Listen Again: A Life Worthy of Jesus - Part 1

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds.

Thank you. Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook.

Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. All right, good evening men. How y'all doing?

Good. I want to welcome all of you here and everyone who's listening via live stream, and I really want you guys to think about one thing tonight. I want you to think about all that Jesus has done for you to have you sitting here.

Think about that, okay? Tonight's message is entitled, A Life Worthy of Jesus. We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 1, so take your Bible and turn to Colossians 1. Now, the last few weeks we've been in Hebrews.

Remember Hebrews? Specifically, chapters 11, 12, and 13 over the last three weeks. In each of these chapters, we've followed a common theme about the Christian life. Chapter 11, you may remember, was entitled, A Worthy Life. Chapter 12 was entitled, The Greatest Race of All Time. And then last week, chapter 13 was entitled, Run to Win.

And as I noted during probably every one of those messages, the Apostle Paul compares the Christian life to what? A race. What kind of race?

A marathon. And it is a long and difficult journey through a very evil, dark, and dangerous world that's full of temptation. It's a journey that requires courage, endurance, and strength. And I want you to understand this truth, okay?

This is so important. Believers, when I talk about believers, I mean true followers of Jesus Christ are the only ones running this race because they're the only ones who have entered through the narrow gate, and only a few find it. We believers are running this race with our eyes fixed upon our commander, our leader, our Lord, whose name is what? Jesus. This man, Jesus, has done something incredible for us, something beyond description, something beyond human comprehension, something that, listen, if we truly understand it, it should motivate us and inspire us to want to live a life worthy of Him. So tonight, I'm going to try to answer two questions. First, what does it mean to live a life worthy of the Lord?

And secondly, how do we do this? How is it possible when you consider all the temptations that we as men face every single day? How can we live a life worthy of Jesus?

That's the real question before us tonight. And that brings us to Colossians, chapter 1. But before we read this text, let me give you a brief introduction. Colossae was one of three cities located about 100 miles east from Ephesus. The other two cities were Laodicea and Hierapolis. And I've had the privilege of traveling to southeastern Turkey, I think three times, and I've visited those three ancient ruins at least a couple of times. Again, they're in southwestern Turkey, but now they're just ruins, just a big pile of rocks.

In Paul's day, this was like the research triangle park. It was a very cosmopolitan area, and it was a fertile place for philosophies and religious ideas to get... become mingled together to the point where they became false. A lot of false theology, kind of like what world? What world? Our world. What are y'all laughing about? Chapel Hill.

Okay. I thought maybe I said something funny. I know it wasn't Kenny because his jokes aren't that funny.

Y'all notice that? Don't tell them. Now Paul, listen, Paul never visited Colossae, but he learned about the faith of these Colossian believers from some other believers. If you read through the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 19, we learned that Paul spent two years in Ephesus preaching the gospel so that everyone in Asia minor heard it. And two men who heard it were actually from Colossae. They were Epaphras, and that's how you pronounce it.

It's not easy. Epaphras, I googled it this afternoon to make sure I understand how to pronounce it, and Philemon. Epaphras, after he heard the gospel believed, he went back to his hometown and he began to share the gospel with his friends, and that's how the church at Colossae was founded. Paul wrote this letter in 60 A.D. while he was in prison in Rome to refute certain heresies that were beginning to infiltrate the church. Certain Jews were beginning to teach that Jesus was neither God nor man, which is why Paul preached the supremacy, the supremacy of Christ. These false teachers also began to add things to the gospel like you must be circumcised, you must not eat certain foods, and you must have certain knowledge, a secret knowledge that only certain people possessed. This was known as Gnosticism, and by the way, it's alive and well in the United States today.

Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians for two primary reasons, men, to point them back to the gospel and to warn them about false teachers within the church. Does that sound familiar? Can y'all think of a ministry that's been doing that for about 20 years? Thank you, Lee.

That was my port. This is what Finding Purpose has been doing since 2003, pointing men to the gospel and warning you men about the danger of false teaching that has infiltrated all of our churches. And that brings us to Colossians chapter 1 verse 1. So I want you to track along with me, okay? Y'all with me?

Okay, here we go. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints. Saints is just a man who's been set apart under God.

Doesn't mean he's perfect, but in God's eyes he's a saint. The faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth.

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant who's a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf who also told us of your love in the Spirit. I want to pause for just a minute and say this about the men's study. We began the men's study at Eden Street United Methodist Church back in 2006, and at the time we had 15 leaders and about 75 men, and I've got to give a shout out to my good friend Robert Boone because Robert Boone came to me I guess in 2005 and said we want to start a men's study at Eden Street. I was not a member of Eden Street, and we want you to be the teacher.

