The New Man's Resolutions - Colossians 3:15-17

0:50We've seen in Colossians chapter 3 that Paul has turned his attention to practical matters. He's dealt with all the doctrine. He's dealt with the knowledge that they need for the most part. He'll cover it again some later. But now he's turned from that, having armed them against the false teachers, and is saying how that knowledge, that doctrinal knowledge, is going to help them in their practical life, in their day-to-day life, in their character. You can see this in chapter 3. Look at chapter 3. You can see this because we have so many commands. Look at verse 2. Colossians 3.2. Set your mind. On the things that are above. Verse 5, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Verse 9, do not lie. Verse 12, put on.

1:45Verse 18, submit. Verse 19, love. Verse 20, obey. We could go on and on and on. You can see that this part of Colossians is full of all these different commands. And most of our commands so far in this list have addressed our minds and our hearts. So he's commanding us things that we need to actually change about our inner man, the things that we think, the things that we feel. That's what the commands have been so far. And starting in verse 18, which we're not going to get to today, starting in verse 18, he's going to change to commanding us more about our actions, our deeds, the things we're supposed to do. But in our text today, he's still addressing our hearts. But before you roll your eyes and say, oh, great, another 50 things I'm going to have to fix about my heart, we need to remember that this heart work is such hard work because of how rotten our hearts are, right? Before we know Christ, we've built up all of these sinful tendencies. We were wicked. We were against God.

2:59But God. God doesn't walk on eggshells in Scripture. He's faithful. He's true. He's honest. And he's given us His Word. And He wants our hearts to be humble. He wants our hearts to be contrite, to tremble at His Word. So when we come to a text like this, we rend our hearts and not our garments. We till the soil. We let our hearts be cut deeply again by the Word of God because really we want what God wants. We want a heart like His. And so we joyfully come to a text like this and we fix what we need to fix.

3:41So so far he's told us to fix our minds on the things above, keep thinking about heaven, where Christ is. And then he's told us to fix things about our hearts. There are things that we need to put off and things that we need to put on. There's stuff that belongs with the old man that we need to put off and stuff that we need to put on. We replace immorality and covetousness and lying with love and patience and kindness and all these other things. We do the hard work to change those clothes. That's what we studied last week. And we didn't say this last week, but really that's biblical counseling 101. If you were to take a seminary class on biblical counseling and you paid the credit to take this fancy class, probably the first text you're going to turn to is this one. Least one of the early ones. This is foundational. This is a huge part of the Christian life that we remember who we are in Christ. We remember all the realities that he's changed about us. And then while we remember that, we put off what doesn't fit with that reality and we put on what does. It's foundational.

4:54Now he's going to continue giving us some more instructions about our heart. And we know from chapter 2 that we can't force each other to celebrate different special days or festivals or feasts. He told us that in Colossians 2. So I'm not forcing any special celebration on you. But I know that many of you already like to celebrate the new year. It's an exciting time. And I know that many of you like to come up with resolutions. We do in our family. Maybe one or two that we can work on this year. But I also know that many of you have probably forgotten to actually sit down and work some out. So maybe your first resolution should be to stop procrastinating.

5:39But if you need more resolutions, you're in luck because in verse 15 through 17, that's our text for today, Colossians 3, verses 15 through 17, Paul is going to give us more commands about our heart. And so as we look, I want you to see four resolutions for the Christian. Four resolutions for our heart. We want to have a heart full of peace, a heart full of gratitude, a heart full of scripture, and a heart full of devotion. Peace, gratitude, scripture, and devotion, four resolutions, four commitments that you can work on this year, or just this week, or just today, things that you can apply. So follow along as I read. Verse 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body. And be thankful.

6:36Let 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. Let's pray. Father, as we come to this text, I pray that you would help us make it plain. You've communicated to us in such a way that's easy to understand. It's easy for us to get and to apply.

