Jesus is my Master

Folks, great to see you this morning with a finger in Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

I want everybody to hold their Bibles up in front of you.

If you need to grab a Bible roundabout, grab a Bible roundabout.

But everybody needs you to do this.

You need to hold your Bible here.

And I'm going to pray in just a second, lead us in prayer.

But I want us to understand what I'm going to pray.

So I want everybody to hold their Bibles above your head.

So we're going to pray together that we would sit under the Word of God.

So this is God's Word.

This is the Word of life that we need to be at work in our lives.

This is the Word of our Creator.

And we want our heart attitude to be that we want to sit under and listen to His Word.

So we're going to pray that we'd sit under the Word.

I want everyone to put their Bibles on the floor.

And metaphorically, don't do this actually.

But picture yourself standing on the Bible, okay?

We're going to pray that we would stand on the Word of God.

That this would be the foundation, the sure foundation for our lives and our times.

And that we would build our lives, base our lives on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God as we find it in the Bible.

And then thirdly, I want you to hold it on your chest.

And we're going to pray that the Word of God would be at work in us.

So this Word, we believe it's alive and it's active that God speaks today.

And we're going to pray that God, by His Spirit, would be molding us and prompting us and challenging us and comforting us and encouraging us and making us more into the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ, for His glory.

So that's what we're going to pray.

I'm going to pray it now, okay?

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word.

Father, where would we be without Your life-giving Word?

And so, Father, we pray that You would help our attitude this morning, that You would help us to sit under Your Word, that You would help us to stand on Your Word, and that You would, by Your Spirit, work in us by Your Word.

And Father, we just want this morning to be of glory to You.

And so we pray these things in Jesus' precious name.

Amen.

Well, with Colossians chapter 3 open in front of you, let me ask us a random rhetorical question just to set us off on the right track today.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

And here's the question, and it is a bit random, but stick with me.

This is going somewhere okay.

Do you know where your local pizza delivery place is?

Yeah?

Yes.

Know where it is?

Alex and I had a lovely Domino's pizza a couple of weeks ago.

We were getting our oven fixed, and we thought, no, we're not going to cook.

We're going to get a Domino's.

So we went to Domino's.

The reason I know where Domino's pizza is, our local pizza joint is,

it's because so often they send people out onto the street around about us as walking billboards.

I don't know if you've seen people like this.

Yeah?

So the people that they employ to go and stand on the street corner, and they're dressed as a giant Domino's pizza box,

and they've got the words on the front, any pizza, any size, $6.99.

This is normally what they say.

And I always read this, read that every time I see it, and I think to myself,

who is ringing up and ordering a small, right?

Who's ordering a small with that deal?

But this is the image I want us to carry through these verses today,

because Paul is going to ask these Christians on Colossae to think of themselves,

picture themselves as walking billboards.

Now, we saw at the end of last week, Paul encouraged them, and this is verse 17,

if you want to track with me the text, verse 17.

He's encouraging them to think of worship as total.

That's where we left off last week.

Worship is total.

Remember these false teachers?

They're in the background in Colossae.

They're pushing a compartmentalized, experiential, individualized Christianity.

And Paul is saying, don't have any of it.

Because this new identity in Christ, this was verses 1 to 4 of chapter 3,

this new identity, because Jesus Christ, if you're a Christian, has claimed you,

and he's changing you, the fact that that is true, that's an identity in your life,

it shouldn't just affect your Sundays.

It should affect your everyday.

It should affect your Monday, and your Tuesday, and your Wednesday, and your Thursday, and your Friday, and your Saturday, and your back to Sunday.

The whole thing should be affected by this new identity that you have in Christ.

It was Dorothy Sawyers, the author of the last century, who commented and said this,

How could anyone be interested in a religion that is no concern for nine-tenths of their life?

And that is so true, isn't it?

Why would anyone be interested in a religion that is no concern for nine-tenths of your life?

Paul would heartily agree.

It should transform your individual life.

This is what he's already said.

It should transform your corporate life together as a church, as this brought together body.

We saw that last week.

And today we're going to hear him tell them, this is verses 18 to chapter 4, verse 1,

that it should transform your home life.

And so he's speaking to this church.

Remember, this church made up of tons of different kinds of people,

lots of different things going on in their lives.

And he's going to get them to think about their marriages.

And he's going to get them to think about their families.

And he's going to get them to think about their work.

And in those areas of their lives, he wants them to think of themselves as walking billboards.

