A Life of Gratitude

We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 3, verses 15 to 17.

Colossians 3:15–17

And if you have your Bibles, if you could turn there to that text.

And if you don't have Bibles, there's some Bibles up there that you can take as a gift from us for free.

But just as a bit of an introduction to the text,

it's not really so much an introduction as a request that you would give me a bit of help over the next couple of weeks.

Those of you who have Bibles and you look at 3, verses 15 to 17,

you'll see that right underneath that, verse 18 begins with Canada's most popular text,

Wives Submit to Your Husbands.

And so that's the very next text.

And in fact, after that, after it talks about husbands and wives,

it talks about parents and children, and then it talks about slaves and masters.

So I just ask your prayers.

I did actually consider, because next Sunday is the beginning of Advent,

I actually did consider that we would just break after this sermon

and then reconvene these sermons in the new year.

But I decided not to do it for two reasons.

One of them was it could give people the impression that we were going to avoid the text altogether.

They'd say, oh, okay, George is fine to preach the Bible when it's things he likes,

but when it's a bit contraculture or naughty, he skips it.

And I didn't want to give that impression.

One of the things, you know, for those who are watching this online and those of you who are here,

is that we preach through books of the Bible, and that's good.

If you're a seeker or you're a skeptic about the Christian faith, it's a good thing.

It shows that there's no fine print that you have to worry about later on.

We walk towards these texts.

The other reason I decided not to hold back on it is it could give the false impression

if on January 10th, after our sort of Christmas break, people came back,

and the first thing I did was preach a sermon on wives, submit to your husbands,

people would go, why does George have a thing about this?

Like, what a weird thing to do.

So I thought, you know what, we're just going to do with it.

And at first I was going to deal with wives and husbands and slaves and masters in the same sermon.

And a friend of mine talked me out of it, not because it would be bad to have those two things together.

But as you know, there's great events causing turmoil in south of the border and north of the border here in Canada.

And for many, many, many people in the chattering classes,

it's just assumed that the Bible condones slavery and therefore condones racism

and is not at all a source of wisdom.

And so he convinced me that I'm...

So over the next...

Here's the prayer request.

Over the next two Sundays, I'm going to talk about the wives and husbands text,

and I'm going to talk about the slavery text.

And so if you could just give me some extra prayers over these next two weeks

that I could do that in a good manner,

just bringing out what the text actually says.

Now, I don't know how many of you noticed when Shane read the text,

but there's a part of what Shane read this morning that can cause a lot of anxiety for Christians.

So what we're going to do is we're just going to read Colossians 3, 5 to 15 to 17,

and we're going to walk towards this text which causes many Christians anxiety.

And we'll read the text and I'll say why it causes anxiety,

and then we'll sort of walk towards that.

We'll try to figure out what's going on in the text.

And here's what the text says again.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful.

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 thankfulness in your hearts to God.

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.

So what's the part there?

Well, there's several things which are a bit problematic.

I mean, just if you were, I think, to say to many of your non-Christian friends

that Christians want Christ to rule in their heart,

they'd think that's very weird.

Like who on earth wants some dead guy to rule in their hearts?

Like that's just a bit kooky.

We'll get to that in a moment.

But here's the thing.

I don't know.

There's enough people here and enough people watching this online

that you're probably a wide range of emotions.

I would be shocked if there isn't a single person here struggling with anxiety.

I would be shocked if there isn't a single person here struggling with depression.

I would be shocked if there isn't a person here struggling with loneliness or sadness.

There's almost definitely people here who are struggling with these types of issues

and other issues similar to that.

And so here we have a text that says in verse 15,

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful.

And I know that for many years as a Christian,

I would read texts like this or have texts like this read,

and it would actually make me feel worse.

Why?

Because I didn't have that peace in my heart.

I was struggling with anxiety.

In fact, I was lucky to struggle with it.

Anxiety was winning.

Worry was winning.

Sadness was winning.

Loneliness was winning.

Depression was winning.

And yet here we have this text,

and it makes it sound as if like real Christians are letting Christ rule in their hearts,

and they don't feel those types of things.

They're not anxious.

They're not sad.

They're not depressed.

They're not lonely.

They're not filled with worry.

