Seek Those Things Above

Yes, I am yours. Jesus, you are mine. Endless joy and perfect peace. Earthly pain finally will cease. Celebrate, Jesus is alive.

I just want to glorify you this morning, Father God. You've seen my victory. To fear now, for I am safe with you. You shine in the sight. Yes, Lord God, we just thank you because in you, Lord, there is victory, Lord God. Lord, when it seems like the battle can't be won, Lord God, there is victory in you. Lord God, we praise you this morning. God, just help us to stand firmly on you, to build our lives firmly upon your foundation, Lord.

My firm foundation, it's I stand when everything around me is saved. God, we just want to take a moment, Lord, and just offer up just some simple praise to you, Lord. God, just for what you've done for us. Lord, you've taken broken, wretched, stained sinners, Lord God. You've made us righteous. You've made us whole. You've given us new life, Lord God. Lord, you've brought us out of slavery to sin and death, Lord.

And given us freedom. Lord God, we just thank you and we praise you for what you've done for us. God, you are so amazing. Lord God, for what you've done for us, Lord God, for the new life that we have in you. Lord, for bringing us out of our Egypt. For bringing us out of slavery to sin and death. Lord God, you walked with us, Lord, through the muck and through the mire, Lord, and just brought us out clean on the other side.

And you gave us new life. And we thank you for what you've done through your son, Jesus. And this morning, God, we just pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, that you would just speak mightily through him, Lord God. That you would overflow him with your Holy Spirit and give him the words to speak. And Lord, give us hearts to receive it. Lord, let your Holy Spirit move through this place in a mighty way, Lord God.

We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, all God's people said. Amen. Let's have some fellowship. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. If you would take a look at your bulletin, a handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are the things that are going on throughout the week. So, as always, take note of those.

Over in the middle section of your bulletin, some things that are coming up. Tonight is our intercessory prayer time at 6 o'clock down at the other end of the hall. So, come join us for that. Ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up this Saturday, August the 10th. And take note of the change of location. It's going to be at Steamy Joe's this Saturday. And then a reminder that the baptism is next Sunday, the 11th, at Paris Park Pool.

So, what we'll do is we will meet at the shelter there at Paris Park at 530. We'll have a little potluck, so bring a dish to share. It might not hurt for you also to bring a chair. One of those folding chairs would probably be a fantastic thing for you to bring. And then at 7... 7 is when we'll head over to the pool and do the baptism. And we've got from 7 to 8.30 there at the pool.

So, we'll baptize and then have a little swim time there. And then also, ladies, there is a women's retreat coming up September 13th through the 15th. It's hosted by Calvary Chapel of Wichita. All of the info is right there, including the website where you can go sign up for that. So, I would encourage you to take advantage of that. So, those are the things that are going on.

If you would make sure... So, that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 4. Psalm 4. Looking at the New American Standard, so we sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 4, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Jared, and the even verses. Psalm 4, for the choir director on stringed instruments. It's a psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception?

Selah. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Tremble. And do not say, Sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. Many are saying, Who will show us any good? Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound.

In peace I will lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. And Father, we do praise you that you do hear when we cry. Lord, and you do give us the safety, the security that we need. And Father, you ease all of our stress. And so, Father, as we spend time in your word this morning, may you minister to our hearts by the power of your Holy Spirit.

May you bring conviction where there needs to be conviction. Comfort where there needs to be comfort. And instruction, Lord, as we need to know where to go. And Father, we praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. Well, it's good to be back.

Good to be back up here. Good to be with all of you. Florida was great. We had a great time down there. As I told the Wednesday night service, the only bad thing is that the humidity wreaks havoc on my hair. So, other than that, everything was great. It was really wonderful. And so much took place while I was gone, just in the world in general. And I am reminded and was reminded at the conference on Friday, which sidebar, that conference is just amazing.

What is going on in the Calvary's in this area are just awesome. And the conference that took place up there in Johnson County over the weekend was just great. And there were so many pastors from so many different churches. They did a beautiful thing. They had all of us get together, those of us that were speaking, and even just all of the senior pastors that were gathered together.

And we all put our names and phone numbers down so we can stay in touch with each other. And we filled up an entire sheet of paper with all the names of all the pastors that were there. Thursday night, I bet there were five open seats in the entire place. It was great. And I would encourage you, if you're able to go next year, it's always that first weekend in August.

If you're able to go next year. I was encouraged. I was incredibly excited by the time there. It was very refreshing. It was very encouraging. It was great. But one of the pastors spoke on spiritual warfare, and he reminded us that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle right now. The things that we see taking place with the election right now, listen, we've got to remember who the enemy is because we're fighting a spiritual battle with what's going on with these elections right now.

With what's taking place with the Olympics and all of the controversy that's taking place in every aspect. Yeah. That's a spiritual battle. And we need to remember that because we are fighting for the soul of our nation, but we're fighting for the soul of our kids, and we're fighting for the soul of our people. And so we need to remember that that's going on, and we can only fight spiritual battles, listen, with spiritual weapons.

