Open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 4. Now a few weeks back, I had a message out of Colossians chapter 2. I have several other ones between Colossians 2 and 4, but I brought this one today. We may go back and look at some others, but not today. I know some of you here probably had some training, refresher courses, I don't know what all they call them, safety, safety meetings at work. In the trucking world, if you're driving a commercial truck, every day you're supposed to do your pre-checks, your walk-around inspection, your daily inspections they call them. John's sitting there reminiscing about his everyday doing. They're actually, in the trucking world, they're a daily requirement. You're required to do it. It is a violation of the statute, violation of the law, but if you do not and you are actually liable If you have an accident and any of your safety equipment is, you did not check it that morning. Lights, you're supposed to check your lights, you're supposed to check your air system if you've got air brakes. All of the safety things you're supposed to check. We sung a song, one of the songs we sang talked about the fleeting breath. Now hopefully you remember which song that was because we sang it and it's here during worship and that's what we're here for. So hopefully you were paying attention to that and fleeting breath. We have a fleeting breath. Our breath is fleeting. One day we will not take another breath. And I've talked about this in safety meetings, I've talked about this. Many times I've mentioned this, I know Marshall's heard me say this over and over again, and that is, when you do something, you know it's risky, you do it, and disaster happens. And you think, when that happens, whether it's you get physically hurt, you hurt a piece of equipment, You possibly hurt somebody else, somebody else gets hurt, you destroy some company equipment, you destroy your own, and you think for a moment, if I would have just taken that extra second, I don't know why I did that, why did I do that, why did I take that extra five seconds, extra minute, extra 30 minutes, why didn't I go get this? And then, fortunately, most of the time, those things are replaceable, repairable, but sometimes they're not. The song we just sang, the reason I changed that song was because it kind of goes along with the message here. Talking about molding and shaping us into the will of God. That's what our sanctification is doing. Our sanctification is working in us to make us to become more like our Savior, the Lord Jesus. When some of us are in a different, some of us, there's several different stages of life. There's all stages of life actually represented right here. in this room, and obviously the children, the small children, the infants, they're in a stage, right? Adolescents are in a stage. People with families, children at home, they're in a stage, the family is. Those of us with families that are gone from our home, they're now making their own families, that's a stage. And then there's some of us that, those families went and made their own stage, there's others making their families. And now you're looking at the stage thinking, what's my next stage? Like the old joke used to be in the adult Sunday school class at our former church, the only way you got out of there was to die. That's how you moved on from that class. But each of those stages in life, think about them, those of you who've passed through a stage, Think about how much you look back at the prior stage, or the prior two or three stages of life, and you think, if you'd have taken some time then, or you didn't know then, if you knew now what you knew then, and all those things, they're just cliches, they go on and on and on. But how about being molded and being shaped into the will of God, and the work that we put into that, and the time that we spend on it? Really, every worldly thing, most worldly things, in their inception, were designed to distract us from God. Now, does that mean we can't do any worldly things? Absolutely does not mean that. We are to be in the world, just not of the world. That means if we're in the world, we go out and we function in the world, we can enjoy things that are enjoyable, as long as we give the credit to God, and as long as those things don't lead us away from godliness. So that the psalm, the hymn we sing, the holiness in shaping us into the will of God, it is an urgent thing for us to do. It is an urgent exercise for us to do. The urgency of it cannot be stressed enough. And the problem that we all have, all of us that are believers, and those of you who are not believers, the problem that you have is you don't, you just think that this time that you have seems to be endless. But as we get older, we realize that time is not endless, it seems. And imagine I have been at the deathbed with people maybe four or five times. I've conversed with people before they died in some of their last breaths a couple of times. And I remember spending quite a bit of time with someone before they died and them talking about and realizing the things that they were not going to be able to do. We need to redeem the time as much as we can. That's my point. In the company that Marshall works for, they had a young man that was driving a truck, and he didn't fasten his seatbelt. And he had an accident, and a young man with a young family, and in an up-and-coming career, you know, no doubt to get to the point he was at, he had to work pretty hard to get to there. And he didn't, he didn't, he simply didn't put his seatbelt on and he had a wreck. And because of that and being the cab of a 36,000 pound truck, he got jostled around, broke his back and, and, and was paralyzed. And so, and it was so