Colossians Lesson 17 &18 start
Colossians · Mike Doyle · Nov 16, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 45
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492644716903

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK. First thing I have to talk about is who was here. Who was here last week. So Gail and I had a little discussion last week and I think I probably wasn't very clear. My explanation. That's a nice way of saying I was wrong. She talked about definite differences in men and women in terms of the way they handle and react to things. And my reaction to that was, well, I can't find that anywhere in scripture. But you know what? You can find it in scripture. But here's what I didn't explain. If you look at the scripture from the standpoint of who you are an atom on the earth, then there's definite differences.

A man and a woman, God has them playing different roles and they're constituted different. A man is goal-oriented most of the time, a woman is task-oriented. A man is objective, a woman usually is subjective, that kind of thing. And rightfully so because together in a marriage you need both and in a relationship.

What I didn't explain was the fact that as we are all positioned in Christ, there is no difference in Him, and that we are the same. We have the same standing, we have the same life, and the Word clearly says that in Christ there is no distinction between male and female. So I wanted to make it clear that yeah, there are distinctions, from an earthly standpoint. There are no distinctions in Christ positioned in him.

Which makes it kind of interesting because as we strive, maybe is the word to use, to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus and this conforming process is going on, It really doesn't make you more male or more female. It makes you more like Christ. And so you're getting away from... those distinctions and arriving more and more at who the Lord Jesus is in the new creation. And so you don't want to spend a lot of time enhancing your maleness. You do want to spend as much time as you possibly can beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus in the Word. And we're both filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Okay. Is that okay? Yeah, I was thinking about that this week and thought, I better say something about that. Alright, question 10. Everybody ready? Question 10.

Is letting the Word of God dwell in your heart or dwell in us richly? Is it a matter of how we walk or is it a matter of enjoyment and worship? The word let is a Greek word which means dwell. Okay? I would think it would affect your whole life. The word dwell means to inhabit and is modified by the word richly, which means abundantly.

So, you know, you guys are Americans and most of you are type A, so you're doers, right? So we read stuff like this and we think there's something for us to do, when in fact I think that this is really a matter of enjoying the Lord Jesus and worshipping Him. Sounds lazy, doesn't it? When we are first approached by an understanding of grace, and we begin to grow in grace, it initially slaps your mind as apathy. And as you start to grow in grace and you start to talk about grace to other believers, they're going to think you're apathetic. They're going to think you're just a sit-around, do-nothing guy. When in fact, Everything in the Christian life happens from the position of rest.

And who does it all? Did you read The Hungry Heart this morning? It talked exactly about that. Who lives the Christian life? You? The Spirit. The Spirit through you. You're the conduit. And oh, by the way, it doesn't need your help. What was that saying? You need to keep your faith on and your hands off. Yes sir? It seems to me it's similar to teaching 518. Don't get drunk with wine. Avoid those things that we shouldn't be involved in. But be filled with the Spirit. Okay, you just swerved into one of my favorite questions.

If you're filled with the Spirit or you're walking in the Spirit, what's going on behind your eyeballs? What are you doing? You're beholding Him. Are you the one that's causing that? No, it's the Spirit that's doing it. Now, right away, I know what your mind is saying, apathy, apathy, apathy, apathy. Right?

I'm just not doing anything, I'm not being as spiritual as I should be, because I'm not trying too hard enough. But if you're like me, the minute I decide that I'm going to focus in on the Lord Jesus, my mind goes to something else. But if the Spirit of God through His Word is functioning in me, then my mind is there and it stays there.

That's kind of a cool thing, you know. Yes, ma'am? Well, I always think about that as also something that's a responsibility of ours, because if we do... letting the Word of God dwell in us richly, I thought, really, knowing it because it goes on to say what you do in order to do well in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God. So if you're going to. A lot of doing his will is knowing what his will is. Knowing what the Bible says. So yeah, there's a real benefit of spending time in the Word. Let's talk a minute about when this verse says, let the Word of God dwell in you richly.