Okay? So the weapons that we fight these spiritual battles with are the power of the Holy Spirit, the act of prayer, and spending time in God's word. Those are the ways that we fight this spiritual. And so, so anyway, that's just kind of something that the Lord laid on my heart that I wanted to make sure that I said to all of us. As for now, we are in Colossians chapter three, and the title of this morning's message is seek those things above part three.

You may remember that as we started chapter three of Colossians, we said that the first 17 verses had one theme, and that theme was to seek those things that are above. And he told us three things about seeking. He said that we needed to set our minds on things that are above, that we needed to put off the old, and now we need to, number three, put on the new. We need to put on the new.

And so we start in verse 12 of chapter three, and this is what it says. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness. Humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Now, as we come to this last portion about putting on the new, again, there's three things he's going to tell us.

He's going to tell us... He's going to tell us what you should put on. He's going to tell us what should rule your heart. And he's going to tell us what should dwell within you. So we'll start with the first one, what you should put on. So let's look at verse 12 again. It says, Now, as he starts to tell us what we should put on, he reminds us once again, and this is the second time in this chapter,

that in order to inspire us to either put off the old or put on the new, he reminds us of who we are. He says, If you're a believer in Jesus Christ here this morning, I need you to know something. And it's a controversial doctrine, but it's absolutely true. You have been chosen by God. God saw you. God chose you and has made you one of his own. Now, there's a balance of that.

God is sovereign in his choosing. But we also have free will. And so we can decide whether or not we are going to accept that choice. But God has still chosen you. And that should absolutely change the viewpoint of who you are. Because not only are you created in the image of God, that's your identity, but you have been chosen by him. And too many of us grew up in our lives not being chosen or not feeling very chosen in life.

I don't know if you've noticed this about me, but I'm not the largest person in the world. And so when it came to picking teams for things like kickball, I was not always the first one chosen. Because I was not the one, believe it or not, that looked like he could kick the home run. Right? And so I knew what it was to be chosen last in a lot of different things.

And I'm here to tell you right now, that knowledge that God not only loves me, but God chose me, changes everything about how I view myself. Because I no longer view myself as the last choice. I view myself as having been chosen by God. Number two, you are holy. You are holy. That word hagios means set apart for a special purpose. Set apart for a special purpose.

You have been set apart by God. Not only did he choose you in bringing you into salvation, but now he has sanctified you. He has made you holy. He has set you apart. So you can no longer be used for common things. You can no longer be used for the average mundane things. You are now a vessel for honor. You are a vessel to bring honor to God. And everything about your life should reflect the fact that you are holy.

Therefore, we should put these things on. But the third thing that he tells us about who you are is not only are you chosen by God, not only are you set apart by God, but you are loved by God. Because he uses that word beloved, which means to bestow agape love. The agape love of God has been bestowed upon you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. That's who you are. You are loved by God. And I have heard this pointed out multiple times in teachings that I've listened to over the past two or three weeks, so much so that I think we must need to be reminded of this a lot, that we are loved by God, that he loved us enough to give himself for us. And I know a lot of people question, Ryan, you don't know what's going on in my life.

How can you say that God loves me? You're right. I don't know what's going on in your life, but I can say that God loves you because he spelled it out for us. He spelled it out for us with three nails and a spear. He said, we said, how much do you love me? And he said, this much, because that's how much you are loved by the creator of the heavens and the earth.

You are beloved by God. So you are not just some average person. You are not just some average vessel of God. You are not just some average human being. You are a human being that has been chosen by your creator. You are a human being that has been set apart by your creator. You are a human being that is beloved by your creator. And if you have been chosen, and if you have been set apart, and if you have been loved,

then you should put on all of these different virtues. That phrase put on means to clothe with or to be enveloped with. In other words, we have put off all of the old things. Unless we run around naked, we should put on, we should become enveloped with these virtues. But this phrase put on is a. Strong phrase, because it is in the Aorist tense, meaning it is a commandment to be obeyed.

It is a command to be obeyed. This is not a suggestion from God. This is a command from God that as those who are chosen and holy and beloved, we are to put on these things. And he gives us a list of eight different things that we are to put on. The first thing that he tells us that we are to put on is a heart of compassion. A heart of compassion. Now, if you are reading the Old King James right now,

that phrase in the Old King James actually carries the meaning of that word. If I remember correctly, in the Greek it is pronounced something along the lines of splagnon. And the idea is literally bowels. So if we were reading this in the Old King James, which again actually carries the idea of this word better than this does, the Old King James says, bowels of compassion.

Tender mercies. Because in ancient cultures, they knew what we also know to be true. And that's that the greatest place of emotion in our bodies is not in our hearts. It's in our bowels. Have you ever noticed that when you truly are affected by something emotionally, you feel it deep down inside of you? I've never felt something here. I've definitely felt something here.

Right? Because you feel it in your gut. Right? As a matter of fact, my daughter for a long time liked to watch this show, Young Sheldon. Anybody ever watch Young Sheldon? An absolutely ridiculously funny show, right? But in this show, he had to keep a secret. And the secret was bothering him so much that he was having to keep it, that it affected his bowels, right?