And it would be even harder because I would be sitting in a congregation like this

or some other gathering,

and inwardly I'm struggling with this,

and all around, all the other people,

they have their good Christian game faces on,

and I would feel as if I was the only one

that there was some secret to the Christian life that I had misplaced

or hadn't got it,

because everybody else seemed as if that was what their life was like,

at least that particular moment in the service,

and here I was not experiencing these things at all.

And so, ironically or paradoxically,

the text that should be calling me to peace

was actually making me feel more worried,

more depressed, more alone, more sad,

because somehow or another I had missed

whatever it was that everybody else seemed to have.

And so, in a sense, the devil used this text,

which would be a help to me,

to actually make it harder.

Why is it that this text is implying

that Christians should feel and be a certain type of way,

and I was not experiencing that right this instant?

Is there something wrong with me?

And often, if you're at all,

often what happens is that two types of things happen.

I mean, one is that you can just feel worse,

but often what happens over time

is that Christians can become deeply cynical.

And by cynical, I mean there's these expectations

of the text, which are way up here,

and your experience seems to be way down here.

And so what ends up tending to happen

is you become cynical about the height.

And you know you don't go out

and try to diss it or anything like that,

but you just sort of come to the acceptance

that this is what the real Christian life is like.

And maybe roll your eyes then

when you listen to somebody in the radio

or read a book,

and they talk about these types of things,

and you've become cynical.

You've come to think that you've seen

through the appearances to reality,

and the reality is that the Christian life

is not like this,

but the Christian life is down here on a good day,

and often even lower.

And so what's going on in this really odd text then?

For those of you who've never struggled

with depression, sadness, loneliness, worry, or anxiety,

take this as an anthropological moment

to understand the rest of humanity.

But for those of us who have struggled

with these things and lost,

what actually is going on in the text?

So first of all, this text,

those of you who've been charting with us

over the last few weeks,

you'll know that this is part of a...

One way to understand it is that from...

Andrew, if you could put the chart up,

that would be very helpful.

Some of you will be familiar with this

if you've been here over the last couple of weeks,

and you'll notice that what I've been suggesting

is that in the book of Colossians,

beginning at verse 16 of chapter 2,

right down to chapter 3, verse 17,

Paul is actually presenting, in a sense,

not six steps to godliness,

but in a sense, if you...

It's as if there's a...

You know, if you shine a light into a diamond,

you see a range of, you know, colors

and everything that come out of it,

and it's as if, if you're sort of to reverse engineer that,

there's these six aspects to how it is that God grows you.

And so it's not like a step-to-step to success,

but it's just trying to bring before you, in a sense...

Like if you were to try to break down

what it was involved in running or walking,

those of you who, if you know occupational therapists

or physiotherapists,

they break down simple motions

into the different aspects

to do something which is just one motion.

In some ways, what Paul is doing here is describing...

And this is one way to put it together in the Bible.

There's other ways which are fit with it.

The six aspects of how it is that God grows you.

And so you might remember...

And so what we're looking at in verses 15 and 17

is the last two aspects of these six aspects.

We're looking at the one

where you let Christ rule in your heart

and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it begins, the chart begins,

some of you will remember,

where Paul says there's this fundamental choice

that you have to make.

Are you going to grow yourself

or is God going to grow you?

And for a Christian, you're made right with God,

not because of you being able to do it,

but because God does everything that needs to be done

in the person of his Son

and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

He does everything that has to be done

to make you right with him.

But a lot of us, we believe that,

but then we go on and act as if

becoming more like Christ is mainly up to us.

And so Paul has this section

and the end of it is,

who's going to grow you?

Will you grow you?

Or will I grow me?

Or will I let the Lord grow me?

And he hopes that you come to understand

that you have to make the choice

that God will grow me.

And I share, in fact,

if you can put up that picture,

I shared that, in fact, what happens is

we have this, you know,

human beings apart from Christ

are like a cut rose,

cut off from the ground,

cut off from the source of life.

And when we put our faith and trust in Christ,

in a sense, we are reconnected

to the source of life.

But it's more than that.

We're reconnected to the source of eternal life.

So all of our self-help projects

are really cut rose projects.

But God doesn't want to make us

into a cut rose.

