Hitting a Spiritual Growth Spurt | Colossians 1:1-8

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. Happy Promotion Sunday. I'm so glad you made it. If this is your first time ever with us here at Watermark, I hope this place feels like home very quickly. I hope it feels like a place you don't just attend but you can belong here.

My name is Timothy Ateek. I'm one of the pastors, and it's a joy to be with you. We're about to step into studying the Word of God. We believe God has spoken to us through his Word. So, anytime we open up this book, we come expectant for the living God to speak to our hearts. I just want to give you a moment really quickly to make the most of this time.

I want to invite you to pray really quickly and ask God to speak to you. Just say, "God, would you speak to my heart this morning?" Then I want to invite you to pray for the people around you, your family and friends, your other brothers and sisters in Christ who are in this room. Just say, "God, would you speak clearly to them today?" Then would you pray for me? Would you ask God to speak clearly through me to you?

Lord, thanks that you've gone to great lengths to speak to us. We want to hear from you, God, through the reading and teaching of your Word. Lord, I pray that we would have eyes to see you clearly today. I pray that we would have ears to hear you and hearts that are receptive to all you want to say today. We need you. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.

If you were to go to my parents' house and look on the shelf, my mom has photo albums stretched across the shelf. If you were to look into some of those photo albums, I just want you to see what you might see. Let me walk you through some of Timothy Ateek's photo albums. Here's the first one. That's me as a baby. Yeah, I was cute. Here's the next one. A little bit older, toddler stage. That's the way it goes. When you become a "threenager," you have days like this.

Then you hit the middle school years. That was an unfortunate stage of my life and everyone else's. Then there was freshman year running cross-country for Highland Park High School. (Go Scots.) My shorts were way too short. Then there was college where I decided to dress up as Pee-wee Herman, a questionable role model. Then there was shortly after college during my single days. You might say, "Yeah, that makes sense why you were single."

Then a miracle happened, and I got married to Kathryn. You're like, "That doesn't make sense, but sure. It was a miracle." Then we had our first child, so I became a dad. I don't know why you're laughing. I don't understand what would be funny about that. No, that's not a wig. That was a stage when I didn't have any real friends who would say, "No. It's not working. Stop it." Then fast-forward to today. Here's our family now, and gray hair has made its way into my life.

Do you know what the beauty of photo albums is? You can see growth. You see progress. You see change. I look at those, and I'm like, "Oh, praise God." Praise God that life has changed. I've grown up. I've grown out of certain styles, whether it's hair or clothing. There has been progress. I can even look at some of those pictures, and I think about who I was or how I acted, and I'm like, "Man, that was a great season of immaturity, and thankfully that has changed."

I'm not completely mature, and I still show immaturity at times, but I'm not where I was at least. That's the beauty of photo albums: you can see growth. My question for you is… I want you to think about this. What if there was a spiritual photo album of your relationship with Jesus? If you could somehow open it up and see a photo journey that tracked with your relationship with Jesus, what would you see?

Would there only be baby pictures? Would you see a decade of toddler pictures? Would you kind of be trapped in the teenage years of spirituality? What would your spiritual photo album show? Would it show that there has been growth from last year? When you look back to where you were with Jesus last year, has there been any meaningful growth over the past year?

All throughout 2024, each sermon series we've done has tracked with these things that we want to be true of our church. We started out by saying we want to be a praying church. Then we talked about being a Spirit-led church. Then we talked about being a missional church. Then we spent an extended time talking about how we want to be a Bible-revering church.

Today, we're starting a series that's going to take us through the majority of the fall where we unpack the fact that we want to be a maturing church. We want to be thousands of people strong who are consistently taking ground in our relationship with Jesus. We're consistently adding photos to our spiritual photo albums that track with growth. We're exploring Christ in new and more robust ways, and it's showing in our lives. There's noticeable change. That's what we want for Watermark.