disturbing to the, to the higher ups there that they had a, a conference call with everybody. And the owner says, you know, tells everybody, trucks are disposable. You know, we buy the best trucks, we buy the best equipment, they're all disposable. I can replace trucks, but I can't replace this. I can't replace this. I can't make him walk. And the owner's point was, take the time to do the safety things that we provide for you. Be safe. Imagine that young man, he just wants to go back. He wants to change things. He lost that time. We're losing time every day. Every day that goes by. Every time that we compromise and that we think that we'll do this tomorrow or we think that we should do this thing or whatever, we lose another day. We lose another minute. And the older you get, and you can talk to anybody that's older than you, it doesn't matter. They'll tell you how precious, and you get to the older person that's been through many moments, and they'll tell you how much more precious those moments are. But imagine those moments that you could have done things that would have been for the ministry of the Lord making you like Him that you miss out on. Those are the things that you're going to. It's not going to be the things that entertain you and take you away. It's going to be those things that you're going to be thinking about. All right, Colossians here. Let's go to Colossians 4. We'll start out in verse 7. And I said all that. There's work here at this church to be done. There's work that's been done. There's work that we've been doing here. I made mention of that a few weeks ago. There's so much that we, Scott and David and I specifically, that goes on that You won't know about it if we don't tell you about it. If we don't tell you that Scott and I was talking here discussing the next few weeks and Scott's talking about things that he needs to do, sacrifices he's made, things he's not done, put off doing because he's been doing things here. We have to let you know that. You need to know that. You need to know that getting prepared for messages takes time, but it's all... we're not complaining. It's a privilege and it's an honor. But let's get to our text here. Colossians 4, verse 7. I'm going to read 7 through the end of the chapter. Tychus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant of the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts with Onesimus, a faithful, beloved brother who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice. These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, who are of the circumcision. They have proved to be a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you. And those are in Laodicea, and those in Heropapolis, Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphos the church that is in his house. Now in Now when this apostle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea, and say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. This salutation by my own hand, Paul, remember my chains, grace be to you. Now that is quite a list of names of people that we've been given here. As a note, and I'm gonna talk about this in a minute, in verse 15, Nemphis and the church that is in his house, that is probably more likely her house, not his. If you ever wanna have something to burn up some time, you can look into that. but that is probably a more accurate translation that it actually was her house, it was a her, not a him. Anyway, it's quite a list of people. But the most basic thing that we can learn is that these people are functioning towards a common end. In the church, they are seeking to build up the church and its effort to reach more people for Christ and then to be strengthened in the church. In our generation here, in our culture in America, in this generation, we tend to be very individualistic. We have our own ways of doing things, we're our own individual. And it's the emphasis on most of the things that we see around us is, it's emphasized on Whatever you want to do, you should be able to do. You should be able to do whatever you want, any way you want. We can take a church, or we can leave a church, as it suits us. I don't know if you've had, I'm sure that you have met people who have their own beliefs in God, and they may read the scripture, they may claim to be Christians, but they think of churches in general are more of a nuisance than anything else, and they don't participate, and they don't want to participate. And most of the time, that is usually somebody who's been involved, and they may have been greatly involved, and they've been what they think was burnt, or they feel that they weren't recognized in some way, and so they just don't show up. They won't participate. There are others who will show up as it suits them and participate, they're participating just however that may please them, but they're not, that is when they're not getting the chance to do something else. In other words, they're gonna come, but it's as long as they don't have anything else that's more important to do. These people that we look at here, these were definitely not those kind of people. They were people that were quite committed to one another, to the Church of Christ, and to serve the Church of Christ with their lives. And this is what our model should be, to serve Christ just as these people did. These people provide a great example in various ways that we're going to look at. So, looking back, This is going to be, we've read the last part of Colossians here. The very first words of the first chapter had to do with grounding in faith in the church, knowing who Christ is. He is God himself who comes to reconcile man to himself. That's the first place and that's where it starts at. Chapter 2 warned the