Colossians 3:12-17 - How To Love Other Christians
Main Idea: You are called to supernatural treatment of God’s people.
TREAT THOSE WHO WRONG YOU LIKE JESUS TREATS YOU
Has Jesus said or done the things to you that you’re doing to other people at Tabernacle?
CHOOSE TO BECOME ATTACHED TO JESUS’ LOVED ONES
Your love for other Christians isn’t determined by your friendships, but by your words, attitudes, & actions towards difficult people.
LET JESUS’ PEACE TELL YOU WHEN YOU’RE UNLOVING
When was the last time you apologized to someone at Tabernacle?
LET JESUS’ WORD FLOW INTO UNIFIED WORSHIP
Intentionally & regularly share God’s Word with other believers.
Let the God who will take you to Heaven take you to His church.
FILTER YOUR BEHAVIOR THROUGH JESUS’ AUTHORITY
Can you thank God for your words about that other person at Tabernacle? Did Jesus tell you to treat them the way you are?
Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)
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We are continuing our very short series. This series only has three messages in it, but the series is, want to know what love is. And we're looking at a series on biblical love. So two weeks ago, we looked at from 1 Corinthians 13, how Jesus loves you. And we saw some of the implications then on how we are called to love others. Then we are going to look at today, how to love other Christians.
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based on Colossians chapter three and verses 12 through 17. And you might have it there on your handout at the bottom of the handout. Next week, we're gonna be looking at 2 Corinthians 5 on how to love the lost. So how Jesus loves you, how we are to love other Christians, and then how we are to love the lost.
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Former Southern Baptist Convention President Herschel Hobbs recounts this story in one of his books. He says, John Fawcett was pastor of a small Baptist church in an English village. He was called by a much larger church in London. As the movers were loading the household goods on their wagons, the pastor's family and church members wept as they watched. Finally, he told the movers to put the furniture back in the house. He said, we aren't going.
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And out of this experience of the love of his congregation as they wept as he was gonna be going to London to some much bigger church, he wrote this song as a result of that experience. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. Before our Father's throne, we pour our ardent prayers. Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one.
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our comforts and our cares. We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear, and often for each other flows the sympathizing tear. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain, but we shall still be joined in heart and hope to meet again. How many of you guys grew up singing that song? Let's be the tie that binds. Okay, number of you. I think it had kind of fallen out of regular use by the time I was a kid or maybe.
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in the circles that I was in, maybe they didn't want to tie binds or buying ties or something like that. ah Most church interactions don't sound exactly like that song details of mutual care and tears flowing for each other and praying for one another. Unfortunately, many churches and church interactions, they don't go like that. As even as we're here this morning, I wonder as you look around the room, if there are many
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unfamiliar faces that maybe you have been attending the same church for five, 10, 15, 20 years, and yet you might not even know some of the other people that are within this room. But what we're going to be called to today from Colossians 3 is we are called to supernatural treatment of God's people. Supernatural treatment of God's people. That is, we are called to treat especially the people
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within this room, in this congregation, those that have gathered together as the assembly at Tabernacle Baptist Church, we are called to treat and to love one another as Christ has loved us. Now, I recognize because I've been in church for more than a minute, I have been in pastoral roles over the last probably 12 to 15 years over the last...
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eight or nine in full-time ministry, I recognize that even as I say that about the love that we're called to have for other Christians, the first thing that comes into your mind is not, does God want me to love another Christian? For many of us, the first thought is, I remember when so-and-so didn't love me the way that God loves me. I remember when they treated me in a way that Jesus would never. I wanna challenge you with something. When Jesus came to earth,
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Did we treat him well? Did we crown him the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Did we enthrone him? No.
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For you, has there ever been a time in your life where you have not perfectly followed Jesus Christ and instead you have acted and spoke and thought in rebellion to him? Yeah, all of us have. So I wanna challenge us this morning. We can have one of two mindsets going into Colossians three. Either this is what everyone else is supposed to do for me or we can have the mindset of Christ that says, if no one treats me in this way,
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I'm gonna show other people how Jesus treats them, how Jesus forgives, how Jesus loves. So I wanna encourage you, Satan's gonna be fighting against you even as you hear this message. I know that, I know that emphatically, Satan hates the word of God. Satan hates when we look to Jesus. Satan hates when Christ is lifted up and when our own wants and desires and wishes are being subdued. So I wanna ask you this morning, even as we open in a word of prayer before we read through the passage.
