Knit Together in Love — Colossians 1-2

0:00 Paul writing to the church at Colossi beginning chapter two verse one. For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea. And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts be... May be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Let's pray.

0:42 Our glorious God and Father, we do thank you for the distinct privilege and pleasure to be gathered together in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, this morning. We thank you for this word that is in front of us, that's before us. And, father, we just pray that you would speak to each heart here this morning. We each have a different need, something to be addressed. And, father, we know and are so thankful that your spirit knows everything about us and can minister to our souls.

1:14 So our Father, we pray that he would do that work this morning, that you would give the words to speak, And that you would change hearts for Jesus Christ. So our father, we commit our time to you now in the name of the one who loved us and gave himself for us, the lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Ultimately, I'm going to take you back to the Old Testament and looking at the relationship of Jonathan and David. But starting here in Colossians chapter one and verse two, and this is really why as Paul's writing to the church at Colossae, and he's trying to bring this whole idea that I want to be with you, and I want to...

1:55 I'm praying for you that your hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love. When you think of Jonathan and David, I mean, they were friends, yes? Very close friends, friends like brothers. If I should so confess to you, I did give this message last week at Cornerstone and they were on a series called Brothers in the Bible And one of the options was Jonathan and David. And Jonathan and David are not blood brothers, of course, right?

2:39 Everything else that they had was Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael and so on and so forth. But Jonathan and David was smacked there in the middle, and I said that's the one that I want. Because that's the beauty and the preciousness of what we have in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We call each other brothers and sisters for a reason. Because we have one father.

3:05 A brother from another mother, but we got the same father. Right? You guys have heard that expression before? Not to exclude the women, but I haven't come up with a replacement Sisters from Another Mister. Don't know.

3:21 That doesn't work because we've got the same father, so it doesn't work. We can work on that one a little bit. Brothers from another mother, sisters from... Anyways, A listers, I don't know. We'll come up with something someday.

3:37 But we call each other brothers and sisters for a reason. We do have the same father by the grace and the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. He is called the chief brethren among us, the Lord Jesus, and coming into this relationship with God. And what a beautiful thing that is. And when you think of Paul writing to the church at Colossae, and this is what his prayer for them is, that their hearts would be knit together in love.

4:24 But how much more do we need this today? That we go through our lives with all of these struggles, all of these miry clay situations where our feet feel trapped, we feel like we can't move, we're not on that solid rock and foundation, and each one of us is experiencing that in a different way. And sometimes we feel like we are so alone. Like there's nobody else there. There's nobody else who understands.

4:53 There's nobody else that can enter into the pain and the struggle and the trial that I'm going through. And for sure, sometimes it does feel that way. And sometimes in many ways it is that way. The experience that you might be going through, the problem that you have is maybe unique compared to somebody else that's sitting beside you. But the question is if the prayer that Paul was giving to the church at Colossae is that I pray that your hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love, is that not what we ought to be striving for within the church today?

5:29 Now it starts first in the families. It has to start within the family dynamic. And for families where you've got a husband and a wife, it's got to start in that relationship. Wherein within that context, in that relationship, that the heart of the husband and the wife is knit together in love. That there's joining in that relationship.

5:51 And then within the family, with your children, bringing them in and that your hearts are being knit together in love. But then even greater than that, coming into the context of this building, each week coming together for the purpose of, yes, remembering the Lord in that first meeting, that that's why we gather together. But he gave us the church for a reason. It wasn't for intended for us to just get saved and walk in the journey in the wilderness on our own. He's called us to be together to be together.

6:30 Yeah, that'll quote, that'll preach. Tremendously deep truth from John Benson. He's called us to be together to be together. Isn't it amazing though? Seriously, like how simple phrases sometimes really actually bear the most meaning.

6:49 He's called us to be together to live life together. He's called us so that our hearts are being knit together, that we are working one with another, that we are getting to know each other, so that as people are going through various struggles, that we're opening ourselves up for the opportunity to be able to minister into their lives. And then beyond these walls, and this is where Camp Loli can come into the picture. Because beyond these walls, this group of believers, there are a whole lot of other believers in this world out there. And there are many associated with Camp Liloli.

