Washington's chapter 3 Last week we looked at the first four verses here and I'll read those and then we'll look at the We'll look at verses 5 through 14 or 15 or 16 or 17. We'll just see what the Lord leads I'm gonna read verses 1 through 4 and If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth. For you are dead and your life is hid in Christ. I'm sorry with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you for the privilege of opening it up this morning. Lord, I need your help. We all need your help this morning. Lord, we need to hear from you. And Father, we just pray, Lord, that you'd speak to us, Lord, that you would just calm our hearts and still our hearts. And Lord, may the thoughts of our minds be fixed upon the message that you have for us this morning. And Lord, we pray that you would have your way with us, Lord, that you would turn us toward you, Lord, if we're not already moving toward you. And Lord, those that are maybe here that are right with you, maybe just need some encouragement. Lord, we pray that you'd give that. Lord, if there's any here, Lord, that need to be saved, we pray, Father, that you would help them to see their need for salvation, bring conviction to their to their soul. And Lord, we pray that they'd be born again today. And Lord, for those that are saved, Lord, we pray, Lord, that you would edify, that you would build us up, Lord, and help us, Father, to to be excited about serving you. Excited about putting off the old man and putting on the new man We look forward to all that you're gonna do for your blessing now upon in Jesus name. Amen All right verse number five here. It says mortify therefore we're gonna We're gonna look at here Some things this is going to begin to deal with some practical things Okay, as we we know that the book of Colossians is dealing with the sufficiency and the supremacy of Christ We see that he is all in all in fact verse number 11 as we're gonna see that Christ is all and in all and so we're gonna we're gonna be that is a continual theme throughout the book of Colossians is that Christ is All he is all that we need And He is all-sufficient and all-supreme, and everything ought to be centered around Him. In fact, as we talked about, if we be risen with Christ, we set our affection on things above. Why? where Christ is. And we remember that he is our life and that because of and he's going to appear, we have a hope that is steadfast, that he's going to come again and then we're going to be with him. And so in the meantime, he says here, mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth. Before we get into this, we're going to look at a few things, a few other passages. He says, mortify, therefore, your members to mortify. Anybody have any idea what the word mortify means? Emeline, go ahead and sit over there in that chair. Does anybody have any idea what the word mortify means? Say? Use? No? Mortify. More deals with death. Now, some people use the word mortify in terms of, like, scared. Like, they say, oh, I was mortified, right? Well, that doesn't really, I mean, if they were truly mortified, they, like, died. To mortify your members means to kill them. It means to let them be dead. And let's look at Romans chapter 7. We're going to notice a couple of things here. I just wanted to just point out this thing about members. We're not talking about your church members. We're not talking about killing church members. I'm talking about as he's going to talk about the members here. Brother Jimmy's like, ooh, praise the Lord. Not putting away any church members today. No church discipline today. Praise the Lord. All right Romans chapter number seven and we're just I'm just gonna try to just real quick touch on something here Then we're gonna jump back to this and then we're gonna come back to Romans 6. Okay, so Romans chapter number 7 says in verse number Let's just go through verse 14 here to the end real quick here this is a battle that Paul's having concerning the inward man the outward man and he says here he says I For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now, you're going to notice here that it almost seems like Paul has a multiple personality thing going on here. He doesn't. He's got an inward man and an outward man, and he's going to identify with one of those here in just a moment. But he says that I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I allow. I'm sorry, for that which I do, I allow not. Now, if you just take I can't split myself up, so I can't really give you a great example. But what I'll do is I'm not going to jump because my knees already hurt, but I'll step over here. I OK, this is we'll say this side by the Baptist flag is the inward man. OK, and this side by the American flag is the outward man. All right. Not trying to insinuate anything, but but we'll just say, OK, I inward. I outward. All right. So we're just just as we look at this, I want to I want to help you get the picture of what he's how he's talking here. OK, so. He says, verse number 15, for that which I do. I allow not. OK, and then he goes on, he says. For that which I would that do I not. But what I hate that do I. You catching it? inward man, outward man. OK, it goes on. He says, if then I do that, which I would not, I can send on to the law that it is good, not that it's good that he does that, which he would not, but that the law is good. OK, so he says, OK, if I've done something that I that I wouldn't do right. If I've done something that I wouldn't do. Well, I look to the law of God. I see the law of God is good. I go to the word of God for correction, basically, as we say. So this is this is now. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. I know I'm moving back and forth a lot. You catching what's happening here? Okay, so he says, I should have used my large print Bible because it's hard to see from back here. Let's move closer. Okay. Uh, verse number 19 for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil, which I would not that I do. Now, if I do that, I would not, it is no more. I that do it, but sin that dwell within me. I find that a law. that when I would do good, evil is present with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind. Notice here in my members warring against the law of my mind. Lost my place. Twenty three, OK, and bringing me into captivity, the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the law of sin. So we we catch. I hope that was an easy explanation. That's the best way I know to explain that passage. But the reason I went here was to point out something. Our members. Our members, we have a sinful flesh that must be mortified, and he's going to give a. He's going to explain the things that. Characterize what our members would do if we just let them live and let them do what they what they would do. OK, what what I would do that I don't want to do. OK, that I that I, through the spirit of God, the inward man, do not desire to do. He says fornication. This this is intimate activity with someone that you're not married to uncleanness. This goes that goes along with that where you haven't gone all the way to the point of fornication, but it's still uncleanness inordinate affection. And that is a the word affection there. carries with it a passion, a passionate desire. Inordinate means that it's an unlawful desire. This deals with lust, although concupiscence is going to deal, the next one, evil concupiscence is going to deal more with lust. But this inordinate affection is like when you have a desire toward, again, this goes back to this whole fornication aspect. You have a desire toward another who is not your spouse. And it is an unlawful desire. That is an inordinate affection. Then evil concupiscence. It's where it goes from an unlawful desire to a lust, to a lustful desire after what you want. Now, this can also apply. See, lust doesn't only apply to sexual sin. It also can apply to greed. It can apply to things. You may lust after a Lamborghini or a Porsche, AJ. Name it name and names. I'm just kidding He doesn't lust after but he did ask me if I can get him a Porsche or something. No, I'm just kidding He doesn't like Porsche. He wants a Mustang GT or or a Dodge Challenger a Dodge Charger or something, but Amelia wants the Lamborghini or Porsche or whatever. So anyways But don't let it get having a desire is one thing but allowing it to reach the point of evil concupiscence and is when it takes over who you are. And now everything that you're doing kind of is leaning toward. I want that. I want that. I'm going to do what it takes to have that. That's what evil concupiscence does to you. Covetousness is the beginning of that evil concupiscence. It is no wonder that in the Ten Commandments, that first thing on the list of things that you're not to covet is your neighbor's wife. And that is Thou shalt not, as it says, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. But then it also lists other things that the neighbor has. You know, don't covet his animals either. Don't covet his, and it's talking about desire to have. You don't covet those things. But it says here that covetousness is idolatry. Wow. It says, which is idolatry. I believe, though, that it applies to these other things as well. Covetousness he says here is idolatry. Who is the God that you're serving when you're covetous? Well, yeah, but The more subtle fact the God that you're serving when you're when you're covetous is actually Me Not me as in yes, it's it's your members. It's the desires of the flesh when you're covetous. I You are telling this guy to worship that guy when you're covetous. You're saying, hey, we need to align everything over here because what I want is most important. And I want name it. You put you fill in the blank. I want my whatever. I want my heart's desire. My heart's desire may be to lay around and watch TV all day or I want to play games or I want to have a nice car or I want to have a nice house or I want to have a lot of women or I want to have this or I want that. That's what this this covetous beast is all about. But it says. I didn't bring. To mortify. This. Now, you know, you don't stab yourself, of course. Man we're not talking about physically killing anyone. Okay, I Thought about grabbing it bringing a gun, you know, but I put a hole in the wall Mortify your members to bring them can't get in control here. Oh Don't let that guy rule your life. It goes on, it says, for which things sake? It's those things that the wrath of God, it's because of those things that the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience or cometh on the children of disobedience. You see, that is what characterizes the lost world. these things when you when you hear about You listen to the world's music and what are they singing? What are they preaching about in their