Church to be guarded from error. There's all this worldly philosophy, man's ideas of improving mankind, that isn't true, and we need to be guarded against this in order to be directed in truth according to the Word of God. If then we are directed in truth according to the Word of God, we will be able to grow in our faith and our relationship to God. We'll be seeking the things above, focused on the things above where Christ is, In that, we focus our mind on the things above, we will be able to set apart sin from our life and put righteousness, and put on righteousness, and we will become more and more personally and individually holy. But holiness isn't just for the sake of holiness in and of itself, it's to be fruitful in this life and then to bless those that are around us. starting in Colossians 3.18 to the end of chapter 4, is talking about how to grow in church in relation to others. So as we become holy and serving God more completely, we will be fruitful. And there is instruction then given to families, to slaves, to masters, to evangelism, and now how the church itself should function. So we'll look first at how the church should be pursuing God as it relates to itself. Verses 7-9 have to do with people. Tychus, Onesimus, and their faithfulness. They are both called faithful. They're both called brothers. So first we'll look at Tychus. Tychus we find in several other places in the scripture. We find him in Acts 20, verse 4. as one of the companions of Paul of Thessalonica. Then in Ephesians 6.21, we find him being sent to the Ephesians to encourage them. We also see in 2 Timothy 4.12, he's sent there as well. In Titus 3.12, he's being sent to Crete by Paul, and here he's now sent then to the Colossians. So he becomes kind of a sort of liaison from Paul to the churches. He's been commissioned to go to various places and minister on Paul's behalf. Now, this happens today, but obviously in a different way through our missionaries and that sort of thing. But it also, when we're considering the context of what we're reading about in the New Testament, we have to remember the logistics that are involved and relate them to today. So sometimes if we think about, imagine the miles, if you knew all the miles that each one of us here covered in a weekly basis, the total number of miles. Like maybe we're here at one place, we're having a transaction here, we're over here at this place. We cover and we interact with so many more people in such a broader area than what we often see in the scriptures. We have to keep that in mind. So we think a lot of times, some of this doesn't, how would this apply to us? And if you keep that in mind, it helps you to understand how would we relate this that we read in the New Testament to us today. So we are to, We're to minister to the people that we're around. That's what's going on here. Now, obviously it's being sent to these groups of people, these churches, and that here in our church, we have to organize, we have to make our plans, we have to, you know, in these last year we've had to, well last more than that, we've had to make plans to be prepared for Sunday mornings and that this is what's going on, this is what's being written of and addressing issues here. They don't have phones, they don't have ways to communicate, they have to send somebody. When there's something that they know of that's going on that needs to be handled, they have to send someone. That Paul sent people to certain places to function, or because of their functioning, is what the ministry was. Today for us, and in most of our lives, it's gonna be the people that we work with, our families, the people that we can minister to, that we have opportunity to have influence in their life. Then there's another person that's Onesimus. Onesimus we learn about in the book of Philemon. The book of Philemon is written to Philemon, who was a master who had Onesimus as a slave and he ran away. He abandoned his master and in his fleeting he ran across Paul in Rome. Paul, when he's writing this book of Colossians, he's writing the book of Philemon as well. He's in Rome. he's in prison. So in his imprisonment, he came across Onesimus, who was a runaway slave. He encouraged Onesimus to go back to Philomen, to Philomen. In order for Philomen to receive Onesimus back, he is sending a letter, that is the letter of Philomen to Philomen to encourage him to receive Onesimus, to welcome him back. And if he caused any harm, if there's anything he did, to cause him any harm, Paul says, charge it to my account. Now, I've heard people use that term flippantly. I've heard people say, oh, you take care of him, whatever he needs, I'll take care of it. Most of the time, they don't count the cost, what that really means. I don't think Paul did that. I think we can, by knowing what we know about Paul, I think we can I think it'd be safe to say that anything that he did, Paul was willing to make the sacrifice to make right. There's so many things that we're so skewed by because of our own understanding. The reason he does this is because Onesimus has embraced Christ in Rome. And in his faith in Christ, he is now a faithful and beloved brother. Verse nine says, who's one of your numbers? So we learn from him that Onesimus is from Colossae, and we learn that Philemon must too then be from the same place. Onesimus is considered faithful, and is part of this journey, and is part of this journey with Tychus. to then inform the church of Colossae about Paul and his situation. So Paul then is entrusting Onesimus with his journey. He has a high regard for him, obviously. Which means he must have saw, he must have recognized the change in him. So in Onesimus we find a great example then of forgiveness. Even though he