Colossians 3:12-17 - Zane Satterfield

Transcript

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Good morning, church. It's a pleasure to be here to open the Word of God this morning with you and to expound on this text. If you're a guest here, I want to welcome you. I'm I'm Zayn, I'm one of the pastors. And if this is your first Sunday here, this is a I'm not usually the one preaching. It's usually Pastor Cam. I come up every eight or nine weeks or so, but this is where we preach through the Bible. We go verse by verse. And last week we had a little uh toppositional passage, I should say, um, because Cam still preached through the word verse by verse, but we took a little break from Colossians and we're coming back into Colossians 3. We're gonna look primarily at verses 12 through 17 this morning. But before we dive in, I just want to ask a question. And that this is not to embarrass or anything, I just by raise of hand, how many of you this morning stood at your closet and had to think, what do I want to wear this morning? Most of us, maybe you laid out your clothes last night, maybe not, maybe you just grab the first thing, maybe it's not even a thought. You just grab whatever you can and you come and you show up at church. What about whenever you get an invitation to a wedding? On that invitation, it shows what that attire is going to be most of the time. If it's left blank, then you're you're just kind of on your own. You figure out what what you're gonna wear. But what if on that invitation it says it's a black tie attire? If you're like me, you're gonna panic a little bit because nothing in your wardrobe is black tie appropriate. So you're gonna have to go, you're gonna have to either rent or buy something specific for that wedding. What about all of the other different kinds of attire? Semi-formal, formal, cocktail, dressy, casual, daytime, country farm, beach, etc. I had to look all those up. I didn't know that all of those are wedding attires. There's literally like 20 plus different options apparently nowadays. But not only with the wedding attire on the invitation, it's not just telling you what you should wear. It's also giving you an idea of what that environment is going to be like. It's giving you an idea of maybe what kind of music, what kind of ambiance is gonna be there, how you should behave. If it's a black tie affair, I'm gonna be on my best behavior. I'm not gonna be cracking jokes and just be normal. But if it's a country farm, you might see some cowboy hats in the audience. You may have some animals on the farm interrupting the wedding. What I'm getting at is when you see a dress code, there's usually not just an idea of what you should wear. There's an idea of how you should act, how you should behave, how that environment is going to be. And when we come to Colossians 3, we're essentially getting the dress code for the Christian life. And in it, we see what we should wear, yes, but also how we should just be. In all things, in all ways, in everything that we do, we're getting an idea of how we are to be, not just how we are to dress. In this, he's not just all Paul isn't just concerned about when they gather as a church. If it was just when they gather, he wouldn't say, in everything that you do. In everything. So, yes, when you gather, you should display these things. But also, as you live and walk in this broken, fallen world, this is how you should be. This is the aroma that you should give off as you interact with people in every place. This is what it means to be a Christian in this world. We are holy, we are dealy loved, we are set apart in this world. So before we dive into the text, let's pray and ask for God's help. Father God, we thank you for this morning. God, I we we come and uh God, we just we want to come humbly to your word. Lord, would you do what only you can do? Would you give us wisdom and understanding through your Holy Spirit to see what this text meant to the original audience and how it applies to us today? God, would you be glorified in this? Would you use your word to move in our hearts? God, would we leave here with a greater love for you and a love for each other? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, my main point, I'm just pulling it straight from the passage. It's it's from verses 15 and 16. Main point being let the peace of Christ rule and the word of Christ dwell among you and be thankful. Let the word, let the peace of Christ rule, and let the word of Christ dwell among you and be thankful. So, first, I love how Paul, if you haven't listened to the sermon on verses one through eleven, you should go back and read it because it it goes in on put off. Put off your old self, these are the things that you used to be in Christ. Your life is now hidden in him. This is how you are to be now. Your life is hidden with him, and when he comes in glory, there you will appear also in glory, but your life is no longer your own, it is his. So when we come to verse 12, now we get to see all of the prose of what that means. So this morning, I don't want us to read these things and think, ah man, let's think of the opposite of compassion. Let's think of the opposite of humility and gentleness and patience. No, let's look at the text and let's be grateful that we are given clear instruction. This is how we are to be. Now, if we're convicted as we're doing that, praise God, that the Holy Spirit is giving us conviction. But let's let's focus on what the words are saying. It says, therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved. Holy and dear loved. If you're in Christ this morning, that is your standing with God. You are holy and dearly loved. You are no longer your old self. You are a new, entirely new creation. You are no longer your own. You are holy and dearly loved. God looks on you and he sees his son. Perfect love. Just let that rest on you this morning. He looks on you with love. That might be hard for you to comprehend. It might be hard for you to truly