singing? They're preaching about money and drugs and Desires and sex and all of those things that is what they're characterized by and it's the wrath and it is it is that very thing that causes the wrath of God to come upon them is because their life is all about that flesh and It's all about serving the desires of me. It's all about having what I want to have. And we have to be careful. You see, we may not be way off over there and into fornication and into all of that, but we may have a secret desire of covetousness for something. We may have a secret desire to have it hour away. You know, sometimes it can be as simple as, uh, say a position at work or it could be not that there's not that there's anything necessarily wrong with having a an ambition or desire to advance and so forth. That's okay. But when it becomes a matter of the flesh and that you're going to do whatever it takes to get there unlawfully lawfully or unlawfully, you're in the wrong position when you're over here and you say, You know what? I would like to advance. I would like to be promoted or I would like to your mentality is. What does that position require and how can I fulfill what's needed to show my employer that that is that I am a suitable candidate for that position? Not well, who else is going for it so I can take them down so I can get it? You have the right the wrong mindset over here, if that's your mindset. But he goes on, he says, in the which you also walked sometime when you lived in them. You see, every single one of us at one point was over here only. One point we were over here, we had no we had no spirit of God within us working in us and and controlling and conducting our inward man. It was just this. This is all we had. We were self-serving and that's all we were going for. We may have had a form on the outside of of maybe, you know, none of us really. Well, in some times of our life and I'm writing the beginning of my book on church planting and and it's starting out with my testimony, my personal testimony and some of those things I start writing and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I actually did those things. And that was what my life was like then. And I'm like, wow, I had no regard for what people thought about me. And I was proud of that. That was stupid. Not that we should really just be all worried about what people think about me, or about us, but as we, a lot of times we'll cloak ourselves so that we'll be bad, so to speak, but only as bad as is socially acceptable. Sometimes we'll be over here, but we'll kind of edge this way, but we won't go as far as is unacceptable by those around us that are over here. We need to be careful of that, because in between here and there, there's quite a level difference. You actually fall that way if you step that way. It's not a matter of, oh, I'm just kind of edging over. No, it's a matter of where did the ground go? And you fall that way, and that's where you end up. It's because we still carry around this bag of bones, this wicked flesh. And so he goes on, he says, this is where you were. But now. You also have put off, not only have you not only is he saying, hey, put these things off and these things that you're demotivated, these are things that this is a matter of of what you were and you're not anymore. But rather now he says, hey, I'm going to add to that, I'm going to say, hey, put this off, too. And those things, you had, what, five of those things over there? And over here, he's going to add another six, I think. Yeah. Now, he's going to add five, and then he's going to give you a command on a specific one. But he says here, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. All of these follow a similar trend. the same similar trend that all of the things over here followed. When you're angry, it's because I feel violated. I feel like someone did something to me that I shouldn't have to deal with, that I shouldn't I don't deserve that kind of treatment or whatever. And so that's that's why you you respond or you you respond in anger. And sometimes you kind of try to slip over here and put on your. He's so wicked, he shouldn't have done that to me. And you're trying to look like you're being spiritual, but really you're just being carnal. In anger. He says wrath, that's the outworking of anger, that's when you go from being angry to being screaming and punishing that which you're angry at. that or who you're angry at. Malice. This is doing bad things toward those that you're angry at or those that you are disliking for some reason or another. Blasphemy has to do with bringing the name of God from a high and holy level down to a common or unholy level. And and that takes place not just through words that we speak it takes place through actions that we make if you if you look at what Solomon said he said hey feed me with food that's convenient for me lest I be in other words Give me just enough lest I be you know Lest I be filled up and forget God or lest I be You know hungry and steel and take the name of the Lord my God in vain as blasphemy is Notice though that he didn't say anything. He just stole and it took God's name in vain by stealing because He is supposed to be a representative of God In in his as a as a saint. He's gonna be a representative of God just as we are supposed to be See, if we're over here trying to represent the Lord and, hey, I'm a Christian, which is a representative