Sometimes megachurches are thought of as being shallow or superficial. Let that never be true of Watermark. We want to be a place where the members have roots that sink deeply into Jesus and the result is very fruitful lives and it's clear that we are people who have been with Jesus. The good news is the apostle Paul wanted the same thing for the Christians living in Colossae, and that's the whole reason he wrote the book of Colossians.

He was writing to real people living in a real city battling real challenges, and the whole reason he wrote the book of Colossians was to encourage them toward spiritual maturity. He wanted them to grow up in their faith. So, for the next several weeks, we're going to be journeying verse by verse through the book of Colossians. As the apostle Paul encourages the Christians in Colossae to grow in their faith, my hope is we will be encouraged to hit a spiritual growth spurt ourselves. If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to turn with me to Colossians, chapter 1.

A little history on the book of Colossians. Paul was on one of his missionary journeys, and he landed in the city of Ephesus and stayed there for about three years. During those three years, he was proclaiming the gospel, and there was a man named Epaphras who made about a 100-mile journey to the city of Ephesus. He came from Colossae. He heard Paul proclaim the gospel, and he put his trust in Christ. He gave his life to Christ.

He was so impacted by that and transformed by that, he went home to Colossae and started telling people about Jesus, and the gospel caught fire in Colossae. People began to give their lives to Jesus. Because this one guy, Epaphras, received Christ and went home and began to faithfully tell others, the church in Colossae was birthed and began to grow.

Then several years later, Paul is most likely in Rome in prison, and Epaphras either comes to Paul to visit him or might be imprisoned with Paul. When he's with Paul, he begins to share with Paul one of the dangers the church in Colossae is facing. Now, what's interesting is when you read different commentators, there's no real agreement or thorough understanding of exactly what was going on.

There was false teaching happening, but we're not exactly sure who the false teachers were or exactly what the false teaching was. But commentators can agree on the gist, and here's the gist of the false teaching: "If you really want to achieve or attain the highest levels of spiritual maturity, then you need more than Christ. Christ can't get you there. You're going to need more than Jesus to get to the greatest places of spiritual maturity."

Paul hears that, and he's like, "Well, I can do something about that," and he begins to write a letter to the Christians in Colossae. Do you know what the point of his letter is? If you want to know the point of the book of Colossians, here it is: "If you want to be spiritually mature, you don't need more than Jesus; you just need more of Jesus, because you can't outgrow Jesus, but to be clear, you most certainly can't grow without Jesus."

So, what I hope for us here at Watermark is what Paul hoped for the Christians in Colossae, that we would grow to spiritual maturity, and the way to get there is for each of us to get more of Jesus. Look with me at the first eight verses. Here's what Paul says as he seeks to stimulate their growth.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.

Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit."

From the get-go of the book, Paul is trying to prompt a spiritual growth spurt among the Christians at Colossae. My hope is it would do the same for us here in this room. What we're going to see Paul do to, in a sense, jump-start their growth is he's going to unpack three things about Jesus. Remember, the Christians in Colossae, if they want to grow, and if we want to grow… We don't need more than Jesus; we just need more of Jesus.

Paul unpacks these three things. I'll tell them to you now so you can track with them through the passage. First, we're going to see him unpack the extravagance of Jesus' work. Secondly, we're going to see him unpack the effect of Jesus' rule. Thirdly, we're going to see him explain the extent of Jesus' reach.

1. The extravagance of Jesus' work. We're going to find this in the first two verses. What's interesting is the first two verses of the book of Colossians are just Paul's normal greeting. This is how Paul starts the majority of his books. It's the equivalent of us opening up an email and typing, "Dear Fred, hope all is well." That's the equivalent of Paul's greeting, yet these two verses are so rich and point to the extravagance of Jesus' work that we could honestly spend an entire Sunday on just Paul's greeting.