7:29 Many people that we know because of that relationship. I'm here this morning because of Camp Liloli. So I'm just going to use that as an example, but then we're going to go beyond Camp Liloli. But within the context of Camp Lai Loli in this relationship, and I know you guys have relationship with other camps as well and praise God for that, but within the context of these other ministries that allow us to be pulled together so that we are meeting brothers and sisters from other churches. Now our hearts are not just being knit together within this building and we become self centered and just on us, but our hearts are being knit together with these people of other local churches, such as the announcement we heard this morning.

8:13 We don't just come in this morning and announce somebody from our own meeting that perhaps is going through this struggle. But now we're hearing of somebody from another local church, and our hearts can break. And for some of you, you may have no knowledge of them, and that's okay. But your heart might be entwined with theirs simply by knowing that they're children of God and are going through a struggle. But for those of us who do know them, your heart might break a little bit more to understand what they're going through.

8:46 And that's one of the things that I love about Camp La Lola and the way that it's run by having these 10 or 11 local churches that are specifically involved in the governance and the operation of it. Because we create these relationships that are far beyond just the walls of each of those local meetings. We're creating those relationships so that we're continuing to build this knit together of the hearts of the believers in Jesus Christ. Then it goes beyond those 10 or 11 chapels. It goes to all of those different churches across different denominations of people that come to Lai Loli or whatever ministry that you might be involved with and you're working with people from other denominations that preach the truth of the gospel, that we share in the likeness of faith as Peter would write in his second epistle when he described of those of like precious faith, that it's in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

9:44 And I'm sure you've had the experience where you've met somebody for the first time and you find out that they're a believer and immediately, what's your reaction? You feel like you know them better than anybody else because you know the central foundation of the thing that drives you and the thing that drives them is the exact same thing. Now I had the privilege of going to Hong Kong a number of years ago for business. And to be able to go there and then I met up, I found the missionaries that were in the area, Brian and Joy Ford reached out to them and find myself in the meeting, and that was just precious to go to the Lord's Supper and not understand a word that was being said. But to know within my spirit that everything...

10:30 Now we did actually have an interpreter that was able to... But it didn't matter. But then they had a conference, and it was an assembly conference which was just kind of neat for that matter because now I'm in Hong Kong and there's hundreds of people, most of whom I've never met before, but then these random people that are there that I've met before. Like, I'm in Hong Kong. I'm halfway around the world.

10:57 And your hearts are just being knit together. And we have that experience all of the time, or we ought to. And this is what our hearts and minds need to be drawn to. It's not just about in this building, it's not just about in our families, and sometimes that can be the struggle. We want to stay within ourselves.

11:16 We need to open up to the local church, but then from there we need to be willing, as a local church to be involved and engaged even with others. And that's one of the things I love about Camp La Lola, and that's one of the reasons why I would encourage you. If the Lord would lead you to work at camp, if the Lord doesn't lead you to, that's fine. But I would pray that the Lord would burden your heart perhaps to do so, and a great way to learn and meet other people and continue to expand this wonderful tapestry. And that's one of the other things.

12:19 Did I get that right? See, I learned something new yesterday. I went home. The old saying is if you learn something new, you can go home for the day. Okay.

12:28 It's maybe just my saying, but... One of the things about when you think about this whole idea of knitting together, first of all, when you've got two needles, you know, once in a while, you're going to get poked. Right? So when I think of that and our hearts being knit together and as we read in one Samuel 18, which I probably won't read for the sake of time, but when we read in one Samuel 18 of Jonathan and David having their souls knit together, You know what? There are times when that process of having our hearts knit together are going to hurt because we're going to get poked.

13:05 Yes? And that's one of the reasons why we don't allow it to happen because we're fearful. We're fearful of being hurt, so therefore we want to just kind of put up this wall around us so that we don't let other people in. And we just want to live in our own little world in that sense. But I think the call of the gospel is that we are opening ourselves up to that.

13:29 But it's going to hurt when we open ourselves up to that. The other thing when you think about this whole idea of knitting is simply that as you look at one side of whatever it is that you're knitting, it probably doesn't look as good as the other side. Right? There's one side that specifically is meant to be seen and the other side is what's being done behind the scenes. So you've got all these little knots and I have no idea.

13:54 I've never knitted before. I will probably never knit. You never know though. But I'm afraid of poking myself as well as others. But underneath, see all the knots and everything else and it just doesn't look quite as pretty either.

