Colossians 2023

Please sit down and, turn to the book of colossians chapter 1 We started a new series. Tom started last week, a new series in colossians, and we're, still in chapter 1, and we're gonna read from verse 1 to verse 14. Colossians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother.

To god's holy people in Colocai, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from god our father. We always thank God, the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we've heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. And of the love that you have for all god's people, the faith and love that springs from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit growing throughout the whole world, just as as it has been doing, among you, since the day you heard it and truly understood god's grace. You learned it from epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives so that you may live a life worthy of the lord and please him in every way bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of god, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may be, may have great endurance and patience. And giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. What are some wonderful things there over to you, Tom. Thanks, Pete.

Yeah. Wonderful words, aren't they? Do keep them open in front of you. We are going to be focusing in this morning on, verses 9 to 14. If you miss verse, if you missed verse 1 to 8, then you can catch up online with that sermon.

And, but this these verses will be our our focus this morning. If we haven't met before, my name is Tom Sweitman. I'm 1 of the pastors here, and great to have you joining us here this morning. Let's pray shall we. So that you may live a life worthy of the lord, and please him in every way.

Father, we thank you that it is possible, for those of us who know and love the lord Jesus Christ this morning, it is possible for those of us who know you to please you with our lives. And we wanna do that more and more. We want to live lives that are worthy of the calling that we have received. We want to bear fruit We want to endure patiently. We want to be growing in our knowledge.

We want to be full of joyful Thanksgiving. We want to love the savior who has saved us. And we pray that these things which we will read about and work on together this morning that you would please create the reality of them in our hearts. That we wouldn't just understand what they are with our minds, but that you would please produce in us the things written here in these words. So that we might please you in every way.

And we ask you in Jesus's name, amen. Well, statistically, and, I don't know whether you'll agree with this personally or not, but statistically, for for generations, the the least popular subject at school, has been maths. If you Google it and just type in least popular subject at school far and away, the least favorite among students of all stripes is maths. Now I know Harry Glenn is off to study economics. So you probably don't fit the mold in that in that way.

But for mo, just broadly, show of hands. Would that be true of you when you were at school, least popular? I think there's a lot of liars in the room this morning. Yeah. More of you must not must not have liked it.

Certainly in my own experience, maths was my was my least favorite subject, partly because I just wasn't very good at it and, could never really get it. But secondly, and I think this is the main reason And, look, if you are a maths teacher here this morning, we love you. You're welcome. It's great to have you. We're gonna take the lord's supper with you later on.

That will be a joy. But I think for lots of kids, for lots of people, the problem with maths is that quite a lot of it seems a bit irrelevant, doesn't it? So you show me a kid who after 4 weeks of studying trigonometry or pythagoras hasn't said or at least thought, miss or sir, when are we ever going to need this or use this? When are we ever going to need this? Now, I know that some maths teachers in the room will probably come up to me and say, no, Tom, it's you you're an idiot.

We use it all the time. Okay? You use algebra more than you realize. That might be true. It doesn't feel true.

I have to say. And so at least while I'm up here, you know, on the safety of this stage, I'm I'm gonna stand by my 14 year old self and, you know, agree with the algebra pythagoras trigonometry, miss when are we ever going to need this? When are we ever gonna need this? And behind that grumble, and this is the reality, Behind that grumble could just be a very ungrateful teenager who doesn't know how lucky he is to be able to go to school and we talk wonderful things. But more positively and in the defense of that teenager, and I think this is true in lots of areas If information is going to engage us, we do need to know where it cashes out in real life.

What difference it makes if we're gonna be gripped by the information? Often the things which bore us do so because we cannot see a real world application. There's no transformation for us to get excited about. It's just information that goes into our minds. We can't see how it might make a real helpful difference in our lives, just information.

It's what people might call the problem of relevance. You know, you hear some information, you think, okay, I get the what, but show me the so what. I hear what you're saying, but tell me so what? What difference is this gonna make to my to my life? So I think, and again, if you're a maths person, you can come and tell me off afterwards, that's fine.

