In Focus - Week 4, Pastor John Mozingo

Welcome to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.

We're so glad you're here.

Each week we share a message from God's Word to encourage your heart, strengthen your faith, and help you grow in your walk with Jesus.

We hope this time blesses you and draws you closer to the heart of God.

This is our last Sunday going through the book of Colossians.

And and uh, you know, I was I was studying this weekend.

I remembered a book that was written.

It was written in 1989.

Some of y'all probably have read it.

It was called Seven Habits of an Effective Uh Seven High Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, okay, by Stephen Covey.

Um it was one of the most popular books of the last century.

It was on the bestseller, New York Times bestseller list for five years.

Never went off, was on it for five years straight.

Um it was it was voted the number one most influential business book of the 20th century.

So so a lot of y'all probably read that, remember it.

But it it gave seven seven habits that highly effective people have.

And the cool thing was that that most of those habits, actually all of those habits, they're rooted in scripture.

So I don't know if that was his intention to to uh communicate that, but the fact that somebody said, hey, this is what this is what you know highly effective people do.

These are great practices, and all of them have roots in scripture was pretty cool.

But the the second the second habit is this it's whatever you're doing, begin with the end in mind.

Okay, if you're starting a project, you know, you you think of, okay, here's how I want this project to end.

You know, you're raising children.

You think, okay, here's what I want my kids to be like when they're grown up.

So here's how I'm going to raise them.

You begin with the end in mind.

He even suggests, you know, live your life thinking of your end, your funeral.

What do you want people to say about you at your funeral?

You know, what do you be, what do you want to be remembered for?

So start with the end in mind.

And Paul tells us the same thing.

Paul tells us the same thing.

He says, he says, set your sights on the reality of heaven.

You're going to begin with the end in mind, and that should influence your whole life.

And so he says that, and we looked at this last week, um, but I really want to dig into it more this week.

Colossians 3, verses 1 through 4 says, Since you have been raised to new life in Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.

Colossians 3:1–4

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in his glory.

Okay, so Paul says, set your sights on the realities of heaven.

Begin with the end in mind.

Because you are already, if you know Christ as your Savior, you are already a citizen of heaven.

Okay?

Your eternal life doesn't start the moment you die.

Your eternal life started the moment you accepted Christ.

And you're a citizen of heaven now.

And so living every day with the realities of heaven in mind will change the way that you think.

And when you change the way that you think, you're gonna change your actions, you're gonna change your attitudes, you're gonna change uh how you think about yourself.

All that's gonna change because you're thinking with the end in mind.

You're thinking of uh uh setting your sights on the reality of heaven.

So, you know, it's gonna change what you do.

It's gonna change what you think about other people, it's gonna change what you think about yourself.

And those changes, uh, all of that changes as you focus on the end.

And when your actions and your attitudes reflect Jesus, it affects everything you bring to the table in all of your relationships.

Every single one of your relationships is affected by uh your actions and attitudes, and when you set your sights on the realities of heaven, your actions and attitude changes.

So this affects everything about you when you think that way.

And uh and we talked about, again, we talked about it last week, but look at look at Colossians 3.5.

It says this, it says, So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking in you.

If you're gonna set your sights on the reality of heaven, you have to start by putting to death the sinful things lurking within you.

And I love the way Paul puts it.

He just makes it sound so sinister.

You know, it's lurking within you, it's waiting to pounce on you.

You know, and he says, here's what you do with it: you put it to death.

You don't, you don't just you don't just, you know, uh uh dismiss it and hope that it goes away.

You don't you don't hang on to it and dip your toe into it every now and then.

You put it to death.

It's gone, it's over.

Um then he says in verses 5 through 9, he says, have nothing to do, and he makes a big long list, nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires.

Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.

Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.

You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world, but now it is time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, uh, dirty language, don't lie to each other, for if you have stripped for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wickedness.

Okay?

So pretty big list.

And everything on that list represents something that is that is that is rooted in your way of thinking.

And if and if you put them to death and you set your sights on the reality of heaven, you're digging up those roots.

You know, sexual immorality and impurity, those those seek immediate physical and emotional gratification.

Immediate.

Rather than waiting on satisfaction in your life in Christ.