He wants to make us into a giant sequoia.

And some people said

they didn't know what a giant sequoia is.

So I asked Andrew to find a picture.

Giant sequoias are the biggest trees

on the planet.

That's to give you just a tiny little bit

of a sense about how big

a giant sequoia is.

So we, in a sense,

one of the wonderful things

about being a Christian

is God, in a sense,

is saying give up your small ambitions.

Give up your ambitions

to be a better cut rose.

Like, die to those.

Don't you realize

that I want to connect you

through Jesus

to the eternal life of the Trinity,

the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

That's my plan.

And I want you to die

to your cut rose projects

because no cut rose

can connect itself back to life.

And beyond that,

you connect yourself to me

in eternal life.

I have a big surprise for you.

I'm not making you into a rose

that's connected to the ground.

I'm turning you into a giant sequoia.

And only God can do that.

And so, if you go,

yeah, there's the chart.

If you realize that's the first step,

that in a sense we have,

not the step,

but it's one aspect.

Only the Lord can grow me

into something that will be fit

for eternal life

and eternal fellowship

with the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

Only God can make me

so that when I see Jesus,

I will be like him.

And then, well,

what's another aspect of it?

The second aspect of it

is you set your mind on Christ.

And that,

I talk about how

we set our mind

on all sorts of things.

The Bible says

there's lots of times

we should do it.

Maybe every day

or going into meetings

or certain types of situations

where I say,

God, help me to set my mind

on Christ

and all his risen,

given that he died for me

on the cross,

set my mind on Christ

and all his risen,

sovereign,

Trinitarian glory.

And then,

another aspect of that

is I'm saying,

God,

you have to grow me.

I put myself in a posture

for you to grow me.

I'm going to set my mind

on Christ.

And I come to realize

I have to put things off.

And they use the illustration

of clothing.

That I go into situations

and I'm motivated by rivalry.

I'm motivated by a desire to boast.

I'm motivated to show

that I'm always right.

I'm motivated,

you know,

maybe by lust

or by greed

or by desire for power.

And I have to put those things off.

That's the clothing analogy.

And then,

the Bible is so wise

because it's not just putting off.

I think as I shared with it

when I was talking about it,

one way of defining somebody

who only breathes out

but never breathes in,

it's called death,

your final breath.

So the Bible doesn't just call you

to breathe out the stuff.

You have to breathe in.

And so,

you know,

God,

only you can grow me.

Help me to set my mind

on Christ

and all of his risen,

sovereign,

Trinitarian glory.

Father,

I realize that I have this rivalry

or this boasting

or this pride.

Help me to put it off.

I take it off.

Help me to take it off

and put on,

and you put on humility,

on love,

the different Christian virtues.

And now there's these two other steps

and it's very important

because the Christian life now is,

the Christian life,

you are in Christ

when you put your faith

and trust in Jesus.

You are in him

and he is in you.

So you face life

not by yourself,

but in him and with him.

And that's now

where these two verses come.

And so,

just again,

what do they say?

It says in verse 15,

and let.

That's give permission.

Invite and give permission.

That's what let means.

Like,

in a sense,

to say to Christ,

Lord,

please speak and rule

in all of my heart.

No area is out of bounds to you.

I hold nothing back.

Make your home in me

so I may live a grateful life

for your glory.

It's inviting

and giving him permission

to come in.

Verse 15,

and let the peace of Christ

rule in your hearts

to which indeed

you were called in one body

and be thankful.

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 thankfulness

in your heart to God.

That's the letting.

And then the final thing,

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.

But,

once again,

there's some of us here

who struggle,

right now today,

are struggling with sadness.

We're struggling with grief.

We're struggling with anxiety.

We're struggling with worry.

We're struggling with these things.

And we read this text

about let Christ rule in your heart

with his peace.

And we're not feeling that.

And maybe even right now,

you thought,

that's a brilliant prayer

that you just prayed,

George.

I'm going to pray this right now.

And dang it,

after you pray the prayer,

you still feel anxious,

you still feel lonely,

you still feel sad,

you still feel grief.

So what on earth is going on?

So here's the problem

that we Christians have.

We Christians,

we just think of peace,

this type of peace,

in one way.

