Good morning. Open your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 1. We do thank you for our dear sister Ellie. We thank you for your grace in her, Lord. We lift her up right now. She has a concussion, Lord. I know she's very discouraged and is feeling very weak. Lord, we ask that you would give her strength and that you would heal her, Lord, and that you would be with her right now. She's not able to be here with us this morning. We ask that you would comfort her heart and that you would encourage her in the gospel of Jesus Christ today. And Lord, now as we open your word together, we ask that you would speak to us, Lord, that we may be those who walk worthy of the calling to which you have called us and to live a life that is fully pleasing to you because we love you, because you first loved us. We love you and we want to honor you. and do what you desire. So Lord, please bless the word this morning as we consider what you have for us from the book of Colossians. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you stand with me for the reading of God's word? We're starting in verse 9. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all endurance and patience, with joy giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption. the forgiveness of sins. This is God's Word. You may be seated. Well, as we pick up here in verse 9, you'll remember, you remember when we were in Colossians 3 through 8, or 1 through 8, that the Apostle Paul begins this letter to the church in Colossae, to the Colossians, with thankfulness, and he tells them what thanks he has been giving to God the Father for what he has heard about them. Remember, Paul never went to Colossae. He never went to this church. He heard of what God was doing among them from Epaphras. And since Paul heard about it, he has been giving thanks And so in the previous section, he's giving thanks, looking back at what God has done in the Colossians. He's looking back at what God has done for saints, for his believers, for you, that the gospel in its power is bearing fruit and growing, increasing all over the world. And that that gospel fruit has shown forth in the saints in their faith and love. and hope that we have in heaven, right? And so he looks back, and he's giving thanks for what God has done, and now in this section, we see that he is praying, looking forward to what he wants God to do, what he knows is necessary in the life of the believer, that they would grow and increase. He doesn't use the word here, but the concept is here, they would be sanctified. He looks back at what God has done in delivering them, their justification, and now he is praying that they would be filled with the knowledge of God's will so that they would walk worthy, fully pleasing to Christ. And so, As we consider today this prayer, we could approach this passage in two ways this morning. We could approach it as learning how we ought to pray, and that is one way that we could go at this. There's a great book by D.A. Carson. I think it just got retitled, but it's Learning to Pray from the Prayers of Paul in the New Testament. I encourage you to read it. It's very good. That's one way we could approach this passage. Another way is what we're going to do this morning is focus on the content of the prayer as instruction for us in what God desires to see in every saint and faithful brother and sister. And so in verse 9 he again says, And so from the day we heard about what God was doing among you, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Paul knows that this fruit, this filling, this being filled with the knowledge of God's will, is absolutely necessary. It is so necessary that he does not cease to pray that this would occur in the life of believers. He regularly prays for it. We often spend a lot of time in our prayer for the urgent, right? But Paul doesn't just spend time on the urgent, though I'm confident that he prayed for those urgent things that he knew of in the churches. But he also regularly prayed for the necessary grace that we need each day to honor God. Do you pray? Our prayers reveal a lot about our hearts, right? What we pray about shows what is most important to us. What is most important to you? Let us learn from the content of this prayer. What is most important? And he says that he's praying, he's asking, he's pleading with God, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. This is what we need, saints. We need to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Now, saying that we need to be filled means that there is something lacking, right? There's something that needs to grow, something that needs to be increased, something that needs to be filled up. I think none of us would claim to have exhaustive knowledge of God, or exhaustive knowledge of His will, exhaustive knowledge of the Scriptures, right? You may have read the Scriptures a hundred times, but as you continue to read the Word of God, you uncover treasures that you never knew were there, right? Even if you've walked with God for 40, 50 years, there is always treasure to be found. Because it's not a dead word, saints, right? It's not just this ancient document that we can master. It is a living word that is active and sharp, cutting to the division of the heart. So we need to be filled. We need to be filled. And notice that this is a passive verb. Passive verb means that the subject is being acted upon. So he's bearing that we would be filled, so we're not the ones who fill ourselves, right? Who's the active agent here who's filling us? God. He's asking that God would be the one to fill us. And so this requires humble dependence. Humble dependence that he would be the one to fill us with the knowledge of his will What is the will of God? well Most of us, or if you're like me, we often think of the will of God as, what is God's purpose