understand when you look at yourself in the mirror and you know the things that you've done even in the past 24 hours. But if you are in Christ, he looks on you with love. You are set apart by God. He has chosen you. It's not in anything that you have done, it's in everything that Christ has done on your behalf. He looks on you with love. Jesus has won the victory. He has paid the debt in full. That victory is won. Your sin debt has been paid in full. Past, present, future. Paid in full. What does that mean? You're no longer an enemy of God. As Paul mentioned in previous verses in chapter three, therefore put to death what belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry, because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient. And you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But in Christ, you are no longer living in them. You're no longer walking in them. God's wrath is no longer pointed at you. You have been adopted into the family of God. You are called a son or a daughter of God most high. You are a co-heir with Christ. Christ has bought peace for you, between you and God. And that's coming from Colossians 1. It says in verse 20, and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Christ has bought your peace. You are no longer an enemy of God. God looks at you and he sees a son or a daughter, and that was bought through Christ's blood. So before we get into what are the things we're to put on, what are the things we are to do, we need to first understand, as Paul is encouraging these Colossians, we need to understand our standing before God and how we move from that. Because if we try to start putting on these things without truly understanding who we are as a son or daughter of God, we're going to try to do these things out of our own strength. We're going to try to muster up our own courage and strength to do it, which we may be able to do. We see compassion, we see kindness, we see humility, gentleness, and patience in the world. We see that those are attributes that people can have just by human nature. But if we try to do these, apart from our understanding of who God is and who God is in relation to us and who we are in relation to God, we will be striving against the wind. We'll be working for ourselves and putting the focus on ourselves. So I love Ephesians 1. Please flip there. So I just want to I want us to understand what it means to be in Christ. Ephesians 1, I'm gonna read verses uh 3 through 14. And if you're in Christ this morning, these things are totally true of you. There's no like half foot in, half foot out. This is totally true of you. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14 says, Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ, as a plan for the right time, to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory. All of those things, if you are in Christ this morning, all of those things are true, totally true of you. You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because of Christ's finished work, because of what Christ did. I love this quote from John Calvin. It says, Christ was stripped of his garments that he might clothe us with righteousness. His naked body was exposed to the insults of men that we may appear in glory before the judgment seat of God. His body was broken in our place, his blood was spilled in our place. And he gives us a new life. What an exchange. What a gift of grace it is. And he has won this peace. So let this peace, this standing before God, he is no longer, we are no longer his enemy. We are a co-heir with Christ. As Paul encouraged in the beginning of chapter three, so if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you have died. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. And elsewhere in Ephesians it says that we have been raised with Christ, we're seated with Christ in the heavenly places. That is our current present reality. In Christ, we are seated with him. Our life is fully hidden with him. So as we look at the text and we see, let the peace of Christ in verse 15, let the peace of Christ, to which you were called in one body, rule your hearts. That is an overarching rule. What does it mean for a king to rule? He has ultimate authority. So when we come to this, we understand our standing before God is in no way, shape, or form by anything we have done. It's not our own ruling. We don't rule over our own hearts anymore. Our life is now hidden with Christ in God. We have this union with Christ because of everything he has done. So we are to let that peace that Christ has bought through his blood rule our hearts. It may be hard for some, it's hard for me at times to truly understand. I do not rule my own heart. I do not have control over my own actions and decisions. I am not a one-man show. I must consult with the Word of God and trust because He is the ruler of my life. Not my desires, not what I want necessarily, but what He desires and what He wants. Before Christ, sin rules. Sin rules in the hearts of the unbeliever. You are a slave to sin. If you are not a slave to Christ, you are a slave to sin. We all once walked in that. If you're not in Christ this morning, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 is true of you. You were dead in your trespasses and sins that you are walking in currently. That is your present reality outside of Christ. Sin rules the hearts of unbelievers. But for the believer, Christ rules. So when we think about this, before we think about putting on these things, we need to understand that we when we let the peace of Christ rule our lives, that means sin no longer rules. Sin no longer reigns supreme in our life. As Cam has encouraged us over the last two weeks, we have been given every power in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit to defeat sin in our life. Sin has been ultimately defeated in our lives. The rule and reign of sin in our lives has been defeated by Christ. If you're in Christ, it's done. But sin does still remain, right? Because