7:14And so I pray, Lord, that as we leave church today, that we would know this text, that we would know what you expect of us, and that we would joyfully resolve to see. Fill our hearts with these things. We want our hearts to be full of the things that you want our hearts to be full of. And so I pray that you'd help us not only understand, but also help us be convicted and help us change. In Jesus' name, amen. So the first resolution that Paul gives is a heart full of peace, a heart full of peace. We want to have a heart full of peace. Look at verse 15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Back then, they use peace in all of the same ways that we use the word peace. It could mean in the New Testament peace between us and God, since God has reconciled us to himself and made peace between us. It can be peace between nations that aren't at war with each other. They're at peace with one another. It can be peace between people, maybe people in our church, peace between one person and another person, a peaceful relationship. And it can be inner peace, freedom from turmoil and anxiety. And I think that in our text today, that's what he's talking about, is that last one.

8:50He says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. So he's talking about that peace that we have inside. This peace is counted by Paul to be a huge blessing, and we know this because he's always talking about it in his letters. He's always including it in his letters. At the beginning of his letters, he always says, Grace and peace, grace to you, and peace from God. Does that sound familiar? He's always blessing the recipients of his letter with this. And in verse 15, he says that we should let this peace rule in our hearts. We want to let peace control our hearts. We want to let peace be chief in our hearts. We shouldn't be controlled by anxiety, but by peace. And so, when we're tempted to worry, we control that by making sure that peace is in charge, making sure that peace is chief. It rules in our hearts. This peace comes from knowing that we're actually at peace with God. We've been reconciled to God. We're at peace with Him. It's the peace of Christ. It's the peace that we find in Christ. And so, when we know that, we can be peaceful in our hearts.

10:10He says that this is actually the expectation for us. So, this might to you sound like something that a super Christian might have to be peaceful all the time. And of course, none of us are peaceful all the time. But he says that this is actually the ordinary expectation. For all believers, if you're a Christian, you were called to peace. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which, indeed, you were called in one body. So, this is something that you were called to. When you became a Christian, you stepped into a life where you can be at peace in your own heart because of what Christ has done for you. It's an expectation, and it'll evidence itself when we are together as one body. If we are thinking about the peace we have with God, and that gives us this peace that rules our hearts, then it's going to make us at peace with one another. He says, in one body, we're unified as one body when we're acting like this.

11:19Now, Paul knows people, he's a pastor, he knows that people are full of turmoil, he knows that we tend to not be at peace. Jesus knew the same thing, he commanded us not to worry, he commanded us to trust the Lord. But Paul still gives us this command. He knows this isn't our tendency, so he has to command it that we need to make sure we're at peace. We need to make sure that we're letting peace rule. That's something for us to obey, to have this peaceful heart. And so, how do we do this? How do we get a peaceful heart?

11:59Well, I think. Since he says it's the peace of Christ, and since he says we are called to it when we became a believer, I think that we have to rest this peace in our salvation, in what Christ has done for us. And so, again, we come back to that same pattern that we've seen all throughout this chapter: that if we're going to obey this commandment, what that means is we remember what God has done for us, we remember all the realities that are true, that we are reconciled to God. That's our expectation.

12:33So, we work hard to quiet the turmoil in our hearts by forcing ourselves to remember Christ. Practically, what that might look like is in a moment of anxiety for you, when you're starting to worry, when you can feel that coming, maybe in that moment, you just have to stop and repeat the gospel to yourself, like we talked about last week. Remember how God has forgiven you and given you peace. Or if this is becoming a habit in your life, if you're often anxious or worried, then maybe you need to take a more offensive stance instead of a defensive stance. Maybe you need to, in the morning, prepare your hearts to have this kind of peace, to think ahead of time: okay, today I know I'm going to be tempted to be anxious, so I need to be at peace. So, what can I do in the morning? I can go over the truths of the gospel, I can remember what Christ has done.

13:32Let peace rule. Let it control your heart. Make your heart a heart full of peace. The second resolution is a heart full of gratitude. We want to have a heart full of gratitude. Verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. Short and sweet, right? He sneaks the command in there at the end of verse 15: be thankful. But just because it doesn't take up a lot of space here doesn't mean that Paul thinks it's not important. He's actually mentioned thanksgiving over and over and over and over in this letter. We've seen it in every chapter. In chapter 1, Paul thanks God for the Colossians. He thanks God for their faith, for the love that they have for one another. But then he says that he's praying for the Colossians. He's praying for them, and one of the things he prays for them in Colossians 1:12 that we read this morning is that they would be giving thanks. So Paul gives thanks. Then he prays that they would give thanks. Later in chapter 2, he commands them to walk in Christ. And in chapter 2, verse 7, he says that part of that walk is to be abounding in thanksgiving. That's not just a little, right? That's abounding. Abounding in thanksgiving. In chapter 4, verse 2, Paul commands them to be watchful in prayer, and again, he mentions thanksgiving. As they're being watchful in prayer, they should be giving thanks. So this is all over this letter to the Colossians. Be thankful, be thankful, be thankful.