We're not going to do that, but let me show you how these two verses point to the overwhelming extravagance of what Christ has accomplished through his death, burial, and resurrection. Paul starts out and says, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…" Normally, when we read that, we're like, "Okay. This isn't the important part. All this tells me is who wrote the book."

I just want you to think about Paul writing those words. We have no way of knowing this. The text doesn't point to this. This is just Timothy Ateek wondering about this, to be clear, but I just wonder if, as Paul was writing these words, tears were flowing from his eyes, because remember his story. Paul was formerly Saul, and Saul was a guy who hated Christians.

Saul was a guy who went out of his way to make sure Christians got imprisoned. He was a guy who cheered when Christians were put to death, yet Jesus Christ interrupted his life, met him, saved him, changed him, transformed him, and then God in his kindness chose to make Paul not just a servant but an apostle, which means God chose to make him a foundational player in the establishment of all of Christianity.

Can you imagine being Paul? Like, "'Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.' How crazy! God, I still can't get over the fact that I even get to write those words. It's by the will of God, clearly, because when I was going to another city, seeking to arrest Christians, you knocked me on my rear end and revealed yourself to me, and my life has never been the same. Yeah, I would say it is because of the will of God. Otherwise, I would still be breathing threats and murder against Christians."

Do you know what's amazing? That's just the first line, and what it declares is the extravagance of Christ's work on the cross. What it tells us is Jesus Christ can truly save and change anyone. There is no one on this campus right now who is too far from the saving work of Jesus Christ. The good news is that's all some of you needed to hear.

You questioned whether you should come this morning. You felt shame the minute you walked into this room, yet the reason God has you here is simply so you could hear those words: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…" He can save you. He can reach into your life no matter what is there. Whatever darkness is there, his light can speak into it and dispel it.

You need to know that's what Jesus has been doing right here at Watermark for 25 years. This place is home to people who were once radical atheists, serial adulterers, thieves, drug addicts, drug dealers, lifelong Muslims, participants in abortions, judgmental Pharisees, prostitutes, sex offenders, gang members, narcissists, and liars. This place is home to many who were all of these things, yet they have been saved and changed by Jesus Christ.

If right now you're like, "You are literally talking to me. This is crazy…" If you sense that Jesus Christ is introducing himself to you, saying, "Yeah, I can even save and change you," you don't need to wait till some other time. Even right now as I'm talking, I would encourage you to say, "Jesus, I want that. Jesus, save me. Change me. I give my life to you. Right now, right here. It's yours," and in this moment you're forever changed.

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…" Here's what you need to know. We're talking about the extravagance of Jesus' work. It's so important for us to understand, as Christians, that Jesus didn't die on the cross and rise from the dead to simply save us from hell and save us into heaven. It's so much more than that.

The work of Jesus Christ is like an endless-course meal. It's not a one-course meal of "Do you accept or reject Jesus, because that will determine whether you go to hell or heaven?" It's not just a one-course meal. It's an endless-course meal where there's always more to taste. There's always more to enjoy. There's always more to satisfy you in greater ways. That's who Jesus is. That's what he's like.

We see that just in Paul's greeting. That's why he goes on and says, "To the saints…" Well, that's a big idea. We don't have time to unpack it, but he's basically saying, "Look. Do you know what God did with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, how he set Israel apart and set his affection on Israel and rescued them out of slavery and made them his people and decided to use them to be a light to the nations? That's what he has done with you."

He set his affection on you. He rescued you and me out of sin. He has saved us. He has changed us. He loves us, he delights in us, and he has called us to be on mission with him. Why? To push back the darkness in this world. He says, "I'm writing to saints." That's pretty incredible, but then he goes on and says, "To the saints and faithful brothers…"

Why would he say that? Because Christ's work is so extravagant that through faith in Christ, we who were enemies of God become children of God. We now belong to a family where God is our perfect heavenly Father and we are brothers and sisters of one another. That's pretty crazy. But it doesn't even stop there. There are still more courses to the meal. In fact, the best part of the verse is found in the two words in Christ.

