Roots & Fruits – Living for Others

Well, good morning. This is a different look.

Hey, yes, I'm not wearing a black shirt or denim.

Let me go ahead and get that out of the way.

This actually is a different uniform.

So everyone be cool. Everyone be cool.

I'm thankful to be here. I'm thankful for this amazing

team. Aren't you glad we have such

amazing, talented musicians? Not just talent and skills, but

their heart is man, I'm so glad that we get to do small group

every single week and we get to open the word and be encouraged

how to live our lives like God wants us to live.

And so today I'm thankful for the time that we get the chance

to speak. Pastor Alex is out of town, but

I'm thankful for him and his consistency and how he brings

the word. Tears or no tears, he brings the

word, Amen. And we, I'm so thankful that we

have a pastor like that, that has no problems making you or me

uncomfortable because the Holy Spirit is telling him to say

what needs to be said to change our lives.

And so this morning, we're going to talk about some stuff as we

continue our series called Roots to Fruits.

And if you're like, oh, that's kind of catchy, It is.

We worked on it really hard. I'm kidding.

It's simple. But thank you to ChatGPT and all

the good things that it gives us.

Come on, you guys know that AI was going to get involved here

somehow. Hey, we are in chapter 3 of

Colossians. So grab your Bibles.

Go ahead and get them open. We're going to open that in a

minute. We're going to stand and read

just in a few minutes. So I'll get you to stand back

up, but have a seat for a moment.

Just don't get too comfortable. OK, So we're going to talk about

a moment of fruit. And what is it?

What's the life cycle of fruit? And you're thinking, Brad, this

is a really weird way to start. It is.

That's just who I am. But I'm kind of a nerd and I

like looking at things. I like looking at the scientific

stuff and all that that goes with it.

And so like the life cycle of fruit just starts as a seed and

it becomes a sprout, moves into a vine or a tree, into a flower

or a bud, and then into the fruit that we find on stands or

counters at the stores and the markets.

Like I love strawberries. I love apples and oranges and

raspberries and blueberries, all these amazing things.

But if they're just fake fruit, there's not really any real

substance to them. I mean, they look good.

And a lot of times I think in our lives we have this fake

fruit that we are putting on the table per SE of our lives and

let that be the actual outward work.

But it's artificial. We let that fruit show when

really God wants us to be real living fruit that has good

things attached to it. So fruit is good when obviously

we take everything and it's delicious, it's good for our

bodies and our minds. It has vitamins which are

essential to a living a good life, good building blocks.

And that's the cool thing is our series on roots to fruits has

built on that idea of what it means to have good roots so we

can bear the fruit that God wants us to bear in our lives.

And so pastor, Pastor Alex spoke on week 1, asking God to fill us

and asking what is God's will for us.

Week 2, we looked at the supremacy of Christ in our lives

and having Jesus be the center of all things.

And week 3, last week, Pastor Alex reminded us of the

challenge, but also the command to set our minds and our hearts

on things above. Now, we had some amazing helpers

last week to help to find the stool.

Yeah, you guys remember that? I watched, I paid attention.

But I also have done this way more than Pastor Alex has.

So I don't need somebody to do the example, but it's a great

reminder that we have the focus that we need to find the stool

in our lives when we need to focus on what God has for us.

And so we need to stay faithful and bear fruit.

And so the whole story of the Bible, and maybe you'll agree

with this and maybe you won't, but the whole Bible is about God

and it's not about us. Like the whole story is about

him, it's his story. We're just taking these pieces

and these chapters and verses and we're opening him up and

letting God speak to our hearts to change us.

And so as we get into this, we need to be reminded that Paul,

as he wrote this letter while in prison to the Church of

Colossae, he made Jesus this in his centrality in our lives.

Everything is about God and Jesus, especially working in our

lives. He's the main idea of the entire

letter. So Colossians 312 through 17 is

talking about living for others, which is where we're going to be

at today. So what does that look like?

What does God call us to do? And so before we open the word,

let me talk about habits. We all have them.

Yes. Raise your hand if you have a

habit. Come on.

That's everybody. Thank you.

And if you didn't know, the students know.

I'll talk to you guys, right? I interact with you, I ask you

questions, and I like responses, right?