had abandoned his master, he has been forgiven. Now there's a great picture there for us if we just look at it. He's not only forgiven of any debt to Philemon, he is considered worthy of this task of being taken back with this letter. The letter of Colossians was being delivered with Tychus to Onesimus and also the letter of Aluminum was being delivered to these people back to the Colossians. They're called faithful and their faithfulness we can learn some things. Their faithfulness shows their concern in the information that's being given. They've been entrusted with information and they've learned this information because of their concern. Their concern for Paul and their concern for the church at Colossae and that they're willing to be the deliverers of this information. Their concern is seen in their gathering and the delivering of the information. In their faithfulness we also see that they're working together, they're cooperating together. Their cooperation can be found then in their participation, their willingness to go, and to serve, then, in this function. There's obviously, from the writings that we know, obviously this wouldn't have been just a flippant situation. This was serious. They were being entrusted with serious business. This isn't just to go across town, this is traveling This is traveling a long distance in their time. Since their participation in this journey was no small undertaking, because the travel, the journey, was difficult. But, in verses eight and nine, we see the comforting. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they will make known to you all things which are happening here. They're gonna inform you about this whole situation. They're gonna tell you everything. Their visitation, their willingness to travel, and to be with the church shows their faithfulness and comfort and encouragement. So, what's our lesson in that? There's comfort and encouragement in visiting one another, in participating and being willing and able to go and to share information and to have fellowship. As opposed to many today in modern churches that come in, sit, listen, and leave. They don't participate. There's no bearing of each other's burdens. There's no listening to each other's what's happening, what's been going on this week. There's no encouraging each other to minister to others. There's no ministering amongst themselves, amongst each other. What percentage of church members do you think today are like that? Not here. Here and everywhere. Wouldn't there be a If all these things... How many churches are meeting this morning that claim that the Bible is everything, right? Okay, well then if all those people left those churches and came out and behaved that a ways, wouldn't everything change overnight, seemingly? How many people are going and sitting? Maybe they are sharing. Maybe they do talk. as long as they get to talk, as long as they get to tell their story, that there's no ministering. We must be participating in order to be all of what God really has designed us to be as Christians functioning in His church. These people, in this almost almost boring part of scripture here seems to be. Right, we don't pull no great big doctrines out of here. There's no really controversial doctrines here. This isn't something that people, none of this is much that anybody ever quotes much, right? but they're models for us and they show us what we should be and we should follow their example. These are counted as faithful people. Look at Onesimus. He's been forgiven and being restored by Paul. There's another group of people, and that is the fellow workers. Our Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus called justice. First Aristarchus, we find out about Aristarchus in the book of Acts. In Acts, we find him with Paul. He's with Paul in the persecutions as Paul is being attacked. He's with Paul here in the imprisonment with Paul. He's willing to go and be with Paul and suffer for the sake of the kingdom of God. In verse 10, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice, these are my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, who are of the circumcision. They have proved to be a comfort to me. This person, Mark, is the same person who wrote the Gospel of Mark. This Mark is first seen in Acts chapter 13. He is seen in the first missionary journey. He goes with Paul and deserts Paul and leaves. So Paul, not wanting to have this repeated again in Acts 15, chooses not to want to have him with him as he goes on another missionary journey. Barnabas, on the other hand, finds Mark being worthy of coming along on their missionary journey and wants him to come with him. This created a sharp disagreement. And from this passage, Colossians 4.10, we get a little more insight because Mark is called Barnabas's cousin, or Barnabas's cousin. Maybe that gives us the understanding of why Barnabas would be more sympathetic to Mark and Paul less sympathetic to Mark in his departure. So Mark, also known as John Mark in the scriptures, went with Barnabas. In their disagreement, they felt it most effective for Barnabas to carry out a ministry in one place and Paul to carry out a ministry in another place. Acts takes this along, the route of Paul, and follows his ministry, and that's the last we see of Mark and Barnabas in the book of Acts. But we do find out more than about Mark later on. At the end of Paul's life, he met At the end of Paul's life, he felt Mark was so significant that he writes in 2 Timothy 4.11, So Paul changes his view full circle. Instead of seeing him as no useful service, he now sees him as useful and somebody who's helpful to him. So Mark is a good example of someone who has had a stumble and overcame that through a life of