CODY ZORN "CORRECTION FOR COMPANIONS"

bibles tonight we're going to the last chapter of the book of colossians this evening the last chapter of the book of colossians and tonight we will conclude our study on finding correction from colossians we finished up this morning our faithful sayings from the writings of paul and tonight we're going to finish up our four-part series on correction from colossians i promise i won't keep you alone this evening i know what time it already is and we've got to have a meeting afterwards with some of the staff for the children's church and our youth department and so i'm not going to keep you very long so that way we can get you out and get you back to the house this evening but i do want to give you this last installment of correction from colossians tonight let's read several verses of scripture here if we could in colossians chapter number four and verse number seven now these verses may not seem like much on face value but i wish you'd give ear to me because i believe there's some really important and key things that will help all of us if you give here what i'm about to say tonight and don't shut me off just because the verses don't seem to be exciting just because they don't seem to be shouting ground if you will i believe we can find some exciting shouting ground if you just give me a minute or two to preach to you colossians chapter 4 and verse number 7 the apostle paul said all my states shall tychicus declare unto you now we can pronounce this fellow's name i've heard it pronounced all kind of ways i've heard it pronounced tychicus i've heard it pronounced tychicus i've heard it pronounced type chicas you pick whichever way you like and say it praise god i don't believe you'll hold it against you when you get to heaven amen i may call it all three of them by the time the message is over with just depending on how i'm talking at the time all my states shall take us declare unto you who's a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the lord whom i have sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts with one estimates a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you they shall make known unto you all things which are done here aristarchus my fellow prisoners saluteth you and marcus sister son to barnabas touching whom you've received commandments if you come unto you receive him and jesus which is called justice who are of the circumcision these only are my fellow workers under the kingdom of god which have been a comfort unto me epaphras which is one of you a servant of christ saluteth you always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of god for our bearing record that he hath the great zeal for you and them that are in laodicea and then hieropolis luke the beloved physician and demus greet you salute the brethren which are in laodicea and memphis and the church which is in his house and when this epistle is read among you cause did it be read also in the church of the latest sins and that you likewise read the epistle from laodicea and say to archipelas take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the lord that thou fulfill it uh i want you to remember why we started this study to begin with we started this study to begin with because we realized that paul not only writes to the church at colossae but he also writes to the church at laodicea through this letter you remember we read about the church of laodicea in revelation chapter 3 they are that last days lukewarm church that last days lacking church that last days church that locked jesus out of his own building and out of his own fellowship that church that had laid aside all their good things of working for god and serving the lord to be a carnal run-of-the-meal average uh assembly in the last days we read all about that in revelation 3 but the truth is 30 years prior to paul writing that or 30 years prior to john writing that paul had already written to this church 30 years earlier and he mentions them five times in the book of colossians it's not by mistake it's not by accident and i believe if the church at laodicea had of heeded the warning that paul had given 30 years prior they would not have wound up as messed up as they became that's why we've been preaching this study trying not to wind up like laying laodicea receiving correction from colossians so that we as bible missionary baptist church do not become a lukewarm lacking lackadaisical laodicean church that locks jesus out the building tonight you realize there are churches just like that all around this county that if the lord showed up even in us even in half a but half away as he showed up tonight they wouldn't know what to do with it it would blow the starch out of their spiritual robes it would freak them out it would scare them they wouldn't like it they would lose control it wouldn't be on the menu it wouldn't be on the program but tonight i'm thankful i'm a part of a church where the lord is at home i get the pastor of church that appreciates bible preaching and responds to bible preaching and it's just good to know the lord and know a real church tonight amen so we've looked at several aspects we've gone chapter by chapter we first found correction to continue in chapter one we found correction to keep from compromising in chapter two we found correction to keep changing in chapter 3 and continually to be more like christ but tonight in chapter 4 we're going to find correction about companions or correction for the right kind of companions tonight here in the last 12 verses from verse 7 down through verse 18 the last 12 verses of colossians chapter 4 we find that paul in 12 verses mentions 11 names in 12 verses paul rehearses 11 different names he