we're still having, Paul, if sin no longer remained, Paul would not have to tell these uh Colossians how to live their life. It would just come naturally upon salvation. They would just be able to walk in this newness of life, and everything would be flowers and daisies and rainbows and sunshines. But it's not the case. Sin no longer rules, but it does remain. So therefore, we have to put in some holy sweat. We've got to put off our old self. We've got to understand that Christ has won this peace in our place. He rules, he reigns. But we've got a fight in this. We don't have to fashion our own clothes, though. That's the thing. Christ has stripped himself of glory, died naked on a cross, and given us a brand new wardrobe. We didn't have to pay a thing for it. He paid everything for it. He knit all of it together and he paid for it all. We don't have to fashion our clothes. The wardrobe is already laid out and everything has been paid for. All that we have to do is take off our stinky clothes, the dead clothes. If you think of Lazarus coming out of the grave, it's like get those grave clothes off of him. He's live now. Take them off. That's what we are to do in Christ. Put off our old self and put on these new fancy clothes that Christ has bought with his blood. If you are in Christ this morning, this is your true and present reality, regardless of how you feel. If you're like me, you ebb and flow throughout the week. You might have a hard week, you might be down in the depths of darkness of despair, but that does not change your present reality with Christ. Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. Don't let your emotions and your feelings rule your hearts. They will lead you astray. Our feelings are not infallible. The word of Christ is, and his rule and reign in our lives is we are no longer our own. We belong to him. We've been saved from sin. Therefore, put it to death in our lives. Sin no longer rules and reigns in us. We are holy, we are dearly loved, therefore, we have been set apart. Let that peace of Christ rule in you. We've been saved from sin, but we've also been saved to a family. We've been saved from sin, and we've saved to a right relationship with both God and man. This peace of Christ that Paul is encouraging these Colossians, let that rule among you, among your hearts. So as he's telling this church, it's not like he's writing this to one single person. He's writing this to a fellowship of believers. He's saying, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. And as we do that together, collectively, the peace of Christ will rule us collectively as a church. So God has saved us from sin and isolation and saved us to a relationship with Him and a right relationship with one another, where we can practice these things and live out this new life with others. He has given us the family of God. And that includes the global family, those saints who have long passed, those saints who will come in all tribes and nations throughout all of the world. That is who He has saved us to. But He has also saved us to Redeemer Church. He saved us to each other. Where we when we gather together, we're covenanting together, we're saying, Thank you, God, for saving me from isolation. Thank you, God, for saving me from being a ruler of my own life and being a slave to sin. Thank you, God, for saving me to serve one another, to have the peace of Christ rule my heart in and amongst these other believers. Because it is better to do it together than in than alone. You get more glory, God, whenever we gather together and we say, God, you are in control, not us. God is most glorified in us, as John Piper often says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And since we are a new creation, we need to understand what it means to live out this new life. Therefore, we need the word of God, not our feelings, not our traditions, not our emotions. We need to be rooted and dwelling deeply in the word of God to understand how we are to act and live and what we are to put on and what we are to put off. The word of God, as our church covenant says, is we we seek to have that to be the ultimate authority for all things, all matters of life and doctrine. The word of God of God is what rules our hearts. The word needs to dwell in our hearts richly. So we need to let the word the peace of Christ rule in our hearts, and then we need to let the word of Christ dwell in our hearts. So let's look again at verse 12. So it says, Therefore, as God's chosen and holy and dearly loved, set apart, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect unity, perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. So as we come to the word, we want to dwell in the word. What does that mean? What does it mean to dwell richly in the word of the have the word dwell richly among us? It means to submit our full lives to the word of God. That is what it means. It doesn't mean just to pick bits and pieces, like, well, you know, I'm not really that compassionate. So I can just put that one aside. I can just focus on humility. Like I'm I'm kind of just an apathetic kind of person, and that's just kind of my nature. So I don't need to worry about compassion, but I can, you know, I can be humble, I can be patient with people. That's not what letting the word of God dwell richly in us means taking everything as it says and submitting ourselves, our precious. Our preferences, our traditions, our intuitions, our emotions, whether we think we're extrovert or introvert, all of those preferences and who we think might define us, and we look to the word of God, and we let the word of God define us and how we live and how we act and how we are to be in this. We dwell in the word. I've been talking to some people throughout this week, and I'm always shocked because I don't preach often, it's almost this like recurring evidence. Whenever I'm dwelling in the word, whatever I'm preaching on that week is like I'm getting temptation left and right in direct opposition