All right, well welcome to Mercy Hill this weekend. We're glad that you are here worshiping with us.
We're continuing through the series More Than Enough. The point being that Jesus is more than enough for us. That there's not something else that we need in addition to Jesus. That we don't need to go beyond Jesus, but that Jesus and the gospel is more than enough for our salvation and for our growth. So we're going to jump into Colossians chapter 3 today. If you want to turn there at all of our campuses, again we're glad that you're here. As you're turning there, a question for you.
Have you ever looked around at other people and you've seen where they're at and you think there's no way that I could get there? You think about the Olympics. You know we just had a team that actually got back from the Olympics. Incredible stories of what they were able to do in terms of sharing the gospel in Paris.
People from all the nations coming in there that they were able to share the gospel with. But if you look at the Olympics as well, you think about just these extreme athletes. You think about Simone Biles winning all of these gold medals and you look like she's just wired differently. You think about Michael Phelps who is not participating this year but has won so many gold medals and literally is like biologically different than most of us.
Different than most of us. LeBron James. I look at LeBron James and I'm like I could play basketball for 40 years and work on it and work on it work on it and I could never be LeBron James. And then you look at golfers and you're like well you know maybe these guys they look like they're my size. They're kind of average right. Then you see them hit the golf ball 350 yards and I tee off and mine's in the woods and I'm like well that's you know that's out too right.
They can't do that either. I think there's like a reality to that that we can't get to where these people are because of the way that they are designed in some ways and what they put into their lives. I can work my whole life and never get to the Olympics. That's probably the case for you too. But sometimes what can happen is we actually take these things into spiritual matters in our spiritual lives. We look at somebody around us that maybe is on fire for Christ and we think that can never be me. We look at somebody that goes to the mission field and think I could never get there. We look at maybe somebody who has walked through their life faithfully and has the joy of the Lord on them and you look in you're like man that's just not me. I just don't think I could ever get there. You ever feel that way?
I know I have. I think with the Bible what we're going to see in Colossians is that transformation and life change really can happen in your life. That while you may never become an Olympian, you can grow in your relationship with Christ.
You can grow to maturity. That the opportunity is available to you and that God is actually working that in you and that's what we're going to see today. And what we're going to see is that the focus on the gospel is actually the fuel of life change. The focus on the gospel is the fuel of life change. You can get there. Maturity in Christ, joy, living on mission for him. You can grow more and more into that.
It is possible and God will work it in you. It's done through the fuel, done through focusing on the gospel. Last week, one of the things pastor Andrew mentioned was that we don't add to the gospel or we'll lose it. This week I would suggest that we don't want to forget the gospel or we won't be changed by it. We want to focus on the gospel as the fuel of life change.
So we're going to talk about really three turns today. We want to put the gospel in. We want to put the old self off and we want to put the new self on. Let's check out Colossians 3 verse 1 together. It says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We'll stop right there.
We're going through a lot of verses today, but I want to camp out on verses 1 through 4 for a little while. Paul starts this section with a qualifier about growth. He makes this if-then statement.
Any of y'all remember that from like grammar school? The if-then statements? If this is true, then this should also be true of us, right?
If then. He says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. The order matters.
The order matters. The reason I bring this up is we live in this culture that really pushes to work us to work hard to become something. The American dream.
If you put the time in, you can become whatever you want to be. And we take that mindset, we throw it right into spiritual matters. In fact, that's really what every religion other than the gospel in the world teaches. It teaches that, you know, if you work hard, you may appease the gods or God.
Maybe. You know, if you live a good life, if you sacrifice for them, if you try to be better, you can hope that maybe you'll be able to be accepted and your works will be accepted as good enough in this life and in the life to come. We see this across every religion. Many of us have incorrectly, I think, thought this to be the same teaching from the God of the Bible.
Maybe depending on your religious background, you've been taught to perform religious rights to hope our good outweighs our bad. But God actually presents a completely different way of interacting with him. The Bible presents a completely different way of living this life, of looking ahead to the life to come in the gospel. God has proven his love for us first. He did it first.