he highlights his companions in the work of the ministry you say what's that got to do with us well i feel if we take paul's pattern and apply it to our life it is this it is highly critical to keep the right kind of company in your life if you are to walk with god like you should tonight i believe one of the reasons why laodicea got off track is they stopped keeping company with the right kind of people this evening y'all i told you before and i'll tell you again first corinthians 15 32 still in the book evil communications corrupt good manners tonight your mom and daddy told you right when they said you can't lay down with dogs and not get fleas it is impossible this evening and i found out that some people are more scared of ridicule from their friends than they are the rebuke and the chastisement of god himself brother if we are to keep our congregation pointed in the right direction and headed toward the way it should and you and i will have to make sure that our companionship not only with each other but the right kind of companionship continues on in this church tonight we find that paul's inner circle he mentions them down through here he mentions tychicus he mentions onesimus he mentions aristarchus he mentions marcus and barnabas and justice and epaphras he mentions luke and demas and memphis and octopus he mentions all these different guys what you'll find out about all of them at this point in their life brother charlie they are all sold out soldiers of the lord bound for glory living for the lord at this point in their life they are all plugged in say what does that say for me it says this if you're going to be the right kind of christian you need to be you need to find and hang out with people that are plugged in tonight amen that's right paul paul highlights this fact i was reading the other day they said old farmer walked down in his field one day and when he walked down this field some of them little pesky crows was hanging around messing around with his crops and this and that and he took his shotgun out and just aimed out there in the midst of all them crows and he fired off a couple of shots from that shotgun and when he walked out there and seen feathers flying brother cliff and he walked out there and he looked and when he got there there was a couple dead crows but right in the middle of him was his favorite pet bird his parrot his parrot had got loose out of the house it was the family pet and was out there amongst them crows and he didn't know it he couldn't tell it and that bird was all mangled up bleeding and feathers popped off of him and his children ran out there and saw their bird laying in the ground and they said daddy what happened to our bird had our bird wind up like this and daddy simply said this bad company yeah amen that's the truth [Applause] if you haven't been hanging around with the crows and he stayed in the house he wouldn't have got peppered with the barnshot you know a problem with a lot of christians they get out the house and they start hanging out with the crows of this world and they start getting shot full of the devil's holes out there somewhere i read in my bible in the book of first samuel i read over there in first samuel where the bible the second samuel excuse me second symbol over there talked about the son of david named amnon and the bible said oh amnon started lusting after his half-sister tamar and the bible said he thought he'd like to have her but he knew he couldn't and this is what pushed him over the edge this is what your bible said verbatim it said but amnon had a friend am not had a friend named jonah dab who the bible said was a subtle man and jonah dab poked him and prodded him until he finally raped her his own sister you listen to me tonight's young people and it don't just go for the young people it goes through the adults tonight you better be careful what kind of friendships you made you better be careful what kind of companions you start walking with because they can affect you tonight they can affect you for good or they can affect you for bad amen paul paul denotes who our close associations with not only by calling out his close associations but by also saying something about the lost world look what he said in chapter four verse five watch what he said in verse five of chapter 4. chapter 4 verse 5 he said walk in wisdom toward them that are without in other words they ain't in they out and you are to walk in wisdom toward them redeeming the time doing this verse six letter speaks we all weigh with grace season with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man did you see the difference here he says there are those that are without and then there's all these faithful and beloved brothers that are within them that's helping him you don't find that he's not making names of all these lost people that's living for the world saying these are my best buddies and we hanging out no brother he realizes i'm going to have grace toward them i'm going to try and lead them to jesus i'm going to try and love them and i'm going to be a christian in front of them but my close companions going to be this crowd yes sir that's good right there your bible said your bible said can two walk together except they be agreed it is impossible for us to walk to listen what i'm going to tell you it's impossible for us to walk together in fellowship if we head in opposite directions that's right you understand this tonight it is impossible come here real fast it's impossible you you go stand over there and i'm going to stand over here now it's impossible for me and brother hunter to have real close fellowship you walk toward me and you go that way i can say hey how you doing it's good to see you and god bless