for my life, for this moment, for this action? And those things are true, so what I'm going to say now, don't take this as a discount of this, but we primarily think of the will of God as, who would God have me marry? Where should I work? Where should I move? What should I eat today? Whatever it is. And we have a very self-focused perspective on the will of God. And then we get into some weird practices, right? Like, God, if you want me to do this, cause that book to fall off the shelf, right? Do you know what that is? That's actually divination. That's a form of sorcery, a form of something that God condemns in Scripture. We ought not to do that, okay? Do you want to know the will of God? Do you want to know what God's will is for you? I believe that God providentially cares for you and guides you, that he does care who you marry, that he does care where you work, he does care about those things, right? But do you want to know what God's will is? Then you need to open the scriptures. You need to open the word of God. Paul speaks of God's will in a number of ways. One is God's decree, God's will in the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 1, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved." And then you skip down to verse 11, it says, "...in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will." So what is God's will? Well, one, it is to bring about redemption through the work of Jesus Christ to save, to redeem, as we'll see in this passage in Colossians, to rescue those who are in the domain of darkness, the elect, who are in the domain of darkness, and bring them into the kingdom of light. So God's will, one, is his plan, his decree of redemption. But Paul also speaks of God's will in another manner. He speaks of it as doing what God desires, what God has commanded. In 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 1 through 3, he says this, that you would be holy, that you would walk in righteousness, that you would be sanctified, that you would be made holy. Another thing, just an application that he gives later in 1 Thessalonians 5 and 16, he says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. What is God's will for you? His will is that you would be sanctified. What is God's will for you? That you would be thankful in all circumstances, that you would rejoice in the glory of God. The psalmist says in Psalm 143 10, teach me to do your will for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on level ground. Teach me to do your will. That means to do what God desires, to do what He expects, what He commands. You would have to rip out a number of pages in the Bible, even in the New Testament, especially in the New Testament, if you just wanted to take out all the commands that were given to us to be holy and what it looks like to be holy, what it looks like to be sanctified. This is God's will for you, saints, and God wants you to be filled with this knowledge, the knowledge of His will. D.A. Carson said this, Do you want to know God's will? Open the Word of God. You want to know what God desires for you? Take up and read. Read, see what has been revealed. If you are unwilling to read and digest the will of God that has been revealed clearly in the scriptures, then what are you doing? What are you asking for guidance in? Augustine said, love God and do as you please. He didn't mean just live, you know, a life of lawlessness. He meant if you love God, this is what the psalmist said, the Lord will direct your paths. Delight yourself in him and he will direct your paths. Know what he commands. Live according to the word of God and he will guide you in all these things. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you, saints. So we need to be filled with this knowledge. We need to know what God's will is. And notice again, it was that passive verb, right? Be filled. So we need to actively ask, actively read, but we have to depend on God to reveal it to us. We need to be filled by Him with this knowledge, and the next phrase makes that clear, in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Another way we could say this is, in all wisdom and understanding that comes from the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who gives wisdom and understanding. In the scriptures, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Wisdom. He is the one who gives wisdom throughout the scriptures. He's the one who gives wisdom to those who build the temple. He's the one who gave wisdom to Solomon. We need the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2, we won't read though, it's a long passage, but there Paul says that Only those who are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, only those who have the mind of God, the Holy Spirit, can understand the things of God. You want to understand the will of God as you read the Scriptures? Well, you can't do it without the work of the Holy Spirit. So He needs to fill you. And it's the Spirit who gives us this wisdom. an understanding, who gives us the ability to discern how to apply the will of God in our lives, how to honor Him, how to do what is right, to have an understanding, be filled with the knowledge of God. Would you pray that to Him? Would you ask Him for that? And would you pray that for each other? Remember, Paul is praying this for the brothers. So not only pray for yourself, but this is a prayer that we ought to be giving, praying to God for our brothers and sisters, asking that God would fill them with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now this filling, this understanding, this knowledge of God's will is for a purpose. It's not just so that our minds are filled up, right? He says in verse 10, "...so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him." He asks that the Colossians, they would be filled with the knowledge of