WEBVTT 00:00:02.720 --> 00:00:12.640 What an amazing way to transition as we continue to worship together and uh hallelujah from the Hebrew of halel to praise. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.839 It's a call to praise in Yah, short for Yahweh. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:20.320 It is a challenge to us to praise the Lord. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:28.399 And truly exemplifies the very thing that we are going to be looking at this morning in Colossians chapter 3. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.440 I'd encourage you to turn there as I read the passage. 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:35.520 We can find it on page 984 on the Bible in front of you. 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.679 If you don't have one with you, find it on 984. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:47.200 And also want to remind you if you don't own a Bible, please take that one home with you. 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.359 We want you to have it as our gift. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:59.280 It's our joy and our privilege to be able to give Bibles every week almost to people who don't have one or ready access to one. 00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:01.359 So please take that home. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:05.920 I'm going to begin reading in verse 12 actually and go through verse 17. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:25.519 And so if you would look on as I read, it says, put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. 00:01:25.760 --> 00:01:36.400 And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:42.799 And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:50.879 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:02:04.719 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your heart to God. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:17.280 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:23.919 This is God's challenge to us this morning. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.120 I love this passage. 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:33.120 Look just at some of the outline that's here in verses 15 through 17. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:39.280 It starts in 15, uh telling us, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:48.960 In verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, dwell in your mind, thinking about the gospel. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:03:00.560 And then in verse 17, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever you do, in your actions, in your heart, in your head, in your hands. 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.599 And notice in every verse he says at the end, in verse 15, and be thankful. 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:11.840 In verse 16, with thankfulness or with gratitude in your hearts. 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:17.039 And then in verse 17, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:30.560 Oftentimes we worry, we grumble, we complain, we look at life and we see the glasses half empty. 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:47.599 And Jesus is challenging us to realize that our attitude and our focus is so important in all things, and really the overflow of our focus on Jesus results in gratitude and thanksgiving. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:04:01.759 There's an old saying, sow a thought, you reap an act, sow an act, you reap a habit, sow a habit, you reap a character, sow a character, you reap a destiny. 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:05.680 What are you thinking about? 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:11.520 What goes on in your heart and your mind when you have nothing else to think about? 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:16.639 There's no distractions, you can think about anything, the pressures of the day. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:19.040 What do you focus on? 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:26.879 What changes your heart and your head and your hands? 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.959 What goes on in the interior of your lives? 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:36.399 What we're reminded here is the gospel. 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:47.839 What we're reminded here is Jesus, that our focus on the goodness of God in the person of Jesus Christ changes everything. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.279 It reorientates our entire lives. 00:04:54.160 --> 00:05:01.120 I was talking to somebody this week, a friend of mine, and we got on the discussion: is God really that good? 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:06.720 Is God really that good? 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:11.439 How good do you think God is? 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:17.279 Sometimes we think to ourselves, well, he he can't be that good, can he? 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:20.079 He can't be that loving. 00:05:20.800 --> 00:05:23.199 He can't be that forgiving, can he? 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:24.319 Is it really true? 00:05:24.480 --> 00:06:08.160 Is it really possible that the God of the universe, the God who created all that is in heaven and earth, could look upon us with love and forgiveness and compassion and love us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross to forgive us, that he could know everything about you, every thought, every attitude, every action, everything that you're guilty for, every shame that you have, he could look at you from eternity past and say, I love you, you are mine, I will hold you, I will possess you, I will provide everything you need through my son so that you can be my beloved. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:16.639 Friends, that is the good news of the gospel, and it is greater than we think. 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:30.079 It is more amazing, more expansive, more wonderful, more captivating, more joy-filled than we can ever imagine. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:35.839 That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.439 We're celebrating Thanksgiving. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:47.199 Look at what Paul says here in verse 12, and really this encapsulates everything. 00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:49.920 He says, put on then. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:52.959 He's talking about our our behavior and our attitudes. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.360 So that's what he's going to be saying in these verses. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:59.759 He says, put on then as God's chosen ones. 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:04.079 That God knew you. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.680 He knew everything about you from eternity past. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:16.319 He knew everything, every secret sin and struggle and shame that you have ever had or ever will have. 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.680 He knew you before the foundation of the world. 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:30.720 He knew your weaknesses, he knew your rebellion, and he looked at you and he says, I want you as my own. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:45.279 That we are his possession, that we are his and he is ours. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.319 And he calls us beloved. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:59.120 That you are the loved of God, you are the object of his affection. 00:07:59.439 --> 00:08:01.680 You are the apple of his eye. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:12.399 If I could be so irreverent to say that when God sees you, he dances with delight over you, that he rejoices over you. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.439 It says that he sings over you in love. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:32.320 The imagery there in Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17, is the imagery of a man who sees the woman that he loves, that he hasn't seen in so long, that he spontaneously breaks into singing out of his sheer love for that person. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:43.200 Not because of anything she's done, just because she is, and that is what God says, he rejoices and sings over you. 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:52.159 And that governs and guides and controls and constrains. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:59.279 It is the love of Christ that compels us, not our love for him, his love for us. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:06.879 That, my friends, is the gospel, and it is greater than we can imagine. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:31.759 In verses 15 through 17, to the degree we understand God's grace, to the degree we understand the gospel and our beloved status as his set-apart people, is the degree we'll be thankful. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:39.360 Thankfulness has nothing to do with your circumstances and nothing to do with your possessions ultimately. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:51.200 It has to do with one thing, and it flows from the love relationship that God has for us in Jesus Christ and our responsive love to Him in return. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:10:00.240 And to the degree we understand our love status is the degree we will be thankful. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:07.840 I heard this week a quip on the radio, and it says, happiness does not make us thankful. 00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:09.919 Thankfulness makes us happy. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:15.360 Well, thankfulness really gives us a settled joy in our hearts, but it centers on Jesus. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:17.200 It centers on the gospel. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:20.639 And for just a few moments, let's look at verses 15 to 17. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:29.440 We'll see thankfulness permeates everything about us, the attitude of our hearts, the attitude of our minds, and the attitude of our hands. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:32.799 Hearts, heads, and hands. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.759 Verse 15, thankfulness is the attitude of the heart. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:45.759 He says there, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:57.360 There's a similar passage in Philippians where Paul says that do not be anxious about anything, but with everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:03.519 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:05.519 There's a slightly different image there. 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:17.360 There it says that the peace of God will, the word there is a put a garrison, put a guard around your heart so that so that your heart will be protected by Christ. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:22.720 As you thank and praise him. 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.879 Here there's a slightly different word, but the imagery is a beautiful imagery. 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:34.000 What it says here is let the it says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:39.679 And the word there for rule is the word that might be translated umpire. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.200 One author says he uses a verb for the athletic arena. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:50.000 It's a word that is uh is of the umpire who settles things in a matter of dispute. 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:56.320 This author says, Jesus is the arbiter between the conflicting emotions in our hearts. 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:01.600 In other words, we can't control our circumstances and the things around us. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:11.840 But what we can do is go to Jesus and let Jesus help us to understand why things are happening in light of his goodness and grace. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:25.440 To understand that God is so good and he loves you so much that everything that happens in your life is filtered through his hand for a good purpose, for his glory, and ultimately for good. 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:36.720 And when you begin to see that and understand that it guards and governs and guides your life like an umpire that settles a dispute and says, this is why it is. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:38.960 Trust me. 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:41.279 Trust me in it. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:48.000 The peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:12:48.879 --> 00:13:10.960 The peace, not so not so much here, the peace that we have, which is the the grounds of our peace, that we have made peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, but the peace here is a settled conviction deep within the core of our hearts that God loves me, so everything's okay. 00:13:13.519 --> 00:13:24.240 That God loves me so that I can have a settled conviction, not based on what I see, but on who I know and who knows me. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:31.039 Everything we have is a gift from God. 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:35.919 Our hearts will be unsettled unless we find the anchor of our souls. 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:52.159 Our stability and our strength come from Jesus and our recognition of the gospel, of knowing who we are in Christ that gives us a peace that goes beyond our ability to understand. 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:57.200 And he says, indeed, you were called into one body. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:05.200 The reality of God in our lives brings unity in the body, and it is it is that reality that flows in thankfulness. 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:13.039 And so thankfulness is an attitude of the heart flowing from the peace that Jesus brings. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:17.919 But secondly, there's thankfulness is an attitude of the mind. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.720 Let me read in another translation, verse 16. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:28.720 I think it captures some of the emphasis a little bit more clearly. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:31.759 It says this in the NIV. 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:47.360 It says, Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:56.559 He says, Let the message of Christ, and here it is not so much the message that Christ said, which is true. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.960 It's not so much the words of Christ as much as the words about Christ. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.759 In other words, it it goes back again to the gospel. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:10.080 It's the words about Jesus Christ and what he has done on the cross for you. 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:15.600 And notice what Paul says here. 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:19.120 He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:30.639 If I could use the words of the author Jerry Bridges, what he what Bridges says, and I love the phrasing of this, he says, preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:34.799 Preach the gospel to yourself every day. 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:59.120 When you wake up in the morning, begin to think about the goodness of God in the person of Jesus Christ, and that you are the object of his affection in Christ, that he loves you with an everlasting love, that you are forgiven and accepted in the beloved, and let that dwell in you richly of the reality of the gospel of the good news of Christ. 