Our tendency when we read the Scriptures is to glance right over that. He says, "To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae…" What you need to know is this phrase was Paul's favorite phrase to use in his writings. He uses those two words in Christ 33 different times in his books. He uses an even fuller phrase, in Christ Jesus our Lord, 48 times in his books. We could do a several-week series on just what it means to be in Christ.

The wording is interesting, because he says, "To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae…" He's putting two locations back to back. He's saying, "You're in Christ and at Colossae." He's saying, "Let me tell you your spiritual location and your physical location. In fact, your spiritual location is more important than your physical location. Where you are spiritually, you're actually in the kingdom of God where Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You're in Christ, but you're at Colossae. So, your spiritual location should inform and overpower life in your physical location."

It's a really powerful idea. If you truly take time to get your mind around being in Christ, it will change everything about you. Let me illustrate like this. I saw David Platt illustrate it this way, and I loved it so much I wanted to share it with you guys. Just imagine that this is us. This is you. This is me. Here's the great news: When you put your trust in Jesus, Jesus comes to live in you. Christ is in you through the presence of his Holy Spirit.

This is an amazing reality. He is in you permanently. He's committed to being with you, being in you. But it's not just that Christ is in you; you are actually in Christ. This is our reality. This is how we always are. Christ is in us, yet we're in Christ, permanently. This is our permanent reality. The question is…Is this your understanding of you?

If you really begin to believe that this is who you are and what your life is like, this changes how you see yourself, because you won't be able to see yourself without first looking through Christ to yourself, which is amazing, because anytime you see yourself, you have to see yourself through Christ, which means your sin, your past, can never be the most defining thing about you, because Christ has already dealt with it.

So, if you're dealing with self-hate right now, then there is a distorted understanding of your reality, because you are in Christ. To hate yourself is, in some way, to hate Christ because you are in Christ. It doesn't just change the way we see ourselves; it actually changes the way God sees us, because we are inseparable from Christ. We are eternally attached to Christ.

Just think about how good this is that anytime God sees us he always sees us through Christ. There is never a time now that God, a perfect and holy God, looks at us apart from Christ. This is why God is able to treat us like he treats Christ. This is why God is able to pour out his love and acceptance and approval. This is why the God of the universe delights in us, has deep affection for us. This is why the God of the universe wants to spend all of eternity with us: because we are inseparable from Christ.

The love and delight and pleasure he feels for Christ he feels for us because we are in Christ, and nothing can change that. Does this resonate? I just need to make sure y'all are out there. If this does not do something for you, I don't have anything else. There isn't something that you're like, "That's what I needed. That 'in Christ' stuff? That's fine, but that." That doesn't exist. This is it. This is your identity.

The apostle Paul, who wrote the majority of the New Testament… This was his favorite thing to talk about: being in Christ. This is the extravagance of Jesus' work. If you want to hit your spiritual growth spurt, just spend time unpacking each of these tasty courses. You're a saint. You're a child of God. You're in the family of God. Most importantly, you are in Christ.

2. The effect of Jesus' rule. Paul is celebrating what's happening in the church of Colossae. He says, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…" Why is he thankful? What's he celebrating? "…since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…" There is something happening in the church in Colossae that's worth talking about. It's buzzworthy. Word is spreading about what's happening in Colossae. What is buzzworthy? It's their faith and their love.

So, first, Paul thanks God for their faith in Christ. Now, when we hear that Paul is celebrating their faith in Christ, our tendency is to read that and think he's just celebrating the fact that people are trusting in Christ, like there's this movement of evangelism and conversion where people are turning to Jesus and putting their trust in Christ, but what you need to know is that's not primarily what Paul is celebrating.

When Paul talks about their faith in Christ, you have to go back to this. He's talking about the consistent faith that is proceeding from their reality of being in Christ. What Paul is celebrating is the fact that their spiritual location is informing and overpowering their lives in their physical location.

