Giving Thanks

The name of the message is giving thanks, giving thanks. Open your Bibles, if you would, to Colossians chapter one. And we're gonna be standing up and reading verses one to eight together. Let's stand up and read these wonderful verses together. Colossians chapter one, verses one to eight.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossus, grace be to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he had to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Where have you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come unto you as it is in all the world and bring it forth fruit as it doth also in you since the day you heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. As he also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ.

My, oh my. Oh, who declared unto us your love in the spirit. I forgot a verse, didn't I? I got so excited to preach, I forgot a verse. My. Now, verse three will be our text for today. Verse three, which says, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. What a wonderful verse we have here. Marvel that we see in verse two.

And remember, this letter's not written to the whole world. This letter is written to the saints at Colossus, right? To the born-again, blood-washed saints who've trusted Christ, who've trusted Christ for the salvation of their soul. It's written to them. Paul, again, has never seen these folks. Never seen them in the face, but Epaphras had come to him. He knew him personally. And this letter is written and taken back to the church at Kloss.

And marvel at verse two. To the saints and faithful brethren, here's the two words, in Christ. two of the most important words, in Christ. Everybody in this world is either in Christ or out of Christ. There's only two types of sinners in this world, saved or lost. There's no in between. One's either in Christ, one sinner's either in Christ, or a sinner's out of Christ.

Charlie, aren't you glad the Lord put us in Christ? My, oh my. Did we deserve it, brother? Nope. Not at all. Not at all. Matter of fact, we were running from it, weren't we? My. And he found us. Lost sinners. Love and sin. And He found us and He saved us. And now we're in Christ. That's where believers are. They're in Christ. And you know, nothing can take them out of Christ. Isn't that amazing? Nothing can take us out of Christ. If you're in Christ, you're in Christ. How long have we been in Christ? Amen. For maternity.

We didn't even know it, did we? We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, 4. And we had no clue until that day that the Holy Spirit of God came to us. And by his power, we were born again. And then we found out that someone died for us 2,000 years ago. And we never even knew it. Did we, Brother Brian? And we haven't stopped rejoicing since we found out, eh?

And that's what this is all about, giving thanks. We have so much as believers to give thanks for. So much. So much. Number one, the redemption that we have in Christ. Christ saved us. Think of this, think of this. Christ saved us 2,000 years ago, and we just found out when we were born again.

Is the work already done? It's already finished, isn't it? And we were probably trying to work our way to heaven, saying, well, I'm a good person. I remember doing that. I was a Catholic. I remember doing that. Oh, I'm a good person. I'm not an ax murderer. Meanwhile, I was a rebel before God in my heart. And then the Lord saved me.

Isn't it wonderful? Brother in Exodus and I had some talks. about how the last place we'd be is a church, right? And here we are, by the grace of God now. Here we are, loving the Lord now. Isn't that amazing? All by the grace of God and the mercy of God. You had told me in my 30s I'd be a preacher, I'd have laughed you to scorn. Here you go.

Isn't the Lord amazing? He saves sinners, doesn't he? He saves bonafide sinners, right? I was religious before the Lord saved me. I like what Norm said. I was a better Christian before I was saved. I had so many rules and regulations that I had to follow, so many things I had to do. You know why I serve the Lord now? Because I'm so thankful for what he's done. Because he called me, he saved my soul. And I want to tell others about the one who can save souls, who can save sinners such as me. The question is today, are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Most people don't think they're sinners. But 100% of us are sinners.

My oh my. But here's good news. Christ saves sinners. And then look at this. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, verse two, which are at Coloss. Grace be to you. You notice what comes before peace? Grace. God's grace. It's so wonderful. You know, ultimately, our sins are against God. That's who we've really sinned against. But look at the grace of God towards sinners. He sends his own Son, the Word of God, God in eternity, to come here and to bleed and die for sinners such as we.

Now, I don't know who God's elect are. God knows, but I don't, so I preach to everyone. And God does the saving, right? He does the saving. I'm just one beggar telling other beggars where to find bread. That's what preaching the gospel is really all about. I'm telling others, along with myself too, remember, I'm preaching to myself every time I'm in the pulpit. But I'm telling others who can't save themselves, like I can't save myself, about someone who can save anyone who comes to him.

