Begin With Thanksgiving

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0:09I encourage you to keep that letter open. We're gonna refer to it quite a bit, look at different parts of it. But I wanna begin by asking you a question. Is there a place in your house, maybe your attic, maybe your garage, probably not, but maybe in a closet or a different place where you have boxes or a trunk of memories of kind of important things, things that you've saved, maybe an old blankie that you had as a kid, or uh, maybe you have a diploma or uh, yearbooks or special pictures or whatnot. I have a few things in my house and I'll admit there's a blankie in there. I don't know why, but uh, I was looking at it this week and I was on a hunt, not for blankies but for letters.

1:04I wanted to find some old letters that I had had received and I found several and one stood out. It's a nice blue stationary typed by my grandmother Phyllis, who's been gone for quite a while. It was written over 30 years ago. On my 18th birthday. I was her first grandchild. And so it was a momentous occasion for her as well, for me to turn 18. And she had all sorts of wonderful things in here. There was memories of our relationship, there was thoughts about things that were going to happen soon in my life. I was already into my senior year and about to make a lot of transitions. So she had some things to say about that and perhaps most encouraging.

1:50She shared some of her favorite scriptures and pointed me to the Lord. So as I read this letter 30 years later, it was powerful. It was powerful because I have relationship with this wonderful woman of God and her words were powerful and impacting and my heart was well enough with gratitude. We have the opportunity today to look at a letter and what we need to do in order to appreciate it. If you read this letter, you might say, oh that's cute. Oh, you hugged your grandma and called her that and that kind of stuff. But if you were to read this letter, it wouldn't mean as much to you as it would to me because I know the author.

2:31And what we wanna try to do today as we begin this letter of Colossians, which you're gonna spend the summer in, is getting our mind today around the author, the audience, the situation, the opening word, so that we can start to appreciate this gift that God has given to us and that we can be shaped by it. Truly, this is God's word and he wants to shape us by it. So as we begin this sermon and as we begin this series in Colossians, please pray with me.

3:06Great God, we very much need your help. Would you cause your word to have its piercing surgery, faith building, profitable effect, the effects for which you sent it out for? Would it move among us? Would it do the wonderful thing that your spirit does in touching our hearts in so many different ways because you know us and you work through your word? Would you do that not only today, but throughout this summer as we open up this letter, would this become dear to us? Would there be things many years from now that we look back to truths that we clinging to and come back to and hold us firm? And would you help Christ be the center?

3:57Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Lord, message outline is very simple today. But before I get into that, I really wanna encourage kids to grab one of these or grab it on the way out. If you didn't already do that, pastor Aaron and his team have put together wonderful resources. And from what I understand there's sort of like some introduction to the book and then a sheet that's gonna come your way every week there's stuff for you to write on and draw out. And there's even a place for you to draw a picture back here of Paul writing a letter. And I want to add something to that. One of the main points today is the letters are powerful, especially letters from God. So if you're writing a picture, if you're drawing a picture of Paul writing a letter, like put some rockets or something like that on the letter cuz this letter is powerful. Okay, we'll maybe come back to that a little bit later. Well, so our outline is pretty simple today. We're gonna walk through the text, we're gonna begin in verse one with the author and try to be stirred up by way of reminder about who Paul is.

4:57And then we're gonna look at verse two and talk about the audience. What is this place of Colossians? Who are the colossi believers? What was going on with them? And is anything that's going on with them similar to what's going on with us? And I'll just give you a clue, yes, this is gonna be very helpful for us. And finally we're gonna look at verses three through eight in the third little section to notice how this letter begins, we get a curve ball unexpected. I wonder if the Colossians were even like, whoa, they weren't expecting that as they begin to open to read the letter and what he includes in verses three through eight. So we're gonna look at the author, we're gonna look at the audience and then we're gonna look at the surprising beginning. Are you ready? Let's dive in The author.

5:48So Colossians one, one, look it again with me, Paul, the apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy, our brother. We notice two people already and we're gonna, we're gonna meet another guy in a few verses. We notice two people right away, Paul and Timothy. Timothy is sort of a son in the faith to Paul. And I think it's helpful for us to zoom in on a couple things that Paul mentions just to remember what's going on here. First, Paul is an apostle and he's apostle by the will of God. So who is Paul and what is an apostle? Why would he say that? So the word apostle means one that's sent out and it can be generic in the sense like our word president can be generic and can be applied to a lot of stuff.

