We've begun a new series in this book, and last week, as many of you know, I preached on the first two verses, and now we look at this next section. Colossians chapter 1, verses 3 through 8. Here now, again, God's holy and infallible word. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. As you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who was a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Amen. My father, who many of you met the weekend when I was ordained, He's a retired dentist and one of the things that he had the privilege to do as a dentist years ago when I was a young teenager, is he went to Tanzania. It's a country on the east side of Africa. It's like most countries in Africa, it's very poor. He told us, he was there for a few weeks, he actually went twice. He came back and he told us of how the conditions were like. From one, the perspective of a dentist. I mean, he didn't always work with pain medicine. Imagine that, kids. It's not cool. You don't have to, and some people don't have pain medicine when they get their teeth pulled out. He had to reuse needles, and you reuse the plastic gloves, and they just didn't have a lot of resources. He only drank from a bottle of water. Couldn't drink from the refrigerator, probably didn't have a refrigerator. He told us about their homes. The homes didn't have nice carpet like we do here on the ground. Some of the homes just had dirt. They were poor. And I share this with you because I remember specifically, now my dad is a calm man. And what I'm about to say isn't to suggest that he was sinful when he did this, but I remember him. We're at the kitchen table. We're eating dinner at our home. He's just told us about this trip, you know, in the last day or two. He's just returned from Tanzania, Africa. And here we are, all my siblings, you know, most of us at least, six or seven of us, we're bickering about the food. And I think it was the French fries my mom made. My mom made some really good French fries. And we're bickering about it, complaining about it, going on, carrying on about it. And my dad, I remember my dad specifically slamming his fists on the table. I'm saying, you live like kings and queens. Be thankful. Stop complaining. Hello. At least you have some french fries. At least the food's clean. You know, that was kind of what he was saying. I remember that. I remember that. My dad's a, he's a pretty quiet guy. It was right for him to do that. We had totally lost sight of all our blessings, of all our benefits that we've received from our Father, much less the fact we just had food to eat. We were complaining. My dear congregation, you're like me. You struggle to some degree to keep an eye on all the blessings All the benefits that you have in Christ Jesus. And you can complain. You can be quick to go there. And to let your sorrow and your sadness kind of mingle over into bitterness. Listen, I know. I know that you have struggles. You have sorrows. Things that you're disappointed about. Things in life and God's providence, relationships, jobs. You don't have the house you'd like to have. Maybe you don't have the body you'd like to have. You don't have the health that you'd like to have. There's all kinds of things that we can allow to fester and boil over into complaining. And we all need to look up and to see all our blessings that our Father has given us despite what we might be experiencing in the moment. I want to speak to you this morning on giving thanks. Now last week we learned a lot about this letter I see some new faces and I'll say just a few brief words about the context here. Christ has died. He's risen. He's ascended into heaven. He's poured out his spirit upon his church. The apostles have gone to the four corners, if you will, sharing the gospel. Paul wrote this letter about 30-25 years or so after Christ ascended. The gospel's gone out. Paul's in Rome. He hears from Epaphras, their pastor, which is mentioned in verse 7. They've got some problems. They've got some theological problems. Struggling to see Christ as preeminent in all things. So he writes this letter to them. And the first thing he has to really say to them, other than the normal introduction, is he gives thanks to God for them. And what I want you to see this morning is this lesson. Give thanks to God for your spiritual fruits which have been graciously and powerfully imparted to you, and different than our outline here, through the gospel, through the gospel first, and its ministers. Give thanks to God for your spiritual fruits, which he has graciously and powerfully imparted to you through the gospel and its ministers. And I want to bring this lesson to you under four headings. Look with me at verse three first. First, give thanks to God. Simply give thanks to God. He says, we give thanks. Now giving thanks, what does that mean? Giving thanks can be defined as just a gracious attitude and expression to someone who's done something for you. Being grateful for what they have done for you. Almost every morning, I get up, and after my devotional life, and maybe a few other things I might do, I walk out the door. As I walk out the door, I grab my lunch that my wife made for me. I didn't make my lunch. Maybe I should make my lunch more, but I definitely didn't make my lunch. My wife did, and I thank her for it, because she did that for me. Paul is recognizing that God is at work, and these people He thanks them. He specifically thanks a person. Notice who he thanks. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it would be appropriate, it would be appropriate to pray to the Holy Spirit, to pray to Jesus and to give thanks to them as well. It's most appropriate to give thanks, however, to the Father. It's most appropriate. James 1.17 What's his economy in the Trinity? What does he do specifically as a person? James 1 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So he thanks the father and I want to make a quick note about the Trinity. The Bible teaches that God is one in three persons. You won't find the word Trinity in the Bible. But what the word Trinity has come to mean to the Orthodox Church is true, is biblical. We see the Father in verse three, we see the Son, Jesus, in verse three as well. In verse eight, we see the Spirit. Very natural way to talk about the Trinity. This is Paul's way talking about the Trinity. He highlights the Father as the one who is the giver. He gives all good gifts through the Son and by the Spirit. Notice the manner of things. He says, praying always for you. Now I prefer the ESV rendering of this verse. It's not that Paul is always praying, and not that he's always praying for the Colossians. When he prays, He always gives thanks. It's a little different, a little nuance there. That's the idea. When he prays for the Colossians, and I'm sure it was very often, he labored in prayer. Prayer is very important to Paul. When he thought about the Colossians, despite their theological errors and even heresies and problems, he gave thanks to God for them. Kids, what do you do when you sit down at the table to eat a meal? I know in my home growing up and also in my home now, we always give thanks. Something we just always do. That's what Paul's doing. That's what he's expressing. He always gives thanks for them, despite their problems. And I see two applications here for us that are important. The first one is, was I like to coin, I like to call Christian psychology. Christian psychology. I'm using that term just to kind of get you to think for a moment. Paul doesn't begin with the rebuke. He could. He does it to the church in Galatians basically. But he doesn't. He speaks tenderly to them. Gently to them. He doesn't manipulate them. He is not lying. This is true. There is fruit in Colossians. These are God's people in Colossians. He is not manipulating them. But he is gentle with them. He is kind to them. Jesus does the same type of thing in John 4 with the woman at the well. Before he rebukes her for her adultery, he speaks gently to her. There's a lesson here for every pastor, every elder, parents, teachers, counselors. You're dealing with people. And you need to be patient with them. Don't manipulate them. Be gentle to them. Now, the other application is simply the question, do you give thanks to God? I want you to think about all your achievements. Paul, the Colossian Church, even though he did not know them personally, they were the fruit of his ministry. Paphras is his disciple. His ministry in Ephesus boiled over into the Colossian Church. And he could say, I have done this. Throughout this congregation, you have various achievements, degrees, things that you've done, amongst yourself, ministries that you have and services that you render to people. God has enabled you to do that. And Paul's giving thanks to God for what he's been doing. Paul knows. I am what I am, only by the grace of God. An attitude of thanks, even for the things that, humanly speaking, He has done. Do you have that? Are you thankful? Is that bubble over in your heart? Are you a thankful person? Even for the things that you have, humanly speaking, have done. Now this sets the theme for us. Giving thanks. I want you to think about that just in itself first. The next three points in the rest of this paragraph, there are reasons for it. Reasons for it. Additional reasons. I wanna bring those out to you. So secondly, first we give thanks to God. Secondly, give thanks for your spiritual fruits. For your spiritual fruits. We see that in verses four in the first part of verse five. He says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. We have faith, we have love and hope. In another place, you may recall faith, hope and love. These are spiritual fruits. This is what happens to someone who's been touched by the gospel and touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. This book boils over. Now verse four, It says, since we heard of your faith, and I want you to know something about this phrase here. He's giving a reason for thanks. Now, the word since, some translations make it more clear. I can say that I've been in this pulpit since 1030. That's a time thing, that's a temporal idea. Or I could say, I'm in this pulpit since I'm the pastor. And that's a reason. And that's the idea. Because the reason we give thanks is because we heard of your faith. And then he goes on. Your faith in Christ Jesus, that's the first fruit. And I've said this to you before. There's a sense in which, despite what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, which is true in another sense, there's a sense in which faith is the first grace. You're not gonna have love if you don't have faith in Christ Jesus. Faith. That knowledge of the gospel. The conviction that it's true. And then relying on Jesus. Resting on Jesus. Depending upon Jesus. That's faith. And they have it. They don't have faith just in something. Because there's a lot of faith, quote unquote, in Fresno. The object of faith is important. It is paramount. Because Humans are made in the image of God. Everyone has faith. Think about that for a moment. Faith in self. I'm going to earn my way to heaven. Faith in a false god. Faith in Christ Jesus. Do you have faith in Christ Jesus? Do you have faith in Christ Jesus? It's the premier grace and they have it. And they have love for all the saints. Now love is in another sense the preeminent grace. In heaven, Our faith will