Colossians 2023

If you do happen to have a a hard copy of the Bible, then you can turn now to colossians chapter 2. And we're going to read from verse 20 into chapter 3 verse 4. Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world. Why as though you still belonged to the world do you submit to its rules?

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These rules which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self imposed worship and their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining central indulgence. Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him. In glory. Well, good morning. My name's, Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the elders at the church. What a song that drummer boy is, isn't it? I mean, it's gonna be something. Whether we'll be able to go or not, I think it has started raining, but we're gonna have that at the Carol service so you can bring all your friends to that Let's pray. Father help us now as we look at this passage, speak to us, touch our hearts, Make us appraising people, please.

In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Now in Greek mythology, there's a there's a certain island inhabited by the sirens. And, the sirens are half woman and half bird and they spend their days trapping passing, sailors, by their entrancing songs and luring them by their songs. To the rocks that are around the island and shipwreck and death. When the hero in Greek mythology Odysseus passes by the island of the sirens.

He blocks his ears with wax, and he ties himself to the ship's mast so that he wouldn't be seduced by the songs of the sirens. That's 1 way of dealing with them. But when the argonauts pass the island of the sirens. Orpheus, he used a different strategy to Odysseus. He took a harp and he played such superior music that it charmed the sailors that they didn't even hear the sirens singing because they were so taken up with this more gorgeous music.

And I think that's Paul's approach. To the Christian life. It's much more like Orpheus than Odysseus. That's what Paul is saying. He wants us to be so charmed that we don't have to have lots of rules and regulations.

We're so taken up with the lord Jesus Christ. That any siren, any sin that's calling us and, trying to shipwreck us, we weren't even here. It's a wonderful picture of Christianity because there's so much freedom in that. We can be the personality that god created us to be and we'll all be different And yet there's this love for Christ that keeps us sailing past the sirens. Just look again at those words that Tom read to us.

It's Coroshians 20. Chapter 2 verse 22 3 3. Since you died with Christ to the elementary spiritual forces of this world, why is though you belong to it, to the world? Do you submit to its rules? Do not handle Do not taste.

Do not touch. These rules which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations, indeed, have an appearance of wisdom with their self imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining central indulgence. Since then you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in god, When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. See, Paul is saying that that you you may gather around all kinds of rules and regulations for yourself and then start dictating to other people to to have them. And they might help you to some degree. They tie you to the mask. They put wax in your ears They might stop you going to the sirens, but they actually don't change your heart.

So it's very dangerous in the end because if the wax falls out or the rope come undone, you're gonna be attracted. Paul is saying, I want you to be attracted about something bigger so that your mind and your heart are taken up with the attraction of the lord Jesus Christ. I don't wanna put religious laws on you. I don't want to make you into a cult so that all our personalities are the same. I don't want you to have regulations that make you pretend or look like a Christian on the outside.

I want you to be like orpheus. I want you to do battle with sin. I want you to have a pure life. But I want you to have to be so taken up like Orpheus was and his sailors with superior music set your hearts. On things above where Christ is.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Paul wants us to be enchanted with Christ. He doesn't wanna whip the law over us. He says we've died to the condemnation of the law. He he he he wants us to see Christ.

He wants us to see our new position in Christ, who we are in Christ, and all that Christ has done for us. We've died to sin, we've ridden with Christ. He wants our hearts and our minds, wooed with a superior love. That Christ would be our all in all. So that's my first point.

Set your hearts We're dealing with the heart. Set your hearts. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3. Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts. On things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god.

Paul seems to be saying, I want your affections, your your inner being, to be taken up not with rules and self righteousness and that you're better than other Christians. I want you to be taken up with Christ. I want your concerns and ambitions to be tied into Christ, not onto some mask. I want your ears to hear the superior music of Christ, not the sirens. Let your desires be the desires of Jesus.

Let your affections be the affections and delights of Jesus. Let that which is courses through your veins and throbs through your whole body be that which courses through the veins of the lord Jesus Christ. Let the causes of Christ throb in your heart. Let the drumbeat of Christ. Let your heart be in line in beat with the drumbeat of of Christ.