Is it the catalog of the words? Is it the words? properly laid out? Well, let's ask them, is it words? Is it words? No, it's the body, the word of Christ. It's knowing Jesus Christ. That's right. Who is the word? It's the Lord Jesus himself. Sure. And what are the words designed to do? Your and my study of the word of God goes from objective fact to love and affection with a person. Those words are designed to reveal the word to you personally. And that's the one who dwells in you richly. And he can't be separated from the information of the words. It's who he is.

You see that? Well, probably, but... Yeah. No, I understand. So, responsibility. Let's talk about the word responsibility. I've always liked that word because, one, it's kind of scary. But two, if you look at the word, it means the ability to respond. So what gives you the ability to respond to spiritual stuff? The Holy Spirit. Yeah. So it isn't me deciding that, oh, this is my responsibility, hup, two, three, four. My ability to respond to the Word of God is something the Spirit generates in me.

And it's because, I'll put it this way, it's based on my loving Christ. Why do I love Him? Because He first loved me. That's right, because He first loved me. And I know he did. And I respond to that love. There's my responsibility. You know the grace circle that I put out before that I stole from Chester McCauley? I love him because he first loved me. I obey him because I love him because he first loved me. He rewards me for obeying him because I love him, because he first loved me. It's got to go all the way around the circle to he first loved me.

That's where it's got to go. If you get stuck in any one of those steps along the way, then you're into self. You see that? Everything happens because he initiated it. He loved me first. And because he did love me first and I know it, I respond. See that?

So, everybody agree that the word, letting the word of God dwell in you richly is more a matter of enjoyment and worship than it is of doing a lot of Christian stuff? I can't get you to disagree. Okay, question 11. Somebody read the next verse. I don't know what verse it is. Keep going.

These the Psalms of David he's talking about? Probably because that's all they had was the You know what a psalm is? You know what the difference between a psalm, a hymn, and a spiritual song is? Are they different or are they all the same? They're different. Why do you think he mentions them in three different things? A psalm is a solemn and stately composition. Good definition, right? A hymn is a direct address to God and consists of praising Him. and a spiritual song allows more of the Christian experience and expression of feelings. So they're different.

If I, as a believer, understanding who I am, as a member of the body of Christ, and my identification with the Lord Jesus Christ and his death, prayer, and resurrection, is there any of the songs that I could intelligently sing to God? What do you think? What do you think? Because, oh, you're not experts in the Psalms? Well, that was their hymns. That was their songs that they sang, the Jews. You think that's what Paul meant? By the way, this letter is written to Gentiles. So what do you think he means? Probably a hundred worship songs would have been Psalms.

And then did you ever study the content? No. It's like, I mean, how many of you at some time in your life have seen a publication that has the New Testament and the Psalms together in it, and those are supposed to go together? And Proverbs. And Proverbs, fine. Are the Psalms? Well, let's put it this way. Are the Psalms Christian doctrine? No, they're not. No, they're not. And it isn't that God had David and the other Psalm writers put these things together because he anticipated that the church would be around someday and he'd have this stuff all in place when the church happened.

You have to pay attention to what you read. You have to pay attention to what you sing. I am an amusical guy. I have no talent other than turning the dial. But it drives me crazy when I'm in a church someplace and they're singing one of two kinds of hymns. Either they're asking God to do something He's already done, or they're asking Him to do something He doesn't intend to do. And it's all because they didn't pay attention to the words.

So I think here when Paul's talking about to sing to one another, he's talking about spiritual understanding of who you are in Christ and a member of the body of Christ. Are there hymns like that? Absolutely there are. Are there spiritual songs like that? Yes, there are.

But you can't, I mean, go through all the Psalms if you want to. exercise or just look at them and see how many of them, if any, actually speak to your position in Christ Jesus and a member of the body of Christ. I don't think you'll find them. Not that there's anything wrong with the Psalms, they're in the Word of God. But it's important that you rightly divide the Word of Truth That you read and understand who you are in Christ, which is primarily the epistles in Paul. You know? And in Psalms it says, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And I think they've just seen that over and over and over, but that's really the truth, I think. But from a believer's standpoint, there's a lot more understanding than just that. Yeah, sure.

And yeah, you can read Proverbs and you go, oh yeah, that's really cool. But then if you begin to compare, with what Paul teaches in terms of my position and who I am in Christ, then the relevancy isn't really there. Not that you can't draw a spiritual understanding, and not that I'm saying that you shouldn't read the Psalms. Yes, you should. And Proverbs, you should read the whole Word of God.

