Please be seated. Our text for our sermon this morning is 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16 through 18. We're going to look at some other texts together. And so we will be moving around a little bit in God's word this morning. I hope that'll be a blessing for you all as we hear what these things mean from other texts as well. But even as we turn to 1 Thessalonians, We turn to a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church in a town called Thessalonica. It is a letter that is filled with hope. He's writing a letter to a faithful gospel-proclaiming church, faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. And particularly toward the end of the letter, he's encouraging them with the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. He is coming back in glory. He is coming back to judge the earth and he's coming back to raise us up to new life with him. And so he's encouraging them with the hope that this is reality. And at the same time, he's also teaching them how we are to live as we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to return. So these three verses that we're going to read together, I believe, do make a unit with one another, revealing to us the will of God, as Paul says, for our lives as we await the Lord Jesus Christ coming again in power and in glory. So let me read these verses for us. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And as we hear the words there at the end of verse 18, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you, our ears ought to wake up. I mean, we're always awake when we're hearing God's word, don't misunderstand me, but this is a pretty straightforward statement, right? The apostle Paul says, this is God's will for you. Now, any of God's Word, any of His commands is God's will for us, but Paul emphasizes these three commands. And I do believe they build together, you know, evermore, without ceasing, in everything, right? We could say always, on all three of these, rejoice always, pray always, give thanks always, in every circumstance, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. concerning you. And so Paul says, listen, it's like when the teacher says, this is going to be on the exam, write it down. All right, Paul says, write this on your hearts so that you might remember it. You might know this is God's will for your life in Christ Jesus and live in it. And so I want us to consider these three commands that the Apostle Paul gives us here, consider what it is that they mean, and then to consider how we can live in these commands. And so, but first, let's consider these three commands. The Apostle Paul says, rejoice evermore. So we ask ourselves the question, what does it mean to rejoice? What does it mean to rejoice? In some ways, you might think that's an obvious answer. I know what it means to rejoice, but then if I were to ask you, could you write it in a paragraph form for me, you might struggle to say, well, let me think about what does this word rejoice mean. At the core of this word is the word joy, which again, a word that we're all familiar with. But if I asked you to define it, you might struggle a little bit. I can't quite put my finger on how I would define that word joy. Sometimes we think about happiness. We think about laughter. We might even think about kind of a giddiness. When we think about the word joy, but when we look at scripture at text in the scriptures that call us to joy that call us to rejoice, we must see that it means it has to mean something more than simply that than a. than a giddy attitude or a smiling face. There is something deeper to this idea of joy than just laughter and being happy, right? Even here, the Apostle Paul says to rejoice evermore, to rejoice always and forever, that we would rejoice in all circumstances. Right? This tells us that there's something deeper to joy than simply happiness, for surely the Lord would not have us to smile simply in the face of difficult circumstances, in the face of suffering, in the face of trials and temptations. Certainly He's not calling us simply to laugh in the face of these things. So there's something deeper to this idea of joy. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1 verse 8 says this, he's talking about Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The Apostle Peter says that you have a joy unspeakable and full of glory, and yet if you think about the letter that we call 1 Peter, Peter writes to those that he calls strangers who are spread about. People who have been spread out away from one another, whose lives are lives of being strangers, not being welcomed, strangers, not being at home. And then later on in verse one, we look at it just a second, he says that they are for a season in heaviness through manifold temptations. We are called to have joy in the face of trials and suffering. And so what does it mean to have this joy? I think Paul's words in Philippians 4 are helpful to us. And so if you have your Bible, you might turn there. Philippians 4, verses 4 through 7. And there, the Apostle Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Here, the Apostle Paul says something very similar, right? We can tell this is kind of a parallel text to what we read in 1 Thessalonians 5. He's giving them the same message, rejoice, pray, give thanks, but he built it out a little bit more here. And as he calls them to rejoice in the Lord always, he also talks about what they are to do when they face difficulty. He says, let your moderation be known unto all men. And that idea of moderation sometimes other places translated gentleness. And it signifies responding to difficulty or even an offense in a calm and meek way. All right, so when he says, let your moderation be known to everyone, he says, when they slap you in the face, turn the other cheek. He says, when