15:20It's a vital part of our life. And in our text today, he mentions it in every single verse. Look at verse 15. We have our command at the end of verse 15, be thankful. But then in verse 16, he says that our songs should be from a heart of thanksgiving. At the end of verse 16, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And then in verse 17, 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 he is repeating this over and over and over. It colors the whole letter, that our whole life is to be one that's lived from a heart of gratitude. It should be our permanent attitude. So what should we do?

16:12We should take the time to work on this. I think we can pray in thanksgiving at the beginning of every meal. Most of us do that. It's a convenient time to remember. But we could also do other times. We could pray at the end of every meal, too. And thank him for what we just ate. Thank him for the time together. As a family, we can thank him at the beginning of the day. We can thank him at the end of the day. We could take time to write down some of the things we're thankful for. A lot of us do that at Thanksgiving, but we could do that all the time. Some things that we don't ordinarily thank God for. Just think of more blessings. We want to do whatever we can to foster this attitude of thanksgiving, to make it part of every action we do. He mentioned it in our text today, he mentioned it with our songs. So while we sing in church, we should have a thankful heart. He mentioned it with our words. He says, in everything we say, we need to have a thankful heart. And he mentions it with all of our deeds. We should be giving thanks. So throughout all our life, all our day, we should be giving thanks.

17:23Well, the next resolution is the most detailed. We have a heart full of peace, a heart full of gratitude, and a heart full of scripture. And I think this one is maybe the most convicting for many of us. We want a heart full of scripture. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. Verse 16, 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 the With thankfulness in your hearts to God. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

18:10Let the Word of Christ live in you abundantly, richly, extravagantly. Have the Word in your heart. Fill up your heart with the Word of Christ. The Word of Christ is probably the Bible as a whole, Scripture. It might be maybe just the gospel message that he's talking about, kind of the Word about Christ, the gospel, maybe that's what he's saying. Or he could be saying the words of Christ when he was on earth. We need to remember his teachings in the gospels. But I think that he intends that the whole Bible, all of Scripture, we want to let it fill us up. We want to be filled with Scripture and store it up in our hearts until we are rich with God's Word.

19:02So how do we obey this command? We read the Word, right? As much as we can. A lot of times we have a backwards focus on this. We said this in Sunday school, that we think in terms of a minimum. How much do I need to read today? Okay, I'm going to read 10 minutes every day. That's my commitment. And once the 10 minutes are done, you know, I'm done. I can start my day. But that's the backwards attitude of what he's having in this passage. In our Sunday school class, we saw how the people were desperate to hear Ezra read the Word of God. And I think that should be our attitude. We should want our hearts to be extravagantly rich and full of the Word of God. That's a different attitude. Instead of asking, How much do I need to spend today? You could ask, How much can I get away with? How much can I possibly spend in the Word of God?

20:01We can fill our minds with Scripture by listening to it. You can listen to it on your phone. You can listen to it while you drive. You can fill your minds by chewing on the things that you read that morning. Maybe you do only have 10 minutes to read God's Word. Well, then you can take that and think about it all day long. You want to be full of it. You want to be filled richly with God's Word. That's what he's saying. You can rehearse Pastor Tom's sermons throughout the week. You can apply what you learn from the sermons. You can think through the outline that he gave for the sermon. You can think about his main points. You can remember, as we're in the Gospel of John, what Jesus is saying to the crowds and the Pharisees. You can dwell on these things and make your hearts full of scripture. Consider treasure, consider scripture, excuse me, consider scripture a treasure and heap it up in great amounts.

