The United States Army has a premier leadership school, and that school is Ranger School. Many of you know that I participated in that in two different ways. I was a student. I was also an instructor. And one of the fascinating facts about Ranger School, it's not just The two months of small unit combat, simulated combat missions that they go through in the woods, in the mountains, in the swamps. It's kind of cool and fun to read about perhaps. It's interesting. One of the other interesting facts that I'm aware of is that as these Ranger students go through their training, in these different phases as a squad, about 15, 12 men, as a platoon, 30, 40 men, they often pass or fail all together. I mean, with a few exceptions to that, if a ranger student is going to be successful and he does well, it's because other ranger students are trying hard and working hard and doing well. And I remember one time as an instructor, other than maybe one student, a whole platoon failed a certain phase of ranger school. I mean, think about it. If you're hungry, and you're tired and you're exposed to the elements and you're not up for an observation, it's not your turn to lead, it doesn't really matter what happens, then you're probably not going to, you're tempted at least not to try real hard, not really struggle and work hard to help your ranger buddy. I mean, after all, you're not up for a mission. And then that kind of reciprocates. Because if one man fails because other men were lazy, well then when that lazy man gets up to be the leader, I'm gonna be lazy too. Kind of reciprocates. And of course it goes the other way as well. Platoons do well and they start to gain momentum, missions are being accomplished, et cetera. And I mention that to you because just as Ranger students are tempted to kind of pay attention to themselves, Christians also are tempted to kind of pay attention to themselves, to take heed, which is a good thing, to their spiritual growth and their spiritual development. And you have to do so in isolation, to do so without any regard for other Christians around them. And there's this temptation, I'm not really gonna struggle for the spiritual good of my brothers and sisters in Christ, even those maybe in my own congregation. Paul is an example to us of this letter. There's much material in these five verses, in fact, for pastors, like myself, and for elders, because he's demonstrating the sincere conflict he has for the Colossae Church. He is in Rome. He's writing this in some sense in prison in Rome. He's never seen the Colossi Church. He's never met them. Epaphras, their evangelist, their church planning pastor has reported to them. He's seen some good things. He's heard of some good things that he reports in the first chapter. He knows that they believe fundamentally in the main. They believe in the Lord Jesus and he's But he's also just told them in the previous verses of chapter one, this conflict he has, specifically how he's labored for them, not in person, but in prayer, in his epistle, in his preaching in other places for the Gentiles. Verse nine, we see this conflict. I do not cease to pray for you. People he's never met. And it's in these verses that we see some of the more intimate words of Paul to these people. And we learned the lesson that Christians struggle for the spiritual good of other Christians because of formative threats and brotherly love. There's two reasons I want to bring out. Christians struggle for the spiritual good of other Christians because of the presence of formative threats and because of brotherly love. Look with me verses one. We see our first point. I want to cover three points. Verse one is the fact of this struggle. Verse two and three, the goal of this struggle, what it is that Paul is actually going for. And then verses four and five, the motive of this struggle. So the first verse one. the fact of the struggle. He says, for I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. There's a couple of things here for us to note. You may be wondering if Paul is sinning here. I don't know if you've thought about it, but aren't we supposed to hide our good deeds? Are we supposed to not let our right hand know what our left hand is doing? And Paul's saying, listen, I want you to know. He's told them a few things. He tells the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11, quite a bit. And it is true that we are to humble ourselves. We read in Sabbath school this morning. We don't want to exalt ourselves, we want to humble ourselves. We are only by God's grace. All glory goes to God. And yet I want to speak to this because there's a place, there's a time to let people know that you're struggling spiritually along with them. Paul is answering an implied objection here. Part of the context of this letter, Colossi is off the beaten path, okay? It's not in LA or San Francisco, it's kind of like a Madeira. Okay, it's kind of off the beaten path. Not really all that important, right? Paul hasn't been there. These other teachers in the city saying, you know, Paul's doctrine, well, it needs to be improved, okay? And Paul wants them to listen. I may not have been there personally, but I do care about you. You are important to me. And to that end, not for his own glory, but to that end, he tells them these things. He does have a great conflict What a great conflict here. This word here in the Greek is part of the history of where we get the word agony. Okay, in pain, struggling. There's an intense fight, if you were. Struggles, most