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Ask the Lord to speak to your heart and ask the Lord to silence Satan and any distractions that he wants to bring into your mind even during this time. Let's pray together. Lord, you are holy and good and loving and just. And God, as we are now about to encounter your word, we recognize the fact that we are anything but perfect. Lord, the way that we have interacted with one another is not loving. But Lord,
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even knowing our faults and our failures and our flaws, you have still chosen to have something to do with us. Your Holy Spirit has not abandoned us. You have still given us eternal life even through our failures. But Lord, today, as we look at how you have loved us, may that motivate us to love others in the same way. God, we are asking for a supernatural move this morning. God, this kind of love does not come
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from human intellect or human will because it doesn't make any sense humanly speaking. The only way it makes sense is if what you came and did for us on the cross and in your resurrection, if that was real and if heaven is our home. Lord, that's the only reason that we have to act in this way, to act as you have acted. God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts. I ask that Satan would be bound even in this place. Lord, may he have no leeway.
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there be no distractions from your truth this morning. We love you God and we pray all of this in your name, amen. As you're turning over to Colossians chapter three, I wanna give just a brief background on the book. The letter to the Colossians was written by the apostle Paul. He had never actually been to the city of Colossae, at least not as far as we have record of in scripture, but he had reached a couple of people uh from the gospel in Ephesus.
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who had then traveled to Colossi and had planted a church there. If you will, this was Paul's grand church. It wasn't the church he planted. It was the ones that came the generation after that. But Paul had heard about their church. He had heard about some of the good things that were going on. And he had heard about some false teachers who had come in and some of them were espousing kind of a return to Judaism. That is an understanding of...
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our relationship with God as being based on our works and our efforts and our actions, as opposed to our relationship with God being based on the finished work of Jesus Christ. And so he writes there against what's called legalism. That is, I am endeared to God by my works, not by the works of Jesus. So he wrote to combat some of that. He also wrote to combat uh some of the Gnostic heresy that was taking place. That is,
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you had people that said, I know something special about the spiritual world and you can't find out about it from the word of God. No, you have to go through me. I have the secret knowledge that I can give you. And if you listen to my behind the scenes peaks into the spiritual world, you can be a truly holy or righteous person. You can know more than anyone else. And so Paul writes Colossians to combat those two heresies and to encourage the church in a lot of ways.
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And in Colossians 3, he talks through the fact that our home is heaven and because our home is heaven, we are to put to death the things that used to typify our life. In verses 5 through 11, he talks about what some of these were. says, to death what belongs to your earthly nature, what before Christ you used to live for. He says, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
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Because of these, God's wrath is coming upon the disobedient. And you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now put away all of the following anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your creator. In Christ, there is not Greek and Jews, circumcision and uncircumcision.
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barbarian, sithian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all. In those verses, what he's saying is, don't live like you used to live. You've been made new through Christ, and now there's no difference. We don't come into Tabernacle Baptist Church and say, okay, all of our rich people are going to sit in the front right, and all of our well-connected people sitting in the front left. And then uh as your, you know, tax bracket uh decreases, then we'll have everyone filed in there.
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We don't say, okay, if you're African-American, you sit in this section. And if you are a uh Ravens fan or a Steelers fan, you have to sit in this section. We don't separate anymore. If you look around the room, you'll see young and old, you'll see men and women, you see people of different ethnicities. All around the room is a recognition of the fact that when Jesus came to save, he didn't come to save one age group, he didn't come to save one ethnicity or group of.
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He didn't come to just save perhaps one gender. Everyone is level at the foot of the cross. As a result of this, he says, okay, you guys are one in Christ. And yet, if you've been in church for any length of time, you know that it is difficult to get Christians to be one. Things come in between us all the time, and that is...
