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We get to proclaim hope to a world that doesn't have hope.

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What an honor, right?

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People are hungry for hope.

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They're hungry for truth.

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And you get to be somebody that proclaims that to them,

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that gives somebody who doesn't have hope, hope.

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As we continue our study of the book of Colossians,

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we're using Colossians 3.17 as our guiding verse.

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So Colossians 3.17 talks about whatever you do

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in word or deed, do everything in the name

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of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father

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through him.

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And the passage we're gonna read today

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is about the Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter,

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and about his ministry to Jesus's church,

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to the church of Christ.

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Definition of ministry.

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So he's talking about his ministry.

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So I was curious, what is the definition of ministry?

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So I Googled it.

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The Google definition of ministry is the work

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or vocation of a minister of religion.

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I was a little disappointed with this definition

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because they used the word minister to define ministry,

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which isn't super helpful.

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So you look at who does ministry, right?

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And if you asked me that question years ago,

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who does ministry?

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I would have looked to people who work in a church, right?

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Vocational ministry, people in full-time ministry

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is a phrase we often use.

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Working for a church, working for a nonprofit,

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something like that.

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And I've not always been a pastor.

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It was never a goal or a dream of mine to be a pastor.

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It wasn't even on my radar.

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My dream job was to be an eighth grade history teacher

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and wrestling coach.

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And I got to do that for a while.

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I got to do that for four years.

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I also got to be a part of the Air Force for a while.

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And so I had a background doing all of that.

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And during my time in the Air Force

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or during my time teaching,

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if you would have asked me the definition of ministry,

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I probably would have said, you know, people who minister,

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be people who are working at a church.

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I would have used that Google definition.

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And I didn't necessarily view,

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I didn't view what I did in the Air Force

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or what I did teaching as ministry.

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I didn't view it in that way.

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I would not have said I was doing ministry.

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I would have said, well, the people doing ministry

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are pastors or those at nonprofits.

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That's what would have been my definition.

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And now that I work at a church

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and I'm in full-time ministry and I'm a pastor on staff,

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I would be in that camp, right?

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According to this Google definition.

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So in today's passage, Paul is going to talk

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about his ministry and what that looked like.

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And this is exciting for me

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because I love talking about Paul.

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He's my favorite missionary

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and he really exemplified full-time ministry.

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So let's look at this passage together.

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We're gonna be in Colossians, the end of chapter one,

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and we'll dip into chapter two a little bit.

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So chapter one, verse 24, Paul writes,

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"'Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,

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"'and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking

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"'in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body,

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"'that is the church, of which I became a minister

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"'according to the stewardship from God

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"'that was given to me for you

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"'to make the word of God fully known.

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"'The mystery hidden for ages and generations,

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"'but now revealed to his saints, did them.

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"'God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles

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"'are the riches of the glory of his mystery,

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"'which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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"'Him we proclaim, warning everyone

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"'and teaching everyone with all wisdom

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"'that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

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"'For this I toil, struggling with all his energy

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"'that he powerfully works within me.'

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"'Chapter two, for I want you to know

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"'how great a struggle I have for you,

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"'and for those in Lausodea,

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"'and for all who have not seen me face to face,

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"'for their hearts may be encouraged,

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"'being knit together in love,

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"'to reach all the riches of full assurance

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"'of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery,

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"'which is Christ, in whom are hidden

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"'all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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"'I say this in order that no one may delude you

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"'with plausible arguments, for though I am absent in body,

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"'I am with you in spirit,

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"'rejoicing to see your good order

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"'in the firmness of your faith in Christ.'"

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So this passage is about Paul, his ministry,

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his suffering, his struggle,

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and Paul's life involved suffering for the gospel.

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If you remember back to Paul's story,

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he was the one causing Christians,

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causing Jesus' followers to suffer,

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killing them, persecuting them.

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He was causing the suffering of people who followed Christ.

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Then Jesus met him on the road to Damascus,

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and Jesus told Ananias that Paul would be

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his chosen instrument to spread the gospel,

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but Jesus also told Ananias that Paul will,

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he said, I will show him what it means

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to suffer for my name.

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So Paul suffered for the sake of the gospel.

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Case in point, he wrote Colossians from a prison cell,

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right, and so if you look back at verse 24,

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starting with this passage that we read,

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Paul says, I rejoice in my sufferings.

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He said, I rejoice in my sufferings.

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What a weird thing to say, right?

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How often do we talk that way?

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Do we say, I'm rejoicing in my suffering?

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Paul used that language in his letters a lot, right?

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And I think it's because he knew,

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hey, Jesus said this is gonna happen.

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I'm walking in accordance with what Jesus said and so I can rejoice in my suffering

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But but it's a weird a weird thing to say in Philippians 4

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He said the same thing rejoice in the Lord always right and he says for your sake

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so he's joyful in his suffering because he sees the impact of

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His ministry says I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and so he can be joyful in his suffering because he knows that his

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Ministry is bearing fruit. He knows that his ministry is having an impact and that brings him joy

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Even though he found himself in an unfortunate situation in prison

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He also references the afflictions of Christ in this verse and what's interesting that the word affliction in this passage

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When you read that you would probably most associate that with with Jesus's suffering on the cross

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But but that reference is probably actually talking about Jesus's suffering while ministry doing ministry and the affliction

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He faced while doing ministry not necessarily the affliction

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He faced on the cross and so Paul's saying that Jesus suffered while doing ministry

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And so he can too and Jesus fills him up while he's suffering

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Doing ministry and then in verse 25 Paul talks about why he became a minister and why he is doing

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ministry and I love this in verse

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25 he says to make the Word of God fully

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Known to make the Word of God fully known and that passage reminded me of a verse from Habakkuk 2 14

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Where the prophet says for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas

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And that's prophetic. That's a prophetic verse

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and so Paul

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Viewed his ministry is trying to do that right to make the knowledge of the glory of God fill the earth, right?