Because he felt the emotion of the guilt of this secret that he was having to keep in his bowels. And it bothered him a great deal. We'll put it that way, right? But that's the idea of what's given him. The idea of what's given him here is that when you really feel it, you feel it deep down in the core of who you are. And while that word compassion is a great word,

the phrase tender mercies is actually a better translation. Because that's exactly what we are to put on. We are to, in the depth of our being, experience a feeling of tender mercy and compassion to the people that are around us. I heard a definition of compassion one time that I thought was one of the best definitions of compassion. That I'd ever heard. This guy who was a Bible teacher said,

I asked a group of kids one time, what does compassion mean? And a whole bunch of little kids start saying things. And he says, one little boy raised his hand. He said, compassion is when it hurts so bad that you have to do something. And I thought that that's about the best definition of compassion I've ever heard in my life. And that's the idea of tender mercies.

Is that you are so moved by the things that you see around you that you can't just sit still any longer. Too many of us are so conditioned by having watched the news on TV and having heard of all of the things going on in the world so often that when we see someone in need, we are no longer moved with compassion. It no longer hurts us so bad that we have to do something. In our minds, they're just another statistic.

In our minds, they're just somebody else who is in need. But we should be so moved by the people that are around us that tender mercy and compassion is the only thing that we can put on. And brothers and sisters, in a world that's hurting right now, we need believers who have put on hearts of compassion, bowels of tender mercy. Number two, he tells us that we are to put on kindness.

That we are to put on kindness. That phrase kindness literally means a gentle or gracious disposition. I'm always reminded of what we're told in Ephesians chapter four, to be kind one to another, tenderhearted and forgiving one another. We'll deal with forgiveness in just a moment, even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Again, in this world that we live in,

I think kindness is one of the things that happened to scoot itself out the door because it's another one of those words that's completely lost its definition. Kindness either means I let anybody do what they want to do, or there is no kindness at all. And as believers in Jesus Christ, there should be a kindness. There should be something about us that draws people in because we just show that kind of graciousness, that sort of gracious disposition to everyone that is around us.

After all, it is his kindness that led us to repentance. Amen? And I'm always amazed that the more that you will show a little bit of graciousness with people in the midst of their sin, if you will show graciousness to people, in the midst of their need, if you will show graciousness to people, even in the midst of their anger, they will always respond very much differently to you. Because as we're told in Proverbs, a soft answer turns away wrath.

But for some reason in this world, we've stopped believing that. Even as Christians, we've stopped believing that a soft answer turns away wrath. And we've stopped being kind. And we are told by Paul through the Holy Spirit that we are to put on kindness. We are to put on kindness to those that are around us. Number three, he tells us that we are to clothe ourselves with humility.

We are to clothe ourselves with humility. Now again, we're in that particular time of the season, which seems to go on all the time anymore. That's the campaign season. And in the campaign season, we won't see much humility because it will just be a lot of talking about what I've done and how great I am. But in a world where everybody feels like they need to toot their own horn,

in a world where everybody feels like they need to post all of their accomplishments, in a world that believes that we need to constantly just put our best foot forward, Paul says the best way that you can live is in humility. What does humility mean? Humility is an honest estimation of myself. It's not just constantly looking down on myself. It's just being honest about who I am.

That I am simply a sinner that is saved by grace. That I am simply someone who God's grace has reached out to and pulled up out of the gutter and made a brand new creature. Therefore, I can't tell someone how great I am because I know who I really am. But I can tell someone how great my God is because I know how great he is. And we are to clothe ourselves with that humility.

Again, one who is clothed with humility is one who is approachable. One who is clothed with humility is one who is approachable. One who is gracious. One who is clothed with humility is one who continually points people to the Savior rather than points people to himself. I'll give you the perfect illustration of the difference between someone who walks clothed in humility

as to someone who walks clothed in pride. And that great example is given to us in the book of 1 Samuel. In the book of 1 Samuel, David had been anointed king after Saul had found himself falling into disobedience to a point where God said, you can no longer be the king of my people. And so as David was anointed king, he hadn't told anyone else, but there was a great battle going on and David went to the front lines to see what was happening in the battle and to take supplies to his brothers.

And as he showed up, there was a giant who was shouting about how great he was and how much he was going to defeat the armies of Israel. And David said, this cannot take place. God cannot be mocked. Put me in, coach. And so Saul, Saul put David in the battle and David ultimately killed Goliath. And when David came back from killing Goliath, there was a song that was sang

and the song went a little something like this. Saul has killed his thousands and David his 10,000. And because Saul was clothed with pride and made it all about himself, from that day on, he looked on David with suspicion because he was not clothed with humility. In the meantime, there was another young man, Saul's son, and his name was Jonathan. Jonathan, who technically was the rightful heir to the throne.