they revile you, you don't lash back out at them. When you face difficulty, you don't have an impassioned response, but you show your moderation. You show your meekness, you show your difficulty, right? It is responding in a settled peace to difficulty. That's the idea of that word moderation. And I think it begins to get at the meaning of the word joy. As Paul says, rejoice always. He is saying joy joy is having a settled peace even in the face of adversity. difficulty, trying circumstances, someone persecuting you or lashing out at you, that you respond with a settled peace. And of course he goes on there in verse 6, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, right? And so there, how do we have this settled peace? We make our requests known to God with prayer and supplication. And as we lay our request before the Lord, the peace of God that passes understanding keeps our very hearts. Again, joy is to have this peaceful disposition, to be kept in the peace of the Lord. It's to have a settled peace upon our lives. And so yes, in some sense, it may mean being able to smile in the face of adversity. And it's not a painted-on smile. It may mean being able to laugh in the midst of suffering, but it's not a forced laughter and giddiness. It's a settled peace that says these circumstances will not determine the state of my heart, but the Lord my God will settle the state of my heart, and I will face this with peace. All right, and so Peter is helpful for us here as well. If you turn with me to 1 Peter 1. I read verse eight of this a moment ago. Here I want to hear it in its fuller context because it trains us and instructs us how it is that we could have this settled peace in our lives. Peter says, chapter one, verse one, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given..." I'm reading 2 Peter. I'm sorry, guys. I apologize. Please forgive me. 1 Peter. Let's do that one. 1 Peter 1, verse 1. I apologize. I'm preaching on 2 Peter at Grace and Peace right now, so perhaps that was why I was drawn there. 1 Peter 1, verse 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power of God through faith unto a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul. How do we rejoice always? How do we live in a joy unspeakable? full of glory. How do we have a settled peace in the face of any circumstances that we may face in this life? It's because of these blessings that Peter has laid out for us in this beginning of this first letter that he wrote. It's because we know that they are true. It's because we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. It's because before the foundation of the earth, God looked upon us in mercy and grace and said, You are mine, and I will make you mine in time through the blood of my own Son. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It's because the very Son of God has become a man and he has been betrayed and has been put upon a cross. And upon that cross, though he had no sin of his own, Nothing to deserve the wrath of God. Nothing to deserve the punishment of God in Himself. Yet upon the cross, our sins are laid upon Him, and therefore the wrath of God is poured out upon Him for our sins. So in our place, the Lord Jesus Christ took the wrath of God so that we might be sprinkled clean by His blood. so that we might have our sins forgiven, so that we might have peace with God and not face His wrath, not face His eternal torment. And friends, I urge you to consider what it means to be under the wrath of God. For the reality is that every one of us, every human being was created by the one true God in his image to live for his glory, to obey him in all things, to worship him with all of our heart. And because he is the one true God, he is worthy of this worship and obedience. And he tells us, that the result of our not obeying Him perfectly and not worshiping Him with all of our heart and life is that we die and that we suffer His wrath. And we're not talking about even the anger of any human being that we may ever have known, the worst human being we ever have known, the worst ire we've ever faced from a human being. We're talking about the wrath of the God who created everything that exists simply by speaking it into being. And when you think about the power of that God, He's the God who set the sun on fire and makes it burn. And that is nothing compared to His power and the burning of His wrath. And this is what we all deserve for our sin. And so, lest we pass over quickly what it might mean to say that this God has chosen us for Himself, and what it might mean that we are sprinkled clean in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us not pass over that quickly, but to consider the magnitude of what He has saved us from, which is the wrath of this everlasting God. And by the way, an everlasting wrath, because we can never pay the debt that we owe. We can never pay for our sins, even forever we would face His wrath. trying to pay the punishment that we deserve for our sins. And I press this this morning, friends, for two reasons. One, if you hear me now and you have not entrusted yourself to the Savior who shed His blood, whose blood is sprinkled in order that we might be clean, I want you to know, I plead with you to know your future, which is wrath you cannot imagine. anger, punishment, destruction, but that this God is gracious and merciful, and that this God has given His very own Son to take that wrath instead for you so that you might be delivered. And so I would plead with you to know this salvation, to know this hope, to know this joy I'm talking about. I'm certain that you don't have it in your life, If you are not entrusting yourself to this Savior, your heart is not settled, is it? When I talk about having a settled peace, no matter what may come at me in this life, I am confident you don't know what it