The Cost of a Godly Goal

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Most of the biggest goals that we set for ourselves require some sacrifice. They require us to give up something else in order to obtain what we’re trying to get and where we’re trying to get to be. And I think we all have examples of this.

I forgot to mark my spot this morning. There we go. I’m in the wrong book.

I think we all probably have examples of this from our own lives. I know for me, trying to finish up school was a big sacrifice of time, of effort, especially considering the fact we had three small children at home at the time. I remember telling Charla, very upset, I was very upset, not her, getting stressed about finishing up the last little bit in about a month before Carly Jo was due, and I said, I’ve got about two months worth of work, I don’t know how we’re going to do this with another baby about to be here, maybe I’ll just put it off for another year.

She said, no, you’re not. And I remember a lot of late nights, especially once we ended up with a baby in the NICU, and And there was even more driving and more life being uprooted than I had planned. I remember a lot of nights where I sacrificed a lot of sleep to get finished.

And just a lot of stress and a lot of other things I’d have rather been doing besides writing papers. You know, when somebody wants to get out of debt, there’s sacrifice involved. You have to cut back on your spending.

You have to, we were talking with the kids about this this week, about why we don’t spend money on all these fun things that they may wish. I said, well, we don’t want to go into debt for these things. And Dave Ramsey talks about that when he talks about having to live like no one else.

He talks about foregoing some of the things that we would find enjoyable in the moment if our goal is to get out of debt. I remember one sort of goal I had as a child, and I guess it wasn’t that important to me. I ran around with some neighborhood kids who loved baseball.

It would be who I would choose to watch. I remember a few years ago going to a Texas Rangers versus Toronto Blue Jays game in Arlington and being the only one there cheering for the Canadians. That’s a dangerous feeling, being in the middle of Texas and cheering for the Canadians.

But anyway, I loved the Toronto Blue Jays, and I used to think how awesome it would be to be a great baseball player, play in the major leagues. But my problem was, that kind of thing requires a lot of sacrifice. That kind of thing requires a lot of practice, not to mention natural talent, which I didn’t even have.

But I didn’t want to sacrifice the time and effort and energy to improve. And so guess what? I never became any better.

I wasn’t willing to sacrifice for that goal, and so that was one of those that got thrown by the wayside. We all have those goals that we realize if we’re going to accomplish this, whatever it is, we’re going to have to sacrifice to do it. We’re going to have to give up something else.

We’re going to have to lose something else in order to accomplish that. And Paul wrote about sacrifices when it came to spiritual pursuits. Because we understand this in everyday matters.

We understand this when it comes to getting out of debt. We understand this when it comes to finishing school. We understand the sacrifice that we’re going to have to put into practicing if we want to be a great athlete.

We understand this, but when it comes to spiritual matters, we act like sacrifice is a bad word. We act like sacrifice is something that surely God would never ask me to do. Oh my goodness, heaven forbid God should ask me to give anything up to get where He wants me to be.

We treat sacrifice like it’s a bad word. Sometimes we even treat sacrifice like it’s the end of the world. Or at least it’s the end of my world.

Oh no, I’m being asked to give up something. The sky is falling. Have you ever felt that way?

Maybe just me. I have my little pity party that oh no, God’s asking me to give this up or it’s going to require me to give this up. So Paul wrote about the sacrifices that he made and really not just..

. Sometimes we make sacrifices and we’re not thrilled about it. Paul wrote not only about the sacrifices that he made, but the sacrifices he was willing to make in order to accomplish what he wanted to accomplish.

Because Paul understood the importance of what he was trying to do. And so if you’ll turn with me tonight to Colossians 1. Colossians 1.

We’re going to finish up chapter 1 with looking at what Paul says about some of these sacrifices that he made and why He was willing to make them. Colossians 1. And once you arrive there, if you’d stand with me, we’re going to be in verse 24.

If you’d stand with me, if you’re able to without too much trouble, as we read from God’s Word together. Starting in verse 24, it says, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them, God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end, I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily. And you may be seated.

So we have to be willing to make sacrifices so others can know Jesus. That’s the main point of this passage. We need to be willing to make sacrifices when called upon so that others can know Jesus.

And there’s some things I want to unpack in this passage for you, but that’s really the main thing. Paul said, I’m willing to sacrifice for Christ. He outlined some of the things he was willing to sacrifice for, some of the reasons he was willing to sacrifice. And he tells us right off the bat in verse 24 that he is willing to sacrifice for Christ. Now that verse there, verse 24, says that he was willing to fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. I’ve got to tell you, that verse has troubled me in a way that few other verses have because I read that and think, what in the world are you trying to say here, Paul?