of Christ or one who follows Christ, one who names the name of Christ. We're over here saying, I'm a Christian. I follow the Lord. We're representing the Lord. And then we're doing this kind of stuff. We're blaspheming the name of God, because when people look at us and they think they're Christian. But they're acting like not a Christian. I know that's not good grammar, but they're acting like they're not a Christian. Well, that that blasphemes God because they will think, oh, that's how Christians act. That must be how their God is. That's blasphemy. It's our actions causing people to think that God's OK with those actions. That's blasphemy. Then also the things that we say can be blasphemous as well. And it goes on and says filthy communication out of your mouth. Remember, in Ephesians, he says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of my mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. The purpose of our speech ought to be, as James said, let your speech be always, maybe actually it may have been Paul, always with grace, season with salt. Your speech ought to be graceful speech. It ought to be speech that helps others, that encourages others, that causes them to be edified, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what our speech ought to be. In fact, he says, if any man speak, let it be as of the oracles of God. In other words, if you're going to speak, let it be as though you're speaking the very word of God. I don't believe that means that everything you say needs to be a quote from the Bible, but it needs to be scriptural. It needs to be right. And if our, if our speech is filthy, well, even though we may not say the words that are blasphemy, with our speech and our way of speech or blaspheming God in our actions. So he he gives us those things and he says, hey, and by the way, they didn't say, by the way, but the next thing he says, he says, lie not one to another. It's like, hey, speak the truth. Seeing that you have put off the old, put off the old man with his deeds, you've done that, you put him off. He's out of here. So don't lie to each other. Lie not one to another. There were some things going on with the Colossians. It wasn't quite like the Corinthians, but they had an issue with understanding that Christ is first, that Christ is all that they need. They had some issue with, oh, I can do this work and that work. And they had an issue with Judaizers and some of those kind of things. And also with pride, every single one of these, even without naming pride or selfishness, everyone goes back to that. And that was the root cause of their they're over here. The fact that we mention. Our members. We're. Pointing out the fact that we're talking about a self or selfishness, because what what is more me than what you see right here? What is more me than my members? You know, what is more about me? You know, so when we talk about our members, You know, we could draw all kinds of applications here on things. Let's turn to Romans chapter 6 just quickly. Romans chapter 6, Don Trill. And verse number 6, this is something we need to know. We could read all of Romans chapter 6. I believe it applies here. But if we look at verse number 6, it says, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. You see, when you're born again, you're, you're supposed to be crucified with Christ and you are, as Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ live within me and alive, which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Keep, keep yourself there in Romans chapter six. I'm going to go back to our text for just a moment. So he says to put off those things. And he says, he says, hey, don't lie to one another. And seeing that these this is what has happened. You have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And we could talk about that image in Romans chapter eight and verse number. It's twenty nine, verse number twenty nine, where it talks about those that He foreknew. Then He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. You see, we're not only going to be justified, but we're going to be sanctified. We're going to be conformed to His image. And He says that you've put on that new man, that new man that is renewed in knowledge, and it's after the image of Him that created him. And then it says in verse number 11, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore. And verse number 11 of Romans 6 says, Likewise, as Christ raised from the dead, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Put on therefore. As the elect of God, holy and beloved, you're going to put these things on. Holy and beloved elect of God, bowels of mercies. Means that even all the way down into your guts. You're merciful. Merciful. Why would he say this? Notice what he continues on, what is it? Kindness. Humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering. forbearing one another and forgiving one another. Why would he say these things? Well, because obviously they had some trouble with it being about me. And when it's about me, I'm not merciful. I deserve mercy, but you don't, right? When it's about me, that's the way it is, right? I deserve mercy. Nobody else does. Unless they're good to me, then I can be merciful. You know how people say, you know, I hate I hate his guts. That's what it's talking about here instead. I mean, even down in your guts, you're merciful all the way down there in your