Probably the best way to explain it is Paul is celebrating the fact that the Christians in Colossae are living like they're from a totally different world, because their spiritual location, the fact that they're located in the kingdom of God, is showing in their lives. The rule of Christ is being revealed through their lives. Paul is just celebrating the effect of Christ's rule, that because they're in Christ, it's affecting their lives at Colossae. They have a full-time King. Jesus isn't just their Savior; he is their full-time King.

Here is why this is important for us to talk about. A good question for us to ask is…Where is our faith in Christ at? I'm just going to tell you where I think a lot of us are. I think a lot of us don't understand this at all. We just don't have any true understanding of what it means that Christ is in us by the presence of his Holy Spirit. That is something we struggle to get our minds around, and then we don't believe we're in Christ. We live as if Christ is in heaven over here, and we're here with a relationship with Christ who is over there in heaven.

And you know what? That's good that Christ is in heaven, because he can make sure at the end of our lives that we actually get in. He cares about our lives here, and we can pray to him and ask him for help, and he wants to help, but there's this weird dynamic where Christ wants to be the King of our lives, but he's there and we're here. Christ wants us to live like we're already here, but we're not there; we're here.

So it's difficult. It's like, "Jesus, it makes sense for you to be my Savior, because one day I'm going to get to the end of my life, and I'm going to need help getting into heaven, but this idea of you being King over every area of my life… There's a disconnect here that I don't quite understand, because there are hours, if not days, that go by where I have things to do. I have to execute. Because I can't see you or feel you, it's hard for me to connect the dots."

We have to remember reality. The reality is that Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This is our reality. The question is…Will our spiritual location begin to impact, influence, inform, and even overpower our lives in our physical locations? I just want you to think really quickly. You're on the honor system here. If you need to get your phone out in order to check what I'm telling you, you can do that, but just check your calendar.

I want you to think about where you will be tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. Just think about that. Can you place yourself tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.? If this is your reality, if Christ is in you and you are permanently in Christ, then how will this reality inform 7:30 a.m. tomorrow? What would it look like for Christ to rule and reign and for you to have a faith that overflows into 7:30 a.m. tomorrow?

Now think about where you will be at noon tomorrow. Are you going to be at lunch somewhere? Are you going to be meeting with someone? Okay. How does this reality impact noon tomorrow or 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday or 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday? We're permanently in Christ. This is our reality. Some of us just need to connect the dots.

We're trying to live like our lives are like this when Christ is like, "That sounds exhausting. You're spending all of your time trying to work your way to me when I've already come to you. I've already chosen to live inside of you, and then I've put you in me," which is incredible. I'll just tell you what this looks like for me in my life.

This past Friday, I got a phone call from a friend, and we were talking. On that call, I shared with him how a way he operated felt less than honoring toward me. I shared that with him, and do you know what his instant response was? It was to be defensive. He began defending himself. He began interrupting and trying to prove how I was wrong. But I had had multiple people speak into the situation to know that it was not honoring to me, so I was just trying to share with him how it wasn't honoring. His response was defensiveness.

So do you know what I did? I felt something start to boil in me. A fire got lit. Something started to boil, and in that moment I was ready to pounce. What you need to know about Timothy Ateek is I love to keep the peace, and I have a long fuse for keeping the peace, but when I feel like justice has been violated, I switch into not like an explosive mode but like a persistent, values-driven mode, like, "I need to make sure it's clear that justice has been violated." So I am ready to pounce on this guy.

What I realized was in that moment I was being tempted to live like this. "Christ is up there. I know he cares, but, Jesus, I'm here in reality. Life in Dallas, Texas… Stuff happens. You've got to deal with it." Not even thinking about this. I'm ready to pounce. Something is boiling. In a moment in time, I begin to remember who I am.