of what these words are telling me. So I throughout this week, the past couple weeks, it's like I've had every reason to not be compassionate, to not be kind, to not be gentle, to not be patient. And but I'm dwelling in the word. I'm like, in those moments, I'm thinking more and more about but these words. Like someone smashed my mailbox, drove off. It's like I wanted to be angry because I needed to build that again. Like, there goes my day off. I'm gonna be building a mailbox. There goes money. I wanted to be angry, and I was angry for a time until the spirit convicted me by the word of Christ. It's like, no, no, no, let's have compassion. And praise God, the person who ended up running over my mailbox showed back up, and her husband is now on his deathbed, and his hut or her husband had left the house, got in the car, not in his right mind, and ran over my mailbox. But when she came, the Lord had convicted me through the word, and it's like, praise God. Let me pray for you. Like, let's, let's, now we're gonna think about this like anything else. And uh, sweet, sweet neighbor, but anyway, they go to Calvary Baptist, so it's a sweet situation. But if I wasn't letting the word of Christ dwell richly in that, I would have like running over a mailbox is a federal crime. I could have reported them, I could have pursued justice, but instead, I the Lord was convicting me in the word. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, let's have compassion. And it ended up being a fellow sister in Christ. How would that have played out? Had I not shown compassion and kindness and patience, that would have put a bad name on Christ because that's who I'm reflecting when I'm living this life, right? That's how we are to be in this world. And I'm not, I'm not giving that, like I was flawed in that. Trust me. In my mind, I'm like, I'm mad and I'm like, I want to call a cops. But praise God for his spirit conviction. Praise God for dwelling in the word of Christ. And that happens as we as we read the word. The word is living and active. That's what Paul is encouraging. Live in it, live in the gospel, live in what God has done for you. He has provided everything that you need for life and godliness. And he has given us his word. We don't have to guess. We don't have to look in the sky and like try to figure out what he's doing. No, we we look to his word. It has everything we need. We look to the word and we're we're taught through it. We submit ourselves to the authority of the word, not the word to our lives. We don't shape and mold the word around our lives, we shape and mold our lives around the word. It is the ultimate authority, not us. And as we are doing this, the Lord is working and moving in his word through his Holy Spirit. And as we do that, if if each of us is doing that collectively in the word, when we gather, will not the word of Christ just dwell in us? Will it not seep out of us in our conversation? Will it not seep out of us when we're singing these songs that are rooted in Scripture? And we're saying, as we'll sing, all glory be to Christ our King, when we dwell in the Word, it will richly impact our lives. It will affect everything that you do in every area of your lives. If you're not dwelling in the Word, it's not going to have that effect. You're going to have, you're going to be convicted a lot if you read your word. It's a promise. The word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword. It is sharp. If we dwell in it, we're gonna get poked. But the main thing in this is that we don't just do this in isolation. We've been saved from our sin. We've been saved from thinking we rule our own lives, we've been saved to a right relationship with God, we've been saved to a community. So as we're doing this, as we're looking in the word, we're encouraging and strengthening, teaching and admonishing one another as we dive into the word together. This is a corporate undertaking. Yes, we do it in private, but we do it in private so that when we gather in public, it is a richer gathering. If we're not doing anything in private, if you look back at your week, if you've not spent any time with the Word, with the Lord, in prayer, through through reading the Word, through fellowship, any of that, you're more likely to come to church on Sunday and nitpick about different things that are going on. You're more likely to be like, ah, you know, the songs weren't that great. Or, ah, you know, the preaching wasn't, it didn't really catch me. We have, we have to put on these clothes that Christ has given us. We have to put to death the sin that still remains in us. And we do that every single day of the week. We have to put in the Holy Sweat. We have to do the work. If you're just showing up on Sunday as a consumer and saying, God, give me what you got, and I'm gonna take it, and hopefully it'll sustain me throughout the week, and I'll be back on Sunday. You are missing out on a massive, massive implications of scripture and what it means to actually live out this dress code that Paul gives us. This is to be an everyday walk of life. We don't get to pick and choose. If you're in Christ, He has total control of your entire life. Receive that this morning. Hopefully, that is freeing for you. You don't have to cling to everything you have, you have to cling to your finances, you don't have to cling to your family, you don't have to hold tight to all of the things that you have. It is all God's. He owns it. And if you're not in Christ, he still owns it. He owns all of it. You just think you do. All right, I'm gonna stop preaching now. This is corporate language. Again, as we look at this text, it's really easy to think in individualized nature. In the West, we think individually, we think in isolation naturally. We are individualistic society, but this word was not written to an individual, it was written to a church, it was written to be practiced in community. This is corporate language. So we don't just dwell in the word in private, we dwell