Because on first glance, it sounds like he’s saying, I’m willing to go through the suffering that Christ didn’t finish for you. And I’m thinking, no, I’ve been doing some pretty intensive study on the crucifixion, and I’m pretty sure Jesus said it is finished when He died on the cross. Pretty sure He said that was all done.

All the sacrifice, all the payment for sin, all the suffering that needed to be done, it was done. So I know already going into this that that’s not what He’s talking about. Paul is not saying here that I need to suffer to add something to the work of your salvation.

And by the way, just logic ought to tell us that that can’t be what Paul was saying, even though that’s what it kind of looks like on the first reading. Logic ought to tell us that can’t be what Paul’s saying, because if Jesus couldn’t accomplish it, I don’t know what would make Paul think he could, right? And sometimes even people today, we think that way.

Well, I know Jesus paid for my salvation on the cross, but now I’ve got to do X, Y, and Z. Wait a minute. Why is it that we think Jesus can’t handle it, but I can?

right that that doesn’t make any sense at all so paul is not saying here I have to do something on your behalf for your salvation I had to do a lot of digging I even texted somebody this week and said what is that version of the bible you were telling me about that you were that you really like because I I’ve looked at this in several versions I’ve looked at this in greek I’m not sure what it’s trying to say I I did some digging this week to try to understand what paul was saying here And when he’s talking about what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, he doesn’t mean what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions to pay for our salvation. But you go back to what Jesus said about the way the world felt about him, and Jesus said the world will hate you because it hates me. And you think about it today, the world still hates Jesus.

We can preach the values of Christianity, and people are more or less okay with it. be kind, treat others as you would have them treat you. We can talk about some of those things, and the world’s pretty well okay with it.

You start bringing Jesus into it, and the world loses its ever-loving mind. The world’s still not on board with Jesus Christ. And in that day, they certainly were not on board with Jesus Christ. The Roman authorities, the Jewish authorities, even the false teachers in the church, they were not necessarily on board with Jesus Christ. But they couldn’t get Him. They couldn’t get at Him.

he’d been crucified he’d risen from the dead he descended to heaven how are they supposed to do anything to hurt jesus they can’t hurt jesus so they lash out at his followers and so what paul is saying here he’s talking about what’s lacking in the afflictions he doesn’t mean that jesus left anything undone he’s talking about what is what is here and would be heaped on jesus if he were walking among us in flesh today what they would be doing to jesus they’re going to do to us and he says, and I’m more than willing to take that on myself for your sake. Again, understand it has nothing to do with Paul earning our salvation. It’s him saying that Jesus suffered on our behalf and now we’re called to suffer on his behalf.

And that’s true. Jesus promised us that in this world we will have trouble. It’s not a you might.

It’s a well, you could. It’s not a well, you could, but I hope not. He said it’s going to happen.

There will come a time. And this has played out over the centuries down to our day, people suffer for Christ. Now, what you and I call suffering for Christ here in 2021 in the United States of America is usually very mild compared to what so many people have suffered down through the centuries and what so many people suffer today. Now, it doesn’t make it any more pleasant for us to know that it could be worse.

I love that when you’re going through something and somebody says, cheer up, it could always be worse. That’s not a comforting thought, right? Oh, let me sit here and worry about all the ways it could be worse.

Yes, it could always be worse. But whether it’s in big ways or in small ways, at some point we’re going to suffer for Him. And it’s only right that we ought to be willing to accept that opportunity to show our devotion to Him by suffering on His behalf, by taking those afflictions that are lacking, again, not in the sense that He couldn’t handle them, but in the sense that He’s not there to bear them in person to take those afflictions that would be heaped on him to take them on his behalf.

And Paul said, I’m willing to do that. I’m willing to do that because his goal was to be more like Jesus. As we’ve been talking about spiritual maturity and the end goal here in Colossians, it’s all about growing to a place of maturity in Jesus Christ. It’s growing to be more like Him.

And if that’s the goal, then suffering is going to be part of that. I don’t like it any more than you do. As I’m telling you these things, I’m fully aware of the fact that I don’t want to do what I’m telling you we’re supposed to do.

And yet we’re supposed to do it. Paul said, I’m willing to do this. We look at suffering as though it’s a bad thing, but we’re not here to copy the culture.