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that was as true, if not more true, in the first century AD there in Colossae, nearby Ephesus and Asia Minor, it was as true then as it is today. Now, today, some of our things might be more petty than theirs were back then. uh They actually dealt with a lot of racial tensions back then, even in ways that would uh shock us today. But as Paul is encouraging this church to be one,
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He says, you need to know how to treat one another. The same is true for us today. We are called to supernatural treatment of God's people. So let's read through verses 12 through 17. We're look at the passage and then you'll notice on your handout today, there's not a lot of sub points. It's just kind of as the verses go through, we'll be touching each of these. Verse number 12, therefore, as God's chosen ones.
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holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts.
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and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do in word or indeed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
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First today in verses 12 and 13, I want us to look at the admonition to treat those who wrong you like Jesus treats you. Treat those who wrong you like Jesus treats you. You can see beginning there in verse number 12, he says, therefore, as God's chosen ones. Know this, if you are saved today, it's not because you were smarter than anyone else. It's not because you were holier than anyone else. You are saved because our heavenly father,
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loves you. This is the Greek word, electos. ah You have been elected for a purpose. Now, I realize it's 2025. When I say the word elected or politician, some of you guys are seething right now and I'll actually use that for a good purpose right here. Now, do you guys like it when a politician is elected for a purpose, they've made promises and then they never follow through on those promises? No, none of us like that.
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That's a waste of oh that election. Here, the encouragement from Paul is, God has elected you for a purpose. There are some good works that he has called for you to do. Don't be a useless politician. You are in office during the course of your life and you have been given the task list. If you will, these are the promises that uh your campaign is about.
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God wants you to follow through on these things. He says, as God's chosen ones who are holy and dearly loved, you're set apart. You're no longer who you were. Once you have accepted Christ, you're someone new. You're someone different. So don't just behave like the world behaves. Don't just say, well, I have the right to really lash out. I have the right to do this or that. No, my friend, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation. The old things have passed away and the new has come.
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So as a result, you are now set apart. You've been chosen by God for a purpose. And he says, you are dearly loved. And so if you are dearly loved, the implication is, so are the rest of those around you. God's election and his setting apart and his love is not just for Shelly. It's not just for Zoe. It's for every single one of you. And so as you look around this room, we recognize
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God's Holy Spirit has worked and has saved people from all generations and across genders and from varying ethnicities. And so I am called to recognize what God has done. So if God calls you elect and if God calls you holy and if God calls you dearly loved, then by what token can I say I'm not gonna love?
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But what token can I say I don't want anything to do with them if even God himself has chosen to have something to do with that person across the aisle or in the seat next to you. If God loves them, then we have no choice but to follow the orders. We've been elected for this purpose. And he tells us to put on, and here he has several things. He says, put on compassion. This is pity for others state that sometimes
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Even here at Tabernacle, Lord forbid, there will be someone and they might forget to text you. They might say something to you that you go, I can't believe they did that. They might do something that you go, hey, that wasn't very kind. The very first thing that God wants us to have in our interactions with others, those who fail us, is pity. That we say, that person right now, they're not living up
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to what God wants them to be. And so instead of taking personal offense at it, I'm going to have compassion. I'm going to have pity to say that person's going through a lot right now in their life. Perhaps, you know, even as a pastor, there have been times where I've interacted with people and I wasn't totally sure why maybe they used a word that they did or why they took a tone that they did. And then even just as I'm interacting with people on Facebook, I see, oh,
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Well, they just went through a horrible loss or maybe the reminder of a loss. There's some difficulty in their life. And what God has used those moments in my life to remember is people are hurting all around you and hurt people, hurt people. If there's someone that is hurting you or harming you, it's very human, it's very normal.
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to buck up against that, to not want to be harmed anymore. But can I encourage you, ask the Holy Spirit, God, would you give me compassion, pity for this person? Would you help me to see what they're walking through? What ah in their soul would so uh torment or twist them that they would feel like this is a good course of action? God, would you give me pity for those that are not walking with you? Then he says, kindness. That is, we would do good
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to others. It can be easy. was talking with the teen class this morning. Kindness demands that we actually interact with each other. Now, I know you guys, some of you guys are introverts and you would rather just not interact with anyone else. But what God has commanded us to do in good works demands that we be in interaction with each other and especially within the local church.