Your longings and dreams be his. And when that happens, you can untie the ropes. You can unblock your ears, and you won't hear the siren call. Now, of course, there is a lovely twist in this because Jesus does say that the law of god is all about what? What are the law of god?

He says 10 to moments are all about love, you see. Once we get that right, not just the baying outward ruse, love. What what's a summary of the commandments love the lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. Love Did you do that?

Is your Christianity summed up in love? You're big with love for god? You set your hearts on Christ that you may love him. So when the sirens call with their wonderful songs of Come. You hardly hear them.

When their impurities are calling you, when their self centeredness are calling you, Come on, be self centered. Think about self. You say, no, I'm dead to them, because I'm alive to cry set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. I've got 3 things here to say, under set your hearts that might help us. 3 things that we ought to sort of note down can we do this week.

1 is delighting him, That will set our hearts. Second is to be happy in him. That will set our hearts. And the third is to praise him. To praise him.

What are the things you delight in? What delights you? What are the things that brings pleasure to you excites you? You know, your heart beats. If I've been raised to Christ, if I've died to sin and and the principles of this world, If I have a new nature in the lord Jesus Christ, shouldn't it be Christ?

Shouldn't it be Jesus who I actually delighted What do you delight in? I'm not sure if you see much delight today, people seem to be so taken up with themselves. That there's no delight. It's lovely when you see delight, isn't it? When when you see pre people expressing delight, You know, some people go to airports just to see people delight because there's this old personal whatever it is they haven't seen for years and they've flown and there's a delight.

I'm looking forward to that because I'm going to Australia. Uh-uh, on on boxing day. I'm looking forward genuinely looking forward because I know that there's mates over there that will delight to see me. And they will, they'd be delighted to see me. What are you delight in?

Shouldn't we delight in Christ? It's it's an expression of something that's in you but outside of you. Psalm 37 verse 4 says, take delight in the lord and give and and he will give you the desires of your heart. Let me say that again. Take delight in the lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart.

Now I've heard people just completely mangle that. If you take delight in the lord, what are the desires of your heart? What are they? If you take delight in the lord, what's the desire of your heart? It's the lord.

But I've heard people say, you take delight in in the lord, and then he'll give you a a car or a a job or more money or a big house or a girlfriend or boyfriend. You've totally missed it. If you take delight in the lord, the desire of your heart is the lord and he'll give himself to you. Set your hearts on things above on Christ. John Piper wrote that fantastic book.

Called desiring God back in. I think it was the eighties, early eighties. And, it was it was a fan it was a fantastic book and and and still is. And he talk talks in that book. And if you can read it, there are other people that have written books that have sort of made that book a little bit easier, and I think Tim Chester's done.

1 in in enjoying God, and he's got another 1 coming out, enjoying Jesus. They basically taken that because some people found Piper a little bit philosophical, but it's an amazing book. And in the book, he says that the Psalmists, that's the writer of the Psalms in the old in in the old testament songs, He says, the Psalm is sought to do this, and then he quotes various Psalms. As the deer pants for waterbrook, So my soul pants for thee o god for the living god. And then he quotes another 1.

My soul thirsts for thee. My flesh yearns for thee in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I don't know whether you've ever really been thirsty. Couple of occasions, I've been absolutely deadly thirsty. I was in the Sahara desert and stupidly didn't take any water with me and I was absolutely thirsty.

And believe it or not, there was a little shop in the Sara desert. There was. And he sold Coca Cola. And I'd been told never buy Coca Cola in the Sahara desert It'll only be brown muddy water. You've gotta listen for the fizz and, but I just was so thirsty I wasn't thinking straight.

I didn't hear a fizz and I drained them around the brown water. I was so thirsty. And he's saying, the Psalmists is saying, there's this thirst for god and then he says that there's the reply. God will say, I'll give you the water. Men drink their fill of the abundance of of of thy house, he says.

And thou dost give them drink from water that delights them. In other words, he's saying that, that god that first is not just the first. It's the reciprocal giving. God gives. And then Piper says this.

