ROOTED: in gospel service

Today's Focus: I want everyone to be overjoyed that their life’s purpose is rooted in serving the
gospel that has made them holy, without blemish and free from accusation in God’s sight.

Why do you serve? I mean, why do you pour yourself out for the benefit of others? Why do you
sign up for something extra? Why do you do things that come at a cost to the time and energy
levels you have? 

God gives us the purest reasons to serve and he gives us the perfect master to serve in today’s
lesson. I am praying that starting today, continuing today, you can be overjoyed that your
life’s purpose is rooted in serving the gospel that has made you holy, blameless, and
faultless in God’s sight.

So why do you serve?

• Some of us, some of the time serve out of duty. Obligation. It needs to be done. I have what it takes to get the job done. No one else will. It won’t get done if I do it. 
• Some of us get some satisfaction from fulfilling our duty.
• Some of us serve because it makes us feel good.
• Some of us serve because we have a spike in emotional energy to do something about a need, but when that emotional energy runs out, so does our service. 
• Some of us serve because people will recognize us. They might just thank us. So we want our name attached to that large gift that was given. We want our family name engraved on that picture or statue that was donated. And hopefully at least someone realizes that I was behind this successful effort. 
• My friends. These reasons aren’t enough. They’re not big enough, pure enough reasons to serve. God gives us bigger, purer reasons to serve.

I am praying that starting today, continuing today, you can be overjoyed that your life’s
purpose is rooted in serving the gospel that has made you holy, blameless, and faultless
in God’s sight.

The word gospel shows up three times in this part of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. We want to
be rooted in what God wants us to be rooted in, which means we think and talk about what’s
important to him. He wants us to be overjoyed that our life’s purpose is rooted in serving the gospel.
We get to serve the gospel that has made us holy so we can be near God. We get to serve the
gospel that has removed the stains and filth of our sins as we stand face to face with God. We get
to serve the gospel that has made us free from any fault before God.

1. We get to serve the gospel that holds hope out to us!

Daily hope for the daily grind! (vv. 21-22). “21 At one time, you were alienated from God and
hostile in your thinking as expressed through your evil deeds. 22 But now Christ reconciled
you in his body of flesh through death, in order to present you holy, blameless, and faultless
before him—23 if you continue steadfast and firm in faith, without being moved away from the
hope of the gospel.” 

We had a guest speaker come from a horse ranch near Bloomer that rescues horses and trains
them again so they can be ridden by children in challenging situations. She also happened to
graduate from St. Paul’s school in 1998. The horses they rescue for their youth ranch are unwanted.
Maybe their owner couldn’t afford them. Maybe they were hard to break in, so the owner gave up.
For whatever reason, these horses have become alienated from their owners, which makes them
extremely nervous an unpredictable...until there is rescue. Until they are taken in, groomed, fed,
talked to, trained, ridden and cared for. And given a new purpose...to provide a chance for a young
child and their mentor to bond with the horse as the child learns to ride and care for another creature.

Each one of us was, at one time, alienated, detached, from God.

By our own doing. We were unholy, which means, unlike God in his perfect wisdom, justice, and
love, even though he created us to be like him. We were unable to be anywhere near our holy God.
We were able to be blamed for a whole lot. Each one of us was at fault. 

This made us hostile in our thinking and evil in our deeds. Why would you love and trust a God that
has every reason to condemn you to hell? You wouldn’t. You might be bitter with this God. You’d be
on edge and very defensive anytime that God is brought up in conversation, anytime his Word and
the demands of his law to live a holy life were brought to your attention. I’ve had coworkers at
different places I’ve worked see me bring a Bible to work for my break times and say, “keep that
thing away from me, God will strike me dead!” 

• You might be bitter and angry with this God
• You’d either try and prove that you’re not all that bad and try and get back on God’s good side
• You’d just say, “what’s the point” and do whatever makes you feel good in the moment.
• This is what it means that we were hostile in our thinking and expressed what was on our minds through our evil deeds. Either way, you and I had no chance of making reconciliation happen with this holy God…

And that’s why he did it all for us!

Christ came to offer up his own holy, blameless, faultless body to God. He wrapped all of your
unholiness, your blame, and your fault into his own perfect body and held onto it all as he died.
He did more than take all of that away...he wrapped his holy, blameless, faultless life around you.
And his love now holds you like this! You can trust him! There’s nothing to be ashamed of or scared
about in front of God! This is how Jesus presents you before God the Father. How can the Father
not love you now! How can he not come near you again?! Face to face! Reconciled! This is the
gospel! This is the gospel that holds you near and dear! God wants to hold all unholy people in this
gospel hug!