Greed desires affluence and influence instead of laying up treasures in heaven.

Anger and rage demonstrate a lack of contentment with God's plan for your life.

And lying assumes, you know, a lying assumes that the liar wants to be something that he's not or hide who he really is.

None of those.

All of those are rooted in earthly, sinful desires.

None of them are rooted in setting your sights on heaven.

All right?

And all of them affect all of your relationships.

All of your relationships are affected by that.

And Paul says, put that to death and put on your new nature.

Look at verse 10.

Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him in this way, in this new life.

It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free.

Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.

Doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter what your background is like, doesn't matter, doesn't matter what you were like yesterday.

What matters is that today you are putting on that new nature.

You're putting on that new nature.

And it says he tells us three things that are involved in putting on that new nature.

Being renewed, knowing Jesus, and becoming like him.

And that that that word being renewed simply means to grow.

It just means to grow.

And that every day you're growing to be like him.

And the the verb tense that it uses in the original language implies that it's an ongoing process.

It doesn't say that you're renewed once, it says that you are constantly, every day, being renewed.

You know, we had we had all five of our grandchildren at our house this week, and it was just it was one.

Have I mentioned that I'm a grandfather?

I've mentioned that, haven't I?

Um and and it was just great.

You know, and some of them I haven't seen in a few months, you know, and so the thing about kids is when, you know, they change constantly.

You know, and I've got my my uh she's standing up over there, and she's so embarrassed right now, but I didn't know she was standing.

Um but uh my granddaughter uh Alana is over there.

I hadn't seen Alana since the beginning of the summer, and just in that short of time, you know, she went from laying on the floor staring to crawling and responding to you, and I mean just laughing when you tickle her.

She just changes constantly.

And and if we're if we're gonna be renewed and daily growing, daily becoming like Christ, you know, people are gonna see those changes in us.

Just like I see the great changes in my grandkids over time.

People are gonna see those changes in us, and we're gonna see those changes.

That's what it means to be renewed in your thinking, renewed daily by the Holy Spirit.

Then it says we have to know Jesus.

You know, we we we we get we're renewed because we learn to know who Jesus is.

We learn who he is, we we we learn his uh character, we learn, we learn about uh the fact that he is God.

It says that he's our creator.

We learn all of that, and then we seek to be like him.

We become like him the more that we know, and that's what it looks like when you are renewed.

And that starts with a choice to put on your new nature.

And then look what it says next.

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourself with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony, and let that let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.

For as members of one body you are called to live in peace and always be thankful.

He says, first, put on your new nature, put on that nature, the character of Christ.

Then it says, clothe yourself with all these things.

And I and remember I demonstrated that last week.

I had the different shirts, and I said, you know, because when you clothe yourself, you are known for what however you clothe yourself.

You know, and I held up the first impression team shirt, and I said, You know who our first impression team is.

They are known by the shirt that they're wearing.

Then I held up the army uh uniform and I said, you know, you're there and uh uh somebody in the army is known by what they're wearing.

And then I held up the Dallas Cowboy thing and I made fun of the Dallas Cowboys, and then last week the Cowboys soundly, soundly defeated the Redskins.

And they broke our quarterback.

So if that was God judging me for making fun of the Cowboys, I owe you all, commanders' fans, an apology for ruining the season.

It's all on me.

I take full responsibility.

So if they have a terrible season, it's my fault because I made fun of the Cowboys.

But putting on, putting on uh and clothing yourself means that you're choosing to be recognized as something.

And and Paul says, first thing he says is close your clothe yourself with tender-hearted mercy.

And some of your translations, if you're looking at it, it might say, clothe yourself with compassion.

The first time that God described himself, when he said, Here's who I am, here's who you're dealing with.

It was to Moses in Exodus chapter 34.

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

The first thing he said is, I am the God of compassion and mercy.

When you choose to be recognized as a person of compassion and mercy, you are imitating who God is.

You're imitating the character of Christ, and people are going to see that in you.

People are gonna know better who Christ is for having known you.

Tender-hearted mercy.

Then it then it goes on and makes a big list, and it says, Then close yourself with kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, meet uh make allowance for each other's faults, be loving, forgiving, uh, live in peace, be grateful.

