Christian Community in an Anti-Christian Age | Colossians 3:11-17 | Pastor Mark Griffin

Well, grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we just prayed, but will you join me in praying one more time? Father, we approach this time now with reverence and awe. Father, help us as we open your word together. Lord, may you use this next next few moments to captivate the hearts of your people.

Lord, may you open our eyes to behold wondrous things out of your word today. Father, help me, Lord, I pray. May I decrease. May you increase. If anything that I say is from the flesh, is unclear, is worldly wisdom, may it be quickly forgotten by your people.

But what I say after you, what I say through the power of your spirit, may it implant deeply into the heart of your people and change lives. May you transform your people by the power of your spirit today more into the image of your great son, Jesus Christ, for your glory and our joy. In Jesus' name, Amen. Throughout history, the Church of Christ has acted as a preservative to the world and cultures around it. Jesus said that we believers are to be salt and light to the world.

This highlights one of the church's functions to be different, set apart, holy, and through that to be a powerful force of Christ exalting good. To shine the light of truth in dark places and to protect and preserve communities and people from physical, moral, and spiritual decay, disease, and death. Today, we are living not just in a secular age, but we are living in an antichrist age. God good is called evil and evil is called good from the White House to the schoolhouse. And folks, this is not a political problem.

It's a spiritual one. But instead of the church pushing back against this anti Christian culture, instead of the church being the church, what we have seen in America and the West especially is capitulation and compromise. Countless churches and denominations and individuals are falling one by one to the deceptions and the desires of the culture around us. And because of this, the church has lost its power and preserving effect to an astonishing degree. In order for us to be salt and light in this anti Christian age, we first have a responsibility to the Lord and to each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ, to put our own house in order first.

So today, I want to look at what the Bible says about Christian community. My goal is to present to you the incredible reality of true Christian community. Better than any idealized version you might have in mind and certainly far greater than any cheap substitute found in the world or in apostate churches. And when I say Christian community, I'm talking about every community or group you find yourself in where two or three or more believers are regularly gathered together. Your family, your friend group, your workplace, that Bible study you are a part of, or that men's group or women's group, your homeschool community or prayer group, and most intensely and indispensably, the assembly of believers in the local church.

So I invite you to turn with me to Colossians chapter three. Our text for today is Colossians chapter three verses 11 through 17. The apostle Paul says, here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and blameless, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.

As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanks thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

From this passage, we will look at four points. The foundation of Christian community, the heart of Christian community, the fuel of Christian community, and lastly, the purpose of Christian community. First, the foundation. Colossians three eleven. Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.

Simply put, Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian community. If you get this basic fundamental truth wrong, then you will never truly understand what it means to participate in real authentic Christian community. If you try to build a Christian community on a faulty foundation, It may grow. It may do a lot of things and have a lot of programs, but when testing and trials and storms come, that community will collapse. Of the truth that Christian community starts with our unity in Christ.

This admonition likely shocked the first century Jewish believers. That's why he had to repeat it to different churches in different letters. And in our day, it needs to be shouted from the rooftops all the more, even to so called conservative evangelicals. Here, there is not Greek and Jew. Your ethnicity is subservient to your identity in Christ.

That's what it says. Your heritage, your culture, or traditions are subservient to your identity in Christ and your family and your kinsmen are subservient to your identity in Christ. Let me put it another way. If you are a Christian, you are united to Jesus Christ himself and through him, you are united to every single genuine believer who ever existed or whoever will exist. There is no connection more permanent, no relationship more abiding and no identity more strong.

That's the basis of Christian community. The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, in our culture, in this anti Christian age, people are fixated on race and ethnicity. Our society is consumed by an ideology that says your skin color, your ethnic heritage, where your ancestors are from is the deciding factor in who you are as a person. Now let me sum up this ideology.

And for the sake of time, I won't be going into every detail and nuance, but enough for you to see how this kind of thinking is repugnant to biblical Christian community and offers only a pathetic imitation to true unity in Christ. Now this thinking says this ideology says, if you are white, whatever that means, you inherently are the beneficiary of centuries of abuse and kidnapping and torture of those who aren't white. Therefore, you are automatically a racist. You were born that way. There is in fact no way you can't be a racist.