His will for the purpose that they may walk worthy. that they may live a life that is fully pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is Jesus your master? Is he your king? Does he love you? Do you love him? Don't you want to please him? Don't you want to do what is worthy of his name? as he's going to say a little bit later in this passage, we were those who were in the darkness. And God the Father rescued us through His Son, Jesus Christ, and transferred us from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Who are we? Do we deserve to have been rescued and transferred? Oh, if we have any acquaintance with our sin, if we know even a hint of how evil our hearts are, you know that you are very unworthy to be rescued, to be delivered. But God in his love and his mercy, saints, has loved you with an everlasting love, and he transferred you into his kingdom." And so he is our king, right? He is our master, but he's not like the slave master that Sin was, right? He's not like the flesh or the devil, who are horrid taskmasters, right? and only lead us into life of destruction and pain and sorrow. But Jesus is a good master. He is the Lord, the Lord of glory, who is gentle and humble. He says, anyone who would come to me, that anybody who's weary and heavy laden to come unto him, that his burden, his light, Following the Master, following Jesus the Lord, brings much joy. It is a life of peace and joy. Not without suffering, not without sorrow, right? Jesus promised that if we follow Him, that we would suffer. But there is great joy in following the Lord. And saints, don't you want to please Him? Don't you want to walk in a manner worthy of Him? Doing what He pleases? Not to earn His favor, right? Not to earn our way into the kingdom. That was what God did, right? It's what God has done through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is what God has done which has brought you into good standing with Him. But now, We want to walk in a manner that is worthy to Him. We cannot divorce justification and sanctification. You cannot divorce those two. They go together. In our bulletin this morning, we had a quote from J.C. Rowell, and I don't have it in front of me. You should read it. I'll read it to you. But that, essentially, that don't boast of justification of your, thank you, Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you." You can't take the two apart. What God has done in regeneration and our justification bears forth fruit in sanctification. which simply means that as we walk with Jesus, we are made more holy. As we walk with Jesus, we are made more into his image to reflect him. Was Jesus holy? Amen. Hallelujah. He was holy. He was righteous and he's good. Do you want to be like him? Do you want to walk in a manner worthy of him? Well, Paul gives us four ways for manners for, for four different ways in which we walk worthy. The first he says is by bearing fruit in every good work. You want to walk worthy? The first thing is, Saint, the way you will walk worthy is by bearing the fruit of good works. You will walk worthy by bearing the fruits of good works. works. We've already said our justification is not based on our works, right? Our right standing with God, praise the Lord, is not based on what I have done. We're just saying about that. It's not in me. It's not the good things that I do. It doesn't matter how hard I pray. It doesn't matter if I sell everything. It doesn't matter if I'm burned at the stake. If I don't have Jesus, then I don't have anything. If I don't have Jesus's righteousness, then it's just filthy rags that will be burned. So, start with the assumption here that we've been brought into His kingdom by the merit of Christ alone, and now that we are in His kingdom, we are to bear the fruit of good works. Preaching justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, all the five solas, does not mean that we don't speak about good works, right? The scriptures are filled with the call of believers to bear fruit. Jesus says this in John 15. Verses 1 through 5, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." You want to bear fruit, saints? then you need Jesus. If you want to bear fruit, you can try to bear fruit, but it's going to rot really fast, unless it comes from the root, which is Christ. The good fruit that comes from those who remain in Jesus is the fruit of righteousness. It's the fruit that Paul describes in Galatians. He says, it's the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Are you bearing fruit? First of all, if you are not bearing fruit, if your fruit just sprouts up and then rots away, then maybe you're like some of the stony ground hares that Jesus talks about. The seed that fell upon soil, but it wasn't good soil, and so as soon as the cares of the world come, you're gone. As soon as trials and temptation come, difficulties, you're gone. Jesus says those in which those whom the gospel bear takes deep root, those who are regenerated, much fruit, much fruit is born. Some 10, some 50, some 100 fold. We all have a different amount of fruit that we bear. But all of us who are in Jesus are bearing fruit, right? So if you aren't bearing fruit, If you only bore fruit for a season, a short season, and now there's no more fruit, then you need to go back to the gospel, back to the basics, and ask, am I in the kingdom? Do I belong to Jesus? Am I born again? Anybody can make a decision, right? As Pastor Matt said this yesterday in our evangelism class, Judas made decisions to follow Jesus, right? Judas made decisions and he apparently bore fruit because when Jesus said one of them was going to betray, none of the other disciples said, is it Judas? Right? Okay, you can have an outward appearance of godliness for a time. But is it in the heart? Is it real fruit? You want to know how you can test your fruit? What's