Good morning, I'm glad you're all here this morning. The title, a lot of questions when they looked at the study note sheets, there's usually a lot of points, there's nothing in there and hopefully that doesn't indicate anything about what you're going to get this morning. But at any rate, so you can title this if you would like. The thanks for what we have in Christ was kind of the title that I gave to this message. We're looking in the book of Colossians. So if you turn there to Colossians chapter one and we'll begin to go down through this. It was several weeks ago now, maybe a couple of months that our pastor Ron asked me to preach this morning. And I began to think about what God would have me to say to you and And so, as I was thinking of this past year and where we've been and where we are and what we've been through, my thoughts, of course, as yours, often went to Ron and Jane and what they've been through this past year. They lost their son, Bradley, in a tragic car accident. And so, I was thinking about the unimaginable pain that they've had to endure and still are in the middle of enduring, their son, Boyd, and their daughter, Darcy, as well. And then I thought of Sammy Lindell and his parents, Jody and Mike, and his brother Caleb, and all that they're enduring day by day and week by week. And then I was talking to a cousin of mine this week who I haven't seen in a while, and he was from down around Harrisburg, and there's a bunch of my relatives who live down that way. And so he was relaying to me some of the, catching me up on what's going on down there. His one brother, Rick, I think I mentioned him in our prayer time in the past weeks, who's in prison down near Pittsburgh, just happened this year. He, I guess, held up a convenience store and he's in prison. And his parents, my Uncle Russ and my Aunt Irene, are both believers. And then he told me of another cousin whose daughters ended up in jail and they're believers as well. And then I got an email from my my cousin, Kathy Beck, who lives in California, and they go to John MacArthur's church, actually. Their daughter walked away mad ten years ago. They haven't seen her since. And I was thinking about all this sort of painful stuff, and it might seem like kind of an odd place to begin a message on thanks, but as I thought about this painful stuff that people are going through and dealing with day by day, If you're not in a painful situation, you will be at some point, probably in this life, because that's part of this life. And I thought, how can we be thankful in the midst of these sort of painful, grief-filled, tiring times, when things from this life invade us, and the stuff of this life just disrupts our whole being and our whole life? Well, as you might guess, We go to the Word of God, don't we? We go to the Word of God, that's where we find our hope, and that's where we find our source of encouragement, and that is where we find how can I thank God in the midst of these kind of things. I can thank Him because of all of the things that we're going to talk about here in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 is a somewhat familiar chapter. We've read it several times over the year for Communion, or or at least parts of it. And so it's not like an unfamiliar passage to us, but just such great truth. And I'm just thankful to have the opportunity to share my thoughts about this. And that's kind of what I wanted to do this morning, was just read down through it. And as we come to certain things, I'm just going to just tell you why I'm thankful for that. And I pray and I think probably most of you will be saying, yep, amen. I'm thankful for that as well. And so as we go through this, that's my goal is basically just to talk down through this passage and just bring out things that I personally am thankful for. And I think you'll see where I'm going and you'll be thankful as well at the end of this. I pray you will be. All right. Well, let's pray before we begin. Father God, we thank you again. We say it so often. We're thankful for your word. I am thankful for your word this morning, Lord. I'm thankful for the truths that we will see here in this great book, this book that you have put in your word for us. Father, I just thank you for this time. Bless it, I pray in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, Colossians chapter one, I guess you're all there. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. I want to stop right there because I wanted us to note that Paul was thankful for what? He said, I'm thankful for, or he said, he was writing this letter to the saints and the faithful brethren in Christ. You know, I'm so thankful this morning for faithful people. I'm so thankful for your faithfulness to the church. As I look around and I pray for you throughout the week, I'm thankful for your faithfulness. And you know, a lot of times from one Sunday to another Sunday, we don't see each other. But I know you'll be here when the next Sunday comes. And I'm just so thankful for faithful brethren. in Christ. And sisters, obviously, that's included in there. But I'm so thankful for you and for the faithfulness of God's people. I'm thankful for the grace of God. He goes on to say, grace to you and peace from God our Father. The grace of God is just a huge subject in which I will not even attempt to delve into very deeply. But the grace of God, essentially, the bottom line definition of the grace of God is, God has given to us what we don't deserve. We deserve the wrath of God, but we received love and adoption into God's family. Which leads us to the next part of this passage. He says, I pray for grace and peace from God our Father. And the word that I thought about there as I read that was our Father. You know, the Lord's prayer begins with our father, doesn't it? And you know, God is our father. One time, every one of us couldn't say that, could we? Before we were redeemed, we couldn't say God was our father. But since we've been redeemed, since we've been born again, God is our father. And I am just so thankful that God drew me to himself. and that I can call him my father. This is a great, great truth that we really, it just could, you could preach a whole message on that in itself, maybe two or three, four, I don't know. God being our father, so thankful for that. Verse four says, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints, And