you but there ain't no close association you say why we headed in opposite directions and if you go into heaven and somebody else is going to hell you can try and point them to jesus and lead them to jesus but as far as a close association it can't happen y'all held it in different directions the problem with a lot of christians is they stopped going on their direction and they started yoking up and going on the world's direction the only way to have close fellowship you've got to be like-minded going in the same path and the same way tonight i'm not looking to walk thank you brother i'm not looking to walk in the way with the world i have been saved i have been redeemed i have been turned [Applause] so i'm talking about correction for our companions i'm talking about how we can't try not to wind up like ladies and the last thing we find in our study is paul highlights over and over 11 different men was his companions now i want to show you correction for companions real quick and i'm going to turn you loose tonight i want to show you four things real quick out of this text and we're out of here number one the first thing we find about the kind of companions you need and i need the companions that you should get at the house of god number one we find the persistent workers we see the persistent workers did you notice verses 7 8 9 and 10 and 11 these guys are persistent workers paul says about tychicus in verse 7 he says he's a beloved brother he says he's a faithful minister he says he's a fellow servant in the lord he says about onesimus in verse nine he's a faithful and beloved brother he says about aristarchus in verse 10 he's my fellow prisoner in other words they've been locked up together he says about marcus that he is the sister son to barnabas and you've received commandments from him he says about justice that he was a fellow worker under the kingdom of god and had been a comfort unto him brother these guys are persistent workers tonight can i can i say this about these guys as i began to study them and look at them these are men i want y'all to understand something these are men who know what it is like to have a less than desirable background see i think some people i think some people brother blake they think well the only people that really serve god and live for the lord it's in people that's got the right kind of background that they come up in the only people that serve god and live for the lord and they shout and worship and cry not only they got the right background but they ain't had all the same uh uh you know blights and blots on their life like i've got they don't have all the burdens that i've carried all the baggage before uh-uh not these guys right here these close associations of paul they know what it's like to have all kind of issues in the past and yet put all that stuff behind them and go ahead and live for god anyways here we find paul mentions onesimus have you ever read the book of philemon do you know who and what onesimus is onesimus is a runaway slave paul writes the book of philemon at the same time he writes the book of colossians both of them written from rome and both of them sent back where they're going from this dude right here onesimus he's a runaway slave this evening it has bro it's not been an easy life for him he's an indentured servant to somebody else that ain't an easy life to be living but yet he's living as a servant and also living for the lord jesus christ as well even though his life hadn't been easy he says i'm still going to serve god and be a persistent worker anyways we find here there's another fellow he's mentioned in verse number 10 his name is marcus marcus you go back and read about him in the book of acts you know who marcus is he's that fellow in the book of acts called john mark he's the one that wrote the gospel of mark the 16 chapters matthew mark luke and john this is the guy marcus he writes the book of mark you say well what about him he sounded like a pretty clean fella yeah except for when you read that part over there about on paul's first missionary journey that john mark marcus went with him and halfway through that thing he tucked tail and run he run up the white flag he said i'm through with the ministry he said i can't hack it i can't cut it i'm done and brother that looked like that's gonna be the end of it and it got so contentious between barnabas who was marcus's uncle and paul on the next missionary journey because barnabas wanted to take him and paul said we ain't taking that sorry good for nothing snake he departed from the word he'll do it again barnabas said no we need him paul said no we don't them brother's finally pardoned sunder and somewhere along the line though marcus proved himself that he was the real deal see just because he had a failure in his past didn't mean he wasn't useful in his future just because he messed up that there didn't mean god couldn't use him up there i'd like to take a time out and save his failure is not final with the father [Applause] i'm glad there's a god in heaven that'll forgive you he'll put you back in service he'll let you be used again and you can still be a persistent worker for the lord tonight that's right praise the lord you sit here tonight and you say oh god can't use me because of what happened back here who told you that yeah i tell you who told you that the sorry devil told you that i'm not a liar if you sit here and i'm saying well god can't use me no more because x y and z back there that's a lie hatched out of hell there's a blood that cleanses there's a god that's revealed and i'm telling you this tonight honey god's the heart up for everson he'll just take anybody if you'll get right and start living for god he'll use your