6:36Maybe you were the president of your high school debate team or maybe there's a little bit more prestige, you're the president of a bank or university or this, that or the other thing. But there's a very special group of presidents when we use that term, the presidents of the United States. Paul is more like that second group. He's not just a sent out one. He is joined by God's will with the 12 apostle, the disciples to be authoritative messengers for Jesus Christ. He has seen the risen Christ, he has authority to direct and govern and rule the churches and he does so like Jesus. Jesus came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

7:24So we read in Paul's letters that he has authority to do things that he doesn't always take advantage of. He uses his authority for the good of the churches and he was also given authority to write scripture. We see that in a couple places and that really gets to where we're at with this letter in second Peter three 15 through 16. Peter the apostle Peter says he talks about Paul's writings and say that some bad people twist them like they do the other scriptures. That's pretty amazing. Listen to what Paul says about his words and how we should respond to them. In his letter to the Corinthians chapter 14 verses 37 and 38, he says, if anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things that I am writing, so Paul sing, the things that I am writing are a command of the Lord.

8:27So how many of you, when the scripture was read this morning were like, whoa, that was the command of the Lord? We need to be stirred up by way of reminder. These words that we're about to walk through in this book are the command of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are weighty powerful words that he has directed through Paul for the good of the Colossian church and the good of us. Are you leaning in? Is your heart humbled before these words? It should be. If it's not, ask for help. This is God's word. Well what does it mean by the will of God? By the will of God? Do you know that God desires and accomplishes and does exactly what he desires to accomplish?

9:21Just pause for a moment and think about Paul's life. Paul says in Galatians one 15 that while I was in my mother's womb, God desired and called me to be an apostle. A little bit later in that letter, he reminds us of his story. He says in Galatians one 13, for you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. Is your picture of God big enough that he desires to use a violent destroyer of his church to be one of the greatest mouthpieces to build his church? We worship an awesome God and Paul is very clear of the but God, it's not just in Ephesians.

10:05In Galatians he says, but he meaning. But God was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. God showed up and blinded Paul with his glory, healed his blindness, took out his heart of stone, gave him a heart of flesh and sent him out as his authoritative messenger by the will of God. And what's the result? Well, back in history, certain churches that were only hearing about it were hearing it said that he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy and they glorified God because of me. Does your heart glorify God because of people like Paul?

10:53Do you believe that even some of the most vicious enemies of Christ in your life could if by God's will and his desire they could be turned around to be used for God's good purposes? It's a good thing to remember these things. I was praying for somebody like that this week praying that God would do another miracle like that. That's our God. And this is his servant who's writing the letter. Well who was this letter written to?

11:23I think we can have D, different things can help us orient, but we're gonna look at a map. The media team is gonna put up a map that's been given to us drawn by the ESB study Bible. And I think it's helpful to know this is the world that Paul lived in. This is the world that contained Colossi. Up in the far corner you can see Rome and in the bottom corner you can see Jerusalem and if, if you can't travel there as the crow flies, but if you did, it's like 1500 miles across. So this is a big map and Colossi is kind of in the center of Asia and it's, it's good for you to know that it's about 120 mile journey from the coast Ephesus to to Colossi.

12:10And Colossi is kind of like us. It has a twin city and that's Leia, which is mentioned five different times in this letter. Now you might wonder, and we'll come back to this map in just a second, you might wonder, well what is their story like? Can we turn to some chapter in the book of Acts and figure out uh, what happened with them, how the gospel came to them? The answer is no. You see, Paul, we see a little bit later in this letter, chapter two verse one has not seen these believers face-to-face. He hasn't seen them yet face-to-face rather in one verse seven we read about the third person in this opening. His name is Aris.