You are benefiting from and promulgating a system of inequality and injustice. You can't change that fact. But what you can do is you can be a so called anti racist. You're still a racist, but now you recognize your racism and work to combat its effect on black and brown minorities. There is no forgiveness for you though.

No absolution, only lifelong penance. This ideology says that people should view the world through the lens of what's called power dynamics. Every relationship, every interaction is a power play where one person exerts power and coercion over the other person. And you are in only of one of two camps. Either you are an oppressor or you are the oppressed.

You are either exerting power or you are having power exerted over you. If you are white, you are always the oppressor because of your privilege. If you are a minority, you are always the oppressed. And our current systems, whether it be governmental, societal, or familial are rotten to the core because they exacerbate, they strengthen these oppressive regimes and systemic racism. So these systems must be destroyed to make way for better, more equitable ones.

Now this ideology, call it what you want, wokeness, Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, it boils down to this. You will ultimately be judged either favorably or unfavorably by your skin color and by your ancestry. That is abhorrent to the Bible and therefore, it must be abhorrent to us as Christians. And when it infiltrates the church, it's like a disease that divides and destabilizes because Christ is no longer the foundation. You will still hear biblical words like love and justice and repentance, but they are devoid of meaning and life because they are unmoored from what the Bible actually says.

Christ is supplanted in favor of a political and social agenda. And if allowed to get a foothold in any Christian community, the inevitable fruit will be suspicion and anger and frustration, factions and mistrust in the end, the complete destruction of that community. Thank God for the Bible because it warns us about this deadly infection. You see, some of the Jews in the early church who believed in Jesus as the Messiah were astonished that Gentiles, everyone other than Jews, could be recipients of the same salvation through Christ. God chose Israel as his people.

The Messiah was for the Jews. Salvation was only for the Jew, so they thought. Turn with me to Acts chapter 15, starting in verse seven. Acts fifteen, first verse seven, where this controversy came to a head. Acts 15 verse seven says And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you, That by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

In God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. We must remember that in those days, Jews and Gentiles were separated by an insurmountable divide.

Jews wouldn't go into a Gentile's home or eat food with a Gentile or food prepared by a Gentile. They wanted nothing to do with each other. But look at this. Look at these phrases in the Bible. He made no distinction.

God made no distinction. And at the end, we will be saved just as they will. That's why Paul says in Galatians three twenty six through 28, you don't have to turn there. Listen. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, there is neither Greek, There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus. That's incredible. Paul is saying that when you become a Christian, there is no longer any dividing wall of hostility based on where you were born, what language you speak, the color of your skin, no biological factor, no socioeconomic factor.

If you are a Christian, then you are, all of you, united in Jesus. Brother, sister, do you know what that means? It means you're not a white Christian or a black Christian. You're not an Asian Christian or an Arab Christian. Whether you're Hispanic or a Syrian or Polish, nothing comes in front of your identity in Christ.

Nothing should even come close. Even apart from critical race theory and woke ideology, there is no place for ethnocentricity in the church of Christ. There is no place for favoritism or exclusion based on where you are from or what language you speak in the church of Christ. Your heritage, your culture, your traditions must bow the knee to Christ. Does that mean that God doesn't care about ethnicity or diversity or variety in Christian community?

Of course not. Unity in Christ does not mean uniformity. Now before Satan warped and distorted the true meaning and goodness of the words diversity, equity, and inclusion, God, before the foundation of the world, was planning the unfolding scene in Revelation chapter five. Why don't you turn there and look at this? Revelation five, we'll start at verse nine.

This is amazing. It says here in Revelation five nine, and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, And by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. It's it's right here. Look, you have made them a kingdom. God took many and made one.

Many people, many languages, many nations, one kingdom, one body. Look around this room. Do you see it? We might not have every tribe, language, people, and nation here, but we've got many. But this church, Maranatha Bible Church, our goal is not diversity.

Our goal is not to have a diverse congregation or diverse elders or diverse deacons and leaders. That's not our goal. Our goal is to exalt Jesus Christ as preeminent in everything we do. And in this city, in this local assembly, God, for his glory and our joy, has raised up brothers and sisters from across the world who wanna do the same thing. That's unity.

On Christ, the solid rock I stand. On Christ, the solid rock, we stand. No other ideology, no other political motivation, no other priorities, no other ground is as stable as Christ. In fact, what does the song say? All other ground.