All of those represent a choice, not a feeling.

I love everything Alina said this morning.

You know, we we choose to have joy, we choose to worship because we're supposed to.

We don't wait till we feel it.

And if everything on that list that Paul just uh made that we just read, if everything on there is contingent on a feeling, it's never gonna happen.

You know?

And and the worst mistake that a believer can make is waiting until they feel like doing what they're supposed to do.

Waiting until they're motivated by their feelings to be obedient to Christ.

It's not about feelings.

It's not about feelings.

It's about saying, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna be known by these things, I'm gonna choose to do these things.

And that great big list, we're gonna we have to choose to do it.

So, you know, and like parents, think about the way you raise your kids.

You would never expect your kids to behave when they felt like it.

You know, God's the same thing.

You know, you're never gonna look at your son and go, now, buddy, uh we we want to do the right thing.

So when you feel like it, I really need you to stop strangling your brother.

Okay.

Nobody says that.

You know, we say, stop strangling your brother because it's the right thing.

We don't wait to do the right thing when we feel like it.

We don't wait to show mercy and compassion.

We don't wait till we feel like it.

We do it because it's the right thing.

We do it because we're commanded to do it.

We don't wait to show to be grateful, we don't wait to be loving, we don't wait to be forgiving.

We do it because it's the right thing.

We make the choice to do those things and to be known by those things.

So here's what that looks like.

You know, you you uh you just think think about that list and pick one.

Just pick one mercy, forgiveness, gratitude, whatever it is, whatever it is, just pick one, the one that you struggle with the most, and say, okay, today's the day.

And you start your day talking to God and you say, Okay, God, I I I know I really struggle with patience.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna focus on patience today, and I'm gonna I'm gonna trust you, and I'm gonna trust the Holy Spirit to lead me to make choices that reflect patience.

And so, you know, let's say I start my day like that.

If I start my day saying, God, I'm gonna I want to be patient today, I'm gonna depend on you to be patient.

Well, Satan is gonna start his day going, all right, we're gonna make John miserable.

And he's gonna go, All right, I want I want you to be late for a meeting, I want you to cut him off in traffic, and I want you to overcharge him for his lunch.

All right, here we go.

Ready, go.

Let's make John miserable.

Let's make sure John fails at being patient today.

Because if you determine you're gonna do something right for God, Satan's gonna determine that he's gonna stop you from doing that.

And so that means you have to talk to God all day when it comes to patience or whatever it is.

You're talking to him all day and you and you just pray, God, help me to recognize those feelings of impatience so that I can I can do the right thing.

I can put on patience, I can choose to be clothed in patience.

That's how that works.

And and if you're gonna choose to be like Jesus, you're gonna be cho you're gonna uh choose to be known as someone who lives for him.

That's what you're gonna be you're gonna choose to be known as someone who lives for him, and that that you have the character of Christ.

People are gonna see Jesus in you.

And now I said we were gonna focus on relationships this morning.

That's the the we're gonna talk about relationships.

So let me review real quick.

Okay, this this was the whole month in review.

First, we're gonna set our sights on the realities of heaven, okay?

We're gonna live with the end in mind, and then we're uh and to live that way, we're gonna put on our new nature, growing and becoming like Jesus, and we're gonna be merciful, compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, patient, forgiving, loving, and grateful.

Okay?

So we're gonna do that, and the the reason it's so important in our relationships because all of those things are played out in relationships.

You can't do any of that outside of a relationship unless you're like being merciful and compassionate to a cock or spaniel or something.

But we're not talking about that.

We're talking about people, and all of that is played out in your relationships.

You're compassionate and merciful to people that you know.

You're you're humble and gentle and patient with the people that you love.

You're demonstrating the love and forgiveness of Jesus to even to people that hurt you.

That's the way that works.

This is all about relationships.

And these things apply to every relationship that you have, starting with your family.

Starting with your family.

And I think sometimes, you know, if if you're married and you think, oh, you know, I want to I want to see what the Bible says about marriage and improve my marriage, we look up all the verses about marriage.

Or if it's I'm gonna be a better parent, we look up all the verses about parenting.