But I think lots of maths has that has that issue. When are we ever going to need this? I hear the information, but how is it going to transform? How is it going to make a difference? And look, even if you don't agree with me on the issue of maths, I I hope that we can all agree.

Those of us who are Christians at least that the gospel information is very unlike that. So there is, and you see it all over in this passage, There is plenty of stuff for us to learn verse 7. There is plenty for us to understand verse 6. There is if you like a classroom in which we must be informed, but look at where it cashes out. Look at what the information leads to.

2 verse 4, faith in Christ Jesus. 2 verse 4, love for all of god's people. In other words, this gospel information has a real world application. It really does on the ground change us and other people and every area of our life. And in verse 9 to 14, you can see that relationship again.

The information side of things is critical Paul won't do away with the knowledge. Even though there are false teachers in the church talking about new and special knowledge, He won't for that reason throw the baby out with a bathwater and say no knowledge doesn't matter at all. It's critical that we learn and are informed about the right things. Verse 9, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you, We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and the understanding that the spirit gives on to verse 10, we want you to be or we pray that you will be growing in the knowledge of God. But what is that for?

That's the question. What is the knowledge for? Is it just for the classroom? Is it just in order that we might pass the theology exam at the end of term? Is it just so that we might be able to boast There is a type of spiritual knowledge that does that, isn't it?

There's a type of knowledge which puffs up and just enables us to brag. It's not the sort of knowledge that builds up, it's like inflating a balloon rather than building a house. It just it puffs up. It doesn't build up. There is that danger, but no, what is this knowledge for?

Well, verse 9 again. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you we continually ask god to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives so that What's the cash out? You may live a life that is worthy of the lord. And please him in every way. In other words, what is the purpose of gospel information its gospel transformation.

Paul wants us to know the right things In order that we might live the right way so that we can please god in every way. Know the right things to live the right way so that we can please god in every way. And just think about that if you're a Christian here this morning, pleasing God in every way. See, if you're here and you've been coming to church for a while, you you know probably that a Christian is someone who is a hundred percent justified by god. They have been made right by god by faith alone, and in Christ Jesus, they are eternally pleasing to him.

And yet we are also told that it is really possible, really possible with our daily lives to displease or to please the lord. And so the question is, what do we need to know in order to live in order to please? Or more simply what information will lead to this transformation in verse 9 14. I'm gonna make an assumption here this morning. And if you're not a Christian, it may not be true, but I'm assuming that all of us who would take the name of Christ in this room this morning, look at verse 10 to 14 and they read things like bearing fruit and enduring with patience and joyful Thanksgiving, and and something in your heart says, I would love more of that.

I'd love more of that. I'd love to be more fruitful in my life as a Christian. I'd love to be able to endure difficult things with a kind of spirit wrought patience. I'd love to be, bearing fruit and growing in the knowledge of god. Or at the very least, I don't want the opposite of that.

I don't wanna be able to endure nothing impatiently. I don't wanna be so fragile and unstable that anything that hits me rocks my convictions. I don't want to be known for a low level grumpiness and ungratefulness. I don't want to be diminishing in my knowledge of God. I don't want the opposite of that.

I think all Christians will look at that list and think I would love I would love something more of that in my life. But if that assumption is correct, the question again, is okay. Well, in in order to grow, what must I know? In order to be transformed in these ways which I desire, What inputs have I gotta have I gotta get right? Have I gotta understand?

Well, look with me at verse 9 to 10, and this is the first point. What is the information that will lead to the transformation? Firstly, what it what is the information? Verse 9, he says for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. So this is gonna need prayer, this transformation.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will. That's the knowledge. The knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives or the spiritual understanding. Now often I think when it comes to the will of god, and that seems to be the information here. When it comes to the will of god, that our first instinct is to make it personal.

You know? What is the will of god for my life? What career should I pursue? What marriage should I have? Who should I marry?

Where should I live? What am I to do with my life? What is god's what is god's will for me? But you know, in Paul's letters, the will of God, and there's not there's not unimportant questions, by the way, but in Paul's letters, the will of God has much less to do with us. And much more to do with Christ.