Jonathan, who should have seen David as competition. Jonathan, who should have looked at David as somebody that he would never want to show kindness to. And what did Jonathan do? Jonathan was also a great warrior. Jonathan was also a great man of faith. Jonathan also boldly followed his God. But as he saw David and everything that God did through David, unlike his father, Saul,

who was clothed in pride, Jonathan came to David and made a covenant with David. And that day, Jonathan took off his armor and his outer robe and he gave it to David as if to say, it's not about me, it's about God and you're who God is about to use. You see, that's somebody who's walking clothed in humility because he doesn't need all of the credit. He doesn't need all of the glory.

He doesn't need all of the accolades. All he truly wants to do is see God glorified. And if God wants that to be him, great. And if God wants that to be David, even better because he's clothed with humility. And brothers and sisters, in the world that we live in, we need to walk clothed in that humility, knowing that it's all about God's glory, not my credit.

And he says, therefore, clothe yourself, put on humility. Number four, he tells us to put on gentleness, to put on gentleness. The word gentleness can also be translated in many of your translations will have this word meekness. I love this definition that was given out of the Kenneth Weiss translation. Actually, that's not true. This was out of Vine's Expository Dictionary.

It says this, meekness is that temper of spirit in which we accept God's dealing with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. Let me read that again. Meekness is the temper of spirit in which we accept that God's dealing with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. I point that out because in order to have a gentle spirit with others, it starts off with having a gentle spirit towards God.

And that meekness in our lives has to first of all start in meekness in our relationship with God. And that meekness in our lives has to first of all start in meekness in our relationship with God. Where we learn to accept what God brings into our lives without resisting it. Because that is a truly gentle spirit. There's another really good word for that. It's called surrender.

And when we surrender to what God has for us in our lives and we stop fighting for our own will and we stop fighting for our own way and we stop fighting for our own desires and we finally submit ourselves to God, there's a gentleness about us. Because I have now ultimately surrendered myself to the Father. I didn't grow up around horses, but I grew up around people that did work with horses. My grandfather actually was one who would, believe it or not, a smaller man than me, was one that actually worked with racehorses.

And he always talked about having to break the will of a horse. He said it had so much power, but it had to learn who was, who was in charge. And once the horse learned who was in charge, it could be gentle with anyone. And that's the idea. Once we submit ourselves ultimately to God and His will, then we find that that same gentleness shows to everybody else

around us. Because I can't surrender to anyone else until I first surrender to God. But that gentleness, that meekness is that power that's under control. I always picture in my mind a great warrior, right? Like, I'm reminded of the movie with Russell Crowe, and oh my gosh, I just blanked on the name of it. But he plays this warrior who fights in the arenas,

gladiator. Someone may have said that, or I just came up with it on my own. Either way, the word came out. And he's this rough and tough warrior, right? And then he flashes back to seeing his daughter. Or, excuse me, his son. And he picks up his son in that really gentle way. A man who at any point in time could end the life of the most dangerous of warriors

and yet gentle enough to pick up his son and love him. That's the idea of the gentleness that we are to put on. We are to put that gentleness on us that begins with us being surrendered to our Father. Number five, we are to put on patience. We are to put on patience. Again, I'll read to you a definition. It says, the man who having to deal with injurious persons

does not suffer himself easily to be provoked by them or to blaze up in anger. The word expresses patience under the ill treatment of others. Let me just read it again. That was a lot of words. The word patience speaks of the man who having to deal with injurious persons does not suffer himself easily to be provoked by them or to blaze up in anger. It expresses patience

under the ill treatment of others. Have you ever found that you can be patient with really nice people? Like when somebody just really treats you great and they make a mistake, you go, it's okay, it's okay. We'll work through this because they've shown you so much grace and kindness that how can you be anything but patient with them? And then you come across everybody,

everybody else in life who just treats you like tar, right? Who just treats you like garbage and they make a mistake and you find yourself going, serves them right. That's not patience. Patience is handling the people that don't treat us good and continuing to show them love. Bearing up underneath of the ill treatment of others. It is. It's a hard thing to do.

Patience with people is one of the hardest things that we attempt to do in our lives. And I always hear people say, don't pray for patience because God will put people in your life to make you patient. Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, people are going to be in your life to teach you patience whether you pray for it or not because I don't know if you've met people or not, but they all require a lot of patience. You know how I know that?

Because I'm one of them. You know how you should know that? Because you're one of them, right? Like we all, we all are people that need a lot of patience. And so pray for patience because you better seek any help you can to deal with the people that we have to deal with in this life, right? Just spend a little time scrolling through social media and automatically you'll realize

your need for patience, right? I've watched all of these things go on with the Olympics and, you know, there was some outrage over the opening ceremonies, which to this day, I still have not actually watched all of the opening ceremonies. We were on vacation trying to find our hotel, when all of that was going on. Literally, when we showed up and turned the TV on, Zimbabwe was coming through.