So for adults, if you like to give me a responsive Amen or uh

huh or come on, or that's right, or bring it or whatever, I don't

care. I like when people talk to me

because it reminds me that I'm actually speaking what God wants

me to speak. I'm not going crazy.

I'm not going off the the cuff that much, but I might.

But habits, we all have them good or bad.

The one bad one that I had that my wife hates the most is I bite

my nails. I'm sorry, I'm not perfect.

I know, I know, everyone keep your seats.

But the good thing is I have good habits.

But we have to remember that the habits we want to make in our

lives take time to build good habits or take time to break the

bad. And so like, one good habit that

I have, I try to stick with is I love to run.

I know, I know. I'm one of those guys.

Everyone's like, who are these idiots running on the sidewalks

or on the roads just for fun? Fun.

It's hot or it's really cold and it's it's exhausting.

It hurts. But I love to run because it's

good for my body and for my mind.

And so I like to use headphones, listen to podcasts, or maybe you

have like a Wreath of the Bible app and you are just listening

to the word and you're getting saturated and covered with it

while you're walking or running or riding a bike.

But I run half the time with headphones and the other half

not because I've almost been hit by a car a few times because I'm

not paid attention. Oh, imagine that Brad almost get

by a car. We still paying attention.

That's right. I I take it it's it's my it's my

cross to bear, I guess in that case.

But I take them out a lot of times because I want to hear not

just the music or the podcast, but I want to hear God's

creation. I want to stay non.

I don't want to be distracted by whatever I'm listening to, which

goes back to focus the pastor Alex talked about.

But when I run, I like to keep my headphones out to listen to

God. The birds chirping, the dogs

barking if I get too close to their property.

I've had that happen a few times too many.

And but also to hear the rain pitter patter on the concrete,

to hear the wind rustle through the trees, to know that God is

doing things regardless of me doing it.

And so the habits that we have and implement in our lives, what

are those that God wants us to have?

We need to put action to changing those things that maybe

aren't the best. And it does take time.

And so we have to think about week 3, which is chapter 2.

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

Seven through 11 says we get put to death our earthly nature and

rid ourselves of those old things.

So this morning as we continue, Pastor Alex had this really big

idea that he gave me from last week, talking about the inwardly

work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

That transformational work is what's giving us the ability to

love outwardly and to become more like Christ.

So this morning, can I invite you to stand with us one more

time. We're going to read God's word.

We stand as Pastor Alex says, and I agree with this, in honor

of God's Word is a powerful, living, active thing in our

lives, and it's here to give us guidance.

So here's the word of God this morning from chapter 3, verse

12. Here's what it says Therefore is

God's chosen people, wholly and dearly loved.

Clothe 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.

Let's pause for a second. This is how I read this time my

brain works. I'm just going to let you in the

inward fruit of our lives. That's the transformational work

leads to the outward love in Christ likeness.

So we need to forgive as the Lord forgave us.

Let's keep going verse 14. And over all these virtues, put

on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Pause one more time. That's God's love.

That's not me acting on my abilities and my skills.

That's God's love working through me.

And without God's love in our lives, we cannot be clothed

properly. Let's keep going to verse 15.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of

1 body you were 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, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with

gratitude in your hearts. 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.

Amen. Thanks for the God.

You can have a seat. We're thankful for the Word.

We're thankful for what it does for us.

So I'm going to go ahead and give you the meat to the message

up front. I'm just going to give you the

three points, and we're going to unpack them a little bit.

Number one is to clothe yourselves #2 is for the peace

of Christ to rule in US. And then the third one is

everything is church. But that doesn't make sense yet,

so just bear with me. Everything is church.

Slow down, OK? Don't worry.

I'll say them again. You're ready #1 clothe

yourselves #2 peace of Christ rule in US.

And then lastly, everything is church.

So the first one, clothing yourselves, what does that mean?

What does that look like? In verse 12, Paul tells us what

we need to do. And I've got some just

definition, so bear with me. I'm going to roll through these.

I won't speak too quickly. My wife already told me slow

down, be cool. So first thing is compassion,

that's an emotional response of recognizing another's suffering

or feeling compelled to ease it. And some of us are really good

at compassion and seeing a need and helping to ease that need or

that suffering. Kindness is an intentional act

of empathy and compassion to help others without expecting a

reward. Humility, being other centered

and not me centered. Gentleness is being kind,

tender, or considerate in our actions.