bowels, bowels of mercy. It's like, hey, as deep down as you can get, you're merciful. Merciful, you know what it means to be merciful, right? So Brian did me wrong. and I don't punish him for it, that's mercy. Maybe he did me wrong and he deserves to be punished, but I don't punish him for it, that's mercy. Because all the way down, as deep down as I can get, by the spirit of God and by his grace, I have bowels of mercy. And so everything that comes out of me is gonna be all about mercy and kindness. And I'm gonna be, even though he may have wronged me, Brian hasn't wronged me by the way, Even though he may have wronged me, I'm going to be kind to him. And I'm going to have a humbleness of mind instead of saying, Brian, let me show you how I can lead you. I'm going to say, Brian, how may I serve you? Recognizing that my position is a position of service, even as the pastor or as the most spiritual brother in the church. My position is a position of service. not a position of lordship over people, but a position of service, humility, not thinking more highly of myself than I ought to, meekness. I don't go to blows as soon as something happens, except maybe to my flesh, you know, right? Because I'm going to mortify that flesh, put it out of its misery. He goes on, he says, long suffering, Sometimes we suffer anybody ever suffer My son, all right, I'm suffering right now dad See there you go you raise your hands and the tree falls on you Sometimes Sometimes our brothers and sisters in Christ and our brothers and sisters are not so kind Sometimes we're not so kind. Sometimes we have, not that there's an excuse. It's not okay to be unkind. It's not. But when it's not you being unkind, when it's not me being unkind, when it's you being unkind to me, I need to suffer it sometimes for a long time. Sometimes we're very short fused. And when things aren't going our way, and I'll tell you, hey, here's what I struggle. Here's my struggle right here. This isn't going to make a whole lot of sense to you guys necessarily, but it's 8.05 a.m. on a Sunday morning. I've done everything I can, but I'm still at the house. And maybe that one's not dressed yet. Still in her pajamas. I'm not picking on you. This is my stroke. That's not her problem. That's my problem. Let her stay up too late or something. It's my problem. Sometimes I'm like, man, I have stuff I've got to get to the church and do. My goal is to be here at 8 a.m. every Sunday morning. The reason for that is we have bulletins and we have coffee. I got here this morning. Would you believe this? This is a side note. I got here this morning. The bulletins were folded in the basket. The coffee was already ready. Everything was clean. I was like, wow. What happened? I printed the bulletins last night from home. I worked on my computer, controlled this computer, printed them and whatever. And I thought, well, I'll just get in there and we'll fold them, get it ready and everything. But I came in and I was like, I told Amelia, I said, go get the bulletins off the printer. She's back here. She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing on the printer. I'm like, the bulletins are on the printer. I said, let me show you. I go back and I'm like, they're not all there. He's like, oh man, where are the bulletins? So I'm looking around and I go over there and I grab one. I'm like, hey, my uncle took care of us this morning. So he was, I was like, man, that's, I didn't ask. I didn't, I mean, he just, he made the bulletin, he got the bulletins folded and ready to go, got the coffee on, vacuumed everything, picked up all the junk. It's not as clean as it was when we got here, but like, wow, amen. You know, I might, I wasn't expecting that, obviously. I was expecting to get here and be running this way and that way and trying to get this done and get that done, pick the songs and, oh, what else, you know? And I was thinking, I walked by the staircase and she was sitting there like half asleep. Whether not, not my wife, my youngest, I'm pointing at her back there. My wife was ready, but she's sitting there half asleep. with her pajamas on, I think a blanket hanging off her shoulder. And she's like, like, Emma. We're supposed to be there already. Let's go. And she said, I'm going to drive the other car. And I was like, OK, great. All right, you two older ones, let's go. But jump in the car or jump in the van and get on over here. They were only about three or four minutes behind. How she dressed her that fast. But I was feeling like, man, I'm just suffering here. I'll be late for church. I won't be stressed out. Everything's going to be horrible. You know how we go. We jump all the way to the worst conclusion possible, right? Like the building's gonna be on fire. I mean, everything's gonna be. No, I'm just kidding. But sometimes, sometimes we're really not suffering. We're actually not. We're not suffering at their hand. We're suffering at our own hand because of the assumptions that we make of what's gonna happen because of what we think they're doing to wrong us, right? Wrong suffering. sometimes long suffering really isn't even suffering, but we still have to get in that mindset that, hey, you know what? It's not about me. And then, you know, we try to we'll try to justify it. Well, I'm not trying to get to the church for me trying to get the church for the church, trying to get, you know, if I don't have this ready and that