I found that the goodness of god, the very foundation of worship, is not a thing you pay, your respects to out out of some kind of disinterested reverence. No. It is something to be enjoyed. So what Piper is saying is that, he found that the goodness of god is a very foundation of worship, is is not something that you just pay respect to. God is good.

He's wonderful, and we can stand back and we pay repay respect to but it's something that we are to revel in and enjoy. Oh, taste and see that the lord is good. How sweet are the words your words to my taste. Yes, sweet sweeter than honey to my mouth. And then c s Lewis, he quotes, says god in the Psalms is the all satisfying object.

His people adore him unashamedly for the exceeding joy they find in him. He is the source, of complete and under ending pleasure. In thy presence is the fullness of joy. At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. In other words, we don't just see god there and what a wonderful god he is and he's out there we actually sort of jump into him.

He is the water where we find our thirst quenched. He is the joy where we we find joy in our souls. He is that. And who's at the right hand of god? It's Christ.

It's the lord Jesus Christ. That is where our delight is to be in him because he's the satisfying 1. That's where we find delight. The Westminster confession of faith, which is 1 of the great, confessions of truth in church history for what Christians believe. It's It starts with this.

The chief end of man is to glorify god and enjoy him forever. The chief end of man, in other words, the main purpose for people for you put on this earth, the main purpose of us is to glorify god. That's why we were created to bring glory to him and to enjoy him forever. But what Piper does in his book is to say, no, no, that needs slightly changing. And the original writers really meant this The chief end of man, the chief reason for people, is to glorify god by enjoying him forever.

It's not glorify god and enjoy him as if they're separate things. You glorify god by enjoying him. You're satisfied in the water by drinking from god. Let me put it this way. Imagine I said to my wife, Anne, she's not in here, so it's fine.

Look, You know what? There are some sirens out there, they're gorgeous. Oh, they're so cool. I mean, a tough boy. Those sirens I mean, yeah, they're gorgeous, but don't worry.

I tie myself to the mast. I'll try not to look at them. I'll try and be faithful to you, but they're beautiful. But don't worry. I'm going not to commit adultery.

I'm gonna be faithful to you. It's alright. I've got wax in my ears whenever I see a hear a siren. When I see them, I put masks over my eyes. I tie myself to the I'll be faithful to you.

Don't worry about it. Hardly brings glory to her, does it? But if I say you are my delight. I really love you. Yeah.

They aren't beautiful, those sirens, but they're nothing on you. The reason why when I used to travel around the country doing evangelism up and down the country that I drove through the night and didn't stay another evening was to get back to you. It's you I like being with. It's you I like talking to. It's you I like bringing a cup of tea in the morning and having a chat and praying with.

It's you. You're my delight. Once she's my delight, you see that I bring glory to her. Her glory is my delight. So what about you?

Is it, oh, I follow Christ? Oh, yes, you know, those sirens, whoa, they're so tempting, aren't they? I tie myself to the mask. Or is it? Hey, oh, sirens, the mute, but the music is so much better in Christ.

Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Delight. Delighting Christ. Deliting Christ. Here's the second thing, though, under the heart.

Happy Be happy in Christ. What are the things that makes you happy? Is your hap happiness set in Christ? When I first became a Christian, there was a phrase that was going around. I haven't heard it so much these days, although I think it comes in different forms.

It it sounded true, and it there was a sort of it was a sort of truism that's partly true and partly not true, depending on what you meant by it. But the phrase was this. Christians are called to be holy and not happy, and you never said it in a happy way. It was always Christians, a call to be holy. Not happy.

You know, we're slightly angry, you know, and it's not true. Christians are called to be happy. Christians are called to be happy in holiness. Happy and holiness go together. Who do you think god is?

Do you think he's a holy unhappy god? Christians are called to be holy and happy. What's the definition of holiness? To be Christ like, to listen to Christ, to follow Christ. What is it to be Christ like?

What does Christ want in in our lives. Well, Jesus gives us a definition of Christlikeness in the sermon on the mount right at the beginning. The characteristics of a Christian are to be poor in spirit. In other words, not cocky, not all about yourself. That's Christ like this.

Is to give yourself or others to be, those who mourn. In other words, you see sin and you're not attracted to it. But you're saddened by it and how it ruins people is to be meek. That isn't weak. Weak and meek are different.