Just flip over with me in your bibles. It won't be on the screen. I'm afraid. So hopefully, you can either scroll to it or turn to it. To colossians 2 verse 2.

We won't jump around loads this morning, but this 1 is good because the knowledge word in verse 9 comes up here again. So here's chapter 2 verse 2. My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, same knowledge word from verse 9, the full riches of complete understanding. In order that they may know the mystery of god, namely Christ, in whom are hidden, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now there's way too much for us to, unpack here this morning from those verses, but for now, can you at least see how the words group together in those sentences?

Verse 2, complete understanding verse 3, all the treasures, verse 3 wisdom, verse 3 knowledge. And where is it all Where is all the knowledge of god? Where is the will of god contained? Where might we go to access all these treasures of understanding He says that has been embedded into the mystery of god, namely Christ. Namely Christ.

And so you can see the mystery of god and the will of god has very little to do with star charts and looking at tea leaves and wearing foil hats and hoping that we might work it out somehow. It has very little to do with that, and it has everything to do with the revelation of Christ to the world, with the incarnation of the knowledge of God and the will of god. Brothers and sisters, what is the will of god? It is the gospel. It's the gospel that Christ who is in very nature god has come into this world in order to demonstrate the fullness of god to a fallen world.

And that he would go to the cross and as we see in verse 13 to 14, he would die for our sin in order to break the power of sin and satan and death over us, that we might be transferred all that we are and all that we own transferred into a new kingdom, a kingdom of light, and that following that, we might be renewed in the image of our creator. That is the knowledge of god. That's the will of god for your life. That whoever you are from whatever nation you're from, that whether your man, woman, boy, or girl that you might come to Christ and be qualified for the kingdom of light. That's the will of God.

And therefore, we could say chapter 1 verse 9, although it's always dangerous to retranslate the Bible, but I think Paul would be happy with this. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of Christ. Through all the wisdom and understanding that the spirit gives so that you may live a life worthy of the lord. And please him in every way. And so what information is gonna lead to the transformation that Christians desire It is an intelligent growing grasp of Christ applied to every area of your life.

Now it might be that you hear that and you think, okay, well, that I I understand I understand that that's the information, but I have to say that wasn't exactly the silver bullet I was hoping for, you know, I was hoping for something utterly revolutionary, something I've never heard before, something that really would literally transform me in this moment. And, you know, I now know Tom why no one's offered you a book deal. If that's all you've gotta say, and yet, look, look at chapter 2 verse 3 again. Look at the scale of what he says. In whom are hidden, some of, a few of, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that is so all encompassing, isn't it?

For this transformation that we read about, there is no treasure and no secret knowledge and no silver bullet outside of Christ, Christ, understood and thoughtfully applied to every area of our lives. Now, in the last point, we're gonna have a think very practically about how we might actually connect that so that it does transform us. But that for now is the first point. That's the information, the will of god, namely Christ, Christ in you, Christ for you. But let's look at the transformation, and then we'll come back to how to put these things together.

So firstly, the information Secondly, now let's look at the transformation. What is he talking about? And there's no time to fully go through all of these things, and I think maybe in home group this week, we'll will spend time unpacking the different parts. But verse 10, so that you may live a life worthy of the lord and please him in every way and what follows is a description of a life that is worthy of the lord. What is that?

Bearing fruit in every good work. And you know, that image of bearing fruit is so common in the new testament. It's almost like saying I'm a Christian. To be a Christian is to be 1 who bears fruit for god to bear fruit for god is to be a Christian. They're they're 1 and the same thing.

So a couple of Sunday evenings ago, if you were there, Rory took us through the the parable of the sower. And there in the parable of the sower, you remember that last soil, the good and the noble soil, and that stands for the heart on which the seed lands, and it is not taken and away, and it is not choked to death, and it is not shrunken to nothing. It goes down deep into the soil and it bears fruit, 30, 60, even a hundred times what was sown. That's a Christian heart. As a Christian heart, changed by the grace of God that it might be forever increasingly fruitful.

