Your vital role within the church
Dear Church Family,
This Sunday we reflected together on Paul's closing words in Colossians 4:7-18.
Summary:
The sermon explored how every single member of Christ's church has been called and empowered to walk in a central and vital role—no exceptions, no insignificant people. Through Paul's intentional greetings to specific individuals, we discovered that God has designed the church to function through the faithful obedience of all believers, not just a gifted few. This passage calls us to reject the lie that our contribution doesn't matter and instead embrace the truth that Christ has equipped us to display the gospel through three specific callings: pursuing relational unity, fervent prayer, and intentional encouragement.
Takeaways:
- Relational Unity: We are called to pursue intentional, loving relationships that cross social and ethnic lines, displaying the gospel truth that Christ has united diverse sinners into one family. This includes the hard work of forgiveness when brothers and sisters disappoint or hurt us, just as Paul modeled with Mark.
- Fervent Prayer: Prayer is not a gift for a few but a calling for all. Like Epaphras who "struggled" and "worked hard" for the church through prayer even from prison, we are all equipped to labor extensively for one another's spiritual growth through consistent, heartfelt intercession.
- Intentional Encouragement: We are called to personally come alongside one another—asking meaningful questions, remembering what others are going through, following up, and building each other up. This doesn't require professional counseling skills, just loving curiosity and a willingness to say something encouraging, as Paul instructed the church to do with Archippus.
As Francis Schaeffer reminds us, "There are no little people and no big people in the true spiritual sense, only consecrated and unconsecrated people." The question before each of us is simply this: Will we take up the calling Christ has given us? Will we walk as He has saved us to walk?
Let's be a church that displays the beauty of the gospel through our unity, our prayers, and our encouragement of one another.
In Christ,
The Elders of NLBC
This Sunday we reflected together on Paul's closing words in Colossians 4:7-18.
Summary:
The sermon explored how every single member of Christ's church has been called and empowered to walk in a central and vital role—no exceptions, no insignificant people. Through Paul's intentional greetings to specific individuals, we discovered that God has designed the church to function through the faithful obedience of all believers, not just a gifted few. This passage calls us to reject the lie that our contribution doesn't matter and instead embrace the truth that Christ has equipped us to display the gospel through three specific callings: pursuing relational unity, fervent prayer, and intentional encouragement.
Takeaways:
- Relational Unity: We are called to pursue intentional, loving relationships that cross social and ethnic lines, displaying the gospel truth that Christ has united diverse sinners into one family. This includes the hard work of forgiveness when brothers and sisters disappoint or hurt us, just as Paul modeled with Mark.
- Fervent Prayer: Prayer is not a gift for a few but a calling for all. Like Epaphras who "struggled" and "worked hard" for the church through prayer even from prison, we are all equipped to labor extensively for one another's spiritual growth through consistent, heartfelt intercession.
- Intentional Encouragement: We are called to personally come alongside one another—asking meaningful questions, remembering what others are going through, following up, and building each other up. This doesn't require professional counseling skills, just loving curiosity and a willingness to say something encouraging, as Paul instructed the church to do with Archippus.
As Francis Schaeffer reminds us, "There are no little people and no big people in the true spiritual sense, only consecrated and unconsecrated people." The question before each of us is simply this: Will we take up the calling Christ has given us? Will we walk as He has saved us to walk?
Let's be a church that displays the beauty of the gospel through our unity, our prayers, and our encouragement of one another.
In Christ,
The Elders of NLBC
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