And I don't care what your past is, we all got past, don't we? And all our pasts are black, aren't they? With sin. But the scripture says he makes us whiter than snow. Whiter than snow, isn't that glorious? How? By the shedding of his precious blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of the God-man. Did you know that God himself saved my soul? It's true, isn't it, sister? God himself saved our souls.

His name is the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh. And this is who the believer's in now. We're in Christ. We're in Christ. And we live and we breathe and we have our being in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? He gives us the very breath to breathe. He gives us all these benefits. We're loaded down daily. No wonder we're thankful. And look what Paul says. Again, he's never met them.

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Colossians 1.3. We give thanks. Wonderful words.

Now, who are the redeemed of the Lord? Those who have been washed in the blood of Christ. Those who are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Those who no longer have their sins count against them. We're still safe sinners, aren't we, Brother Charlie? We're still sinners, but we're safe sinners now. Anyone who tells you they don't sin anymore, they're lying. They're lying. And listen to this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

That's good news, isn't it? Best news I've ever heard in my life. My, oh my. So marvel, beloved God, that we are in Christ. We're not just in Christ when we're gathered together here at church, we're in Christ at home. We're in Christ when we're with our coworkers. This is a state of being for the believer.

And once you're in Christ, you will never be out of Christ. He won't say, well, Wayne, you've done some awful sins. I'm gonna cast you away now. If he did, I'd have no hope. But the Lord Jesus Christ, this is wonderful, I'm gonna tell you something so wonderful, cleanses us from all sin.

How many, Charlie? All of them. Is that past ones, right? And future too, eh? That's glorious. Isn't that glorious? People say, well, you preach like that, people will run out the door and do whatever they want. Not believers. Right, Brian? We're free. Our freedom, though, came at a cost. The precious blood of Christ. And that's why we're thankful. He's redeemed our souls. He saved our souls. Jesus Christ saves sinners. It's wonderful.

And we say, flee to him. Someone says, well, how can I be saved? Just look to him. Scripture says, look unto me and live all ye ends of the earth. Just look to him. By faith, look to him. Someone says, well, I don't have faith. Ask God to save you. And he'll give you faith.

It's a work of God. It's not by anything we do. It's a work of God. And you know, those he saves, he keeps forever. Forever. Salvation's not in the church, is it? Salvation's in Christ. We gather together and worship God. That's why we come here. We come here to worship God. and to praise Him. And it's wonderful. But we're looking to Christ, aren't we, together?

Our only Savior. The one who redeemed us from all our sins. So all the time we are in Christ. Once the Lord puts you in Christ, well, we've been in Christ from before the foundation of the world, we just didn't know that. But we were born again, so at our God the Father in eternity planned and purposed the salvation of a people.

That's a fact, that's in scripture. Christ came to this world and accomplished that salvation. It's already done. See, religion will tell you, you have to do this, and you have to do that, and you have to do this. I just tell you, you gotta look to Christ. Just look to Christ. There's no salvation in any works of ours, none at all. Salvation's only found in Christ. And you know what? You know what's amazing? You know what I give thanks for?

That the Lord bought me together, me a sinner saved by grace with a bunch of other sinners saved by grace. So when I look at you guys, I see you in Christ. I see you as saved sinners just like me. And if we're looking at people like that, we're not gonna be pointing faults out. You guys already know a lot of my faults and you still love me, I'm just amazed. It's evident, isn't it? But we're just a bunch of saved sinners here, gathering together and worshiping, aren't we, Chris? And it's wonderful. Wonderful. And so Paul's giving thanks for them. He's giving thanks for the fact that the Lord saved them. And remember, they were all a bunch of pagan idol worshipers. People say, well, there's not idol worshipers now. Oh, yeah, there is. Yeah. Yeah. Just look at my former religion, Catholics.