21:00Consider Scripture a treasure and heap it up in great amounts in your life. What will it look like if we're doing this as a church family? Well, if we are individually letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, then it's going to dwell among us as the body of believers when we're together. Our conversations are going to be colored with this. We're going to be talking about the word. Our songs are going to be colored with this. It's going to change the way we are together. If we're individually rich with God's word, then our church body is going to be rich with God's word. Paul mentions three things in verse 16. Teaching, admonishing, and singing. Those are things we're going to do together. Look at verse 16. 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. These are outworkings of what it will look like if we are filling our hearts with Scripture, teaching in all wisdom, admonishing in all wisdom, and singing with thankfulness. So, first, when the word is dwelling richly in us, we're going to teach one another.

22:18Pastors are going to teach congregations with the word. Sunday school teachers are going to teach their classes. Sermon junkies are going to teach all of us. Parents are going to teach their children in the church. Older women are going to teach younger women. All of us are going to teach each other. So, when we're letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we'll be eager to teach each other. We'll be eager to talk about it. And we'll be eager to listen to other people talk about it. And that doesn't mean necessarily that when you teach your friend in the church about something you learned that day, you're not saying, you know, I'm the teacher, you're the student. Listen up, right? You can just teach them something you studied that day. I do think that this is mainly talking about pastors and teachers in the church that are teaching the congregation, but I think it should be pervasive. If we're all supposed to have this word dwelling in us richly, then I think we should be eager to teach and eager to learn from each other. The second thing he says is that when the word is dwelling in us richly, we will admonish one another. We'll admonish one another with the word. This is another word for teaching, but it's got a more negative connotation. This is more like a warning. You're going to somebody and confronting them about something they need to stop doing. They need to cease. That's what admonishing is.

23:58So out of love and And out of a heart that's filled with scripture, we're supposed to admonish each other. We're supposed to confront each other. That's one of our jobs as brothers and sisters in Christ. And if we're not careful to be humble, if we don't set up our hearts to be willing to accept this, then we're not going to accept it. We're going to get offended when somebody comes and tells us you're not acting like the Word of God says you should act. But if you're humble about it, then it's going to be a blessing to you. It's going to be the wounds of a friend. It's going to be a blessing. So if the Word is dwelling in us richly, if it's dwelling in us abundantly, if we're extravagantly full of the Word of Christ, then we're going to joyfully receive admonition, and we're even going to carefully give admonition to one another.

24:54Third, when the Word is dwelling in us richly, we'll sing with each other. We're going to sing the Word. This is another way that the Word is active in the church when we're full of the Word. Is that we're going to sing with each other. 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. Grammatically, these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs I think are actually part of the teaching. And then he says, singing. With thankfulness in your hearts to God. So, this is part of teaching and admonishing one another: when we do these things together, when we sing together, we are teaching each other, we're admonishing one another. And that gives a greater importance to our singing, right? That it's not just individual worship, it is individual worship. We sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God, is what he says. But it's also something that we have a responsibility to do together, that we're helping each other when we sing together. So, it's not only individual, it's also congregational.

26:09We're not certain what these types of songs are that he mentions. You may have noticed he says psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. A lot of times, psalms in the New Testament is used for the Old Testament book, Psalms, but not always. A lot of times, hymns was used in their culture to be like a hero song, of like a great hero. So, maybe he's talking about us singing about the victories of Christ, the resurrection of Christ as a hero. But again, that one's not all the time. So, really, all we know for sure is that what he's saying is there's a variety. These are different kinds of songs: psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. There's a variety when we get together and we sing together. Another thing we know from this passage is that when we are together, That there's a certain attitude we're supposed to have. He says, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. So when we sing, we're supposed to be grateful people. We're supposed to be singing from a grateful heart, like we looked at earlier.

27:13Several people from this congregation, a lot of people, were able to go to the Sing Conference, I think, several months ago in the summer. It's a huge blessing to this congregation. It filters down to all of us because we get to hear the songs that they bring back from that and be blessed by the music. But they also, the Gettys, or the people who put on the conference, they also wrote this book called Sing. And in this book, whenever they talk about thankfulness, they're talking about our text that we're looking at today. And they say this: Deeply felt thankfulness produces a sound from our voices that is robust and enthusiastic. Most of us will sing with some grit in a sports stadium or in a happy birthday at a loved one's party. How we sing reveals how we think and feel about something.

