(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So what's your Holy Spirit? I'm so excited. All right, amen. So we're in Colossians chapter number three. And so just to quickly give you the title here, we'll get started. I titled the sermon this evening, Dead Man Walking. Dead Man Walking. And of course, as we go through this chapter, I'm gonna explain what that means. Dead Man Walking. Now, the way the letter to the Colossians breaks down is very simple. So you have chapters one and chapters two, which deal primarily with doctrine. So chapter one deals with the supremacy of Christ, that Christ is supreme, Christ is over everything, everyone, everything that is created because he is God. Chapter number two deals with the supremacy of Christianity. And we talked about this last week. We talked about the different isms that are basically listed that you can find in chapter two. So you have the humanism, you have legalism, you have mysticism, asceticism. And again, asceticism, that's not something that we deal with a lot, maybe on a small scale, but it's basically exalting deprivation over denial of self, okay? There's, and you'll see this tonight, there are several verses in the Bible about how we are to die to self, put on the new man, things of that nature, okay? Some people take that to an extreme. And what they say is, oh, you know, anything of an enjoyment, if you're, you know, you're not depriving yourself of everything that's joyful, then you're not really serving God, okay? That's false ideology. And we talked about that as well last week. You know, these epistles here are definitely packed with a lot of information, a lot of stuff to go through. The goal is to give you a good breakdown and a general understanding of what's inside each chapter. Obviously, a lot of these doctrines of themselves, we could come back and just spend weeks and weeks and weeks upon studying. So again, chapter one, supremacy of Christ, chapter two, the supremacy of Christianity. And you can see that because of the emphasis Paul places on Christianity over the different isms. Now, chapters three and four, he switches gears and goes into practical application. And so really chapters three and four, you're dealing with the supremacy of Christian conduct, okay, Christian conduct, chapter four, Christian character as well. The interesting thing about chapter number three is that it kind of starts off with this pattern, okay? And you'll see this pattern as we start. And Paul basically establishes this pattern and stating who you are positionally in Christ. He makes several references of who you are in Christ and then what you need to do about that. And if you really think about this, the world does this in their own kind of way. For example, a lot of royals, elites, you know, when they're raising their children, they spend a lot of time telling them, hey, we're not like the other people, we're not like the commoners, we're not like the regular people in the world, here's how we act in public, here are the things that we do. And they really force or enforce their standards on their children. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, but that's really what Paul is doing in this chapter. He wants us to understand who we are in Christ and what we need to do and what effect that's gonna have not only on the body of Christ, but also on those that are around us. So with that in mind, let's get this thing started here. In chapter number three, Colossians chapter number three, look at verse number one, and I want you to see this, who you are in Christ. So look what he says in verse number one, he says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, he says which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. So verse number one, already you can see who we are in Christ, it says, if ye then be risen with Christ, what does that mean? Well, that means if you are saved, if you've put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you've believed on him, you're saved, you're born again, here's what you need to do, and what does he say? Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Now, what does that mean? Well, we're gonna get into verse two here in just a moment, but go back to the Gospels, go to the Gospel of John, John chapter number eight. We're gonna go to John, and then we're gonna go to James, and we'll go back to Colossians and kind of break down what Paul's saying here. So again, he wants us to understand who we are in Christ. And the first step is obviously understanding that you are in Christ, that you're saved, you're in the body of Christ, and he says, if that's you, seek those things which are above. Now let's see why that is. John chapter eight, look at verse number 23. So John chapter eight, verse 23, the Bible says this, and he said unto them, okay, and he's talking, of course, to these scribes, these Pharisees, the Sadducees, types that do not agree with him here, he's talking to a mixed multitude in this chapter, and it says this, and he said unto them, ye are from beneath, okay, ye are from beneath, I am from above, ye are of this world, I am not of this world. So what do we take from this right off the bat? Because remember, we are in Christ, and Christ is saying to these people that disagree with him, he's saying ye are from beneath, okay? From denotes source, so where are they from? What is he saying? He's saying to you who reject God, you're from beneath, meaning you are obviously, your destiny is gonna be held, that is where you're going to go, and he says I am from above, okay? So what does this mean