He went first. He sent Jesus Christ to live a perfect life that you couldn't live, that I couldn't live. Jesus died on the cross to pay the death, the penalty that we deserve, that we owed, that we couldn't afford to pay. And he rose from the grave. He has offered us new life to everyone who would choose to believe in him as their savior. Different starting point.
It is not work hard and hope you're accepted one day. The starting point for the gospel is that Christ has done all the work. Trust him. Receive Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Follow him. We need to think about that as our starting point. The Christians live from acceptance, not for acceptance. From acceptance, not for acceptance.
The order matters. We're free to walk with Jesus, knowing that we're accepted rather than trying to be accepted. Can you imagine what it would be like to go through life as if you had nothing to prove to anyone, to your peers, to your family, to the people around you, your co-workers, your boss, the Lord? Nothing to prove. Why?
You're accepted. You're free to now walk with him. Parents, you probably all have done something similar like this. When you're tucking in your kids at night, you tell them you love them. You maybe say something. I have different sayings, actually, that I kind of say with each of my kids.
I have three kids. I have different sayings that I say to them every night. And it's really to try to get them to know that you're accepted. And it's really to try to help them understand my love for them, but also God's love for them. And each of them can reply back that to me.
They cut me off most of the time, which is true generally in all of life. But in that moment, they'll cut me off sometimes and start saying it to me. But one of my kids, one of the things I say to them is I say, I love you.
And then I'll say best day, worst day, all the same. And I want him to understand that that is the love that a father has for a son. That is the love that God has for you.
Best day, worst day, all the same. Because you're loved and accepted by him. And that really changes, and it really fuels how we grow. Gospel identity fuels grace-driven action. We're not saying don't grow, don't take action.
There are actions, but they are based on being accepted already. Now walk in the freedom and the joy of that. If you go back to verse one, he says, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. So he writes that if we are in Christ, now we are to seek what's above, not what's on earth. That we're to set our minds on things above. Another version says set your hearts on things above. It's not just an intellectual exercise of knowing more about Jesus, knowing more about the Bible. It is actually this heart orientation.
It is reorienting our mind and our heart to desire and to see the things of heaven, the things of Christ, as greater than the things around us, the things of the old nature. Think about this with my son. I took my son hunting and trying to help him grow and enjoy that.
We enjoy that time together. And I remember when he first went out there hunting, he goes through all my hunting bag with different stuff in it. He pulls out the binoculars and what does he do? He puts them on the wrong direction. So what does he see? Really nothing, right? He can't see anything correctly. I'm laughing at him and everything.
I show him how to actually use it correctly. You think about that with our life. Apart from Christ, the binoculars are on backwards. We can't see anything correctly.
It's all messed up. But in Christ, in Christ, we reorient our mind to the things above. We turn those binoculars binoculars around and we can see things for what they really are. The gospel reorients our mind to live the new life in Christ. It reorients our mind to live the new life in Christ. We can't see what life really is apart from the gospel. We don't know what to value, what to put our time into apart from the gospel. It reorients everything for us. We begin to see things rightly. So God begins to shift our desires. It says in verse 3, 2, it says that you have died, that your life is hidden in Christ. I think whether, you know, maybe you've been a believer for a long time, but I think sometimes we just need to hear this. If you are in Christ, you are not who you used to be. That shame, that guilt, that old man, that is not you. You have died. You are hidden in Christ.
You have fundamentally changed. Now it may not always feel that way, but that doesn't mean it's not true because he says it's true. In verse 4, Paul reminds us where we're headed. He says, when Christ, who is your life, appears, you also will appear with him in glory. He's getting us to pick our heads up and see that life is eternal, that we are going somewhere. In Christ, we are this new creation hidden in him.
We're headed to an eternal, glorious future. And God is in the process of growing us towards that in the present. It's a process that begins the moment you receive Christ, and it goes on through your entire life. Process that God works alongside of us in. Paul writes in Philippians 2, you don't need to turn there, but he writes essentially that we are working out our salvation, that we are doing an active part. We are participating in our salvation, in our growth, in our relationship with God, working that out. But then it says in verse 13 of chapter 2, it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
So it is this partnership that we are entering in, that God initiated, brought us into through salvation, through the power of the gospel, and through his continuous grace in the gospel, he continues to grow us as we partner together with him, as we grow in our relationship with him. One theologian used this term, grace driven effort. Grace driven effort. It's different than an effort to be able to get approval.