in the word publicly as well. We dwell in the word with each other, but we spend time in the word. How do we let the word of Christ dwell richly in us? I've already mentioned lots of different ways, but we dwell, we we spend time in the word. Just spend time in the word. If you have to read a couple of verses and that's it, great, a couple of verses is better than nothing. There are many of different apps. The a dwell app is one I would recommend that it it will read scripture to you, and you can put background music, you can put like ambiance, different noises and things to help kind of engage your mind, or you could just sit outside and have nature and listen to the word of God or read it out loud. But I encourage you, spend time in the word, whatever that may look like in you. If you have a commute to work, listen to the word. Listen to songs that are rooted in the word. There's if you like hip-hop, there's a hip-hop uh group called, I think they're called Street Lights. Um they read word for word scripture. It's in NLT, so it's a little bit different of a translation, but it's two really good beats, and you hear the word through hip-hop music. There's different different ways of engaging with the word of God, but what is what is important is that it's the word of God. Don't don't just dwell in books by good authors. Those are good, those are helpful, but if we're only reading those and neglecting the word, then we're we're doing a disservice to ourselves and to the community of saints that we belong to. The word of God is living and active, it's sharper than any double-edged sword. It is inspired by God. The words of any author today are not inspired by God. The word of God is inspired by the Spirit of God and it is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training and righteousness. That is what we want to put our time into. That is what we want to dwell in. And trust me, if you've got a lot going on, we can always make time to spend time with the Lord. Because in doing so, we are recognizing we're not in control. If if we look at our schedule, and I'm I trust me, I'm guilty of this all the time. If we look back and say, ah, I just didn't have time for the word, you're essentially saying, I didn't have time to fit God into my schedule. He controls it all, he rules it all. So we can make time. There is always time for our Creator. Our feelings are not inspired by God, our traditions are not inspired by God. We look to the word of God. And by doing so, we understand who God is. We understand who God is through his word. As we looked several weeks ago at Colossians 1, it's the like the best Christological expression of who Christ is. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, for everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the invisible, invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. He's before all things, and by him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him. That's we learn that by reading the word. We don't learn that by looking at the creation. The creation displays his infinite power and his wisdom, but it does not define who God is. The word of God is defining who he is. And we get to look at it and see who he is. So as we look to these things that we're to put on, we're put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Well, we can look at lots of different places all throughout scripture that define who God is by nature. One of those being Psalm 103. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, patient, and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve, or repaid us according to our iniquities. So we look to this, our passage for today, and we see those things are perfectly exemplified in who God is. So if that's who God is, and if he is the ruler and the creator of everything, if if he has saved me to himself, then surely he can supply those things and mold me into that image. Sin defiled it, but now he's given me my a new nature. And that new nature is to be like him. As we move on in the sanctification, as we look forward to our glorification, we reflect on our justification, we say, God, I need your help. Would I become more like you every single day? And Paul is encouraging these saints, put it on, put on compassion, be kind to one another, be patient, as the Lord is patient with you. Reflect on that. He was patient with you, he extended love and mercy to you. He didn't have to be patient, he didn't have to show compassion to you, but he did. He didn't have to forgive you, but he did. Therefore, forgive one another. Bear with one another. Can you just think about how much God has to bear with you? Right? Like just thinking of myself, like God, you put up a lot, what a lot. Like He puts up with a lot. He bears with me. So shouldn't we also bear with one another? Shouldn't we look at each other and the family of God and say, man, brother, sister, you were you are bought by the blood of Christ just as I was? Shouldn't I have compassion? Shouldn't I love you dearly? Shouldn't I be more gracious? Should I not take so much offense at what you said and maybe let's let's have a conversation? Come to some conflict resolution. Maybe you didn't maybe mean exactly how I received it. We're to be kind to one another. We're to be humble. When we're when we are the opposite of those things, we look more like the world. When we're quick to anger, when we're apathetic, when we're prideful, that's when disunity happens. That's when strife happens. That's when churches split. That's when churches die. When we care more about our own preferences, we care more about others. I love in uh Tim Keller's book, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness. I'm I'm probably gonna butcher a little bit of it, but essentially he defines humility not as thinking about not thinking less of yourself, so having a lesser view of yourself, but rather just thinking of yourself less. And in doing so, you're thinking of more, thinking of others more. So that's the