for us? Well, if we're in Christ, we need to go to him who is the word of God to dictate how we live our life. The problem is, so many believers today and people get this mixed up, and they start putting their faith and trust in these YouTube influencers, and these people online, or their dad, their mom, who's somebody who's from beneath, okay? Now let me just go ahead and say this, I'm not against reading books by secular people, okay? I've read books by people that are not saved, in fact, I do it a lot, but here's what I don't do, okay? I don't ever take their information and put it over what is in the Bible. I don't take those types of people and elevate them, okay? So hopefully that makes sense. So what is Christ saying? Well, he's from above, well, we're told to seek things in verse two in Colossians chapter three, those things which are above, which is obviously the word of God. Now go over to James chapter number one real quick. So right past the book of Hebrews, go to James chapter number one. And I wanna show you the benefit of this, because he says, again, if you're in Christ, seek those things which are above, okay? And then Jesus tells us, well, you really have a choice, okay, there's really a choice in John chapter eight, there's people that are from beneath, and of course there's him who is from above, we are to be on his side because we're in him. Now here's the benefit to you and I of actually doing this. So look at what it says in verse 16, James chapter one right after Hebrews verse 16. So James says this, do not err my beloved brethren, okay? So he's trying to warn us here, he's trying to help us make sure that we don't err, that we don't make mistakes in the Christian life. Verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. So many people today have it in their minds because they're just walking in the flesh that, oh, church, reading the Bible, these things are just super hard and it's just, you know, it's just really bogging me down and so on and so forth. Whereas the Bible tells us that, hey, these things that you find in the Bible, when we seek Christ who told you he's from above, these things are a gift. It's not meant to be burdensome. It's not meant to hold you down and to make you feel bad. It is a gift. Look at the verse. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, okay? Verse 18, of his own will begot he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Now go to James chapter number three, okay? And so we need to have as God's children, though we're dead men walking, okay? We still have the old man. We still have the flesh, but despite that, we need to constantly remind ourselves who we are in Christ and who he is and where he is actually from. Okay, now look at James chapter number three, just for a quick example here of seeking things from above. Look at what James says. Verse 13 chapter three says this. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom, okay? Understand this. We're not talking about works for salvation here. We're talking after you're saved, this is how we are supposed to live because we are set apart. Look at verse 14. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. There's a temptation for us, because we have the old man, that when we get envious and we start being envious of what other people have and other, you know, whatever it is, okay? You look to your brother and like, oh, you know, he seems to be doing pretty well, and you start envying him. Or maybe you have a brother in another state that's going to a different church, and you're like, wow, they got this great building, and then all this fancy stuff, and we don't have that. You start envying that, that's a problem, okay? And that's gonna wind up holding you back and your own congregation back. He says, but if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. So what's the solution here? Okay, well the solution is that you're supposed to acknowledge that and get it right, okay? Look at verse 15. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish. Meaning what? Meaning that's demonic. That's a demonic way to behave. We don't want that, okay? That's basically how the Corinthians were behaving. We don't wanna model that at all in our church. Not saying that we are, we don't have these issues now, but look at verse 16. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. And I'll tell you what, my short time, four and a half years as a pastor, that is so true. When I find or have found in the past where people are just envious of different situations and people, look, you know what I found? Is confusion. Confusion in the Bible, confusion of their understanding of the word of God, and just confusion in life in general. It's just absolutely mind-boggling. Now look at verse 17. He says, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Then he says in verse 18, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. And of course, this is a good Christian quality that we oughta develop and have, that we seek peace before we seek war, especially in the body of Christ, okay? Look, I'll just tell you a quick story. I've got a couple of them for you today. It's been a while, but we had some people that were bitter at our church. I've mentioned this before, and they've been a little bit active lately. And one of the things that they've done recently is they tried to target a mother that goes to our church. And what they did is this individual basically found a guy on Facebook who visited our church maybe like five or six times, okay? And he's related to this woman that goes to our church. And