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Can I ask you, when was the last time that you did something good or kind for someone else at Tabernacle? Now, I know some of you, you've had friends that you've had for decades that are here at the church. I'm not talking about that. I'm saying for someone that maybe you're not best friends with them, but you did something kind for them. ah I remember several times even this past year uh that both Bill and Shirley had like toy items from their house that they were like, hey,
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uh You've got toddlers. Would you guys want these things? And uh Miss Shirley, my daughter absolutely loves that little like rocking horse thing that you gave us. And that was just uh a kind thing, you know? uh Miss Shirley doesn't get extra, you know, prayers or points with God or something. There was no big benefit of her doing that. I'm sure she could have sold it on Facebook Marketplace for something. But that act of kindness that she did...
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That was a good thing to do. Can I ask you, when was the last time you did that for someone else, even at Tabernacle?
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Paul also tells the church to have humility. Humility is not swinging your perceived greatness or weight around to make others bow to your will. Humility says, God views you as important and I'm going to view you as important. I'm not going to insist on my own way. Instead, I'm going to allow you to have your way. That's a hard thing. Now,
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Some of us are pushovers, some of us are people pleasers, and we're more than happy to let someone just run roughshod over us. The problem is even the people pleasers, it's not really humility that we're operating in sometimes because then we resent people who run over us and the resentment that we have in our heart towards them, it's born out of pride. And here what God tells us is as you interact with other people,
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within this body, across these rows, and that seat next to you, God is calling for you and I to have humility, that we genuinely, from the heart, say, not my will, but your will. This is even what Jesus showed us in his life. You can think back to when he was 12 years old and his family had gone to one of the feasts in Jerusalem, and the family left and Jesus stayed behind. He was teaching in the temple.
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And his mother and stepfather, they got really scared and they came back and they said, what in the world are you doing? And he says, don't you know that I needed to be about my father's business? And it says, and they begged him to come back with them. It says, and he listened to them.
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He's God incarnate and he says he is doing the Father's business.
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But when his earthly, imperfect, not God parents, when they asked him to come with, he had humility and even listened to them.
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I think in my life, how many times I have been too proud to say, um I'm good to allow them to do what they need to. And maybe even more than just I'm gonna allow them to do what they need to, how can I help you with this? That's a better way. That's a way that doesn't come natural to me, it doesn't come natural to us, but it's what God calls us to.
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And then he says, their gentleness that is not self impressed, but others caring. Gentleness says, I don't care about who I am. I'm caring about what I can do for you. Gentleness says, I might have my schedule. have my agenda. I have my preferences, but I'm here to care for Barb. I'm not here for myself. And then the last thing you mentioned there is patience. That is an endurance.
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of pain or unhappiness. There, that list is far beyond my capabilities. I am certain that it is far beyond your capabilities there. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. That sounds like a great person that could do all of those things. It is a great person that did all of those things, Jesus Christ, and it is only through his spirit working and operating in us
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that we can even begin to approach following through on some of these things. So our call here is not just like, Bob, I need you to adjust behavior. The call is all of us have to come to the throne of Jesus, bow at his feet and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, would you work in and through me? It even gets a little worse in verse 13, and I promise you I'm hurrying on. says,
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bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. To bear with someone is to endure something unpleasant. But he doesn't say, endure something unpleasant with another person. Many of you, if you've been in church a while, you've endured some unpleasant things in church. But he doesn't just say to bear with it and endure it and not lash out. He says, forgive one another. That is to give.
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goodwill towards another person. That when I look at uh Miss Pat, I'm not looking with anger and going, I remember when she said this or did this, I go, I'm glad for Miss Pat. I love that she's here. I love seeing her. I love getting to see her smile. That's what we are called to do is have goodwill towards another person. Satan would love it if he could put an ill thought, not goodwill, but ill will in
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every person at Tabernacle in every one of our minds as you think about someone else. He would love for Miss Judy, he would love for there to be a little burr in your saddle for every one of the, you know, 60, 70, I don't know how many people are here today. For every one of them, he would love for you to have a burr in your saddle that you go, ooh, you say Shelby's name. I remember she went to that concert and she didn't invite me.