14:11 Right? But the other side, the side that's intended to be seen, looks absolutely beautiful. And to be clear, on this side of eternity, we are on the underside. So being on the underside, all we see are the problems, the things that don't look so good. But God sees it from the other side.

14:45 And what he sees is that beautiful tapestry that is being produced by his own work. We may not appreciate it all on this side. We may get poked with the needles. We look up and we see all of the mess that's being created or what seems like a mess being created, But God is looking at it much differently than you or I are. I remember going to a concert that my daughter was playing in, and this is a number of years ago, and just this orchestra and just how you take all of these instruments and somehow you've been...

15:29 Well, you guys are probably, many of you, much more musical. As you can see, I do nothing. I don't knit. I don't do music. Anybody who's been to camp knows I can't do anything.

15:41 I have no practical skills whatsoever. But to just sit there and watch this orchestra and listen to them is just an amazing feat because really, if you ever listen to one instrument by itself, like if your children are practicing their instruments at home, oftentimes it doesn't sound that good. But now, take a violin as an example, and so those are hard instruments to play. It's not gonna sound as good, but now when you mix them all together and you've got all of these different... My daughter plays the oboe.

16:18 The oboe is actually a beautiful instrument, very difficult to play, and Rebecca is very good at playing it. But when you listen to the oboe, oftentimes by itself, playing the parts that it's playing, you don't appreciate the sound that it's bringing. But when you hear it in context of the full orchestra, and each one playing the part that they're supposed to be playing, now you hear this glorious sound that you could never imagine when you have just one instrument. Just another example of that tapestry that's being built. We see the problems.

16:57 We hear the faulty sounds, all of these things, but God sees the greater perspective. Okay, now practical teaching. Since I've gone, my opening has been half of the message. What does this look like? What does it look like when our heart or as Jonathan and David are referred to as having their souls knit together?

17:43 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor, even to his sword and to his bow and to his belt. You know, and there's a whole lot that happened leading up to this point. First of all, one of the things that you learn about is Jonathan is a bit of a warrior. He's a man's man.

18:11 You wouldn't say that so much about David, but Jonathan was a warrior. He's the one that took the Philistines in chapters thirteen and fourteen. And then Saul, of course, we know was a warrior. He was the king that God had called out to be king only because the children of Israel asked for a king. Jonathan, by every rights, should have been in line to be the king.

18:37 But when Saul disobeyed God through Samuel's command to him, and he didn't get rid of all of the spoils, and he didn't kill the kings and everything else, then first Samuel 15 and verse 22, when he said to obey is better than sacrifice. Then it was at that point God rejected Saul as king. And he went out to find the king. He went to Jesse and his sons, and they went through each of the sons, and no, not this one. No, not this one.

19:08 No, not this one. Are these all of your sons? Well, no, there's still one more. He's in the field shepherding the sheep. David's a shepherd.

19:21 This is the kind of king that God is calling. This is the kind of experience that we all ought to know and understand. First, in the person of Jesus Christ, the good, the great, and the chief shepherd. And this is what God had intended even for the children of Israel, the shepherd king. But Jonathan, though he would be in line to be king, God wanted a shepherd king.

19:51 And Jonathan's soul was knit with David. He recognized God's calling on his life. He recognized that this is who God would have to be in this place, and his love for him was exceedingly great. And I hope each of you know that experience, not just in a personal relationship like husband to wife, though I do pray that to be true, but even with each other, that your love for one another is so great that you can really kind of join into that experience that Jonathan was expressing. Go to one Samuel 19.

20:37 What does this look like? One Samuel 19 and reading verses one through seven. Actually, I'm going to kind of skip through just for the sake of time. Okay, I'm not going to skip through, but we're going to stop at verse four. Now Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David, but Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted greatly in David.

21:10 So Jonathan told David saying, my father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard till morning and stay in a secret place and hide. And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and I will speak with my father about you. Then what I observe, I will tell you. And then verse four, thus Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father.

22:07 Can we say that? Can we say of each other that we delight in this person? I'll just give one perhaps practical example. And I'm thinking of one Corinthians 13 when it talks about what love is and what love looks like. One of the things that it says is love believes all things.

22:36 I think when I think of Jonathan delighting in David, one of the key things that that would represent to me is that it's this idea of believing the best about that person. If we delight in somebody, we are enjoying and experiencing the goodness that god is doing in and through them. And therefore, even when something perhaps doesn't look so good in or through, that we would believe the best about that person rather than believing the worst. And let me tell you, this is an experience. This is a growth thing for every single one of us all of the time.