And that's fine.

But I think sometimes we forget that all those things that Paul just mentioned, everything that we're told to be, has to do with every relationship.

And, you know, honestly, if we went back and think, I want to improve my marriage, well, if we started with compassion and tender hearted mercy and forgiveness and love and humility and all that, probably probably have a pretty pretty good marriage, you know?

And so it's important that we're understanding what that is.

And so Paul makes this big list of things, and then he zeros in on specific relationships.

Okay?

And he he starts with wives, and you know why he starts with wives?

Because he's a gentleman, and ladies always go first.

Ladies thought they were in for a for a uh a beating there.

Okay, but he says this Colossians 3.18, he says, Wives, submit to your husband as is fitting to those who belong to the Lord.

So, in that whole chapter, Paul said, Ladies, in your relationship with your husband, be merciful, be compassionate, be kind, gentle, patient, make allowance for your husband's fault, be forgiving, be loving, be grateful.

And in addition to all of that, submit to your husband, because your marriage is an earthly picture of an eternal relationship.

Okay?

For every relationship that Paul talks about, there's an eternal purpose.

And for the wife to her husband, it's the demonstration of the church's response to the love of Jesus.

That's why that's why God asks you to submit to your husbands.

It's not because he deserves it, because he doesn't.

I mean, who guys, who really who in here really deserves that?

You know?

It's because you are the picture of the church's response to a holy and loving God, a God that would send his son to die on the cross for our sins.

And and when you submit to your husband and the world sees that, and your children see that, they're saying, This is what it looks like to be obedient to God.

This is what it looks like.

So there's an eternal principle, an eternal purpose for that earthly command to submit to your husband.

And then he says this to husbands, verse 19 husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.

Okay?

So when it comes to husbands, Paul says, be merciful, be compassionate, be kind, be gentle, be patient, make allowances for your wife's faults, be forgiving, be grateful, and in addition to that, love her unconditionally and never treat her harshly.

Because there's an eternal purpose in being that kind of a husband.

And here it is the eternal purpose is to demonstrate the love of Jesus to his bride, the church.

And when you're living out the character of Christ and you're applying those things to your marriage, the world sees it, and most importantly, your children see this is the way Jesus loves me because I can see the way my father loves my mother.

That's what it's all about.

You're a demonstration, men, of Christ's love for his bride, the church.

Then it says in verse 20, children, always obey your parents, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

Always obey your parents.

So he's saying, kids, be merciful, be compassionate, be kind, be gentle, be patient, make allowances for your parents' faults, be forgiving, be loving, be grateful, and in addition to all that, obey your parents because your rep your relationship with your parents demonstrates an eternal principle.

And that eternal principle or eternal purpose is that you learn to obey God by learning to obey your parents.

That's how you learn to obey God.

Okay?

Because if you can't obey the parents you can see, how are you going to obey the parent the God that you cannot see?

So you obey your parents so that you learn to obey God.

Then he says this to dads.

Verse 21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Okay?

So dad's moms too, but he's addressing it to dads.

You know, if if your response to your children's behavior creates a spirit of anger and bitterness in them, you might want to think, let's try something different.

You know, and I don't mean that, you know, when you punish your child, that they get mad.

You know, you you take your teenager's phone away, yeah, they're gonna get mad at you.

But, you know, that's normal.

But if it if it creates that spirit of anger that that bleeds over and everything else, they're just angry with you, they're angry with the world, they're angry at school, they're angry with authority, everything makes them angry, then you might need to think, okay, what what what do I need to change about my parenting?

And here's the thing if you're if if you're only pointing out their faults when it says make allowances for each other's faults, yes, we have to call our kids out when they're wrong.

We have to.

You know, that's called that's called discipline and correction.

The Bible says we're supposed to do that.

But if that's all you're doing, all you're doing is focusing on everything they do wrong, and they're not feeling the mercy and compassion and love and and humility, they're not feeling all that, then they're just gonna get to the point where they say, Why should I try to do anything right if everything I do is wrong?

And that's gonna make them angry, and then it says that they're gonna be so angry that they'll become discouraged.

And what do they become discouraged from?