again, my thoughts went to you, this church, this gathered group, as we gather each week. And I'm so thankful for the love of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. I know that this week, those of you who knew I was preaching have been praying for me. And so I'm thankful for that, that there are brothers and sisters in Christ. And those weeks when I'm not preaching, I know that there are people, I know that you pray for me. and for the families of this church. And so I'm so thankful this morning for the love of the fellow believers, the Church of Jesus Christ that gathers here each week. And in addition to that, I'm thankful for the brothers and sisters in Christ who gather elsewhere, who I know and who are praying for us and who care about us as well. Verse five begins and says, Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. And I want us to stop there and look at the word hope. In a few weeks, our pastor is going to be going into a whole series on heaven, which is our hope. But you know, the hope that we have, it's not and I know you know this, but it's not that I hope it's not going to rain tomorrow kind of thing. It is a hope. The word actually means a confident expectation. That's what hope is. It's a confident expectation. The reason for this confidence is because our hope is not a place. It is a person. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Our hope is in Jesus Christ this morning. You know, as I thought about that, that our hope is in a person, I thought, would heaven? You know, we talk about heaven as it's a place, and it is a place, and it is a place we're going one day. But would heaven be heaven without Christ? Would that be our hope if Christ was not there? No, it would not. And I was thinking of the cults and different isms throughout this world who have some kind of a hope in heaven. They're willing to die to go to this place. All kinds of wrong ideas of what heaven is. And that's the problem with their heaven as opposed to the heaven that we find in the Word of God, the Holy Bible. The problem is that their hope, their heaven is not, does not include Jesus Christ. The person is who we're going to see. I long to see Jesus Christ. My hope is not in a place with gold streets. And all of that sort of thing that we kind of we think about when we talk about this place. My hope is in the Son of God, my Savior. That is who I want to see. That is what is going to make heaven heaven for me and for you. Pardon me, my Emotions grip me sometimes. I've been told I'm a lot like my dad in that way. He was a very emotional guy, so you'll forgive me. Psalms 31, 23 and 24 says, I love the Lord, all ye his godly ones. It says, O love the Lord, all ye his godly ones. The Lord preserves the faithful and fully recompenses the proud doer. Be strong and let your heart take courage. All you who hope in the Lord. All you who hope or put your confidence in the Lord. We have a blessed hope and we're going to look at it in detail in the days to come. But for this moment, I just want us to realize we have a hope that's far better than anything that we have here in this life. And so Paul says to these believers, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, for which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel. Another thing that I'm thankful for this morning is that God is building his church. You know, I think in the church in the world today, we've talked about it and we talk about it and we'll talk about it in the future is a mess. There's a lot of things that the church is doing. Churches are doing a lot of them. I don't even know if you want to call them churches. But God is the one who's building his church, and there's so many things that churches are trying to do to build the church. But God has promised to build His church, and we don't have to go there. We don't have to try to do that. God will do it. And in fact, if I build this church, there's going to be lots more problems. And so I'm thankful that God has promised He will build His church. In verse 6 it says, which has come to you, this gospel which has come to you, just as in all the world, also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even It has been doing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth. God is building his church. We may not understand how he's doing that. We may not totally see it at times, but God is building his church. And I am thankful that God is the one that's doing that because if it was Ron and Joe and me, as the elders, the leaders of this church, trying to build this church, we'd be making some colossal mistakes. So we leave that in God's hands. He's the one who can build his church and do with his church what he pleases. Verse 7 says, just as you learned it from Epiphras, our beloved fellow bondservant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. I'm thankful this morning also for faithful servants. In the King James, I think the word is ministers. And as I was thinking about that, I was thinking how thankful I am for our pastor who preaches the word week by week. For my brother, Joe Casey, who preaches the word also and did just a few weeks ago and just did a wonderful job on the subject of repentance and for my Beloved Brother Jim Adelot in Vernon, Michigan, who's preaching the Word right now, even as I am, and proclaims the truth. I'm thankful for him. I'm thankful for Brian Warren. I was thinking of Brian Warren and Justin Peters. We've met them just briefly in the past months. We don't really know them real well. But just from that meeting, we know that they're faithful ministers of the truth of the Word of God. And I'm so thankful for those men. these men, but those men as well who preach the word faithfully. And there's really many, many more who preach the word and are preaching the word right now faithfully across this land and around the world. And so I'm so thankful for those faithful ministers. And we will all meet together one day, won't we? We'll meet together with the faithful brothers and sisters who minister the word of God and faithfully execute their responsibilities. I'm just so thankful for that. I'm thankful, Ness, for this passage, 9 through 11. Let's read it. It says, For this reason also, since the day we heard of it... Actually, let me back up to verse 8. He said, this faithful brethren, servants of