In fact,

we just think that

there's really no other way,

ultimately,

to think about it

other than as a type of,

a set of pleasant emotions.

And that's what we understand by it.

Like in our culture,

we talk about negative emotions,

negative emotions,

and positive emotions.

It's just,

I hear Christians use that language

all of the time.

And,

and,

uh,

uh,

pleasant,

uh,

positive emotions

are ones that we feel pleasure

in having.

And negative emotions

are ones that we don't feel

any pleasure in having.

And we just assume

that when we see the word peace,

that we're asking God

to give us this set

of positive emotions

which we identify with peace.

And we just so completely

and utterly believe that,

it's hard for us to imagine

that the Bible,

like in a sense,

if Paul was,

he could go back in time

and tell Paul,

this is your problem

with what he just wrote,

he would look at you and said,

huh?

Like,

haven't you ever heard?

And he would ask you,

because obviously they knew

that there were feelings

and emotions,

I mean,

it wasn't as if

that was just invented

by North Americans

70 years ago.

People had emotions back then.

But he would understand,

no, no,

the text isn't talking about

God giving you emotions,

it's talking about

something objective,

to which we would then

go to him,

huh?

Like,

how does that even make

any type of sense?

Do you mean objective?

Do you mean it's permanent?

No.

So here's the analogy,

and here's,

I think,

an analogy that would help

you to understand it.

Imagine that you're off

in the bush

or something like that.

Compassion gets you

to go on some remote

little compassion project

a week down the Amazon

or something like that,

and you break your leg.

And while you break your leg,

they can't really fix it,

or they sort of fix it,

but they do a really crappy job.

You and your buddies

do a really crappy job.

And it hurts the whole time,

and in fact,

it even starts to set,

but it's not setting correctly.

However,

it's not that bad

because one of the people

on the tour

have a lot of drugs,

and they basically

just give you enough drugs

all the time

that rather than feeling

the broken leg,

you actually feel pretty good.

You have to hop everywhere,

but you actually feel pretty good.

And so,

that's the difference

between subjective

and objective.

You see,

what we tend to think of

is it's something

like a feeling.

In other words,

what we're really thinking

when we read this text,

we want God

to give us a drug

that will make us feel

positive emotions.

But God said,

no,

I'm going to fix

the broken leg.

Like,

I'm going to bring you health.

That means,

I'm going to break,

re-break your leg

because it didn't help,

it didn't set,

right.

Yes,

you heard me right,

George.

I'm going to re-break

that part.

I mean,

that's what you want

the doctor to do.

I don't know how many

of you have watched,

one of my favorite movies

is 13 Hours.

I'm a sucker

for real life

war heroism movies.

It's like,

I'm a sucker for it.

And it's based,

13 Hours is a movie

based on

2012

Benghazi

in Libya

when the US

ambassador to Libya

was killed

and the compound

was overrun

and there was a big battle

around another compound

and it was

a story about

these six

special forces

contractors

who basically

defend this reel

for 13 hours.

Anyway,

that's the movie.

It's not a spoiler,

but one of the people

in the movie

gets hit by a mortar

and it wrecks up

his leg.

Other things happen

to the rest of them.

And one of the things

about the movie

is at the end,

if you watch the movie

right to the end,

they show you

the picture of the person,

what the person

really looked like.

And I can't remember,

but I think to get

his leg fixed,

it took 13 surgeries.

It was something like that,

13 surgeries

to get his leg fixed.

And so you see,

that's what's going on.

That's what the piece is.

That's what you're

asking God to do.

You're asking Christ

to come in

and rule in your heart

and what you're asking

him to do

is to do those surgeries,

those breaking

and re-breaking

and the surgeries

and the splints

and all of the discomfort

to be healed.

That's what he will do

objectively.

You see,

if we had a friend,

like if that person

was our friend,

the person who needed

13 surgeries,

and he said,

you know what?

They can just give me

an endless supply of drugs

that makes me feel good

and I'll just hop

for the rest of my life

on one leg.

You'd say to him,

you're nuts.

Like who on earth,

like what rational person

would ever choose that?

Right?

That's how we would do it.

So in the text,

when it's saying,

when you're saying Christ,

because Christ is the

Prince of Peace,

right?