translations render it, and hence I'm saying to you, just struggle. Lately, because of the college football season, I've been playing football with my kids. We walk down the street, and it's me versus them three. And, sorry kids, hate to break it to you, but, you know, it's not that intense, okay? I can handle it, I'm bigger than them. When I was in high school, I would get amped for those games. It was about to be a big game, an equal opponent, if you will. I had to train for it, practice for it. It was a conflict. It was a struggle. There was sweat. There was tears. There was blood, if you will. It was involved. This is what Paul is talking about. And I've mentioned to you a little bit of what is implied here. Even though Paul has not been there, he's certainly writing a letter to them. which demonstrates his concern. He says in Second Corinthians 11, 28, at the very end of that list of things that he's done and suffered. If you recall me reading that recently, he says in Second Corinthians 11, 28, this besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for the churches, for all the churches. Paul's an apostle, okay, no one here is an apostle. I don't want to overly burden you with these things as if you're supposed to be just like that. But it does speak to this struggle. He struggled, perhaps most specifically, in prayer for them. As I read to you earlier, verse nine. Do not cease to pray for you. He's struggling. He's struggling for them. He has a fight that he's in. And he's doing this for Christians. Okay, what I'm talking about this morning, yes, we are to fight for the spread of the gospel, and we are to love the unconverted, and yes, Paul did do that. I mean, he was the best missionary the church has ever known. And yet, this phenomena, this idea is specifically for Christians, Christians struggle alongside for other Christians. He says, what a great conflict I have for you. Okay, speaking to the Colossae church, saints. Those in Laodicea. He also has in mind Heriopolis, which is a city nearby. Chapter four, verse 13 mentions that. As many as have not seen my face in the flesh. He's not seen them. Think about the heart. Okay, think about this struggle. I mean, I've been to Iraq, and I've seen the spiritual darkness in Samarra. I've seen kids, you know, run around, giggle, laugh, play, being raised up in a place, utter darkness, spiritual darkness. I kind of have a soft spot in my heart for those interpreters that I saw. and those people that I saw, and I don't anticipate that you would have those same type of feelings, because you've never been to Iraq. I'm assuming none of y'all have been to Iraq. But Paul did. Paul did genuinely care for those people that he'd never seen. And I want you to think about this. I want to apply this verse in three ways to you. I want you to think about, first, a word to pastors and to elders. I don't want to ignore that. Paul is an apostle, very gifted man. He certainly was an elder too, and he was a pastor as well. Does this not tell something to a pastor? You know, a good pastor doesn't just hang out in the office, if you were, just read and just preach on Sunday morning. He's involved. He should be praying for his people, for his congregation. Concerned, are they growing in grace? What can I do to help them? Elders, likewise. A good elder labors, struggles, is engaged with the life of his congregation. They're not just decision makers, okay? Paul told the elders in Ephesus. Acts 20, shepherd the church of God. Shepherd the church of God. And we see an example of that. He backed that up. There's a word here to parents. To parents. Listen, parenting is difficult. Parenting is difficult. And the reason why it's difficult is because it's a struggle. You should expect to have to sweat. Okay? Physically, I guess, in some sense, but spiritually. To labor. These are God's children. They're God's children. He's given them to you. You're his agent, as it were. And I want to challenge you in those regards. I also want to speak to you as just one to another, Christians. It's easy to fall into the habit of 15 minutes with Jesus every morning, come to church on Sunday, and leave, to not be engaged with one another. to not wrestle with one another. Now again, Paul's an apostle. But these type of things are applied to God's people. James chapter five, verse 19 and 20. James calls Christians to turn their wandering brother or sister back to the Lord. Peter tells Christians in 1 Peter 4.10 to serve one another. You've been given a gift, serve one another. Love one another. Care for one another. And I want you to think about whether or not you're in a struggle, not just for your own spiritual good, which I want you to be, and that's good, do that, but also for the person sitting next to you, sitting behind you, or sitting in front of you. Well, what are we actually going for? So we're in a struggle, the fact of the struggle's clear, what's our goal? I haven't really explained that, have I? What are we shooting for? Well, that's what we see in verses two through three. So secondly, the goal of this struggle. Now, the goal of this struggle is the spiritual good of one another. I'm summarizing verses two and three under the heading of spiritual good. There's actually four things that Paul mentions here. Look at the first one. Verse two says that their hearts, and so the idea is, listen, this is what I'm going, I'm struggling for this effect, that their hearts may be encouraged. Comfort, spiritual comfort. My son, Benaiah, recently, this