00:16:00.159 --> 00:16:03.200 And so we preach the gospel to ourselves every day. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:05.759 Why am I accepted by God today? 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:08.799 Is it because I had my quiet time? 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:12.080 Or because I spent a certain amount of time in prayer? 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:18.639 Is it because I did enough good works or good deeds or I didn't mess up enough yesterday or earlier today? 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:20.960 Is that why God loves me today? 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:29.360 Friends, the reason why God loves you today is 100% because of Jesus. 00:16:31.039 --> 00:16:34.559 And that is why you're accepted and loved. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:39.120 Not because of how well you've performed or how much you didn't mess up today. 00:16:39.360 --> 00:16:42.399 It's because of Jesus and God loves you. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:47.600 And so preach the gospel to one another, but but that's what we do together as well. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:50.799 Look at what it says here about thankfulness and singing. 00:16:51.679 --> 00:17:02.000 You know, it says, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and I think it's really through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:12.240 You see, when you understand your beloved status, your heart cannot help but respond in song. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:30.400 And that to the degree that you sing songs of praise on your own and in your car, and whether it's songs that are hundreds of years old or brand new, that it wells up in gratitude to the degree that you sing is the degree you understand the gospel. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:39.359 And more than that, what is shocking here is when we sing on Sunday morning, we're not just singing to God. 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.599 That's what it says here. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:18:03.519 In fact, one of the reasons why Pat is so careful to select songs, whether it's a chorus or a hymn, that we focus on the richness of the words that are sung, whether it's one idea or it's a whole host of truth about God, the reason is because we are singing to one another. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:07.680 When I hear you singing, it encourages my heart. 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:24.079 You sing the words of Christ, you sing the gospel, and when I hear you singing, your enthusiasm, when I hear your the the depth of your conviction and your faith, what it does is it encourages and strengthens me. 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:30.559 And we sing to one another when we come in Sunday morning and gather for worship. 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:34.960 This is what Paul is is telling us here. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:48.640 I need your singing on Sunday morning because you're singing the gospel to me, you're singing the words of Christ to one another. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:19:02.960 Your joy and your enthusiasm and your conviction are a message to everyone sitting around you of your joy in Jesus. 00:19:03.279 --> 00:19:23.279 And I love the fact that Paul talks about hymns and and and spiritual songs and psalms, and he really covers the gamut of singing, and and whether it's a song that's 300 years old or it's a song that spontaneously comes up in your heart just in the moment that you sing it. 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:32.720 That we we sing to one another in songs of the spirit, spirit-motivated songs of every type. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:40.640 And it wells up in gratitude in your hearts to God. 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:44.799 It wells up in gratitude. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.519 It stirs our hearts and our minds. 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:49.279 We listen to one another. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:58.000 We saw it just a few minutes ago when the choir sang, saying praises to God, but as we heard it, it encouraged us. 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:08.720 When we sang together choruses and we'll sing a hymn, it encourages one another as we praise God and it challenges one another. 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:13.519 A heart filled with peace results in thanks. 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:17.680 A mind filled with the message of Christ fills our heart with grateful praise. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:20.880 And thankfulness is an attitude of our hands. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:24.480 Finally, the name of Christ permeates a thankful heart. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:26.640 Thankfulness is an attitude of the hands. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.759 Very briefly, Paul says, in whatever you do. 00:20:30.720 --> 00:20:34.319 He says, whether in word or deed, basically he says in everything. 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:39.759 Every thought, every action, every word is to be done in the name of Jesus. 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:47.759 He says, in essence, he says, everything you we do and say comes under the authority of Jesus. 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:49.839 The name represents the person. 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:54.400 And everything we say or do should conform to his character. 00:20:55.839 --> 00:21:00.559 And then notice he says, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him. 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.039 Your entire life is an expression of thanksgiving. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:14.240 We have a holiday we're celebrating this week, but what Paul says is every word or deed rightly done is a gift of thanksgiving to God. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:17.200 Nothing is mundane or commonplace. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:23.839 And so every day your life can be a song of thanksgiving in response to the grace of God. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:26.640 It's all about Jesus. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:31.119 You can't manufacture thanksgiving in your heart if you're not gripped by the gospel. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:39.519 You cannot manufacture thanksgiving to God if you are not gripped by the gospel. 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:44.880 Thanksgiving isn't just a holiday we celebrate once a year. 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:54.720 It's a heart gripped by the love of the Father through Jesus Christ as an expression of gratitude in our hearts, in our heads, and in our hands. 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:55.920 Let's pray. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:22:17.680 Father, we pray that you will impress upon our hearts and our minds and our actions that the relationship that we have with you in Christ is greater than we can even imagine. 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:30.000 You are more loving and more gracious and more forgiving and more merciful to those who are your own than we can even comprehend. 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:40.000 And so, Father, I pray that we will focus on Jesus, on the cross, on the gospel, on your love. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:46.960 And may it well over in gratitude, in thanksgiving, and praise. 00:22:47.039 --> 00:22:48.240 We pray in Jesus' name. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:49.039 Amen.