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Miss Helen, she got those flowers for the side of the building and she didn't get me any flowers. And Miss Lori, she took all that music singing talent and didn't share any. I don't know how you share music talent. oh But you would love for each one of you to have something against everyone else in the body. Or.
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for just enough burrs that you have just enough against people in the body that then you have no desire to meet anyone else or to get close to anyone else as a result of the bitterness that you have. This is how Satan works. uh It's not disguised. We know about it. And yet how little we fight against it. So we're called to bear with one another, to endure something unpleasant and to forgive, to give goodwill to one another.
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if anyone has a grievance, a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, you are also to forgive. Can I ask you today, do you have a complaint or grievance against someone at Tabernacle? First, do they know about it? Secondly, how many others that aren't them know about it? Christ calls you to either let it go entirely or to reconcile with the other person. We get real bad at that, guys.
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We're not Jesus. We haven't attained perfection yet, but that is what Jesus calls us to. Can I encourage you? Bear with each other and forgive each other. Why? Because they deserve it? No, just as the Lord has forgiven you. Because Jesus on the cross says it is finished. He didn't say it's 98 % done or it's 75 % done. The work of redemption was finished at the cross. And so he could say, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. So we are called to forgive others.
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They don't understand how they impact us. So we're called to forgive, to love, to have compassion and pity and kindness and gentleness and all of it towards others.
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Secondly, we'll hasten on for today, choose to become attached to Jesus's loved ones. Verse 14 tells us, above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. This word bond is the word tendon. My dad, when I was in high school, they had a church tug of war thing that they were doing at like a fall festival. And he tore the tendon in his arm and in his leg. Both at once, he was, you know,
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in bed and all sorts of stuff for a couple months, if I remember correctly. ah It was horrible to not have that tendon that was there. And Jesus says, love is the tendon. It's the bond of our unity in Christ. I believe it's there on your handout. Your love for other Christians isn't determined by your friendships.
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but by your words, attitudes, and actions towards difficult people. God's not looking at you and saying, hey, uh Mishar, do you get along with Helen and Clara and Shirley and Martha? Great, wonderful, you love God's people. He's asking, okay, you have someone at this church that you don't really care for, that you don't get along with. They said something to you seven years ago and you still kind of got to burn your saddle about it.
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How much do you love and care for and have a connection and an attachment to that person? God says it's the tendon of unity. Does unresolved conflict between you and another person at Tabernacle pain you to the point of reconciliation? If there's a torn tendon, you have the ability to put that tendon back together. But do you even care if you're at odds with someone else in our church?
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And does that care move you towards action?
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We're gonna move on to the next one there. Let Jesus's peace tell you when you are unloving. We can see this in verse number 15. He says, the peace of Christ to which you were also called in one body rule your hearts and be thankful. Here, the peace of Christ is to rule your hearts. That is, there is a unity and a love, a lack of
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fighting and arguing and division that we are called to here. This you is not the singular you, it's in the good southern phrase, y'all. The peace of Christ to which y'all were also called in one body, rule all y'all's hearts and be thankful. I think I have that grammatically correct for south of the Mason-Dixon line. Okay, I screwed that up once before on my...
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wife was like, you idiot. I'm like, I'm from Colorado. You know, we never heard. Anyway, we're called to peace in one body. This one body is the body of Christ. So because we are to be one with Christ, it means that that peace is to rule in our hearts. This word only shows up once in the New Testament. It's a word that most of the time in Greek literature, it meant to officiate. It was like the arbiter. It was the rule decider for the Greek games.
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that as you have, ah you know, the Olympics run around every couple of years, you are supposed to let the peace of Christ call you out of bounds. That when there's fighting, when there's division, when there's arguing, when there's the complaints, God says, hey, uh if I had a whistle here, no, out of bounds, you know, redo. uh I saw stat this past week, my beloved Denver Broncos.