give way to love, because we'll see Christ as He is. We will love Him. Our faith works through love. Our faith has a purpose. So we may love God and love our neighbor as ourself. Love the church. Your love for all the saints. All the saints. Even the ugly ones. The stinky ones. The mean ones. That one who, you know, didn't you know, forgot to bring the snacks, or forgot to, you know, watch the nursery, and you know, they didn't even know about it, and you had to back them up, and it's annoying they haven't said anything to you about it. All the same. Listen. The devil wants you to harbor, harbor bitterness toward one another. He wants you to do that. Paul says love for all the saints. Love is first an action before it's an emotion. You might be angry with someone. First, love them with your actions. Whether you feel like it or not. Love for all the saints. And hope. Verse five again, there's some discussion on the relationship. It's another reason. We give thanks because of the hope which has laid it for you in heaven. Now, hope here is in place for what it represents. It's not hope abstractly, but it's heaven. It's the assurance of it. It's still future, but man, it might as well be present because I know it's true. They have that fruit. The hope, which is a lay-up for them in heaven. The conviction that they're heaven-bound. This is the grace that our fathers and mothers in the faith had during the Protestant Reformation, when the Roman Catholics were butchering them. Burning them at the stake. They knew! They knew! that Christ is the only way to salvation through faith in Him alone. They were utterly convinced of it. What a great blessing to have that assurance. Now you may not have assurance of your salvation. And you might still have salvation. But what a blessing to have that assurance, that conviction. Hope of heaven. Oh, the bliss of knowing Experimentally, experimentally. That you're heaven-bound. Now this is what the spiritual fruits, not the physical fruits or temporal fruits or earthly fruits, but the spiritual fruits is what Paul gives thanks for. And that's the focus of our thanks. Listen, there's many of you here that don't have, even though we live in the most wealthy nation in the world, you have real needs. Physical needs. I mentioned health and pain and things like that. You have reasons. From a human perspective, you have reasons to complain. You might really struggle. If you spend too much time on your circumstances, your immediate circumstances, you will have a hard time giving thanks to God. Focus on the spiritual blessings that you have. Death's not your shepherd. Christ is. You have faith. You have love. You are heaven bound. Do you give thanks to God for such things? Do you focus on that? Do you set your mind on heavenly things? Give thanks for your spiritual fruits. Now there is a transition in Paul's thinking here. It occurs in the middle of verse 5. And he goes from this idea of spiritual fruits to specifically the gospel. Notice he says, verse five, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which, talking about hope, of which you heard before in the word the truth of the gospel. Okay, probably apaphras. Certainly other people, preachers and Christians just giving testimony of their faith, they heard. of the truth, the gospel, and here Paul is emphasizing in the word, the truth of the gospel, he's emphasizing the spoken word that there was witnessing going on, and the truth of the gospel, not this other gospel that is in Galatia, not this other gospel that people are talking about that brings Christ down and lifts angels up, but the true gospel. And you've heard this before. So he's transitioning to the gospel. So thirdly, Give thanks for a gracious and powerful gospel. It's a gracious gospel because it comes to you in your sin. Notice verse six, which has come to you. They didn't come to it. They were not seeking God. It came to them. They were in Colossae, in a world of idolatry, in a world of ignorance, superstition. And God, by human messengers and the power of the Spirit, came to them graciously. When God visits people with the gospel, they're wicked. Listen, all of you, before you came to know the Lord Jesus, were wicked. All of you. Even if you are like me and you've never known a day that you didn't know the Lord. You're still born in sin. We're going to sing that tonight. Psalm 51. Born in sin. The wicked are estranged from the womb. God looked down from heaven. He saw all the sons of men. All the inclinations of their heart were only evil continually. And that's who God comes to. He comes graciously. He visits those types of people. Those who are fornicators. and idolaters, and adulterers, even homosexuals, and sodomites, and thieves, and the covetous, swindlers, extortioners, drunkards. He comes to people like that. And this is why you should be thankful. Because this is you to some degree. The gospel came to you. Now some of you here might not know the Lord, and I want you to know that the gospel's for you. Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Your sin qualifies you to come to Jesus. And you here, my dear congregation, you know the Lord Jesus. It's because he's been gracious to you. He's given you a pastor to preach the gospel to for years. He's given you loving parents, many of you. He's gracious to you. This is why you give thanks to Him. It's also a powerful gospel. You who were in such powerful sin, again, all of us, whether we came to faith in an adult life, a drinking problem, or whether we came to faith as a young child, We all need power. We need God in Christ by His Spirit to pluck us out of the world. We need a powerful gospel. That's what we see here next. Which has come to you as it has also in all the world and is bringing forth fruit as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. He says, as it is also in all the world. I want you to think about not so much all the world, but just the word world. There are two types of people in this world. There are those who are in the kingdom of Christ, and there are those in the kingdom of Satan. And that second type of person is controlled by Satan. Think about that. John, 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. It may be Islam. It may be Mormonism. It may be just paganism on some Pacific island or something. It's all the same kingdom. It's the devil. And what God does in the gospel is he comes and he snatches them out. He snatches them from the world. That's what he does. Though they've been taken captive by the devil to do his work, he snatches them. It's a powerful gospel. And he does this in all the world. The reason why we are here in Fresno and we believe, and there's churches in Fresno, is because the gospel is powerful. It went forth from Jerusalem. It went into Europe. It went to England and Scotland. And our ancestors came from Scotland and grew and grew. Those type of things. It's powerful. There's no religion that can say that in the space of 30 years... a large group of people came to faith without a sword. Like the Muslims would say. They did it by the sword. We did it by preaching. Justin Martyr, a theologian and apologist in the second century, so after this time, he writes, there is no people, Greek or barbarian or any other race by whatever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or culture, whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons. among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of the crucified Jesus to the Father and Creator of all things." Power. And I will say, some of you who may be questioning this, Paul speaks in the manner of men. He's not talking about the continent of Australia. In his mind, the known world, the Mediterranean, the East, that's what he's talking about, the known world. The Bible was written by two authors, the Holy Spirit, And men, humans, they speak in the manner of men. He says in all the world. That's what he's talking about. The known world. It's powerful and it's bringing forth fruit. And it's powerful also because it continues to bear fruit in the life of a Christian. You know the Lord Jesus. He's come in His power. He's converted you. He's brought you to spiritual life and He continues to grow you. You might go through a period of 10, 20 years with very little growth. and even in your later life, 50s, 60s, you'll grow. You'll grow in your faith, hope, and love. That's what's being said here. As it is also among you, not just initially, but since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth, you're continuing to grow. Since I've spoken about my father already, I'll mention him again. My father's a big encouragement to me. He's 70, I think he's 73, he's 72. And these last six years or so, since I've been in seminary, since I've been out here, I've seen my mom and my dad grow. Their knowledge of the Bible, I could see them really studying the Bible, loving their children, loving their grandchildren, serving in their church, like more so than normal, more so than, and I remember when I was in the house, because the gospel's powerful. It doesn't just bring you from the darkness to light. It grows you. The Spirit grows you more and more to conform you to the Lord Jesus. This is encouraging a gracious and powerful gospel. It's encouraging. You don't need to have a master's degree to share the gospel. You don't need to doubt that your words will have any effect upon the person you're sharing the gospel with, because the power is not in you. The power is in the gospel. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation. Some of you No, I mean, all of you who are in Christ know what I'm talking about. But some of you have testimonies, like Rosaria Butterfield. She was in a homosexual lifestyle. She was just in that community. She had a good job as a professor at Syracuse teaching English. And God snatched her. He snatched her over time and through the witness of God's people and she came to faith in Christ. And this is why we, this is why you, I want you to have a thankful heart. Kids, I want you to have a thankful heart. God snatched you graciously. You know, that's not just gracious. If you didn't have power to do anything about it, Then it would be totally different, but he does. He is gracious and he is powerful. This is why we give him thanks. This is why we give him thanks. Give thanks for a gracious and powerful gospel. Now the gospel comes to us, yes by the power of the Spirit, but it is through human instruments. And Paul mentions one of them. And I'm gonna mention one of them. It's true that some of you may have come to faith in Christ through the witness of your parents and through the witness of a friend or something like that. Maybe it wasn't your minister. Like for me, I can say that from a human perspective, I came to faith hearing a sermon. But despite that there's many instruments, he mentions one. and it's the minister of the gospel. It's the pastor. Verse 7 and 8, give thanks for his ministers. Verse 7, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who was a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, he will also declare to us your love in the Spirit. Now Epaphras is their pastor. It does not literally say that, but we should understand that. He says, a minister of Christ on your behalf. In chapter 4 he talks about how he is one of them. And the idea is Epaphras has come from Colossae to Rome saying, Paul we got some weirdos