What do they do? They bow down to little statues of Mary. What's that? That's idol worship. They say prayers to a little statue that can't do nothing. I was there, I'm not mocking them. I was there, I was 100% in, till the Lord saved me. But there's idol worships all around. Buddha, people worship Buddha, they got big old statues of them. There's nothing new under the sun, is there?

So these folks, they were what the Jews called Gentiles, bunch of pagans, they called them dogs. The Jews thought the Gentiles just a bunch of unclean people. And they were astounded when Paul said, Paul preached that the Gentiles were part of the kingdom. They couldn't believe it. And remember without passage and acts, they picked up stones, they were gonna stone Paul on the spot. See how bad religion can get? So much that it hates the truth. And I'm thankful God included Gentiles.

You know why? Because all of us here are saved are Gentiles. Isn't it wonderful? I love the verse. I remember reading Luke 15 and it talks about how here comes these religious Jews and they're just, they got all their T's crossed and all their sentences ending with a period. And they come up and they say, To the disciples, your master eats with publicans and sinners. I am so thankful that verse is in there.

That's me. Publicans and sinners. See, God didn't come. Christ didn't come. He didn't come to save those who thought they were whole, self-righteous people. He came to save sinners. He said, I'm not come to save the righteous, but call sinners to repentance. Sinners. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful news, isn't it? Came to save sinners. My, turn if you would to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. So being in Christ as a state, a state actually also put your finger in John chapter 10 if you can go to John chapter 10 first and then we'll go to we'll go to Psalm 103 after John chapter 10 so this is a state being in Christ is a state of being for for the believer on Christ we move and breathe and have everything we do in Christ You know, Christ is our strong city. He's our refuge, beloved. He's our refuge. He's our strength. And for the born-again, blood-washed believer, we will never be taken out of the state in Christ. Look at John 10. Look at this. Verse 27 to 29. This is beautiful.

My sheep hear my voice. Well, who's my sheep? That's the elect of God. That's the born-again, blood-washed believer. We don't know who they are, so we preach the gospel to everyone. Notice that possessive word, my, my sheep. They're his. They're given to him by the Father, and they're his by purchase, by his precious blood. They're his, my sheep.

Hear my voice, and I know them. That's ginoska in the Greek. That's an intimate knowledge of them. And they follow me. Notice there's no doubt. They will follow him because they will be born again. And I give unto them eternal life. And look at this, look at this. And they, now we've been looking at this little word, shall. Does it say, well, they might not perish. They might get away from Jesus.

No, they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them me, when did he give them to him? When did he give the sheep to Christ? In eternity. My father which gave me them. gave them me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hands. So notice that we can't be plucked out of Christ's hands and we can't be plucked out of the Father's hands. And you know who Christ is? He's the Almighty. Isn't that wonderful?

Well, what about if we do something grievous? Forgiving all trespasses and sins. We confess our sins. and he's faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Grace isn't cheap grace. God doesn't give it and then take it away. Grace covers all our sins because of the blood of Christ and the righteousness of Christ. It's absolutely amazing. And this is what we've had Revealed to us as believers.

We don't think we're better than anyone else. No, we know what we are Matter of fact, we think we're worse than everybody else Because our sins being revealed to us And that's why I say I'm just a sinner saved by grace flee to my Savior the Lord Jesus Christ he saved sinners It's wonderful And come just as you are. Don't dress yourself up and don't make things fancier. People say, well, just pray this prayer and you're saved.

No, come to Christ. Flee to Christ. Lay hold of Christ. Cast yourself upon Christ. He's merciful. He's wonderful. He's the God of all grace. Oh, it's wonderful. He's a God ready to pardon. In what words of comfort, then, these words in Christ can be for the believer? Because we give thanks to God that we are in Christ. It's not hard to be thankful when you know the Lord saved you, right? It's amazing.

Look at verse three again. Keep your finger, though, on Psalm 103. Look at, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Look at those words, those first words. We give thanks to God. So God's people are a thankful people. We're thankful for the mercy that God has given to us. I'm thankful God saved you if you're a born again believer. We're thankful for what God's done. Psalm 6930, I'll read two verses, verses 6930 and 31. It says, I will praise the name of God with a song. It will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord. Better than ox or bullocks hath horns in hoofs. Listen to that. Rather than our works. See, religion's got it wrong. They say you gotta do all these things to be saved and to please God.