I said that sounds good to me, and so that's how it began. So really Robert Boone, I mean we need to give him a clap, and he's probably not even listening. Anyway, somebody give him a shout out tomorrow, but anyway over the last 17 years we've grown not by anything we're doing but by God's grace and His power. We now have about 45 leaders and hopefully next September we're going to have this sanctuary full of somewhere between 400 and 500 men with God's help and with your help.

Are you going to help me draw them in here? We've got some good news to share with them, and so here's what the leaders would like to say through me to all of you tonight. We always from the very beginning thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for each one of you, and by the way we pray for you every week. We've heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the faithful men, the saints who attend this study, and we hear of your faith and love that we know springs forth from the hope that is stored up for each one of you in heaven and that you've all heard about in the Word of Truth, the gospel that is brought to you from this pulpit every Tuesday night. And we learned about this hope in Hebrews.

Did we not? Hebrews 6 19 says, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Think about that. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters, that is our hope, enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus who went before us has entered on our behalf.

And so we're clinging to that hope, particularly when the days look as dark as they do right now. All over the world, even right here in Raleigh, this gospel is bearing fruit and growing just as it has been growing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all of its truth, and some of you have been with us since 2006. God's grace is so amazing, is it not? This unmerited and undeserved favor from God is available to anyone in need. You know this to be true, don't you?

Do you? Because the Spirit has lifted the veil from your eyes and now you see and understand. For this reason, we will never stop praying for you and asking God to fill you with more and more of Himself. And I personally encourage each one of you, as I sit at the very beginning, to reflect tonight on all that Jesus has done for you. When we think about what Jesus has done for us, this alone should motivate us and inspire us to want to live our lives worthy of Him. So to our first question, what does it mean to live a life worthy of the Lord? Or some translations read, to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Well, to live or to walk refers simply to how we as followers of Jesus live our lives day by day. John McCarthy explains it like this, walk is frequently used in the New Testament to refer to daily conduct, day-to-day living.

Follow me here. Worthy has the root meaning of balancing the scales. What is on one side of the scale should be equal in weight to what is on the other side. A person worthy of his pay is one whose day's work corresponds to his day's wages. Thus, the believer who walks in a manner worthy of the Lord is one whose daily living corresponds to his high position as a child of God, as a son of God, and as a co-heir with Jesus. That's who you are if you're in Christ.

You have this high position and so your practical living should match your spiritual position. Are you with me? And I'm convicted. I wish this had been pounded into me when I was in college. In fact, I wish it had been pounded into me when I was a senior in high school. I'm sure we all have regrets when we look backwards, right?

But guess what? We don't look backwards. Christians are forward-looking men. We are pressing on toward the goal to win the prize for which Christ has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. That's why we're running to win the prize and we want to run victoriously, don't we? So here's the million dollar question.

How do we do this? How do we run this race in a manner that is worthy of the standard that has been set by Jesus who's our leader? Well, to answer this question, let's read the next few verses. Look at verse 9. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to look, catch this, to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

I love this, for He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. As I've said many times before and I'll say it again tonight, in spite of what you hear from these prosperity preachers, the Christian life is not easy. In fact, it is very difficult. One of the reasons it is so difficult is because we have an enemy, men, who's out to destroy us. He wants to ruin our witness. 1 Peter 5 says, If you're following Jesus, then guess what? You are on Satan's radar. He's coming after you and he's, listen, he's laid traps out there for you and me. He knows exactly where we're vulnerable. He knows exactly, men, what we attempted to give into sin. And listen, he is sly and he is patient and he's extremely deceptive and he can wait you out and he will wait until you've let your guard down and then he pounces. It happens all the time to men of God who are in high positions.

Just look at Ravi Zacharias. So here's the deal. If you truly want to live a victorious life, a worthy life for the Lord, then listen, I'm going to give you this tonight. Four steps that you must take and here's the first one.

First, you ready? You must know God's will for your life. Look at verse 9 again. What has God given us? He's given us the Bible, which is the very Word of God.

It's His Word in a letter to believers. Here in this Bible right here, I'm going to put it right here, in this book right here lies the complete will for our lives. We have everything we need in this Bible to understand our purpose in this life. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing?

These are the million dollar questions. And so if you want to know the purpose for your life, then pick up this book and read it. Now listen, if you don't read any other book the rest of your life and you read this book day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, you will pretty soon be a very wise man. You see, the Bible, this Bible right here contains the mind of God.

So think of a funnel on top of your head. When you begin to read the Bible, you're pouring God's thoughts, which are true knowledge and wisdom. You just pour this into your mind, to the point, man, where at some point you begin to think like God thinks. You begin to see things as God sees them. You look, you begin to look at everything from a heavenly perspective and not a worldly perspective. You come to understand not only why you're here, but what you do with your life. When you come to a fork in the road, guess what? You'll know which way to go. Isaiah 30 21 says, whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, Russ. This is the way, Speck. This is the way, Hank.

Walk in it. See, our minds need to be renewed. They need to be transformed into a new way of thinking. And Paul writes about this in Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, where he says, therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, has he been merciful to you? To offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. You don't know how to worship God.

