R1659 The Believer’s Proclamation

God has an encouraging word for you and me today, through the Bible-based teaching of Dr. Don Wilton about the Believer's Proclamation. We're headed to the book of Colossians chapter 1 beginning in verse 28 with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, pastor, seminary professor, and I pray that you'll just open your heart to him as your friend and teacher today.

As we study the book of Colossians, we're gaining insight on this particular proclamation that each of us have as believers and how it changes the way we live our life on a daily basis. As we study the word together, know that we're available for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you anytime. Our prayer line is 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or meet us online at TEWONLINE.ORG.

That's TEWONLINE.ORG. And now today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. We're going to be in Colossians chapter 1 and just verses 28 and 29. This is what Paul said, we proclaim Jesus admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom. In order that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end our labor struggling with all God's energy which so powerfully works in me. This is a remarkable verse, two verses of Scripture and it essentially brings to a culminating point three very important questions that I think Paul is asking in behalf of people just like you and me.

Here are these three important questions. The first question that he asked in this particular text is, what do I do as a believer? Paul in verse 24 makes a statement he said, I just want all of you to know that I rejoice in my sufferings in what I do for the sake of the church. He answers a question that I need to know about, that you need to know about.

We give our hearts and lives to the Lord Jesus. The next question needs to be, well what do I do? Paul had a resume for him, for him. He had been shipwrecked and bitten by snakes and hounded out of one city after another, starved half to death, maligned and all the things that he went through. So he answers the question what I do. The second question Paul answers is simply this, why I do what I do?

What is this? Why, Paul is explaining in the next verses in verse 25, he tells us why he does what he does, why he was willing to suffer, why was Paul willing to go all the way to the point of his execution? And what he was saying is listen, what I do is I suffer for the sake of Christ because I love you with the love of the Lord Jesus. But then he explains the second question and that is why I do what I do and he tells us in verse 25 simply put, because God called me to do this.

It's by God's Commission. I'm compelled, it carries with it a beautiful compulsion, doesn't it? How do you explain how much you love somebody? I see so much love among people here. Your love is very palpable, do you know that? You can feel it. I'm talking about you. You folks really know how to love one another.

Would you like to explain that? Why do you do what you do? It's a deep thing and you know Paul was saying to the people there, listen, what I do is I'll do anything for you.

I'll give my life for you because Jesus gave his life for me. But why I do what I do is because God did it for me and called me to do the same thing for you, right? And then the third question that he answers is how do I do what I do? Now some of you may need to turn to the next person and say explain to me what the past is trying to say here because you're going to get how do you do mixed up in this one way backwards and up the next way. So the third very important question is how do you and I do what we do? And so now we're going to get to verse 28 because in verse 28 Paul tells us, he tells the church at Colossi something, he says we proclaim Jesus.

Thank you very much. I want to share with you today the believers proclamation. See that little word in verse 28, I want to explain that to you for a minute because there are two applications in the Bible of the word to proclaim, to announce, to speak out and we're going to talk about that Jesus. The first application is to preachers like me and Paul was one of those and I'm going to show you a little shift here because if you all take a look back in verse 24, what is the personal pronoun there?

Everybody look at that in verse 24. He says, now I rejoice. Who was he talking about? What does I refer to?

Him. So you and I as believers we begin with the I, with me. But did you notice the shift in verse 28?

He goes from I to we. We proclaim. All of a sudden he looks at all believers and he says don't you for one minute think that the proclamation of the gospel is relegated only to those who preach the word. Proclamation is the call to all believers to be engaged in the activity of witnessing the gospel, gospelizing the gospel and all of a sudden in verse 28 he reaches out and he gives the whole congregation of believers this wonderful hug from his pulpit in a prison to the congregation and he embraces all of them and he says we.

So I just want to say something to all of us very quickly. If you were to ask this question how do other people get to hear about Jesus? How do they do that? How do people receive here?

How do people do this? Well there are so many ways and we can incorporate this all into the word proclamation here. People feel Jesus. Some of you are doing that right now because of that incredible time of worship. You're feeling him aren't you? So how do people come, what is we proclaim?

People feel it. It doesn't even begin with us and I just want to say to you today my friend if you feel it right now pay God attention. He's knocking at your heart's door. I want to invite you to give your heart to Jesus.

I'm just inviting, I'm helping you to recognize that. Greatest thing you will ever do is turn your heart and life over the Lord Jesus. How do people come to know Christ? Well some people read it.

