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Hi, I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions and our last day of the
study of the book of Colossians, chapter 4 verses 14 to 18 today. We've been
looking the last few days at this study of real fellowship, what it looks like
by the names that Paul mentions in this last part of the chapter. And we've been
reminded that fellowship is a relationship, fellowship is all-inclusive,
fellowship is enduring, fellowship is forgiving, fellowship is comforting,
fellowship is a sacrifice.

Today, we're going to look at five more qualities of real fellowship just
quickly as we walk down through these names. In the name Luke, we're reminded
that fellowship is great joy. Chapter 4 verse 14, our dear friend Luke, the
doctor, and Demas send greetings.

Fellowship is great joy. As you look at Luke and the Apostle Paul, they had a
de-great relationship. There are many times in the book of Acts where you see
them serving together.

There is this time in 2 Timothy verse 4, 11, where Paul says, "Only Luke is with
me. Everyone else has left. He is the one friend that I have left.

Our dear friend Luke," he says here. Fellowship means great joy because there's
a depth of relationship that you'll develop with some where you're able to say,
"This is my dear friend. " Now, in this relationship that they had, they also
had great service for Christ together.

Luke, who wrote the Gospel on Acts, and Paul, who wrote most of the New
Testament letters. Those who last in ministry, who develop these kind of great
friendships in ministry, are wonderfully used in ministry. There's a great joy
in fellowship, of lasting together, developing friendships, serving together.

It's interesting, though, in verse 14, there's not only the name Luke, but also
the name Demas. Demas is a reminder that fellowship means not only great joy,
but also great disappointment. In his letter to Timothy, Paul writes, "Demas has
forsaken me, having loved this present age," and he's gone back to Thessalonica.

Here, in Colossians, he writes of Demas, and he talks about him sending
greetings. But by the time he writes the letter to Timothy, Demas has forsaken
this friendship. He's forsaken Christ.

Great disappointment. As a person who had been a part of Paul's life, serving
Christ together in his life, somehow now he has lost his trust in Christ to such
an extent that he's no longer willing to serve. In fact, Paul says the reason he
did it is he loved this present age.

He was more in love with the things of this world than the things of God. When I
get in fellowship with other believers, there are going to be times of great
disappointment. I disappoint myself sometimes in the Christian life.

I wish I would have more faith. I wish I would trust in him more. There's no
doubt about that, but there's a different kind of great disappointment when
someone entirely forsakes the faith, when someone begins to live their life just
for themselves.

I don't know. Did they have faith in the first place, or was it just a fake all
the way along, or do they have a relationship with Jesus Christ, but somehow
they're so caught up in their own selfishness that they're just living for
themselves now? They're what the Bible calls a carnal Christian, a fleshly
Christian.

I don't know. I just know that they have forsaken the faith. They're no longer
living for Christ, and that is a great disappointment.

Now, Demas's story reminds me of the fact that even though there's great
disappointment, I still need to continue to fellowship with others. In love,
there are great highs and there are great lows. One of the ways to keep away
from the great lows in loving somebody else is to not love, is to hold people
with a wall around me, build a shell around me, and hold people outside of that
shell.

The problem with that is I never have any of the great highs either, the great
joy that comes from fellowship. Fellowship means great joy, and it means great
disappointment. It also means something else.

In verses 15 and 16, Paul says, "Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea
and to Nimphah and the church in her house. After this letter has been read to
you, see to it that it's also read to the church of the Laodiceans, and that in
turn you read the letter from Laodicea. " The churches of Laodicea and the one
in Nimphah's house were reminded that fellowship is broad.

Sometimes we narrow fellowship to just me and my little group, my small group,
or just me and my church. Fellowship is broad. "Give greetings to all these
different churches," he says, "in fact, share the letters between each other.

" Now, he talks here about a letter from Laodicea. What is that about? Some
think it's the letter of Ephesians or the letter of Philemon, but most people
think it's a letter that we just don't have.

All of Paul's letters were not inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so all of them
are not in the New Testament. We know, for instance, that Paul wrote the
Corinthians at least four letters. Only two of them were inspired by the Holy
Spirit, and so are in the New Testament.

The others weren't. Paul wrote a lot of letters. A few of them were inspired by
the Spirit.

And this letter to the Laodiceans, he says, "I haven't read in the churches,"
but this letter to the Colossians, this is the one that's inspired by the Holy
Spirit. In these words that Paul talks about all these other churches, it's a
reminder that there are many, many believers in this world that I do not know,
but I am in fellowship with them in one sense. And when I meet them, if I were
ever able to go to their church and be a part of their church, that fellowship
would be immediately felt, as we talked about yesterday, because fellowship is
broad, a tenth quality of real fellowship.

Fellowship is encouraging. I think this is my favorite. "Tell Acrippus, see to
it that you complete the work that you've received in the Lord.

" In the letter to Philemon, we learned that Acrippus was most likely the son of
Philemon. And he had some certain ministry to which he had been called that it
seems like he's neglecting, he's not finishing. Maybe he's discouraged in it.