God is pleased with all those people who are in Christ. And what I just read there, he's pleased with our praise. Can we praise him, Brian? It's not hard to praise him now, is it, brother? Amen. And he's pleased with that in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Why is God pleased with believers? Because we're in Christ. Outside of Christ, he's not pleased with those outside of Christ, no. But those in Christ, oh, you know, he loves them as he loves his son with an everlasting love, an unchanging love. And that love doesn't change based upon our actions.

My, oh, my. It's an eternal, everlasting love. It's absolutely wonderful. And all things come from God. And the Holy Spirit of God will produce in us thanks, thanksgiving. He'll work in us that. Thankful for our salvation. Thankful for Christ. Look at this in Psalm 103. Now let's turn there. Psalm 103.

And we who are the redeemed of the Lord, we are so thankful for the redemption that we have in through Christ, right? Because none of us can save ourselves, can we? No one in the world has the ability to save themselves, but Christ can save anyone who comes to him. It's beautiful. Look at this.

Psalm 103, verses 1 to 5. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Don't forget His goodness to us every day. Look at this. Oh, I love this. Look at verse 3. Who forgiveth, how many iniquities? all thine iniquities. Oh my, who heals all thy diseases. Look at that though. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. That's all my sins. God's salvation is not cheap salvation, is it? No, it's costly. It cost him his blood, but it's free to you and I. And what does it do? The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's Old Testament we see here, and that's true in the New Testament. It's glorious. This is glorious. Look at this.

Who redeemeth my life from destruction? God saved me. You know who he saved me from? Myself. My sins. I had someone one time, I was talking to him, and they asked if they could read one of the books at my house, and they were visiting with us, and I said, yeah. And then I came downstairs the next day, and they said, you know, I always thought God just saved me from hell. I didn't realize that the main thing he saved me from was my sins. And I said, that's right. That's right.

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. We are free now from the judgment of God. Absolutely free, who crowned thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like eagles. Oh, beloved, we have so much to be thankful for, so much to be thankful for. We're so thankful for God's redemptive plan that He planned and purposed our salvation in eternity. And that He executed it, didn't He? How did He execute it?

By sending His Son, who is the Word of God. John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, that's speaking of Christ, and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. And then in 14 of chapter one, it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory. And he's the one who's full of grace and truth. My, the word became flesh. The second person of the Trinity became flesh and dwelt among us.

And he came, sister, to save us from our sins. Matthew 121. Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall do it. We can't save ourselves, can we? But we're trusting in the one who can save all who come to him, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's glorious. I'll tell you, it's just glorious.

So we're thankful for God's redemptive plan in Christ. that he included us before the foundation of the world. And we're thankful that we have all spiritual blessings in Christ. And we're thankful for the brethren, aren't we? Yeah, all our brethren, all our brethren. Thankful for the ones who preach the gospel, thankful for all the brethren, no matter who they are.

Listen to this. Paul wrote this in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14. He said, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, that means divinely loved, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we see there that we were chosen in the beginning, that's before the foundation of the world in Christ. Now, we don't have any idea who those people are. Again, so that's why we preach the gospel to everyone. And then Christ himself came from heaven, came from heaven and redeemed us on Calvary's cross. It's done, the work is finished. The hardest thing for us now as believers is just to rest in Christ, isn't it? Oh, we see things going on in this world, we get excited and worked up.

We don't need to. God's in control. God's in control. I don't worry about political stuff anymore. I don't even worry about the world stuff anymore. Somebody said, well, what if there's a nuclear bomb? Well, hopefully they drop it close here, because I'd go out of heaven real quick. I'm not worried about it. Right, Charlie? No. Isn't it wonderful?