It is an effort from already being approved. Grace driven. Now, grace driven actions reinforce our gospel identity. They reinforce our gospel identity. So a gospel identity, it pushes us, it pushes us towards these grace driven actions. But then these grace driven actions actually work to reinforce our gospel identity.
So identity proceeds action, but actions reinforce that identity that God has given us. I think about this with fatherhood. Now, I don't know if y'all have seen these commercials. I never thought I would be this person, but now I am. If y'all have seen these progressive commercials of, you know, we can't save you from becoming your parents.
I don't know if y'all have seen those, but you know, I was like, I would never be the guy as a teenager. I was like, I will never be the dad who goes through the house turning all the lights off. Now I'm that dad. I'm that dad.
We're saving 70 cents a day by all of my hard work, right? So, you know, you don't think you're going to be that, but I think about this with fatherhood. Now I was a dad as soon as my child was in the womb. I was a dad already. I was a dad. But as the child has grown up, as I've had to do my share of changing diapers, as we've held this child and watched them grow, as we've walked or helped them be able to walk, as we've been with them through tears and through celebrations, as we make lunches for them for school, as we teach them things. Now I really don't know what it's like not to be a father.
You know what I mean? Like, like I was a dad. I was a dad, but the actions that I have been doing for the last nine years, it's created such an identity in me that now it's like, I don't know how to not be a dad. And I think about that in our Christian life, these grace-driven actions, they reinforce who we already are in Christ.
That's the point. Practically, that's what Paul is going to share in the following verses of what does it look like practically in our lives for us to partner with God and growing more and more in a relationship with him, these grace-driven action. God gets the gospel in us, and God empowers us to then put off the old self and put on the new self. And practically, that's what it looks like as we think about grace-driven action in our lives.
We're going to talk about putting off the old self. Colossians 3 verse 5, you want to look on the screen or in your scripture. It says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
In these two, you once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all and in all.
What Paul is saying is that because you have, by God's grace, had a change in identity, so now God wants to partner with you in the action of putting away those ways in which you used to live. He lists out several sins. One group seems to be sexual in nature.
The other group seems to be focused on our relationships with one another. The word that I want to draw our attention to, though, is this word idolatry. Idolatry. Idolatry, simply put, is putting anything in the place of God on the throne of your heart. It's the pursuit of the creation over the creator, the desire to be God rather than to trust God.
And it shows up in all of these symptoms that Paul describes, these sins that Paul describes. Sexual immorality, my sexual desire over God's good design. Covetousness, my desire for that which God hasn't given to me. Anger, my desire for people to act according to my ways. Obscene talk, I think this often comes up from our desire to make ourselves appear a certain way in front of others.
Lying, my desire for control rather than trust. Idolatry, something else has become more important than God. It stems from believing that I know what's better for me than trusting God to be God. And it's the same sin we've been dealing with since the Garden of Eden. And here's the deal, in a culture that celebrates sin, if we're not careful as a church, we can be susceptible to minimizing it. If we're not careful, we minimize its effects on our hearts and on the people around us. It's just a white lie, right?
It was just one outburst of anger. We rationalize it away. Doesn't everybody struggle with something? How many times have you heard that? How many times have we thought that? We compare. We create this scale of sin. Now isn't it interesting though, in our scale of sin, that the other person's sin always is higher on the scale than ours is, right? We create this scale of sin. We lie to ourselves about it. We tell ourselves we got it under control.
That addiction, I can quit anytime I want. What does Paul say? Put to death.
Put to death. Strong words. What I think Paul's trying to get across is that sin is not something to be played with. It's not something to be toyed with as if it has no effect on your life. In fact, one theologian said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Sin is never neutral.
It's never neutral. And when we choose the sin, it's going to affect how we think, how we act, how we interact with those around us and with our Lord. Living in sin begins to orient our mind back to the world. And we think we can handle it. We got a plan for it. But another theologian, Mike Tyson, he says everyone has a plan. What?