Read it. This word is amazing. You know I love, I love the way in which people sometimes, you can just get up and read the Word of God. You know I have a friend who every day sends me a verse of Scripture. Just one verse of Scripture. I get it on a text and every day just one one word and that combined with all the other ways in which you can just read the Word of God and God will speak to you. His word is powerful and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. So how do people come to hear about Jesus?

This we proclaim. They feel it. They read it.

Yes a good one. They see it. You know sometimes you and I are the only Bible anyone will ever read.

People see it in us. Now that's a big challenge. It's a challenge.

Why is that a challenge? Because we all live this life don't we? And you and I all face the challenges. We all get bothered. We all get frustrated. We all talk. We all do. We all relate. We all have feelings. We all have emotions. Do you know some of the greatest proclamation that ever takes place is just the way you live out your life because people see it.

They see it in you. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word. Please don't go away. He'll be back in just a moment to complete today's message, The Believer's Proclamation. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you we're here for you connecting both on our prayer line at 866-899-WORD. That's for prayer 24 hours a day, but also to connect for resources 24 hours a day. Jot the number down.

Store it in your cell. 866-899-9673 will always connect you with one of us happy to talk, listen, pray, and connect you with wonderful resources. As a matter of fact, one of the most powerful resources that I've ever read from Dr. Wilton, and he's written I don't know dozens of books now, is the recollection of his time as the pastor of Dr. Billy Graham. It really is a powerful resource.

I pray you'll get your copy. Hello everybody. You know my friends know me as Don Wilton, pastor, friend, neighbor, dad, husband, grandpa. But I'm going to tell you people all around the world just like you know and identify Dr. Billy Graham as that man that God used to reach so many people around the world for the Lord Jesus Christ. I had the privilege of knowing Mr. Graham in a very personal and intimate way, both as his friend and as his pastor. In fact, for many years I drove up to his home in Montreat, North Carolina and visited with him every Saturday. Just like friends do everywhere, we sat together and ate together, walked, talked. We discussed politics, friends, places, people. We laughed our heads off.

We did everything one could possibly imagine. That's why I wrote this wonderful book, Saturdays with Billy. It's all about a personal relationship and I hope and pray that Saturdays with Billy will be a blessing to you, will inspire you, and will encourage your heart, just as Mr. Graham encouraged my heart and changed my life. God bless you, my friends. That's just one of many great resources on our website, TEWonline.org. I hope you'll drop by today. As a matter of fact, you can hear today's message again, see some of the video messages from Dr. Wilton, what we call On Demand. It's all there on our website at TEWonline.org.

