New Year, New Life, New Clothes
First B Jackson
2012-01-15

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning. It's nice to see you guys out there this morning. I'm sure we'll fill up here after this first song. So let's go ahead and open with a word of prayer, and then we'll sing a song. God, thanks for today.

Thank you for those who are coming today. I pray that you just prepare their hearts and just that they'd be able to listen. They'd be able to praise you and that they'd be able to get something out of the message. Thanks for being with us this morning. We love you in Jesus name.

Amen.

You may stand if you would like the famous one great is your name is your faith beyond the earth you may be seated

Good morning. Good morning. We

have

a very picky Sunday ahead of us this morning. We have our early service and then our annual business meeting to follow. So, please, all members, please stay after the early services finish. We'll have our annual business meeting from about 10:15 or however long it takes up to about eleven, and then we'll have our afternoon service. So with that out of the way, I would just like to say welcome everybody.

And if you're visiting this morning, welcome to you. A special thanks for coming. Please find a visitor's card in the back of seat maybe in front of you and please feel free to fill that out if you'd like. Also, if we could, stand up and say hello to someone next to you. Alright.

That worked out really well because I realized I forgot to spit my chewing gum out. So, that gave me a perfect opportunity to get rid of that so we could continue. So, thank you everyone. If we could, let's bow our heads in a word of prayer to open this morning with. Heavenly father, you are glorious.

We praise you. We praise your name. We look around and we just look at your awesome creation and boy, what what reason to just give you praise with each and every breath as we go through our days. Lord, we come this morning to worship, to gather together, to fellowship. We ask your blessing on those here.

We ask your blessing on the loved ones near and far from us. That you keep them safe in your arms, Lord. Be with our missionaries, far and abroad, those close at home, lord. Let us proclaim your glory, your greatness on our lips to everyone we know. We ask this in Jesus's name, amen.

Well, with that, I have a few announcements this morning. Again, our annual meeting today for those of you just coming in will follow this early service and all members are encouraged to please stay. We have some election of officers, some budget approvals, and just general church business to take care of today. Also, we have one of our members, Nick Stern. He's going to be be giving a historical perspective of Mormonism and that will be taking place next Saturday, the twenty first at 6PM in the Fellowship Hall.

So, please mark that on your calendars. It should be very informative for all of us. Also, we have mister Marty Murphy who would like to say a word of about Awana. And I will right now, if you this is your time, Marty.

Can I do it

down here? You may.

Can I come up here to get this? Thank you. I do have a question an Awana Awana. Does anyone know what Awana is? How many people know what Awana?

Okay. Hands down. How many kids go to Awana that are here? Hands up. See, they're shorter hands.

That's part of the point. Thank you very much. You can put your hands down now. Awana is a a is a ministry for young kids, right? Okay and one of the beautiful things about Awana is a chance to learn God's word at an early age in an environment that I that I think is good because I'm there but and we have two needs.

So, I'm recruiting this morning. Just just be aware. We have a need for a secretary. We're in a little bit of transition and our secretary now, and that's the person that kind of keeps track of what's going on. Writes down what the kids have done and their attendance and stuff like that and keeps records for us.

That person is usually here but doesn't have to be here on Sunday nights. So we're looking for someone to do that. We that's a big need for us. Okay? And so I'm asking you to consider that and maybe join our crew as now we're just halfway through Iwana for this year.

So if you kind of feel, oh, moved, let me know and we'll plug in because we need to fill that. But there is a second thing. I want us to divide it into three kind of major sections. There's kind of two sections at the beginning and end. So there's five.

But there's three sections and you memorize the, you do a time where you recite Bible verses. And then you have a time where you have a story or a teaching. And then you have a time when you do games, which is a lot of fun. Well, at the time when you're doing the Bible verses, we have listeners, people that listen. And and okay, here, here's the real illustration.

Anyone want cereal? Nobody wants cereal. Okay. I wouldn't want this cereal either, but it's good. Okay.

And we have two kinds. We have this kind and we have this kind. Now there's two bags of this because there's so many. And we actually counted these. That's not exciting either.