This is how you do it. It says this is our spiritual act of worship. We offer our bodies, that's your mind, your heart, your eyes, your ears, your feet, your hands, everything. You offer them to God. And then he says, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then guess what happens? Then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. And when you walk in the light of God's will, you'll experience peace and joy that the world knows nothing about.

I know I've tried it both ways. This ain't coming to know God's will for your life. You begin to walk with him by faith, praying and spending time in his word. And the more you do this, the more your mind is transformed as it absorbs the wisdom of God. Paul writes about the wisdom of God. Whenever you think about the wisdom of God, think of 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2. But specifically, think about 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10 through 16. I'm not going to read all of those verses to you, but let me just read verse 12. Paul says in verse 12, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. What's he freely given us? The word. It might have cost you $75, but you can get somebody to give you one. We got them right back there. If you don't have one, just grab one.

It's free. When a man who's indwelt with the Holy Spirit sits down, I know some of you guys are doing that. Ben gets to him. He's rising at five in the morning and spending not only 30 minutes to an hour with the Lord because he wants to live his life in a manner worthy of God. So when a man like Ben, and I hope all of you sit down and you've got the Holy Spirit in you and you begin to read the Bible, this is what happens. The Spirit of God takes the word of God and begins to transform your mind. And over the course of time, after after spending years in God's Word, you actually come to possess the very mind of God.

Isn't that amazing? But it takes endurance, discipline, and time. Doesn't happen overnight.

If you haven't known anything that's really valuable that you can get overnight, if you can't, it ain't very valuable. 1 Corinthians 2 16 says, But who has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. Living a life worthy of the Lord begins with the Word of God, which leads to a renewed or transformed mind.

But there's more. Not only must we know God's Word, but we, number two, we must obey God's Word. Look at verse 10, and we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where, for me, it's been very difficult. You see, obedience is the evidence of a changed life. Let me ask you this question. When people look at your life, do they see a changed life? Really, be honest.

Do they? You're different than the man we used to know. If they don't see a changed life, that's a big red flag. No one ever encountered Jesus in the New Testament and went away unchanged.

They were all radically changed. Jesus said in John 14 15, if you love me, you are what? Yeah, keep my commandments. Obey my commandments. So here's the question. Do we really love Jesus? I'm convicted. I look back at my life, and there's so many times when I clearly did not love Jesus.

I loved some other things first. When temptation presents itself, to obey or not becomes the test as to where our love truly resides. Who do we love more?

Jesus or ourselves? Nathaniel Emmons, a minister who lived during the late 18th century, said, obedience to God is the most infallible evidence of sincere and supreme love to Him. Matthew Henry, the great commentator of the late 17th century said, the surest evidence of our love for Christ is obedience to the laws of Christ. Love is the root, obedience is the fruit.

Love is that taproot that goes down to the ground of God's Word, and obedience is the product. Now let's be honest. If I take a look at my life backwards and you take a look at your life backwards, I find it sometimes I get downright dejected. Do you? If you're like me, you've disobeyed the Lord so many times you've lost count. I know I have. Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian from the early 19th century said, it is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

It is. I don't know about you, but I want to live. Listen, this is my desire. Listen, more so in the last year than I'll be 67 in June.

June the 19th if you want to send birthday gifts. I know I look 50, but I can't help that. I was born that way. Seriously, the last year I have really in my heart resolved, and I mean this, that I want to live the rest of my life more obedient than the last 65 years. I want to finish strong. And I believe I have 20, 30 more years.

I don't really want any more than that. That's a pretty long time. I've got a lot more years to live, and I want to hit the tape running at full sprint when I hit it, just like my friend J.L. Williams did when he died just a few years ago.

He hit the tape running. He was still serving God at full speed. So how do we finish strong? Number three, we have to rely on who? The Holy Spirit. Look at verse 11, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience. The only possible way to live an obedient life is by the power available to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Now I'm going to take a big risk here. I'm going to try to read one phrase of this verse in Greek with a Bethel accent, because it's important that you hear this, okay?

So this verse right here, the only possible way to live an obedient life is by the power available to us through the indwelling Holy Spirit, begins like this in Greek. You want to hear that again? I was impressed with that. Got through it pretty good. I've practiced all day. Hear that?

I blew it. That's a hard one. That's a hard one. Here's a literal, this is why I want to get to this. Here's a literal word for word translation of that phrase. Listen, with all power, being empowered according to the might of the glory of Him.

And what English word comes to mind when you hear duna me and duna mume noi? What word? Dynamite. And so in verse 11, we see that God's double dynamite power is available to us the moment a man puts his trust in Jesus because you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was raised from the dead.

And that's the power, men, that's in us. And it's taken me about 60 years to learn that, that I've got this power in me to actually live a more holy life. Second Peter 1 3 says, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.