Thank you. Turn with me, if you would, to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, we're going to look at verse 17 this morning. But let's read verses 16 and 17 together. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." The longer I go, the more I believe I get a hold of the fact that the things that pertain to God have nothing to do with man's might, or man's ability, or man's talents, or man's anything. The longer I go, we know that, but the longer I go, the more I enter into that. The things that pertain to God have nothing to do with man's anything. Anything that man sees is being needful to God in accomplishing his work. Like, let me give you an example. There's somebody I truly want God to save, and I don't want him to hear this preacher of the truth, I'd rather hear that preacher of the truth, because I think that's a better preacher. That's irrelevant with God. Matter of fact, he's probably gonna use this one. God's ways are not our ways. They are not our ways. The works of God are accomplished in His people by God's Holy Spirit. They're accomplished by God's Holy Spirit. Now, God uses means. He said that He did and He does. He uses the means of men. And whatever a man finds to do in the means of God's work, in the means that God has called him to do, that man needs to do it with all of his might. Whatever the Lord calls a man to do, he needs to do it with all of his might because the lot has been cast into the lap. It's just amazing to me how the Lord has ordained these things. He casts the lot into a lap. But it's becoming more and more clear to me, honestly, the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. What that means is in everything, our God is the one who gets the credit and the glory for it in everything. The Lord God, when we speak of God, we're speaking of Father, Son, and Spirit revealed to us, all of the Godhead revealed to us in the person of Christ our Savior. He is the one who gets the glory and gets the credit for everything. Everything. He is the author of life. He is the author of faith. It's Him that works in us both to will and do of His good pleasure. Everything is because of Him. Everything is unto Him. Everything is to the praise of His glory. Everything. Everything. That's what verse 17 means when it says, Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all In the name of the Lord Jesus, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. He said, whatever you do in word or deed, do it knowing who gets the glory for it. This flesh is just so weak. It is so weak. We can start out with a motive that glorifies God, and all of a sudden, something goes right, and we get a pat on the back, and the next thing you know, we think, well, I did that. I am pretty good at this. Why don't y'all ask me? Right? Whatever we do in word or deed, do it knowing who gets the glory for it. and don't ever leave that place. Do it knowing who the credit belongs to. He can lay hold of anybody or anything. The Lord laid hold of a donkey one time and preached the gospel. Do it knowing who needs to be praised for causing it to happen. That's what in the name of the Lord means. in the name of the Lord Jesus, verse 17. Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. Whenever we finish a prayer to our Father, we end that prayer by saying something along these lines. We say, you know, Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. In the Lord Jesus Christ's name. Or we pray this for Christ's sake. What we're saying is, because of what Christ did to reconcile us back to God, we're able to pray to You right now. All because of Him. Outside of Christ our Savior, Redeeming our souls back to fellowship with God. We know Lord that you wouldn't even hear our prayer. Most of the prayer prayed is not heard by the Lord. That's a true statement. If it weren't for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, our prayers would not make it past this ceiling. If Christ did not bring us back into union in the favor of God, It would not be heard. So we say, Lord, we're praying to you. We're speaking to you, believing that you hear us to the credit and the glory and the praise of Jesus Christ. We acknowledge his work in this. We acknowledge what he has done for us. Please hear us because of him. Hear us for Christ's sake, we come in his name. The angel said, call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. We're coming in the name of the Savior. We're pleading the Redeemer. We're pleading the Savior. That should be our sincere approach. in our humble attitude when we communicate to our God. That's how we need to approach him. We need to know our place. We need to know our place. We need to know our privileged position because of the accomplishment and the glory of Christ. I've told you this before, but it's been a long time ago. Many have not heard this, but we have a sister in Christ, a believing woman who doesn't live in this state and her physical brother, her actual brother, was in the hospital, sick and in the hospital. And he was not a believer of the truth, and he attended a false church that had a false preacher who preached a false message. And while our believing sister was visiting her brother, his pastor came in who happened to be a woman. She was so full of herself and she was just so arrogant the whole time. And just before she left, she said, all right, everybody bow your heads, I'm gonna pray. So everybody bowed their heads and she said, God, it's me. And this believing sister thought, get me out of this place before the judgment of God comes down right here. People approach him just so flippantly. Just so flippantly. We don't pray to God in our own name. We don't come before Him saying, it's me. You know who I am. I come in my name. We both know I'm worthy to come to you. I come pleading my credit, I come pleading my work, I come pleading my glory. We don't do that. We only come in the name, in the credit, in the work, in the worthiness, in the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let me show you some examples in the scripture of this. Turn with me, if you would, to Acts chapter three. Acts 3, verse 1, it says, Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple." This man was laid there every day to beg for money. "...who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them." Then Peter said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw Him walking and praising God, and they knew that it was He which sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto Him. And as the lame man which was healed, held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering." Now watch verse 12. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Verse 16 says, And His name, through faith in His name, hath made this man strong, whom you see and know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." They said, how'd this happen? This man, lame all his life. And all the people, they saw him stand up and running and leaping. They said, how'd this happen? Peter said, I didn't do it. This lame man didn't do it. God did it. We see something like that and we say, how miraculous, how amazing that somebody who couldn't walk all of a sudden can walk. How amazing is it that a man can go from spiritual death to spiritual life? You talk about rise up. I don't do it. You don't do it. God does that. God does that. It's to the credit of God. It's to the praise of God. It's to the glory of God. Only God can do this. This happened, Peter said, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Look at chapter 4, verse 10. He said, Be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which has become the head of the corner." Speaking of Christ. Verse 12, he said, neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There is no other who can receive the credit. There is no other who can receive the glory. There's no other who can accomplish this work, no other. Don't turn, but in our text, Paul said, whatever you do in word or deed, do it with this heart in the matter. Do it with this belief in the matter. Giving thanks to God for Jesus Christ, whatever it is. Let's not ever be so foolish as to think that there is an ability in us that is capable of accomplishing what only God can accomplish. May the Lord keep us from that. Let everything that we do and say be to His credit. Let everything be to His credit. And the promise of this Word is it will go well with us. Now, I want to show you the promise of the Word of God concerning this heart in everything that we do and say. All right? Our God has made promises to us concerning the glory of His Son. And every one of these precious promises will hold true. Every one of them. Look with me, if you would, at Matthew 18. Matthew 18, verse 20, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, that means in an acknowledgement of my credit, my accomplishment, my glory, my honor, Why do we go to church? Why do we come here? So my mom can be happy with me. My grandmother can be happy with me. Why do we go to church? So I can feel better about myself because I did stuff last night I feel guilty about. Why do we come here? To worship him and to give him glory and to give him credit. He said, where two or three are gathered together in my name. He went on to say, there am I in the midst of them. That's a promise from God. Where two, every time two or three gathered together saying, he gets all the glory, all the credit because he did all the work in saving us. All the honor goes to Him. All the praise goes to Him. Every time He is in the midst of those two or three or more people. Every time, that's a promise. Verse 20, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Look at Matthew 19, verse 29. Matthew 19 verse 29, this is what he said. Everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, for the purpose of being able to glorify me, for the purpose of being able to praise me. Every soul who forsakes says, I'm not staying here, I'm going to worship God. I'm not going to stay here because you want me to stay here. I'm going to go praise God and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, everyone that forsakes all of those things for my honor, my praise, my glory, my worship for the purpose of gathering with my saints. He said, everyone shall receive and hundred fold. and shall inherit everlasting life. I wanna show you how Mark's gospel words that. Turn with me to Mark chapter 10. Our Lord's saying the same thing in Mark's account. Mark chapter 10, verse 28. Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels, my name's sake and the gospels, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time. What is he talking about? Houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions a hundredfold. You leave all that for Christ's sake and you can get a hundred times the persecution for it. And in the world to come eternal life. That's a promise from God that he's going to uphold. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness. and everything will be taken care of. Everything will be taken care of. If His glory is truly our motive and His praise is truly our desire, everything will be taken care of. Doesn't matter if we consider what we're doing to be a great thing or a small thing. Look with me at Mark chapter 9 verse 41. Mark chapter 9 verse 41 says, Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name. Doesn't matter if we think it's a big thing or a little thing. Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name for my glory, for my praise, in thankfulness for my accomplishment. He said, because you belong to Christ, Verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. Matthew's account of that says, whoever gives a cup of water with this desire and this heart of the matter to a prophet gets the prophet's reward. Same reward the prophet gets. And what is it? What's the reward? Christ. Christ is always the reward. Now, I will tell you this. Many people will believe in their heart that they are doing what they say and do in the name of the Lord. This is important. This is important. Many people believe and are convinced of the fact that they are doing what they're doing and saying what they're saying in the name of the Lord, but they are not. They are not sincerely in their heart doing what they're doing in the name of the Lord. And there's no promise given to men and women in that case. Turn with me over to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew 7, verse 21, our Lord said, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord." Now watch this, they're gonna say, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Where did they go wrong? Here's where they went wrong. A sinner cannot say, this is in your name, but I'm gonna get the credit for it. I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for you, but I'm doing this. They said, Lord, we did this, and we did this, and we did this. What do God's people say who have been caused to do everything they do truly in his name? What do they say? This is what they say. Lord, you did this. And you did this, and you did this. You preached to your people. I was just the empty vessel that you filled your word with. I pray all the time. I pray before I stand up, Lord, would you preach to your people and get me out of the way? I consider a preacher to be an answering machine. That's it. One person leaves the message, another person gets the message. All we are is the vessel that housed it in between. That's it. Lord, You're the one who cast evil spirits out of Your people. We didn't do it. You're the one who did all these mighty and wonderful works. All the glory goes to You. All the credit goes to You. in the name of the Lord. That's in the name of the Lord. Last Wednesday night, we read from Revelation 5 and Revelation 7, where all the saints in glory, in unity, and in oneness, this is what they cried, okay? This was the prayer of glory. You did this, and you did this, and you did this, and you did this. That's all that their cry was. They cried, glory, honor, Praise, blessing for everything that you've done. That's the cry, that's the prayer of heaven. This is all in and because of your name. Savior, Emmanuel, God with us. Let me show you one more scripture here. And I'd like for us to remember this one for the message coming up, okay? Turn with me to John 14. This is an amazing statement from our Lord. Our Lord does not lie. He does not lie. This is an amazing statement. John 14 verse 11. He said, believe me that I am in the father and the father in me or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me The works that I do shall He do also. And greater works than these shall He do because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name." Whatever you ask in my name for my glory, for my credit, to my praise according to my will, whatever you truly ask, saying, Lord, I want your will to be done, whatever is most glorious unto you, whatever praises you the most and honors you the most. Verse 13, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do. that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. That's amazing to me. You ask anything in my name, I'll do it. Lord, teach us to do everything we do in word or deed in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by his name. The only reason that we can give thanks to the Father is because He made a way for us to give thanks to the Father. He gave us a heart to give thanks to the Father. All glory and praise be unto Him. May everything be in His name. All right, you're dismissed.