SPEAKER_00: What an amazing way to transition as we continue to worship together and uh hallelujah from the Hebrew of halel to praise.
SPEAKER_00: It's a call to praise in Yah, short for Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: It is a challenge to us to praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And truly exemplifies the very thing that we are going to be looking at this morning in Colossians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: I'd encourage you to turn there as I read the passage.
SPEAKER_00: We can find it on page 984 on the Bible in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have one with you, find it on 984.
SPEAKER_00: And also want to remind you if you don't own a Bible, please take that one home with you.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to have it as our gift.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So please take that home.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to begin reading in verse 12 actually and go through verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
SPEAKER_00: And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_00: And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's challenge to us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I love this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Look just at some of the outline that's here in verses 15 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: It starts in 15, uh telling us, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, dwell in your mind, thinking about the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And notice in every verse he says at the end, in verse 15, and be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 16, with thankfulness or with gratitude in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 17, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we worry, we grumble, we complain, we look at life and we see the glasses half empty.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: What are you thinking about?
SPEAKER_00: What goes on in your heart and your mind when you have nothing else to think about?
SPEAKER_00: There's no distractions, you can think about anything, the pressures of the day.
SPEAKER_00: What do you focus on?
SPEAKER_00: What changes your heart and your head and your hands?
SPEAKER_00: What goes on in the interior of your lives?
SPEAKER_00: What we're reminded here is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What we're reminded here is Jesus, that our focus on the goodness of God in the person of Jesus Christ changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It reorientates our entire lives.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to somebody this week, a friend of mine, and we got on the discussion: is God really that good?
SPEAKER_00: Is God really that good?
SPEAKER_00: How good do you think God is?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think to ourselves, well, he he can't be that good, can he?
SPEAKER_00: He can't be that loving.
SPEAKER_00: He can't be that forgiving, can he?
SPEAKER_00: Is it really true?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, that is the good news of the gospel, and it is greater than we think.
SPEAKER_00: It is more amazing, more expansive, more wonderful, more captivating, more joy-filled than we can ever imagine.
SPEAKER_00: That is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're celebrating Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what Paul says here in verse 12, and really this encapsulates everything.
SPEAKER_00: He says, put on then.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about our our behavior and our attitudes.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what he's going to be saying in these verses.
SPEAKER_00: He says, put on then as God's chosen ones.
SPEAKER_00: That God knew you.
SPEAKER_00: He knew everything about you from eternity past.
SPEAKER_00: He knew everything, every secret sin and struggle and shame that you have ever had or ever will have.
SPEAKER_00: He knew you before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: He knew your weaknesses, he knew your rebellion, and he looked at you and he says, I want you as my own.
SPEAKER_00: That we are his possession, that we are his and he is ours.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls us beloved.
SPEAKER_00: That you are the loved of God, you are the object of his affection.
SPEAKER_00: You are the apple of his eye.
SPEAKER_00: If I could be so irreverent to say that when God sees you, he dances with delight over you, that he rejoices over you.
SPEAKER_00: It says that he sings over you in love.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of anything she's done, just because she is, and that is what God says, he rejoices and sings over you.
SPEAKER_00: And that governs and guides and controls and constrains.
SPEAKER_00: It is the love of Christ that compels us, not our love for him, his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: That, my friends, is the gospel, and it is greater than we can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Thankfulness has nothing to do with your circumstances and nothing to do with your possessions ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And to the degree we understand our love status is the degree we will be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: I heard this week a quip on the radio, and it says, happiness does not make us thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Thankfulness makes us happy.
SPEAKER_00: Well, thankfulness really gives us a settled joy in our hearts, but it centers on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It centers on the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And for just a few moments, let's look at verses 15 to 17.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see thankfulness permeates everything about us, the attitude of our hearts, the attitude of our minds, and the attitude of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Hearts, heads, and hands.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, thankfulness is the attitude of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says there, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's a slightly different image there.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: As you thank and praise him.
SPEAKER_00: Here there's a slightly different word, but the imagery is a beautiful imagery.