faithfulness. He finally shows up at the end of the book of Peter where Peter calls him my son Mark. This close relationship that he has with Mark, which gives him some insight into the Gospel of Mark. We can see Matthew wrote from Matthew's experiences, and John wrote from John's experiences. These Gospels, or those Gospels, as they were with Jesus. Mark wasn't with Jesus, but Mark is a close associate of Peter's, and Peter calls him my son. So we can find Peter's experiences and story coming out in the Gospel of Mark. And also, as you see in Peter's words in Acts 10 and Acts 11, you can see a lot of similarities with the Gospel of Mark. Mark was so important that he was given the role by God of writing the Gospel of Mark. But with the Church of Colossae, they might not have received him as quickly as they should have. This is why you have these words after Barbara's cousin Mark, these words, about whom you have received instruction. If he comes to you, welcome him. They may have heard about his disagreement between Barnabas and Paul and the failures of Mark, so Paul now needed to say, welcome him. Allow him to, if he comes to you, participate with you because he is faithful. The next person is Jesus called Justice. That's all we know about Jesus called Justice. We don't know any more information about him other than what's in this passage. Jesus called Justice, along with Aristarchus and Mark, are the only fellow workers of the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision. In other words, these are Jewish people and they were an encouragement. They were an encouragement because they served faithfully with and beside Paul. Now, something to think about as you minister to people, and this is where we are, this is part of us being in the world and not of the world, is you're not only ministering to the person or the people that you're ministering to, you're having another effect on those who are around that witness and can see. That is a, if you will, that's like a tertiary, like a secondary, like a secondary ministering. You can become an encouragement to those who are watching and who are wondering, has questions, while you're faithfully laboring with someone else in the ministry, or ministering to someone else. I'm saying the ministry, I don't mean that as that you're working in the church. I'm talking about out in your day-to-day life. We can serve one another by being encouraging in our faithfulness as other people to continue to serve faithfully. Their faithful ministry was an encouragement to Paul, those others that we see, as Paul's ministry was an encouragement then to others. And the next person that we have listed is Epaphras. In verse 12, Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in the will of God. for I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Herpapolis." Epaphras not only appears, or Epaphras only appears one other place in Scripture, and that's in Colossians 1-7. If we look at Colossians 1-7, we find he is a very significant individual in the beginnings of the Church of Colossae. Perhaps, maybe even the founding person. They have a hope that's been laid up for them that's come and is now then born fruit. So he had an important beginning role in the development of this church as well as his concerns for the Church of Laodicea and Herpapolis. These two towns were very close in the Colossae and they're near each other. Laodicea, as we're familiar with from the book of Revelations, there's a message from Jesus to the church of Laodicea, and he says that they are lukewarm. He would rather they be hot or cold, but because they are lukewarm, he will spit them out of his mouth unless they repent and change. So he calls them to change. And interesting historical geographical information about the Church of Laodicea is, it existed within the waters coming from Colossae, it existed with the waters coming from Colossae and Herpapolis. Now, still today, there are hot springs in Herpapolis and in Colossae. There were cold mineral waters, and those waters came to Laodicea and formed a lukewarm water. To give some historical background why Jesus used that reference to give them a greater sense of the lukewarmness, they need to be more fervent in their prayer and faith to repent. So Epaphras had a ministry to the Church of the Colossians. He had a ministry to the church of Laodicea and to the church of Herpapolis. In these churches, he was no longer able to be there. He was now with Paul in Rome. In spite of that, he prayed, and we can see that he can always, and he prayed for them, as we can see, and we're told to do, is we can serve others. If we can't do it any other way, we always, and we should, be serving with prayer. Even though Epaphras wasn't with him, he labored earnestly in his prayer, as we're told. He labored earnestly for them to stand firm. Paul sought Epaphras as praying and having ministry in his prayer so they can stand firm in the will of God and be perfected. So what does that mean for us? That means that we can have a ministry with people even if we don't contact them. Even if you have someone you're cut off from, even if you have someone you don't have any contact with, you still can minister to them through prayer. We have an example right here. Next is the favorite author. The favorite author, this is talked about, is Luke. There is a passing reference to Luke in Philemon, and there's another reference to him in 2 Timothy. 