Until they get punched in the mouth. What does sin do? You don't have a plan for it.
We don't have a plan for it. Not to be able to control it and manipulate it and let it live in our lives. Eventually it punches us right in the mouth and everything falls apart. Now it can feel overwhelming sometimes to fight against sin. It can be so tempting to live as we used to be. And on top of that, the enemy is taking every opportunity to draw us back into living these earthly ways, to try to deceive us. And at some point, all of us have felt like we've been punched in the mouth.
Every one of us. So what do we do? Well, how does Paul address the Colossians in putting off sin? Verse 9, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. He's coming back to their identity in the gospel. He says you have already put off the old self, and you have already put on the new self.
This is who you are. Focusing on the gospel fuels our ability to put off sin. It fuels our ability to put off sin. There's a song written years ago, and one of the lines, it reads this, I'm fighting battles, but the war is won.
We need to hear that. The war is won, and the fight against sin, we will win. Because we are His. In verse 11, Paul talks about Christ being our all.
Our all. That we're not defined primarily by anything other than being in Christ. So the truth is, we're all dealing with sin. And God is committed to growing us by putting off sin in our lives. Focusing on the gospel gives us the heart motivation to put off sin in our lives.
It fuels the desire to be with the Spirit and to put away sin. Let me give you all the three practical steps real quick around sin in your life. As we think about sin, three practical steps for how we deal with sin in our lives.
How do we put off sin? First thing, confess it. Confess it. Confess it to God. First John 1.9, it says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He's done the work, already finished. When we're struggling with sin, confess it to God. He's a good Father.
He's a good Father. Also, confess it to someone else. Confess it to someone else. Sin loves to hide. It loves to hide.
That's where it grows. Confess it to someone else. James 5, it says, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. One of our pastors on staff, he said this, I'm probably going to butcher the quote, but he said, you don't need to tell everyone. You don't need to tell no one.
But you do need to tell someone. As it relates to our sin, we understand we are all guilty of sin. None of us has passed having sin in our lives that we're trying to see God free us from. They may vary at different ages and different stages.
They may vary based on who you are and where you've been. But I think the worst thing we can do is think that it's just me and I'm going to hide it and I'm going to keep it covered. Share. Confess for your healing. For your healing.
It's available. This is one of the reasons I think we talk about community so much. Jumping in the flywheel around here, going to the weekender.
Becoming a part of a serve team, a part of a community group so that you have people around you in your life that know you and are walking alongside of you. Confess it. Second thing, starve it.
Confess it. Starve it. Not sure where the quote originated, but I think it's true. What you feed grows and what you starve dies. What you feed grows and what you starve dies. I think about this in our yearly failure to continue to maintain a garden. I don't know how many of y'all start a garden every year. We start a garden every year. It's a ritual. We do it. We spend too much money on it. We act like we're going to have some type of incredible crop. And then you get to about this past week where I go and mow down the whole thing and tell my wife we're never planting a garden again. I'll do the same thing next year. I'm sure.
I'm sure. But what happens? How does a garden fail? They didn't get the nutrients they needed. They didn't get the water that they needed. So the plants end up shriveling up and dying out. Starve sin. Don't give it a place to live. Just practically, just a couple thoughts. And these are just ideas.
These are not, hey, you have to do this. But just some wisdom maybe. If drunkenness is an ongoing struggle for you, you may not want to join that frat party that has that endless beer on tap. You may want to just think about that.
You know, if there's a group of people you hang out with and the conversation always turns to gossip or obscene talk, inappropriate conversation, you may want to say something about it or spend time with other friends. Especially true, and I think Paul brings this up for a reason around sexual sin. And this was happening this, I mean, thousands of years ago this was happening and it's prevalent all over our culture today. You think about sexual sin even related to technology. There's ways to guard what's coming across your screen.
And there's accountability and there's help from the church to walk alongside of you in purity. Starve it. Confess it. Starve it. Replace it.
Replace it. Find a greater affection, a greater joy. And this really leads to our last turn to put on the new self. There's a greater affection, there's a greater joy to be had than anything that sin could ever offer to our lives. Verse 12. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other.