Well, we did a thing where you guessed how many, we put these in big jars and we guessed how many of each of these are in here. And every time a person did a section memorize, a section is like a memory verse usually but it can be something else. But each time you do a section, get to put a guess in for this. In ten weeks we had five fifteen guesses which means that these young kids between kindergarten and fifth grade did five fifteen of these sections. Now, that means most of those were Bible verses that people memorized in ten weeks, which is about 50 Bible verses a week.

That's pretty cool. Okay. That's what we're about. We're about hiding God's word in people's hearts. And so what our second need is, is we need people to listen.

And I had an idea because I'd say, hey, come Sunday night. And they go, Sunday night. I'm busy. What I'd like to do is see if I could get people to come once a month. And if I could get one or two more listeners.

Real brief story. I'm taking too much time already. I'll be quick. Okay. I I have like three kids that I listen to every week.

So I sit down and and there's three and they're little boys. And they're second and first and second graders. So here I got three little boys in front of me. Says, okay, it's your section. What are the other two guys doing?

Anybody guess? You're right. Okay. Well, I was working with these three same kids for a long time and several weeks. Then once there's an extra volunteer came, actually it's right here.

This guy came down and says, do you need any help? I said, yeah. And I gave him one of the kids that hadn't been doing many sections. I think you did five sections with that kid that night. And I'd been I hadn't been able to do one with him.

And the difference was he got some attention. Because with three kids, it's hard to give attention. So if you guys don't have anything to do and you could volunteer like once a month to come in between thirty five and five fifty five is the TNTers. How many people are in the TNTers? Eight, nine, 10?

Up to 15? Up to 15? Okay. We have up to 20, but 15 is the most. And then from six to six twenty, we have kindergartners to the second graders.

Now we've had as many as 25, but we average about 17. So it's really handy to have some extra. So that's my petition. Let me know if you can come once or a month. That'd be really great.

Okay, I think that's it. And I'll take I'll take the piece away.

Marty's going to start passing those bags around. We can have a little snack. Sure that no one will mind 20 kindergarten through second grade hands being in that bag. Mike, would you like to are you prepared to come up and give us a brief update on our search committee? Kind of caught her.

She fell off guard there, I think. He's always prepared though. He's a fireman.

Good morning. Just to update you last Thursday, we had a Skype interview with our second candidate in two weeks. And just wanted to kinda highlight, we have a conundrum with the search committee. We have two very capable men that would like to to pastor this church, and both of them are very qualified. So the search committee is having a hard time with that right now which is a good problem, very good problem.

This man is an expositor in his preaching style. He has a great sense of humor. He's very humble. He's very honest from what we gathered from the interview. He knows the church, the big church.

He has a great vulnerability and openness. He kinda wears his emotions on his sleeve, which we actually felt like that was a strength of his. He kind of wanted part of his vision for everybody to have ministry and I can talk more about that if you if you come see me. He was very he loved our vision statement for this church and it was something that we felt and that was a big big part of the search committee as we need to find a pastor who embraced with all we are loving God and loving people through Jesus Christ and that was something that very very much hit home with him. He's a very much a relational type

of an

individual. He has a a young family and loves his wife and and family. You can you can see that through the the interview as well. And also another positive was he speaks Spanish fluently as well. So as we've identified one of the needs that we'd like to do as an elder board is embrace the the Spanish speaking people in our community.

So those are some of the things. Again, we have a great problem with the search committee. We have two two men right now who are very qualified and and we're trying to sort through that right now through the search committee. But any other questions, grab a search committee member and you're always welcome to talk to any of us. So thank you.

Thank you, Mike. It is an exciting time for us as we continue through this process of selecting a new senior pastor, lead pastor, chief pastor. With that, I believe that we would like to embark in some more praise and worship. Absolutely.

Thank you.

Alright. You guys could stand with me once more.

Come and sing sing out loud children of the living God sing to the living God sing of the wonders he has made burden flight falling rain sing of the wonders he has made sing to the living God how he loves us with great love he who sits enthroned above God. Sing of his gentle healing hands, how they found the foliest man. Sing of his gentle healing hands, sing to the living Children of the living God. Sing to the living God.

Nice job. Alright, this song is new. I don't think we've done it here. I'm sure you guys all know it but bear with us. Sing loud.

Drown us out up here. We'd appreciate that.

I see the king of glory coming on the clouds with fire the whole of shade the whole of shade. We pray and see You may be seated.