And what is the fruit he's talking about in colossians? Well, firstly, you can see it's not empty fruit. Bearing fruit, he says, in every good work. You see, there is a type of good work and you see this all over the bible. That can be empty and fruitless.

You do a good work, but it's all for you. And it's all for the attention that you might get, and it's all that you might be able to boast over others who are doing less. That's that's this kind of fruit less good work. What he's talking about here is bearing fruit in every good work, that the good works we do might be genuinely fruitful. And what does he mean by that?

Well, it's all the stuff that we saw last week. Verse 6, in the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world. And what is that? Well, he described it a few verses earlier. We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all of god's people bearing, fruit, faith, and love in every good work.

And again, it's interesting to think about the the seed and the fruit relationship because what information leads to the transformation. It's the seed, isn't it? It's the seed. And within the seed is the kingdom DNA. That seed that is sown contains within it, kingdom information, that if you'll turn from your sin and acknowledge Jesus as king, If that information is received into the heart, it produces transformation, 30, 60, even a hundred times what we're saying.

That's 1 aspect of it. Verse 11, but also being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, great endurance and patience. And those things don't always go together, do they? It is possible to have endurance without patience And that I would say is the traffic jam, isn't it? So yesterday, we were driving up to see Laura's parents in North London in Enfield.

And before we left the house, we looked at, Google Maps to see which way would be quickest. The m 25 was gonna be a disastrous choice because of all the roadworks. And so it took us on the North Circular road. So Saturday morning, leaving the house at 10, going on the north circular road through London. I mean, let me tell you.

I endured it, but not with patients. It was a it was a very inpatient. And it was annoying because I knew what was gonna happen as the traffic started to build. In the first half an hour, I thought, you know, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna not let this phase today. I'm not gonna be troubled by this.

I'm gonna be just stoically pleasant, you know, whether it's clear or whether it's not. But after about an hour, I mean, it's you're just turning off the engine, pulling on the handbrake in the queue, all those sort of passive aggressive signs of anger. That that that is what I would describe as impatient endurance, but that is not what Paul describes here. Great endurance and patience. So this is not the the stoic who says, you know, I'm I'm a cliff and, the waves of difficulty are gonna roll on me and they're gonna hit me over and over again, and I don't care.

And I'm gonna disengage and whether you live or die. It doesn't matter to me because I'm so free of you. I'm so needless. That I can just endure. That's not what he's talking about.

This is a type of endurance with patience and joy and love and long suffering and all the other fruits of the spirit. And you know, how important would this be for the colossians to hear? Because life was beginning to get tough for them. The false teachers had come in. They were starting to bring a new spiritual knowledge.

Things were getting hard for them And in order to keep them going, Paul prays for this transformed life that they would endure with patients. And it's an extraordinary verse, isn't it? Because what is required for people like you and me to keep going It is all the mighty cosmic power of god. Did you see that? Or all the power of god needed just so that we might keep going for another week.

That's what it takes. And you know, that is worth celebrating, I think. If you are here and you love the lord Jesus and you're going through a difficult patch in your life and yet you're back for another week to be with god's people, that's worth celebrating because that is none other than the cosmic world creating Christ resurrecting power of god that has enabled you to keep enduring with patience for another week. That's part of what the transformed life looks like. Verse 12, and giving joyful thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

And again, joyful and thanks don't always go together, do they? Particularly for the the British person. It is possible for the Brit to say thank you with no joy residing in their heart whatsoever. They'll give you another illustration. If you've had to ring up Virgin Media or HMRC, or BT or any other company like that, and you've spent 3 hours on the phone with them trying to get your broadband sorted And eventually, at the conclusion of those 3 hours, they managed to get it done, you might say thank you, whether there is joy residing in your heart, as you say it, well, that's a different question, isn't it?

We know that it is possible to be thankful in a joyless kinda way. Paul is saying that real transformation is powered and fueled. It's it's a joyful Thanksgiving. Extraordinary, isn't it? That from a 1 time act of god flows a lifetime of Thanksgiving.

