Pastor William
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| HPCBC感恩节晚会 |
Let us read Col. 3:12-17 once again:
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,[d] singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
How can I be thankful? I may have been thinking this back in 2005. My first sermon at Hyde Park Chinese under Pastor Tang was this passage.
Please keep your Bibles open as I will discuss this passage in reverse order, beginning with Verse 17 which is a very powerful verse esp. for Thanksgiving.
17 And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This verse and passage lends well to Thanksgiving. We are encouraged to give thanks to God.
Giving Thanks to God is seen in the 1789 Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by President George Washington:
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor--and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me `to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.' [1]
Verse 17 encourages us to give Thanks to God! Are you giving Thanks to God? At the preschool, Charlotte won the “Praise God Award” because when she received a compliment she would respond, “Praise God!”
In Verse 16 we read:
16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,[d] singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
We are to have gratitude in our hearts. How is that done? Verse 16 shows us! 1. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you and 2. Teach and admonish one another through psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Dwell is the idea of living with. Notice the adjective- richly, placing God’s word in an esteemed position does it not? More on this a little later…
According to this verse we are to use “psalms, hymn, and spiritual songs” to teach and admonish.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”
Let’s do some call and respond. I will sing a phrase and you echo.
“This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made
I will rejoice, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
In youth group, when I was young- we were immature and used to jokingly sing that song with a frown, [crossing hands, frowning] “I will rejoice and be glad in it!”
“Beloved Let us Love One Another
For love is of God
And everyone who loves is born of God and knoweth God
He that loveth not -knoweth not God for God is love.
Beloved let us love one another.
1 John 4:7 and 8!”
We can and do teach with our songs. But what about admonish. Admonish means to correct. And that is we can use psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to correct. Let me tackle admonish at the end of the sermon.
But how do we let the word of God dwell richly among us? Most versions today say to let the word of God dwell richly in you. The CSB use of the word among reminds me that internalizing God’s word really has its greatest benefit when lived out with others. Letting the word dwell richly among you- seems to suggest that others can see God’s word living in you. And I think back to when I was in school about study groups, maybe not for all people but I find that when I study with others I learn more then when I study on my own. God never intended us to be Lone Ranger Christians.
Let us go back to verse 12. We will read v. 12-15 again and notice what we are asked to do? These things make no sense without other people:
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.
Verse 15 shows us that God’s word dwelling richly will produce unity (we are not an army of one), As an aside you can write this down? How do you keep unity in a church? Let the peace of Christ rule in everyone’s heart. And notice the reminder- “And be Thankful.”
Moving up one verse to 14- we see that the best thing one can have is Love- it’s the perfect Bond of Unity! That makes sense love will keep us together.
But living in community does not come easy. We must consciously choose to behave in a certain way. The Apostle Paul here uses a word that is translated “Put on”. We see this in verse 12 but it is also used in verse 10 “put on the new self…’. In the Chinese Union Version the parenthetical notes write that the phrase put on in the original language is cloth. And the New English Translation uses cloth.
Cloth or put on is a tangible metaphor that we can see and understand. It takes a conscious effort to put on clothes. Using that metaphor this verse is about putting on actions and putting on responses to Christ.[2]And those actions and response to Christ do not come naturally.
In the late 70’s with the emergence of the seeker sensitive movement, a mega church emerged called Willow Creek Community Church, in Illinois. The definition of mega church is 2000 members but I think Willow Creek grew to above 20,000. Part of its appeal was a dress down atmosphere- a come as you are if you will. The Pastor- Bill Hybels saw that his target audience commuted into the cities Monday to Friday and they wore business suits Monday to Friday. He created an atmosphere where you did not have to put on your coat and tie. Now, I may be going out on a limb here but the whole business suit probably dates to the industrial revolution, where workers wore blue shirts, where we get the word blue collar, and management wore white shirts where we get white collar.
I remember my cousin graduated from college and purchased an Armani suit. My uncle says to him, “your going to be better dressed than the person interviewing you!” Another family member is in the computer business, well he is programmer, a tech whiz and he told me that if you come to your interview with a suit- most likely you will not get hired!
When the United States chose George Washington to become its first President, he was a man who came from a military background. He traded in his Army uniform for a civilian uniform. He came to work knowing he needed a uniform which became the black suit. A uniform that is still worn today from George Bush, to Xi Jinping.
In American culture we have the phrase Sunday Dress which is to dress up, but really - dress down, dress up, you have freedom. I originally was thinking that I would call my sermon “Thanksgiving Dressing” (I apologize as that is a joke probably not translatable).
Apparel choices are optional but when it comes to the chosen ones of God- they need to clothe themselves with actions. Let’s look at those actions:
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive.
Put on compassion- this is mercy ruling the life of the believer.[3] We used to play this game called mercy. You hold hands and try to bend the other person’s hand until they are in so much pain they cry out MERCY! Mercy is compassion. Mercy is forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.[4]
We are also to put on Kindess- ‘this is a goodness of heart, a sweet disposition, seeing our neighbor’s welfare as important as our own.[5]
We are to put on:
Humility is to have a modest appraisal of self. The focus is on giving up our “rights” for the sake of others.
Gentleness- quiet yet rock- solid strength. If you ever watch Transformers, that is Optimus Prime- this gentle strength. Strong but with a gentle tone.
Patience- is the ability to put up with difficult people.
Bearing with one another- this is putting up with things we find distasteful. It could be sitting next to that homeless man who comes to church not having bathed.
Forgiveness -offering to others what our Lord freely and graciously offers us.[6]
And perhaps the most important action to put on is love. Look at verse 14. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
And during youth group, this sermon preached itself to me. Friday was not a good night, we had technical difficulties, well wait- it was not all bad- dinner was awesome! I wanted to debrief with the youth and talk about how we could improve our skit, and it didn’t come out as I hoped. And I wondered –Did I show them love?
This morning I wanted to answer this question, “How Can I be Thankful this Thanksgiving?” And the passage changes that question to -How can WE be thankful this Thanksgiving?
Some other things about this passage. Notice it is a paragraph. I saw the paragraph as a list of commands and I read that list from the bottom to the top. I did not get a chance to explain that this paragraph begins with the word therefore. You have to go up two paragraphs to verse 1 to see the reason we are to be Thankful, and united, and dwelling on Christ’s word? Verse 1 says that because we have been raised with Christ. Are you raised with Christ? Because we are raised with Christ – therefore we must cloth ourselves with compassion, humility, patience, etc. Love being the most important thing we are to put on.
But also note some adjectives God’s chosen ones, holy, and dearly loved. The adjectives that I see- God’s, chosen, holy, and dearly loved. Believer you belong to God You are God’s, the apostrophe s signifies a possessive. You are His. You are chosen. When you make a profession of faith you respond to God’s calling of you. We are his holy people, set apart, pure. But notice we are dearly loved. Have you ever felt love that strong?
If God is calling you- respond to Him today!
Lastly let us return to v. 16 16 Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,[d] singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.
Admonish means to correct, to exhort. We may have sung this song so many times that we mindlessly sing it but allow the words to teach and correct you this morning.
Give thanks with a grateful heart -Have you been calloused in your heart. Do you have an ungrateful mindset? I know I do at times.
Give thanks to the Holy One -Have you lost your high regard of God? Have you come to view God’s holiness with disdain as puritanical?
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son- Have you rec’d the gift of Jesus?
Give thanks to the Holy One -Have you lost your high regard of God? Have you come to view God’s holiness with disdain as puritanical?
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son- Have you rec’d the gift of Jesus?
Let me pray and then we will stand and sing Give Thanks.