Meek is strength under control. It's the word used for a horse with all its muscles, but are in control. You're in control. Of serving others. It's those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness.

They really want to follow god. They wanna be the sons of God. It's those who are pure in heart. It's those who are peacemakers, not stirring things up. It's those who are persecuted because of righteousness.

That's a definition of holiness. That's what Christ wants us to be. That's who Jesus is. And yet with every 1 of those characteristics goes the word happy or blessed in most translations. Blessed, happy are the poor in spirit.

Bless, happier those who mourn. Bless, happier the meek, blessed. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Bless, happy are the pure in heart. Bless, happy are the peacemakers.

Blessed. Happy are the per those who are persecuted for righteousness. It's the word blessed. It means you're self contained in a blessedness. There's a joy.

There's a happiness that goes there. Set your heart on things above where Christ is. And you'll have a holy happiness. And maybe you're a miserable Christian because your holiness isn't in Christ. It's in rulers and laws and try to find yourself and all about you.

So we are to delight in the lord, we are to enjoy the lord or and our hearts are to be on him. Our happiness is to be found in him. The joy of the lord is our strength says to scriptures. And when we know the joy of the law, then we don't have to be tied to the mask. We can be our own personality We could be different from other people, but because we love the same lord, we're going for holiness.

The joy of the lord is our strength. We want joy in the lord, and we're fine with stronger Christians. To take all of the persecution that people chuck at us. So what are the things you delight in Do you need to repent and change those things? All of the things that make you happy, this thirdly, under this point, What is your praise like?

What is your praise like? Set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Back to Lewis again, and back to, John Piper's book. He quotes Lewis here. So Lewis says this.

I thought of praise. Get this. It's quite it's really powerful this. I thought of praise of compliment approval or giving honor. I'd never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows in praise.

I'd not noticed, either. Just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value So they spontaneously urge us to enjoy them in praising it. Isn't she lovely? You should see that film. Have you seen that said it's brilliant?

Have you heard this song? We're always doing that. He says, I think we'd like to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes our enjoyment. It is the appointed consummation. It is not out of out of compliments that lovers keep telling 1 another how beautiful they are.

The delight is incomplete until they express it. Do you get that? You know what it's like. You hear a great song. You're desperate to play it.

At at the hub, you'll you'll hear this on a Monday morning. Oh, it's a great film at the weekend and and someone has to and and they're completing their praise of the film by telling someone else about it, isn't it? That's why we have marriage ceremonies and cram in as many people as possible. I want to tell you I'm committed to her. I love her.

I'm going to keep my promises to her. I want to praise her by my commitment before a big crowd. That's praise. Is there something written in our hearts that is incomplete until It's expressed in praise and thanksgiving until the joy and wonder of the lord is expressed somehow. That's evangelism.

That's why we were hoping to go out on the streets. We wanted to do it because we want a drum. We want to say Jesus' lord. And it doesn't really matter what people say. They may mock us.

I mean, lots time we did it, an old lady came up to me because she didn't think I was with the group and said they always bring Jesus in all the time. I said it is Christmas. She said, oh, I didn't know you were with them. Ah, but I am. That's why we praise.

Jesus said to the pharisees with all their rules, these people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain. Their teachings are but rules taught by men. They've got all these godly outward rules tying themselves to the mask and sticking wax in their ears, but they don't love god because their hearts haven't been changed because they're not praising Jesus for all that he's done. It's all about what they do and not what he has done and it makes a small, little people.

Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Get big with hearts. Get big with hearts delight, get big with hearts happiness, get big with hearts praise, set your hearts this week. Do something about them. Mark down what delights you, what makes you happy.

What you praise, mark them down, and ask god to set your heart that that would be the things of Christ. Why not do that? Why not say how am I gonna do this? How am I gonna set my praise and happiness? And my delight in Jesus.

How am I gonna do this? That's the first point. Here's my second point. Is shorter. Set your minds.

Look at verse 2. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. The mind is the gateway for all we are of all we've been and all we will be. The mind and the heart you cannot separate. Our habits, our attitudes, our values, and our actions, they'll all stem from our mind, our thinking.