All other ground is sinking sand. Now having seen that Jesus is the one true lasting foundation for Christian community. Let's continue and go back to Colossians chapter three. Colossians three starting at verse 12. Put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Because you are united with each other in Christ, the Christians who make up this community must cultivate Christ like characteristics, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and above all, love. But in the middle of these traits and dispositions is the key, the linchpin to it all. Just as the heart and the human body pumps blood throughout it, enabling every other function to occur here in the in this Christian community, the beating heart of our life together is this phrase, as the Lord has forgiven you.

Everything flows from that. Every good work, every word of kindness, every attitude of humility or act of love radiates from this. God has forgiven you. Only a Christian knows what it means to have their sins forgiven. And to the extent that we truly understand that incredible reality, that will be the extent that we exhibit the characteristics essential to abiding fellowship with one another.

In other words, if you take your forgiveness lightly, then your compassion will be light. If you think you are somehow deserving of God's forgiveness, then you will find humility and patience all but impossible. So it is imperative that we remind ourselves and truly grasp the significance of what it means to be forgiven by the Lord. Listen. Don't turn there.

Just listen to how the Bible describes us before Christ. Ephesians two one and three. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Or how about Titus three three? For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Last one, first Corinthians six nine through 11. Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. Before Christ, we were, all of us, this and more. We were thoroughly and pervasively depraved in mind, body, and soul.

We had no hope. None at all. We were all on our way to spend eternity in hell because of our sin. We were dead, the Bible says. Our allegiance was to Satan and we acted like animals following our fleshly desires and our selfish passions.

But the utter darkness of our condition only demonstrates the breathtaking beauty of our salvation. Second Corinthians four six sums it up beautifully. Paul says, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God and the face of Jesus Christ. You see, God loved you. God saved you and it was a gift, mercy and grace.

Nothing you did or could do to earn it. The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And let's be clear. The only thing you contributed to your salvation was your sin. Everything else was God.

Today, if you are a Christian, it is not because of any merit of your own. It is not because you are smarter or lovelier or wiser than anyone else. You were not less guilty or less of a rebel than others. You hated God and you deserved only wrath and judgment. But brother, sister, that's what's so amazing about grace.

So it is only the Christian who truly understands this great great salvation. Not earned, not deserved, not expected. It is only this Christian who can extend to others in the church what Paul is describing in Colossians three twelve through 14. So as the Lord has forgiven you, put on compassionate hearts. As the Lord has forgiven you, put on kindness and humility, meekness and patience and love.

In other words, God has extended grace to you so you extend it to others. How can I be compassionate? Well, remember Christ's compassion for you. How can I be humble? Remember that there was nothing worthy in you, but God lavished His love upon you.

How can I be patient? Remember that God was patient toward you in your unbelief as you blasphemed Him. And remember that God continues to be patient toward you as you fight the sin in your life. Finally, ask yourself this. How can I put on love?

One John four nineteen. We love because He first loved us. So whenever you struggle with these, whenever you find it hard to be meek or kind to others within the Christian community, go back to the cross. Remind yourself of what God did for you. And as Hebrews two says, do not neglect this great salvation.

Pay close attention to it. Meditate upon it. Remind yourself about it. Let it permeate your thoughts and your attitudes, and the Holy Spirit will enable you and strengthen you to put on these Christ like characteristics. Let's look closer at verse 13 of Colossians three.

Bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Some might have a vision of Christian community that is free from strife and conflict, free from arguments and discord and trouble, in a sense, free from sin and sinners. But this utopian ideal is not Christian community according to the Bible. In fact, the Christian community is not differentiated from a worldly community by the absence of conflict, but by how members respond to conflict. The world responds to conflict and disagreement by excluding and canceling people.

Today, in every industry and every field, cancel culture is a means to deal with a problem or an annoyance or a bothersome situation. Sides are taken before facts come out. Relational problems are handled through gossip and slander and backbiting. The offender or the one who most think is the offender is ejected from the group and ignored, blocked, deleted, and canceled. You've got too many problems for me.

I'm just not gonna deal with you anymore. Or you hurt me, so I'm done with you. You're dead to me. This cancel culture mentality can even permeate a Christian community. You know the signs of it?

Always smiling, never having a bad day. An outward performance of constant yet superficial politeness and niceness. No struggles, no hurts, no pains, no trials. Fake, fake, fake. Church, Paul exhorts us to bear with one another because people, Christians included, are not easy people to do life with sometimes.