week, I came into the house right after coming back from work, and right when I walked through the door, he fell off the kitchen chair, bonked his head. He was okay, but it hurt him. He was crying. And I had to put my stuff down and kind of get there, and there was other people kind of all over the house. By the time I actually got to him, he probably wasn't hurting all that bad, but he was still crying. It wasn't until I picked him up and patted him on the back that he stopped crying. He just wanted to be comforted. We're like that as people. We need to be encouraged. And this is where Paul's going with his struggle. This informs the way we have fellowship with one another. You know, you come to church to worship God. And that's the chief. We come to worship Him, to praise Him, to be an example, as it were, to the other people here. It's about God. Worship is about God. But we also come to be encouraged ourselves, but also in regard to fellowship, to encourage one another. We don't just talk about our week to one another. Hey, how are you doing? How are you doing? How can I pray for you? There are times, and I know I can identify with this, where you come to church and you're discouraged. And that's the week you need one of your brothers or your sisters to say, how are you doing? Really, how are you doing? How can I pray for you? How can I encourage you? This is where Paul's going. He says that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love. In other words, that you might be knit together in love, united in love. What's implied here, of course, is the foundation of our union, which is truth. OK, one commentator writes, nothing so much brings concord. OK, unity. Nothing so much brings concord among those who have at heart the things of God as agreement concerning God. Nothing more tends to discord than disagreement concerning him. This is why we have a confession of faith. This is why we have a statement on what the gospel is. But we're not just theological, okay? We actually do love one another. In our union, even though it's the truth of the gospels implied, even though you might say a sharp word to one another and you might be offended at something someone has said, you love them. Your heart's knit to them, not just because we have a confession and we all are around that, but it's hard to pull people away from a congregation because they love one another and they're connected. He's seeking for their union. He's seeking for their assurance. Thirdly, he says, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding. The key word here is assurance. He adds some adjectives. around it to kind of heighten that. The word assurance itself is a strong word. Okay. Assurance is a certainty about something. But he says, listen, I want you to be, to have a full assurance. Talking about the riches. These all go to heighten the level of assurance. Understanding of doctrine. Being convinced that it's true. Being convinced that Christ is the savior of the world. That he did die for sinners. That God's word is true. The Ten Commandments, they're on the table. All these different things, gaining assurance about them. Now, should you be concerned about, in some sense, assurance of your faith and your right standing with God, but also the truths of Scripture? I mean, if you know the Sabbath school, the Sunday school story, should you go on past that? I think this passage of scripture talks a lot about that. In fact, you should not believe anything simply because your church tells you it's true, or I've told you it's true. You should believe it because it resonates with you, your own conscience, your own heart. The Roman Catholic Church has this idea of implicit faith. And it's not just a Roman Catholic thing, it carries over, it's just part of a problem. Believe this because the church tells you. And there's no real interaction with God's word, which is our only source of faith and practice. There's no desire to really understand and to wrestle with the truth and to have an assurance. This is what Paul's after. He wants to see growth in this regard. But also, not just conviction of the key things and not just gaining in that conviction, but also knowledge itself. He says here, fourthly, to the knowledge, in other words, that you would attain to the knowledge of the mystery of God. to the knowledge of the mystery of God. Now what is the mystery of God? He's talking about the gospel. Keep in mind the context. He's just explained the mystery, which is mentioned in verse 26 of chapter one, to be Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is the gospel. So that's what he's talking about here. To attain to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ. The gospel is perhaps, and I just said, it's centrally Christ and the story of Christ, but it's not divorced from the Father, and so he mentions the Father, because both are from the Father and of Christ. There would be no son if there wasn't a father. But then as an encouragement to grow in this knowledge, okay, I'm talking about theology. Okay, I'm talking about theology. He tells them that Christ is in Christ, okay, Christ as God, Christ as our king, Christ as our prophet. He has all the riches. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. They're not hidden in the sense that you can't get them, but they're stored up. They're stored up in him. He has all the knowledge and all the wisdom, the ability to exercise that knowledge and to apply that knowledge. And isn't there kind of an implied charge here, an implied exhortation? Now we don't need any other knowledge or wisdom. Again, think about the context here of Colossus, that's exactly what some of the false teachers are saying. Now, I'm not saying that we can't learn about science or medicine as if the Bible's intended to prepare you to be a surgeon. It's specifically talking about salvation. However, I do want you to think about this. This verse says, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This does teach us that to know science rightly is to know it through the lens of Christ. Think about all the scientists out there who don't know anything about the origins because they're not Christians. They're really smart, but they divorce their knowledge from Christ and from his word. Let's speak to that a little bit. So you have knowledge, you have assurance, You have love, you have encouragement. This is what he's going after. This is his goal. And I've summed that up on essentially spiritual good, spiritual good. Now what are elders and pastors struggling for in their members? It would be very good for you to gain assurance of God's love for you. It gives you strength to fight persecution, to resist persecution. It gives you strength to fight the fight of faith, to walk by faith, to gain conviction about certain things. I think about parents, the temptation, there's a lot of parents here. My kids play basketball, they do piano, all these different things as part of their education, that's good. I'm not condemning those kind of things, but it's easy for parents to get all tied up on whether their kids can play the piano, whether their kids can play basketball, and forget what they're going after fundamentally as parents, is it not? When you talk to one another and you fellowship with one another, as I've said earlier, you are going after these things. This is what you talk about. I mean, yes, by all means, talk about other things. You can be friends, but fundamentally, listen, we need one another to encourage one another to go for this goal, to fight this fight, to press on. This is what we're going after. This is the goal, our spiritual good, our growth in grace, our knowledge of Christ. And this can be a daunting task, okay? Walking by faith for ourselves is difficult. Fighting our own sin is difficult. Helping others do the same is also difficult. How did Paul do this? Or in other words, from where did he get the energy? What was his motive to do this? I wanna speak to you on that regard from verses four and five. Perhaps you're like me in some sense. You have a hard time really struggling on and on for the spiritual good of others, and you want some motivation. I wanna give you some motivation. Verses four through five, we have two motives. So thirdly, the motive of this struggle. Now verse four gives us one motive, and it's the presence of real, serious, formative threats, dangers. We face an enemy. He says, now this I say. Now this I say, it really goes back all the way, several verses, you know, his struggle, His suffering for them. This I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. With persuasive words. Paul knows that there is a real threat in Colossae. The threat isn't so much persecution, the sword. It's false teaching. It's persuasive teaching. It's there, they face it. We're gonna get into it as we go along. I've mentioned to you the nature of the Colossi heresy several times, but it's persuasive. That's what I want you to think about for a moment. Paul is aware that it's not just me playing football with my three kids. It's not that part of an opponent. No, this is a real struggle, they're persuasive. They're persuasive. I want you to think about whether you are aware of the spiritual dangers that you're all facing. I want you to think about it. It's very important to be aware of that and to be convinced that Satan wants your soul. He wants your kid's soul. He wants your grandkid's souls. He wants them. When I am I've mentioned this before, I apologize, but it's just a good illustration. I get uncomfortable around pools. Not fundamentally, by all means, invite me to your swimming pool. But I know that my kids, something bad could happen to them. And so, yeah, I put their floaty on, and yeah, I relax to some degree, but my head is still on a swivel. Because it's a real threat. I mean, I go to Chick-fil-A or something, you know, or some other place where there's like a fenced-in playground with cushioned, you know, really comfy ground. I mean, I don't even pay attention to my kids. Maybe I should pay attention more to them. Because it's not really a big deal. You know, they're not going to get hurt. Man, we face real threats. I want you to think about it. I mean, I could go on and on about you know, all the cults that are in this city. I mean, it's not just that. It's not just those people who knock on your door. Listen, I've been, people have knocked on my door, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Mormons. That doesn't happen. That doesn't happen in South Carolina and Alabama. It's not just that. I mean, think about it just from a broader perspective. I mean, every time you turn on the TV, Every time you listen to just the radio or something like that, okay? Our culture has a message. I mean, are you paying attention to the message? The lies? I mean, what does our culture say about gender? There's no gender. Is that true? How does that affect our lives? You know? I mean, what's our problem? Education. That's our problem. Listen, be educated. Education