So I begin to pray, like, "God, how do you want me to respond?" Just then, it becomes real that Christ is in me, so I feel this deep restraint come over me, like, "Yeah, we're not going to respond like that." Then the reality is I'm in Christ, so he's the King. My real location is that I am located in the kingdom of God. He's the King. He gets to call the shots. He's the one who gets to reign.

So, it was this interesting sense. It was almost this physical restraint where God was like, "Yeah, that's not how we're going to do things when you're in Christ." What happened, at least in that moment, was he gave me everything I needed to speak in a way that was clear and truthful but honoring to my friend.

You might be like, "That's a weird flex. As a pastor, you're just trying to tell normal people how great you are." No. Do you know why I told you that story? To tell you what I'm capable of. To tell you I felt the boil inside of me. Like, "This is justified. I can go after this guy. I can pounce." My tendency will be to speak in a way that shames the person, and I'll fight until I am proven to be right. Christ is like, "That's just not how we operate." Our lives are radically different, and we begin to flourish when we remember where we are.

Do you know what the cool thing was? The guy I was talking to is in Christ, and Christ is in him, so we got off the phone, and he instantly reached out to me. He was like, "Man, I was defensive, and I need to ask your forgiveness," and he apologized. That's how it works, because he was catching up with himself, and he was being reminded, "You know what? Christ is in me and I am in Christ, so there's a different operating system here. My spiritual location is I am in Christ while being in Dallas." That's what Paul is celebrating in the city of Colossae. So, my question to us is…Is there a faith in Christ that is worth celebrating here at Watermark?

He goes on and says, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…" You see that faith is combined with love. This is where we have to have a deeper understanding of our reality as brothers and sisters in Christ. The reality is we aren't just in Christ by ourselves. The reality is we belong in a family where there are other people who have Christ in them, and they are with us together in Christ.

I want you to think about this. If you know Jesus Christ, then our reality is that we're a family together. We are one. We are united together in Christ, which means we all share… This is amazing. I don't know if you think about this. If you know Jesus, we all share the same salvation. We all have the same story that has been fleshed out in different ways, but all of us have the same story. The story is we were dead, and now we're alive.

How my story plays that out looks different than yours, but we all have the same story. So, if you're visiting this morning and you don't know what Christianity is about, here it is: we were dead, and now we're alive. If you want to trust Christ today, then you can leave here today with your story being, "When I went to that church this morning, I walked in dead, and I walked out alive."

So, when you go to brunch with your friends and they're like, "You did that church thing. How was it?" you can say, "When I went I was dead, and now I'm alive. It has been a good morning so far." That's all of our stories. We share the same salvation. The same Spirit is in every single one of us. We have all been rescued. We have all been forgiven. It's amazing.

That means the thing we all have in common the most is Jesus Christ, which is more significant than anything we could ever think of to divide us. Because Christ is what we have in common, that supersedes anything we could ever divide over. Paul is talking about this love the Christians in Colossae have for each other, and he uses the word agape, which is the type of love that has been shown to us in Christ. It's a love that is selfless and sacrificial. It's patient and enduring. It's freely given.

So, my question for us is…Is there a Christlike love for one another here at Watermark that's worth talking about? We have to make sure we don't skip over Paul's use of the word all. He says the Christians in Colossae have a love for all the saints. Not just the ones they feel an affinity for or feel like they have stuff in common with but a love for all the saints.

That means our Community Groups don't have to stall out simply because we have different secondary interests. Our Community Groups don't have to fizzle out just because we raise our kids differently or eat differently or vacation differently or spend money differently. We can live in meaningful community with one another because we have the most important thing in common, which is Christ.

Our tendency is to gravitate toward people who are most like us, but did you know this church has thousands of single adults in it and at the same time we have thousands of families? Can you imagine how healthy it would be for families to be inviting single adults into their homes, for single adults to learn from married couples, and for married couples to be able to learn from single adults? How healthy would that be. We can do that. Why? Because we're in Christ together.