12:54He was the one that spoke the gospel to them. So probably what happened is that in Acts 19, nine and 10, when Paul was reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannis. Now that doesn't mean come to my philosophical lecturer and I will tell you all these big and great thoughts about God. No, he was opening up the scriptures and proving to audience upon audience upon audience that Jesus Christ must suffer and die and be raised again and that faith is the right response and repentance look to him. So Ires either traveled from Colossi to Ephesus and heard Paul teach this message and then went back or maybe he was in Colossi and then, or I'm sorry, he was in Ephesus when this was taking place and then traveled because Acts 19, nine through 10 says those two years that he spent in Ephesus, all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

13:57They didn't all descend on Ephesus, but the word went out from there. And we see the powerful work of God in this little letter. Now you need to know that Paul is most likely writing this letter from Rome. The book of Acts ends and Paul is in prison in Rome. And if you look at the end of this letter, chapter four verse 18, Paul says, remember my chains? So he's in prison. And it helps I think to understand that this letter was so important and what was going on in this church was so important that Ires heard about it and made a massive journey all the way up to Rome to share with Paul what was going on with this church.

14:45And then this letter went all the way back to Colossi to serve them spiritually. So this is a pretty important letter and it's addressing some pretty important things. Finally, I think you need to know this about Colossi. It's great diversity in many ways scholars believe that Colossi was a city located on a major Roman highway. It was ethnically diverse and diverse in population. In thought as well. Scholar Doug Moo points out that the Colossians diversity and the many visitors to it because of the highway meant that Colossi was a place where many different religious and philosophical viewpoints thrived and probably mixed together. So why is that important?

15:40Do you live in a world like that? Do you live on the highway? Do you live in a city on the highway, the information highway and the social media highway and how they converge? Are there various viewpoints, philosophies, rules, regulations, judgments that overshadow your life? Do you need to be help, helped to navigate some of those things? I think I do. I think you might benefit from this letter in all that it has to share with us and we'll learn more about that in just a moment. Well, that's a little bit about their background, where they're located, what's going on. But what does Paul have to say about these people knowing that background?

16:26He jumps right in to try to serve them. And he does that by carefully choosing some phrases to describe them. Look with me at Colossians one, two, the first half of that verse to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossi. It's important to know Paul's intentional word choice here and let's start from the back first. They are in Christ. This theme is repeated throughout the letter and I hope that it just reverberates in your soul this summer to be united to the living. Jesus Christ is one of the most glorious spiritual realities that exists to be seen in him. To have your sin counted on him and paid for completely on the cross and to have his his righteousness be counted to you, to have God look at you and see you as united to Jesus Christ, to be united to Jesus', resurrection life so that his life is moving through you. By faith, these people were in Christ and that means they're saints and faithful brothers. That their righteousness, their sainthood, they're being righteous, not used in any sort of other way than they are righteous in Christ is because they're united to Christ. That's the only reason.

17:58So we should ask ourselves, am I putting my faith in any other things? Am I trying to build my righteousness on the side as well as trusting in Jesus Christ? Do I need to be called back to the goodness and the goodness alone of Jesus? That's partially what this letter is about. And their faithful brothers in Christ. There were some concerns in this church about how they were to obey and how others were judging what they were doing. And so Paul wants to be very clear, you're in Christ, he is making you faithful by his spirit. Can you imagine receiving that from the authoritative spokesperson for Jesus calling you faithful? How encouraging is that?

18:43Do you think about these things in these categories? Do you trust in your righteousness in Jesus Christ alone? Are you faithful because you're obeying Jesus Christ by trusting him in faith? Could that be said of you? Do you look around and commend others for these things and encourage them with words like these? We should, Paul did. We should. Well finally, let's consider Paul's shepherding purpose. I've already sort of hinted at it, but I'd like to look a little bit further at it in this letter, the second half of verse two says, grace to you in peace from God our father, these are very powerful words that often open Paul's letters.

19:32The grace, the grace that he's speaking about is God's powerful work in them. Are there people that you want God to powerfully work in? Do you want God to powerfully work in you? The peace is their ability to trust and rest in God, which can be felt in their assurance and seen in their calm. Have you noticed how much peace we lack in our social media saturated age and how much peace we need? What we need to do is take our eyes off some of those things and put them on Christ. So what was going on in this day? I'd encourage you to glance down the page and I'm gonna point out a few phrases just to give you a taste.