life [Applause] he just needs somebody willing [Applause] problem is we just folks just gonna lay down well i messed up okay you messed up join the club welcome to the club of failures here we are right here right here right yonder out yonder here we all are yes sir forgiving failures but we ain't letting our failures keep us from serving god get on get right and go on be a persistent worker you read about these fellas on face value and sometimes we read about these names in the bible we think brothers talking or that these are like these guys are so way up i can't even i can't even lick the bottom of their bootstraps they way out there because we read about them they're just men like you they got problems just like you but what they didn't do was quit we see persistent workers find you some companions like that yeah can i tell you the kind of companions you need to get you get get you some companions that they will make it hard on you to quit oh yeah accountable i got some friends in this thing that if i was to try and quit tomorrow they'd make it real tough on me to back out and i'm the same with them we've talked each other off a couple of ledges before yes sir oh yeah i got some fellas they'd go to war for me and i'd go to war for them i mean i'm talking about guys like jason fuller and rick parker and nathan hamill and mike martin and some of these guys brother look here i got a lot of associations in the ministry but i don't got a lot of real real close friends but i'm telling you we've gone to war together and we'll keep on going to war together we don't always see eye to eye on it but i'll tell you what we do know i think what we do know we all gonna keep serving god till jesus comes and if one of us decides to drop the towel and quit the other one's just gonna make it real hard on him to do so yes sir in other words they gonna call they gonna text they gonna come see you and say hey hey hey pick your bottom lip up ain't no place to quit this thing get you some hey sister get you a companion like that stop hanging out with people they trying to help you quit yeah i knew some friends they ain't trying to help you quit they trying to help you keep on yeah i'm for being my for goodness sake the last thing i want is to come into church and and from the preaching to the singing to the fellowship with that when you leave you feel like quitting i want you to come in and feel like when you leave out you're ready to charge hell yes sir [Applause] amen we see there's persistent workers not only do we see the persistent worker but workers but then look here there's also the prayer warrior not only the persistent workers then we find the prayer warrior i like you scott he's only mentioned three times in paul's writings but i like him watch watch this fella he's the prayer warrior look at verse 12. here's a companion everyone needs verse 12 epaphras who is one of you a servant of christ saluted for you always laboring fervently for you in prayers look at the prayer warrior that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of god for i bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you that's a companion everybody in this building needs tonight find you somebody that'll pray for you lord god there's enough that's against you today you need somebody that's for you i love how his prayer life was denoted did y'all see how his prayer life was denoted brother joe his prayer life was like this always laboring fervently in prayers for you always laboring fervently that's prayer right there always jesus said i uh men ought always to pray and not to faint paul said pray without ceasing prayer always he didn't just say always he said always laboring that's what prayer is sometimes prayers work that's why not many people do it because sometimes prayer is just getting down and you don't feel like anything's happening that's exactly right you just feel like you're beating up on the air and ain't nobody listening ain't nothing happening and the devil gets over here in the ear and says you're a fool look at you dingbat look at you idiot you down there talking ain't nobody listening are you crying mentioning all them names it don't matter nobody listening it's work oh yeah you say all prayer ain't work pray for 30 minutes [Music] do unhindered try you know why you think praying work you ain't done enough of it yeah try praying for try praying for an hour unhindered prayer you know what i find out i i curse the day them stupid phones come in the world you know what i find out when i start praying or really getting serious about doing something god that stupid thing goes off diddling dick sounds like you know morse code come through it rings [Music] the devil see to it something happens to try and throw you off prayer when you get started that's jesus of prayers work he said when he was praying he swept great drops of blood he said always labor and fly this fervently it wasn't just some little mealy mouth prayer now let me know you know no no he's perfect in this thing yes sir oh god and paul said i'll bear him record in other words i've listened to a pactrus prayed for y'all before amen i bear him record i heard him calling y'all's names out man everybody here needs somebody like that that's the kind of companion you need can i say this to every gray-headed saint of god in the building i love you so much you are what you you are the backbone of this church and what helps this church go let me say this to every white-headed saint of god in this church building you may not be able to be point number one and be the persistent worker that you used to be able to be because as you get older things just change but i'll tell you what you can be that's highly vital and more important than