That's TEWonline.org. Now back to Dr. Wilton. I didn't say perfect, right? I didn't say perfect, didn't say that at all. I remember one time visiting with Dr. Billy Graham and his oldest daughter, Gigi, whom I love so much, told us a story about how Mr. Graham, this is Dr. Billy Graham, how he wasn't feeling all that good one day and evidently whatever happened, but Ms. Ruth Graham turned to her husband, Mr. Graham, in front of obviously the people that were telling me and said to him, oh be quiet Billy and die like a Christian. I didn't say that, I'm quoting Gigi here, all right? You know, I always loved that because it's so true of all of us, but people see it in us. They see it and then number four, which is very apropos to where we are in Colossians, how do people come to know Jesus? Hear about, they feel it by the Spirit, they read it in the Bible, they see it in our lives, but I think what Paul is trying to say is don't discount the fact that they hear it from us. What it means is to speak up, it means to speak out about Jesus, it means to speak about Jesus, and it means to speak to people about Jesus. Now let's just try and get a little bit of a handle on this, he says we proclaim. Paul is not suggesting that all believers should come up to the pulpit and preach it. He's not saying that because God gives to each one of us individual giftedness. We all are participants in the feel it, the read it, the hear it, the see it, but he's saying to us we are partners together with God the Holy Spirit in the very act of proclamation which is speaking up and speaking out and speaking about and speaking to and to try and help us get a handle on this he says this proclamation of Jesus of telling about Jesus we proclaim him Jesus carries with it two distinct directives and he tells us what they are there in verse 28 he says first of all when you speak about Jesus it carries with it admonishment whoo this is it just listen now it carries with it what carries with it what I say is admonishing no the very gospel itself carries with it admonishment what is the gospel of admonishment what am I proclaiming when I'm speaking up about Jesus to admonish means to reprimand or to warn what Paul is saying here is that you cannot speak about Jesus without accepting the fact that we are being warned that without him we're lost excuse me just a minute here it is in a what he is saying here is there's no middle ground when it comes to the gospel this is not if maybe you feel like it and maybe you know one day you know God loves everybody and ultimately everyone's going to heaven Bible doesn't say that that's an admonishment Jesus met with Nicodemus who was a very fine gentleman Nicodemus came out of the top drawer he's a very religious man and he came and he said to Jesus tell me this proclaim this to me what is this what must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said him Nicodemus you must be born again unless there's the admonishment unless you are born of the Spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven now folks that's just as direct as it gets that's an admonishment you see that folks can you might say to me dr. Wilton just tell us straight listen when you speak about Jesus don't tiptoe around the gospel just share Jesus just so you don't you don't have to get in people's faces just proclaim Jesus Spirit of God does his work but it carries with it secondly the directive to teach teach that's what he says they teach that little word teach there is a beautiful word you know I think of all the wonderful teachers we have and coaches you think in our church all the life group teaches discipleship teachers and so it goes on and on and on it's fantastic tonight with Seth Phipps I've been invited to be in the hangar with all our parents parents are such wonderful teachers of their children it carries with it so he says we proclaim so let me put a ribbon around this so to speak if in fact every believer is called upon to be part of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus what are the four demands of proclamation you're ready for this these four things have to take place according to the scripture number one focus stick to Jesus point everything to the Lord Jesus you know even Paul who wrote this he said I saved to know nothing among you accepting Jesus Christ and crucified you know my friends as soon as you take your eyes of Jesus you sink just go and look at one of the brothers they were on the Sea of Galilee Peter the original incredible Hulk and the wind was blowing and Jesus said come to me and he got out and we know that incredible story as soon as he took his eyes of Jesus down he went that's what he's telling us focus when you proclaim Jesus focus Church focus keep your focus what is one of the things that the world is wanting the church to do today lose our focus hello distractions are everywhere aren't they you can get pulled into a sidewalk so easily distracted keep focus number two conviction conviction that word conviction is is a wonderful word be convicted about who Jesus is be convicted about the Word of God be convicted about the gospel be convicted about the life change be convicted about the fact that one day when we die or if Jesus were to come again that we're going to be transported by the angels to be seated at the Feast Table of the King where does that conviction come from it comes from God's Word by the affirmation of his Spirit be a man be a woman of conviction you don't have to preach you could be the most soft-spoken person in the world some of the greatest conviction you ever see comes from some of the most quietest people ever conviction is not loud conviction is not the ability to move around conviction is not a coat and tie conviction is not all the trappings conviction comes from the heart it's a very precious thing and you've got it you've got it use it use your convict let your conviction come out be convicted number three is reliance it's the third demand of proclaiming is reliance you and I can't do that but the Spirit of God can be fully reliant on the Spirit of God Bible tells us when you give your heart and life to Jesus you have the Spirit of God you don't get bits and pieces of the Spirit of God you are in dwelt by the Spirit of God and rely on the Spirit of God Paul many times said you know in my weakness I'm made strong because of Christ in me greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world and number four is purpose that's the fourth demand of proclamation purpose you know he has a wonderful purpose here in the end of verse 28 he says so that we may present look at that everyone perfect in Christ have a purpose be purpose driven in your proclamation be purpose driven be desire so I'm asking God to help me even in my weakness to be very I'm I want to be purpose driven today and what's my purpose drivenness of proclaiming the gospel so that everyone may be presented perfect perfect how can anyone be perfect this is because of the fullness of Christ it's Christ in me it's the imputed righteousness of Christ because when you and I in our imperfectness receive Christ his spirit comes into us and we are encased by the fullness of the spirit we are in Christ that is the perfectness of Christ and that's what Jesus does for us would you bow your heads with me today this is why this is so exciting this is why today I have such a privilege of inviting you to give your life to Christ and I want you to give your heart to Jesus as the pastor said today could be the day to give your life to Jesus Christ it's as simple as an honest prayer with God I'd love to lead you in that prayer right now Lord Jesus I realize that my sin has separated me from you and so God I turn my back on my sin and I ask you to be the the controller the CEO of my life lead me God I believe you are the Son of God I believe you died on the cross for my sins and raised to newness of life Lord you're alive and I ask you to lead me in Jesus name I pray amen you know dr. Don often reminds us that's not the words but the attitude of the heart and if in your heart you're ready to say yes to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life to Christ we would love to celebrate with you and give you some free resources that all you need to do is call and ask for eight six six eight nine nine word is the phone number jotted down store it in your cell eight six six eight nine nine nine six seven three and let us know that you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life we would love to meet you online as well at TEW online dot o-r-g that's TEW online dot o-r-g while you're there sign up for the free W devotional from dr. Wilton that's online at TEW online dot o-r-g we would love to connect and we would love to encourage you