We are all sinners growing in sanctification. Bear with one another. It means don't try to transform your brothers and sisters into your own image, what you find pleasing or acceptable or conforms to your ideal Christian. Bear with one another. It means helping them as they help you to be conformed to the image of Christ.

It means listening to others, investing time and energy into others, and it means forgiving others when they sin against you. And remember, you will be sinned against and you will sin against others. When that happens, what are you gonna do? Will you recruit people, gossip about that person who hurt who hurt you? Will you destroy reputations and relationships?

Or will you be quick to forgive? When you sin against someone, will you dig in your heels, refuse to admit you're wrong, and deflect, and in fact, turn it against the one who you sinned against? Or will you be quick to seek forgiveness? The answer to those questions will determine whether you truly want to participate in Christian community. Now some might say, Mark, you don't know what this person did to me.

You don't know what they said about me or texted about me or posted about me. How can I forgive them? I don't know your situation, but I do know this. You have been forgiven much, An eternal amount, an inconceivable amount. Can you really withhold something that God has freely given to you?

And if you say yes to that, if you are going to hold on to your anger or bitterness or unforgiveness, then you don't truly understand your salvation. Now this part, forgiveness, it may be the most difficult part of living in a Christian community. Our flesh may revolt at the very idea of forgiving someone who hurt us and sinned against us, but church, while it might be the most difficult part, it is also the clearest demonstration that we are in fact part of a genuine biblical Christian community. The world will say you are crazy to forgive that person. Don't be stupid.

But through the difficulty, through the pain and the tears that may come, your master will say to you, well done, good and faithful servant. So when was the last time you truly humbly asked another brother or sister for forgiveness? When was the last time you truly humbly extended forgiveness to another brother or sister, even one who didn't ask for it? Are you holding on to grudges or resentment? As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

That's what it means to be a part of the body of Christ because that's what it means to be forgiven by the Lord. Next, the foundation of Christian community, the heart of Christian community. Now, let's look at the fuel of Christian community. Colossians three sixteen. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Christian community will die of starvation without individual members and the community as a whole feasting on the word of God. The scriptures are the very words of eternal life. Ignore them, neglect them, minimize them to your own peril and to the peril of the community in which you belong. You see, Paul is saying that in order for a community of believers to be a true Christian community, the word of God has to dwell inside of you. It takes up residence inside of you.

And then he adds the adverb, richly, thoroughly, completely, abundantly. What does that mean? It means that you don't just know the Bible in your head, but you know it in your heart. It means that you don't go to the Bible asking, can I do this without sinning? No.

You go to the Bible asking, does this help me exalt Jesus Christ? It means you read the Bible, yes, but not only read it, but you meditate upon it. You memorize it. You study it. You pray it.

And in the end, you understand that your study and reading of the Bible is not an end in and of itself. Not as a check the box and I'm done. No. It is a means to an end to know God and to love Him with all of your being. But you see, there is a lack of biblical knowledge and faithfulness among professing Christians today.

Some Christians, some who have been Christians for decades, have never read the entire Bible. Others, the only time they open their Bible is on Sunday morning or afternoon at church. And this biblical ignorance has led to all kinds of fault lines within the church. Hosea four six says, my people my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Church, we are witnessing this all around us.

Too often, people within Christendom are forming worldviews and opinions and belief that are contrary to the Bible and more resemble those of social media, politics, movies, and culture. Why? Why do you see professing Christians who support abortion when the Bible clearly says it is murder? Building when the bible says that the LGBTQ lifestyle will exclude you from the kingdom of God? Why do you see feminism and social justice and moral relativism, laissez faire attitudes towards pornography and modesty and sex?

All of these are making inroads into the church, even churches with so called orthodox theology. Why? Because people don't know their bibles. The word of Christ does not dwell within them richly. Now some might know what the Bible says, but their heart judges it and finds it wanting.

These people have not submitted their entire being to the authority of Christ and the sufficiency of his word. They have the appearance of godliness but deny its power. Is that you today? Does the Bible shape your worldview or does your worldview shape how you read the Bible? Church, the fact of the matter is even here, unless and until the word of God truly dwells in your life richly, you will just be playing at Christian fellowship.