in Colossae. They're speaking about all this Gnostic stuff and Judaism stuff. We need some help. That's what's going on here. Now who's, what's a good minister like? What's a good pastor like? Our dear fellow servant. Ministers are servants. They serve the people. A good pastor labors in the word for his people. Because his people need to be fed. His people need to know the truth. They need to know that it is true, what is being said. That their counsel is based on right theology. And they're serving the people. I mean, yes, pastors have authority, but they serve. Christ did not come to be served, but to serve. Give us life, a ransom for many. A good pastor serves, I want to say this as well, as throughout this whole section, and also in all the Bible, a pastor is never called a priest. That's exactly what the Roman Catholics say. And it's based on a problem in the Latin Vulgate. They mistranslate it. Because the Latin Vulgate is authoritative. They miss what actually is being said in the New Testament. They're servants. They're ministers. They're pastors and teachers. They're not priests. There's one priest. One priest. It's Jesus Christ. And that's why you can go directly to God through Him. They're servants. They're also faithful ministers of Christ. Now the word minister is a different word, very similar to servant. It's translated often servant, but in this context it's customary to say minister. They serve Christ. They've been ordained by Christ and they're his ambassadors. There's a sense in which, yes, they serve God's people, sure. But they also are accountable to Christ. Faithful ministers preach, not just the fluffy passages of scripture, they preach the whole counsel of God. Even those laws and commandments that their people are breaking, that are hard for them to talk about, because a pastor is a minister of Christ. He's gotta be faithful to Christ first. Listen, there are churches throughout the city and state where there's nothing but fluff from the pulpit. You know, fluff, it may be true, but there's no full counsel. And I doubt whether those pastors are really faithful to Christ. You don't need someone who's just gonna pat you on the back no matter what you're doing all the time. You need someone who's gonna actually love you by showing you what Christ wants you to do. a minister of Christ on your behalf. And a pastor also knows and cares about the condition of his people. That's what's being taught in verse eight. Who has also declared to us your love in the spirit. Okay, think about this. Pantherus, he knows and cares about the condition of his flock. Think about it. He's in Colossae, all this stuff's going on, but he goes to Rome to get some help. He's declared their condition. He knows what's going on. He knows there's Gnostics and Judaizers in Colossae. And he cares enough to realize, I need some reinforcements. I need the apostles to come and help me out here. He loves them. He's caring for them. And this section of scripture is challenging to me. Because I'm preaching about myself. This morning, Grace Clovis, I specifically addressed Brad Mills. That's what's in view here. And I hope that I'm doing this. And if I step on your toes, I hope I'm doing it because I love you. And that you actually need me to step on your toes. And I hope I'm serving you. And I want to mention a word to my fellow elders. Much of this applies to you too. And I hope that you don't lord your position over these people that you're with, that you are serving them. There's some in here who may, the Lord may be calling to be elders in the future. Listen, I say this, not in any bad sense at all, it's just true. Danny and Buss are not always gonna be elders here. They're eventually gonna die and we need other elders. And this is what you need to think about. This is what you are, men, before you become ordained. This is the pastoral theology here. But I also want to mention this to you, by way of giving thanks. Paul says that Epaphras is dear to him. Dear. Beloved. Paul loves Epaphras. And I want you to think about whether you love me. Whether I'm dear to you. Do you esteem highly your pastor for his work's sake. There are so many people who do not have a faithful minister. It bothers me. They're not told that they're sinning. They're not told that they need to repent. They're not told that they're on the way to him. Because they don't have a faithful minister. And I hope that I'm faithful, not perfect. Paul doesn't say that. But he's dear. He's dear to Paul, and I want you to think about that. Because if you do have a faithful minister, and you do love him, then you have reasons to give thanks. You don't hear garbage from the pulpit every Sunday morning and every Sunday evening. Give thanks to God for your spiritual fruits which have been graciously and powerfully imparted to you through the gospel and its ministers. Go back to that dinner table. My dad rebukes me and my siblings. We're focusing on French fries. What are you focused on? Do you recognize all your blessings in Christ? I speak to you as those who know the Lord Jesus Christ. Death is not your shepherd. You're forgiven. You're being taken care of. And despite the difficulties that I know you all have, despite that time of sorrow that you can have and you can cry about, rejoice. Rejoice. Give thanks to God. Are you thankful? Are you thankful? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning asking that you would forgive us the degree that we have failed to set our eyes on things above, failed to see all the bounty that you have put upon our table in Christ as our Father. And we ask that you would help us to be thankful. Give us hearts that are thankful. For we ask in Jesus's name. Amen.