freedom of self-forgetfulness is you're not the center of attention, Christ is. Your brother and sister is not the center of attention, Christ is. Therefore, let's have understanding, let's be gracious, let's be compassionate, let's be kind, let's be humble, and recognize that we were bought by Christ's blood collectively. That is how we are to be, because that is who God is. We understand his character by reading his word and seeing who he is. How else do we do this? We spend time with the people of God. Because in these words, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, yes, those are things that you can practice toward yourself, I suppose, but they're intended to be practiced with one another. Now, in in our society of the self-love and self-care and all those things, like you could say, like, yes, have compassion towards yourself, be humble towards yourself. This is intended to be a corporate language. This is intended to be practiced out with one another. We need to be amongst people. We're not made for isolation. When you let sin creep in, you will distance yourself from the people of God. It will happen. When sin creeps in, if you give sin a foothold, you will slowly start to drift. There are many conversations that Cam and I have had over, Cam has had more because he's been in ministry longer, but many a time, if people are struggling and saying they just aren't feeling welcome in the church, you begin to realize, well, you're neglecting the gathering. You haven't been coming to church. You've you've been giving every excuse to not come to church. You you're excusing yourself from the gathering, but you're weakening your faith in the midst of that. We need to spend time with one another because that's how we put on these things. When you're around sinful people, you're going to be sinned against. As Redeemer Church, we are a collection of sinful people. We're not perfect. So if you're if you're not a member here, all the members, we're not perfect. So if you if you want to join this church, come on. Like we're not a collection of perfect people. We are a collection of sinners who have been saved by the grace of God for the glory of God. We're no longer our own. We've been bought by the blood of Christ. That is what matters. So when we gather, we get to practice compassion, we get to practice kindness, we get to practice humility, we get to practice gentleness, we get to practice patience. Because in so doing, we're going to be sinned against. That is what is going to happen. When you gather together as people, we're going to sin against each other. In one way, shape, or form, it's going to happen. There might be something that I say that might hit you differently, and you may feel as if I've attacked you or some way, shape, or form. There may be some ways that you are sinned against that are unintentional. There may be some ways that you're sinned against that are intentional. And that person will need to come and ask for forgiveness. But part of being in a family of God means that we are going to sin against each other, but we're going to forgive. We're going to extend compassion. We're going to practice what it means to be Christians. We're going to come understanding that we're no longer our own. We're not to have inflated egos to where anything offends us easily. We're to come with humility. We're to bear with one another. We're to forgive one another. We're not to harbor resentment. We're not to extend a stiff arm and disassociate with other members of the church. If you have a disagreement, no, we're to come together and talk about it and confess and forgive one another. As a church, we are to do that. As married couples, you are to do that. You should not harbor resentment towards your spouse. It will grow over time and it will be it will be very bad. If we let sin linger, sin is destructive by nature. It will slowly creep in and slowly start to sow seeds of disunity. Whether that's in the church, whether that's in your family, whether that's between husband and wife, whether that's between parent and kids, if you let resentment, if you let sin linger, it will be destructive. We are to forgive, we are to bear with one another, we're to think of ourselves less, think of others more. We're to confess and forgive as we have confessed and have been forgiven. How else we gather corporately? And when we gather corporately, we dwell in the word. So we it's in the email all the time and we say it often, but we we seek to order all of our service around the word of God. We want to preach the word, we want to sing the word, we want to pray the word, we want to see the word through uh through the ordinances, through baptism and the Lord's Supper. All of our service is geared towards the word. If it were not, then you should not gather with us. If we stray from the word and we focus more on what tradition says or how we feel society should play a role in the church, if we move away from the word of God being the focal point of our services, then you have every right to not gather here. We seek to have the word of Christ dwell richly among us in every aspect of our services. When we gather, we sing the word. We pick songs that are rooted in the word. Every song, that almost every Sunday, is a lot of times verbatim, word for word, scripture, or is coming straight from scripture. When we gather, we want the word of Christ to dwell richly among us. So we preach through verse by verse of the word. When we sing, we sing the word. When we pray, we're oftentimes we're quoting scripture, we're praying God's words back to him. We want to dwell in the word. And in doing so, there is a corporate beauty that is happening. There is a richness that's happening when we're letting the peace of Christ dwell richly in us, when the word of Christ dwelling in us, we come together and we're singing to God. Our singing is primarily to God, but secondarily, we're also singing to one another, as it says here in verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. There