going on at your house? What goes around with those you love the most, who are closest to you, who see you when no one else is around? That's your real character. That's where the fruit is born. I'm not saying you're perfect. My wife knows that I am not perfect. I've confessed sins to her this week. I'm talking about a consistent growth in righteousness, a love for what is right, a heart that is humble and quick to take responsibility and repent. Are you bearing fruit, saints? This is what fully pleases Him. This is what God expects of you. This is what God wants because He loves you. One preacher said, I don't remember who it was, but when God says, don't do this, when God says, this is wrong, He's saying, don't hurt yourself. Sin only brings sorrow and destruction. Jesus' commands, His desire for us, the fruit that He expects us to bear, is not wearisome. In fact, it brings joy. I mean, the fruit of the Spirit is what? I mean, any of those things would any of you not want? Love, joy, peace, patience. These are all things in which we need, but we need to get them from Christ, right? We need to abide in Him. So there's the passive reliance, but there's also active, right? Paul said to Timothy, be a good soldier. Paul speaks about beating his body, not in a massive, you know, like trying to harm himself, but he's saying being self-disciplined. Train yourself for godliness. Nobody just accidentally becomes holy. You don't just, you know, sit at home and think about, oh, if I could just be holy. No, we need to have grace-empowered effort. That is, relying on the Holy Spirit, as we're going to talk about, being strengthened. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we need to seek to bear fruit. We need to take up the scriptures and read. We need to seek communion with the triune God in prayer. We need to be actively repenting of sin. We need to be confessing it to one another. We need to be examining our hearts. We're all self-deceived, right? Like, there are things you are self-deceived about, and that's why we need one another. point out, not with self-righteousness, right? Take the log out of your own eye first, but to point out, hey, there's an inconsistency here. God calls us to bear fruit. And there's a paradox here. One is we cannot bear fruit apart from him, so it is an utter reliance. On the other side, we must make the effort to bear fruit. You cannot be lazy in your sanctification saints. We are also lazy in our sanctification. We live in a day where we do not take holiness serious. I don't take it serious enough. We are called to be set apart, to be those who bear fruit. The second thing he says, and it goes hand in hand with bearing fruit, says, and increasing in the knowledge of God. I should have said there, he was bringing out four, he tells us four means by which we may walk worthy, and he kind of gives them in pairs, the first two together and the second two together. So the first two are bearing the fruit of good works, and the second is by growing in your knowledge of God. These go hand in hand. You see, The Bible knows nothing of a mere intellectual faith, right? The Bible does not separate knowledge and practice. It does not separate right doctrine from right living. You must not separate the two. You know what separating the two is? You know what that is? That's called hypocrisy. You can believe all the right things, you can confess all the right things with your mouth, but if there is no fruit, what is it that you really believe? Right belief results in right practice. And then it's on the other, you know, you can't go the other side, right? And say, it's just about all the deeds that we do and forget doctrine. No, Paul has spent a significant amount of time already in the first 14 verses of this book to establish right doctrine, right knowledge. Because he knows by addressing the core beliefs of the Colossians, he will help protect them from the false teachings that they are in danger of falling prey to. We'll unpack those a little bit more as we get into Colossians, but there was a teaching that you could have a fuller knowledge, a fuller spirituality with other practices, such as getting special visions from angels, keeping certain laws. There was this Colossian heresy of syncretism of all these different religions, including Judaism, that sought a deeper spirituality beyond Jesus, outside of Christ. And so they promised a deeper knowledge, some further knowledge, than what the Colossians had already heard. And Paul is calling them, he's praying for them, that they would be filled, they would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, that they would bear fruit, and that they would increase, not in some abstract knowledge, but in the knowledge of God. That they would know Him. So, increasing in the knowledge of God is not just knowing facts about God, right? I'm sure you've heard this illustration. What kind of relationship would we have with our spouse if our only relationship with them was by reading about them? Right? No, no, no. We need to have communion. We need to have fellowship. Alright, so the knowledge of God does include intellect. I better know things about my wife, right? Like, I need to know that my wife loves ice cream. That's a big deal for her. She loves ice cream. Nathan told me when we were dating that one of the secrets to getting to Emily's heart was ice cream. So every date we went on after that, we went out to ice cream. And we're married. Now we have two kids. So it worked. Yeah, it was gelato because I'm Italian. All right. We need to grow, not just in an intellectual knowledge of God, but in an experiential knowledge. The Puritans called this experiential theology, or what's the word they used? Experimental, which by that they meant experiential communion with God. Knowledge of God requires that you know truths about God, but it also requires your heart. It requires that you know Him, that you love Him, that you seek to truly know Him, not just about Him, but that your heart would be so filled with love and joy of Him. You want to walk worthy? You need to increase in the knowledge of God. How can you know about God? This basic Sunday school answer here, right? The Bible, right? Let's open the Word of God. You want to know what God is like? He has revealed to us His character, His nature, His works. So we read Scripture, we know that God is mighty. We know that He is the Creator. We know that He is eternal, that He is holy, that He is love, that He is merciful, that He is just. This is who our God is. Do you want to know Him? Read the Scriptures. You want to know Him? Pray. Pray the Scriptures. Pray through the Word of God. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Commune with Him. And when you've done all that, so you better do that first, read some good books by some godly men who have gone before you and who have thought thoughts, great thoughts about God and have written them down to encourage the saints. And all the good writings are those that are based on what? The Word of God. Just a recommendation for you, if there was two books that I could just have outside the Bible for the rest of my life. That was all I could read. This is what I would encourage you. If you haven't read these, then you need to start reading them. Everybody in this room should have read these two books before you die. Pilgrim's Progress and John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion. Okay, John Calvin, what are you talking about? Ivory? No, he was not an ivory tower theologian. He was a churchman. He was a pastor. And his big book was written for believers to have a basic understanding of the scriptures. And it's not all about election. Like, that's a one little section in there, right? It's a big book. It is I'm saying big book, but it's not hard. It is a good read. Anyways, that's just my plug of some books that will help you think thoughts that are worthy of God. Think thoughts of Him and His graciousness of the gospel. I'm sure other men in here, women, would encourage you to read other books as well. They might have some of their favorites. But let us seek to grow in the knowledge of God. We cannot grow in the knowledge of God if we're being lazy. I know all of us are busy. I know all of us have things going on and you wonder how you can cut out time to read. But we make time for what's important to us, right? Make time. If you're not reading the Word of God at the baseline, then you need to change your schedule. You need to change what you're doing. If you don't have time, you need to wake up earlier, you need to do something to commune with God. And most of us, I know some of you have crazy work schedules, should take the time to read good books that will help us to have a fuller understanding of Scripture. Because we are blinded by many things because we live in a certain time and place. And to read those from other times, other cultures, is very helpful. Alright, back to the text. Verse 11, We're going to take with joy with the next phrase. If you have the ESV, there's a footnote there, and I'll explain it when we get to the next point. The third thing, if you want to walk worthy of the Lord, is walk worthy by growing, by living with his strength. Walk worthy by growing, by living with his strength. Walk worthy by living with his strength. All these things we've spoken of so far, you can do none of it. without being strengthened by the work of God, by his power. You have to live with his strength. Notice it's another passive verb, being strengthened. So he doesn't say strengthen yourselves, he says being strengthened by God's power. Listen, you want to bear fruit, you want to grow in the knowledge of God, you want to endure with patience, as he says here, then you need to live, not in your own strength, but in the strength in which God provides. This requires humility. It requires that we recognize that we are weak and that we are feeble and that we are in desperate need of being strengthened by the strength with which God provides for us. Without his strength, we can do nothing. We would not even be here if it wasn't for the work of God. He says here that you may be strengthened with all power, that we would be strengthened with the power of God. Now wait, how powerful is God, right? Like this word power refers to God's might, his strength, like that he is the one who with the very words of his mouth created everything. Everything that you see, everything that you know was created by God. How many things have you created? No, you take what God has made and we reflect Him being the creator by creating things while we create, but none of us have created anything out of nothing. and our scientific age, we know more of the glory of God in creation than any time before, right? The expanses of the universe. And he created that with words. He is powerful. He is powerful. When it says here, according to his glorious might, he's speaking of the works that God has done that reveal his glory. not just in creation, but also in redemption, right? That God has brought great, worked a great glory in the work of redemption. That the power of God is displayed in the fact that he has conquered the devil, he has conquered our sin, he has conquered death. Guess what? None of us could do that. You can't conquer the devil. He's stronger than you, and he knows more than you do. You can't conquer sin without God's strength, right? On our own, we are dead in our sins. Who conquers sin? No one. No one can do it. Death. What man, besides Jesus Christ, what man or woman has ever conquered death? Everyone dies. We know this. Everybody dies. We will all die. But God in his power rose Jesus from the