What the mind thinks about, the heart will move towards. That's how it works. And the Bible warns of this. Proverbs 23 as a person thinks in their heart. See, the 2 go together.

So they are. The person that cannot command their thoughts will lose command of their actions and their heart. That's the that's that's how brainwashing works. You get stuff just poured in again and again and again and in the end, your heart goes towards it. The brain I'm told is the, which is the physical house of the mind, has 12 to 14000000000 cells, and each cell has 10000 connectors to its neighboring cells.

I mean, that is some computer. I mean, we got all this AI stuff and chat GPT. It's nothing compared to the brain. But often Christians leave their 12 to 14000000000 cells unguarded unthinking and undisciplined. We can worry about our bodies, and we do, don't we?

As we pound you know, whatever it is we're pounding the the running machine or or the pavement. We can worry about our bodies if we keep on looking in the mirror and shoving on the makeup. But what about the shape of our minds? 1 writer said this about our about our culture, we live in mindless times, days in which millions of people are drifting along through life, manipulated by mass media, and hardly knowing it. Few give thought to their eternal souls, and most even Christians are unaware of any way of thinking or living other than that of the secular culture that surrounds them because they're full of just looking what everybody tells them to do.

Set your minds on Christ. Paul says in Philippians, finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Can you say that about your smartphone stuff? TikTok account. Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable.

Anything that's praiseworthy. Who's that? That's Jesus, isn't it? Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones, who was a great preacher of the last century. He said this, looking back o over my experience of pastor for some 34 years.

I can testify without the slightest hesitation that the people I've found most frequently in trouble in their spiritual experience have been those who have lacked understanding. They haven't used their minds. About the Christian faith. We need to know who Christ is. We need to know what Christ has done We need to know that Christ is coming back.

We need to know what Christ has made us. We need doctrine, teaching truth, in our hearts. We need to push our minds. We're all on different levels, but we should all push our minds set our minds set our minds on the things of Christ. You can't worship what you don't know when they go to Athens in the book of acts in the acts chapter 17.

They're worshiping an unknown god. How can you worship an unknown god? You've got no idea what that unknown god wants you to do. You can't worship the unknown. If you're to worship, if you're to praise, you gotta know about God.

You gotta set your minds on on truths. Worship is a response to revelation. That's why we preach here. That's why we turn to the word of god. That's why in public we're always teaching the bible wherever we can because that should produce worship, not just knowledgeable bible students, That's a disaster.

All true worship should come through the mind and to the heart and we spontaneously praise. I have to say something. That's why I can't understand if you're not a preacher, it must be really hard. I get the opportunity several times a week to be able to say what I've learned. It's very exciting.

We don't just trundle out talks We don't go on chap GPT and say we've tried it. We've looked at it, actually. Do a talk on, Christmas. And it comes up. It just doesn't work.

It's gotta come from the heart. We study. We apply. We think. How is your mind?

Do you set your mind? Some of the things we've done that I that we never advertise we do them and we don't advertise them. And I want to encourage you is pilgrims progress. Pilgrims progress was written by a bloke called John Bunion He was an uneducated tinker, and, he was in prison for 18 years of his life, and it's unbelievable what he wrote. He's more important than Shakespeare.

And pilgrims progress is a dynamically wonderful book and you can get modern versions of it. And I think Emma sent out a 1 of her, and I'll get her to do it again, this week. A modern version, which is a because there's some terrible modern versions, but there's a good modern version. We've just completed podcasts on the characters and the scenes in, pilgrimage progress. I wanna encourage you.

Get your mind into that. I hope it's enjoyable. It's just Tom and me and and Rory and Ben, in the earlier days, just chatting together. We've done a to zed of Christianity if you're new to Christianity, get into the age as heads. We've done animals of the Bible and other things.

And the thing is about that is When you learn about an animal of the bible, like a camel or something, when you see a camel, you've got this bible stuff in you you then see the workings of the camel and then it helps you understand the Bible but the Bible helped you understand the camel and suddenly there's this mind blowing thing that you're learning more and more and you're praising God. That's how the mind works. If you're a dumb idiot and ignorant person that doesn't wanna listen to anything but your echo chamber, you'll never be praising. But when you're learning new stuff, anybody that's interested in anything, isn't it? I mean, I'm always amazed that there's there's someone somewhere studying the most minute thing.