is if you don't know this Savior. And so I beckon you to come and entrust yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, I say this for those of us who have entrusted ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would not take lightly the salvation that we have in Him. We would not take lightly what we have earned with our sin and what God has delivered us from, the magnitude of His grace to us. Because when I talk about having joy, rejoicing always, and having a settled peace in all circumstances, it's because we know that this is true, that Christ has delivered us from the wrath of God. And if we even go on, we hear more of these blessings in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Right? Christ not only died upon the cross bearing the wrath of God, he was laid in a tomb, and on the third day he rose again. shown to be victorious over sin and death, shown to have paid the price for our sin in full, for if any sin still remained unpaid for by Him, He would remain in the tomb even now, for He could not be released from death. until the price is paid in full. But His resurrection teaches us that He has paid the price in full for our sins, that our sins are truly forgiven, that there is nothing left to pay because Christ has been raised from the dead. And because Christ is raised from the dead, we have a lively hope, a living hope within us that settles our hearts in the face of difficulty. in the face of trials, in the face of temptation, in the face of suffering, even in the face of our own sinful faltering anew. We have this Savior who has truly died for our sins and been raised, shown to have paid the price for them in full. But He has begotten us, verse 4, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Because Christ has died for our sins, because He has been raised again from the dead, we have an eternal inheritance. We have an eternal inheritance of glory. We will live forever in the presence of God. Right? Think about it for a moment. We have the inheritance that is to live with God forevermore. We were made to live with this God. We were created to have communion with Him. Our sin puts a separation between us, and Christ has brought us back together, but still we have our remaining sin, and it keeps a bit of a veil between us, and we don't experience the fullness of communion with God. And yet there's a day coming when Christ returns, when we will be with God forever. If you are a believer in Christ here today and that doesn't sound like the greatest thing in the world, examine your heart. For to be in the presence of God is truly the greatest thing that there is. And he has given us this eternal inheritance that cannot be taken away. It's incorruptible, it's undefiled, it fadeth not away, it is ours forever. Those of us, verse five, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. We have this promise that our sins are forgiven. We have this promise that we have peace with God. We have this promise that we have eternal life in his name, life forever in the presence of God. We have this promise that we are kept even now by the power of God. There is no circumstance of our life. There is no moment, no second of our life. that is not being kept by the power of God, that same God that created all things by the word of His power, that same God who set the stars in the heavens and put the earth on its axis. This great God says, I am keeping you, I am watching over you, and I am bringing you to this eternal inheritance, right? Because these things are true. Because these things are true of us in the Lord Jesus Christ, we rejoice greatly, Peter says, verse six, wherein ye greatly rejoice, even though now we may face a season of temptation, a season of trial, a season of difficulty. Because Christ has died for us, how can we rejoice evermore? How can we have joy in all circumstances? How can we have a settled peace in all things? It's because these realities are ours. We have peace with God. We have forgiveness of our sins. We have an eternal inheritance waiting for us, and we have a God who keeps us even now in all circumstances. This is the source of joy in our lives. David says in Psalm 1611, thou wilt show me the path of life, In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. All right, that's the key. God has made us his beloved children by his grace and through the work of Jesus Christ. He calls us into his presence even now, assures us that he is with us always, keeping our lives, watching over us. and that he is bringing us into the fullness of this joy when Christ comes again. To know joy is to know God, or vice versa. To know God is to know joy. And it leads us really to the second command here, right? This God beckons us into his presence even now. such that the Apostle Paul says, not only do we rejoice evermore, but we pray without ceasing. So what does the Apostle Paul mean when he says, pray without ceasing? We certainly, I think, instinctually understand that he does not mean that we must live some kind of monk-like existence where we are cloistered off all the time in silence before the Lord. Sometimes that's a misunderstanding of these words, and we say, well, I can't do that, and so I guess I can't do this thing at all. But no, that's not what Paul is talking about. The Scriptures are full of commands that we would do other things besides pray. We're commanded to do lots of things besides pray. In fact, in both of Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, He admonishes them not to put up with people being idle. I know we must work. We must do the things that God has called us to do and gifted us to do and sent us out to do. So it must not be that we have to be kind of living this life of quietude before the Lord and not doing any other things. That's not what Paul means by pray without ceasing. So then