is a good thing, but sin is our problem. Sin is our problem. You know, what's truth? Truth is whatever you think it is. It's relative. Listen, our kids at school face all this kind of stuff. Don't think if you homeschool your kids or you send your kids to a Christian school that they're exempt from it. I mean, they face lies, persuasive words. Are we gonna help them? Are we gonna contend for them? I want you to think about that, because that's the first motive, at least mentioned here, to provoke you, to struggle, to help them. All of you face the same world I'm facing. We all need help. Are you convinced of that? Secondly, though, under this last point, there's another motive, and that is brotherly love. Paul genuinely loves them. You won't struggle with one another unless you love one another. He says in verse five, for though I am absent in the flesh, yet I'm with you in the spirit. What's he saying? Listen, even though I have not been with you personally, I love you. I think about you. I'm with you in my spirit. That's what he means. I'm rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. I really desire to see your good order. The idea here is their obedience, okay, their following, their discipline in their Christian life. The steadfastness of your faith in Christ. Paul, he's mentioned that. He's concerned, some of them don't really know Christ, but he loves to see them. John says, they have no greater joy than to hear that my children, okay, spiritual children, walk in truth. He has genuine love for them. Do you love one another? Do you care about the well-being of one another? Does it bother you when you see maybe some weaknesses or even someone going astray? Now, I wanna say this to you, that love Don't wait for a warm and fuzzy for the person behind you or next to you. Don't wait for it. Love is fundamentally action. I want you to think about that. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments, Jesus said. Jesus called us to love our enemies, not necessarily warm and fuzzy. It's to do something. Don't wait for a warm and fuzzy. You should strive for that. But also, I want you to think, maybe you do love one another. And one of the ways you'll know that is if you think about one another. Do you go all week without thinking about one another? Paul is thinking about the Colossians, the church in Colossae. He's thinking about them. And these two motives are mentioned here. There's other motives I could mention. The glory of Christ, okay, would be one that comes to my mind. But I want you to think about these. Specifically, I want you to think about the threats. Listen, I didn't get up, I don't get fired up and stretch out and drink water to play football with my kids. Sorry, Stephen. It's just not that hard. But I did, and I played high school football, because I faced a real enemy. We face a real enemy. Do you know that? Christians struggle for the spiritual good of other Christians because of formative threats and because of brotherly love. I want to conclude my message this morning to you by giving you an encouragement. I want to encourage you to do this. I want to do it in two ways. You may have thought, you know, well, is Paul really concerned that the church in Colossians is going to lose their faith and lose their salvation? Listen, Christ is more persuasive than any false teacher. He is king. He is prophet. He has said, no one can snatch them out of my hand. Once saved, always saved. That's true. That's true. No one can snatch them from my hand, Jesus says. And because that's true, because God has ordained the end, those who will be saved, He's also ordained the means, okay? So I don't want you to, I want to encourage you. You know, there will be, God's people will persevere to them and they won't be deceived. Because God has chosen them, but he's also chosen the means. And one of those means is the struggle that God's people have, not just for themselves, but for one another. I want to encourage you, I want to encourage you to struggle. Think about what good can come of it. Some of you here, because of who you are, how long you've been in this church, or maybe your age, can do more for one another than your elders or your pastor, because of a particular place that you're in, the knowledge you know of one another. Just a little bit of effort, a little bit of struggle can go a long way. I wanna encourage you to do that. Who can you say, Two, I want you to know, I want you to know how great a conflict, how great a struggle I have for you. Are you not just wrestling for your own spiritual good, but also for the spiritual good of one another? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning thankful for one another, thankful for all the people in our lives who have helped us along the way. Father, we pray that we would seek you, that we would fight the good fight of faith, that we would do all that we can to grow, to glorify you, that we would take heed to ourselves. Lord, give us strength. Give us awareness to contend for the well-being of one another, especially especially if we're here this morning and we're in a good season of life, a peaceful season of life with more time than usual. Lord, help us to love you and to love your people by contending, by struggling along with them. Father, we pray that you would bring us home, that you would bring us to heaven where we may see Christ. We know that you will do this. And we pray all this in Jesus's name, amen. Let's respond to the preaching of the word by singing Psalm 102B.