And finally, patience. Let's just pause there for a

second. I am like Pastor Alex, that I

have road rage. I'm sorry.

I know. I'm just going to go ahead and

say it again. I bite my nails and I've got

road rage. I'm sorry.

My wife hates it when we go on trips.

She's like, please don't get a ticket.

Please don't pull up too fast. She she corrects and she

lovingly tells me to not do something stupid.

So I appreciate her, but patience is one that I know that

a lot of us have challenges with, but this means to endure

the delays, frustration, or adversity with calm instead of

anger. We do these things because our

identity is in Christ and He has chosen us.

The beginning is telling us that because we are holy, we're set

apart and we're chosen. That is how we can clothe

ourselves with these things is because Christ has done the

work. Speaking of forgiveness, which

is in chapter 3, verse 13, it's defined as ceasing to feel

resentment against give up resentment or to pardon.

A lot of times we think of forgiveness maybe in the in the

case of looking at like a crime drama or an attorney making the

case to release someone for prison for being wrongly

convicted. They're forgiven of that,

they're released of that, but we have to forgive since the Lord

has forgiven us. You guys all know the Lord's

Prayer. Even if you're not a Jesus

follower, you've heard it somewhere, some shape, some

form, but a lot of times we roll through one of the most

important parts starts out and then it goes into God give us

daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin

against us as one translation or forgive us our trespasses as we

forgive those who trespass against us.

A lot of times we just forgive us and lead us not into

temptation. O Lord, no, we need to forgive

as He forgives us. And that is really hard, right?

You guys, are you really good at forgiving people?

No hands. That means we all got a problem

with it. I know that I have a challenge

with it, but because that's part of that humanity, that's that

sin nature that I've got, that's frustrating.

But God tells us we need to forgive us, forgive others as he

forgave us. And have we sinned against God

in multiple times, multiple ways?

Yeah, because again, that's our sinful nature.

But Matthew, Peter is asking Jesus in the book of Matthew and

it says God, what? What do we need to do?

Jesus is when it comes to forgiveness.

And Jesus tells Peter to forgive 70 * 7, but he's not giving a

limit. And I heard a really cool

example this week is Jesus wasn't telling Peter, OK, if

this person sins against you 490 times on the 491st, you don't

have to forgive him anymore. That's not how that works.

What Jesus is doing in Matthew 18 is he's actually giving a

foundation of grace and unbounded forgiveness.

Our society says I'll forgive you, but I'll never forget it.

I'll forgive you, but I'm going to put it in my pocket for later

and I'm just going to Whoops, there it is.

I didn't forget. Too often we do that right?

I do we, we all do this thing, but that's not what God's

wanting us to do. And Paul is challenging the

reader to say that we can't be that way.

And it's OK that forgiveness takes time.

It's OK that building good habits takes time.

We have to know that the Holy Spirit's working on us.

That's that inward transformation to go and be the

outward work. So verse 14, let's look at this.

It says and over all these virtues put on love, which binds

them all together in perfect unity.

Let's just hold this for one moment.

Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all

together in perfect unity. Love is the focus.

It's our motivation as we interact with our neighbors, the

people at the coffee shops, the peoples at the airport, our Uber

drivers, your friends at school, the people at your job that

drive you bananas. Love is the focus and our

motivation as we interact, that's the big commandment that

God gives us is to love God and love others.

We are motivated by it. John 1334 and 35 says this, a

new command I give you to love one another.

As I have loved you, you must also love one another.

So by doing this, all men will know that you are my disciples

if you love one another. I mean, First Corinthians 13 is

all about love. I mean, I went to an awesome

wedding yesterday. We celebrated Nina and Austin

getting married. And this was a big reminder that

love is patient, kind, doesn't envy your boast, is not proud,

not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not

delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.

Love protects, trusts, hopes, always perseveres.

That's the abbreviated Brad translation.

But The thing is, is no matter what, these words are a reminder

to us that without love we have nothing.

And I think we forget that in our relationships a lot of

times. We can have lots of ability and

gifts and skills, but if we don't understand that love is

that foundation, then we don't have anything.