what does Paul mean? when he says, pray without ceasing. I believe the Apostle Paul here is calling us to live our lives always in an attitude of prayer. Always in an attitude of prayer. We're to have a constant awareness of our dependence upon God in all things. To always be aware of his providential care. in our lives. We have Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 5, Paragraph 1, printed at the bottom here of your order of worship. It says this, wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy. You may say to me, Pastor Wood, that doesn't seem to call me to pray because that says God's going to do what he's going to do. And in fact, I would argue that does call us to pray because it tells us that God holds all of our circumstances in his hands. And so when the Apostle Paul says, pray without ceasing, he's calling us to be always aware. of our dependence upon God and of His providential care of our lives, that He is always at work around us, that He is always at work through us, that every good gift comes to us from His hands, so that we live a life not sequestered off in a being still before God. We're gonna talk about that this afternoon, actually, our times of intentional prayer, focused prayer with the Lord. But here he's talking about the fact that we're always aware of God, that we're always aware of our dependence upon him, that we're always ready to throw up a quick prayer. A prayer for help in the midst of any circumstance. A prayer for help in a conversation that may be coming. Give me words to say. Prayer for help when a difficult task is before us. God, please help me. Guide my hands. Help me to accomplish what I need to accomplish here. Anything that we might face, remembering that God is with us and we are dependent upon Him in all things. Right, what causes us to not pray without ceasing? What would cause us not to have this attitude of dependence all the time? Well, it's our pride, isn't it? It's our pride that says, I've got this. I don't need God's hand and his help in this. Our pride that might not even consciously say that, but that causes us to even not consider asking God for his help in a task. All right, always ready, always recognizing our need for God and crying out to him quickly, God help me, God help me, or a quick prayer of thanks for a blessing, no matter how big or how small, thank you, Father. Thank you for getting me here safely. Thank you for this food. Thank you for that conversation. Thank you for helping me in this way. Thank you, Father. Again, we'll get to Thanksgiving, I know, in just a moment. But our pride is what stops us, right? For we refuse to acknowledge that God is the one that did it. And we think we did whatever it was. Or we think we're owed it. All right, we're owed whatever this thing was that happened in our lives that was good, rather than saying, no, we are owed nothing and God gives us gifts. And so we give thanks. All right, so this idea of always having God, I think about it in terms of a field of vision, right? And so as I look around this room, I can focus on one area at a time, or one person at a time, or the clock in the back at one time, and yet, You're all in my field of vision as I'm looking around. And even later, if I were to go home and someone asked me, well, what was the sanctuary like? I could probably even describe some things that I didn't focus on because they were in my field of vision. And our minds and our hearts, they work similarly to that, I believe. I'm given to understand we can't actually multitask. We can just jump back and forth between tasks, right, at any given time. We focus on one thing, and yet there's kind of this field of vision that we can always go from one thing to another. That's how our minds work, that's how our hearts work. So as Paul says, pray without ceasing, he's not saying we have to be intently focused upon God in every moment. We need those moments, but that God's never outside the field of vision. So we're always aware that he's here. And we're always ready to go there and say, thank you, Lord. Help me, Lord. Please be with me, Lord, in this, at any given moment, and that we would never turn our back on God as it were. that we would never forget his presence. David says in Psalm 139, where can I go from your presence? All right, he's here. We can't do away with his presence. But we can certainly refuse to acknowledge his presence. All right, what a difference it would make in our lives, beloved, if we would pray without ceasing. if we would live all of our lives quorum Deo, as it were, aware of the fact that we live our lives quorum Deo. Never having God outside the field of our vision, right? How quickly we would be to cast our cares upon him rather than keeping them in our own hearts to trouble us. and even disable us at times and put us into the pit of despair, but if we would recognize God is here and we can cast our cares upon him at every moment, what peace it would give us, what joy it would give us, how much more settled would our hearts be? How much might we grow in holiness if we would never forget that God is here. If we would never forget that he is in the room at every moment. Right? A, because he sees and he knows and we love him. We don't want to disappoint him. But B, because we might be quicker to say, lead me not into temptation, Father. Deliver me from this evil, Father. How might we grow if we would remember? How thankful would we be if we would never have God outside the field of vision of our hearts and minds? knowing that He's here, that He's working, that He's keeping, that He's sustaining, that even when it's difficult, He's working good, right? And that does get to our third command here, that in everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. How thankful ought we to be, friends? How merciful is God to us? How