23:20 It's so easy to be personally offended and hurt and to therefore bear up those feelings within that cause it to come out in ways that it ought not. But can we be intentional about trying to delight in one another like Jonathan did to David so that we're believing the best? So that when somebody does do or say something deeply, that we don't build up a wall preventing that person or anybody else from coming in, but that we actually resolve to conclude that with that person so that it's no longer an issue, Delighting in them. The second thing, verse four. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father.

24:14 Do we speak well of one another? If our hearts and our souls are being knit together in love, are we speaking well of one another? It's so easy, somebody else is gonna complain about somebody and it's so easy to say, yes, I know. Frustrates me when they do that too, when we we we just join in. I mean, here's Saul who was threatening to kill David, and Jonathan spoke well of David.

24:46 He didn't join in to the negativity, but instead he tried tried to continue to support David and what he understood to be the call on David's life. So just two things as an example. Jonathan delighted in David. And as part of that, he spoke well of David even when speaking to an enemy of David's. Turn to first Samuel 20, please.

25:25 In this one, we will kind of skip through. In verse chapter 20 and verse one, it said David fled. He was running away because of the threat of Saul. In verse two, so Jonathan said to him, by no means you shall not die. Indeed, my father will do nothing, either great or small, without first telling me.

25:43 And why should my father hide this thing from me? It is not so. David convinced that Saul was killing him. John said, no, if he was, I would know about this. Verse three, David took an oath again and said, your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes, etcetera.

25:57 So verse four, so Jonathan said to David, whatever you yourself desire, I will do it for you. Let me just put these in different words. David, I'm Jonathan. That is my name, by the way. I'm Jonathan.

26:21 David, you are in great distress and struggle right now. You fear for your life. Whatever it is that you need me to do for you, I'm gonna do it for you. That's a good practical example for us, isn't it? If our hearts are being knit together, then we can go to our brother or sister that's in that time of trial and struggle, and we can say whatever it is that you need me to do for you, I'll do it.

27:00 I'm gonna forsake whatever comfort might be in my future, whatever thing that I want to do rather... To please myself perhaps rather than to serve you in this way. Whatever thing that is that you need, because my heart is knit with yours. And some of you know this very practically with certain people in your life. The desire of my heart, the burden of my heart is that we know this with everybody.

27:36 And I realize it's not going be literally everybody. Okay? I get that. But that we ought to be striving more and more to get there. And keep in mind, this whole tapestry of our hearts being knit together, your hearts are knit together with individuals, and then those individuals with these individuals and those individuals, and that's how the tapestry is created.

27:56 Not everybody is knit together, but we are continuously connecting one to another. But can we open ourselves up to even do this more so with more people? Being ready to give of ourselves and do whatever it is that's necessary. So whatever David desired, Jonathan said he would do it. Go to First Samuel chapter 23 for the last one of the example of Jonathan, and then we're going to go to one at the end of David.

29:02 So the two of them made a covenant again before the Lord, and David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house. Whatever it is that you need, I will do it for you. But sometimes, people don't even know what they need. And we just need to be there to strengthen them. Jonathan went into the woods and found David to strengthen him, to be there for him, to recognize him in his weakness and go to that place.

29:45 The Lord Jesus went after the one sheep when he left the 99. Sometimes we need to go into the wilderness, and we need to be there to strengthen them. They don't even know what they need, but they need to be strengthened. Likewise, some of us, we've put up so many walls, we don't even let people come in to strengthen us. What we need to be done is we need to be strengthened.

30:16 We need to have people come in and strengthen us, but we put up these walls that we don't let anybody in. But if our hearts are being knit together, then we're looking for the opportunities to strengthen, that we just keep our eyes open and watch and look and see. If so and so seemingly discouraged, then I want to go and encourage them. And likewise, we need to be ready to let people in. If somebody comes up to us, let's make sure that we open ourselves up.

30:43 Don't just put up the walls and prevent people from strengthening you. But the key thing with this is it's not that he just went out and strengthened David. What did it say? Strengthened him in God. There is no such thing as being able to strengthen your brother sister if you're not doing it in and through and with the person of God and in the promises of God.