And the question then is displaying what, saying what?

Any pizza, any size, no, no, no.

He wants them to say, with your life, display the message that Jesus is my Lord.

Come with me to the text.

Here's the key little phrase to this little section.

Paul uses that word, Lord.

Do you see it?

We saw it kind of creep in at the end of last week.

Lord or master, that's the word.

He uses it six times in these nine verses.

Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord.

The whole of their lives has to be lived in the sphere of the Lord.

So when it comes to these three years of their lives, the message is, Jesus is my master.

He's my Lord.

So people from the world should be able to look into your lives, dear Colossian Christians.

And the same for us today is true.

and he should in one way or another be able to conclude that Jesus is your master.

He's your Lord.

Jesus is the master that you live for.

He's the one that you seek to give glory to.

He is the one that you seek to present to the world.

And I think it's fair comment to say, and we'll just acknowledge this up the top,

that what Paul is urging here couldn't be any more counter-cultural.

In our day, I mean, this stuff about husbands and wives and families and work,

it runs so deeply against the grain of how our society tells us to think.

But the truth is, and we need to hear this before we immediately jump to us,

it was just as counter-cultural in the day that Paul wrote it,

except that the cultural pendulum is on the other side.

In the first century, who were the individuals deemed to be lower down the social ladder?

Women, children, and slaves.

But when it comes to their marriages and their families and their work,

who does Paul address first in each instance?

Wives, children, and slaves.

You see what he's doing?

You see how he's bestowing on them a real counter-cultural dignity and worth,

and he's massaging home that truth that he stressed at verse 11?

That in Christ, God has made them one.

In other words, though the God-designed differences in creation, they remain.

There's no second-class citizens in God's kingdom,

because this new family that God has birthed, you're all one in Christ.

This is what he's been saying all the way through this letter.

So we need to understand that these words were just as counter-cultural then as they are today.

Paul says,

Be walking billboards that say to the world as you live your life,

Jesus is my master.

He's my master.

He's the Lord.

And do that in your marriage.

Do you see it?

Verses 18 and 19.

Do it in your marriage.

Now here's what we need to understand.

As Paul speaks to husbands and wives, he's got the ultimate marriage in mind.

The ultimate marriage in mind.

The one that our marriages on earth are supposed to be based upon and point to and reflect.

And that's the marriage that will happen on the last day when Jesus Christ our Lord returns between him and his bride, the church.

That's the ultimate marriage.

And Paul's got that in mind as he turns to address husbands and wives here in Colossae.

Because their relationship together, the way that they relate to one another, the way that they love one another,

is meant to project and point to that ultimate marriage.

So to the married woman in this church, she says,

In the same way that we've just sung, that the church submits to Christ,

I urge you to reflect that by submitting to your husbands.

And let me just deal with that word, submit, because it's a word that doesn't land softly to our 21st century ears.

I guess because we've heard of people who have horribly abused that word.

And because we live in a culture that is so deeply anti-authority.

But let me just tell you, and this is the best quote on this I read this week.

Let me just give this to you.

This is how one commentator defines submission.

Submission is a voluntary willingness.

And it's so key, isn't it, that word voluntary.

Voluntary willingness, a choice to recognize and put oneself under the loving leadership of another.

So submission here has nothing to do with a wife's inferiority.

Absolutely nothing to do with that.

And that's clear as you trace the use of this word through the Bible.

Because think what we've just sung.

Jesus himself, the one who is fully and equal God.

We see in John's gospel, we just sang it, he submitted himself to the will of the Father.

If you trace it through in the Old Testament, we see God describe himself as being a helper to humanity.

In creation, we see in creation.

In creation, we see in the same way Eve in the creation account, she's described as being a helper to Adam.

It's nothing to do with inferiority.

And if it's nothing to do with that, equally it's nothing to do with the husband's superiority.

Thinking he has carte blanche to rule the roost, that he's got license to take advantage.

And Paul will make that so clear by what he goes on to say next to the husbands as they pursue the Lord.

But Paul says, wives, bring all your gifts and your talents the way that God has wired you.

And bring it to your marriage.

And in the same way that the church submits to Christ out of love, I want you to reflect that as you affirm and you support and you encourage and you look to the loving and sacrificial Christ-like leadership of your husbands.

It was Elizabeth Elliot, who was the late wife of Jim Elliot, who was the missionary to Ecuador.