So we've got to clothe ourselves as God requires and bind those

things together with love. The inward change, the inwardly

change is becoming what others see outwardly.

So .1 is to clothe yourselves, compassion, kindness, humility,

gentleness, and patience. Point #2 is for the peace of

Christ to rule in US. Week 3, Pastor Alex talked about

setting your minds and your hearts on things above.

So not the old self, but the new.

What's happening right now. God's peace is leading us to

thankfulness and the Word of God.

Like we talked about a moment ago, it's alive and active.

It's always continually guiding us.

And it's such a great promise to remember that.

So verse 15 talks about let the peace of Christ rule in your

hearts. Here's the deal.

I did some digging and I listened to a bunch of really

good messages by way of this great resource called YouTube.

And there's some really, really smart people that brought this

all up. And they all said the exact same

thing. And I was like, well, if they

all said it's got to be true, right?

We've seen those commercials. I mean, if you all say it's not

found on the Internet, it's got to be true.

Well, they did have some context and they pulled from different

commentaries. And they said the word rule in

this passage is like an umpire or a referee in sports.

They make the calls in the sports.

What's a foul, a strike or a ball goal, No goal.

I mean, I'm a soccer guy. I love it.

I played my whole life. The World Cups coming in a

couple weeks, Good luck getting around town because there's

going to be tons and tons of celebrations.

I love it, but I used to also referee because as a player I

know that I needed a good referee to tell me if I did

something stupid or if I got a penalty that affected my team

negatively. I needed to know how to correct

that. And so as a referee, I wanted to

then guide players that were younger, maybe inexperienced or

not mature enough to know what that really looks like.

And so whether they like the call or not, they had to abide

by it. So when we have Christ ruling in

your hearts in this way, we need to be thankful about the

decisions that even if one is not that when I would make

freely, the correction is not one that I like to have made.

We need to know to be thankful and let Christ rule in our

hearts. Verse 16 jumps and says that the

let the word or the message of Christ dwell in you richly and

dwelling is not like a a long term Airbnb.

Everyone like to go to the beach.

Anybody go to the beach? Cool 9 of you come on man.

Don't need to travel more east or go South.

I I love that when we lived in Georgia we could go to the beach

and it was close. I know Ohio's doesn't really

have beaches except I go to Great Lakes maybe, I don't know,

I haven't been to Michigan yet, but but I know that the beach is

a place that where a lot of people go and relax and vacation

and it's a difference of slowing down.

But a lot of times we go and get like a hotel room or a Airbnb or

a vacation rental. I mean, even if you're there for

a week or 10 days, two weeks, or if you're blessed and you're

retired and you snowbird, you're dwelling for a really short

time. In this context, in verse 16,

this is saying that it's not a vacation, but you're remaining

in this for a long time to live as a resident.

So you are making this your home.

So we need to let the Word, the message of Christ, take up

residency in US richly and in our hearts.

So we live in the understanding that God has good things for us,

correction included, and that we can have hope living in that

promise and that truth. So the point #2 is let the peace

of Christ dwell in US or rule in our hearts.

So point #3. Everything becomes church.

Brad, what are you talking about?

How can everything be in a church building?

Well, as you guys know, the church is not the building but

the people, right? We're the body of Christ.

So every conversation, every correction or even wisdom

gained, it all leads us to worship God and to give him

thanks, not just singing upbeat songs that give us, you know,

kind of pump us up. Like, I know a name is a great

reminder. Like we sang it this morning and

it's a great song that says, I know these things about Jesus.

He's a healer. He's a sustainer.

Chains break, dry bones come awake.

I mean, yeah, that's cool language.

But do you trust that you know that that that's what we sing

about this about him. And so having those things that

allows us to give thanks to him and to worship God and

everything that we do. And so the constant prayer, the

constant worship of God and remembering his goodness and

blessings in our lives, we should be thankful for those

things. So the second part of verse 16,

if you check this back out with me, it says let the message of

Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one

another with all wisdom. Admonishment means to give some

type of correction, earnest advice or even encouragement as

a warning. Correction is not a bad thing.

I know we don't like being corrected.

I don't like being told that I'm doing something wrong, but

especially when it's from those who want to come alongside us in

our walk with Jesus. We are disciples being

discipled. We are doing the thing that

Jesus called us to be right. Does that make sense?