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who are doing better this year than last year. uh They've been the most penalized team in the NFL this year that over and over over again, they get called, nope, out of bounds, pass interference, whatever. Can I ask you, when was the last time that you allowed the peace of Christ to call you out of bounds in your words or your behavior towards another person in Tavern?
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We get in a fight and our automatic reflex is, they're wrong, I'm right. If there's going to be any reconciliation, they need to make it right. But we're told the peace of Christ is the one calling the shots. And our attitude when we are called out on we're not doing what we're supposed to is be thankful. Be thankful that God loves you enough that his Holy Spirit within you and within this body of believers
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will let you know if you are not walking with him. How horrible would it be if we went through our entire lives and we never knew if we were making God happy, if we never knew if we were following what God had for us? Scripture tells us we can know, and we can know because of the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts. You are not the empire of your interactions with other Christians here.
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If it's causing division, bitterness, separation, or arguments within the church, you're being unloving. Your actions or your words aren't justified by your reasoning or emotions. Our actions and words are only justified by their Christ-likeness. We all fail in this, but this is why the word tells us it. If it came natural to us, God wouldn't have to tell us to follow this path. Then second to last today,
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We are to let Jesus' word flow into unified worship. Verse number 16, let the word of Christ dwell richly among you in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another through Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with gratitude in your hearts to God.
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This is probably not the way that most of you would think, okay, how do I walk with God? Like, how do I let God's Word live in me? You might think, okay, I'm going to open up my Bible and that's how I'm going to let the Word of Christ dwell in me, or I'm going to, you know, throw on an audio Bible or something. And that's how I'll let God's Word dwell richly in me. During this period of time, they didn't have the whole New Testament yet. They would have had the Old Testament scriptures for those that were literate and could read.
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The much more common practice, especially before the New Testament was completed, was that Christians would make songs and, you know, songs, they rhyme, they have melody, they have rhythm, and so you could get to learn specific Bible truths. You would get to learn the truth about Jesus through singing songs. There's still even an aspect of this even today. So as we sing through King of Kings, we're singing through things that are reflective of
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what scripture says about the life and death and burial and resurrection of Jesus. When we sing Christ is all my righteousness, we're singing truths that we find in 2 Corinthians 5. We learn God's word through the songs that we sing. Can I encourage you guys, when we sing at church, it's not because we're biding time till the latest, you know, arrival can get there and then we can get to the preaching, which is the, really important part. When we sing, we are praising the everlasting God.
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We are praising the one who died for us. We are telling each other, we are, if you will hear, we're letting the word of Christ dwell richly among all y'all. And in wisdom, we teach and admonish uh one another through Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. That the singing that we do at church is not, hey, we've got, you know, just some great band that y'all really need to hear. And you know, this is just like Christian radio. No, no,
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There is a communal aspect to singing within the local church in which if we didn't have anyone up here, if we didn't have any guitar or drummer or vocalist, that we would still sing to one another. We sing to God certainly, but we are instructing each other. And uh at my church in Washington, there was one lady, her husband had passed by the time I'd gotten there.
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But it made such an impact in the life of that church that there was uh a man, an elderly man who was walking through his battle with cancer. And he was one that worshiped as much as he could. And one Sunday they were singing 10,000 Reasons, blessed the Lord. And it came to that third verse, on that day when my strength is fading, the end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing your praise unending 10,000 years and then forevermore.
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And that cancer-ridden old man, he stood up and he raised his hand in praise and in praying at that last verse. And it was so moving within that church that the greatest vocal tricks and runs or the greatest drum solo could never have done for that congregation what that old man praising the Lord did.
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When we sing at church, it's not time for us to necessarily be talking to one another. There's time before, there's time after, there's greeting time. There's all of that that we have for one another. But can I encourage you, the singing of the local church is a sacrifice of praise to our God, and just something important and vital and vibrant, because we're not just singing to our God. We are encouraging one another through our singing and through our worship. You might say,
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If I sing real loud, it is not going to be an encouragement to anyone. Listen, you can raise a hand, you can mouth the words, but the way that we encourage one another, even from this verse, how do uh you teach and admonish all the rest of the believers? Some of you guys are teachers or small group leaders and you do it through as you teach the word, but all of us are called to teach and admonish one another through Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Psalms are the, we have the book of Psalms.