Thank you. Great job, guys. Fantastic music. One thing I did forget to mention earlier that I would like to bring everyone's attention to is life groups. You'll find a little sleeve inside your bulletin today.

Please take this sleeve out, look at the life groups that are meeting together right now or will begin here very shortly. Please sign your name to one of these life groups to contact and drop it in the offering plate when it comes by. We would love to get our entire church involved in small group worship and ministry. It's a fantastic time just to connect with each other, to grow in the word, to grow in the Lord. So, life groups, it's the way to go.

Anyway, with that folks, we'd like to call our operatory team forward and have an offering this morning. So if I could get our operatory team here, please. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly father, thank you so much for your many many blessings you bestow on us each and every day. You just open your heart and pour out your love unconditionally to us.

Let us open ourselves up and give back. We can never repay what you have given us. But just let us give back. Just whatever we can a small portion of what you give us. To further your kingdom, to bless those who might not have as much as we have.

Please accept these offerings with humble gratitude. We praise this in Jesus's name. Amen.

All right, please stand again. Your perfect love is casting out fear even though I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life. I won't turn back. I know you are near I will fear no evil for my God is with Oh, no. You never let go, Lord.

You never let go of me. And I can see the light will fear no evil for my God is with me. And if my God is for the heart that holds on. There will be no end to the troubles. But until that day comes, still I will praise you.

Still I will praise you Singing, oh no, never let go through the calm and through the storms. Oh, no. You never let go every high and every low. Oh, no. You never let go, Lord.

You never let go of me. Good enough. Alright. Should never be can we find a friend so faithful?

Jesus

knows our every week. We'll get Are we weak and heavy laden with a low to air precious savior still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. To your friends despise will find your solace there. In his arms he'll take and shield you.

You will find your solace there. You may be seated.

Amen. Thank you. Great singing this morning. Wow. Just a quick word about, forty days in the word.

Our books have arrived, and, we have the small version. This is not very thick. Actually, it's really really really good and it's $10 and it's packed with really exciting stuff that we're gonna go through in our home group. So, home group leaders, Beech Life Group leaders, please get, your books today or this week. And those of you who are not yet in one, if you'll just see, Diane.

Let's see. Is I don't see her here. Morning. Christie. Okay.

I just see Diane and she will and she will get a hold of it and make sure that you get in one and get information so you'll have it. But it's important that, you begin the study with us and you enjoy all that God wants to teach us through it. Because the important part is for us to get into the word, get excited about the word, and let the word teach us and help us understand more fully on what God wants to show us. Micah six eight is one of the projects that we're doing, in the forty days, in the word, and and I'll talk about that next week, the projects that are that we're gonna go through. Alright.

Let's open our Bibles to Colossians chapter three. We started a new year, in second Corinthians chapter five verse 17, a new year. And therefore, anyone being in Christ is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things that become new.

A new year. And with that new year comes a new life. And a new life means transformation, means change, means the things that were old, the things that were there that were attached to us, gone. And new things come in, and our life is transformed and things are different. And and that's what second Corinthians five seventeen was all about.

And then we took some time in talking about that. And then last week, we talked about New Year, new life, and new clothes, putting on and taking off what needs to take off. And and we started actually in chapter three verse five, and I wanna read that for a moment, and then we'll go into where we're gonna go today. In chapter three of Colossians verse five begin this where, therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it's because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.

And in them, you also once walked when you were living in them. In other words, the old way. What you were before you found Christ. The old system. The things that you embraced before.

And now now Paul is talking about a new thing. Something that comes into your life and change you, and and now you're heading out in a new way. And and so then he begins, in saying, take these things off. And he said, but now you also put them all aside. And then he lists a number of things, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech from your mouth.

Don't lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and now you're putting on a new self who's being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. And so I I gave you a list, and in fact, it's on the back sheet of one of the inserts, the outline that we used last week. And and I'm not gonna focus on the things that we take off this week. I'm gonna talk more about it next week when we talk about the armor and how to keep those things off. But again, that list is there for you.

Immorality is anything. Anything that you put in the place, anything that you do that robs you, of morality, that that keeps you from being pure. And whether it's, Internet pornography, whether it's things that you watch on television, whether it's books that you read, whether it's thoughts that you have, those things come in and they move us away, and they rip us apart. They destroy marriages. They destroy our thought life.