Maybe some barrier has come into the way that's keeping him from getting it
done. And so Paul reminds him here, "Complete the work. " No one knows what the
ministry was, but the important thing is he had a ministry, as all believers
have a ministry.

And the important thing is Paul's encouraging here that he complete that
ministry. Fellowship is encouraging. I don't know how many times a week, I don't
know if this is true for you, but I don't know how many times a week I come to a
point where I wonder, "Is this ever going to happen?

Can this dream that I have for ministry be accomplished? Is this barrier going
to be taken out of the way? " I'm in constant need of encouragement.

I believe we all are. And it's the encouragement from other believers that helps
us to do the ministry that God has given us to do. We're not meant to do it on
our own.

So you share the discouragements as they come along the way. You share the
barriers, not only so people will agree with you, "Wow, that really is a
barrier. Oh, that looks impossible," but also so that people will encourage you.

You know that is a barrier, but I've heard you. I know how important this is to
you. So I don't know when God's going to open the door, but I believe you're
going to complete this ministry that God's given you.

For someone right now, these words from Paul to a Crippus so long ago, "See to
it that you complete the work that you've received in the Lord," they're
personal to you. There's some work that God's given you that somehow you've
given up on. These words from 2,000 years ago, Paul's words of encouragement.

He's using them still in your life today, right now, to encourage you to
complete the work that God's given you. Fellowship. You know what else
fellowship means?

Well, in Paul, I'm reminded that fellowship is remembering. In verse 18, Paul
says this, "I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains.

Grace be with you. " Paul remembered them, and so he wrote this letter. So he
put the greeting in his own hand.

Most likely, as we talked about at the beginning of this week, a scribe wrote
the rest of this letter as Paul quoted it, but Paul signed it with his own hand.
He remembered them, and so he wrote the letter and had it sent to them, and he
asked them to remember him and to pray for him while he was imprisoned. In fact,
he says specifically, "Remember my chains.

Remember the fact that I am in chains for the good news of Jesus Christ. "
Fellowship is remembering. It's remembering others even when they're not there.

Even when the Colossians were not there, Paul remembered them and wrote a letter
to them, and even when Paul was not there, he's saying, "Please remember where I
am and what I'm going through. " That's part of fellowship. You don't just
fellowship with the people that are in front of you right now.

It's remembering others. Fellowship was remembering them in prayer. Fellowship
was remembering to encourage their faith.

That's what fellowship is all about. I've gone through this list in the last few
days of genuine fellowship. I just want to remind you as we come towards the end
of this list that there is no more exciting place in the world than the
fellowship of Jesus Christ.

As we walk through this list of names, I don't know if you recognize this. In
this list, there are three of the nine writers of the New Testament. The nine
writers of the New Testament are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Paul, the writer of Hebrews, we don't know this person's name, James, Peter, and
Jude, and three of those people, you've got Paul, you've got Luke, you've got
Mark, are listed in this name, this fellowship group of the Apostle Paul. It's
amazing. The writing of the New Testament was done in fellowship, not alone on a
mountain, but in Paul's case, with a scribe and then someone to deliver the
message.

In the case of all of these, they were people that knew each other and had
relationships with each other. And out of that fellowship of the church came the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit in these words of God that we have today that
we're reading today. What I want to encourage you is this.

Do not fall, do not fall for an Old Testament prophet version of Christianity
where it's me and Jesus against the world. It's me up on a mountain top serving
God all by myself. I don't need anybody else.

That version of Christianity is what took Elijah to a cave, the prophet Elijah,
so depressed he wanted to take his life. You were made to live life and faith in
fellowship with other believers. And any picture that you have of Jesus that
says he lived this life all by himself, it's leaving out the 12 disciples that
were with him all the time.

Any picture that you have of Paul that sees him as lonely and serving Christ all
by himself, it's leaving out this list of everybody we've talked about these
last few days. This is true fellowship, the kind of fellowship that God wants to
have. This is real fellowship.

As we pray today, let's pray that God would deepen the real fellowship in our
lives. Lord, you haven't made us to live life alone. You made us to live in
fellowship with other believers.

We want to serve you, but we do that together. We want to love you. We do that
together.

We want to grow in you. We do that together. We want to share you with other
people.

We do that together. It's all done in fellowship with other believers. So Lord,
help me to make myself open to fellowship, to love others and open myself to
them loving me.

I know sometimes there'll be disappointments because we're all human beings and
we hurt each other sometimes. But I also know that this is your plan, that you
made us to live together in fellowship in your church. And so Lord, I pray that
I would be able to rejoice daily in the fellowship that you've given, not just
seeing the bad, but seeing the good, seeing how you're at work.

And I pray this in your name. Amen. And with this, we end our study of the Book
of Colossians.

I want to encourage you, as we come to the end of this study, to stay on for our
next study in iTunes or choose another study on the Saddleback Church website.
Either way, stick with us in daily drive time devotions because it is a daily
encouragement I'm hoping and pray into your faith. The Word of God makes a daily
difference in our lives.

I'm so grateful for God's Word. We'll see you for the next study.