Christ, he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you. and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, and in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of the steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father." And we'll stop right there for a moment. I want to thank God for this pattern we have here in prayer. You know, on the front of our prayer sheets back there, these verses are printed on there. And as I thought about this pattern that Paul gives us here and how to pray for one another, I was thinking of how, I mean, think about the words that he says here. This is the kind of prayer that God hears. This is the kind of prayer that God would have us to pray for one another. This is the kind of prayer that God would have me pray for my wife and for my children and for you all and for you to pray for your wives and children and family and one another. He says, for this reason, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will. And in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Think about that, how important that is for you and for me. to be filled with the knowledge of God's will. And how important it is for you and for me to have spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you might pray. I pray for you that you might walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And I think that's the bottom line on why we pray. Why we would pray like this for one another is because we all need to walk in a way that's worthy of the Lord, our Savior. He says to please Him in all respects. I need to pray that for you. You need to pray that for me, that I would live a life that would please Christ in all respects, that your lives would please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for the attaining of steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father. That's my prayer for you. I prayed that this morning for each one of you this morning. As I sat and as I was finishing up this message, I thought, you know what? This is what I need to pray for these people, that you would be built up and strengthened and walk in a worthy manner and walk in a way that would be pleasing to Christ. And give thanks to the Father. He goes on to say in verse 12. That God has qualified you, he says, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light. You know, I thought about that qualification word And I thought about how unqualified I am to walk or to inherit anything from God. And so if it wasn't for God qualifying me and qualifying you to be able to inherit, be part of the inheritance of the saints and lights, we could not inherit anything, could we? We in and of ourselves are not qualified. Isaiah 64, 6 says, For all of us have become as one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. And in Romans 3, 23, we are told that for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So there's nothing in and of ourselves that we can say, well, I'm qualified. God, look at me. Look how qualified I am. We are dependent upon God qualifying us for this inheritance. Jesus said in John 8, 12, he says, Therefore, Jesus spoke to them and he said, I am the light of this world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. This next verse goes on to say that he delivered us from the domain of darkness. In verse 13, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness. And Jesus says, we don't have to walk in darkness any longer. We can walk in light. Because he has made it so that we can. In verse chapter 12, John 12, 46, he says, I have come as light into this world that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. We've been transferred, we've been delivered from the domain of darkness. We've been transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son. I'm so thankful this morning for that deliverance from that domain of darkness. Every one of us, we're in that place. Proverbs 4.19 says, the way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not even, do not know over what they stumble. And that was our lot as well, wasn't it? We didn't even know what we were doing. We were in darkness. We did not know Christ. We were in, we were in darkness. And until the light of Jesus Christ shone in our hearts, we were stumbling around and we didn't even know it. As I was thinking about this great truth that God has delivered me from darkness. I looked around yesterday. I was, I had read this just as I was sitting there where I was working and I looked around at these guys that I work with and I care about them and they're in darkness. They're in darkness. I looked at different ones and I just prayed, God, deliver them from their darkness. Use me in that process. So thankful this morning that God has delivered me from darkness. I didn't deserve that deliverance. I didn't deserve it. It wasn't like I was this great guy that God looked down and said, you know, this guy I'm going to deliver. No, it was his sovereign choice. It was his sovereign act of deliverance. And I'm just so thankful this morning that he delivered me from the darkness that I was in. And I remember that. I was saved when I was in 10th grade or so, I think. God has changed me more since then. So sometimes you wonder if that was actually the time for salvation or not. But I believe it was. And you know, I know what kind of road I was headed down when God saved me. I know the darkness that I was in when God saved me. And I thank God for that. Deliverance from the darkness that He delivered me from. And it says that He transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. You know, not only did He deliver us from darkness, but He transferred us right into the kingdom of His beloved Son. And I'm just so thankful this morning for that. It says to whom in whom we have redemption, his beloved son, in whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. Our redemption redeemed from the slave market of sin, I think Pastor Ron prayed that prayer as we were doing communion this morning that God, God redeemed us from where we were. We were all in the slave market of sin. That's all we could do with sin. That's what the Bible says. Our works before we came to Christ are filthy rags. Even the good works that we do, people do all kinds of nice things. But if they're done and they're not in Christ, the Bible says they're filthy rags. And so God redeemed me from this slave market of sin. And not only did He redeem me and buy me from