20:17We're gonna go much deeper as we move through the letter, but I think it's helpful to have a taste for what's going on in this people. 1 23 of the letter. Paul is saying he does not want them to shift from the hope of the gospel that you heard. Do you know the gospel's? Not just something that you hear and believe, but it's something you need to keep believing. It's not just the most perfect hope, it's the most perfect hope that we need to keep hoping in by God's grace as he holds us fast. And so there was something in this church that was causing them to shift their hope in two verse four. He does not want them to be diluted with plausible arguments.

20:58He doesn't want them to hear things from the voices, the cultures, the visitors around them and think, well maybe that's the direction I should move. False. He doesn't want them to be diluted. Deceived two eight says He doesn't want anyone to take them captive by philosophies and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. Again, they're gonna be taken captive by ideas, wonderful ideas that are capturing them and yet do not connect to Christ.

21:37In two 16 he tells them, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink festivals, new moons and sabbaths their world. They were, they were grabbing different things from Judaism and saying, well you should do this. You shouldn't do that. You should drink this. You shouldn't eat that. Just open up your eyes and see how many dos and don'ts are in your world. Like you drive down your street. No Moe, you go over here, you go to the this store and like, well you can't buy that stove cuz that's not good. And in Ireland we're gonna get rid of a bunch of cows and you can't do this, you can't eat that, you can't go here, you can't do that.

22:19Our world is filled with this. And those are just a few silly examples. How do we navigate that? Finally, in two 20 and 23, do not submit to its regulations, to these specific re regulations which have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion. Yikes. We want Christ made religion, Christ-centered religion. We wanna run away from self made religion. And yet there are so many options in our day and age for self-made religion. We need to see it and avoid it. And that's what this letter's gonna help us do. So what is this grace and peace that's needed? This church? And I would argue our church is living in a land swirling with the diversity of viewpoints, arguments, philosophies, opinions, judgments and spiritual experiences, the they and we need to reject the counterfeit calls of wisdom and hold fast to the truth. Now, if you've been hanging out in these seats, and I hope you have, does that sound familiar? Two voices calling to you with wisdom.

23:32One that is the voice of wisdom, that is truth and others that are counterfeits that sound really good, but they're false. That's just where we were in Proverbs. The same is true here, but here's the deal. Proverbs often focuses on some outward fleshly things like avoid adultery, don't do this with money, don't wonderful things that we should pay very much attention to. But Colossians wants us to remind us that there's voices calling out to us on how to live the good life, how to even obey and love God. There are false voices telling you how to do that if they're apart from Christ. So we need to have our eyes open and we need to get the wisdom from this book.

24:19Wisdom is a theme. I believe it's about five different times it occurs. We need to watch out for worldly wisdom, even in our religious lives as we seek to follow Christ. And this book is going to help us. If I were to summarize this book in a phrase I might say, I might take steal the phrase from Colossians three, four, where it says in the middle of the verse, Christ, who is your life? Is Christ your life? Are you relying upon him? Are you being energized by him? Are you moving forward by him? Christ is your life. Don't go anywhere else for life. Christ is your life.

25:08Or if I were to summarize it in the passage, Colossians two, six through seven says, therefore, as you have received Christ, Jesus the Lord, so your believers, so walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. May your life and breath and confidence in rooting be in Christ. Let Christ be the center as you reject all others. Let Christ be your source of truth. Let Christ be your justification. Let Christ judgment trump the fear of man. Let Christ's call to obedience overshadow each new false religion or culture. You must do this. Let Christ be your grace and peace for you.

25:55Live in him. Let Christ be your life. Well that's the author. That's a little bit of of a preview of coming attractions of where this letter is gonna go into whom this letter is written. Now let's consider the opening of the letter, and I just wanna put you for a second in Paul's shoes or in PRS shoes, who was sort of the minister who was serving this church? If you knew these things were going on, if you knew where they were living, what? How would you start your letter? What would you say?

26:37Where would you begin? Kids, if you're done drawing your picture of Paul, uh, and if there's any space left on your paper, I'd encourage you to consider drawing a Swiss army knife or a multi-tool. It's like all these things put together and there's woo, it opens up and it has all these different things, saws and toothpicks and all sorts of other cool stuff all together in one thing. And I would write the words, thank God kind of on the base of that. Paul begins with thanksgiving and we're gonna see several different tools that come out. And I think Thanksgiving is an often neglected tool in our Christian lives. And it is so, so important.