I'm like, I'm pretty sure that's the last one. So that was all I caught of the opening ceremonies, right? And then the next day, I get on social media and it is just blown up with whatever took place, like all the transgender thing and some naked blue guy in the front, right? And I'm like, what did we do here? What's happening? And of course, there was genuine outrage

because whatever they're saying now, it was the Lord's Supper. They were trying to make tolerant, right? I mean, they can cover it as much as they want to now. No, it was the Feast of Dionysius. No, it wasn't. It was the Lord's Supper. They admitted it, okay? Until they had to retract it later. And all these people who are supposedly Christians started saying,

we should stop spewing so much hate. Jesus would have welcomed them at his table. Well, I don't know that I agree with that. I don't know that, but Jesus ate with tax collectors. Yep, when they repented. He went and ate with them because they didn't leave the same way. And Jesus did reject sinners sometimes. Do you remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and said,

what do I need to do to work the works of God? And Jesus pointed out that he had idolatry in his life. Do you remember what happened with the rich young ruler? Jesus didn't say, oh, please don't go. Please don't go. I know you're a sinner, but I still love you. No, the rich young ruler said, I can't do that. And Jesus said, sorry. And the rich young ruler went away

with his face very, very sad, right? So we have to remember this, but I have to show patience for all of those people. I have to show patience for the worst of sinners that are living in the world. And I have to show patience for the morons in the church that don't know what God's word really has to say, which means I probably shouldn't use the word morons, but I'm still learning.

I'm still growing. Be patient with me. I heard that. I like that. But we're to have that patience for people, even though we disagree with them, even though we don't like what they say. We're to put on patience. You know why? Because God is so patient with us. Amen. And so we're to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and then we are to

bear with one another. I almost feel like that's just sort of like an addendum on patience and just bear with one another, right? In other words, just keep showing grace to each other. Just bear with one another because you're a work in progress just like I'm a work in progress. And then the next thing, the seventh thing that he tells us that we are to do or to put on

is a hard one. He says, forgive one another. As a matter of fact, let me just read this to you. In verse 13, it says, and forgiving each other whoever has, to complain against anyone just as the Lord forgave you. So also should you. There was a guy that spoke Friday morning. His name is Wes Denham from Calvary Chapel of Troy over just outside of St. Louis. And he talked about

spiritual warfare. And he talked in particular about demon possession slash demon oppression. And he said, you know what? One of the greatest areas and they have a ministry where, when things like this are going on, they deal with it, right? And so they've encountered a lot of demonic things in that St. Louis area, which makes sense. It's Missouri. But anyway,

that's a terrible joke. I shouldn't make that joke. It goes on everywhere. But he said, you start learning what the great footholds that the enemy gets in the lives of people. And he said, you know what one of the greatest footholds that the enemy uses for demonic oppression is? And of course you think, okay, it's probably alcohol. It's probably drugs. It's probably pornography.

It's something like that. And so I'm waiting to hear what he had to say. And he said, unforgiveness. The enemy gets at more people in the church and outside of the church through unforgiveness. Because when we harbor unforgiveness in our heart, it starts a root. You know what I'm talking about. It's called, it's called the root of bitterness. And that root of bitterness

begins to grow. And you know what bitterness produces? That root of bitterness produces, in our lives, it produces bitter fruit. And usually I can tell when somebody's battling with unforgiveness because, and I don't mean to step on any toes here, so if it's you, I'm sorry, it's all they can talk about. And everybody that you talk to, you tell about this person

that's hurt you. You tell about somebody that's done something bad to you and it's all that you can talk about. And that tells me that there's probably a root in there, whether it's actually producing an incredible amount of bitter fruit or not. There's a root in there and it's trying to produce some bitter fruit in you. And listen, the only way that you can be set free

is to forgive them. The only way that you can be set free is to forgive them. And I know the argument immediately, because I've had people say this to me, Ryan, you don't understand what they've done. And they go on to tell me what they've done. And I'm like, I'm right. You're right. I don't understand what they've done. But you know what I do know? I know what you've done.

I know what you've done to Jesus. Because each one of us in here tortured and crucified Jesus. Every one of us. We may as well have been the one holding the whip or the one holding the nail or the one holding the hammer. Because each of us did it. And Christ forgave us. And the one thing that God says will keep forgiveness from doing its work in our lives, is if we refuse to give it to others.

It's the one thing that he said, if you don't do this, then your father will not forgive you. Those are heavy words from our Savior. Those are heavy words from the one who spoke a great deal about love and forgiveness. And listen, I know that the greatest hindrance to the moving of the Holy Spirit in your life is the fact that you're not forgiven. The greatest hindrance to the life

and the moving of the Holy Spirit in the church is roots of bitterness and unforgiveness. And so if that's you this morning, if you've been harboring that unforgiveness towards somebody, today needs to be the day that you forgive them. You say, Ryan, I don't feel like it. That's okay, because forgiveness isn't an emotion. Forgiveness isn't a feeling. Forgiveness is a choice.

It's a choice you may have to make every day for quite a while until it truly begins to do its work on the inside of you. But it is a choice that we all make. And we have to decide, I'm going to forgive you. And sometimes deciding that you're going to forgive them, listen, means you need to quit telling everybody your story. Means you need to quit telling everybody about it.

