to bring them into
- 56:24some kind of bondage in Galatians said there's a lot of
- 56:27bewitching going on. Earlier in this book.
- 56:29There was a lot of spoiling of the gospel, perverting of the
- 56:32gospel. Like, you know, he, he, he came
- 56:36down hard on the corruption. And then he says here at the
- 56:39end, OK, these guys are good. Listen to these guys, they're
- 56:43legit. Like they're not here spoiling
- 56:45you. I, I think maybe that's why he
- 56:47said, I don't, also don't know why he said only these, but
- 56:50maybe he's making a point. OK, these are the only ones that
- 56:53are legit. The guys I'm naming, listen to
- 56:56these guys. The other guys, they're trying
- 56:58to spoil the gospel. Yeah, he says in other places
- 57:05that everybody had left him except for such and such and
- 57:08that kind of thing, right? And then here there's a few
- 57:10other things. He points out all the people
- 57:12that he appreciates. But when he points out Arcupus
- 57:16in verse 17, it almost sounds like he's publicly kind of
- 57:22rebuking him a little bit. Like, take heed to the ministry
- 57:25which you've received to the Lord, and that thou fulfill it.
- 57:28Maybe he had heard somewhere that he had kind of lost his
- 57:30steam and he wasn't preaching quite as passionately anymore or
- 57:34he wasn't serving in the same capacity.
- 57:36And he publicly addresses to everybody, but he says, our
- 57:40kippus, you know, I want you to step it up and make sure that
- 57:43you're doing what you were called to do.
- 57:46And then also one small point about the the church which is in
- 57:50his house, as most people should know, for the first several 100
- 57:55years of the Christian Church, there were no church buildings.
- 57:59The Saints gathered in homes that are people's places.
- 58:02And so you see this kind of wording at the end of these
- 58:04letters quite often where the church that meets at so and so's
- 58:08house. Ultimately there is only one
- 58:10true church, 1 body of Christ. But in the Bible it refers to
- 58:15each group as a church also. And so the church at Colossi
- 58:20probably met in many different locations, but Papyrus was one
- 58:24of them. And then this guy is writing
- 58:26from the church that from Nymphis, the church that is of
- 58:30in his house, right? So there's this group, kind of
- 58:33they kind of stuck together. Sometimes we think, well,
- 58:36everybody's the church. So why can't I just go visit all
- 58:38the churches? Well, because then nobody knows
- 58:40you and you know, nobody. You need to belong somewhere.
- 58:43You need to be with people. You need to be at 1, you know,
- 58:47with a certain group. And so I think you ought to meet
- 58:49somewhere. Yes, you can meet with other
- 58:51people also, but you should be known and should know people.
- 58:54So a lot more could be said on these little ending notes, but
- 58:59that's what I've got for now. Melvin.
- 59:03Yeah, I like what he says in verse 16.
- 59:04He says, and when this epistle is read among you calls that it
- 59:09be read also in the Church of the latter Seans, and that you
- 59:12likewise read the epistle from Latticea.
- 59:15So here we are. You're right, we just went
- 59:18through this epistle and we can read it today.
- 59:22We take this for granted. I think we take sometimes we
- 59:24take the the Bible and the word of God for for granted.
- 59:27At that time they didn't have Bibles yet, right?
- 59:30And so this letter, he's saying he wants them to read it among
- 59:35the Colossians church there churches, like you were saying,
- 59:38Dan, but he also says, Hey, go share it with the Latticeans and
- 59:43also read the epistol. I wrote the Latticeans, so I
- 59:48just, I thought that was really interesting.
- 59:50So let's just not forget what we have with the Bibles we have and
- 59:54the Word of God we have today. Yeah, that's right.
- 59:58And that that's why he told, he put great emphasis on the fact
- 1:00:02that this is read, make sure 'cause it to be read.
- 1:00:07He wanted this letter to be read.
- 1:00:09And that's that's why I think it's important to do just what
- 1:00:11you were saying, Melvin. Do and instead of topical kind
- 1:00:15of preaching or studying, it's just going by verse and and and
- 1:00:19not in depth so bad that you that you forget what he's
- 1:00:21actually writing about and what he's saying.
- 1:00:24But to just read it and understand what he meant because
- 1:00:27him it was important that they read these letters and
- 1:00:30understood what he was writing. I think it's important for us,
- 1:00:33like with a topic, too often we run off on a tangent maybe
- 1:00:37rather than just seeing what the the whole of it is.
- 1:00:39So that's that's good information.
- 1:00:44All right, I guess we're going to call it quits for the book at
- 1:00:47Colossians. I don't know about y'all, but I
- 1:00:49was blessed by it for sure going through this.
- 1:00:53So I hope all of you were not let us know and we'll try to
- 1:00:59step it up somehow. If you were praise God that he
- 1:01:03he gave us some really good information.
- 1:01:06Couple things. If you want to see the whole
- 1:01:08series, go to Simply Christ Ministries.
- 1:01:11The links to all the different videos on YouTube and Facebook
- 1:01:13are there. And don't forget if you want to
- 1:01:17listen to this live TuneIn Wednesday mornings Central 6:00
- 1:01:23central AM 6:00 AM central 7:00 Eastern if you want to catch a
- 1:01:29live. Otherwise it'll still go out and
- 1:01:31podcasts and be recorded Facebook and all the other
- 1:01:33places. As well I got a question, is it
- 1:01:36going to be this Wednesday or next Wednesday?
- 1:01:39Oh yeah, well, it'll be in 10 days, not this coming Wednesday,
- 1:01:43but next week it'll be on Wednesday.
- 1:01:45So and we'll, we'll have a subject.
- 1:01:49If if anybody, including you guys on here, have a subject
- 1:01:53that you would like to discuss, get ahold of me.
- 1:01:55We will be talking amongst ourselves in the chat.
- 1:01:58Me, if you have a good idea of a book or a subject, whatever,
- 1:02:02please let us know. And I'm going to hang on just a
- 1:02:04second because Jerry is still typing if he has anything else.
- 1:02:09Calvinism. Talk about Calvinism.
- 1:02:16Well then we just talk about what we couldn't help ourselves.
- 1:02:19We just say whatever we were supposed to say and that would
- 1:02:21be a try this. I don't know if I want to be
- 1:02:24that depressed to talk about that.
- 1:02:27Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, it's good.
- 1:02:33Like I personally like books it, it gives a great flow of the
- 1:02:37conversation, but I'm open to whatever.
- 1:02:39So anyway, yes, Gary, you will still be getting the text
- 1:02:44messages. We will set the reminder for an
- 1:02:46hour prior. So you'll be getting a text at
- 1:02:515:30 AM. So if that bothers you, you'll
- 1:02:54have to unsubscribe I guess. Or maybe we said that the night
- 1:02:57before, we should probably actually said that the night
- 1:02:59before. Maybe we'll just send it the
- 1:03:01night before at 8:00, a reminder instead of bugging everyone at
- 1:03:045:30 in the morning because there's plenty of people that
- 1:03:06get that back. So all right, sounds good.
- 1:03:09God bless you guys. Have a great week.
- 1:03:11And don't forget to let your speech be seasoned with grace
- 1:03:15and with salt this week. Think that'd be an extra
- 1:03:17excellent exercise. God bless you.