As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Notice here how Paul starts talking about living into the fullness of the new life in Christ.
Where does he start? Identity. Identity. He says as God's chosen ones, holy, beloved. Listen, if you trusted Christ, these things are true of you.
It's not a someday hope they will be. It's a right now presently true of you. Focusing on the gospel fuels our ability to put on the new self. It fuels our ability to put on the new self. I think about this in terms of there's a book years ago called Atomic Habits.
It's a leadership book. The thought of are you somebody who wants to try to do something or do you believe that this is part of your identity, part of who you are? For example, Pastor Bobby Harrington, he would say he is a runner. He is a runner, therefore he goes and runs. He is a runner, therefore he runs. I am not a runner, not in any form of a runner. And so last summer we signed up with a buddy for a Spartan race which is an obstacle course. When I signed up, I did not realize how much running it was. We also decided to sign up for the competitive division which was an interesting choice for somebody who doesn't run. And I did finish. I finished in second to last place in my division. I did get a medal. I did pass the guy who tore his ACL on the way.
And so, yeah, I was really excited about that. I'm not a runner. It's not who I am. Understand, Ephesians 2, 10, it says this, we are his workmanship. We are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus.
That's what God looks at you and he says, you are God's chosen one. You are holy. You are beloved. You are masterpiece.
You are mine. It's who you are. So put on the new self. So begin to walk like it. Begin to live like it.
And this is what it looks like. I could talk for a while about each one of these but I'm not going to for the sake of time. But he talks about compassion and kindness and humility and meekness and patience. Bearing with one another, forgiving above all, loving unity, peace, gratitude. Marks of believers, marks of growth, marks of health. Generally speaking, all of these marks, what's interesting about them, all of these marks of a relationship with Jesus and growth show up in one way. They show up in community.
They show up how you live together. Gospel community provides the conditions for life change. Gospel community provides the conditions for life change. Your spiritual growth is a community project. It's not an individual achievement.
You know, I think in a highly individualized culture, we can tend to think that everything is about me and my ability and I got to pick myself up and I've got to achieve whatever's in front of me. The problem is that through the gospel, there is no I. You have died. Your life is hidden in Christ. Christ has brought you into a community of faith called the church.
Where there was I, there is only we. Together. We grow together. We need one another. As you grow deeper in the body of believers, you grow in your relationship with Christ. As you serve together, as you do life together in group, you share successes and failures together. You remind one another of the power of the gospel. Listen, you can be a part of a lot of communities. But the church is the only community that God has called you to.
It's the only one. And it's actually a gift to you. So I just want to push on you just for a minute. If you're here and you're somebody that's like, man, I'm here.
I kind of check it out. I come, you know, once a month or so. Jump in with two feet.
Jump into a serve team, join us at The Weekender, jump into a group. Make yourself known and know others and do life together and God is going to grow you through that. That's the pathway.
That's how you grow. Paul writes in verse 16 about what it looks like. Verse 16, he says, 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. Word of Christ, you want to highlight it, underline it, I recommend it.
Word of Christ is simply the gospel message of the Bible. And dwell, that word beside it, it literally means to settle down in. So what he's saying is settle down in the gospel and let the gospel settle down in you. We grow up in Christ as the gospel settles down in us.
That's how we grow. Any of y'all bought a new house before? It's like one of the most, I feel like, frustrating moments you go through in life is moving to a new house. And you get there into a new house and you're really excited about the new house. But it takes a while before that new house feels like home. It takes a while to kind of figure out, okay, where's the coffee maker, where's my favorite chair, where are all these things at?
And even if you think about it as a child, if you moved as a child, it took a long time, maybe before that house that was new and awesome actually felt like home and you had settled down into it. And I think about us and our relationship with Christ, the gospel settling down in us, it's like your address has changed. You're in the house and as you grow around the body of Christ, you're settling down into it and becoming more and more comfortable in it and growing. And the things that maybe felt less natural early on for you in your relationship with Christ become more and more natural as you have grown into him, understanding the gospel, believing it, living in it amongst the gospel community. Grow up in Christ. Fall in love with him as the gospel settles down in you.