What is Christ?

Christ is the one

who by his sinless life,

the life that you could

never live on your own,

has lived the life

that you need to live

but you were never

able to live.

And his death

upon the cross

is a dying

for the,

all of the consequences,

all the just accusations

and consequences

against you

which are properly yours

that,

you know,

should properly fall on you,

properly fall on you,

they fall on him.

And so he both,

in a sense,

clothes us

with his righteous life

and he deals

with the consequences

of our sin

and so when we put

our faith and trust

in him,

he enters into us

and we enter into him

and he makes us

right with God.

He reconnects us

to the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit,

the life of the Trinity.

He reconnects us

objectively.

The lowliest person,

the worst person

who puts their faith

in Christ,

that's what objectively

has happened to them.

Not God weighing your merit,

saying you're a good boy,

pretending you're a good boy.

No.

He says,

you're a really terrible person.

I know you're a really

terrible person.

In fact,

God says,

you're vastly worse

than you even imagined.

You're vastly worse

than your enemies

who think you're bad.

You're actually worse

than that.

But I love you.

And Jesus came

to die upon the cross,

taking all of the worst

that you have done

and dealing with that

in terms of the consequences

that were required

by justice

and by love

and by goodness.

And the life

that you could never,

ever possibly live,

that is what will clothe you.

And when you put your faith

and trust in my son,

who's risen from the dead,

he makes you right

with God

and reconnects you to him.

And so he

is the prince of peace.

And when we ask him

to come and rule

in our hearts

and our minds,

he's saying,

well, George,

I could give you

an overwhelming emotion

that would just cover up

all those things within you

which are broken.

I could do that.

But wouldn't you rather

be fit for heaven?

Wouldn't you rather

have those times

when I break you?

Break you out of love?

You ask me to rule,

I will rule.

I will come to break

and to heal,

to reconnect.

And not only that, George,

at the end of it all,

you won't just be a rose

connected to the plant.

You will see me

face to face

and I will smile

and say,

I am so glad

you are here.

And then you will see Jesus

and your great,

complete and utter shock,

you will be like him.

And I have been working

on that

and that's my plan.

That's what I will work on

in you and with you.

That's what you're asking

Christ to do.

You are asking Christ.

When you say,

Jesus,

Jesus,

I please speak

and rule in all my heart.

No area is out of bounds

to you.

I hold nothing back.

Make your home in me

so I may live a grateful life

for your glory.

You put yourself

in that posture.

I can't grow me.

I can't fix me.

But I know that when I,

as I read your word,

because that's what

the word of Christ is.

The word of Christ

is in a sense,

it's the good news

of the gospel.

The good news

of the gospel

in the context

of what all

of the Bible teaches.

And it's what

all of the Bible teaches

in the context

of the gospel.

That's what the word

of Christ is.

It's not just the Bible.

It's the Bible understood

in light of the gospel.

And it's not just the gospel.

It's the gospel understood

in light of all

of the Bible.

That as we read

the word

and we read the word

and we say,

Jesus,

I'm not just,

I know it's not just

a matter of reading words.

This is the means

of grace.

You have said

that you not only

are to rule in my heart

but you can't,

he can't rule

if he doesn't speak.

Can he?

And how can he speak

without ruling?

When our kids were young,

I would like to tell them,

this would be one

of those dad things,

they'd probably all

roll their eyes at me.

That's fine.

That's kids,

dads say things,

kids roll their eyes.

That's just,

it's part of the dance,

right?

And I'd say,

this is a democracy.

Every one of you kids

has one vote,

my vote's worth a billion,

your mom's vote worth a billion,

let's vote two billion to nine.

Okay?

I guess we're going to do this.

But it's a democracy.

I just happen to get

a billion votes.

It's the same type of thing.

If God's speaking

into your life,

it can't possibly be,

well,

my wife says this,

my daughter says this,

and God says this.

Well,

God,

it's two against one.

I guess I'm going to do

what my wife and daughter says.

No,

he can't speak

without ruling.

And he can't dwell

without ruling.

And so in the text,

look at it again.

And let the peace of Christ

rule in your hearts,

to which indeed you are called

in one body

and be thankful.

And 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 thankfulness

in your hearts to God.