so what this guy does, and I just call him Baby Snakers, okay, that's his name. What he does is he goes on Facebook and tries to contact this individual, okay? Tries to contact this individual and says, my daddy would like to speak to you because we believe that your sister-in-law is in great danger at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. Okay, and this guy calls himself a believer, calls himself a Christian. That is below beta status. Could you imagine you were 26 years old, you have a wife and a small child, and you're so beta that you're literally calling people and trying to meddle in someone's marriage and lying and saying that there's some great danger in this church. All the while while this guy was at this church never once confronted me about anything at all. How despicable is that? Hey, where's that Christian character from? That is not Christian character. That is an attribute from beneath. You say, what are you saying, the guy's not saved? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that that type of attitude is what James is warning us against. And you're gonna see this type of stuff come up today in Colossians chapter three. So go back, if you would, to Colossians chapter number three. That is a perfect example of the wrong way to behave. And we've talked about this several times. If you have a problem with somebody, what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to make peace. You're supposed to go to that person and talk about it and see if there can be a solution that is made. And if there can't, you bring other people. And this is Matthew 18. And we've talked about this before. But what these people are doing is they have bitter envying and strife in their hearts. And so therefore they're confused about the things in the Bible. And so what they're doing is they're just going around trying to cause as much trouble as they possibly can. But the problem is God is fighting against them because things are going very well at our church. And so that shows you something, that we're doing something right, and they're obviously doing a lot of things absolutely, positively wrong. So let's move on here, okay? Remember how this chapter starts off. Who you are in Christ, what you need to do. If you're saved, the first thing you need to do, and what he says is what? Verse one, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. And of course some information in there about the Trinity, which we don't have time to continue on. Here's again what you need to continue to do. He says this, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, okay? And of course I say this, it seems like I go through patterns sometimes I say it every single week. There's nothing wrong with having things and liking things on this earth. There are things that I like, you know, we talked yesterday about hunting, fishing, and wanting to get into some of these things. That's okay, okay, we're not monks. We're not gonna just say that all that stuff's evil. As long as everything else is getting done, the mission of the church is going forward, okay? But what's our true affection, okay? Well, our true affection, our true love is on the things that come from this book here, from the things of the Bible, doctrinal truths, Christian character, truths and things of this nature, and that's what he's saying you need to do, okay? The problem is when the material things have you. There's nothing wrong with having material goods, there's nothing wrong with buying things, there's nothing wrong with looking and saying, okay, I like that, you know, maybe I'm gonna buy that. But once that thing consumes your thoughts and has you, that is when you have the issue, that is when you have the problem, okay? So, number one, again, who you are is what? You're a Christian, you're saved, you're in Christ, you're born again, what is the first thing that we are supposed to do? We're supposed to seek those things which are above, okay? And that's what? Truth, it's Christ, it's the Bible, it's the word of God. Number two, we set our affection on things above. We need to learn to love the things that come from this book. Now, let's move on here, look at number four, verse number four. He says, when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him. So what does that mean? Okay, well, actually, the who you are here really starts in verse three, so look at verse three again, just one more time, it says, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. So who are you? Okay, well, you are dead, you are a dead man, a dead woman, you are a dead man walking, okay? And that is a fact, however, your life is hid in Christ. We're gonna take a look at what that means here in just a second. So he says in verse four, when Christ, who is your life, okay, this is very important, who is your life? It is Christ, who is it that gives you your breath? Who is it that makes you able to even get out of bed and to think and to see and to do all the things that we do? It's Christ. So when Christ, who is our life, okay, some people, a lot of people actually get this wrong. They think that they are their life, okay? They think that their efforts and their achievements are their life, but no, the Bible says that Christ is your life, and it says, when Christ shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him and glory. Now, when you read that, notice the eternal security tones in that. When Christ, who is, present tense, this means ongoing, so just constantly ongoing, present tense, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. It doesn't say