They destroy our image of what God has said in his word of what morality is supposed to be about, what the marriage is about, what life is about, what intimacy is about. And so Paul says, get rid of that immorality. Get rid of those things that that you attached yourself to before you found Christ, the old pattern of living, the old things that came in to to really rob you and hinder you for being the servant that I want you to be to be remember, we talked about the first Sunday in the New Year being ministers of reconciliation. And so Paul is saying, these things keep us, in fact, from being ministers of reconciliation. So he said, get rid of that.

Then he lists a number of things that that you that I find interesting. He puts in there idolatry. Idolatry is anything that you put above God. And and it's not just idols that we think about. That's that's idolatry.

Our our pleasure life can be an idol. If we value more having fun than we do worshiping God, it becomes an idol for us. Our families can become idols to us. If our families are so important that we have no time for God, then families can become idols for us. Anything that we put in the place of God can become an idol.

And so we have to watch that. And Paul is saying, don't let idolatry come in. Don't let don't worship anything else other than God. And so he begins to warn them that. He says, put it off.

Then he gives a list of things that that we find ourselves practical, things that we find easy to do. Anger. Don't let anger creep in to where it destroys you from being a minister of reconciliation. It's kind of hard to reconcile with anyone, to be a minister of reconciliation, if in fact, you're angry all the time and that's all they hear. Malice, any malicious act that we do against people.

Slander. I found filthy language interesting in that list because in reality, if you look at the vocabulary that we have today compared to the vocabulary that we had twenty five years ago, it's quite interesting to see how far down we've gone. There are words that we would never use twenty five years ago that are actually in the dictionary today that that are part of our vocabulary. There are curse words and swear words and diminutive words that that just are a part of our vocabulary. That's okay because it's politically correct, and it's not considered filthy.

But it was considered filthy twenty five years ago. In reality, it is filthy. When the f word is in Webster's dictionary, that tells me something. When we find ourselves allowing ourselves to speak things that we would never say before, that now becomes part of our speech, just normal speech, that says something to me. That says that we have allowed filthy language that's so creep into us that we no longer can say things of that are uplifting, that are praiseworthy, that benefit people.

We would rather say things that tear people down. And we say, well, that's just a figure of speech. Any figure of speech that breaks the spirit of someone else is a wrong figure of speech. Any figure of speech that demeans a person is a wrong figure of speech. Any figure of speech, whether in a dictionary or not, that tears apart the human person, that diminishes God, that takes away the good of society.

Any kind of speech like that is wrong, and it's filthy language. It's language that demeans people. And so Paul says, get rid of it. Then he says, get rid of lying. How can you be a minister of reconciliation if lying is a part of what you do?

And so Paul talks about that, and and I'll talk about that more next week when we get into how to protect ourselves and keep ourselves from doing that. I wanna major this morning on verses 12 through 17. So if we have it up there, let's let's look at that passage. So to those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, clothing yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body, you are called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, songs from, from the spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your heart. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Look at that list that list that we're supposed to put on, and Paul begins in an interesting fashion. He talks about compassion. He says that's the first on his list, and I like it. It's interesting how he starts that way. He says, Put on a heart of compassion.

Heart of compassion. Clothe yourself with compassion. Literally that means, by the way, bowels of sympathy, being empathetic. The ancients believed that that the source of empathy was your stomach. In Africa, that's a common thought.

The the the source of your emotions and the source of your of your empathy and sympathy is your stomach. We kinda think that sometimes. We say, I've got a gut feeling. I've got a gut feeling. I found an interesting story that a little girl was asked to to describe man.

And she said there are three parts to a man. There's the brainium, there's the chest, and there is an abominable cavity. She said the brainium is where the brain is found. The chest holds the heart, and the abominable cavity, she calls it, holds the bowels. And there are five of them, a, e, I, o, and u.

When I read that, I thought, well, that's pretty cute. She was kinda confused. Maybe some some of you are just getting that. You're you're still, yeah, maybe I do have five with them. The point is, we confuse sometimes compassion knowing.

Compassion means that I that I'm empathetic, that I enter into a person's life. In order to do that, in order to be compassionate for someone, I have to enter into that person's life. I have to be empath have empathy for them. I have to want to hear their story. And sometimes that's not so easy for us.