She's written some wonderful stuff on all of this if you want to go and check it out.

Elizabeth Elliot said this, and I think this is very good, otherwise I wouldn't have put it in, okay.

But she said, the fact that I'm a woman doesn't make me a different kind of Christian.

But the fact that I am a Christian makes me a different kind of woman.

And you see, as much as Paul's calling Christian wives to be so counter-culturally and attractively different, he's calling Christian husbands to be just as radical.

And so to husbands, he urges them in the same way, in the same way that Christ has sacrificially laid down his life out of love for his bride, the church.

That's how I want you to love your wives.

Now feel the sting of that one of your husband here this morning.

Remember, he's just teased out in this letter what love looks like, verse 12.

Do you remember it last week?

Love expresses itself in compassion, in humility, in meekness, in patience.

And in verse 13, it expresses itself in forgiveness and long-suffering.

So the kind of love that Paul is calling husbands to here is a love that always dies to self and puts somebody else first.

And of course, it's the love that Jesus so wonderfully exemplified and showed, isn't it, on the cross?

The one who had all authority in heaven humbled himself by coming down from heaven to earth to seek out and to die for and to give his life for,

to shed his blood to redeem and to purify and win his bride, the church.

He sets that bar.

Then do you want to get them?

He sets that bar.

Do you see how that is what biblical, true, sacrificial, following after Christ with all your heart, love looks like for a husband?

How counter-cultural then and how counter-cultural today?

Husbands, let me ask you here this morning.

If you are blessed to be a husband, do you love your wife like that?

Do you love your wife like that?

So do you see what he's saying to those who are married in this congregation in Colossae?

He's saying in your marriages, it's together you pursue the Lord.

Together you pursue the Lord.

And the way that you love one another, and the way that you relate to one another,

and the way that you sacrificially love one another,

you are to be walking billboards that say, Jesus is my master.

And you are to display that ultimate marriage for the world to see.

And that means, friends, that if we are married here today,

people should be able to look into our marriage and say,

I've got no understanding of what that is about,

except that that reflects something of what Jesus did for his church.

That's the ultimate marriage.

That is the ultimate marriage.

It's not this one, it's that one.

And it's so important that we have that in mind.

Because if we look for completion,

if we look for something kind of satisfying fulfillment,

and our marriage is down here,

and let me tell you, it will set us up massively for a fall.

Massively for a fall.

Some of you might remember the film,

and this is me being a 90s child, okay,

the film Jerry Maguire when it came out in 1996.

Jerry Maguire, this film about a lovestruck sports agent.

It was the reason I went into law.

No, it wasn't.

It wasn't.

But Jerry Maguire was one of the most iconic and most quoted films of the 90s,

if you remember it.

And two of the most famous quotes from that film were,

number one, the one that his sports,

American football playing client said to him,

and you'll remember this one,

Jerry, show me the money.

That's what he said.

Jerry, show me the money.

That was one quote from that film that everybody loves to quote.

The second one from that film comes

when Jerry speaks to the woman that he loves,

and he says to her those three words.

He says, you complete me.

And it's so cute.

And Hollywood loved it.

And it sold millions upon millions upon millions of tickets.

But let me let you into a little secret this morning, this afternoon.

It's nonsense.

It's absolute nonsense.

To think that another human being could complete you,

it's nonsense.

Because, now don't hear me wrong,

I love being married to Alex.

She's not in here today.

She's behind the back.

I can't say this again.

She's my best friend.

If I had an evening off,

she's the person I wanted to spend it with.

I absolutely love her.

But she knows,

and I tell her this on a regular basis,

that she does not complete me.

And I can tell you from my own experience,

I can tell you this categorically,

that I certainly do not complete her.

Okay?

I'm an idiot.

I do not complete her.

Friends,

if we look for completion,

for satisfaction in anyone else but Jesus Christ,

we will set ourselves up for a fall.

And it was C.T. Studd,

the famous English cricketer,

turned missionary to China,

who encouraged his wife to say a little poem to himself every day,

that went,

Dear Lord Jesus,

as you are to me,

dearer than Charlie ever could be.

That's exactly what Paul is saying,

isn't it?

That's exactly what Paul is saying.

The ultimate marriage.

Keep that in mind.

Because I realize that the truth for many of us here today

is that your experience of marriage has been anything but what you see here.

So painfully true.

It's been anything but what you see here.

In fact,

it's been the polar opposite.