is power in songs. We have a whole song book in the Bible. I don't have time to go into it right now, but I really nerd out over music and song and the people of God. Survey the Bible. Look at how often song just comes out of it. When the Lord opened the Red Sea and they walk through it, what do they do when they got on dry ground? They sang. What does Jesus do? The Lord's Supper, he's instituting the Lord's Supper. What does he do when they're done? They sing a hymn. He's about to go die. But he says, before I leave, I want to sing with my brothers. Song has a special place amongst the people of God. We are to sing, to lift our voices to God and praise, but we're also teaching and admonishing one another through how we are singing. For most, it's easier to remember lyrics than it is to remember anything I'm saying in this sermon. You're more likely to leave today singing, for the Lord is good and faithful, he will keep us day and night. That will get stuck in your head. Trust me, my kids sing it all the time. That will stick with you probably more than what anything I'm saying right now will. There is a beauty in the midst of song that the Lord uses to help the word dwell in us richly. Like to God be the glory, great things He has done. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. I'm sure you're hearing that melody now in your head, right? Or like last week when we sang it is well, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot that hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. There isn't like when we sing that song, I I can't keep from crying. Like, it just is what it is. That song, there is a power in songs. We when we gather together, we sing, and it is a joy of mine to oftentimes be on stage to hear the voices of y'all. It's a beauty and a it enriches my heart to hear the saints gather together and sing praises to God. Because in doing so, in the word, we see songs of praise, we see songs of lament, we see songs of thanksgiving, we see songs of every emotion coming out. We see some songs, like Psalm 40, that it's like a roller coaster: praising, lamenting, thanksgiving, all of it wrapped in one. There is power in song. That's why we sing the songs that we do. We hope that they stick in your head and you sing them as you go about your day. But we're not just to sing these songs to one another when we gather. This is not just for gathering together. We should be singing these songs at home when we gather together. We should be singing these songs with our families. If you have kids, teach your kids songs. There are great resources out there that are really helpful in doing this. The one thing that I want to make sure we understand is that singing in this is a command. Paul isn't saying like, sing if you feel like it. No, no, no. He's saying when you gather, you're to sing. You're teaching and admonishing one another as you're singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms for them, that was the Psalms, the same as we have today, hymns could have been what uh Paul wrote in Colossians 1, 15 through 20. That could have been a hymn that he wrote, or that was being circulated at the time that they would have been singing. And then spiritual songs are those songs that come out of a heart of praise. Like whenever the Israelites came through on dry ground, that wasn't a song they had sung before. That was a song that was just coming out, giving praise to God. These songs have a special place in the people of God. Songs should be a marker of the Christian life. You should come and you should sing. Now, the beauty of corporate singing is that there are times, like I mentioned when singing it as well, it's like I'm getting choked up, I can't sing, but praise God, there are brothers and sisters around me who are singing that I can hear it and I can let it hit my soul in a way that my mouth is not working in the way that I want it to, but God used these saints to sing for me. And praise God that that happens. That's a beauty of corporate singing. And another thing in this, in corporate singing, I've said this often, but Jesus is our worship leader. He's our worship leader. This is a beautiful thing in the midst of this. I mentioned Jesus singing a hymn with his disciples before going to the cross. But even on the cross, he says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting Psalm 22. That was a psalm. He's quoting that. Well, later on in Psalm 22, it's quoted in Hebrews, the author of Hebrews makes this correlation, and it's just beautiful for us today, as the people of God, as we gather to the church of God, Hebrews 2, 10 through 13 says, For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For the one who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, This is the quote from Psalm 22 that starts out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It says later, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, I will sing hymns to you in the congregation. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 22. And he is saying to God, God, when I gather, when that when the people of God gather together with them, as we sang earlier, God, you are with us, you are here, you're holy, we're standing in your glory. Jesus Christ is standing with us, and he is singing praise to God with us. He's singing to us, he's fulfilling ultimately Colossians 3:16. He is the word of God dwelling amongst us. He is singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as we gather together. He's singing and he's teaching and admonishing us through his word to us and singing praise to God as we gather together. Jesus is our great high priest, and he is here with us, and he is proclaiming the good news to us as we sing. That should enliven and enrich our singing, knowing that Jesus Christ is standing amongst us and singing alongside us. Now, not the Jesus that's usually plastered in old church buildings, this uh blonde haired, blue eye, Jesus holding a lamb. No, this is the