Because ultimately what you're doing is just rehashing it and justifying your unforgiveness. Instead, tell it to God. He knows how much it hurt. He understands how much it hurt. And He wants to be the one that brings restoration. He wants to be the one who brings that peace to you. I'll tell you the story that Wes Denham told. He said, as I was working with somebody

who was a sexual assault victim, he said, a memory that I had suppressed since I was five years old came out of somebody that had sexually assaulted me at such an early age. And he said, what I wanted to do is I wanted to go ring their doorbell, and then ring their doorbell. He said, I wanted to just put my fist through his face. And I was planning on doing it.

He said, I was planning on going out there, ringing this guy's doorbell, and putting my fist through his face. And God told me, don't do that. He said, why? Don't you know what he's done? Don't you know what he's done to me? And he said, the Lord distinctly told me, forgive him. And he said, I argued with God for a little bit, but ultimately, ultimately I forgave him.

And now he's on my prayer list every day, praying that he would be saved. There's a great book. I will say, I did not actually physically read this book. I listened to this book all the way back from Florida a few years ago. It's called Unbroken. If you've ever read the book Unbroken or ever seen the movie, it's fantastic. The movie does not do the book justice.

I would highly recommend listening to the book because the guy that reads it just does a fantastic job. It's a great book. It tells the story of Louie Zamperini. And Louie Zamperini was an Olympic runner and ultimately joined the army, just a horrific human being in a lot of ways, but a very determined human being, but joined the army air corps and was flying a plane over the South Pacific and his plane was shot down and he survived on a life raft longer than anyone else.

And he survived longer than anyone else. And he survived on a life raft longer than anyone else. anyone's ever survived on a life raft before, he and another guy, and they finally found land only to discover that the land that they had found was Japanese-occupied. And he spent the next year or two in a prison camp of the Japanese, absolutely being tortured.

At the end of World War II, when he was set free and brought home, he said, I dealt with more anger than I ever even knew was possible. He said, in one day, I went to a Billy Graham crusade. And at the Billy Graham crusade, he gave his heart to the Lord, but he still dealt with anger. He couldn't figure out why. Why was he so angry? His wife was ready to leave him because he was still just so angry all the time.

He said, finally, I realized what I had to do. There was one man, they called him the bird, who just treated him so bad. He said, I realized what I had to do. I had to forgive. I had to forgive. I had to forgive him. And ultimately, if you watch the, I think, no, it wasn't in the movie. We watched some YouTube videos. We watched some YouTube videos of some interviews with him.

And they said, how are you able to have joy in your life now, knowing everything that you went through? And he said, I forgave him. It's no longer mine to hold on to. And now I'm set free from that bitterness. And now I'm set free from that anger. Brothers and sisters, we have to forgive because we have been forgiven much. So he says, you are to put on a heart of forgiveness, forgive other people.

And then number eight, he says, and above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Beyond all these things, on top of all these things, to tie all of these things together, put on love. Of course, the word love there. Is is the word agape, that sacrificial, divinely produced love in our lives, because it is the bond of unity, the perfect bond of peace.

That word bond is a beautiful word. It means that which ties together. In other words, in other words, the things that ties all of those other articles of clothing together, the heart of compassion, the kindness, the humility, the gentleness, the patience, the bearing with one another, the forgiveness, that ties it all together is love. True agape love, which again, may I remind us all, is not an emotion.

It's a choice. It's a choice that we make. And so he tells us that if we want to tie it all together, you have to put on love. Okay, so that's what you should put on, number one. Number two, he tells us what should rule your heart. Verse 15, he says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called, in one body, and be thankful. So let's take these words together.

I'm going to take them in reverse order. I want to look at that word rule for just a minute, because that word rule is really important. It actually is a sports term. You could also translate it umpire. Let the peace of Christ umpire your heart. It should be the thing that controls, that governs, that keeps your heart focused, that keeps your heart according to the way that it's supposed to be.

So what? What is supposed to umpire our heart? What is supposed to control? What is supposed to govern our lives and our hearts? It is none other than the peace of Christ. The peace of Christ. And that peace of Christ carries with it two different ideas. The first idea that it carries with it is tranquility of heart. In other words, peace inside of all of us.

Again, we're living in a time where a lot of people are struggling with having peace right now. Would you agree with that? Because there's a lot of turmoil in the world right now. There's a lot of turmoil amongst people, but that's not the idea I want to get to just yet. But there's a lot of turmoil in heart. Every time we read about another stock market crash,

which I think didn't the stock market do something stupid the other day, like it dropped massively because of threats of attacks from Iran about Israel. The market's tanked again. And people go, oh no, what's going to happen? And their hearts are, at that point in time, governed by fear. We, we, uh, we... We hear about, um, uh, the economy and, and, uh, how expensive groceries are.

Our hearts are filled with fear. We hear about the wars going on over in the Middle East, and our hearts are filled with fear. We hear about what's taking place here in the United States, and it kind of feels like no matter what happens with the election, somehow there's going to be riots when all is said and done. Can we all agree that that's a potential fear?

And our hearts get filled with fear. You know, I, I'm scared of Venn diagrams. That's a whole other joke in and of itself. And sometimes my heart gets filled with fear, right? And we can choose one of two things. We can be ruled by the fear, and that's what a lot of people are being ruled by right now. They're being ruled by fear. And you know how I can tell that they're being ruled by fear?