And I realize there'll be some of us here today,

and either you're struggling in your married life,

or you're thinking to yourself,

will I ever be married?

Will that ever happen to me?

Or whoever you are here today,

let me encourage you to fix your eyes on that ultimate marriage.

That if you're a Christian here today,

if you're faithless in Jesus Christ,

that you will be part of that bride.

To fix your eyes on the perfect husband,

in Jesus Christ,

what he's done for you,

shedding his blood for you,

to buy you,

ransom you to himself on the cross,

and to fix your eyes on that marriage.

And if you're married,

to fix your eyes on that marriage.

And as you fix your eyes on Jesus Christ,

as the spirit of God,

transform you more into his likeness,

display his glory in your marriage.

So in your marriages,

Paul says,

be walking billboards that display the message,

Jesus is my master.

And do the same in your family.

Verse 20,

we'll move on.

So there's Paul's plea to the family.

Again,

let's just pick out the verbs.

Children.

And I think he's thinking about children,

who are living with their parents,

and they're old enough to understand,

and make their own decisions,

and respond.

He says to them,

obey.

Obey your parents.

This is what he says.

And of course,

he's rooting that instruction

in the fifth commandment.

That God had given Israel

as a way of living

that pleased the Lord.

It's a wonderfully,

is it not,

dignifying thought in this day

that Paul writes to children

and says that in your lives,

in the simple fact

that you obey your parents,

you can glorify the Lord.

As their parents help you understand,

that the family unit

is something that the God,

in his grace and in his mercy,

has put in place.

Not for your detriment,

but for your good,

for your protection,

for your nurturing,

and for your enjoyment.

Obey your parents.

This is what he says to the children.

And so quickly off the back of that,

he says to fathers,

okay,

I got a sting from the first one there.

I've got the sting from the second one as well.

Fathers.

What does he say?

Speaking to them,

I take it first and foremost

as the ones he wants to take

the spiritual,

sacrificial,

and loving lead in the home.

Because if you read around on this one,

men in the Roman first century context

have got a real reputation

for being domineering in the home.

So he's writing to them

and says,

Christian fathers,

do not provoke your children

by being harsh with them.

Or discourage them

because you lay upon them

heavy expectations

of what you want them to become.

Which I take it

is his way of saying,

don't treat your children

like you own them.

Or that they're a burden to you.

Rather encourage

and love

and nurture

and instruct

and pray for

and take an interest in

and care about

and get to know

and love

your children.

This is what he's saying.

Because they are a gift from the Lord,

they're a precious heritage from him,

and your heavenly father

loves these children

way more than you do

in his gracious and perfect way.

Parents here today,

let me ask you,

do you love your children like this?

Do you love your children like this?

Let me ask you,

come at it from a different angle.

What do you long to be true for them

as they grow up?

I was thinking on it this week

for my two little girls.

What do you long to be true for them

as they grow up?

And our ultimate longing for them

shouldn't be

that they'd come top of the class,

that they'd win the egg and spoon race

on sports day,

that they'd get into that school,

that they'd get that job,

that they'd get their grade 8

on the clarinet.

Our ultimate longing

for our children

is that they should come

to know the Lord Jesus

as their saviour

and their king

and know it for themselves.

It should be our ultimate longing

for them.

Because that is

the source of their

greatest joy.

You know,

I long that Chloe and Grace

would grow up

and they would have

the most boring testimonies ever.

Honestly,

the most boring testimonies ever.

Because I remember

when I was at a minister's lunch

after Chloe was just born

and I was sharing something

that my fellow brothers

and sisters could pray for me

and I said,

would you pray for my little girl?

Just being handed

this bundle of responsibility

straight out of the womb,

I don't know what to do.

And they simply prayed for me

and they prayed for her

and they said,

Lord Jesus,

would it be true for her

that there would never be a day

where she wasn't conscious

of you as her Lord

and her Saviour

and her King.

And do you know what?

Those words almost four years ago

have stuck with me ever since.

And that's what I pray for my girls.

Now how is that going to happen?

What's my job as a parent?

Well, my job,

I can't make them Christians,

can I?

It's your theology of salvation.

You can't make them Christians.

But my job as a parent

is to put all the Jesus-shaped kindling

that I possibly can

around their lives

as Alex and I,

we live out in front of them

a vibrant love for

and a need for

the Lord Jesus Christ

and pray that the Holy Spirit

would take that kindling,

spark it and ignite it.