27:27I mean just look across the scriptures. We're supposed to cast our anxieties upon him and part of that, and part of our help in that is with thanksgiving, Thanksgiving builds our faith. Thanksgiving helps set the altitude for our living. A former pastor that I used to sit under said it increases our joy and we're gonna see here, it helps us fight false teaching, it helps us combat lies. So he begins with thanksgiving and not just the word thanksgiving, he begins with 102 word sentence describing how much he's thankful for this people and how he thanks God for them in prayer. Look at Colossians one, verse three.

28:20We always thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray for you now you need to understand the letters of the day to really help this 102 word sentence. Now if you're familiar with Paul, you're like he is the master of the run on. You already know that. But you need to understand that Paul, normally in his day there would be a one word that occurs here and that word is greetings. If you look at Acts 1523, you don't have to do that now, but there is a short letter that's reported about in the Book of Acts and it spends a little bit of time talking about who sent the letter and to whom it's going to.

29:01And then it says the word greetings and then it goes right into the content. That was the normal way one of these letters worked. However, in this one he transformed this word. Greetings into this, we give thanks. And then like I said, he goes on for 102 words. That's a whole lot more than one. So what is he doing here? Why is it so important? What is he saying? Well, we're gonna look at these five verses quickly at four different things, categories, things that cause his heart to erupt in thanksgiving to God for this church. And each of these is strategic in its shepherding power. He begins in verses three, we always give thanks to God our Father, Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, he begins by thanking God for their faith and fruit.

30:01So first he's thanking God for their salvation. When they heard the gospel, they didn't run back to the darkness and say, no, we love this. Stop shining the light on us. No, they came out into the light, they moved towards repentance and they put their faith from their humbled hearts in Jesus Christ. So he's thanking God for their faith and for their fruit, for the love that they have for all the saints. Now this is pretty amazing. This is a wonderful thing to be set of a church. Not only that, they have love moving among them, but they have love for all the saints sounds to me like God has helped them remove partiality and their love is freely and liberally going all directions. All the saints feel loved, experience, love, whether in their mind it would feel like love or not, they are being loved in this church.

30:58Why is he doing this? He's doing this in part because he wants to focus their attention on God who is the source? Remember they're tempted to put their hope somewhere else and he reminds them from the beginning, Christ did this and I'm thinking, God, that you believe not just I thank you and you're such a great Christian. I'm thanking God for your faith and your love for one another.

31:23We should do this too. Do you do that? Do you? Do you write your thank you notes and does it ever say, I'm thanking God for you about this? Does that thought occur to you? I'm super thankful for what you did and I'm thankful for the source of those good things. We should think that way. And Paul tells them why he's thankful because he wants to direct their attention to Jesus. And finally, I think this type of prayer builds faith it. It doesn't say this explicitly, but I've seen it this week in my own life. I know some people that I'm praying for in this congregation who are going through very deep trials or hard things and sometimes my prayers feels like I'm slogging through a swamp just trying to get it out.

32:12But I also experienced this week as I thanked God for them and the things that he's already done in their lives, even though I want him to do more, my prayers took flight, prayers of thanksgiving, build our faith in the God who has done so many good things and will continue to do good things, all that are in his purposes. Secondly, in the first half of verse five, he's thanking them because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. He's thanking God for the thing that he wants them to trust in. He's thanking God for their hope, for the surety of their hope, the security of the hope, the reality of their hope.

32:55Their hope is not on layaway to just set aside and they just have to make a bunch more payments. It's there, it's already paid for. It's reserved. It's like you receiving the email confirmation, the re, the reservation is in your place is set aside. You just need to wait for the time and it will be there. That's what he's saying for you. Your hope is secure in heaven.

33:21Do you pray this way? Do you wake up in the morning knowing that you need new mercies and not only ask them of God but also thank him that they are yours because his new mercies are new every morning. Do you not only thank God for the gifts of humility as you pray for humility in the people that you love? Do you, do you do those things together? Do you thank God that he's tied blessings to obedience as you pray for the obedience of your children? Do you thank him for the obedience that you've already seen?