It's not just like, oh, here's some cool laws and here's the

the order of the day. It's you and me living life

knowing that neither one of us is perfect, but knowing that

God's love ruling in our hearts and motivates us to be more like

him, to love other people like he loves us, to forgive as he

forgave. Verse 17.

Whatever you do in Word or deed, do it all in the name of the

Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

This covers all of our lives, not parts.

Too much time between the church and secular community.

We try to separate things to say.

Oh well, I'll have my church family, I'll have my school

family, I'll have my work family, I'll have my running

group, I'll have my arts and crafts group, I'll have my

knitting group. Whatever.

I'm just giving random examples because often we block people

into small boxes and we think that because they're not

attached to church on a Sunday that we shouldn't love them the

same way. Because it's a different day,

because it's a different group, because there's not church

attached to it. This covers all of our lives.

That we should do all of it in the name of Jesus.

Work, home, play, our conversations, our social media

posts, our status updates, the stories.

There's no division between the spiritual and the secular.

We give God authority by living this way.

So you have to ask the question, are we, am I putting off the old

self and setting up my life for the practical steps in our

relationships, work and home to be more like Jesus?

And I think that's hard for a lot of us because we see it as a

set of rules and then we go back to life.

Well, I can't interact with my coworkers this way because then

I'm going to be seen as some Jesus freak, Bible thumper,

whatever. I have a guy on our worship

team. I'll leave him quiet, almost any

names. But he had a really good

interaction with his boss and he has come to me and said, Brad, I

need you to pray with me about my boss.

He's got him a really hard time. He is in a really low place,

going through some really bad physical ailments, a really bad

diagnosis, and I just want to keep talking to him by Jesus.

I was like, do it. Keep talking to him.

All we can do is just love him like Jesus loves us.

And he's like, yeah, I agree. And over time, this person has

seen the fruit that this person has in their lives and says, I

see what you're doing. I want to be different.

This person didn't radically just jump over like, I'm going

to be a pastor today and I'm going to love this person.

I'm going to take up an offering and then we're going to sing a

song. No, he loved them.

He loved his boss, prayed for them, gave of their time for

them. To me, that's the kind of love

we need to have for our friends in our workplaces, in our homes,

in our jobs, and in our schools. All out mission, everything is

for God. So when we worship, we praise

God for what He's done, is doing, and will continue to do

in our lives. I have this really cool Bible.

I can't lift it up because it's really heavy, but it's what they

call a parallel Bible, which means there's two versions of

the Bible in there, has the NIV and then the message.

The message is really simple because it's more common

language talk, you know, so it's easier for some people to have,

but it loses some of the context.

But I thought this last part of the verse, the passages that we

read hearing in the message may give us a little bit different

context. So I'm going to read it to you.

Here's what it says. This is from 14 to 17.

It says forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave

you. And regardless of what else you

put on, wear love. It's your basic all-purpose

garment. Never be without it and let the

peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with

one another. None of this going off and doing

your own thing and cultivate thankfulness.

Let the word of Christ, the message, have the run of the

house. Give it plenty of room in your

lives. Instruct and direct one another

using good common sense and sing, sing your hearts out to

God. Let every detail in your lives,

words, actions, whatever be done in the name of the Master,

Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

That's exactly what we need to do and that's how we should

respond. Some people ask my wife all the

time, what's it like with Brad? I am a chaos hammer, OK?

I am here to wreck whatever you think is going to happen.

I just want to mess it up. My wife is great because she

holds me together and she gives loving correction all the time.

But one of the things that it says here at the end in the

message version, it says sing, sing your hearts out to God.

It's like a constant Spotify playlist in my house.

I don't shut up. You're like, oh, that'd be nice.

No, it's terrible because every time you think of singing,

tapping, playing instruments, drumming on microwaves or plates

or cups, I always do that again. I'm a chaos hammer.

I just knocked it out of the park because I don't know how

else to be. I'm I'm wired differently, but

this is reminding us as Jesus followers, we need to sing with

everything we have. Not one type of music, not one

certain song. If you like the traditional, you

like the hymns, cool, sing them. Declare God's goodness over your

lives in whatever capacity you can.

You should celebrate and be thankful for what God's done and

is doing in your life. This is not a quiet thing.