28:17It's a lot to think about, right? If we are really having this thankful heart when we sing, and if we're really paying attention to those around us as we sing, it's going to change. The way we sing. We're not just going to be singing and be bored. And, you know, this is another thing I have to do in the church, right? No, it's coming from a pure heart that's thankful, that's singing with gusto, like the Gettys say, robust and enthusiastic. We need to be grateful singers. So in our text, we see that we're supposed to sing a variety of songs. We're supposed to sing scriptural songs because we're being filled with the word of Christ. We sing with each other and we sing with gratitude. It's important. And sometimes we think that we're respecting the word of God by saying something like this. Maybe you guys have said this. I know I've said this before. By saying, you know, I'm going to be late to church, but it's okay. I'll still be there for the sermon. I'm going to miss the songs. And of course, that happens to all of us sometimes. But I think if we're letting this become a habit, then I think we're actually disobeying the word. In an effort to respect the word by making sure we get there for the sermon, we're actually disobeying the word by missing the songs. Paul is saying these songs are important.

29:44So let's try and show up earlier to our church services so we don't miss the songs. Okay? I challenge you even to get here five or ten minutes early. So maybe you can sit down and prepare your heart to sing with that robust and enthusiastic. Enthusiastic voice to sing with a heart of thankfulness, to be mindful of the way you're challenging your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Gettys give us a few more applications. I'm going to read them to you.

30:14So, when you're called to sing at church, stop drinking your coffee for a moment, put your phone away, and look around and listen to the people standing about you. You are not an only child, this is your family. You and these folk around you are the only eternal pieces of this fading world. You're called to serve them by singing with and to them. If you're singing the songs as a member of the assembly of saints, then don't just sing, but think: what are you singing? How does it point you to Jesus as He reveals Himself in His Word? What truths are being laid on your heart, and how is your singing being used to lay them on the hearts of those around you? It's a lot to think about. It's convicting, and I think we can take the challenge to be mindful of the way that we're supposed to sing as a congregation from thankful hearts.

31:16We've spent a lot of time on this point that we want to have hearts full of scripture, or as it says in the parallel passage in Ephesians, we want to be full of the Spirit. It. And if we're letting the word dwell richly in us, then we're going to be a church body that teaches one another, that admonishes one another, and that sings with one another. So, for the sake of your brothers and sisters, fill your heart with scripture. Let that be something you do this year or this week. Fill your hearts with scripture. Let it abound within you. It changes the way we are when we're gathered together. The final resolution, our fourth resolution, is a heart full of devotion. Peace, gratitude, scripture, and devotion.

32:11And I mean a subservient, loyal devotion. Like you would say, I'm devoted to this. You are the Lord Jesus' representative, and you're to be devoted to him. So, verse 15: 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 heart to God. And verse 17, listen to this: In whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

32:58Whatever you do. Word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul says that we are to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, what he means is that we're acting as representatives of Jesus. We are his servants. We're acting on his behalf, for his sake, according to his desires. We are his, and we act in his name. And while we do so, we're giving thanks to God the Father through him while we act in his name. I think you could picture a servant or a slave, a grateful one, maybe in ancient Rome when they had stewards of the household. And this servant had been taken in, and his master had given him everything. He's taking care of him, and he loves his master.

33:55His master has fed him and given him a home. He respects his master. And even when he's in someone else's company, when his master's not around, he's not going to listen to people speak ill of his master. And he's certainly not going to do it. Everything he does, he's devoted to his master. He's loyal to his master. I think that's the kind of attitude that Paul is indicating here. That Christ has saved us and done everything for us, and we are to have this humble, great Attitude towards him. This loyal devotion that says, okay, Christ has done this in my life. I am going to live my life for him. I'm going to do everything in his name. And while I do it, I'm going to be thankful the whole time.

34:49How do we get this kind of heart, this kind of devotion for every word and every deed? That's what he says. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. How do we even think about that? How do we think about all our actions, all of our words? How do we make sure it's something that he would want us to do? Well, I think we need to make ourselves remember to think this way. I think we need to consciously live before God's eyes. We need to remember that he sees us, remember that he's watching us. We need to consider ourselves as servants of Christ as we act in his name.

35:32We can think about the things we say before we say them and consider if this is something that he would approve of. We can think about the things we do before we do them and consider if it's something we can do in his name as his representative. So we work hard joyfully to have hearts full of loyal devotion. Sometimes when kids get in trouble, you can tell if they've gotten in trouble a lot that day. This happens in our house sometimes.