33:58Does Thanksgiving mix into your prayers even into your requests? The second to have a five and six, Paul talks about thanking God for the gospel increase in the world and in them Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you and is in indeed in the whole world is bearing fruit and increasing as it does also among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God and truth, there is a word of truth in so many counterfeit options. There is a word of truth, the gospel and that word of truth is bearing fruit and increasing. I don't know how dark your world feels as far as circumstances or how much time you spend in places that are talking about all the problems in this world. Do you know that God is on the move, that his gospel is unstoppable, that it's doing things that you cannot see?

35:01I think sometimes we fall into the Elijah fallacy, God, I'm the only one and they're even coming after me. And what's the truth? God has reserved 7,000 who have not bent or bent the knee. Are you looking at verses like this to encourage your faith that God's gospel is on the move? You might need to do that if you're being discouraged at what's going on around you. Our God is good and our God is on the move. Finally, he thanks God for faithful gospel workers in verses seven and eight, just as you learned it. That is the gospel from a path our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and is made known to us your love. In the spirit, notice the some of the words that Paul uses, this Aric guy who this church is privileged to have praying for them will read later in the letter caring about them, probably making a massive journey, making reports, going to the top and figuring out how do I serve this people.

36:14Paul, help me. This guy is beloved by Timothy and Paul. He is their fellow servant that means to serve with. He's coming alongside and serving with Paul, serving them, and perhaps serving others. It's repeated. He's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who are the faithful ministers of Christ on your behalf in your life. As you look back historically, who is faithful to minister Christ to you in your past as you look around who is faithful to be ministering to Christ in your life right now? Then let your heart look up and thank God for them. It is such a privilege to gather together as a church.

37:07It was a privilege to be with the people in the prayer room this morning. It's a privilege to see people in the flesh this morning that I was had been praying for this week. It's so such a blessing that we value seeking the author's intent of this scripture. Our heart should be welling up in thanksgiving for the community of faith that God has given us and the people that serve us in the faith.

37:34Notice the final shepherding note. Paul is wonderfully, gently, relentless to this church and his final words are thanking them for their love in the spirit. Don't forget it's not about you. This is fruit. Fruit from God, the source. Look to him, trust the Holy Spirit, rely on him. Know that he's gonna show up as you step out in faith. I'm thankful that for your love in the spirit and that the Holy Spirit is at work among you.

38:15That's the opening to the letter of the Colossians. Here's what I, here's the three things I hope you walk away with one. This is a powerful letter. This is worthy of you checking it out this week, maybe reading an A study Bible introduction or watching the Bible project eight minute video to get yourself oriented to what's going on in this, this letter. This is worth coming back and hearing more and leaning in and and realizing that this is for me, it was for them, but God wants to use it for me and thanking God for this letter. Secondly, it's worth to begin now a journey that we're gonna spend this summer inviting God to search our hearts to see if Christ is the center.

38:56Where is he not the center? Where is my hope drifting? One of my favorite prayers in the Psalms is Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24, Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24 This. This would be a wonderful summer prayer. Search me oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting where I'm off. Redirect me to the path of your word. Help me to follow and trust it and lean into it.

39:32This book is gonna call us to have all our hope in Jesus Christ and finally prioritize Thanksgiving. As you pray, add it in. It might feel clunky at first, but it's amazing. It's gonna help you in so many different ways. It's gonna increase your joy and contentment, which in contentment there's great gain. It will help you fight anxiety, self-reliance, self-pity, unbelief. Thank God it will help fuel your prayers with faith. Thank God. Let's go to him in prayer. Father, thank you so much for this letter. Thank you for setting us on this shepherding trajectory this summer and for beautifully orchestrating it and its connections to the book of Proverbs, which we are just in and many of us are gonna be in the summer in various ways.

40:28Thank you for Christ. Thank you for faithful ministers like Paul who keep pointing us back to Christ being the center in our hope. Thank you for music. We've sung about the centrality of Christ so many times this morning and would you help us again as we sing this song to both see and treasure the centrality of Christ, to put our faith in him, and would you help us to well up in thanksgiving for Christ? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Laurel Watkins

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Carmen Tomaszewski

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Missy Steward

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Maggie Sporleder

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Diane Soderholm

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Ryan Soderholm

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Lulu Robinson

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Millie Roberts

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Claire Olson

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Grace Ohlendorf

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