Well, obeying you.

And if they're discouraged from obeying you, they're gonna be discouraged from obeying God and obeying the truth.

And they're gonna be discouraged from being part of the family of God, you know?

So, so parents, if if what you're doing with your children is just constantly making them angry, rethink the other things.

Are you are you are you doing the other things on that list?

The the character of Christ, do your do your kids see that in you in the way that you deal with them?

Then it goes on and it says, um somewhere it says, Oh, it starts talking about kind of an uncomfortable uh thing.

It says it's it starts talking about slaves and masters, and that's very different than what we know of slaves and masters.

What we know is the very awful part of it where people were were in the Bible says that this is wrong, that you don't go and steal somebody or kidnap them and make them a servant.

Bible says that's that's flat out wrong.

That's sin.

You know, but the the slavery and the master that that Paul is talking about was a legal uh and is still legal someplace.

It was we we would refer to it historically as being an indentured servant.

So so uh you you go into an agreement or court uh the court orders hey, you know, you owe this.

Person, so much money and you can't pay it.

So you're gonna work for him for a period of time.

You're gonna work for him as a servant.

Or or uh or you just make an agreement with somebody, hey, you know, I'll I'll buy this land.

I want this land that you have, and so I'll work for you for a period of time to pay that off.

That's what Paul is talking about.

So so you could take this passage and plug in the words employer and employee there, and that's what Paul was getting at.

And so he says in verse 22 uh through through verse, the first verse of chapter 4, it says, slaves or employees, obey your earthly masters or employers in everything you do.

Try to please them all all the time, not just when they're watching you.

Serve them sincerely because your reverent fear of the Lord, because of your reverent fear of the Lord, work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the master you are serving is Christ.

But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done, for God has no favorites.

So, employer, be just and fair to your employees, because remember, you also serve the same master.

You serve the same master in heaven.

So if you're an employer or an employee, you be merciful, you be compassionate, you be kind, you be gentle, you be patient, you make allowance for your employees' faults, make allowance for your employer's faults, be forgiving and be loving.

And in addition to that, you work for an eternal purpose.

And that purpose is that you are working for God and not man.

Or you are an employer for God and not man.

And here's here's the thing about this: you know, when when you're doing all those things, love, compassion, mercy, all of that, when you're doing that at work, you are you are putting into practice the character of Christ.

People are seeing the character of Christ, of people that that you don't know well, and probably a lot of whom you don't really like.

You know, are there people at work you you don't like and like you know, you you know when when they're at lunch, you you you take your lunch a different time or whatever.

You know, that that's just that just the way it is.

There are people we don't like at work, unless you work for family church, because we love each other.

Okay, but when you when you put all those things into practice daily at work as an employee or as an employer, you're choosing to put on the character of Christ around people that you don't know well and people that you may not even like.

And that that reflects the character of Christ more than anything else.

Because Christ gave up his life, even for people that that curse his name, even for people that will never, never uh recognize that he is their Lord and Savior, he still died for them.

And his character was just as much for them as it was for those sitting us, those of us sitting in here today.

So everything about our lives is a choice that we make to put on the character of Christ and to do what he says and and to live like live what Christ live like Christ lived on this earth so that so that people see him in us.

And when people see Christ in you and they know that there's something different, that's an opportunity for you to tell people, yeah, I there is something different about me, and it's it's it's Christ in me.

It has nothing to do with me.

If it were just me, you know, there wouldn't be much, there wouldn't be much to talk about right now.

It's the fact that Christ lives in me and that I've made him the Lord of my life.

And and I think it's verse 23 or 24 says that that you know when when Christ lives through us, people notice and people see that, and that that is our testimony.

That is our testimony to other people is Christ living through us.

Sometimes we think of evangelism as knowing a uh a method or knowing uh you know, knowing all the verses and stuff.

You know, it it it begins with people seeing Christ in us.

That's where it starts.

You know, nobody nobody cares what you know unless they know that you care.

And when when people when when people know that you care, genuinely care about them, then it's easy to say, let me tell you what, let me tell you how much Jesus cares.

But if you're the guy that is never loving, never merciful, you point out everybody's faults.