Sometimes we don't want to enter into other people's story. Kind of hard to be compassionate for someone if we don't enter in for another person's journey. But when you enter in another person's journey, then Paul says be compassionate. Be sympathetic. Be empathetic.

Enter into them. And then he adds to that with compassion, be kind. Be kind. Add to your compassion, kindness. And that's really a kindness is really an action that reveals our compassion.

It gives us when we are empathetic and we care for someone, then our kindness are acts of things that we do to show our compassion. So he says, be kind. Put on compassion. Put on kindness. Kindness.

What a difference kindness can make in a person's life. I love history. That was my favorite class in high school and college, and I just would read history all the time. One of my favorite characters is Saint Augustine. And he tells a story of, how he left his little village and went to the big city, and he was surrounded by people who, how he called it the wrong crowd.

And he got into that and and he found himself getting further and further down in his life and immorals. And one day he found himself going to church. And he said in in in his writings that he didn't like the message that the pastor was preaching as much as he liked the man who was preaching it. And he saw in this man kindness. And so in his story, Saint Augustine tells about he really found value and truth in what the man was saying by how the man was living.

And because he was a kind person, it changed him, and we all know what Saint Augustine did for the world. And so kindness was what it was that brought him to the savior. Acts of kindness to people really do an awful lot. Things that we can do to encourage people and say to them that that we'll love on them without expecting anything in return. Sometimes sometimes we have a mentality, I'll be kind to you if you be kind to me.

That's not kindness. Sorry. You know, you want something for it. Kindness is doing an act of mercy, of love for someone, and not expecting anything back. Not even a thank you.

Not even a thank you. Kindness. And when we're that way, it really disarms people. It allows them to see something that they haven't seen before, experience things they haven't experienced before, and realize there are people out there who really just care really just care about where they are and what they're doing. Then he adds to the list.

He says, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, and humility. Humility. John Stott says that humility is the rarest and the fairest of all Christian virtues because it's so rare. When we're humble when we're humble, we're not thinking about anything for ourselves. We're not looking for anything for ourselves.

There are a number of people in our fellowship that when I see them, I see humility. I see people who are there to serve no matter what, to serve in their own weaknesses, To serve in their own sicknesses. I I think and I and I know I'm gonna embarrass this person, but that's alright. Don't mind that. That's my spiritual gift embarrassing other people.

But Martin Murphy is an example to me of a man who's humble. A man who walks in his own illness, his own sickness, is in pain all the time. But you would not know that. If you ask him how he's doing, he will say fine. Now he's not saying he's not lying.

He's saying, I'm not I'm I'm hurting. I've had a tough week, and things aren't always but I'm fine. Why? Because God has done something in his heart and spirit that that transforms into a walk of humility, a walk of humility. And so when I see when I see Martin and when he's a part of our elderly, I said, I'm sitting next to a man who's humble, who understands what pain is, and who walks in that, but will be here today all day, will be here early, and we'll move the chairs, will be here tonight late, We'll be here and serve and never say a word about it.

That's humble. And Paul is saying, put on this humility because it's this humility that will draw people to me. Then then he says, be gentle and patient. Be gentle and patient. Gentleness is often the word that's often used in this place is meekness.

And sometimes we think meekness is weakness, and it's not. Gentleness, in fact, when you do a word study, means strength under control. A gentle person is a person who has strength under control, and you see it in how they walk, and you see it in how they talk, you see it in their demeanor. They're gentle people, but they're strong. They're strong.

Then Paul says, add to that patience. Patience. Now in this when he when he says, gentleness and patience bearing with one another, you you see the first part as being a patient person is almost negative in one sense because patience is actually holding back, Holding back what you may want to do when somebody irritates you or when somebody pulls in front of you or if you're if you're behind me when I drive and I'm driving, you know, five miles an hour on the ice, you have to be patient with me. See see? And so, I really bring out the patient in people.

Or but I'm not so patient for the guy in front of me. Doesn't make sense, does it? I mean, I'm not patient for the guy in front of me, but I expect people behind me to be So so that doesn't make any sense, and and I'm really working on that. But here Paul is saying, you must be patient. Put on this quality.