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Paul wants to do he wants to make the Word of God fully known and that's what he's doing as his ministry

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and so that got me thinking right if pastors and those in full-time ministry or

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Vocational ministry are the only ones doing ministry doing that verse making the Word of God fully known

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Is that prophetic verse from Habakkuk ever actually going to happen, right?

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Are we ever going to see the knowledge of the glory of God fill the earth if the only people trying to do that are

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Those in full-time vocational ministry. I don't know

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I don't think so, right and the reason that's not the case is because pastors are not the only ones doing

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Vocational full-time ministry and they shouldn't be right every believer in Jesus Christ is a minister and should be doing

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Full-time ministry because what is ministry? Actually, I think it's this verse

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Colossians 2 25 to make the Word of God fully known. That's ministry

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That's doing ministry and you can do that in a lot of different ways, right?

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So my definition would not be the Google definition

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It would be this Colossians 2 25 ministry is making the Word of God fully known to make the Word of God fully known

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Further the gospel to further God's kingdom to light up the darkness. That's

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Ministry and guess what you can do all of those things wherever you are school work wherever you are

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Whatever you do right back to Colossians 3 17, whatever you do do it for the glory of God and do ministry for him

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So now that that has been established and we are all in full-time ministry and you've just been ordained

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let's look at four things from this passage that we should be doing as

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Ministers of Jesus and the first one is proclaim. So if you look back at verse 28, he says him we proclaim

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Warning and teaching him we proclaim proclaim Jesus to this world

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Whatever you are doing do it from a pulpit whether you're doing it from a pulpit whether you're doing it to a camera

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Whether you're doing it in a school cafeteria

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At lunch or a school's car soccer practice or your work wherever you are

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Make the Word of God fully known and proclaim hope verse 27 talks about the hope of glory, right?

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We get to proclaim hope to a world that doesn't have hope what an honor, right? People are hungry for hope

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They're hungry for truth and you get to be somebody that

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Proclaims that to them that gives somebody who doesn't have hope hope that's a cool thing. That's a good thing to do

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Right, so proclaiming hope also warning and teaching warning people. Hey, Jesus is coming back

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Will you be ready?

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Teaching the Great Commission says make disciples. Jesus said mate last thing

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He said on earth was make disciples go and make disciples disciple means

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student pupil right so in order to have

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Students you've got to be teaching them. So making disciples isn't gathering up followers

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It's teaching people right teaching people so warning and teaching and he says with all wisdom and in discernment comes

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From the Holy Spirit and so I want to pause here and say don't try and do ministry without

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The help of the Holy Spirit verse 29. He said with all his energy that he powerfully works within me, right?

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So Paul saying I'm not doing this by myself, but I'm not doing ministry. I'm not suffering for the gospel by myself

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It's with his energy because he's powerfully working within me. So partner with the Holy Spirit as you do ministry

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So what number one is proclaim number two is encourage right verse 2 to he said that their hearts may be

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encouraged be an

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encourager to

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Everyone, believers and unbelievers,

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and doing ministry, we're not just ministering

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to the unbeliever, right?

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Doing ministry is also to the believer,

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the people in our circle, those we go to church with.

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Be a minister to everyone in your life,

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not just those that need to hear the hope of Jesus

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for the first time, but those that need to be reminded

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of it, right?

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Be an encourager, loving each other,

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spurring each other on, encouraging other,

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building up each other's faith.

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So number two is encourage.

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Number three is watch out.

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And if you look at verse four again,

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he gives a warning here,

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because the Colossian church, the church in Colossia

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was dealing a lot with false gospels that were out there,

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Gnosticism, mysticism, like different beliefs

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that were out there at the time.

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And so he gives a warning here.

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He says, watch out for plausible arguments.

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Don't be deluded by them, right?

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So as a minister, you're gonna put yourself out there.

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You're gonna hear lots of things.

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You're gonna hear plausible arguments,

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things that make sense.

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Watch out for false teachers.

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Watch out for false prophets.

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Watch out for things that aren't true.

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Watch out for the lies and confusion

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from the enemy of this world.

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And so how do we do that, right?

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Well, that brings us to our fourth and final point.

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And the fourth one is stand firm.

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If you look at two five again,

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he says, for though I'm absent in body,

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yet I'm with you in spirit,

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rejoicing to see you in good order,

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that the firmness of your faith in Christ,

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the firmness of your faith.

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So as you minister to this world,

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as you strive to make the word of God fully known,

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you have to stand firm in your faith in Christ.

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And if you don't, you'll crumble.

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And so as a minister of the world,

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don't forget to go to the well, right?

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To refresh and strengthen your faith.

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You can't pour out if you're empty, right?

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If there's nothing to pour out.

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So make sure you have something to stand firm in,

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refreshing your faith, spending time with the Father,

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spending time in his word,

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spending time in worship and prayer with the Lord,

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being around mentors,

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people that are gonna speak life into you

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so that when you go to minister to the world,

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you're ready to do that and you're full.

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And so that's my charge.

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Welcome to full-time ministry.

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As believers in Christ,

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we should all be engaging in full-time ministry like Paul did

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and it'll look different for all of us

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because we're all involved in different circles.

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And that's what's great

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about the body of Christ doing ministry.

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We're all in different areas of our town, of our city,

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of our state, of our country, of this world.

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We're all over the place, right?

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And so if we all have an impact where God has us,

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then we'll see this happen.

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We'll see the word of God made fully known.

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And that's the goal and that's what ministry is.

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