A Wonderful Life

Transcript

Rob McFarlane: 0:58

The title of my sermon today is A Wonderful Life. We're going to look at how we can live a rich and rewarding Christian life. Our verse for today is Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, and I'm reading it from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. We see three things in this verse that enable us to live a wonderful Christian life. They are the word, worship, and witness. Let's look at them together. So number one is Word. In Colossians chapter 3, verse 16 we read, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Spending time in God's Word, the Bible, causes us to grow in our faith and fruitfulness. Let's look at two verses in the Old Testament that show us this. The first is Psalm 1, and the second is Joshua chapter 1. First of all, Psalm 1 verse 1 to 3. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. God wants our lives to be fruitful. He wants us to meditate on his word day and night. And if we do this, we will be planted, we will be productive, and we will be prosperous. A wonderful life starts by putting our roots deep into Christ, by following his teaching, by filling our hearts with his word, by delighting on his law. Next we see in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. We see almost a formula for success. To meditate on God's word, to speak God's word, to think about God's word. And as we do this day and night as a lifestyle, we make our way prosperous and successful. The Amplified Bible even adds the phrase that you will deal wisely in the affairs of life. Spending time in God's Word causes our lives to be fruitful, productive, successful, and gives us wisdom for life. Spending time in God's Word also equips us for righteous living and effective ministry. Listen to these verses from 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 and 17. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. We see in these verses that God's word does two things for us essentially. It affects our lives and equips us to live the life or edifies us for Christian living, but it also equips us to minister in every good work and minister to others. A wonderful life starts by spending time in God's word. It causes our lives to flourish and be fruitful, and it also edifies us and equips us to minister to others as ambassadors for Christ. Number two, worship. Colossians 3 verse 16 says, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Praise and worship brings us into God's presence. It's not just warming ourselves up on a Sunday morning so we can hear the sermon, but it's an opportunity for us to spend time together corporately in God's presence. But God also wants us to develop a lifestyle of praise and worship when we live our everyday lives, to have thankfulness in our hearts to God every single day. Let's look at a few verses. First of all, Psalm 100, and I'm going to read the whole Psalm because it's just so wonderful. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing. Know that the Lord He is God. It is He who has made us, and we are His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations. Next, let's look what Jesus said concerning worship. In John chapter 4, verse 23 and 24, Jesus said, But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is seeking for people who would worship him, who would come and seek his face. Worship is a wonderful thing. It's an intimate time with God, and we become more like him. We take on his attributes of kindness and love and joy and peace as we spend time in worship with him. Worship invites the Holy Spirit to come and we experience his fruit and his gifts in our lives. If you want birds to come into your garden, you spread seed around. And if we fill our lives with praise and worship, we attract the dove of the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. And we will experience his peace, his joy, his love, his kindness. We will find self-control beginning to grow as a fruit in our lives, but we'll also experience his gifts of healings and miracles and faith and wisdom and knowledge from God. I encourage you to develop a lifestyle of worship. So we've seen, number two, that God wants us to develop a lifestyle of worship. It's not just something we do on Sundays, even though that is so important, to do that together with other believers, to have that time of corporate worship. He also wants us to have a private, personal worship life, to have thankfulness in our hearts towards God, to sing on our own, to experience his joy in worship. Number three, witness. In Colossians 3, verse 16, we read, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. This involves sharing with others what we have learned and encouraging them as we grow in faith together. As you spend time in God's Word and you spend time in worship, there will be an overflow as you begin to minister to others. I personally believe that God wants our ministry to be an overflow of our relationship with God. As you spend time with God, you begin to experience His joy, His peace, His love, and it begins to overflow out of your life and it begins to bless others. When I first met my beautiful wife Jill many years ago, 35 years ago, and we fell in love. I would think about her often. I would talk about her. I'd find myself writing her name on different things with little hearts and kisses because I fell deeply and passionately in love with her. And as we spend time with God and we grow in our love relationship with Him, we cannot help but speak about Him and tell others about His goodness and His love. It's like passing the baton on to others, it's sharing the blessing that you have received with others. Let's look at two verses. In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, we read, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And God wants our lives to be fruitful like that. As we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, it comes upon us, he begins to use us as his witnesses wherever we may find ourselves. The second verse is 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2. And here we see an encouragement from Paul to his son in the faith, Timothy. He says, And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. God wants us to take what we have heard, what we have seen in the messages we hear in our personal times of Bible reading and worship and prayer, and share that with others who in turn could share it with others also. This is a wonderful life. This is a rich and rewarding life as you begin to share his goodness and love with others. Now it's really important, and it's on God's heart, that we tell the next generation about the goodness of God. In Psalm 78, verse 4, 6, and 7, we read, We will not hide them from their children, but tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. We also read in Psalm 145, verse 4 One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. God wants us to prepare the next generation by sharing his goodness and love with them, to proclaim his goodness to the next generation, to prepare the next generation to serve God in their generation. Youth and children's ministry is important to us at River Church. And we want to encourage families to grow in their relationship with God together. We want to prepare the next generation to go further in their walk with God than we have. We want to make provision for the next generation so the next generation can serve God's purpose in their generation. So, in summary, today we've seen a wonderful life involves spending time in the Word, in worship, and being a witness. As we pray, let's ask the Holy Spirit to show us what He wants us to do as a result of what we've heard in today's sermon. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you for your goodness and love. Thank you that you have called us to live a rich and rewarding Christian life. Give us a hunger for your word. That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Help us to desire your word, just like a baby desires the milk from its mother. Sustain us, cause us to grow, that we may be trees planted by the river that bears fruit in season. Help us to think about, to speak about, and to act on your word. Lord, we thank you for the invitation we have to be worshippers, to come and have an intimate interaction with you. And thank you that when we do that, we see your fruit and your gifts develop in our lives. Holy Spirit, we want to surround our lives with worship, that we would attract your presence. Thank you, Lord, that worship brings us into your presence. And Lord Jesus, I thank you that we can be witnesses for you in the power of the Holy Spirit, that our ministries would be an overflow of our relationship with you. And in particular, we pray that you would raise up leaders to serve the next generation. Leaders for youth and children's ministry. We pray specifically for those we know who are working with children and young people. And we ask that you would empower them and strengthen them to be effective witnesses for you to the next generation. Holy Spirit, speak to us and show us what you want us to do as a result of what we've heard today. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.