That's my job.

And I tell you what,

it's just personally,

it's wonderful to think

we do that in a church family context,

isn't it?

Because they have got

tons of spiritual sisters and brothers

and tons of spiritual grandmothers

and grandfathers.

And it means so much to us

that you are praying for those girls

and it means so much

I know to the other parents in here

to know that you're

dedicating yourselves

to praying for them as well.

That's our job.

That's our job.

It says fathers,

be the father that

your children need them to be.

And I hope this encourages you.

This was John Wesley.

I was reading this week,

John Wesley,

the guy who was the

the former slave ship

master

turned

Anglican minister

who wrote the famous song

Amazing Grace.

He wrote this

and I hope this encourages parents here.

He said,

I learned more about Christianity

from my mother

than I did from all the theologians

in England.

I learned more

about Christianity

from my mother

than I did from all the theologians

in England.

Keep going, parents.

Keep going.

Keep going.

What a countercultural vision

for the Christian family

he lays out here.

In your families,

be walking billboards

that say

Jesus is

my

master.

And thirdly,

make him known in your work.

Make him known in your work.

Verse 22,

Paul speaks to slaves.

Now,

I don't think that's

slaves

like our minds

would immediately think

like 20 years a slave,

the film,

or Selma.

Paul's speaking into

a first century culture

where slavery

is a very different thing.

It's why

if you've got an ESV there,

the translators

are so keen

to footnote

the use of that word

all the time

with the word

bondservant.

You might notice that

if you've got an ESV there.

Because slave

is a broad term

that can just describe

anybody

who's under the authority

of another.

Slaves in this day

are often

well-educated professionals.

Bankers are slaves.

Doctors were slaves.

In fact,

I was reading this week

that up to two-thirds

of the Roman Empire

at this point

are deemed slaves.

Whole economy

based on slaves.

And so,

although it's not

identical to it,

it is actually

a lot closer

to our modern-day

employee-employer

relationship

that he's got in mind

here as he writes.

And look what he says

to them.

He says,

obey.

He says,

work well.

Be known

for your reliability

and diligence

and gain

a good reputation

in the eyes

of your master.

And you see

how he says,

do it

not just when

the master

is watching,

do it

all the time.

Why?

Well,

because the eyes

of your true master

are on you

all the time.

And it's a heart thing,

isn't it,

what he's saying here?

Work for the Lord

from your heart.

from your heart.

And when he returns,

your master,

you will receive

your inheritance.

And so into a culture

today

that thinks little

of having an extra

five minutes

on your lunch break

or being five minutes

late in the morning

or slagging off

a colleague or client

behind their back

or surfing the internet

until the boss

walks in the room

and then changing the thing

to pretend that

you are working.

Paul says,

work for the Lord.

I don't know if you

remember that as well

that the

Bed and the Apprentice

the last series

when we're talking

about dishonesty

where the guy

was asked to interview

about some

false claims

that were made

on his website

and the person

interviewed and asked him

did you write them

and he said,

no,

I don't know how

they came onto

my website.

And he said,

did you write them?

And he said,

well,

I could have written them.

He said,

did you write them?

Oh,

there's a good chance

I could have written them.

Did you write them?

Yes,

I wrote them.

To a world that thinks

nothing of lying

and of deceit,

Paul says,

be different,

work for the Lord.

Work for the Lord.

Show them in the way

that you work.

Show them that Jesus

is your master.

Show them how Jesus

has claimed you

and changed you

and do it all the time.

I remember the job

I was in before this one

down south.

Some of my colleagues

would get together

and they would jokingly

have their own

little award ceremony.

And one of these

little awards

that they used to

kind of hand out

every year

was the Dolly Parton Award.

The Dolly Parton Award

wasn't for somebody

who was good at singing.

The Dolly Parton Award

went to the person

who was seen to be

simply working

nine to five.

Right?

It was a corporate law firm,

very different world,

simply working nine to five.

But the subtext

of that award

was that this person

we saw

did the bare minimum.

This person we saw

was not interested

in going the extra mile.

They were quite happy

to clock in and clock out.

This person we saw

had no interest

in the business

and he had no interest

in the people

that worked there.

They got the Dolly Parton Award.

Now don't hear what I'm not saying.

I'm not saying

sell yourself to your work.

Don't do that.

But the Christians

should never be up

for the Dolly Parton Award.

We should never be up for that.

We should deeply care

about what we do

because we are serving

the Lord.