dead. He is risen. How many people have you seen raised from the dead? All right, that takes a work of God, right? It is the power of God. So that is the power that we're drawing on. We don't have a feeble God. We don't we don't have a God who's twiddling his thumbs in heaven He is the God who reigns and rules with power and might And he Supplies you from his power the strength that you need to walk in his grace So You're struggling your difficulties temptations trials Rely on the strength which God supplies to you. That you would be able to, he says, he prays that they would strengthen with his power so they would have all endurance and patience. That we would be able to endure the trials, the temptations, the difficulties, the ups, the downs. We have to be relying upon his power. And it's easy to say, right? But this should be your prayer every morning. Waking up on our knees, Father, give me the strength to bear up with all endurance and patience to follow you and walk worthy today. That's what you need to do every morning, every day. And our last point. Walking worthy. We need to walk worthy by joyfully giving thanks. He says here, this word with joy actually connects the two phrases. So you can take it with the endurance and patience with joy, you can say with joy giving thanks, which I think is how the NASB translates it. But he's saying as you're enduring with patience from the strength that God provides Now with joy giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share and in the in the inheritance of the Saints in light He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins you want to walk worthy Saints then we must be those who Continually are giving thanks to the father If you are not thankful, then you are proud. If you are not a thankful person, then you are proud. What do you think? That you deserve the grace of God? Do you think that you deserve His daily mercy and grace and provision? No, no, no, no. We must be humble. We must be humble of heart, and only those who are humble of heart can truly express thanks. And here he overflows into why we should give thanks, and he can't help but proclaim the gospel to us. Joyfully giving thanks. So wait, real quick, giving thanks, not begrudgingly, right? Like, well, I guess I'm supposed to give thanks, Lord. Thank you. for this horrible day. Thank you for all these bad things that are happening to me." You know, like, no, no, with joyfully giving thanks, with joy, saints. Why? Because we take joy and hardship and seeing sin ravage our lives and those we love? No! with joy because we know the gospel, with joy because we know the good news, with joy because He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints. You have an inheritance. You have a hope. He mentioned this in the earlier passage that we preached a few months ago. The hope stored up for you in heaven, right? This is your inheritance. Inheritance is Jesus and the kingdom that he brings, the new heavens and the new earth. This is your inheritance. So as Paul says in Corinthians, we cannot live by what we see, cannot live focusing on the temporal, but by the unseen, knowing that this Light momentary affliction is storing up for us an eternal weight of glory. The more suffering that you bear, Saint, the more difficulty you go through is storing up for you more glory, more joy for eternity. So you can give thanks even through great tragedy and evil. Saying to give joyful thanks during trials and difficulties is not to discount them, but to give glory to God because He's the one who has redeemed it. He's the one who's making something good out of it. So we give joyful thanks, not a cheap joy. It's not a cheap thanks. This is a thankfulness that comes with great difficulty. It's a thankfulness that comes with knowing the great cost of the gospel. Joyfully give thanks to the Father. He is the one who has qualified you. He's the one who, we weren't qualified, right? He's the one who has qualified us, brought us into the kingdom to share in this inheritance. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. We were those who were under the authority of the darkness. We lived under the authority of sin, death, and our own desires, Satan as well. We lived under that dominion. But God, in His power, has transferred you out of that darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. As we close, I just want to leave you with this thought. Walk worthy. Walk worthy, saints. Walk worthy by bearing fruit and good works. Walk worthy by increasing in your knowledge of God. Walk worthy by being strengthened by Him. Walk worthy by joyfully giving thanks to the Father, because He is worthy. Is He not worthy of this? Is He not worthy for us to live a life fully pleasing to Him? So as we close this service, let us express that thanks to Him from our hearts. As we sing of the call of the church to arise and to follow after Christ, as we pray, let us be filled with thankfulness knowing that we who were rebels have been redeemed And we have the forgiveness of sins. Walk worthy. It's in Jesus' name that we come to you, Father. And we thank you for the glorious gospel of grace that has delivered us from the domain of the darkness and brought us into the kingdom of your beloved Son, into his kingdom of light. And it's in this kingdom that we have great joy. And we are thankful. And so we ask that you would enable us as we rely on your strength that you so graciously and richly provide that we would walk worthy and that we would honor you. And so we give you thanks that you have delivered us. We give you thanks that you are the one who enables us to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have called us. Now, Lord, give us the strength, the courage, the zeal to seek your kingdom and to walk worthy of it. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.