But the point here is the fact that Psalms and spiritual songs and hymns are not Old Testament. That's not what he's talking about. I've had two controversial questions and nobody's challenging me. That's the spiritual understanding of who you are in Christ.

Then it's the songs that reflect that, right? I think so. I think so. I mean, you look at some of those, I call them classical hymns. They are so profound. that they just knock you over, I think, you know, because they, they, they, the people that write Psalms, the poets that write spiritual songs have a way with words and they can say profound things in just a few words. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one of those. Who's the blind lady? Fanny Crosby was like that. There are just some of them where they really get it and they do it in so few words.

I was thinking that it seems like when I read that verse, the word that is so easily overlooked is the word wisdom. And the emphasis tends to go more with these other things which we do. Whereas wisdom is not a thing we do, it's the character of Christ. And that spiritual understanding, I think, we don't have wisdom unless we have that growth, spiritual maturity. And even as a young believer, we have some wisdom, but we don't have enough. That's true. That's true. Yeah, wisdom is, I think, clinically defined as applied knowledge. Correctly. Correctly. Applied correctly. So you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. The knowledge of Him and the grace too.

And so grace is applied in a totally different way, with a totally different concept than anything in the Old Testament. Not that there wasn't grace there, but it wasn't the operating environment. It's difficult for believers to understand that we live in the atmosphere of grace. We're not pulling into a gas station and filling up with different kinds of grace every day that we need it. The air we breathe is grace. Everything about us is grace. We live in grace.

That verse says, grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. It doesn't mean grow into that. It means you're already in it, so grow in it. See that? And understanding grace, Lewis Barry Chafer said, grace was the most hated thing in the world. You know why? You know why it is? That's right. There's nothing for the self to do. And when you think about it, when God comes to your sin nature and says, I've got nothing for you to do. Your sin nature goes, you mean I can't express myself? No, you can't. There's nothing for you to do.

I think there's one area where maybe we could have a psalm that was by the early church. Okay. It says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. And where is that from? It's chapter 3 of 1 Timothy, verse 16.

Well, that would fit. Yeah, I mean, it's in the context, too, of talking about this. Yeah, there you go. I mean there are hymns in that hymnal out there that are actual, I mean the whole hymn is nothing but quoting scripture. It's cool. Oh and Paul's epistle is scripture. Okay, I think I'm on the last question.

What does the phrase, do all in the name of the Lord mean? Now, you know as well as I do, and you've seen this a million times in your life, where you've either been in church or you've been someplace where some guy goes through some long litany of stuff that he's decided that he wants God to do, and at the end of it, he says, we're going to do this in the name of the Lord, which is like pouring holy water on it, which makes it sacred. He figures if I get that phrase in, then God is going to honor what I've just said.

Is that what it means? If I do something or you do something in the name of somebody, what have you done? What have you done? You've honored them? It's more than that. Using his authority. That's exactly right. This is an issue of authority. The word Anima, which means, is the word for authority or name or authority and Gnosko is the word for knowledge.

So authoritative knowledge, it shows that as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus to the point that every deed is done in subjection to him. Wow, that's a long shot, isn't it? Do you think at some point in your Christian life you'll mature to the point where everything you do will be in subjection to Christ? I just said it goes on throughout the name of the Lord Jesus. Doesn't it go on saying singing with grace in your heart to the Lord? There's your grace and there's your spiritual song and your feelings.

And all that is responsive, right? It's responsive. It's not initiative. It's responsive. You know, I think This is hardly, but I think a lot of times when I'm in a difficult situation or down or something, sort of a little tune will come in my heart, you know? And then when I kind of think about it, I realize what I'm saying. I look it up. It'll be appropriate to what my need is. And it's, I mean, that's just been a, The music and the real music, it's an added emphasis, I think.

Oh, it's wonderful. Who initiated that in your heart? Well, the grace of the Lord. That's right. It's the Spirit of God who did that. You're driving down the road and the next thing you know you're having in thought about the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you think that happened? Because you're such an intelligent, smart person. No. No. And here's the thing, you learn, spiritual growth is really learning dependence on him. Because when you find yourself in a jam, how did you get in a jam in the first place?