Yes. You might have friends and you might have a good time here, but you will never experience and participate in the great reality of Christian community because this community depends on the Bible to sustain it and to fuel it. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. Only then can we move on to the next phrase in the verse, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Reading verses in context is so important.

Teaching and admonishing only comes after the word of Christ dwells within you richly. And teaching and admonishing only come after verses 12 through 14. In other words, first, put on compassionate hearts and kindness and humility and meekness and patience and forgiveness and love, and then teach and admonish one another with all with a heart saturated in the scriptures. That's vitally important because on the one side of the spectrum are those who wanna teach and counsels others within the community, but mainly to show their own wisdom. And there are also those who want to blast everyone and anyone for so called failings and transgressions and disagreements.

They always have a bone to pick. But you know what first Corinthians 13 says. Most of you can probably say this from memory. First two verses, Paul says, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mystery and all knowledge and I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

He says it here in Colossians. Love is what binds everything together. So before you approach another brother or sister to guide them or counsel them or admonish them, judge your heart and make sure there is love and humility and patience there first. And when you do speak, do so in kindness and compassion and meekness or don't speak at all. Now on the other end of the spectrum are those who never say anything ever.

No teaching or admonishing ever leaves their mouths. And this is also the result of not obeying Paul's instructions in these verses because some will say, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to give a word of encouragement or a word of advice or talk about godly matters even with other Christians. It could be that they don't say anything because that person doesn't have anything to say, legitimately. They are not in the word themselves.

So how on earth could they give what they don't possess? Not a good place to be as a professing Christian. Because if the word of Christ does not dwell in you richly, what does? Now there are also those who teach or admonish who never teach or admonish another brother or sister because they are either afraid of the consequences or they are apathetic about this duty. These excuses don't hold up when looking at the list of Christ like attributes and actions we are to put on in this community.

If you see an opportunity to contribute to this community by correcting or warning or edifying someone and you choose not to do so, then you are harming this fellowship through your inaction. You are pridefully looking out for your own interest and feelings and comfort rather than acting in humility and kindness toward others. Indeed, it is through the misapplication and disobedience of this phrase, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom on both sides of the spectrum that has contributed to the lack of biblical knowledge within many Christian communities and has yielded legalism, self righteousness, and dead orthodoxy on the one hand, and compromise easy believism and apostasy on the other. Church, we need each other. We need each other for encouragement.

We need each other for protection from error, for counsel, help in dividing the word of truth. And yes, we need each other for rebuke and correction. Christianity is not a lone wolf religion. It is not just you and your bible. We need to teach and admonish one another and it's mutual, both giving and receiving.

That kind of participation is crucial to the health and effectiveness of any Christian community. Look at verse 16 again. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Singing is essential to the church. Yes.

We can look at this verse and find instruction on what to sing, songs that are saturated in the word of God, songs that exalt Christ and not man, songs that teach and remind and encourage one another. And we can also look at this verse and see how we are to sing, singing to one another. Ephesians five nineteen, the parallel verse to our passage, Paul says, addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Church, we are to sing to each other. That's one of the reasons when we sing in our services, we choose songs that everyone can sing.

We don't come to a concert. We don't come to watch musicians performing. There is no lasers. There's no smoke machine. We come to participate corporately together.

We want you to hear yourself singing, and we want you to hear those around you singing. This is not musical preference, though. This is the Bible. That's why we do it this way. But even beyond what to sing and how to sing, going deeper, singing involves a heart that is overflowing with joy in and from God.

This is a cumulative effect from everything else we have already seen in our passage. You are in Christ. You are united with a global and everlasting body of believers. Sing. You have been forgiven, brought from death to life.

Sing. The word of Christ is in your heart. God has literally given you the words of eternal life. Sing. Sing for yourself and sing for Christians around you to encourage them and strengthen them and embolden them.

Parents, let your children hear you sing at home, in the car and at church and it will strengthen their faith. Brothers, stand firm in the faith, act like men and sing for the sake of other brothers around you. Sisters, clothe yourselves with strength and dignity. Do not be afraid of anything that is frightening and sing so women around you see what it means to delight in God. It's not about your circumstances or your sufferings or your failures.

It's about where your joy is found. Look at examples of the Bible. We saw this a couple weeks ago. Right? How could Jesus sing with his disciples on the night of his betrayal?