36:12Maybe while you're still talking to them, they get this glazed look. And you say, Are you listening? And they nod or something. What did I say? I did that bad thing. What did you do? I didn't listen or something. You know, they clearly don't know. They weren't listening. And they're not respecting what you say. They're having a disrespectful attitude. And I think that we can have that same kind of attitude towards the apostles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Peace, scripture. I know all this. I've been a Christian a long time. I've heard these things a million times. We can get a glazed look. But I think that many of us would really listen and maybe even enjoy taking orders from somebody that we really respected. It might sound a little funny. How could you enjoy taking orders from somebody? Well, maybe you're a military buff. And think about how cool it would be if you could, like for an hour, resurrect Washington and take orders, marching orders from him, or Grant and Lee or Patton or any of the Heroes. You would love it. Even if it's miserable, you would still love it. You love to take these orders, or maybe you're a musician. How cool would it be if you could sit in a room with your favorite musician, a talented musician, and have them tell you what drills to do, how to practice to get better? You love it. Well, in the passage that we just studied, we're hearing from a hero of the faith. We're hearing from an expert Christian, if you could say such a thing. And in these verses, he's given us four commands. Not only this, but the designer of your life, the designer of the whole world, the all-wise and all-knowing God has breathed out this scripture for us to learn from. So I think we should be excited to follow them. I think we should be joyful. These commandments are not burdensome. We're commanded to live with full hearts, hearts that are full of peace, full of gratitude, full of scripture, and full of devotion. And the question comes: well, how do we know how full is full enough? How do I know if I'm obeying these commands? How full is full enough? And I think the answer from our text is that it's full enough when it's overflowing.

38:52Look back at our verses in verse 15. We are called to be so full of peace. That it overflows into peace with our brothers and sisters. It makes us one body at peace with one another. We should be so full of gratitude and thanksgiving that it overflows from our lips. It comes out when we sing. It comes out in every deed and in every word. We're thankful in our hearts. Verse 16, our hearts should be so full of scripture that it overflows in song, that it spills over in the way we talk with one another, when we teach one another, when we admonish one another, and sing to one another. Verse 17. Our hearts should be so full of devotion, loyal devotion, that it overflows in all of our actions, all of our words. They're coming from this devoted heart, and we act in the Lord's name.

40:02I'm going to read our text one more time. 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 hearts to God. In whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to God the Father through him. Pray with me. Father, when we look at these verses, it seems like a utopia almost of a church that's full of people who are at peace in their hearts, who are thankful in their hearts, who are so full of the word that they sing and they teach and they admonish.

40:59People who are your servants, who act in your name with joy and thanksgiving. But, Lord, it is such a blessing to be part of a community like that. It does bring us joy. And so, Lord, I pray that we could be excited about this. I pray that we could focus on some things that we need to apply from our text today. And I pray, Lord, that you'd bless this church. That as we see the fruits of this, as we see the fruits of a congregation that's gathered together with hearts that have put off the old things and put on patience with each other, put on love for one another.

41:48I pray that we would have joy in our hearts. And I pray that as we are filling our hearts with Scripture, as we're filling our hearts with thankfulness, And these other things we looked at, I pray, Lord, that it would enrich our time together. We're grateful, Lord, for the plain commands we see in Scripture. You make it clear. It's not because we don't understand them that we don't apply these, it's because we don't want to. And I pray, Lord, that you would make us want to, that you'd make us excited, and that you'd make us diligent to obey these. In Jesus' name, amen.

42:32Before we go, I want to challenge you to think of maybe one or two of these things that we looked at today. It doesn't have to be a New Year's resolution, but I'm going to have Hannah play for just a minute while you think about this. It doesn't have to be a New Year's resolution, but maybe it's something you can put into practice this week. Where are you weakest? Maybe you've been anxious instead of letting the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Maybe you've been ungrateful, even though God has given you everything in salvation in Christ. Maybe you've been filled with everything under the sun except Scripture. You've been filled with TV or work or other things. You've been filled with everything under the sun except Scripture, and you need to get back in the Word. Maybe you've been living for your own name instead of the name of the Lord Jesus. So while Hannah played, while Hannah... Plays, I invite you to quietly sit for a minute and examine yourself and see where you're weak.