I listened to a woman that studies worms. Yeah. Her whole life, she's given 40 years to the worm, but just listening to her excited me. Yeah, the worm. Do you know how many hearts a worm has?

Do you know you can do this to a worm? Do you know that the worm without the worm, the whole world would collapse? You know, there's just stop oil. That's rubbish. Don't kill the worm.

Is a much better thing. And so, and then you're you're taken up. You're because someone's in that's what happens. When we're taken up with the word of god, we learn stuff, we see stuff, we relearn, we add to our learning. It brings praise into our hearts.

But if we're ignorant and we're just sitting there and not learning, then we'll never have that praise. You see what I'm saying? Anybody of I got completely muddled it all up? With the worm. Yeah?

Last point then, then I'll finish. Look up. First 1 to 4 of chapter 3. Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of god. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ is your your life appears, then you will appear with him in glory. There's just a few points. I'll just whiz through these. Look up.

Look up. He's saying, look up. Christ is in control and coming again in glory. First 1, Christ is seated at the right hand of god. He's ruling.

He's on the throne. Christ is the ruler of this world. Yeah. He's allowing things to happen that are awful, but he's the ruler. It's not out of control.

He's ruling. We don't understand lots of stuff. Well, he's the king, and he's god. No wonder I don't understand it all, but he's ruling. He's seated at the right hand of god.

And then, so whatever's going on in your life, look up, look up to Christ. All those aches and pains, look up to Christ. See Christ's pain on the cross for you. See how he loved you. Look up.

You're loved, but then verse 4. When Christ who is your life appears. He's your life. Yeah. This life is crumbling.

This life is dying. He's your life. Look up. Look up to him. He's the living 1.

He's gone through death. Look up to him, but when when he appears, you will also appear with him in glory. There is a glory to come hidden now Yeah. But revealed then. So be patient.

It won't be long for glory. Glory glory is coming. So look up. Look up. He's in control, and look up he's coming again.

But then look up and away from earthly things because we're raised with Christ. Did you see that? See, people talk about, oh, you know, those people are so heavenly minded they're no earthly use. That's mysticism. That's not Christianity.

The more heavenly minded you are, the more earthly use you are. The more Christ is in your mind, the more useful you'll be. Christ is the savior of the world. That's how useful you'll be. If you're taken up with the heavens, If you're heavenly minded in the Christian way, you're not some weird floating sort of ghost like figure that has nothing to do with the world.

If you're taken up with price, you're the most earthly use. So look to Christ, and then look up and see Christ's hearts for the nations. That they may come to him and be saved. He's the savior, the rescuer. And that's what we should be about.

And when we see people saved and born into the kingdom of god and the church growing and loving Christ and their spontaneous praise going on. When we see each other praising god, our hearts should be filled. That's what we're about. But more and more people would come to know him. Let's bow our heads and pray.

Father, we thank you that we have been, raised with the lord Jesus Christ, and that we have been seated with him at the right hand of god, and that we can say that our old lives and our sinful natures died with him. And that this new life that we have is now hidden with Christ in God. And we thank you that 1 day that life the lord Jesus is gonna appear and that we will appear with him in glory. And you have you have done so much for us. And what an amazing story, that sinners like us can have such an intimate union with the son of god.

And we pray that you would help us to delight in these truths as we've been hearing that you would, enable us to, be happy and to rejoice and to set our hearts on you. Lord, we're sorry for when, we do lose the joy of our salvation and we Think of that prayer in the Psalms. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. We'd pray that you would do that for us today. And we pray that you'd help us to set our minds on you as well that we wouldn't, just let our minds decay as we, watch and scroll through hours and hours of mindless things, which just rot our brains.

We'd pray that you'd help us to, think about you and dwell on you and learn about you, Lord, that we might praise you more. And so help each 1 of us we pray to look up to Jesus in in the days and weeks ahead, and we ask it in his name. Oh, man.