411 where Paul says only Luke is with me Luke remained faithful to him at the end of his life Luke's faithfulness is faithfulness is one reason why he's beloved and he was he was consistent and he always remained with Paul there are other reasons why he's beloved he'd be loved because he was a physician and liked and and like many physicians he helps people as well as minister to them he helped them visit he helped them medically. Think about the missionaries that we know of that have went to third world places and used their skills and their training to help people physically as well as bring them the gospel. That is just someone, it's just an example of someone using what they know and then using that as a opportunity then to reach people. Obviously that's not our only, and not even the primary way, but that is a way that we are in the world and we are sharing the gospel. He also served people in other ways. He served people as being a companion of Paul in the missionary journey. We find him occasionally in the Book of Acts, not by name, but by pronoun. Luke is... We just find him not by name necessarily. Paul and Luke... Paul had Luke with him when he was doing ministry. on many occasions he's mentioned. So Luke became beloved in that way as well. He's talked about that a ways. And finally, and most notably for us today, Luke should be respected and beloved because of his work in writing the Gospel of Luke and his contributions that he has in the book of Acts that we can see. In this way, or as you look at this, Matthew, John, they were disciples, they were there, and they wrote their experience. Mark wrote from Peter, getting his source of information from Peter. Luke tells us he did research, he went with Paul, meeting people, learning more about Jesus and his life, and wrote it down so he could compile the gospel. He went and gained and researched and gathered information to put together this writing, and God inspired him in that writing. So we respect Luke, and he's beloved to us because he ministered greatly in providing the gospel of Luke. We can say this on the life of Luke, the path to being beloved is through serving others. If you feel people are not loving you enough, do what Luke did and think of ways to serve and to serve well, to serve others. Luke was willing to exert the effort to travel, to study, to make sacrifices, to write, so that others can be blessed and they saw him as beloved. Then there's another person, the person of Demas. Demas we find in Philemon 24, in a passing reference to 2 Timothy 4.10, where it says, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted, and having loved this, let's see, having, For Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. It's a very telling statement. Having loved the world, he cared more about the things of the world than he cared about for God, so he left, he deserted. And in Demas we see another element of the church. Some people are beloved, some people are serving fervently, and some people are deserting. Sometimes we see people around us that had some spiritual influence on us of some kind and we're disappointed in them. Something happens and there's something shocking and our foundations are shaken. But should they be? How long should that last? Should that discourage our own faith? Sometimes there are surprising things. People that you thought were so faithful end up doing things that shock you. And often it's because they have loved the present world. But that is just a part of how things are. Jesus teaches these words that you may, he teaches these words, you may wonder why we don't do something about this, why aren't we a little more proactive in solving the problems? He teaches this in Matthew 13, verses 24 through 30. He presented another parable to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat and went away. And when the wheat sprang up and bore again, then the tares became evidence also. And the slaves of the landowner came to him and said, sir, do you not sow good seed in your field? How does it have tares? And he said to them, an enemy has done this. And the slaves said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no, lest while you're gathering up these tares, you may brood up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will save the reapers first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. In the same way we have wheat and tares among us, the tares be in those people who profess faith in Christ but aren't true believers, who may even be doing things that true believers do, even serving in ministries that true believers are serving as well, but in this they themselves love the present world. And it may come to fruition that this will be evident and they will depart, or maybe not until the end. They may be until the end until they're discovered. But what we do is minister faithfully to everybody and we don't need to be concerned about trying to dissect all that down to the littlest minutia. It's obvious if someone's fruit is rotten. That is not what we're talking about here. We're talking about, these are deceivers. They're going to be amongst us. But our ministry should be to faithfully serve everyone. If they're professing in faith, we take that as their profession and work with them the best that we can, as long as we can. When Paul wrote the book of Colossians, he did not know what the future held for Demas. Demas appeared to be a fellow brother and he is one of those who are giving greetings. But come to find out he loved this present world and he departed. But you need to be on guard because this is going to happen. It happens in every church. It happens everywhere where God's people are gathered. Now then there are the final words that we have here. in verse 16. Now this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of Laodicea. Likewise, you read the epistle from Laodicea. This verse that I... I do not know why this stupid thing is keep it on making the racket. In this, right here in this verse 15, sorry, verse 15. Now, as a side note here about this, I