When you think about it, when it comes to the election cycle we're in right now, we can wholeheartedly disagree with one another. We can have convictions that would cause us to look at one another and believe each other is in error, but when it comes to how we speak to each other, we never speak to one another as Republican or Democrat. We speak to one another as brother or sister in Christ.

It doesn't make sense for us to be vicious or tense or condescending with our words when Christ is in us, with us, and over us. I believe it grieves Christ when his people are in him being unloving toward one another. One of the most loving things you can do is simply be present. If this is our reality, we live in a world that says, "You're too busy for that. You're too busy for Sunday morning, so stream it. You're too busy for Community Group, so just be half in and half out."

Paul says, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven." He's saying the reason you have faith in Christ and the reason you have love for one another is you understand hope that has been declared to you through the gospel.

A day is coming where we won't just be in Christ. We will be physically with Christ, and we will enjoy his presence for all of eternity and worship him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's not wait until then to start living like that. Look. If we're going to spend eternity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, it makes no sense for us to be hateful toward one another or divisive with one another when we're going to live together for all of eternity.

3. The extent of Jesus' reach. He says, "Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth…" Paul is saying, "Great news, guys. What's happening in Colossae is happening all over the world." That should be so encouraging to us.

Just think about that. Right now, all over the Metroplex, there are amazing churches that are gathering to celebrate being in Christ. There are churches all over this nation right now, great churches, gathering together to celebrate being in Christ, churches all over the world. There are Christians in North Korea, the number-one ranked country where Christians experience the most amount of persecution.

If you are found as a Christian, you're either killed on the spot or deported into a labor camp, yet people estimate there are somewhere between 100,000 and 400,000 Christians in North Korea right now. There are over a million Christians in Iran and 80 million to 100 million Christians in China. Why? Because this is the extent of Jesus' reach. There is no one in the world the gospel is not for.

So, how do we respond to a message like this? Well, let me just say this. I want you to think about that spiritual photo album. For some of you guys, you're going to put your first picture into your photo album today because you're going to give your life to Jesus Christ. If today you're realizing who Jesus is and what he has done for you, my encouragement to you is to surrender your life to him today. It's your first picture.

Some of you guys are about to hit the portion of that photo album which shows a great spiritual growth spurt, because you're going to begin to realize that you are in Christ, not just on Sunday mornings but every moment of every day throughout the week. This is going to begin to influence 10:30 a.m. tomorrow and 4:00 on Tuesday. It's going to change how you live and operate, because Jesus isn't way up there. By the presence of his Spirit, he is with us, he is in us, and he is leading and guiding us, and it's going to change you.

Maybe some of you all are going to hit this place in your spiritual photo album where you're going to begin to pray more intensely. You're going to begin to give financially for the gospel to go to the places in the world where it has not yet reached, because there are still about three billion people in the world who have yet to hear the name of Jesus. Some of you are even going to find pictures in that spiritual photo album of you going to the nations, taking the gospel to those who have yet to hear.

My hope is that something would be written about our lives that was written about Epaphras. The passage ends by saying, "…just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit."

Do you know what's interesting? There are only three verses that mention Epaphras in the entire Bible, but what is he known for? Sharing the gospel. Starting a church. My hope is it would be true of everyone here who calls this place home and calls on the name of Jesus Christ, that we would leverage our lives for the sake of the gospel. Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, I pray that you would come and have your way in our lives. Thank you for the extravagance of your work, that because of what you've done we can be saved and changed by you. We can be adopted into the family. We can be set apart to be on mission for you. But the greatest reality is we get to live today and every day in Christ. We get to operate in a spiritual realm that will inform and overpower our physical realm. So I pray that for us today.

Because we know we're in Christ, Lord, my hope and prayer is that it would lead to a faith and a love that would be worth talking about. We praise you and thank you for the extent of your reach, Lord Jesus, that your gospel is for not just here in Dallas, Texas, but it's for every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Use us, Lord God, for the spread of your gospel. We need you. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.