And say, well, they get to enjoy life, they get to do this and that. We’re not called to copy the culture, but to be conformed to Christ. And so it shouldn’t surprise us when we’re called on to walk the road that he walked. Paul said, I’m willing to sacrifice for Christ. I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh.

He rejoiced at this opportunity to suffer on their behalf and to suffer in the place of Jesus Christ now. He says here that I’m willing to sacrifice for you, not just sacrifice for Christ, but he looked at his fellow believers and said, I’m willing to sacrifice and I’m willing to suffer for you. And he starts that out here in verse 24, and it’s interwoven with what he says about suffering for Christ, because he says at the beginning of verse 24, I rejoice in my sufferings for you.

Then he talks about the suffering of Christ for the sake of Christ. He says, for the sake of His body, which is the church, I’m willing to do this for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And I think I shared with you a couple weeks ago that he was writing to the church at Colossae a group of people that he had never met in person. He only knew of them by reputation and through some mutual friends. But going back to what I preached about this morning, they had something very important in common.

Even though they were strangers to each other, there was a bond there because they both had Jesus Christ. And that’s the way it ought to be. That’s the way it ought to be in the church. That’s the way it ought to be among brothers and sisters in Christ wherever we are.

The example I always give about this is a few years ago going on a trip to Phoenix for one of our national conventions. And that was right before Charlie had Charlie. So I was away from home.

I’d never been that far away from my wife and kids before. I was by myself, knowing she’s going to pop at any moment. It took really me and the doctor and God getting together and convincing Charlotte to let me go to Phoenix.

So I was there for a week and a half. I was homesick. I stayed in the cheapest hotel I could find, a place Charlotte wouldn’t have stayed.

And it was just all kinds of insanity going on there. I just wanted to go home. I was miserable.

And the Sunday that I was there in Phoenix, I walked into a church full of people that I had never met before. And that was one of the most loving group of people that I’ve ever met. I keep in touch with some of those people still that I met that one time.

And I thought the funny part is I thought they were Southern Baptist Church and I was going to go visit while I was there for the convention. Turns out when I got there, I went to the wrong church. It was a different group of people altogether that in years past have hated us.

And the feeling may have been mutual. But you know what? They were brothers and sisters in Christ. And we had a bond immediately. That’s the way it ought to be.

He was bonded to these people. And so he said, he had never met them. He said, but I still rejoice in the opportunity to suffer for your sake.

Why did he even need to suffer for their sake? It’s because it cost Paul something to share the gospel. And it cost Paul something to teach them.

When he was writing the letter to the Colossians, he was writing from prison. And he wasn’t writing from prison because he was a bad guy. He wasn’t writing from prison because he was a thief.

He wasn’t writing from prison because he was a murderer. He was writing from prison because the Roman Empire imprisoned people who preached the gospel. So he was writing from prison.

He had been on the run. He had been beaten. He had been abused.

You think of all the bad things that could happen to somebody and they had happened to Paul up to this point already for the simple fact that he was telling people about Jesus. So to be able to minister to them, to be able to teach them, to be able to shepherd them, it really, it cost him something. It cost him his freedom.

It eventually cost him his life. But he was delighted to do this. He wasn’t just willing to do it.

Again, as I said earlier, we can do things and not be willing to do them. We can also be willing to do things and not be happy about it. My wife will say, do you want to change Jojo’s diaper?

No. But will you? Those are two different questions.

Yes, I will. No, I don’t want to. So she’s learned to not ask, do you want to?

She just asks, will you? Yes, I will. We can do something and not be particularly happy about it.

But he expresses almost a joy at the opportunity to suffer for them. How many of us have ever been in a position to suffer and we’ve said, oh, thank you, Jesus. That’s not really how we’re wired.

See, Paul was looking at this differently because he had the goal in mind of what he was trying to accomplish, which was to help these people grow in Christ. He was delighted because of this glorious mystery of the gospel, which again, I talked about this morning, and I didn’t realize how these two messages tied in together until tonight. I was thinking about it because I wrote my messages at different points in time. This glorious mystery that we talked about this morning from Ephesians 3, where he talks about the fact that God had taken Jews and Gentiles, groups of people who hated each other and who would not have even been in the same room and put them together as brothers and sisters as a family in Jesus Christ. That is something that could only be accomplished through the Gospel.

And he talks about this glorious mystery here that this mystery is being made known among the Gentiles in verse 27. And he says, it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. He says, this is the incredible message that I get to share.