that you might appear with him in glory, but that you shall, this is a guarantee, this is a 100% fact. Why is that? Because once you're saved, you were always saved. Now, keep your place there, obviously, but go to Hebrews chapter number four. Hebrews chapter number four. So again, verse three, who are we? Well, we are dead, and we are hid in Christ, okay? He has us in his hand, according to John chapter 10. We are in Christ, and when he appears, we will appear with him, okay? And then he's gonna go into a long list of things that we ought to avoid and look out for. But before we get there, I just wanna kinda spend a couple of minutes talking about the new man versus the old man, and kinda how this all happens when a person gets saved, okay? Now, when a person gets saved, you're preaching the gospel to them, it clicks, they get it, they understand it, okay? In the twinkling of an eye, when they decide, you know, this is my truth, okay? And they say, I get it, they pray. There is something that happens instantaneously that we can't see, but it happens inside them, and the writer of Hebrews explains that here in verse number 12. Look what it says here. For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and we're gonna stop at this next word, piercing, okay? So what is the writer trying to tell us here? Well, if the word of God is sharper than any physical sword, why is that? You say, how is this book here sharp? Like, how does that make sense? How does it pierce? Well, here's one way you know it pierces. Have you ever read something in the Bible, or maybe you've been here and I've said something and it's kinda got to you a little bit? Ugh, I don't really like the sound of that, okay? You know, because maybe I'm guilty of doing that, okay? Well, that's an example of the word of God piercing you, okay, the word of God trying to get ahold of you. And so the way it's sharp is that it transcends physical reality. Okay, any sword or knife that you pull out, gun, doesn't matter, you know, that's all physical. Whereas the Bible transcends the physical and can get to your emotions, it can get to the heart of the matter, it goes beyond what we can see with our physical eyes. Okay, so look at the verse. For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder, so the dividing in half or cutting in half, the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Let's break this down a little bit further, okay? So what does the word of God do? Well, what does it divide asunder? What does it cut in half? Okay, we'll look after that word asunder. Okay, so it says piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, okay? It says soul and spirit, and then comma, and the joints and marrow. Well, what do the joints and marrow represent? Well, that's the body, okay? That's the physical body. What's soul and spirit? Now, we don't have time to really get in to a long dissertation about soul and spirit. Soul and spirit are very closely related, but there is a distinction. We are a trichotomy, okay? We are made up of body, soul, and spirit. That is a fact. We'll have to get into that another time. But basically, what the word of God does is it pierces even to the dividing in half or the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, which we can't see, and the joints and marrow, which is the physical. So when a person gets saved, okay, and the Holy Ghost comes into you and dwells inside of you, there is a new person created inside of you, okay? And so what this is saying here is that God literally takes soul and spirit and separates that into the new man and divides that from the old man. Now, obviously, we can't physically see what this looks like, but what that means for us is that we are now not only a trichotomy, but we have two natures. So we still have who we were before we got saved, but now we also have this new creature inside of us, which we touched on a little bit this morning and last week, and it's our choice on a daily basis as to whether or not we're gonna walk in that new man. So hopefully that kinda makes some sense there. Go back to Colossians chapter three and let's move on. So who are we in Christ? Well, we are dead, okay? We are dead, but our life is hid in Christ. So what he says next, this is what we oughta do because of that, okay, verse number five. Mortify, and what does that mean, mortify? It means to put to death, okay? So he's telling us to get rid of something here, verse five. Mortify, therefore, your members. So what does that mean, kill your church members? No, that's not what that means. Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth. And here are those members, okay? And here's what they belong to. They belong to the old man. Look at the list. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. See, that's a lot of big words there. What in the heck does that stuff mean? Fornication's pretty simple, okay? It's a physical relationship, before you're married. Then he says uncleanness, pretty self-explanatory. Now, inordinate affection, what does that mean, okay? That's what we need to talk about. A lot of churches that are against us, okay, are against our position on the sodomites, they will often email and they'll quote a couple of verses, and this is one that they'll often send us, and they'll say, see, the old man, everybody has this inordinate affection, which means a love for the same sex, okay? That's not what that means, okay? Inordinate means unusual or disproportionate, okay? And it also means unrestrained in feelings. That's all that it means. Here's an example, inordinate affection. For