31:09 That's what we need to be strengthened in. When we're discouraged, when we feel like the world is against us, when it feels like everything is crashing in, what do we need the most? We need to be reminded of the promises of God. We need to be reminded that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That he loved us and he gave himself for us.

31:30 That he's the one that's living his life out of us and through us. That it's all about him. Peter in Luke chapter 22. The Lord Jesus says, Satan, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired you that he might sift you like wheat. This is a whole message on its own and I won't give it, but he might sift you like wheat.

31:54 Then he says this, the Lord Jesus says, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail, that when you return to me, strengthen the brethren. I have prayed for you, not that you would be wise, that you would be strong, that you would be courageous or any of those things, although all of those things are good things to pray, but it's that your faith would not fail because your strength, your wisdom, your courage, and all of those things are in and through the person of Christ. That's the only way you're gonna do it, that your faith would not fail, that you would not lose sight of him. That's how we're gonna be strengthened. And Jonathan went out and he strengthened David in God, reminding him of the promises that were made of him.

33:34 And there was Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth was lame in the feet, he could not walk. And he said bring to me Mephibosheth, and obviously I'm not quoting this, but bring to me Mephibosheth. I'm gonna keep saying that word because it'll get easier someday. But bring to me Mephibosheth and he is gonna sit at the king's table continually all of his days.

34:01 And this was David's response to even the love that Jonathan had showed him as he's like, I wanna show you love. And this is the gospel, my friends, that you and I have been invited to join in at the table of the king for eternity. When we gather together on Sunday morning for the remembrance meeting, that is just a small glimpse of what we're gonna enjoy for all of eternity to be in the presence of God. We have the privilege now of doing so with the intent of remembering his person and his work and all of those things that bring us to remembrance of him because now we live in a world that is still filled with sin and struggle and strife. That day we won't have to worry about any of that.

34:45 So now we gather together and we remember him because it keeps our mind and our heart and our eyes focused on, yes, despite everything else around us. It's all about him. It's all about him, and we remember him. But this is the gospel. You and I, by definition, are lame.

35:06 We have no ability in and of ourselves to get ourselves to the king's table. We can do no work to come into the good graces of the king, but the king has invited us in. He says, come and sit at my table all of your days and be fed. And that is the gospel. Perhaps there are some here this morning that you're kicking against the goats.

35:34 You don't want the gospel for yourself. You think that there's nothing in it for you. The glorious news is the king of the universe, the creator of all things, has invited you in and asked you to come into a relationship with himself. And, yes, we are on this side of the tapestry. It doesn't always look good, but we will continuously be fed at the king's table and in his presence.

36:04 If you don't know the lord Jesus Christ as your savior this morning, please, I beg of you, consider that you need him and he's invited you. He wants you in this relationship. And for those of us who do, my prayer as Paul was for the Colossians is that your hearts would be encouraged and that you would be knit together in love and that each of us would be able to enjoy and experience that. I feel that way very much so with the people from this meeting that I know from camp. I know that feeling of being knit with many in this room, and I pray that you know the same thing and that our hearts can join together as we continue to work on and, we pray, accomplish the great commission of making disciples.

37:04 Let's pray. Our father in heaven, this morning, we do thank you for the wonderful truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you for that reminder in Mephibosheth that though our feet be lame, there is nothing that we can do to enter in, that you have invited us to enjoy for eternity the relationship with the king, the one who will continuously feed us. Our father, we just thank you so much for that privilege. And yet we also recognize the great responsibility, The responsibility for those of us in this room as believers in Christ to knit our hearts together to become one in mind, in heart, in desire of the things of Christ.

37:56 So, Father, we just pray that you take these little glimpses from your word this morning, and we pray that you would knit them into our hearts and that we would see such practical transformation and application in our lives. And father, this morning, we would especially pray that if there be any here that have yet to have trusted in Christ who think they want nothing to do with him. We pray that they would see the truth of the gospel. The invitation from the king to join him at the table. And Father, we do pray this morning for Trina and the kids and the rest of the family.

38:42 As they walk through this very dark time in their lives. That they would be strengthened in God. That others in their local church at Cornerstone would come around them and continuously pour the love of Christ out to them. We pray that they will be strengthened. So, father, we thank you again for the privilege of your word and of knowing your son.

39:05 We commit it all to you now in the lord Jesus name. Amen.