And some of you are saying,

well,

this is a bit of a confusing text

because it seems to be

talking just to you,

but then it seems to talk

as if it's talking

to all of us.

And here's one of the things

which is so important

in the Bible.

I know there's a whole pile

of Christians which say

you're not supposed to dance.

But this text

is introducing us

to the profound call

to the great dance.

And in that great dance,

it's this.

The Bible always speaks

to us personally.

It speaks to me

as George.

George,

you need to die

to your cut rose projects.

You need to realize

that only I,

this is in a sense

what God is saying,

George,

you need to realize

that only I can grow you.

You need to put yourself

in a humble posture

of obedience

so that I can grow you.

And set your mind

on Christ

and put off your sin

and put on virtues

and call out to me.

I'm so wishing

for you, George,

to call out to me

in today

and say,

Jesus,

speak in my heart,

rule in my heart.

There's,

you have all of my heart.

I have no conditions.

I hold nothing back.

In the heights of my heart,

the depths of my heart,

the widths of my heart,

the heights and depths

of my life,

in every emotion,

in every thought,

every penny

under my control,

all my time,

come and speak

and rule in my heart.

I know you will bring peace

because you are

the Prince of Peace.

And God wants us

to say that to him

in a humble posture

of obedience

and to say it over

and over and over again

because we live in time

and it's not as if

we just say it to him once,

just as if I only said

to my wife once,

I love you

and then you should just

believe me

for the rest of your life.

We would all know

that that is inadequate.

That's not how

human beings function.

It's no different with God.

Like, I don't say these things

hoping that if I say it

to him enough

that he'll finally

love me,

it comes out of the fact

that I said it to him once

for him to become

my Savior and Lord,

that I say it to him

time and time and time again.

It's because I need to.

I need to come to him

time and time again

because it's so easy

to allow rivalry

or boasting

or pride

or envy

or greed

or impatience

to start to rule

my life.

I need to keep,

remember,

oh yes,

okay,

set my mind on Christ,

put off this.

Father,

help me to put on love

and humility

and let come in

and rule

and speak.

And here's the great dance.

It's a personal word to me,

but it's a word to all of us

at the same time.

You see,

it's not just that I'm to have

my private times

reading the Bible

or to listening to

some beautiful music

that has spiritual words

and biblical words

and wisdom

that can speak to my heart,

but I need you

to tell me things

about the Bible.

I need you

and others to teach me.

I need you to sing.

I need you to sing

while I'm here.

And you need me

to do that to you too.

You need to hear me singing

and speaking the word.

You see,

it's this dance between,

if you go,

I think there's like 70

or 80 times in the Bible

the phrase one another,

in the New Testament,

the phrase one another comes.

There's all these

one another texts

and that's the wonderful dance.

We're constantly being reminded

of the one another,

but we're also constantly

being reminded of the one.

It's not just the one,

the one,

the one,

the one,

the one.

It's not just the other,

the other,

the other,

the other.

It's the one

and the one another.

There's this dance.

You see,

that's why we need

to gather and worship.

It's why we need

to be in small groups.

It's why we need

to have mentors

and spiritual friendships.

It's why we need

to have Christian families.

families.

It's why,

you know,

especially during this time

of lockdowns

when families

can't bring their kids

to Awana

or bring their kids

to Sunday school,

it's really important

for parents

to not just watch

Messiah Kids online,

but to maybe embrace

the discipline

of doing the New City Catechism

with your family

throughout the week

or the Heidelberg Catechism

or making sure

there's a time every day

when you just read

a Bible story

with your kids

or for moms and dads,

but especially,

it's often moms.

Most of us really learn

how to pray

from our moms.

I'm not saying this

so that dads

can get let off the hook,

but it's often the moms

that are really the best

at teaching their kids

how to pray

and to pray for your kids

and to say grace,

like the means of grace

that you need

to take on in your home

because we need

Christian families.

We need small groups.

We need spiritual friendships.

We need that.

We need the one another.

We need to have it

that there's a wide group.

And by the way,

in case I suggested this

to Amy

because she's singing today

a psalm,

a hymn,

and a spiritual song,

by the way.

We sang a hymn

at the offertory.