that slave market, but it goes on to say that He forgave me all my sins. He redeemed us. the forgiveness of sins to whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. I'm thankful this morning that not only God redeemed me, but he forgave me. He made me clean. I stand before you as an unclean person. I'm still in this body of flesh, but I stand before God as he sees me and I'm clean and pure because of Christ and what he has done for me and for you. I'm thankful this morning for that. I'm thankful this morning for the one who makes all of that possible, and I guess we've alluded to that down through this passage, but it really makes it clear here in the next few verses, 16 to 23. Let's read those together. The one who I am so thankful for, and you are as well, is our Savior, Jesus Christ. Verses 16 to 23 says, who's redeemed us, well, it's back up to 14, redeemed redemption and forgiveness of sins, and he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, and both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is also the head of the body, the church. I'm going to just stop real quick right there and just remind you we're going through a series on the church right now in our normal week-by-week Bible study. And we need to be reminded that He, Christ, is the head of this body. And you know, what makes up this church is not the building. The people are what make up this church. We are the church. And so, we need to be reminded that Christ, if He's the head of this body, this gathering, then individually He's our head as well. And we need to submit and yield to him as our head. And then as we gather together, we'll be ready to yield to the headship of what God wants to do here in our midst in any given week. And so he is the head of the body, the church, and he is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead so that he himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in your mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through the death in order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, not moving away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister." I'm so thankful for what Christ did for me. We've mentioned many of those things, but I'm so thankful that He reconciled us. He's in the process of reconciling creation. That word reconciliation means to restore, it means a restoration of a relationship of peace which has been disturbed. And you know, when God created Adam and Eve, He was in a relationship with them of peace. But it's been disturbed, hasn't it? That relationship of peace that Adam and Eve had, none of us have ever experienced that same kind of relationship with God the Father. They had a relationship of peace. But it was disturbed. It was disturbed by this thing called sin. And since then, we don't have peace. We don't have reconciliation. And God is in the process of reconciling us and creation. Creation was disturbed by this sin, wasn't it? All creation has been tainted and disturbed by sin. And God is in the process of reconciling all things through Jesus Christ back to what they once were. reconciling all these things to himself. And he's doing it, how? Having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. God is reconciling his creation and reconciling us back to himself through Christ and what Christ did. A man by the name of Harold Centebiel said this, the peace of God is not a human achievement. It's God's. The peace is a done deal. It is the result of a unilateral treaty signed, sealed and delivered by God himself in the blood of Jesus Christ, his son. I'm so thankful this morning for these things that we've been down through and talked about. I'm thankful for redemption. I'm thankful for forgiveness. I'm thankful for reconciliation. I'm thankful for the peace of God that goes beyond all understanding. You know, we were enemies of God. We were at enmity with God, the Bible says. And yet He redeemed us and He saved us. And He's brought us into a relationship of peace. I have peace with God this morning. If you're born again, you have peace with God this morning. And that is not That was not a cheap piece, was it? That piece was signed in the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful for that piece that I have and that we have. Ron said that John MacArthur a lot of times will say, you know, there's so much more that can be said about this particular passage, and he said that usually Preachers say that when they're out of notes, and so there's so much more that could be said about this passage, but I'm out of notes. I'm thankful, though, this morning for you all, and I'm so thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ. I am almost done, but I was thinking about this church's gathering and you all who come, and I'm just so thankful for you and for our fellowship that we have in Christ. So now let's close with a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we are just overwhelmed, Lord. There's so much here in this brief chapter, Lord, this chapter that we could say. There's so much more that can be said so much more eloquently. Lord, I'm so thankful for your word. I thank you, Lord, that we have this possession, the word of God, this love letter from you to us that we can read, that we can study, that you can encourage our hearts, that we can worship you. Lord, we're just thankful that you did not leave us in the dark about these things. Father, you've given us so much clarity. The Word of God is so clear and so maddening, Lord, when we know that there's men out there who are saying it's not. They're saying it's not clear and so they go to other things. They go to men's wisdom and they teach men's wisdom instead of teaching the wisdom of God found in the Word of God. Thankful for the Word. Thank you for this time this morning. Thank you for this gathered church, Lord, as we gather each week. I pray, Father, that you would just continue to remind us throughout the week how we need to pray for one another, Lord. Pray for one another that we would grow in wisdom. We pray for one another that we would live and walk a worthy walk. Lord, I lift that up to you and ask you to remind us often to pray for one another that way. Remind me often to pray for these, your people, Lord, in that way. Lord, we just give these things and ask for continued blessing on our time. In Jesus' name, Amen. I can't hear what someone like me said.