Sing with all your heart, all your lungs.

I can get loud and sound team hates it when I do that,

especially Shane. He's not here today either.

But but I can say that because, but they, they want me to not

destroy these things because if you get too loud, you can mess

these things up. And so I want to make sure that

when I'm singing with everything I have, Sunday, Wednesday,

Monday, every day of the week, everything I'm doing is for God.

It's hard for us, I get it. Am I always joyful?

No, I smile a lot. I try to encourage a lot because

I know that if I need encouragement, so do you.

I know that if I need to be reminded of kindness with

humility, so do you. We need to love people better

than we do, but we also need to have humility.

We need to clothe ourselves. We need to let God's peace rule

in our lives. And lastly, when we do that,

everything becomes church. It all just becomes celebration

and continual worship. So maybe we're going to respond

in a different way. So worship team, if you could go

ahead and come on up and we're going to respond in just a

moment, but for just a few moments as we're getting in

place and maybe some musical play, I want you to think about

these questions, OK? I need you to ask yourselves, do

I clothe myself with the things that God says?

Am I compassionate but maybe not patient?

Am I kind, but maybe not so humble because I want to receive

the credit, I want to receive the reward?

Maybe you're the sweetest person, but that humility really

needs some work. Do you allow Christ to rule and

be the umpire or referee of your heart and life?

Maybe you have a really hard time with correction and

admonishment. What about trusting that

everything you're doing is for God?

Maybe that's where a lot of us may find ourselves today is we

don't recognize that everything we do is for Him and about Him.

Is everything church for you or do you just show up on Sundays

just to do the thing? I know I've said it from here

before as we've LED that it's just not just a check box that

you mark. And then she said, oh, I made

church today. It is an everyday thing.

It is a lifestyle choice to choose to worship, choose to

honour God with everything we have.

Maybe you need to trust that everything we're doing is

forgotten. And if you're just showing up on

Sunday, maybe today is the day you change.

And you say, maybe I need to realize that I can worship

tomorrow and not just have a Sunday faith.

Maybe I can worship Wednesday when my kids yell at me because

they're having a hissy fit about something I don't agree with.

I'm still going to worship God. I'm still going to trust that

he's good because his blessings overwhelm me.

I mean, you wonder why pastors cry all the time Because we're

blown away by how good God is. And then sometimes you don't get

it the way we get it. Meaning we see it.

We see the way God's working in your lives, but you don't see it

in that moment. So down the road you come back

and you say, hey, I remember this thing.

I remember this time when I was in this really hard battle, I

got that really terrible diagnosis and you prayed for me

and God showed up. God's faithful God is good.

And I promised myself I wasn't going to cry like Alex, but I

am, because I need to be reminded sometimes that God's

goodness is not just on Sundays and it's not just when it's easy

for me and easy for you. So take your Sunday faith, move

it into the rest of the week, and remember to clothe

yourselves. There's one more verse I want to

read, and then we're going to sing.

And in a few moments we're going to have communion.

We're going to take this, we're going to respond.

This is a physical response and we're going to take it together.

So in a few moments, can I have you stand with us?

I'm invite you to stand. When we come and grab communion.

They're going to be places all around and people holding trays.

But just take the elements and hold on to them for a minute or

two and then we'll take communion together in the middle

of the song. But chapter 3, verse 23, this is

the last verse I'm going to read, but I want it to be a

challenge for you today. Here's what it says.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for

the Lord, not for the, not for human masters.

This is heartfelt work. It is not always easy.

It is not always fun. It's heartfelt.

We honor God with our actions. What are we doing to respond to

a God has been so good, so faithful, so loving God, today

we're thankful. Thank you for your work.

Thank you for the challenge. Thank you for the ways that you

have asked us to not stay where we are, but you've asked us to

clothe ourselves with these virtues and to bind them all up

in love. God, may you get all the glory

and honor. This is all for you.

It's not about us. This is for you.

May we respond, maybe at the altar, maybe in our seats, maybe

going to find someone that we have a fractured relationship

with. Maybe we're holding bitterness

against them today. God speak to us.

Continue to work as we sing these final words, these lyrics

that say that you provide not us, not my work, you provide.

God, you're so good. We trust you, move in this

place. Love you.

Amen. Come respond.

Take the elements.