example, maybe some of you, when you were a kid, maybe you were obsessed with something, or people use that word a lot. I'm obsessed with the Seahawks. I'm obsessed with the Dallas Cowboys. I'm obsessed with the Seattle Mariners. I'm obsessed with this rap star, rock star, whatever it is, okay? That's inordinate affection. I like to use this story. When I used to go to Sure Foundation before I moved to Verity, Sure Foundation Baptist Church, when it was still Verity Baptist Church Vancouver, up in Vancouver, Washington, on exit two on I-5, okay, there was this guy, literally every single Sunday, we'd be headed to church, I don't know, it'd be like nine o'clock in the morning, 9.30, two and a half hour drive. We get to exit two, there's this guy just totally decked out in Seahawks gear, and he's waving a Seahawks 12th man flag, okay? Nine o'clock, waving that thing, okay? Church service goes on, you know, we all eat lunch, we go soul winning, we get on the freeway, go soul winning, guess what? That dude is still there waving that flag. You know, and it's just like, wow, this guy is dedicated to the Seahawks, and he's not alone, there's a lot of people like that, and I'm sure you guys know. That's inordinate affection, okay? You're spending your life worshiping, because that's what he's doing, worshiping something that doesn't matter, and will one day fade and fall away. That is inordinate affection, okay? And a lot of people suffer from that, and that is something that unfortunately is ingrained in the old man. It's something that you and I need to watch out for, okay? It's nothing to do with the sodomites, or anything of that nature, okay? It is a disproportionate amount of affection towards whatever, okay? Unrestrained in feelings. You want to see an example of this? Just, you know, watch a couple of videos of how people act at a Taylor Swift concert, okay? That will teach you what inordinate affection is. It's idolatry, it's worship, it's just bad all around, okay? Next word, evil concupiscence. These are, this is basically a reference to lust, okay? Concupiscence, long word. Who's ever heard of the word cupid? The Roman god of love, okay, cupid. That's kinda along the same lines here, okay? Cupiscence, or not cupiscence, but rather, concupiscence has its roots in that word cupid, okay? And he's saying, hey, watch out for this, you know? Be looking, I've told this story before when I was in the military, back in the late 90s, we were getting a lot of complaints because guys were staring at girls too long, okay? And I remember, we'll never forget it, you got 100 dudes in this formation, and we're getting yelled at for this. And he's like, men, you have permission, the first time you see a woman, to take one long good look, you know? I don't care if it's 15, 20 seconds, but don't look back again. That's when you guys are getting in trouble, okay? That is terrible advice, that is just horrible advice, and all that does is add to evil concupiscence, okay? What he should have said is, hey, guys, just stop lusting after these girls, and you know what, we probably would have been a lot better off had he had said that, but just a quick little bit there. So we are supposed to put these things to death, get rid of these things. Now look what he says at the end of the verse. It says, and covetousness, which is idolatry, okay? So when we don't have our affection set on things above, the natural byproduct of that is we're gonna find ourselves in covetousness. We're gonna find ourselves just obsessed with the things of the earth, and those are gonna eventually take priority, and we're gonna be all messed up, and we're not gonna be living the way that God wants us to live. Remember, we are in Christ. He is the king of the world, he is supreme. We are his children, we're in him. Therefore, we need to act like it, okay? We need to act like it, that's what he's saying. Look at verse six. He says then, for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Now it's funny that the NIV leaves off that word there, the children of disobedience, and it just stops. It just says, because of this stuff, God's wrath is coming. It's like, no, the children of disobedience, the people who do not love God, the people who reject the gospel, God's wrath is one day going to come on them. So what are we also supposed to take from this? Well, guess what? Because of that, because God will come back one day for the children of disobedience, guess what? We don't want to model our lives after them. We don't want to respect them or anything of that nature, and this is why we're getting so upset with people and Christians obsessing over Andrew Tate. Okay, Andrew Tate is not a good person. In fact, I would say, I might get in trouble for this, but I don't care. I would go as far as to say he's pretty much a sodomite. Okay, and here's why I'm saying that. I saw a clip of this guy saying, okay, he was responding to a video where somebody was going around the street and saying, would you rather date a woman that's, or would you date a woman that's a one, or a trans woman that's a 10? And of course, everybody's like, well, I'm not gonna date no trans woman that's a 10. He's like, I'd rather take the one that's a woman. And he got on there and said that that was stupid, that was unnecessary, and that he would basically take the transvestite that's a 10. Okay, that look, that is absolutely horrible. That, I mean, do I need to get off on that? Do we need to go back to Genesis 19 and go through that whole thing? I don't think so, okay? But you get the point. These people