gracious has He been to us? When we consider, I've already talked about it, but when we consider what He has delivered us from, what we deserve for our sins, and the magnitude of what He's done for us in Jesus Christ, how thankful ought we to be? How could we ever have a single moment without giving thanks? When we consider that every good gift comes to us from the hand of our Father, as small as it might be from the protein bar I ate on my way in here this morning to sustain me, to the biggest thing, the house that he has provided for my family. That's not the biggest thing in the world, but you understand what I'm saying? Big things like the house that he provided for my family to live in. And everything in between, the breath I'm breathing right now, the beating of my heart. All of it comes to us from God. How thankful ought we to be? Yet again, in our pride, we assume that we have done it, so we do not give thanks. In our pride, we believe that we are owed these things. They are our rights as human beings. Yet God tells us plainly in his word, they are all gifts from my hand. how we ought to be driven to give thanks. I'm aware that I'm pressing this in hard, and it's not that we need to be whipped into being thankful. That doesn't seem to go together, right? But the goal really is for us to just see how marvelous God's gifts of grace to us are, how abundantly merciful and gracious He has been to us, how abundant His gifts are to us, so that as we keep our eyes upon that, as we are aware of it over and over and every moment of every day, that it would draw us to being thankful to Him. We do need both. We need to be convicted and rebuked to give thanks. The answer is that we would see But the thing that is even more piercing here is that Paul doesn't say, give thanks when things are going well. He doesn't simply say, remember to give thanks to God when he blesses you. He says, in everything. And he emphatically states it clearly. in every thing, give thanks. It is easy to see how we ought to be giving thanks for the kindnesses of God, the blessings of God, the good gifts that we have, the things that give us pleasure, the things that give us delight. It's easy for us to see how we should be giving thanks in those things. It should be easy for us to give us thanks in those things. But then when we hear that we are to give thanks in everything, That I am to give thanks when my daily bread is a barely scraping by. That I am to give thanks when I face persecution for the name of Christ. That I am to give thanks when I suffer illness and disease. That I am to give thanks when a loved one is upon their deathbed. That I am to give thanks when the cry of my heart is lament. It gets harder to understand. How do I give thanks in everything? How can this be so? The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, 28, words that I'm sure are familiar to most of us. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, right? There's another things, everything. And so if I can trust, because God has said it, that everything in my life is working good, that God is working good in everything, then I am able to give thanks for every one of those things because I trust that God is working good in it. Not because I can see how God is working good in it. That's not the promise. He doesn't say you will see, but he says he is working good. And so we trust that because God is sovereign and holds all things together in his hands, because he is perfectly wise and good and merciful and loving, that even the most difficult circumstance in my life, This God can and does work for good in my life and for his glory. Now, one of the things that helps us in that is to understand that Paul does go on to describe good as being remade in the image of his son. The ultimate good in our lives is to look like Jesus. And so we can take the promise that everything we face is bringing us into that goodness of looking more and more like Jesus Christ. The Apostle says in Hebrews 13 verses five and six, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as he have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Right, and so those two promises together, God is working good, and he never leaves me nor forsakes me. He is here with me, whatever this difficulty is, God is here. Those are the things that help us to give thanks in all circumstances. And again, I would say, believer in Christ, Rest upon these promises. Rejoice in them. Give thanks because of them. And I would say to the one who has not entrusted yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, this is offered to you. There is a life where you can trust that everything is ultimately worked for good. And if there is a God who says, I will never leave you nor forsake you, no matter what comes into your life, I will be with you and will sustain you through it, so that you could truly say, I will not fear what God can do to, what man can do to me. This is on offer to you in the Lord Jesus Christ and this gracious God. And so we have these commands. Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. How do we do it? How can we live in this way? We've already been talking about it, right? But just very briefly, I want to turn our attention back to Colossians chapter three that we read together in our New Testament reading this morning. The Apostle Paul says, 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, not on things, not things on the earth. All right, the way that we can live this way is by setting our affections. upon Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. Fix your hearts upon Christ Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, who has accomplished all these wonderful blessings that we talked about in 1 Peter. Fix your eyes upon Him. Lift up your hearts into the throne. to remember that God sits upon that throne, that Christ rules and reigns over all things now, having accomplished our salvation. How do we set our affections on the things that are above? The primary way that we do this is by living in God's word. Verse 16 of Colossians 3, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The way that you set your affections on the things that are above, the way that you mortify your sin, as he said in between those two verses, the way that you put on the new man and live for Christ is by letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. I wonder, beloved, does your relationship with the Word of God, could it be described by dwelling richly in you? Are you giving yourself to God's Word? Devoting yourself to it, that it might dwell richly in you? Reading it daily at least? memorizing it so that it gets set into your mind and into your heart, so that even in the moments when you can't have your physical Bible open, that it can be running through your heart and your mind. I wonder if you meditate upon God's Word, chewing upon it literally. Running it over in your mind and your heart. What is this saying? What does this mean for my life? How can I take this into my life? To have the word of Christ dwell in us richly is God's primary means of drawing our affections to his love. For this is where he has revealed himself to us. This is where we see him. This is where we hear him. This is where we know what is true. and where the promises are for our lives. We also set our affections upon the things that are above in prayer. As we go before the throne of God and pour out our hearts, as David says in Psalm 62, as we make our desires known to Him, as we pray and recognize our dependence upon Him and give thanks to Him, as we pray without ceasing and keeping Him in our line of sight, we are drawn more and more to Him. We are drawn to his will. We are drawn to praise him and to to confess before him and to ask for his help. We are. We are. Our eyes are drawn up to the Lord. The eyes of our hearts are drawn up to the Lord. So we give ourselves to prayer. We we set our affections on things above as we keep the Lord's Day holy. What a gift God has given us. and saying, one day in seven, you set apart to me. One day in seven, you take your eyes, your affections off of the things of this world, the cares of this world, the work of this world, the recreation of the world, the desires of the world, and you fix them upon me. Coming together for worship with the saints, fellowshiping with one another in between worship, speaking of the things of God, going home and keeping it holy to the Lord, right? The Lord has given us this day. Yes, it is a command. Yes, it is a duty. But as all God's commands and duties are good for us, so this is such a rich gift and blessing that God has given us to help us to set our affections upon Him, right? This is how we can see this to be true in our lives, by letting the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, by giving ourselves to a life of prayer, by setting apart the Lord's day and keeping it holy, coming together for worship and focusing our hearts and our minds upon Him. throughout the day. It is this good gift that we would live. Remember where we started. This is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Right? The number one thing in our lives, not as Christians, but as human beings. Is to live in the will of God. Right, God made us in his image. He knows exactly what is best for our lives. And so what is best, what is most satisfying, what is most joyful, what is most peaceful, what gives the greatest delight for any human being is to live in the will of God who made you for himself. Right? And here Paul says, this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus, that you would live a life of having your affection set upon me moment by moment, right? Joyfully at peace, constantly aware, praying to me. giving thanks in all circumstances. This is the will of God, and that means it's the very best thing for our lives, and thus we ought to give ourselves to these means of grace that cultivate it in our lives. Let me pray and ask the Lord that he would help us. Please stand with me as we pray and ask the Lord that he would help us do these things. Father in heaven, we are humbled in your presence. even to consider that you are the great creator of all things, the all-powerful, all-mighty, all-wise, all-glorious one, and we are but a speck, it seems. Who is man that you would consider us, and yet, oh God, you know every intimate detail of our lives, and in your grace, you fix your love upon your people. You've chosen us for yourself before the foundation of the world and called us to yourself in Jesus Christ. You have given your own son that we might be forgiven and have life in his name. Oh Lord, who are we? Who are we? Oh God. And yet we confess that so often our pride rises up and we refuse to acknowledge that you are God and that everything we have comes from you. Our pride rises up and we assume that we are owed these things that we have in this life, rather than seeing them as gifts from you. Help us, oh Father. Impress Your Word upon our hearts, impress this truth upon us, that we live always in Your hands, always in Your presence, always fully dependent upon You, and that You are good, and that You are loving, and that You have given Your own Son for us, that it might draw our affections to You, O God, that is our greatest need, that is our deepest longing, O Lord. draw our hearts to you, that they might beat for you, that they might live for you, that we might live lives of worship and obedience in all things, that our eyes might never be taken away from you, but you would always be before us, so that we might live in joy, that we might live in prayer, and that we might live in thanksgiving. Help us, we pray, in Christ's name.