It's enduring of another's exasperating conduct. So so it's the negative in a sense that I'm holding back. I'm not I'm not jumping in. I'm patient. But then he adds another term that goes along with that, forbearance.

Forbearance. Forbearance. We are to bear one another's burden. We are to support one another. And that's the positive side of patience.

Now I enter into a person's life and I and I bear with them their burdens. I care for them. Forbearing means to bear one another's burden. How do we do that? Well, when people are sick, we jump in and we encourage them.

When people are going through difficulties, we enter into their difficulties. When people are going through struggles, we enter into them with their struggles. When people are just people, we enter into their life as people. We bear with them. One of the neat things that I've discovered here, this church is a great church for forbearing, for caring for people's needs and for let me be if you come in any afternoon, any morning and walk into Diane's office, someone is there with a need.

And and and they'll sit down, they'll talk, and Diane will not just give them something. She enters into their life by asking, what's happening? What's going on? And I'll go by and I'll sit there and and that person's there. I'll go by ten minutes later, that person's still there.

Fifteen minutes later, that person's there. Now for me who wants Diane to get something done right away, I actually I start getting a little frustrated. And I think, know, this this guy or this gal is really taking Diane's time. And then I'm reminded that's what her time is about, forbearing with people as they come, entering into their pain so that they can find some help. Sometimes we get so caught up, don't we, in what we need to do than what really God wants us to do.

We get caught up with our agendas and caught up with our and that's why Paul says, I want you to add here some patience and then forbearance. I want you to enter into people's lives. Why? So when this happened, it's so revolutionary. It's so different from anything you've been a part of before.

Then he goes on and he says these things, forgiveness and love. And in in love, he wraps it all around. He says, this is the cloak. This is the overcoat that you put. Love covers all of these things.

Now I want you to go quickly to the next verse here, in in 50. He said, let the peace of Christ rule. See, the first part was was Paul's talking to the individual. These are the things that we gotta take off. These are the things we gotta put on.

Now he's talking about the body of the church. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Will you read that with me? Let's read out loud. Okay.

Hold it right there. Let's take the first word. Say let. Let. Let.

Let. Let. Let. What does that mean? Allow.

Allow. Allow what? Allow what? The peace of who? Christ.

Christ peace. To do what? Rule. Rule. To do what?

Rule. The word rule here by the way, it it means empire or it means, referee. And I've been going to the high school basketball game and you watch these these, referees. And I was a referee, in high school and college for high school and college when I was younger. And you know, you develop focused eyes to see what's happening in the game, but close ears.

Because I have parents say or people, are you a blind ref? You can't see that. What's the matter with that threes? I can't you count? You know, referees and empires don't get good things said about them.

They don't. So it's not a job that you want that builds up your you don't feel good after a game because you're the lowest person on the earth because you missed that call, you missed this one, and so everybody's throwing these darts at you, but but you develop this closed ears attitude. You don't hear it because if you did, you'd be blowing the whistle. There were times that I just wanna turn around, pet nickel foul against a 100 parents. I don't know how good that would have done.

I'd have felt better. But they just keep on going because they're focused on caring for the game. And that's what this word rule in the Greek means. Let the peace of Christ be your empire. Be be your referee in your heart.

Let that be the one to focus you and keep you, in line. Why? Because you're members of one body. You're called to peace. Then he has a second part of that.

What does it say? And be what? Thankful. Thankful. What are we thankful for?

We become a society of entitlement. I don't know that we understand the word thankful anymore. I think our culture is you owe me, not thank you. I think our culture is why haven't you given me? I'm entitled to that, not thank you for what I have.

I think we've lost in the meaning of our culture today in much of the things that we do this whole idea of attitude of gratitude. We've lost that. And so we go through life saying, I expect this from you even if I haven't worked for it. Even if I don't really deserve it, you got it so that I ought to have it. You shouldn't.

I don't have it. So if you have it, I want it. Totally contradictory to what the Bible talks about. So be thankful. What do we be thankful for?

What do be thankful for the greatest gift that we have? And that's our salvation. Isn't that isn't that a beautiful thing? For God so loved the world, you and I, that he gave his only begot what? Who?

Jesus. To who? You and I. For what reason? So that we wouldn't perish.

So, we'd have everlasting life. That's something to be thankful for. So, he now, he closed that in the middle between fifteen and sixteen. Kind of a transition three worder here. Said, let let Christ peace rule in your heart.