Because of everything that I'm seeing. Have you noticed that there's just this tension everywhere? And it's been going on for a few years now, and it keeps, seems to keep escalating. Because people's hearts are being ruled by fear. But brothers and sisters, our hearts are not supposed to be ruled by fear. They're supposed to be ruled by the peace of Christ.

And so every time those fears start to come up, you need to remind yourself of the truth of what God's Word says. Listen, if the stock market wants to crash, fine. You know why? Because remember the psalm that we, have you been reading with us? Are you staying up in God's Word with us? Get back into the psalms. Just start where you are right now. Start where it is right now.

Get into the psalms. Because I love that psalm of David where he says, I was young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen the people of God begging for bread. I'm also told, My God will supply all of my needs. According to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Right? Like, I don't have to fear about what's going to take place in the economy. My heart can be ruled with peace because I know what's true about Christ.

I look at the government and I go, You know what? Governments were made to fall, right? Like, there's only going to be one government that truly lasts, and that's the rule and reign of Jesus Christ, and that's what I'm looking forward to. If God sustained the church and the rule of Rome, then can't God sustain the church and the rule of whatever? Yeah, He can.

And so I can rest in that. Because my safety and security doesn't come from a government. My safety and my security comes in the shadow of His wings. And I can wait patiently for the Lord, and He inclines to me and hears my cry. Right? And so I can rest in Him with that. And with all the things that are going on, Jesus has an answer for it. And so rather than living in fear about everything that's taking place in the world,

I find my rest in the peace of Christ and allowing that to govern. My heart. But it not only speaks of the peace of Christ umpiring our hearts in personal tranquility, it also extends to personal relationships. Because the peace of Christ should rule in our hearts in the relationships that we have with other people. Why? So if I'm walking in tender compassion,

if I am walking in humility, if I am walking in forgiveness, if I am walking in patience, then the peace of Christ that rules my heart will also rule all of the relationships that I'm in. Not the strife that we see right now. And as believers, we should be seeking peace with other people. You know why? Because we're told in the book of Matthew chapter 5 that blessed are the peacemakers.

Right? That's what we're supposed to be, is peacemakers. And so He says, Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Umpire, govern your hearts. No longer live with the anger. No longer live with the fear. Live in that peace. And I love the way He closes this out. And be thankful. And be thankful. He's actually going to tell us that three times in the next couple of verses.

Be thankful. But now He tells us what should dwell in you. Notice what it says in verse 16. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. With all wisdom. Teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. He tells us that the word of Christ. Specifically, what that means is the spoken words of Christ.

That's how that's literally translated. The spoken word of Christ. So it's everything from the New Testament. But of course, Christ is the word of God. So we know that it's the Old Testament. It's the Old Testament as well. It's the word of Christ. It's the word of God. Isn't it funny that we've come back here again? Generally, the Bible. The word of God should be what's dwelling inside of us.

As a matter of fact, the message that I gave Thursday night was the exact same message that I gave here on New Year's Eve. About the necessity of being in God's word. And how God's word changes everything of who we are. That God's word teaches us. That God's word instructs us. That God's word heals us. That God's word restores us. That God's word. That God's word shows us where we're wrong.

Shows us how to be right. And then keeps us on the path. That's what God's word does for us. Therefore, the word of Christ should dwell in you. That word dwell means to make itself at home. To have a final resting place. The word of God should be at home inside of you. The word of God should be dwelling in you. Well, how can the word of God dwell in you? Well, I only know of a couple of ways for that to happen.

To read it and to memorize it. That's how God's word gets into you. That's why I think the most important thing that every believer in Jesus Christ can do is to be in God's word every single day. Will God still love you if you don't? Yes. Will you know him as well if you don't? No. You'll lack peace in your life. You'll lack joy in your life. You'll lack boldness in your life.

And sin will seem to rear its ugly head a lot more often. Because the word of God brings us peace. The word of God brings us peace. The word of God brings us peace. The word of God brings us joy. The word of God draws us closer to the Father. The word of God keeps us from sin. He says, let it find its home in you. And then he uses an interesting word, richly.

Let it dwell in you richly. That word richly means abundantly. And let me read you what one commentator said. He said, the believer should know and be well versed in the word. It means it shouldn't just enter you and make its home in you. It should know. abundantly make its home in you. You should be well-versed in what God's word has to say. So well-versed that when somebody says something stupid about the Bible

on social media, you can go, that's not true because I know what God's word really has to say. So much a part of you that when all of the fears come up, you say, I don't need to give into those fears because this is what's true about Christ. So much so that when sin rears its ugly head, you don't have to just give into it. You can say, Lord, this is the weapon that you've given me against it. And so I want to use this weapon. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

in all wisdom. And we are to teach and admonish one another. In other words, you should be talking about God's word with each other. You should be talking about God's word with other people, not just on Sunday morning, not just on Wednesday night, not even just in your small group. You should just be talking to people about God's word all the time. It should be the thing

that's on your lips. It should be the thing that's flowing from you constantly because what you do is what you do. And so I want to use this weapon. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And we are to teach and admonish one another. And then he tells us with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