And then, so God the Father planned and purposed salvation, was executed by Christ, and then God sends the Holy Spirit to us, because listen to this, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. So God in this plan and purpose has us under the gospel. This may be the first time you're hearing the gospel today, I don't know. But you're here, everyone in this church is here because God ordained you to be here today, to hear the gospel.

Isn't that amazing? And to some, the gospel is, Brings life. And to some, the gospel hardens. My. But this word going out will be effectual. It'll be effectual. And I pray that God, the Holy Spirit, takes it and gives you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of your soul.

Because that's what He's done for everyone here who's a believer. We're saved by His power. We're saved by His might. And we're saved, listen, according to His grace and mercy. People say, well, how do you know God has mercy on sinners? We're here, aren't we? It's wonderful. Isn't God glorious? Isn't he glorious? And we're thankful for the fact that God the Holy Spirit regenerates us, that we're born again.

The only way we can believe is to be born again. Scripture pictures us as a dead man. Ephesians chapter 2, we're dead spiritually. We're alive physically, but we're spiritually dead. Now I ask you, can a dead man pray a prayer? Can a dead man walk an aisle? Can a dead man do anything, any good work? Nope. Can a dead man save himself? No, he's dead already, right? That's how we're born into this world. Dead.

And we must be made alive. That's why the Lord said, Zane, you must be, it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary. The word must, it's absolutely necessary that you be born again. Well, can a dead man make himself alive? Nope. But the Holy Spirit can make us alive, can't he, sister? Yep, and he is.

You must be born again. And when you're born again, he gives you faith, and it happens just like that, without you even moving a muscle. Happens just like that. And you go, I believe. I believe. And nothing can separate you from Christ if you're truly born again. Oh, that's glorious. That's glorious.

Now, I sin more than I want to, do you? See, that's how every believer feels. Someone says, well, you preach like that, people go and do whatever they want. No, I sin more than I want to. If I could never sin again, I'd be so happy. One day I'll never sin again when we're in glory.

So we give thanks to God that we're saved from our sins, that He's redeemed us with His precious blood. God became a man and lived a perfect life, a sinless life, and then went to live the life as a substitute for His people, and then went to the cross and died before God's justice and wrath as our substitute, the substitute of His elect. And He saved us from all our sins by the shedding of His precious, precious blood.

My! So Paul tells us, give thanks. We give thanks. And notice who we give thanks to? The Father. The Father. My! They thank God. They thank God together with the saints at Kloss. This is a good reminder for us to pray for one another, because look what he says here in verse 3. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Paul put in practice what he told others to do. And who did he pray for? Look at this. God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that. They trace the source right back to the foundation head. Right back to the foundation head, the grace of God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

My, God gives us the gift of faith to believe on Christ. God is the one who causes us to love him and to love one another as believers. Listen to this in Ephesians 4, but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Well, what are some of those gifts? Faith. Faith in Christ. Repentance before God. Think of how we were before the Lord saved us.

I didn't even think of God, did you? I had no care. Wouldn't have even thought of, you know, the only time that I prayed to God was after I had had a rough night going to the bars. And I felt like I was going to die. And I'd say this, Lord, I won't do this ever again. Next week, I was right back there. Didn't care. Had no care for God. Had no care for who he was.

And now, what a change. We love Him. We praise Him. We're thankful for Him. He has become everything to us, hasn't He? I talked to Exodus one time. He's like, man, all I'm doing is thinking about God all the time now. All I'm doing is thinking about God all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Huh? I need new batteries. Can you crank up the pulpit mic? I did as much as I could. OK. Sorry. My batteries went out. No, it's OK. My.

So we trace all our gifts, faith, repentance, love for the brethren, hope of the gospel through Christ, all to one source, God the Father. And we give thanks, don't we? So the blessings come to us from God through the Lord Jesus Christ, given to us by the Holy Spirit of God. And then we return the praise and thanksgiving to him. Isn't that amazing? My, oh my.

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture, of any private interpretation for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Remember, these words here are the words of God the Holy Spirit.

Paul's just a pen man. God had him write these things, inspired by God, and it combated the Gnostic error because what Paul did was all, if you read this whole first chapter, Paul just puts Christ as the preeminent one. And he must have the preeminence. He's God incarnate in the flesh.