You might be responsible, but who lets you go there? you know, and who is going to use the circumstances for your conformity to Christ. It's the Spirit that's going to do all that. Last night when I was so worried about Leslie, you know, I was thinking about case your cares on him before he cares for you. But, you know, that's Scripture, but then other times certainly Something that you know from him is a thing that responds to your situation.

Yeah. I like praying for people. I think you have to get all of your prayers from him. You can't decide on your own how to pray for somebody. You've got to go to him and say, how do you want me to pray about this? I don't know what you're doing here. I'll be darned if he doesn't show you.

I remember years and years ago, Somebody really close to us was in the hospital with blood clots in her legs. And the word went around, pray that God would fix it. So I'm praying that way and it just doesn't seem right. And I get this really clear message that says, pray that I keep the clots there for a while because I've got something to teach her. I couldn't tell anybody that. I think you dirty dog, you didn't pray right.

But would you rather pray that a circumstance that's difficult would remain in somebody's life until the Spirit of God had used it for their spiritual growth? Every Tuesday in every class I ever start I ask for a prayer request. What am I really doing? God, whatever you're working on the spiritual, stop it. Isn't that what I'm saying? Stop working on that person and don't give that person that opportunity to trust you. I want you to stop all this pain right now. Well, if you're a believer, who orchestrated the pain in the first place?

There are some things in life that cannot be changed, but we keep looking for the way of escape. And I've learned that He alone is my way of escape. Yeah, even if you want to escape. One of those Hungry Heart things has this, I'm paraphrasing, it says, for a young believer, he will pray and ask the Lord to fix whatever bump he has in the road and God will do it right away to comfort that person and to bring him along. But then there comes the day when it's time for that person to start to grow spiritually.

And they pray and nothing happens. And they pray some more and nothing happens. And it's because God doesn't intend to change the circumstances. He intends to change you in the middle of them. So no matter what happens, you don't move. You're consistent and constant. Let the circumstances do what they're going to do.

I mean, we do have a sovereign God, don't we? In Colossians, we kind of found out in the first and second chapter, he's kind of in charge, isn't he? Sure he is. In the activities done by a believer, there is a sense of the Lord's presence, the awareness that everything relates to him. and that we can do nothing except carnally without Him. The reason is that the life we have in Him acts with Him and in Him and does not separate from Him.

It has for its aim and object of our hearts and minds Christ personally. Do you understand what this says? The Holy Spirit has a greater desire for you to have a personal intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus than any of you do. He wants us, each one of us personally, to have this intimacy with Christ so we know Him as a person. Not about Him, that we know Him personally.

And that changes everything. that he reigns in and is present in our hearts and everything. As grace reigns in him, can we see that his authority is not by legal means, but by gracious means as he wins the believer's heart to himself. When the Spirit of God has won your heart to Christ, you just do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

You just do. Nobody has to tell you. You don't have to check it off on the refrigerator. Oh boy, I did these five things in the name of the Lord. Oops, I missed one. You don't have to because that's the way your life is now in Christ. I'm done. Guess what? JD's up.

Mike, I'm not quite understanding what What does this phrase do on the name of the Lord Jesus? The name, in the name means in the authority of the Lord Jesus. And so it isn't that you decide what you're going to do and then you put the strength on it by saying His name. You just recognize as you grow spiritually that everything is in His name. And you're just acknowledging what's already there.

It seems to me that I'm always the one who's out of the loop. And without the Spirit of God, I would stay out of the loop. I would never know. Even as I read the scriptures, like read the book of Colossians, and I see it gives this description of the Lord Jesus and who He is, and I sort of jump over it.

He holds all things together. He is God. And, oh, by the way, He gave His life just for me. I think I can trust Him, kind of thing. When I think of the name, it helps me to think of who he is, and when he has done his ways, and everything about him. And authority is part of that. And also, he is my savior. He's intimate with me. And so while I'm operating in harmony with him, inside the manifestation of his life, he himself is where this is. I like the word harmony. I think harmony is a good word. And if we take an analogy, if I want to use the name of Obama, I would have to operate within the sphere of Obama. I would. That's right. That's exactly right. You would.