are children of disobedience. You know, a lot of these podcasts that are out there and getting very popular on the internet today, yeah, I understand they're saying things that are true, okay? Look, Joel Osteen says things that are true. John Hagee says things that are true. Every false prophet has a bit of truth that comes out of his mouth. That doesn't mean we need to gravitate towards them and focus and actually be on their side, okay? These are horrible people. These are children of disobedience, and these are people that God is going to basically unleash his wrath on. Look at verse seven. In the witch ye also walked some time when ye lived in them. Okay, and so what are you saying? You're saying, hey, you guys that are saved, you know, there was a time when you did walk in these, but you don't anymore. Well, how can that be? Well, again, because you're saved, you're in Christ, that new man doesn't sin anymore. It's impossible. Now, do we sin in the flesh? Of course, every single day, we all do. Look at verse eight. He says, but now ye also put off all these anger, we talked about that this morning, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Notice what it doesn't say, or else you're not saved, or else you lost your salvation, okay? So I'm bringing that up because people that are saved, I've heard it, I've heard people that are saved, born again, blaspheme, okay? Look, not everybody that comes into church or that you meet that's saved or that you get saved is gonna understand these things and actually put on the new man every day, okay? If you just get saved, yeah, you've got the new man inside of you, okay? But if you're not reading the word of God, why are we expecting them to act like Paul's talking about here? They don't know any better. They're not educating themselves, they're not learning. So of course, they're gonna stay acting like they were before they got saved, okay? Verse nine, lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. And so that's the idea, and that's the goal for every single one of us, is to try to put off this old man. He's there every single day, and so therefore this is a daily battle. Look at verse 10. It says, and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So again, that new man is renewed in knowledge, okay? And the Bible does say in Romans chapter seven that we, as in the new man, do desire the things of God, desire the word of God, desire truth and things of this nature, but we have to actually put forth the effort and open this book, come to church and do all of these things in order to advance. Verse 10, or verse 11, he says this. He says, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, that means that we're all in Christ. So we shouldn't waste our time being like, well, you know, I'm a Greek and I've got all this wisdom, or I'm a Jew and, you know, I'm of the chosen seed and therefore I'm above you and this and that, okay? In Christ, we are all the same. We're all sinners that are saved by grace through faith. That's where it needs to stop. Verse 12, he says, put on therefore. Okay, so again, put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering. So again, verse 12, who's the elect of God? Is it ethnic Jews? Is it religious Jews? Is it people over in Israel? No, it's believers, okay? It's people that are saved. We are the elect of God. In fact, let's go ahead and do this. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter two real quick. Let's go past Hebrews, go past James, 1 Peter chapter number two, and let's look at something here. 1 Peter chapter two, look at verse number nine. Okay, 1 Peter chapter two, verse nine. Peter says this, he says, but, 1 Peter two, verse nine, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should, okay? That ye should, and remember, there's a lot of shoulds in the Bible, but there's only one must that we must do, and what is that? That is believe on Jesus Christ. So he said that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. So who's the chosen, I'm sorry, the chosen generation? Is it modern day Israel? No, it is the believer, it is the saved. We are the chosen generation, we are a royal priesthood, okay, that is us, it is Christians, an holy nation, a peculiar people, and what is our job? Our job is to show forth the word of God and the praises that he's done in our life, okay? Look at verse 10, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. So go back to Colossians chapter number three, very crystal clear in the Bible. People say, I can't believe you're saying that the church replaced Israel. Well, that's what the Bible says, over and over and over again. People all the time, do you believe that the church replaced Israel? Yes, the veil was torn in half, deal with it. It's a fact, over and over and over again in the Bible, okay? And because of that, we are called to live above what we were before we got saved. That is the desire that God has for us. Look at what he says here in verse 13. Forbearing one another and forgiving one another, he says this, if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Okay, now let me tell you another story here. Same Christian that comes to our church, okay? She actually had shared a Costco membership with another person who used to go to our church, who is now bitter and mad, of course, okay? And so what this bitter and mad individual person decided to do was to go down to Costco and kick her off the Costco card and not tell her. So our church member goes to Costco, she's got her children with her, she's got a basket full of things, goes up there to scan