would, like I said, encourage you to look into this part. I think the translators did this in some overzealousness of trying to But that should be in verse 16, I'm sorry, verse 15, that should be translated, I think, properly into her house. Now, in having said that, there is, talking about this church and their house, this gives us a role of the church. The role of the church is to be, it's not centered on a building. That is one of the things that we can see in here that they were meeting in a house. And obviously we know from many of the other examples that there's many of them that are meeting in a house. This can be difficult for us if we don't have a building, as we know. It has been difficult for us, but in considering these things, some of the logistics in here seem to us, when we see talking about going to a church, we think of it in terms of going to a church building. We don't realize that it's going to the believers. In most cases, it's the believers wherever they're gathering at. And so he talks about this, and I'm not going to spend any time on what I have written down here. We're running out of time. In verse 16, and when the letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans for you that for your part, read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. This shows the role of God's word. The role of God's word is critical. We are to be reading it. We're to be reading it. We're to be reading it in the church. We're to be reading it amongst ourselves and our families. And here he says to read this in the church. Not only is the letter of Colossians to be read, there's a letter coming from Laodicea to be read. And did the church, do we not have the letter from Laodicea? There's some discussion about that. But regardless, he's talking about reading here, he's talking about reading what we know is to be God's Word. And then verse 17, And say to Archippus, Take heed of the ministry which is received in the Lord, that you may fill it. In heeding, we find the role of work that's in the ministry, that we must fulfill God's will, what God's will and what role is for us. He's spoken most clearly about it in Ephesians 2, verse 10. And then also Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9. Verse 10 builds on that. So God has prepared for each one of us who believes in Christ good works beforehand that we should walk in them. There's no guarantee, but He has designed us to fulfill a ministry, to each one of us to have a ministry. And if we are faithful, we will fulfill the ministry of good works that God has prepared for us. We see He needed to be faithful in His work, in His ministry. Archippus and fulfill it and not to lose heart and to grow weary then you too must fulfill You too must fulfill The ministry that God has given to you everyone has it if you're a believer you have a ministry Your ministry is to those the most most immediate around you and then it just works its way out from there That is what your ministry is God has given that to you, and He does expect you to fulfill it. He's prepared it beforehand. He hasn't just called you for salvation to just enjoy your fellowship. with him forever. He has a purpose for you, and that is to serve others, to love the brethren, to fulfill your ministry, whatever that is, if it's a brother, if it's a son, if it's an aunt, it's an uncle, it's a grandma, it's a grandpa, it's a mother, it's a father, it's a son, wherever you're at in life, how do you then fulfill your ministry? You get busy about doing things, and about doing the work that God's put before you, and then you get to see how God blesses, even if that blessing is only you, even if you don't see any fruit you think that should be happening, but you get to experience doing God's work at the very least. The last words of Paul that he writes here in verse 18. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my imprisonment. Grace be to you. This greeting emphasizes grace. And this is what we need to emphasize to conclude. The role of God's grace, that is the role of God's grace, because none of this book that we've read, none of this section that we've read can be done, nothing we've talked about can be done apart from God's grace. We need God's grace to know the truth. We need God's grace to avoid error. We need God's grace to focus our mind on the things above. We need God's grace to put off sin and to put on righteousness. We need God's grace to serve others in our family, in our workplace, in our evangelism, and here in our church. God's grace is fundamental, so Paul ends with, grace be to you. By God's grace, and only by God's grace, can we pursue righteousness and fulfill our ministry that we've been given. Ministry is at church. Ministry is at home. Ministry is to your family. Ministry is to your neighbor. Ministry is Christianity, and every Christian should be a minister. All right, let's close with a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word here. It's been given to us. We thank you for these faithful examples that you have for us. I pray, Father, that you'd help us to remove this from what seems to be bland and maybe even boring, but to see the great display that we see of faithfulness and the rewards of faithfulness. Father, help us to see the urgency to preach the gospel, the urgency to bring our lives into conformity with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord. the time as we gather together in fellowship. I pray that you'd bless it. Father, you'd help us to go out from here and to redeem every moment that we would take the words that we sang prior and we would be molded and we would be made after the likeness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name and for his sake I pray. Amen.