We're going to sing a psalm

and then we'll sing

a spiritual song.

That's just a bit of a,

I thought,

whoa, you know,

it can be organized

occasionally here

at Church of the Messiah.

So,

just one final thing

about this text.

So,

this is the let,

right?

The let is just,

is saying,

having this posture

where you say to God,

you know,

I could go on

and on and on

and on about this

because it helps you

to understand

why so many things

that the world,

our culture

at a certain particular time

says are fine

or just completely abhorrent.

You know,

if you went back

in time to 1860,

a slave owner

couldn't say,

Jesus rule in my heart

except when it comes

to slavery.

That would be,

a slum landlord

couldn't say,

can't say,

come and rule in my heart

except when it comes

to how I deal

with my tenants.

If,

if,

if you were watching this

and you're,

and you have a sweatshop,

you can't say,

Lord,

come and rule in my heart

except when it comes

to how I deal

with my employees.

You can't say,

Lord,

come and rule in my heart

except when it touches

on my sexuality.

You can't say,

Lord,

come and rule in my heart

except when it comes

to how I handle money

and whether I'm going

to be generous.

And the call is,

okay,

you can come,

Lord,

and be the Prince of Peace

in my guest room

and in the workshop,

but everywhere else

is out of bounds.

No.

Lord Jesus Christ,

Prince of Peace,

I invite and give you

permission to come

into all of my heart.

I hold nothing back,

nothing at all.

Please rule in it

and speak into it.

And one just final thing,

the final text,

the do,

verse 17,

and whatever you do

in word or deed,

do everything in the name

of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Lord Jesus,

giving thanks to God

the Father through him.

It's our memory verse

for the week.

All of these three verses

could have been

the memory verses,

by the way.

They're good verses

to memorize.

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.

And obviously,

because it's part of this,

in a sense,

this set, right?

It doesn't mean,

oh, I can lie

in the name of Jesus.

I can cheat

in the name of Jesus.

I can steal.

No, no,

those are things

that you're putting off,

right?

And it's not just saying

that you should be thankful

for the terrible thing

that happens to you.

It's not calling

to be thankful

for the fact

that the doctor

just said

you have stage 3 cancer

or the doctor

just tells you

you have a serious

heart condition

or you've just heard

that you've had

a terrible financial setback.

It's not saying

be thankful for these.

What it's saying

is that

you don't walk

the Christian life

by yourself.

I mean,

not only do you have

the one another,

more importantly,

you do it with Jesus.

And you have to do

whatever you have to do

to deal with that

stage 3 cancer,

whatever you have to do

to do with the heart problems,

whatever you have to deal with

to do with the financial setback

or the relational setback

or the job setback

that you've just had.

You have to deal with it.

But you do it

in the name of Jesus

giving thanks to the God,

the Father.

You're doing it,

giving thanks.

One of the things

you're primarily giving thanks to

is this.

The end of the story

changes the whole story.

The end of the story

changes the whole story.

And remember,

at the beginning of this,

what do you do?

You set your mind

on Christ

in light of the cross.

You set your mind

on Christ

in all his risen,

sovereign,

Trinitarian glory.

Because at the end

of the story for you,

if you are in Christ,

whether the end

of the story is

because Jesus returns

before you die,

if you're one of the lucky ones

who will be here

when he returns,

or if it isn't

in the moment of death

when you see God

face to face,

the end of the story

for you is that

God the Father

gives you the biggest smile

you have ever seen

in your entire life.

And says,

I am so glad

you are finally here.

I am so glad

you can see me

with no veil,

nothing hidden.

And the end of the story

is that not only

does the Father

give you the biggest smile

that you have ever seen,

radiating warmth

is that you then

see Jesus.

And the next thing

you know,

you look down

at yourself

and you don't even

recognize yourself

because you have

become like him.

And that is the end

of your story.

And so you can walk

towards difficulties

and you can walk

towards troubles.

And you can walk

towards successes

and you can walk

towards joys

and you can walk

towards growth

and all of those things,

but you can do everything

in the name of Jesus,

giving thanks to God

the Father,

grateful for grace.

Here's this final thing

I want to share with you.

It's a real,

it just,

I wasn't going to talk

about it.