Hebrews twelve two says, for the joy that was set before him. That's your answer. How could Paul and Silas sing after being beaten and thrown in prison? Because their joy was found in the answer they gave to that Philippian jailer in acts 16. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

And how could David sing when he was attacked and maligned and hated? Psalm five eleven, but let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. As brother Brian said on Friday, the Christian's joy comes from the Lord. Indeed, its very substance is the Lord and that kind of joy is unshakable and invincible and it is our strength by which we sing.

So sing to yourself, sing to each other and sing to the Lord and this community will thrive. And lastly, we come to our fourth point, the purpose of Christian community. Colossians three seventeen, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. The purpose of Christian community, any Christian community is to glorify God. Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Doing something in Christ's name means that we are doing it according to the will of Christ. We are attributing our actions to someone greater than ourselves. We are pointing to Christ and saying, I'm doing this for Him. I'm doing this to please Him. I'm doing this to give glory and honor and praise to Him.

That's why Christian community exists. First Corinthians ten thirty one, you know this, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And this isn't some kind of begrudging attribution or acknowledgment because as one pastor theologian put it, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. If we follow Paul's train of thought in this entire passage in Colossians, we see a community made up of believers who are enraptured with Christ, who love Christ, who find their joy in Christ. That's how God is glorified in Christian community.

When we say individually and corporately, you know what? You can take the things of this world. All of its money and pleasures and empty promises, its worldly passions and ambitions, successful career, security, health and safety. You can take it all, but give me Jesus. This is reinforced in verse 15 of Colossians three.

Let's go back up there. I didn't forget it. Colossians three fifteen says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called in one body. What has dominion in your heart? Are you ruled by your own desires or by Christ's?

And look at the last part, to which indeed you were called in one body. Christian, when God called you, when God saved you, He didn't leave you isolated to defend to fend for yourself. He saved you to be a part of a community, the body of Christ, the church, wherever two or three are gathered. So the ruling of Christ must be present in your individual hearts. Yes.

But in a Christian community, the rule of Christ and his peace are the very reason for its existence. That's why God called you. That's why God made you part of the church so that Christ would reign on the throne of your heart and through that, you might be the means of helping others around you ensure that Christ rules in their hearts as well. And did you also see something repeated in these last few verses? Paul highlights the importance of a particular attribute that is integral in our glorifying God to the fullest extent in Christian community.

Thankfulness. Verse 15. And be thankful. Verse 16. With thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Verse 17. Giving thanks to God the Father through him. Thankfulness is the barometer that reveals the extent of our satisfaction in God. If you are a complainer or a grumbler or a whiner, then you are showing everyone around you that God is not supreme in your life. Your own desires and expectations are.

You cannot glorify God with an ungrateful and unthankful heart. Life of thankfulness. Enjoy God's good provision for you. Encourage those around you to be thankful. Remind them.

Proclaim to them. Teach, admonish, and sing to them. Come and see what God has done and glorify him with me. There you have it. Christian community is incredible because Christian community is all about Christ.

The foundation is Christ and the pinnacle is Christ. The centrality is Christ and the continued fuel is the word of Christ. And as Christians, it is our duty and our delight to participate in Christian community. In fact, what you do in a Christian community or what you don't do is not neutral. It is impossible to just be on the sidelines.

You will either build up the community you're in, strengthen it, nurture it with your presence and words and prayers or or you will tear it down bit by bit through your absence, unforgiveness, and worldliness. Your actions will only do one or the other. So settle this in your heart today. Commit to the Lord that you will obey these verses, that you will put on Christ likeness, that you will bear with one another and be quick to forgive. Commit today that you will saturate your life in the word of God and that you will use your words, whether it be teaching or admonishing or singing to build up your brothers and sisters around you and committing your heart to be thankful in all things to the glory of God.

Do these things and then watch. Watch what God will do in your communities, in your cities. Watch what God will do in this country and throughout the entire world. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.

Lord, we thank you for blessing us with it, for giving it to us so that we might know you and be known by you. Lord, may you captivate our hearts with the beauty of this passage. May you focus our minds to seeing the reality, the true spiritual reality of Christian community. And Lord, may we by the power of your Holy Spirit do the hard work to cultivate this community that glorifies you in everything. Protect us, Lord.

Protect us from deception. Protect us from unforgiveness. Protect us from laziness. And Lord, may we desire you evermore, and may we be satisfied only in you. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Amen.