somebody persistently working and that's somebody being a prayer warrior [Music] you may not be able to you may not be able to teach class run a buzz stand up and do this and that but i'll tell you what you can do you find you a prayer calls it somewhere and pray for every ministry of this church and pray god dumps it down on the preacher and on the people and god moves and god saves you say it don't do no good hogwash i say it's the biggest ministry in this church yes sir i would not be not only where i am tonight as the pastor of this church but i wouldn't be in the ministry today if it wasn't for people praying for me i got people all over this country that tell me all the time i've been praying for you i got your name on prayer list i'm praying for you i couldn't make it without people praying for me yes sir exactly thank god for the prayer warriors that's gotten me through i believe only heaven will reveal only heaven will reveal when we get to that side how much somebody praying for us made the difference in our life we may not ever see it here brother dan but one day we get in that sweet forever we sing about i believe god's gonna roll back curtain of memory and let us see i protected you right there because they was praying for you you've been dead amen i stopped the ploy of the devil from way laying you there because somebody prayed him off of you i blessed your life there and used your life there because somebody prayed and asked me to prayer warrior persistent workers here's something you gotta watch out for number three here's somebody you gotta watch out for you gotta watch out for the person who's worldly you see i thought you were talking about paul's friends i am i'm to my people in the church you got to watch out for them people who's worldly you say where you find them at verse 14. check out verse 14 with me luke the beloved physician luke writes the gospel of luke and he writes the book of acts he travels with paul a lot he's a doctor what's the next guy and davis greet you did y'all ever read second timothy chapter four i did generate second timothy chapter four and paul starts listing them names off over there sec timothy forrest paul's last letter before he gets the acts you know what paul says over there he says demas that guy demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed under thessalonica said o demas bounced and went to loving the world yes sir unless y'all think that i'm just going on about about cor uh colossians and laodicea having a corollary did y'all notice something interesting a couple things about demas one out of the 11 people i told you paul mentions 11 people in it out of the 11 people that paul mentions there's only one of them he doesn't say anything extra about it right demons everybody else he mentions something extra he's a brother faithful brother beloved physician does this does that but when he gets to demas all he says is and demas they greet you you going to say about davis colossians is written not too very far from second timothy obviously paul had already watched his life start slipping what was he supposed to say about demons he gonna lie what's he gonna say about demons he's gonna say well old demons y'all he's been slipping and sliding he just leaves demons out of it he just says and demons and did y'all notice something unless y'all think i'm pulling too big a comparison from colossae to laodicea what's what comes directly after demas verse 14 and demas salutes you or demus greets you verse 15. look at the very next place salute the brethren which you're laid to see tied up at the hip is a guy who turned worldly at a church that did the same thing you're probably to see you they got the demon syndrome they started loving this present world are they saved sure demons is saying is he going to be in heaven absolutely is he going to have anything to show for his christian life no gonna lose every crowd every reward he's got get to do nothing in the millennial right of christ he's gonna have the blight on him it's put in the book and his blight's gonna be carried brother throughout eternity that he forsook the work and loved the present world you better watch out for them folks worldly you can try and help them but don't go with them don't you think paul cried about this boy he did don't you think paul prayed and said oh god lord i seen demons out there god he ain't interested in reading this bible like it used to be lord god he ain't interested in praying with us like he used to be lord god he used to go street preaching with us tonight god he used to come visit me while i'm down here in the prison now he's ashamed to do so lord i pray don't you know he's praying for that boy sure he was but i'll tell you what he didn't do he didn't go join him i've watched people not only in my personal ministry of evangelism and assistant pastor of the church where i come from but pastoring also this church in the last few years i have watched that happen yes sir they just stop enjoying what they're used to they don't they don't like preaching no more they used to they don't like singing them what are you used to they don't like fellowship with these kind of people the more they used to what to do they started getting worldly say what are you going to do about it i'm going to pray for them i love them but if you think i'm going to run after them you're crazy that's exactly right i moved they did it when they get ready to get right they know where we are [Music] i'm not fixing to run off and turn worldly just so i can accommodate a worldly lifestyle amen amen here we find not only do we see there's a people or the person that's worldly the prayer warrior the persistent workers and lastly and i'm done the last thing about