ready and whatever. I mean, what are the guys going to say if they come in and there's no coffee in the coffee maker? They're going to say there's no coffee in the coffee maker, right? OK, well, somebody put coffee in there. And you guys didn't even drink very much. There's still 30 cups in there. Get to work. I'm just kidding. Long-suffering. Forbearing one another. In other words, you're bearing with each other. Don't feel like, oh, I'm overcome with, I've had it up to here with you. Good. Just open your arms this way. I've had it up to here with you. Come here, Isaac. Come here. I've had it up to here with you. Don't kiss each other, everybody. He's my son. But you know what? Hey, when you feel like you've had just enough, sometimes. Parents parents and you guys you got little bitty ones and sometimes they're stressful and stuff, but wait till they get a little older They're stressful. You know what? They're stressful from the cradle all the way until they're you know You know what, you know, right? They're stressful even I mean in their 50s and stuff I'm only 30 something but I know that I know kids are stressful no matter how old they are I And every parent can testify to that. But you know what? Sometimes their stress is really because of our expectations. We set them up. In fact, we're going to get into that next week as we talk about wives and husbands and fathers and children and all of that. And I'm going to try to take next week's the text from next week. We're going to apply these things that we're talking about here in the position of wives, wives submitting their husbands, husbands loving their wives. children obeying their parents, fathers not provoking their children to anger. And then servants and all of the different positions that we have in life all comes back to this point of mortifying the old man, putting on the new man. And we're going to try to finish this out. So on this putting on the new man thing, of course, we recognize that all these attributes, the forbearing one another, forgiving one another, all of those things. And I'm not going to spend a ton of time on forgiving one another, but you know, because you know what? If you have a quarrel against somebody, guess what? You wronged God in a way that nobody's wronged you. And he let it go. And so if somebody's wronged me, there's nothing that you can do to me that I should not be able to forgive. Nothing, nothing at all. And so, as he says, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these, put on charity. You don't put on all this good stuff. Hey, above all that, put on charity. Remember, we talked about what charity was a couple of weeks ago. We talked about the fact that charity is looking out for the best interest of another, not yourself, but another. And that that encapsulates all of these other things. If we're putting on charity, then we're looking out for the best interest of others and not ourselves. And as that happens, guess what's gonna happen? We're gonna let some stuff happen. We're gonna let the peace of God rule in our hearts. If you don't have this new man stuff, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, if you don't forgive, then the peace of God will not rule in your heart. You're gonna be in toil and anguish, and you're gonna have ulcers and you're going to have you're going to have sleeping problems and you're going to have all of these troubles, physical health problems, because you didn't do the spiritual thing. Put on the new man. We're almost done. But if we put on the new man, then the peace of God will be allowed to rule in our hearts. Says to the witch, you also are called in one body and be thankful. that's going to happen to. We'll just be thankful when all of these other things are taking place, when we're putting on the new man. And then the other thing that we're going to let happen, we're going to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. This morning before Sunday school, we sang some scripture songs. I love singing scripture songs. The reason one of the main reasons I love singing scripture songs is this verse teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Wait a minute, though. He says, first, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. In other words, I can grab a hymn and I can teach you and admonish you with a hymn, a song, a spiritual song. I can teach and admonish you. Now, that doesn't take the place of preaching, of course. I can preach out of the hymnal. Matter of fact, on Thursday night when we were out there at the mission, At Wheeler, I told Brother Adams, I said, I said, if you were going to call me to preach, I had I was just going to go to him number 24, and I was going to preach. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his pain? And I said, I was just going to preach that song as I preach that song for an hour and a half, but I'd preach it for 10 minutes, too. So I could I could go to I could quote scripture that goes with that and just, you know, give him the gospel right there, you know. But it says, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. This has to do with not just memorizing the Word of God, but allowing it to trickle down into your heart and then have it, as it trickles down into your heart, what does your heart do physically? It doesn't break. No, what does it do? It beats. And what's your heart beating do? It causes blood to flow where? Your whole body. So guess what? When the Word of Christ gets in your head, gets down into your heart, It goes everywhere. Right. And it allows you to do what you ought to be doing. It takes your feet where they should go. It makes your hands do what they're supposed to do. Right. When the word of Christ dwells in you richly. Well, we're going to be helping one another right with that scripture. You know what? It is hard. to yell at somebody. Well, I've seen some musicals where they did, but it's hard to yell at somebody in song. It is. But notice here, you can teach and admonish somebody in song. Travis would hate it, but wouldn't it be great if life was like a musical, right? You just, next thing you know, you're singing scripture, you know? It's like, what's that? Banjos and violins, amen. And singing scripture. You go outside and you sing, I can't think of a scripture. You're just singing scripture. Some of those, what's that? What's that? He'd never want to talk because he'd have to sing. We'll get you there, brother. We'll get you there. Just suffer along with us. So we need to wrap up here. But this is what's going to happen. And then and then when this happens, that this is going to cause us to have the right mindset. We're going to have the right heart. We're going to have the right attitude toward everything instead of this. Instead of this guy being in charge, this guy is going to be in charge over here. And we're going to have the word of Christ dwelling in us richly, as Christ said, that those that trust in him because out of their belly is going to flow rivers of living water. We're not talking about a hernia with, you know, water flowing out. We're talking about the word of God just flowing out. It's interesting because that was out of your belly, right? And we get talks about your bowels and stuff. What, what is it actually, if you sing, what is it that you actually, if you're going to sing with a sustained, strong voice, where does that, where does the power for that voice come from? From your soul. Physically. Okay. Physically. Your diaphragm, which is, in your guts, right? And so, if you're going to belt it out, it's going to come from the inward man. What's that? The soul. Hey, that works too, brother. Amen. Because if your inward man's not in it, you know what? It really doesn't matter what the physical man's able to do. In fact, if the inward man, if you're just singing and you're like, hey, everybody look at me sing. Doesn't matter how good you saying it's worthless. It is worthless if it's not coming from The Lord from the Lord not necessarily just not necessarily the specific words of Scripture But Christ if it's not coming from him and so anyways when all this takes place Whatsoever you do do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God and the Father by him the way that we do all in the name of the Lord Jesus is Well, the fact that that takes place, if that's what we're doing, that's dangerous. It's dangerous because we're representing him. And if we mess up, we're blaspheming him. And so we must be sure that we're not over here trying to do everything in the name of Jesus, but rather we're over here. The spirit of God is in control. Put this guy under, you know, Paul said, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Less by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. You see, that's our, our mindset and our attitude ought to be a mindset and an attitude that the spirit of God controls us through the inward man. We put off the old man, put on the new man. Next week we'll look at some practical relationships where we can practice these things. in these relationships. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the scripture. Lord, we thank you, Father, that when we deserved to go to hell, when we deserved your wrath and your punishment upon us because of our sin, that you sent your own son to die for us, Lord, that you came and took our sin upon yourself, took our punishment, died in our place, that you were buried. You rose again the third day. You're victorious over sin, death, and the grave, and that you gave us all the opportunity to come to you, even though we didn't deserve it. For when we were ungodly, when we were without you, without hope in this world, you came and you died for sinners. And Lord, we pray, Father, that you'd help each of us. Lord, if there's anyone here today, Lord, that's not trusted in you, Lord, I pray, Father, that they would run to the cross, that they would be convicted of their sins, recognize their sin is going to take them to hell. Have them turn to you in faith, trusting in your son to save them by his works alone. Lord, we pray, Father, that you'd be with all those that are born again today. Lord, help us to remember the fact all of our Christianity, it all goes back to you. It all goes back to looking at if we're going to see how should we react to others. We see how you reacted to us when we deserved your wrath. You gave us. Yourself. You died in our place. Lord, help us to do likewise for others. Lord, we pray, Father, that you just do a great work. Lord, help us, Father, to be in the spirit, not in the flesh, and follow after you with all our hearts. Lord, we look forward to all that you're gonna do. Pray a blessing on these that have come. Pray, Lord, that you'd give us safe travels as we go our ways and bring us back together. In your name, in Jesus' name, amen.