Gotta be a people of unity. Then, be thankful. Now, now he says, let the message of Christ. Read 16 with me. Let the message of Christ.

As you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalm, hymns, songs, and spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your heart. Read that first four words with me. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly. Say it again, let. Let.

Allow. Allow what? Allow the message of who? Christ. Do what?

Dwell. What does that mean? Live inside of you. Take habitation inside of you. Let let the message of Christ live there.

Among you. How? Poorly? How should that message live? Richly, that's the fruit.

The word of God. Let it live inside of you and it's so rich and because of this richness, you'll do what? You're not going to teach one another. That that's what the body does. It teaches one another.

It shares with one another. We're part of the body and look how it happens. With all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, songs, and spirit. What that need this morning? The songs that we sung?

You know, the the many of the of the songs that we sing come from Psalms. In fact, I I just did a little quick thing before I came over. Just started writing them down. Ones that I that I knew off the top of the my head and I found trouble with them. Psalms 47, clap your hands all you people.

Psalms 48, create great is our lords. Psalm 28, unto you, oh Lord. Psalm eight, how majesty is your name? Psalm 33, sing to the Lord a new song. Psalm 40, I waited patiently for the Lord.

Psalm 42, we sang last week as a deer pants for the water. Psalm 51, created me a clean heart, oh God. Psalm 68, let God arise and enemies be scattered. Psalm 89, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. Psalm one zero three, bless the Lord all my soul.

We sing psalms. We sing back to God the words. What could be more exciting if you are down, if things are working and you're weak and you come and you start hearing the Psalms being sung, the word of God being sung and you apply it to your heart, does it get any better than that? Come on. Even those of us who are feeling bad today because Thibault didn't work out.

Does it matter? You know what? I I love what the song that we sung earlier. Was that one right before No. No.

The one right before the God who got a hold of you was it what? No. No. Before that one. I can't remember.

No. The one right before.

Never let go.

Yeah. Yeah. That's Tebow's song. That's his song. He's singing that today because for him, for us who lost the game, we'd all know it's over.

For him, no, because life life is not football. Life's grabbing hold of a kid after the game. A kid who who who's dying and grabbing all this kid and pouring into him love. That's what it's all about for him. He plays the game for fun, but he lives the game for real.

And so he understands that. And so that's what songs and sins are about, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Now look at the next verse. Why are we to do it in society? Read this out loud with me.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God, Father through him. That's where it's at. Where we take what it is we have learned, we move it from our head to our heart, we apply it and people see it in us. That's what it's about. If we can do that what a difference it will make.

We've been saying this over and over again since January 1. This year we're gonna do things differently. Why? Because we can't wait another year. Will you say that with me?

This year we're going to do things differently. Why? Because we can't wait another year. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you.

We thank you and praise you for your word. It is so powerful. It teaches us and shows us exactly what we need to know. So Lord, we wanna take off all the junk that that keeps us from serving you, and we wanna put on compassion. We wanna put on gentleness.

We wanna put on patience. We we wanna, allow our life to to be a a life that's transparent. We wanna forbear and care for people. We wanna forgive. We wanna be patient and understanding in people and and lord, we wanna love And Lord we want your peace to rule over our hearts.

We wanna be people of unity. And Lord we want your message to live in us, live out in us so people can see the difference. And so that whatever we do, whatever we say in word, in action, or deed, all that that is and all that it that it entails brings glory to you because we want to thank you in the wonderful name of our savior. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.

Heaven is where I belong. Is where I belong. Heaven, oh oh heaven is where I belong. This world oh Jesus is where I belong. With Jesus, my

Jesus

remind you that in about ten minutes, maybe fifteen minutes we'll have our annual meeting and if you're a member we'd love to have you stay and be a part of that. We had it in the middle so that the second service people could come and join us and we didn't want to do it at the end of the second service because then only the second service people would come because of the lateness of the hour. So we've made it convenient for you, so we trust you'll stay in and be a part of that. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for the privilege of being here today.

We pray blessing upon our people that you would encourage them, love them that they may be transparent today and bless others as they walk through their journey, that they may put on these new clothes. That compassion and mercy and patience would be seen in everything they do for your glory in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. Have a great day.