2. We get to serve the gospel that has called us by name

This gospel has been proclaimed to every creature (v. 23). “But now Christ reconciled you in his
body of flesh through death, in order to present you holy, blameless, and faultless before him
—” 23 if you continue steadfast and firm in faith, without being moved away from the hope of
the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under
heaven.”

You’ve seen it in war movies (or experienced it as a soldier) when a bomb or grenade goes off. It’s
like everything is in slow motion. You can’t hear, can’t think. Don’t know which way is forward or
backward, up or down. But your comrades aren’t going to leave you behind. They shout and scream,
but it’s no use. They wave their arms and point you to the escape vehicle. But you just can’t make it
because you’re so disoriented. Finally, they come right up into your face, grab your cheeks and mouth
the words, “Come with me!” And they grab you by the hand and lead you to safety.

This is what God did for you when he called you by name at your baptism. It looks like such a sweet,
innocent moment. Not really. God is calling you out of the jaws of hell. God is calling you away from
master Satan. God is calling you away from a self-serving life. The gospel is calling you to believe in
the holy, blameless, faultless Son of God. To continue steadfast and firm in this faith, without being
moved away from the hope of the gospel. This means you hear God call you by name. He literally
comes up into your face,

“I am your God. I am your God! I’m here to rescue you!”

He points towards heaven, he takes you by the hand and you hang on for dear life and trust him all
your life long!

This is what God does for you when he speaks to you through a friend, a parent, a sermon, a
devotion you read on facebook. The gospel calls out to you. And every person under heaven.
You’ve heard this gospel. You proclaim this gospel so others can hear God calling them by name
and rescuing them from themselves, Satan, and hell.

3. We get to serve the gospel that has made us its servant,

just like Paul was (vv. 24-29). “This is the gospel of which I, Paul, have become a minister.”
You, yes, even you, are the gospel’s servant! Here’s what it looks like to live as a servant of the
gospel that has made you holy, blameless and without fault. 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings on
your behalf, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf
of his body, which is the church. 25 I became a minister of the church for your benefit when
God gave me the task of fully proclaiming the word of God, 26 namely, the mystery that was
hidden for past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. 27 God wanted
to make known to them what is the wealth of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles—
this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28 We proclaim him as we admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom, so that we might
present everyone perfect in Christ. 29 This is the goal I am laboring to reach, striving with his
strength, which is powerfully at work in me.

Being rooted in gospel service means that we suffer like Paul did so others can hear the gospel
calling out to them. So others can be held by the hug of God’s gospel as well. This is why we hang
in there with our kids through their rebellious years. This is why we hang in there with our spouse
through the ups and downs of marriage. Why we hang in there with our brothers and sisters who fall
back into addictions. Why we hang in there with people who have lived their whole life not knowing
and trusting that God has reconciled with them. We hang in there and suffer with all these people...
because Christ suffered for us. For them. So they can hear his gracious voice. So they can experience
his safe, forgiving hug along with us.

Being rooted in gospel service means that we do whatever it takes as a church and school to fully
proclaim the word of God in our community. We do whatever it takes so that the mystery of God can
be revealed to people. So they can understand and believe the gospel too. I think of one of my
friends here who cannot hear a thing, not even the hymns anymore. What can we do for him so he
can see his God now through life’s sadness and look forward to hearing God’s voice again when he
is in the glory of heaven? This applies to anyone with any obstacle getting in between them and their
God. How can we serve them with the gospel by removing those obstacles in their way? 

Being rooted in gospel service means that we actually use God’s word to admonish and teach each
other with all wisdom so we can all be presented complete in Christ. It drives me crazy to see
long time Christians being so mean and brutal towards each other. Complaining against each other.
Competing against each other. Having power struggles. Being unfriendly and not understanding
towards new people in the church. It drives God crazier. Being rooted in gospel service means that
we use God’s Word and all his wisdom within that word to resolve conflict. To reunite around gospel
service. To reconcile. Just as God has reconciled us to himself.

This is why we serve. Why we labor and strive with all our strength. The strength of God and his
gospel that are powerfully at work in us.

Be rooted in gospel service. Amen.