It's the pursuit of him. That's what life is about, knowing him and making him known. So what is God calling us to do today in light of this word? Simple application, set your mind on Christ. Set your mind on Christ. Our minds will be set on something. They will be.
There always are. Paul says it'll be earthly things or things above. Where have you set your mind and your heart? What are you chasing? What are you orienting your will towards?
Some places that might reveal this just as a short inventory for us as we think about this. What does your social media feed say that you're orienting your heart towards? What is your search history, your scrolling? What about your money? Where you spend your money, what does it say to where you're orienting your heart towards?
Your time. You're spending your time. Where does your mind wander to when there's nothing else to think about? What do you worry about? Those may be those things that are orienting and forming your mind to something.
Is it things above? Set our minds on Christ. Remember the gospel.
Think on it. Be in community with one another. That's the whole verse 16. Gospel settling down on us as we are in community together. Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, building one another up.
I think it could look incredible in our life if we would walk in this. Think about freedom from simple practices in your life. Think about a life marked by love and peace and thankfulness. Collectively, think about this as a church. The impact we could make as we walk in the good works that God has made for us. As we proclaim his gospel, as we make disciples and multiply churches, living our lives for his kingdom. Not the things of earth. Life change and growth in your walk with Jesus is available and he can do it in you.
It's not like becoming an Olympian. It's not something that you can never reach. It's actually something that has been given to you and something that God has committed to continue to grow in you. So set your mind on him. Set your mind on him. Hey, if you're here, you've been checking things out. And you're like, man, if I'm being honest, I haven't set my mind on Christ. But it's probably because I don't really have a relationship with Christ. And maybe you're here and you're like, man, I've been trying so many things to get my life changed.
I've been trying so many things. Maybe it's a bunch of religious things. Maybe it's checking the box of a bunch of different things. Maybe it's trying to be good to people.
I've been trying a lot of different things and nothing's working. You've got to become before you can grow. Identity precedes action. God's allowed you and drawn you here. And he's allowed you to see that nothing else works. The only thing that works is trusting in him as your Lord and Savior.
Understanding that he's done all the work. So rest in him. Rest in him for your salvation, for your growth. If you're here today, I would encourage you, stop trying to become something that you're not by doing a bunch of works and trusting Jesus.
Trust in him today. I invite everybody to just close your eyes and bow your heads just for one moment. A moment of reflection. If you're here and you've been trying to work your way into heaven. You've been trying to work your way into God's favor. You've been trying to work your way to a changed life. God can and wants to save you.
Desires to. Make today the day of your salvation. Stop trying to be something out of your own work and trust the work that he's done.
And then let him do the work of putting off the old and putting on the new. If you're here and you're wrestling with that, I want to encourage you. There's three things I just want to encourage you as a means of, hey, I want to become a follower of Jesus. Would you admit that you're a sinner? Admit that you're guilty of sin.
That right now you are the old man. Separated from God. Believe that Jesus has done everything necessary to save you.
He did all the work. Believe it right now. And confess him as Lord of your life. Say, I surrender my life to you, Jesus. Right now, in this moment, would you admit that you're a sinner? Believe Jesus has done everything necessary to save you. And follow him. Confess him as Lord of your life. If you're here and that's you and you say, hey, man, coming in, I was the old man, but I placed faith in Christ. I believe in Christ as my Savior. I would encourage you, before you leave today, talk to somebody. We would love to celebrate that with you.
Greatest decision you'll ever make in your life. More important than anything else. So you know where you're at with Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to hear from your word today. We thank you for the freedom that you give us in Christ.
We thank you that you have done all the work. God, we thank you that you would allow us to even think about you rightly. To even think about you as good and true and kind and gracious. God, it is not natural to us.
It is a gift of your grace. I pray over the body of Christ. I pray that we would set you first in our hearts and our minds. That we would repent of other things that we've been chasing. That we would set our hearts first on you.
I pray that we would do that this weekend. I pray for those who have just come to faith. That you would strengthen them to get plugged into the body of Christ here. That they would continue to grow as they put on the new man. God, I pray for those that are still wrestling. I pray that they would stop wrestling trying to become something. And that they would rest in what you would make them as a child. That they would confess you as Lord of their life. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.