That God is reaching out to the Jews and God is reaching out to the Gentiles and He’s bringing them together and He’s saving them and He’s transforming them in the same way and He’s using them in the same way as Jesus Christ comes to live within these former enemies and the same Jesus Christ takes up residence and transforms them. And as I hit on this morning, those old divisions suddenly seem so much less important in light of what Jesus is doing in us. And He said that’s what He wanted to see happen.

That was the goal, to see as many people as possible transformed by Jesus, to bring hope to these Gentiles who had been alienated from God, to bring hope to those who are standing out in the cities and in the highways and byways, and they know they’re distant from God. And He wanted to bring them a message of hope in Jesus Christ, that those who have been distant from God, God is calling them home, and giving them the opportunity to come in, And then for them all to be transformed by Jesus Christ living in us and giving us an active living hope that’s not just a, man, I wish it would turn out this way. Maybe it will.

Not the weak way we use the word hope. But the way the Bible uses the word hope is assurance. Something you can be confident in.

Something you can take to the bank. Christ in us, the hope of glory. That Jesus Christ came to take up residence in us and to transform us and to give us this assurance of our relationship with the Father.

And Paul was committed to the point where if it cost him his very last breath, he was going to go out making sure as many people as possible heard what Jesus Christ had done for them and were given the opportunity not only to receive Him as their Lord and Savior, but to grow to be more like Him. And so Paul wanted to proclaim the Gospel. He wanted to teach people.

He wanted to disciple them. Paul wanted to sacrifice so that others could know Jesus and grow to be more like Him. He said, I’m willing to sacrifice to get to the goal. You look at verses 28 and 29.

Him we preach. We preach Christ warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I labor.

This is the goal. This is what I’m working for. This is what I’m striving for. Striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.

I’m working in you as He’s working in me and giving me the capacity to do it. See, His goal was, as He said in verse 28, bringing warning. That’s preaching that sin is real, that God is just and our sin will be punished.

Bringing this warning, this bad news. And it is important to bring the bad news as much as nobody ever wants to be the bearer of bad news. It’s important to bring the bad news.

That way we understand how good the good news is. He was bringing a warning of the justice of God and the certainty that sin was going to be judged and was going to be punished. But He was also bringing wisdom to the people.

Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom. That teaching is not just teaching facts, teaching language, teaching them how to read. He’s teaching them about what Jesus Christ did for them and how they can follow Jesus.

Kind of like what Jesus said in the Great Commission, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Teaching them how to follow Him and be obedient to Him. So He wanted to warn them of judgment and he wanted to teach them the Gospel and then watch Jesus work, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.

See, we’re supposed to work. We’re supposed to serve Him with our whole hearts. We’re supposed to put our nose to the plow and get after it, all the while realizing He’s really the one pushing.

Sort of like when Charlie insists on helping me move heavy furniture. He’s really not doing much. Benjamin has helped me move big concrete slabs.

I’m going to hire him out. Charlie, he’s still little. He wants to help.

And he gets in there and he’ll push and he’ll put his heart into it. But he’s not doing much. It’s daddy doing the heavy lifting.

We’re supposed to get down there like Charlie and we’re supposed to put our whole heart into it realizing it’s up to him to work in us and work through us. He brought warning and brought wisdom and he came to watch Christ work because the end goal was to see people know Christ and be more like Christ. And sometimes that’s going to require us to sacrifice a little bit. Again, that’s not the most fun part of Christianity.

That’s not the most fun message to hear tonight. But it’s what His Word tells us. So why is it so tough?

If we know that it’s what we’re supposed to do, why is it so tough? I think it’s because now, just as in that day, there’s this idea that we get in our brains that our goal is fulfillment. That that’s what we’re shooting for.

And that we can expect nothing but comfort along the way. See, we get to the point where we think God owes us comfort and ease and happiness constantly. And when anything comes along that deviates from that a little bit, we act like God has wronged us, right?

We act like God has taken away something that God owes us. We need to get away from that mindset. When you’re dealing with God, don’t think in terms of what God owes you.

Because to be perfectly honest, I don’t want what God owes me. I don’t want what I deserve from God. I want grace.

I don’t want justice. Get your mind out of the justice realm. God will deal with that, but what you want from God is grace.

God didn’t promise us that everything would be easy. And He’s not wronging us when things are difficult. When we have that mindset that everything’s supposed to be easy, and then something isn’t, we wonder why God allows us to go through things like that.