So we are ambassadors of the reconciliation. An ambassador is a person that only speaks who he represents, wants him to speak. He never gets to express his own opinion. It gets more intimate, doesn't it? It sure does. It's using his authority to do what he wants me to do. Or maybe just more along the lines of recognizing his authority, that as you're growing with him and going along with him, that everything you do in your life is by his authority.

Because Romans 8.28 says that God works all things together for good. Oh, even the fender bender I got and that dirty person that ran into me and somebody who flipped me off, all of that, yeah, all of that. in the name of the Lord. Alright. Morning. Morning. Morning. Ready to talk some family? Family? Let's get started.

Who wants to read Colossians 3, 18 through 21? Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be embittered against them. Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.

We go into the slaves and masters. I'm going to say, I don't cover that, but they're sure connected to this whole grouping of pairs of people, and we're going to cover that. These verses are 18 through 21. Courtney will pick up with the masters and slaves portion of that. I mentioned that we're talking family here, and we just talked about, let everything that you do be done in the name of the Lord Jesus. Here's a bunch of dudes. So what are we going to do about it? It's going to be interpreted in a lot of different ways in Christianity. Have you ever heard these verses misused? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Have you ever had these verses misused with a friend or family members? Maybe with a wife or a husband?

Alright. No reason for that to happen, but the correct understanding of the word is not something that everyone has, and so we want to labor through these questions together and make sure that we understand what is being said and what isn't being said. So first of all, Paul is talking about the household as it existed in that time. It had masters in this slave situation. We don't necessarily have that as much in today's family environment, but Paul is talking about a grouping of three, and within those three there are components to each.

So let's look at the six total, or the three groups. So first we've got, what, wives? Then what? What's number two? Husbands. Okay, and who's number three? Parents. You got the role of the parents and then the children, so we'll say parents. Children, and then what? Slaves. And finally? Masters. All right, so we've got these two, these two, and these two.

And so in looking at the patterns that Paul, I'm going to get to the question in a minute, but I'm just trying to set up the verses so we can transition into this change of theme and topic for Paul here. But within these six elements, we have an authority and a subordinate assigned to each of them. Now, it's not hard for us to understand the word authority, but it's hard for us to understand the word subordinate. What do I mean by subordinate? I'm using it on purpose. Living under? Lesser than? Does it have to do with inferiority? No, it's a position. Subject to? Alright, we'll leave that word subject to over here and work with that.

When we look at the pattern of these verses, we see that authority and we see there's a subordinate. We also see that there are pairs here that have mutual duty to one another. So it's not just the subordinate's duty or responsibility, and I'll stick with Mike's definition of responsibility, but we see it here. We see a responsibility of one to the other and the other to the one. So there's a mutual responsibility here that keeps these relationships in check.

If they weren't mutual, then you would have a different kind of situation that Paul's not talking about. There's a tendency to get these verses out of whack and to only look at one side of the responsibility. But the antidote to misusing authority in all three of these cases is actually the mutual nature of it. there's a give and take on both sides. And so I call that the antidote to misusing the authority.

And when all parts, when both parts are mutually operating within their responsibility, there's absolute, complete, and total harmony. It's when there's not mutual understanding, and those responsibilities are not being carried out between both, that there's a problem.

And the first one we like to pick on, because it's the first one that comes up is, Wives, submit to your husbands. And we start with the first question. Just kind of set that up. So, Wives, subordinate or authority? Subordinate. So husbands, authority. Now what, before we get to this word, submit.

Why is there, why does God have these, why is there order in this? Why is there order? Why can't we just be like, evil level, same, shared, you know, co-authority? Why is there order? Because there's order in the Godhead. Okay. He wants order. So who's the authority in the Godhead? The Father. And who's the subordinate? The Son.

Okay. How did God create man and woman initially? Man first and then woman. Right. So is God's order one that defines inferiority? Or does it simply define the way that He is? a God of Word? It does. Mike, did you have a thought? There's unity in the Godhead, in the Trinity.

It's equal. Are there different roles? There are different roles. Are there different roles in the family? Yes. Does that make any of them inferior? No. You're going to hear me say that a thousand times. That's the way that I keep you from finding me after class and making sure I didn't say it or not.