SPEAKER_00: What it says here is let the it says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And the word there for rule is the word that might be translated umpire.
SPEAKER_00: One author says he uses a verb for the athletic arena.
SPEAKER_00: It's a word that is uh is of the umpire who settles things in a matter of dispute.
SPEAKER_00: This author says, Jesus is the arbiter between the conflicting emotions in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we can't control our circumstances and the things around us.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Trust me in it.
SPEAKER_00: The peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we have is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Our hearts will be unsettled unless we find the anchor of our souls.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, indeed, you were called into one body.
SPEAKER_00: The reality of God in our lives brings unity in the body, and it is it is that reality that flows in thankfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And so thankfulness is an attitude of the heart flowing from the peace that Jesus brings.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, there's thankfulness is an attitude of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read in another translation, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: I think it captures some of the emphasis a little bit more clearly.
SPEAKER_00: It says this in the NIV.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let the message of Christ, and here it is not so much the message that Christ said, which is true.
SPEAKER_00: It's not so much the words of Christ as much as the words about Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it it goes back again to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It's the words about Jesus Christ and what he has done on the cross for you.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what Paul says here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Preach the gospel to yourself every day.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And so we preach the gospel to ourselves every day.
SPEAKER_00: Why am I accepted by God today?
SPEAKER_00: Is it because I had my quiet time?
SPEAKER_00: Or because I spent a certain amount of time in prayer?
SPEAKER_00: Is it because I did enough good works or good deeds or I didn't mess up enough yesterday or earlier today?
SPEAKER_00: Is that why God loves me today?
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the reason why God loves you today is 100% because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that is why you're accepted and loved.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of how well you've performed or how much you didn't mess up today.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of Jesus and God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And so preach the gospel to one another, but but that's what we do together as well.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says here about thankfulness and singing.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when you understand your beloved status, your heart cannot help but respond in song.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And more than that, what is shocking here is when we sing on Sunday morning, we're not just singing to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it says here.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: When I hear you singing, it encourages my heart.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And we sing to one another when we come in Sunday morning and gather for worship.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul is is telling us here.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Your joy and your enthusiasm and your conviction are a message to everyone sitting around you of your joy in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: That we we sing to one another in songs of the spirit, spirit-motivated songs of every type.
SPEAKER_00: And it wells up in gratitude in your hearts to God.
SPEAKER_00: It wells up in gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: It stirs our hearts and our minds.
SPEAKER_00: We listen to one another.
SPEAKER_00: We saw it just a few minutes ago when the choir sang, saying praises to God, but as we heard it, it encouraged us.
SPEAKER_00: When we sang together choruses and we'll sing a hymn, it encourages one another as we praise God and it challenges one another.
SPEAKER_00: A heart filled with peace results in thanks.
SPEAKER_00: A mind filled with the message of Christ fills our heart with grateful praise.
SPEAKER_00: And thankfulness is an attitude of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, the name of Christ permeates a thankful heart.
SPEAKER_00: Thankfulness is an attitude of the hands.
SPEAKER_00: Very briefly, Paul says, in whatever you do.
SPEAKER_00: He says, whether in word or deed, basically he says in everything.
SPEAKER_00: Every thought, every action, every word is to be done in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, in essence, he says, everything you we do and say comes under the authority of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The name represents the person.
SPEAKER_00: And everything we say or do should conform to his character.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice he says, giving thanks to God, the Father, through him.
SPEAKER_00: Your entire life is an expression of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is mundane or commonplace.
SPEAKER_00: And so every day your life can be a song of thanksgiving in response to the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't manufacture thanksgiving in your heart if you're not gripped by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot manufacture thanksgiving to God if you are not gripped by the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Thanksgiving isn't just a holiday we celebrate once a year.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: You are more loving and more gracious and more forgiving and more merciful to those who are your own than we can even comprehend.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, I pray that we will focus on Jesus, on the cross, on the gospel, on your love.
SPEAKER_00: And may it well over in gratitude, in thanksgiving, and praise.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.