It was in my notes,

but as I was driving here,

I just really felt

that I needed to add it,

even if it adds

an extra minute or two

to the sermon.

To understand verse 17

is to completely

and utterly

begin to lose

the pagan sense

of God's will

that captivates

the church.

You see,

many Christians

have a completely

pagan notion

of God's will

that if it comes down

to me trying to discern,

should I go to this school?

Should I go to Ottawa U

or should I go to Carleton?

Should I go to Ottawa U

or go to Queens?

Or should I get this house

or should I go to that house?

And a lot of times

we Christians

have this understanding

that if you miss God's will,

your life is screwed.

You know that the rest

of your life

is just in turmoil

because you should have

gone to Ottawa U,

not Carleton,

or whatever it is.

You should have taken job A,

not job B.

You know,

you should have done whatever.

And that's a pagan notion.

Do you see that anywhere

here in verse 17?

It doesn't say,

and whenever you finally

figure out what God's will is,

then all these good things

will happen,

but if not,

it sucks to be you

because your life

is screwed up.

No,

that's not what it says.

What does it say?

Obviously,

it's not saying

choose sin and God will...

No,

it's saying,

you know what?

Think through the best thing

about whether you should

go to this university

or that,

or which house you should buy,

or which job you should take,

or when you retire,

or, you know,

whether to plant roses,

or what...

Like,

think the best thing you can.

Like,

pray about it and think about it.

God doesn't want to...

Do your life with Jesus,

but you know what?

Whatever you do,

whether you go to Ottawa

or you're at Carleton,

or you work for this job

or that,

or you...

Whatever you do,

do it in the name of Jesus

with thanksgiving,

and you know what?

God is going to bless you.

He's going to bless you.

He's going to make you into...

He's only making you

into a giant sequoia.

It's an invitation

to living

in a way better way.

Andrew,

could you put up

the final point,

please?

I'd like you all to stand

because I bring the sermon

to an end.

And the final point

is a bit of a prayer,

and it's...

I put it down as,

Lord, speak and rule

in all my heart.

No area is out of bounds

to you.

I hold nothing back.

Make your home in me

so I may live

a grateful life

for your glory.

That's trying to summarize

the whole teaching

of this text.

And it's the culmination

of the text.

And one of the things

which I invite you...

You know,

you can use your own words.

I write this down

because maybe it would be

something that'd help you.

But, you know,

for those of you

who haven't given

your life to Christ,

this can also be

a conversion prayer for you.

Like, it's both,

in a sense,

very, very real sense.

The way,

if you haven't...

If you've not always

been a Christian,

and this could be...

If you speak to Jesus,

he hears it,

and he'll do this.

He will make his home in you.

Like, he will do it.

And for those of us

who are Christians,

it's just part of living out

verses 15, 16, and 17.

It's a prayer

for every day of our life,

for the rest of our life.

And for those who haven't

given their lives to Christ,

it's the beginning of new life.

So, there's no...

You don't have to say it

out loud with me,

but if the Lord

puts it on your heart,

if you would join with me

in praying this prayer.

Lord,

please speak and rule

in all my heart.

No area is out of bounds

to you.

I hold nothing back.

Make your home in me

so I may live

a grateful life

for your glory.

We should add in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, let's just pray.

Father,

we ask that you would

bring these words home.

We thank you, Father,

that you don't just want

to give us drugs

that covers over a leg

that...

or things in our lives

that would require

13 surgeries.

Father,

you don't just give us drugs,

leaving us broken

and rotting,

but that you bring life.

You want to reorder

and heal us

so that we are healthy

and whole

and fit for heaven.

Father,

we thank you

that you are vast...

you have a vastly wiser

and better plan for us

than what our culture

suggests we need.

And we ask, Father,

that you help us

to fix our minds

and keep our minds in Christ.

Help us to be faithful

in reading your word

and sharing your word

and singing over each other

and speaking into

each other's lives

and speaking and receiving that.

Father,

help us to be such individuals

and such a church

all for your glory.

We ask not only

for those at 8,

those at 10,

and those who are part

of our online congregation,

Father,

we ask for this wonderful act

of reformation

and revival in our lives

all for your glory.

And we ask this

in the name of Jesus

and all God's people said,

Amen.