And God our Father sent him to save us from our sins, Paul here is giving thanks, as the great pardoner of our sin has come. The Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself, the scripture says, for us. For us. My, we who are the born-again, blood-washed people of God, listen to this. Ephesians 1, 3 to 5. Beloved of God, that means divinely loved ones. Beloved of God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him, that's in Christ, before the foundation of the world.

Why? That we might or that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. If you're saved here today, it's according to the good pleasure of God's will.

Now that's absolutely stunning, isn't it? Knowing who we are and knowing our past and knowing just who we are, saved sinners. It pleased God to save us. That's just amazing. My, oh, my. So our praise and thanksgiving is to God, God our Father. And Paul teaches us by example here. Look what he says here again, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

Now note the words, praying always for you. Paul, Paul prayed all the time. What, someone say, well, you mean he went and locked himself in the room? No, no. He prayed while he's walking down the street. He prayed while he's driving his car, or not driving, they didn't have cars then. What am I talking about? He prayed though while he was walking. He prayed when he was on a ship. And you know, people always think like, well, what's, you got to go and just, all these long prayers. You know what one of the most incredible prayers is in the scripture? God be merciful to me, the sinner.

Isn't that amazing? The Lord said when that man prayed that, when that publican prayed that, he went home justified. Which means just as if he never sinned. It's absolutely amazing. So praise and thanksgiving are part of who we are. One commentator said this, John Trapp, said, are like the double motion of the lungs. The air that is sucked in by prayer is breathed out again by thanks. Isn't that beautiful? We give thanks. We give thanks. And notice these two little words. I love this. give thanks. Notice that one little word, we. We. Paul's including himself with Timothy and all the people who are with him. And notice that he doesn't put himself on a pedestal. I love this about Paul. You know, some preachers nowadays, they put themselves on pedestals. I'm just a safe sinner. Do you know the ground at the foot of the cross is level? There's no theologian mound or preacher mound or evangelist mound. It's level ground.

I'm saved by the same blood as you. I'm washed in the blood of Christ, born again by the same Holy Spirit, given the same faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and here we are, a bunch of sinners saved by grace. It's glorious, I'll tell you why. It doesn't get no better than that. We, Paul, Paul does not elevate himself over anybody else, and it should never be that a preacher elevates themselves, or even any of us believers elevates ourselves over anyone else.

You know, it's not hard, is it? You know, you see things and think, oh, how can they do that? And I'm always reminded, well, they're a sinner saved, or they're a sinner just left in their sins. And you know what? There go I, but for the grace of God. Right? Hmm. My, oh, my.

And so notice the unselfishness, too, of Paul's prayer. He says, praying always for you. He's not even concerned about the situation that he's in. He's being persecuted for his faith. And he says, I'm praying always for you. Paul loved. Think of this, too. Think of this. I can't move. Think of this. This was Paul.

This was Paul who was destroying the church as Saul. Before the Lord saved him, he was wasting the church. In the Greek, it means destroying the church. He had letters from the Jews, the Jewish leaders, to go out and wipe out Christians. And now, now, You know what happened? Their champion has been saved by the grace of God. Think of that. Paul was having people murdered, and the Lord saved him. David was an adulterer, and the Lord saved him. Some of the Scythians were saved, the barbarians, the worst of the worst. Some of them were saved. Out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation, God has a people, saved by his grace and mercy. Isn't it wonderful?

My. So let us take note of the unselfishness of Paul and marvel at the love that he now has for the saints of God. My. You know, if you ever have ought against someone, You ever really mad at someone, start praying for them. You know what'll happen? You can't be mad at them anymore. It's true. I've tried it. It really works. I heard old Henry Mahan say that.

He said, you can't be mad at people you're praying for. Come on. Let's pray for them. Ask the Lord to save them. I hope that the Lord will Take the scriptures and use them for his glory, honor, and praise today. Flee to Christ. He's the only hope for sinners. Amen and amen. Brother Brian, can you close us in prayer just now?

Giving Thanks

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