risen, reigning, ruling King Jesus, is amongst us when we gather and is singing alongside of us. Read Revelation 1. Revelation 1 describes, we don't have time to go into it because there's lots of imagery in it, but it describes Jesus. John, when he sees Jesus, it says he's standing amongst seven lampstands and amongst uh seven angels, the lampstands where the church is, and he describes Jesus in this crazy imagery. That like when you read it, you're like, oh my goodness. But John is describing Jesus standing amongst the church and his risen reigning ruling self. Elsewhere, also in Revelation, we see he is the sacrificed lamb. So he is both. And in and amongst us, he is our sacrificial lamb, but he is our risen king as well. We're not to think of Christ solely like the crucifix, of him still on the cross. Praise God that he died on the cross, but praise God that he rose again on the third day. He is risen, he is reigning, he is ruling amongst us even now, and he is singing to God on our behalf when we gather. And that should enrich our lives. It should help us dwell richly in the Word. But I need to give a word of caution to watch out for legalism. Because these words in Colossians 3, 12 through 17, we can look at, they're very easy commands. We can look at them and say, Got it. Check, check, check, check. I will do these things. But he is really keen on this. And in verse 14, it says, Above all, above all of these things, putting putting on all of these things, above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. We can do all of those things, but if we're doing them out of selfish ambition, we're not doing them with love. We can gather together and sing, but if you're singing selfishly, then you're gonna be looking judgmentally at others. That's not what the word is saying. No, no, no. Teach and admonish. We need the people of God. Be humble, gather together, sing praises to God, love each other deeply. Love is this is this outer garment that Paul is saying. This thing that wraps everything together. In 1 Corinthians 13, he talks about all like you can do all of these things. You can do all of these wonderful things in God's name. But if you do them without love, you're nothing but a clinging symbol. And I don't have one behind me, but for demonstration, like if I just smashed a symbol, it would rattle my ears for sure, and definitely everybody else's. It's just a noisy gong. If you try to do all of this without love, without unity in the body, without harmony amongst the people of God, we don't look any different in the world. If, Lord willing, there is someone here gathering with us this morning that does not know the Lord, who has not been saved, who is still, sin is still ruling in their life. We would be doing a disservice as a church if they gathered with us and they did not see these things playing out, and they were not able to see our love for one another and our love for people in general. Love should be a marker for the Christian. Pride has no place amongst the Christian. Not in anything that we are to do. And lastly, we are to be thankful. Because in thanksgiving, Paul mentions it three different times in this. In giving thanks, we're recognizing it's not it's not in anything that we have, it's not in anything we've done. He says at the end of verse uh 15, and be thankful. And then in our singing, with gratitude, and in verse 17, and whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul's not suggesting thankfulness, he is commanding, be thankful. We are to be thankful. That should be a marker of Christians. If you're a parent, if you're an employee, if you're an employer, as a spouse, as a single person, in all circumstances, whatever lot God has given you, it is all by his hand and ultimately for his glory. So we are to give thanks in all of it. And it's hard. It's hard when you're in the depths of despair to give thanks. Think of Paul. Paul in 2 Corinthians says, I pleaded three times that the Lord would take away the thorn in my side. I pleaded with the Lord. You can hear, like something was just terrible for Paul. He's pleading, Lord, take it away, take it away, take it away. But he received the answer from the Lord. For my power is perfected in your weakness. And in that, we recognize, God, whatever it is, whatever lot you give us, would our hearts say, Lord, it's yours anyway. Help me in this to give thanks. God, help me put to death my old self. As the words of Lamentations 3, 19 through 24 says, Remember my affliction and my homelessness, the worm ward and the poison. I continually remember them and have become depressed. Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I say, The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him. Tuck that away if you are going through a season of difficulty right now. Place your hope in God alone. He is your portion, he is your strength. If you're on the mountaintop of success, the Lord has given it all to you. He could take it away tomorrow. Give thanks to God in it. If you are in the depths of despair, give thanks to God in it. He is your portion, he will sustain you. He is the only one who could make a way when there is no way. So why would you run the hamster wheel of whatever race you might think is in front of you? Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Right? We understand these things when we dwell in the word. So let the peace of Christ rule and that the word of Christ dwell among you and be thankful. Let thankfulness just run through you in all things. We've been given our dress code for daily living, and everything has been provided for you. He's given you everything that you need for life and godliness. Praise be to God for that. So we are to live out this new nature with gratitude in our hearts and in everything that we do, not just when we gather on Sundays, there's no separation of secular and sacred. We're to do everything in the name of the Lord, giving thanks to Him. So whatever your lot is this morning, give thanks to Him. Let's pray.