He has qualified you, Christian. God has qualified you in the person of his son that you might reign with him forever and from that 1 time act at the cross. Flows not just a lifetime in fact, but an eternity of Thanksgiving. I wonder if you realize that Thanksgiving is something that you can grow in. Often we think of patience and self control.

Those are areas I can grow But he seems to think that joyful thanks is an area that we we can be growing it. We can be growing in thankfulness. And so he prays for that aspect of their transformation. Now there's more that we can say on all of those different things, but that's just at least a a kind of, helicopter height survey. You know, we've seen the information, we've seen something of a transformation, but how do we put these 2 things together in practice.

And let's move to that as the last point. How do we bring these things together? Information? How does it lead to transformation? And I think this is the big, big question for many of us who are Christians or many of us who, it's the it's the issue that we need most help with.

Not not It's not what what new knowledge do I need to live this life, but how do I intelligently apply what I already know. Not what new book is gonna save my marriage or what new article is gonna transform my attitude towards work. There's a place for those things and we want those things, but mostly for Christians. It's how do I connect the riches that I already own with the life that I wanna see. How how how do I do that?

Give you an illustration. I remember some time ago. We took our we took our car to the garage. We took it to mister mister Klutch on the, on the Kingston Road. And, I went in at the end of the day.

I had a phone call, from from the mechanic to say that I could come and pick the car up. And I went, and I went there, and, I tried to pay for the works by by contactless with with my card. But, it was over it was over the limit. So I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna be able to do it. I don't know whether they still even sort of have that limit anymore.

But certainly, when I did it there, I couldn't do it. And so he said to me, okay, no problem. Just pop your card in the probably card in the reader. And then I looked down at the terminal and it's, you know, enter your pin number. And, I'd I'd totally, I'd totally forgotten what my pin number was.

Just in that moment. And I don't know whether it's because I've been using contactless so much that I hadn't had to put my pin in for any length of time. And I tried a few options, and I thought I know gonna happen here. It's gonna cancel me and lock me out. So I thought, I'll take it out and I'll go to the cash point on the Kingston Road free from the stressful environment of the mechanic in the hope that some fresh air will be able to help me remember.

And I stood there looking at the thing, and I just I just could not remember it. And so I ended up having to get the bus home because that was below the limit, thankfully. I had to get the bus home without my car until I spoke to Laura and we were able to go and get it. What was the problem there? The problem was not that I didn't have the money.

The problem was I couldn't work out how to spend it. I couldn't remember. You know, I looked at I I knew I had the treasures, I knew I had the riches, I knew I had that which I needed to pay but I couldn't work out how to do it. I couldn't remember how to do it. I had no mechanism of applying the riches that I owned to the car that I wanted.

It's very often like that isn't it with Christian Life. You know, we look at this list and we think bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of god. What do I what do I need? What do I need to live this transformed life? Well, there is always a place for new information, but mostly brothers and sisters, isn't it true that we just need to learn to spend what we've already got.

We need to find a way of connecting the riches that are ours in Christ with the life that we wanna life that we wanna lead. So here I am and something goes wrong in my life, let's say I lose my job or I get dumped, or I get or I get sick, you know, and it and it rocks me. It rocks me. Something happens and I'm rocked by it. Or let's say it's something that's not not so big.

Let's just say I I I feel disappointed with how life is turning out. I'm just disappointed It's not the life I thought I was gonna lead. It's not the person I hoped I was gonna be. It's just not where I it's not what I thought I would be doing with my life. I'm disappointed.

But then look, what have I gotta do? What do I do in that moment? Well, on the 1 hand, I can say, The Bible tells me that this side of heaven, I'm always gonna be a bit disappointed. I'm always gonna be a bit disappointed, and I may never know exactly why I have to go through this this side of heaven. But then I say to myself, or you say to me, or I come here and I hear, yeah, no, that's that I gotta remember.