Friends,

we want to be

the best kind of employees,

do we not?

The best kind of employees.

The best to hire,

the best to work with.

Think about your place of work.

Is that how you're known?

If you were ever

to move on

from your place of work,

would people be deeply saddened

that you've moved on?

Or would they be

delighted to see

the back of you?

Do people at work

know that you work

for the higher master?

Think about how

that might work out

in your office

tomorrow morning

as you speak

about your weekend.

Do they know what you do?

Do they know

who the master is?

And to masters,

that is to bosses,

Paul says,

verse 1 of chapter 4,

remember Christ

is your master too.

Therefore,

treat your slaves justly,

treat them fairly,

treat them considerately.

And particularly

in the immediate context

that he's picturing,

if your slave

is a fellow believer,

I think that's right

at the heart

of the little letter

of Philemon,

if you want to go home

and read that,

which is written

at the same time,

written to a member

of this Colossian family

who was a slave

and a master,

talking about how

the gospel has totally

transformed that relationship.

But Paul says,

in your work,

in your work,

be walking billboards,

whatever you do,

be walking billboards

that say,

Jesus is my master.

He's my master.

So let me just ask you

once again as you close,

do you know where

your local pizza

delivery shop is?

Do you know where it is?

Paul argues these believers

to live in such a way

that when people

look at you

and they look

into your home,

they see walking billboards

that are displaying

the message,

Jesus is our master.

He's my master.

Now here's where

I want to end today.

Now you probably know

that I love to quote songs.

Here's another song

for you.

It's one that my dad

used to play in the car

when I was growing up

by Scotland's favorite son

called Rod Stewart.

And it went like this.

I wish that I knew

what I know now

when I was younger.

Remember that one?

Some of us?

No?

Some of us remember it.

I wish that I knew now,

I wish that I knew

what I know now

when I was younger.

Now here is what I know now.

Okay?

I've been doing this marriage thing

for almost eight years.

I've been doing this parenting thing

for almost four years.

I've been doing the work thing

between a mixture of part-time

and full-time

since I left school

almost 16 years ago.

And nothing has taught me more

but the depths of the sin

in my own heart

and the realities of living

in a broken and a fallen world

and my need for help

and my need for my brothers

and sisters

and for my absolute need

for the grace of God

and for a savior in my life.

I don't quite like marriage,

being a husband,

being a father,

and being an employee.

Because if we leave these verses

this morning

and the message is internal,

let's try harder,

let's be better.

Let me just tell you

from the little experience

that I've got

that we've totally missed the point.

This passage

should throw us to our knees

saying,

Lord Jesus,

we need you.

we need you.

And it should send us

running to the Christ

that's right at the heart

of this letter to Colossians.

Remember the Christ

who has claimed us,

that our identity

is not in these things,

our identity is in him.

The Christ who's claimed us,

the Christ who's changing us

by his spirit,

and the Christ who loves

to show grace

to those who would

humble themselves

before him

and say,

Lord,

I need you.

Now I realize

we'll have hit

a lot of painful things

this morning.

And I hope a lot of challenges

and a lot of encouragements

at the same time as well.

But just as we close,

let's not rush on

from this today.

And just before I pray,

and I'm going to pray

for the different people

that come out of this one,

I just want you to have

a moment of silence.

And wherever this passage

finds you this morning,

I want you just to

bear your soul to the Lord.

God,

because he knows

and he cares

and he calls us,

doesn't he,

to cast our burdens

on him

because he cares for us.

And then I'll pray

and we'll be done.

And so, Father,

we thank you so much

for the Lord Jesus,

the image of the invisible God,

the creator

and the sustainer

and the redeemer

of all things.

And we thank you

that you are the God

of all grace

and for the gifts

that you give us

so unmerited,

particularly the gift

of marriage

and the gift of family

and the gift of work.

And so, Lord,

we ask that as we respond

to this passage this morning,

I ask, Father,

for those who

are deeply hurting,

Father,

that you would bring healing.

Father,

for those who are

dwelling on mistakes,

I pray that you would bring

forgiveness

and knowledge of that.

For those who are struggling,

I pray that you would bring

strength

and endurance

and patience.

and for all of us,

lords,

I pray that you would help us

to fix our eyes

on Jesus Christ,

our perfect

and all-sufficient

Savior.

So, Father,

help us to look to him

this week,

we ask,

in Jesus'

precious

and worthy name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.