You know how I've memorized a good percentage of the scripture that I've memorized is that I grew up singing God's word. Some of them were songs that my dad has put to God's word or has put music to from God's word. Some of them are songs that the Calvary movement did. And, and even now there's some CDs that they use with the kids sometimes called, uh, Oh God, seeds, family worship, where they are singing the Bible. Right. And I think it's one of the

best ways to memorize God's word. Have you ever noticed that you can memorize something? If there's a song, we used to have to memorize the presidents of the United States. And there was a song that went with it, right? We used to have to memorize the books of the Bible. And there was a song that went with it. And quite frankly, if I don't sing the song with the books of the Bible,

I still can't remember where they are. That's not a joke. That's not a joke. That's just real life. Right. It's sometimes hard for me to read things out of the new American standard Bible, because I have it in a song in my mind. This is one and it's in the old King James, right? It, it, it goes like this. It says that the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing

one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Right. Some of you that grew up in Calvary, you know, that song, I don't know who put it to music, but it helped me memorize it. I have a challenge for you. I wonder who's going to do this. You should put some verses to Psalms and bring them to me sometime. I would love to hear it. Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, when I put things to music,

it sounds awful. Okay. So you can't shock me, but it's amazing how it helps you remember it. That's what he tells us that we're supposed to do. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness. There's that word again with thankfulness in our hearts to God. And then he wraps up like this. He says, whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the

Lord, Jesus giving thanks. That's the third time through him to God, the father. And in all of these things, to wrap all of this up, to wrap all of the ideas of these three studies of, seeking the things above, let it all be said with this. Let everything you do in word or in deed be done in the name of the Lord, Jesus. In other words, everything you say and everything you do,

you should be able to sign the name of Jesus too. Yep. That's a whole new challenge right there, isn't it? That's a whole new challenge. And it should make us think about the words that come out of our mouths and the actions that come. From our hands, right? Because in all that you do in word or deed be done in the name of Jesus, giving thanks to the father. Well, brothers and sisters, this morning is communion Sunday.

And so as we gather on this first Sunday of the week, we get to celebrate this together. And I will remind you of what communion is. Communion is a celebration of the body of Christ, that he has made. He made us one through the gospel. Did you notice anything about all those things that we are to put on? Did you notice that they all have to do with personal relationships? You know why? Because the

gospel restores relationships. The first thing that the gospel restored was our relationship with God. And then that gospel begins to restore our relationships with each other. And there's only one thing that can restore all of those relationships. And that's the, the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's what we declare and celebrate when we come together for communion, is we celebrate and we declare that the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to restore

everything. And so inside of these trays, of course, as always, there's the two cups, the bottom cup has the cracker, the top cup has the juice. And I'll remind us of what those things represent. Again, on that last night of the feast, Jesus took that bread and he broke it and he said, this is my body. Which is broken for you. So every time we partake of that bread, we are reminded that Jesus's body

was broken for us, broken because of our sin, but broken for our restoration. And then he took that cup. He said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. And we are reminded that when we partake of the cup, that it was the blood of Jesus Christ that ultimately purchased that restoration for us, that bought us off of the slave market. So that we could follow Jesus with all of our hearts so that we could be made right with him

and that we could be made right with each other. And so we are exhorted in scripture to make sure that we do so in a worthy manner. And I'll remind you that first of all, we need to pay attention to what these elements represent, because this isn't just some random little snack that we're about to have. These elements represent the very body and blood of Jesus Christ and should be partaken of in that serious sort of manner. And so we're going to partake of that blood of Jesus

Christ in a worthy manner. But also to partake in a worthy manner, we need to know that we belong to Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And so we want to make sure that everybody has put their faith in him. But the last thing is that we want to make sure that our hearts are right with God and that our hearts are right with each other. And so if you need to do some business with the Lord, if you

need to confess some sin, if you need to deal with some things, then this time of the worship team singing this last song is that time for you. And so I'd like to invite the worship team to come on up. They're going to lead us in one last song. And so I would ask that what you might do is ask the Lord to search your heart. And as the Lord searches your heart, do whatever business

with him needs to be done so that you can partake in that worthy manner and that we can celebrate together as the family of Christ. So the ushers are going to come down and they're going to hand out the elements. And as you receive your elements, please stand and we will all partake together.

Would you bow with me? Father, we come before you. And Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for the sins of the world. Lord, I thank you for your blood that was shed for us. The blood of Jesus Christ that is enough to cover sins. And Lord, I thank you that because of your body and your blood, Lord, we have been made one with you and we have been restored

to each other. And so, Lord, continue to keep us in your presence. And Lord, I thank you that you have made us aware of the great sacrifice that you made for us. We just thank you and we praise you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, thank you for your word. Pray that you would continue to do your work in our hearts and lives through the

power of your Holy Spirit as we just continue to soak in your word. Lord, may it dwell richly within each one of us. Father, we thank you for who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.