her card and it doesn't work. So what do you mean it doesn't work? I paid for this. And the teller's like, well, let me go get the manager. Manager comes over and says, oh, yeah, well, your partner came in on such and such day and actually canceled you from the account. But I'll let it slide this one time, but you need to go get your own membership. You know what that's called? That is called theft. You know what that's called? That's called robbing God's people. You know what that's called? Not holy, not Christian-like, that's what that's called. That is dangerous, that is despicable, that is absolutely horrible. And anybody who would befriend somebody like that has got something seriously wrong with their brain, if you ask me. I can't believe you're saying stuff like this. What does the Bible say here? Forbearing one another and forgiving. That's what it says. But is that the type of treatment that we get when people get mad? No, they get upset and they go behind people's backs and they wanna just stir up problems and cause issues. And, oh, it's Jones, this is a bad guy. He's dangerous, it's dangerous. What's so dangerous around here, the piano? What's so dangerous, Kayden? Well, possibly, but you know what I mean? It's absolutely absurd. Everything that we're reading today, I can show you examples of people that are doing that 180 degree, just the opposite of that stuff, and it's horrible. And this is what we need to fix in Christianity today. We need to get over ourselves and start forbearing one another, which is also what Paul told the Philippians is having the mind of Christ. Look at verse 14. It says, and above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Okay, putting on charity, having love with action. Not just lip service, but actually going on and not expecting things in return. That's what he's talking about there, okay? That's our goal, is to get into a position where we are mature. He's not saying perfectness like, oh, you never sin anymore, okay? You got the old man, you're gonna sin. It's just the way it is, but we oughta daily try to make sure that the new man is over the old man. Look at verse 15. It says, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful. Okay, let the peace of God rule in your hearts. It is possible, you know, we go through things as people. You know, just because we're saved, just because we're Christians doesn't mean we don't have bad things happen to us and we don't have these certain emotions because we certainly do, but we also have the ability to have true peace because we have the Holy Ghost. Look at verse 16. We're getting close to being done here. It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns. He says psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Again, just another reference to the validation of the psalms. So even the psalms that talk about hate and how God hates people and God's angry with the wicked every day, like Psalm chapter seven, we talked about this morning. You know, we're allowed to sing those. We're allowed to use those for edification. We're allowed to pull doctrine from those things. It's part of what brings us peace. Okay, you look at the typical new evangelical Christian, you know, and they are, they may not tell you this, but they are upset about what's going on in the world today. You know, but where they find themselves in conflict is like, well, but our pastor says we have to love everyone, including the pedophile, you know, and we're supposed to just love them. And inside they're screaming, inside they're raging, inside they're confused, inside they don't understand why their emotions want to rip these people apart. Okay, and the outlet that we get as fundamentalists is we say, oh, wait a second. Now this is actually what God says about these people. We're allowed to hate them. We're allowed to reject them. We're allowed to not let those types of people into our congregation. What does that do? That brings you and I peace. That's what that does. It's a gift from God. It is a gift from above because the word of God, whether it's a Psalm, whether it's Exodus, or whether it's the book of Revelation, doesn't matter. It's all a gift from above. So he says in verse 17, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Look, if we take verse 17 and we make that part of who we are, okay, that's gonna take our pride level from here and bring it down a few notches, okay? And we're not gonna have this attitude. Oh, look at what I conquered. Look what I did. You know, I got up and I just smashed everything today. Okay, that always leads to destruction every single time. Look at verse 18. So now he's gonna transition here and give some advice for the family. So he says, wives, and here's a, this is super controversial today. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Okay, what does modern day culture teach you? That this is bigotry, that this is sexism, that this is misogyny. That's what they say. But what does the Bible say? Now, the Bible says that wives are supposed to submit to their own husbands, okay? And that your own husbands is in there for a reason, okay? Because again, there are people out there that say, well, every wife has to submit to every man, okay? No, okay? If you're not married, you know, you don't need to worry about it since you don't have a wife. But the thing is, hey, my wife doesn't have to submit to someone else's husband, just me. Plain and simple. Wives, submit yourself to your own husbands. And yes, we have had people, this is way back in the day, I've met a couple of people that have this attitude that every wife or woman is basically supposed to submit to them, okay? It's not too often, but you do see it from time to time. And again, of course, the world hates this, okay? The world wants to invert everything that's in the Bible. The world wants to put the man down here to be submissive to the wife. The world puts God down here to be submissive to man. It's just demonic, it's what's going on today. Verse 19, husbands don't get a free pass though. What does it say? Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Why does that say that? Because we as men have a tendency to be bitter, okay? And to hold onto things and to be angry. And Paul's like, hey, don't be bitter against them, okay? Because actually we don't have time to go there, but that does lead to a hindrance of your prayer life. Now look at verse 20. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, so we get it double, okay? Fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged. Now I like to get Kinley and Kylan upset. It's really easy to get Kinley spun up. It's just super easy, I think it's funny. But it's a joke that we just do in our house. And how I know I'm not really violating this is because she's not discouraged. She has goals, she has things she's doing. And at the end of the day, she just tries to beat me up and actually does beat me up. So, you know, that's a sermon for another time. But look at verse 22. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, okay? And of course the modern version. Oh, see, it was talking about slavery, okay? Look, it's talking about employment, okay? And we're gonna spend some time next week in chapter four talking about the relationship and the believer in the workforce. But he says, servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Now here's the key. This actually changed my life several years ago. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. What does that mean? It means when you're at work, you need to do your job as hard and efficiently as possible. Not to show off, not to be better than other people, but to please God. This is well pleasing to the Lord. And when you can do that, you know what that's gonna do? It's gonna do several things for you, okay? First of all, in the workforce, as you guys know, the boss always has his favorites or her favorites, okay? They always have their people that are favorites. They're not as good as you. They're not as smart as you. They're terrible at this or that, but they tend to get, you know, bonuses. They tend to get advancements. If you can adopt this, look and say, I don't care what they get. I don't care if my boss gives a guy who just hired yesterday that they like better than me, you know, puts them over me. If you can adopt this attitude that, hey, I'm gonna work hard because that's what God expects of me. I'm doing this to please the Lord. I'm doing this for a good testimony. You know what? Sooner or later, God is gonna put you in a position, and this has happened to me before. This will happen to you. He'll put you into a position that is beneficial for you and eventually give you the promotion because again, you're royalty. You are a royal priesthood. You will be rewarded for what you do. Look at verse 23. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men. So this takes that bitterness away, okay? Because it's very tempting. Look, I've been there. I've seen it where the boss just likes a certain person. I'm like, I'm way better at the job than that person. You know? And there's a tendency to wanna stay in that bitterness and to get mad and to get upset and to come home and start trash talking your job. Oh, this place sucks and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The way you overcome that is to understand, hey, I don't have to worry about that, okay? Of course the world's gonna take care of their own. My job is to work as hard as possible because that is what is well pleasing to God. And when you do that, it lets go of all that bitterness and then the peace of God will rest in your heart. And eventually God's gonna put you above those people. I'm telling you, it's true. It happens. Verse 23, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive, and here it is, the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord Christ, okay? Again, what is that really in reference to? What are we gonna receive? Well, the new body, you know, we have eternal life, okay? That's basically what that means. But also in this life, God takes care of his children, okay? And you follow this wisdom. It's only gonna produce good fruit for you. Last but not least, we're gonna stop right here, verse 25. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons. So there's gonna be a respecter of persons at your work. Your boss, your team leader, the people that you work with, they're gonna be respecters of persons, typically, okay? And it's gonna frustrate you. It's gonna bother you. But the solution is very simple. The solution is you work hard because you serve God. You are actually royalty. They can't see it, but you know it. And therefore, when you follow that wisdom, I'm telling you, it's gonna change how you look at everything, and God will take care of you because he is king, he is over all that stuff. So we're gonna talk about that again in greater detail next week. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for this church and for everything that you do for us. Lord, I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service and bring us again safely this week. Thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.