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That is what God inspired and wrote down. 10,000 Reasons, Blessed the Lord is actually several lines of it taken from Psalm 103. So we do some of that even as a church, we learned Psalm 63, six, seven. It was one of the ones, My Soul Will Wait For You that we learned earlier this year. We sing that one. Hymns, when it says hymns here, it's not talking like My Jesus, I love thee or how great thou art. Hymns are songs that are sung to God.
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ah and then spiritual songs. These are songs that the Spirit would lead for people to write. If you will, this is the Psalms, what God has written down, what is, if you will, perfect and eternal. You have hymns, songs sung to God and spiritual songs, new songs that God would have his people write. It's why we don't just sing songs that were written in the 17 and 1800s. It's why we don't just sing songs that were written in the 2020s. But we have a variety here at Tabernacle and that is
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intention.
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Most Christians only had songs or creeds to learn their faith during this time period when Colossians 3 was written. God's truth lives in godly music. I want to encourage you, if you're listening to especially Christian music, make sure that it lines up with the word of God, that it says what the Bible says. And the point of the music is to teach each other. It's not to entertain. It's not to like gain more of the spirit. As we sing, we are learning altogether and affirming our faith in Christ.
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Can I encourage you, as we're loving each other, let Jesus's word flow into unified worship. That if the Bible is living in you, it is going to cause us to gather together. We think about Hebrews chapter 10, verses 24 and 25, where we're encouraged to not abandon our gathering together as some are in the habit of doing, but get together all the more as you see the day of Jesus approaching. And so as we do that, we worship together.
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intentionally and regularly share God's Word with other believers. If this was true for when we were singing, it can work with texting someone on Monday morning or on Thursday night with a verse that encouraged you. I also had this statement written down. Let the God who will take you to heaven take you to his church. I'm preaching a little bit to the choir right now because all of you are here at church, but I encourage you keep on assembling together as God's people, not just—
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for, know, okay, well, I guess I need to hear from the Bible. Absolutely, we all need to hear from the Bible, but you're here to encourage and to love and to care for each other. And then very lastly today, filter your behavior through Jesus's authority. It says, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Here, what we're instructed to do is to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. That is,
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every action that we take, every word that we speak, we need to be able to say, Jesus wants me to do this. And way too many times in our interactions with one another, we can't actually say that. Jesus didn't tell us to do the gossiping. Jesus didn't tell us to insult that person. Jesus didn't tell us to go there or do that. And he says, whatever you do, do it all with Jesus's authority in Jesus's
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This is what's reflected in the third commandment. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God. Don't take it in vain. Don't say, God said this or God wants this to happen when God hasn't called for that to happen. Can you, if you will, can you have Jesus sign off on what you are saying or what you are doing?
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And then I love there at the very end, getting thanks to God the Father through him. Can you thank God for your words or your actions or your behavior towards another person? Now, why does all of this matter? It matters because as Pastor Ron read at the very beginning of service, we are called to love one another because God has loved us. He died in our place on the cross, taking all the punishment that our sins deserved. And as a result of that,
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we can be freely and fully forgiven forever by placing our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ. And as he has forgiven our sins, as he has placed his Holy Spirit inside of our lives because he has given us our church family and he has placed you here at Tabernacle, at least for now, he wants you to extend the same love and care and forgiveness towards others. Would you pray with me even as we enter into a time of invitation?
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Would you ask the Lord if there's an area where God has spoken to you even this morning? I know this was a ah very practical side of message. Maybe if there's a person that God has put on your heart that God says, listen, you know got something against that other person, go and make it right. I encourage you. That would be a right and a good and a God pleasing thing to do even this morning. Maybe if you're like, okay, well.
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It might be awkward if I go over and talk to them during the uh invitation time. Shoot them a text, invite them to lunch. You don't have to have something against them to invite them to lunch. You can just invite them to lunch because you love them. But I wanna encourage you, however God's spoken to you today, please respond. Let's stand together.