companions you need is a personal piece of wisdom the last thing you need about companions and we're done is a personal piece of wisdom what's the personal piece of wisdom preacher it's in verse 17. watch this personal piece of wisdom that paul gives to this man named archipus watch what he says verse 17 and say to archipelas take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the lord that thou fulfill it could we do something here for just a minute i wish you'd look at verse 17 and mentally in my personal study bible i i have my name written above archipela's name mentally just not literally mentally would you scratch octopus name out mentally and insert your name in the text and now the holy ghost is saying to you take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the lord that thou fulfill it praise god praise the lord i mean i mean i wonder if you can just scratch scratch that name mentally and and and put your name right there and say and say to sister knee take heed to the ministry with science received in the lord that thou fulfilleth and say to brother tiger take heed to the ministry which dies received in the lord that thou fulfill it and say to john glenn and take heed to the ministry which thou hast received the lord we could go on and on put your name there i got my name there in my study bible that every time i read it it's not just reading this to archipelas it's the holy ghost reading it and saying it to me amen i got a ministry i got a ministry that i'm supposed to take eve to i've received it of the lord and what am i supposed to do with it i'm supposed to fulfill it you don't know how to keep this church running right figure out what ministry god has given you find out what it is that your gift is and what god has blessed you to do and then do it fulfill it don't don't don't just sit on your hands and expect somebody else is going to do it and somebody else will take care of it no if god has put it on your heart if god has burdened your heart if god has laid it on your lap then don't pass the book off say lord i'm going to take heed to this ministry that you gave me and i will fulfill i'll finish it tonight whatever gift god's given you whatever calling god's given you whatever ministry god's given you fulfill it fulfill it watch out for your companions stay around companions like that stay around companions that are looking to fulfill the mandate of god in their life say where can i find people like that you're in a good place you're a good spot there's people here that love the lord and love the book love preaching and want to walk with god are they any perfect people here no you're looking for a perfect church keep hunting it this ain't it yeah it ain't got a perfect pastor it ain't got perfect members we all got flaws if you're looking for perfection we ain't your crowd but tonight if you need some help from some companions that's got issues just like you got fighting the same devil you fighting fighting the world just like you fighting and leaving a touch from god just like you do you come to the right place say what do you want to be i want to be a companion to people this is what david said i'm done david said this is psalm 119 i am a companion of all those that fear and love thy law he said everybody that loves you law everybody loves that book that was my companions my companions them was my friends yes i've always been told and it's the truth i'm fixing to let you go you can tell a lot about a person by who their friends are i do not have to know you i don't have to know you all i got to do is you show me your friends that's all i got to know about you amen you show me who you hang around and i'll show you what you're going to become whatever you're hanging around that's what you're going to be look at it that's your mirror that's where you're headed you know what i want to do i want to surround myself with people that helps me be a better christian not a worse christian these four messages i'm telling you y'all if we'll put into practice these four messages correction to continue correction from compromise correction change and correction for our companions i'm telling you we will never wind up like ladies [Music] but if we do like colossal like laodicea did with this message from paul if we just do like they did and just said uh forget it we won't wind up like that 30 years later they wound up apostates yes let's take heed to the ministry which god's given us to fulfill yes sir yes sir let's pray tonight father thank you so much lord for your word i want to say thank you for the companions that you've given to me at the bible missionary baptist church lord in the in the short time you've allowed me to be here uh lord and the roots you've allowed us to put down here i look at the friends that you've given to my family i look at the friends you've given to my heart lord my children and god i thank you so much for all of these individuals in here tonight they are my companions i want to try and help them live for god so much they've helped me live for god i appreciate them lord help us tonight to take heed to our ministries lord that we fulfill them help us god not to turn out like demons help us lord to be one of those faithful and beloved brothers or sisters help us to be that prayer warrior that lifts people up god minister now to your folk bring us back thursday night keep them safe between now and then use them to be a light in the dark world in jesus name we pray amen all right god bless you church i'll see you thursday night

Channel: Bible Missionary Baptist Church

Views: 450

Rating: 4.8000002 out of 5

Keywords: CODY ZORN

Id: RYF8Ecm42cA

Length: 38min 18sec (2298 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021