All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in Christ and nowhere else. I know that's gotta be true. And so I go to him and I say, lord Jesus, you have been through every difficulty. You know what it is to be disappointed, and I know that you love me, and I know that you've died to make me new, and that my sins are paid for, and I know that a life is coming where I'm going to be only ever happy all the time, and I know that I'm not going to find any answers side of you Jesus. Not really.

I've tried that, and it works for a while, but not forever. I know you are the 1 I need to go to. Please help me look to you. Embedded in you, even if I don't feel it now, embedded in you are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Give me faith that I might apply that to my life in such a way that I might be transformed.

See, how how does this stuff in verse 10 to 14 grow? It grows as we work out and apply the gospel information to every area of our lives. It's interesting the word fill that he uses there. The image is less like having 1 cup under a running tap and just waiting for it to fill and overflow. And more like having a having an ice cube tray under the tap, and you just so that it slowly fills every single compartment 1 by 1.

That's the idea. That you might be filled The world is more like governed that you might be governed and dominated that every compartment of your life might be filled with the treasures that you already have in the bank. And so look in a minute. We're gonna end on a on a on a positive. But if I can, let me put that let me put that challenge to you.

Is that how it goes for you at the moment? Is that how it goes for you? That when you feel you want to patiently endure or bear fruit or grow in thanks, that you're learning to apply the treasures that you have in the bank and and working them out through the contact list into your spending it in every area of your life. Last Sunday, after the evening service, I, I overheard a great conversation at the evening service. And, it I mean, it wasn't a conversation in some ways.

It was more like an exchange, and I think I'm okay to share it. I won't use any of the names. But after the service, there was a lads of about 9, 10, 11, 12. I'm not sure exactly how old. Cuh comes comes up to comes up to the person who'd been playing lead guitar in the band.

And, he walks up to him after the service and he holds his hand out like this. And he says, he says, man, how do I play the guitar? How do I play the guitar? And he looks at it and he says, how do you play the guitar? You need to buy a guitar, and then you need to spend hours and hours and hours alone by yourself in your bedroom learning how to play it.

And his face was just crestfallen. You know, it was like, oh, so I'm not gonna be able to go from 0 to guitar hero, overnight. You mean I've got to spend hours learning how to play and applying this to my life and thinking it through before I'm gonna be anywhere near a stage like that. Yes. Yeah.

It's easy, isn't it? Very often. We want the end result. It's all of us in a way, isn't it? We want the end result.

We want the fruit, we want the patience, we want the joy, we want the triumph from the victories without the time. Spent applying Christ and the riches of salvation to our lives. We we won't grow unless together, we can learn we can learn how to do that. And that brings me to the final the final positive which which we'll end on. Just think how good it would be if we were all praying like this for 1 another regularly.

See, if you're at a stage in your life where by the grace of god, you are able to endure. You are finding yourself able to endure something difficult patience. Or if you're at a stage in your life where you do feel a sense of joy and thankfulness for your savior and all that he's done, It is almost certain that that is because someone you love is praying for you. Whether it be a a spouse or a family friend or a friend, it is almost certainly in some way related to somebody's prayers for you. Well, then just imagine if we could all commit to praying like this for 1 other person in the church.

If we could just commit to praying for 1 other person that the weekly information that they are hearing would become real life transformation that we all want. Just 1 other person, well, that could be very, very exciting, couldn't it? That's the relationship we see here. The information that we need for the transformation is the riches of Christ applied together to every area of our lives. Should we pray the lord would help us to do it.

Father god, all of us who know you and love you want to please you in every way. We we look at this list bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of god and being strengthened with all power according to your glorious might so that we might endure and have patience that we might give joyful thanks to you who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of your holy people in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Jesus, and we want to grow in these things. And yet we're sorry that very often, even though we know what we need to know and we have all the treasures of Christ in the bank that we haven't learnt how to spend him. To apply him that we might be transformed by the information that we have. We pray please that you'd help all of us to to learn how to do this.

We pray that our church might be marked by these fruits and these virtues more and more and more that as we grow in size, that lord we would grow in this most important of ways, that we would want pleased to live lives that are worthy of you and that we would wanna please you in every way in Jesus' name.