Or or in your family, you're never loving, never merciful, you point out, you know, in in families it's a lot easier to point out faults than it is to overlook faults.

You know?

And but if if that's if that's who you are in your family, nobody's gonna see Christ in you.

Nobody's gonna know that you care, but when they know that you care, they're gonna care who you know.

They're gonna care about who you know.

All right, let's have every head bowed and every eye closed.

If you're here today and you've you've you you've never accepted Christ as your savior, you never accepted him as your savior.

Jesus made it so easy.

There's nothing that you can do, nothing that you have to do to to uh enter the kingdom of heaven.

It is all about what Jesus did on the cross.

And because we serve a loving and merciful God, he sent his son to pay the penalty for our sin.

So it's just a matter of saying, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna choose to trust Jesus for my salvation.

I'm gonna choose to follow him.

And so if you've never accepted him as your savior and you want to do that today, you can just you can just talk to God and and tell him, hey, I'm I'm gonna trust Christ as my savior.

I'm gonna I'm gonna uh trust the fact that he was crucified, buried, and and rose again on the third day so that I can have eternal life.

I'm gonna trust in the fact that his blood was shed so that I can have forgiveness of my sin.

And I'm gonna choose to follow him.

And you can talk to God any way that you want.

You know, if you struggle putting what's going on in your heart and mind into words, you can pray something like this and just say, Dear God, thank you for sending Christ.

Thank you for sending Jesus.

Because without him, there is no way I could ever earn my way to heaven.

There's no way I could deserve a place in heaven.

So thank you that Jesus took my place on the cross so that I can take my place in heaven.

And today I trust in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus for my salvation.

I trust in his shed blood for the forgiveness of my sin, and I ask him to forgive my sin.

And I choose to follow him.

So if you're here today and you you prayed that, you prayed to receive Christ, just I'd I'd like to know so I can pray for you.

Just lift your hand real quick if you prayed that.

Okay, if you're here today and and you you need to make some decisions in your life and and you're you're thinking you're thinking, hey, you know what, I I need to I need to change the way I think.

I need to put on, I need to set my sights on the realities of heaven.

I need to put on my new nature.

I need to clothe myself as someone who is merciful and loving and kind and gentle and humble.

I need to make those changes.

You know, you you you you need to talk to God about that to help you make those changes.

And and, you know, I think sometimes because we we we associate our our spiritual growth with a feeling or whatever, I think sometimes we just sit back.

We just sit back and we wait on God to miraculously change us all at once.

You know, God's almost never going to reach down and zap somebody and make them loving and compassionate and merciful and everything all at the same time.

Those are those are things.

Remember, you're renewed constantly.

You are constantly being renewed as you submit to Him.

So, so if you just need to make those changes in your life, and you need to change the way that you think, and you need to put on the character of Christ, just lift your hand and let me pray for you this morning.

Okay?

Hands going up everywhere.

God, thank you so much for your love for us.

Lord, thank you for these folks that are here this morning that that are ready to surrender and say, I need to put on the character of Christ.

I need to set my sights on the reality of heaven and change the way that I think, change my actions, change my opinion of other people, change my opinion of myself.

All of that needs to change.

So, God, I just pray that you would bless those that have that have uh raised their hand this morning saying, Yeah, I need that change.

Lord, I pray that tomorrow morning they start their day talking to you, asking for the Holy Spirit to lead them.

Lord, I pray that as as you know, when we make a decision for Jesus, Satan puts a target on our back.

I pray that I pray that you would make that target so small.

Lord, I pray that you would surround us with people that will encourage us to do the right thing.

Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit would protect us, that the shield of faith would protect us from all the lies that Satan wants to tell us, the people he wants to put in our path, protect us from that.

God, help us to grow, to be more and more like you every day.

And so, God, we're just grateful for loving us.

We're grateful for what Jesus did on the cross.

And it's in his name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to Family Church's Sermon of the Week.

We pray this message encouraged you and helped you grow in your faith.

If it blessed you, share it with a friend and follow us so you never miss a new episode.

You can learn more about FamilyCurch at myfamilychurch.com.

If you are in the area, join us on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.

We meet at Patriot High School.

10504 at Free Drive.