We may get mad at God. We may even say, well, I don’t believe God. My wife and I have talked about this recently that I’m puzzled by, and I’m not trying to put anybody down, but I’m puzzled by this idea that I lost a loved one or I lost a job, and so I don’t believe in God anymore.

God either exists or He doesn’t. It’s got to be one of the two options. He either exists or He does not.

That is not dependent at all on what happens with me or how I feel about it. My children do not always do what I want them to do, but that does not mean they no longer exist. And so I’m puzzled by this idea that I no longer believe God exists because He didn’t do what I want Him to do. He either exists or doesn’t.

I think some people who say, well, things didn’t turn out the way I want, so God doesn’t exist. Things didn’t turn out the way you want, so you’re mad at God. That’s a separate issue. But they’ll wonder, well, how could a loving God allow such things?

Because we’re not interested in going through sacrifice. We didn’t sign up for suffering, we feel like, some days. But it wasn’t God’s promise to His people then or now that everything would be perfect, as much as I would like for it to be.

I mean, please don’t misunderstand and think, well, He’s up there just telling. . .

I’m right there with you. I don’t like suffering. I don’t know anybody in their right mind who does.

And I just assume not suffer if it’s all the same to God. But He didn’t promise us that we never would suffer. He said we would have trouble.

The answer for us, when this is so hard, the answer for us is to remember what the real goal is. The real goal is not a life of ease. The real goal is not for everything to turn out just the way we expected it to.

The real goal is to help people grow to maturity in Christ. He talks about presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That doesn’t mean sinless. That means mature.

That means lacking nothing. We’re talking about growing people into mature disciples, wise followers, faithful followers of Jesus Christ. That’s the goal to help people grow to that maturity in Christ. And if that’s the goal, then we’ve got to understand the sacrifices that are required to get there. And I can’t tell you specifically what those may be, because those sacrifices may be different for every individual thing that God’s calling you to do.

God may call you to sacrifice some time to get involved in something. God may call you to sacrifice this job because He wants you over here. That’s between you and Him.

But we’ve got to realize what the goal is and understand the sacrifices that are required. And we’ve got to decide what’s more important, what we want or what He wants. As I was thinking about this passage, and I’m coming close to a closing tonight.

As I was thinking about this passage this week, I thought of a scene in a sitcom, and I cannot remember which one it is. I can hear the dialogue, but I can’t remember which show this was. But the CEO of this company asks one of his underlings, I want you to help me with this project that wasn’t her job.

And she said, oh, I’d love to, but I’m really busy right now. Maybe you could get somebody else to do it. He said, oh, I understand you’re busy.

Why don’t we sit down and make a list right now of all the things that are more important than you doing what I just asked you to do. And she said, why don’t I get right on what you just asked me to do? He said, I thought that would be a good idea.

That’s sort of a conversation I have with God from time to time. I don’t know if any of the rest of you have ever been here or not. God, I’d like to do what you’re asking me to, but fill in the blanks.

And I won’t say I’ve audibly heard the voice of God, but I’ve felt it in my spirit. Okay, why don’t you make a list of all the things that are more important than what I just asked you to do? Try to make that list sometime.

because all the things we think are more important when we put them in those terms, they’re not as important as what God’s asked us to do. We’ve got to remember what the real goal is and understand, like Paul, the sacrifices that are required and decide whether it’s more important to do what He’s asked us to do with all the sacrifices involved or whether it’s more important to do what we want to do. And so tonight, as we close, I just will leave you with these questions.

How has God called you and gifted you to disciple others? And you may be saying, well, He hasn’t. Au contraire.

All right, if you’re a believer, He has called you and gifted you in some way to make disciples. Now, not everybody’s going to be called to teach a class, but that’s not the only way to make disciples. As a matter of fact, I’d submit to you that’s not even the best way to make disciples.

The best discipleship happens one-on-one or two-on-two. It happens in relationships. So how has God gifted you and called you to disciple others?

And now, knowing, once you’ve answered that question, And I don’t expect you to have a solid answer on that tonight. But think about that. How has He called you and gifted you to disciple others?

And once you have some idea of that, it’ll help you understand what He wants you to do to accomplish that. And then you’ve got to ask yourself what sacrifices are required. What is God calling you to step away from?

What is God calling you to put on the back burner so you can do what He said for you to do? So you can focus on that main goal that He’s given us. Because ultimately, I think we’d have to agree if we’re honest with ourselves and with each other but none of the concerns we have are more important than doing what He’s called us to do.