Alright, so we're talking about wives. We see this ordering to the family and it jumps right in and it says, wives submit to your husband. So, the question is, which comes first in practical application? Wives submit to your husbands or husbands love your wives?

We have an answer. Does anyone agree? Yes. We got an agree. Do we have a disagree? I don't want you to... Do we have a disagree? Yeah. Oh, okay. I disagree. The reason I disagree is because... No, but don't tell me. It's still my show. I'm being subordinate and I'm focused on myself. But I think there it defines order. Not that. What's what's the word you use? Inferiority. It defines the order.

They both have to be together. They both have to be there together. One doesn't come first, the other one comes second. They have to work together. So then the question could be asked, do they need each other to submit, and do they need each other to love? Yes. I'm not sure if this is where you're going, but the phrase is modified as is fit in the Torah. Let me pick up off of that. We definitely have order in terms of the relationship and the role. But do we have order in terms of the duty?

In other words, does a husband have to love his wife in order for her to submit to her? Or does a wife have to submit to a husband? We haven't defined that yet, we'll get there, but this is the first question. Does a wife have to submit to her husband in order for him to love her?

Where is the motivation coming from to carry out this duty? Is it coming from the other person? So is there a degree, or an order rather, in practical application of what happens first in order for the other thing to happen? No. So who thinks that it's the responsibility of the husbands to love their wives first in order for their wives to submit to them? Still got one back there? It's the wrong question. It's the wrong question. On purpose, I'm sure of it. Let's carry this out just one more time so that we can get the full understanding of it.

If there is an order of loving first and submitting and submitting first and then loving, then what is the requirement for the person to do their duty? It's the other person. I need the other person to do their thing so I can do mine. If you don't do your thing, I can't do mine, and vice versa. And so who are you pointing back and forth at? Each other. That's right.

So, in the scripture, there is no order to the loving or submitting. It's saying that here's the mutual responsibilities and they happen in the relationship. Are there going to be times, and we'll get more in terms of definition to these submission and loving and embitterment and so forth, but are there times when the love is not on the side of the husband and that the submission is not on the side of... If that were the case, or since that is the case, How can the other person ever get back on the path, if they were to have to have the other side of the relationship in order for them to be in order?

You see, it's a vicious cycle, and it's the pointing game, and it's focused on the flesh and the human nature, as opposed to what Roy talked about, as is fitting to the Lord. The motivation, actually, as we'll see, comes from the Lord, not from one another.

And you say, oh man, if you only knew what kind of a smuck he was, though. Schmuck. Schmuck. So I said, I don't think there is an order in practical application. It would imply that the motivation to perform the respective duties was found in one another. But that's not the case. And so, order matters for sure, but it is the order of the Lord loving us first that matters most.

So 1 John 4.10 is the love order that matters. And that's actually what motivates the two of them. It's the love of God towards them that motivates them to perform the duty that God gave them, right? So that's where the order actually matters. It's a vertical situation, not a horizontal between man and woman. It's between man and God and woman and God.

That's where these things we're going to see get carried out. Verse 18b, we mentioned, as is fitting in the Lord. We also had verse 17 that we just covered. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. So where are the eyes of each of these, both authority and subordinate? Where are their eyes? On Christ. They're on the Lord.

That's right. Alright, so number two. See if we can get in here. Second bell. Huh? Second bell just went off. For next week. This is what's hard about coming in at the very end. You just get ramped up. All right, so next week. All in the name of the Lord. All in the name of the Lord. So, number two we'll look at next week. The question is, submission is in the present tense. What does it tell us about the duration of a wife's submission to her husband? If you could answer that quickly. We'll do it next week.

Let's pray then. Father we thank you for just the truth that we were able to share in terms of encouraging one another with songs and hymns and giving thanks to you in all things and we thank you that we can do that in your name. We also thank you for the revelation of the family and the order of it and how you designed it to work and how it relates to your own makeup of the Trinity and also as we see how it ties to the relationship of the church to Christ. And so Father, we ask that you would continue to draw our hearts and minds to you through the weeks that we might behold you through your word and enjoy being transformed into your image. We thank you for that. We thank you for loving us and for the grace that we live in. It's your name we pray. Amen.