Colossians 1:3–8 (ESV)

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

To Paul, this church had a noble reputation. This church was apparently well known, famous if you please, for how they lived.

From what Paul says about this church, we can answer the question:

WHAT SHOULD A CHURCH BE FAMOUS FOR?

The last two days we saw that the Church should be famous for its…

1. FAITH SOUNDLY DEFINED  (verses 3-4a)

2. LOVE SPLENDIDLY DISTRIBUTED (verses 3-4)

3.  HOPE SECURELY DEPOSITED (3-5a)

The triad of faith, love and hope appears with some degree of frequency in Paul’s writings.

1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Thessalonians 5:8  “…let us be self controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

IF ONE LIVES IN FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE, SURELY THE END RESULTS WOULD BE FRUIT.

The Church should also be famous for its…

4. FRUIT STEADFASTLY DISPLAYED

This Church was famous because of the fruit which the Gospel was producing in it.

“…the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.” (verse 6”

There are only two reasons why a church or a person will not bear fruit: they are either sick or dead.

God would have us experience the Gospel bearing its fruit through us.

It is not that the believers in Colossae were bearing fruit, but rather that they were allowing the Gospel to bear fruit in them. You see, the Gospel has a power all of its own. The Holy Spirit takes the truth of the Gospel and brings life to those who receive that truth.

The church at Colossae was known not only as a church which received the Gospel, but as one who shared the Gospel.

CONCLUSION:

We should pray for our church to be famous for having…

faith soundly defined,

love splendidly distributed,

hope securely deposited

and the Gospel bearing fruit to the world around it.