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Well, good morning. If you have your Bibles, we'll be in the email. Chapter one this morning

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should be on page 399 if you don't have your Bible, but there should be one in front of

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you. I don't know what page it's on in your Bible, but that's what page it's on in the

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Chair Bibles. I encourage you to find it as we go through this together. But I think before

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we dive in today, we have to establish how it is we are to look at the men and the women

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of the Bible. There's a way to look at the men and the women in the Bible that's going

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to be helpful to us. And then there's a way to view men and women in the Bible that's

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just not helpful, but it's actually harmful. What our tendency is as people is to not

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look at the men and the women in the Bible as ordinary people, but we tend to look at

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them as extraordinary people so that as we watch God move in them and through them, what

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we do is we look at men and the women in the Bible like we look at Michael Jordan in basketball,

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like we look at Steve Jobs in business, like we look at Mozart in music. So just to unpack

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a little bit, just in case you're not tracking with me, here's what I would say. Michael Jordan

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is one of the greatest basketball players that's ever lived. And when you're talking

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MJ, you're talking about a level of play that transcended his time even to this day. A hundred

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years from now, if they are still playing the game, there will still be Jordan. There's

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a lot of dudes in the league, right? But there's Jordan. Then you have like Steve Jobs and

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his business creativity and you might be brilliant at business. And I'm sure many of you are,

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but that man convinced us that computers were cool. And then look at what he did to us.

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I mean, I can't even get angry. It blows my mind. He literally developed a product and

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then would just slightly tweak that product and make us rebuy it. And we would and we

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love him for that. And we liked that he did that to us. We didn't even go, are you serious?

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It just has more pixels, right? Your camera is a little bit better. Let me go ahead and

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buy that. Give me the new one, right? We just kept on doing it. We loved it. And so this

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is a man that is history continues, what we'll always look back at Steve Jobs and Mozart.

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Now I know there's different styles of music and different types of music. I could probably

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drop many things in there. But when all is said and done, I would wager that 100 years

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from now, we aren't looking at Luke Bryan. I just don't know if his music is what we're

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going to be studying in school, right? I just don't think that. What we do is we tend to

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approach men and women in the Bible as though they're that type of person. That's who they

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are. And when you do that, the stories in the Scriptures actually serve as a burden that

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weighs on our expectations of how we view God. We exalt the role of man and we diminish

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the role of God. And in so doing that, we rob ourselves from the courage and the power

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that is made available to us in the person and work of Jesus. And here's the thing,

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if you really pay attention when you read your Bible, they're us. They're us. Some of

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them come from busted up homes. Some of them come from really great homes. Almost all of

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them had some serious life issues. Really, if you're paying attention, God's great glory

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is seen in who he uses. These are very ordinary men and women. God extraordinarily

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works through ordinary men and women. That's a fascinating truth to me. We all start with

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the same baseline. We're all sinners in need of salvation. The Holy Spirit who lives in

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you is the same Holy Spirit that lives in me if you're a believer in Christ. That's who

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we are. We've been adopted into the household of faith where the power of God is made available

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to all who have submitted their lives to him. And it's important to see that as we continue

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through the book of Nehemiah, because if we're not careful, my fear is you're going to go,

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well, I'm glad that worked for Jordan. But I could practice in the gym every single day

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for a year and I wouldn't even come close. I wouldn't even have a shot. It's not true

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and it really diminishes the power and the might of God and his ability to move powerfully

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through ordinary people. The Bible is simply filled with ordinary people just like you

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and me. You have this one guy who's like God in the flesh, right? We talk about him a lot.

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But other than that, it's just ordinary guys, ordinary gals. Some of them have been unbelievably

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gifted in government and business and some of them just really aren't gifted at much.

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But yet God powerfully uses them. I want you to keep that in mind as we look at our passage

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this morning. I'm going to invite Brayden up here to read our passage, part of our passage

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this morning and then we're going to dive in. Come on up here, Brayden. Make sure we

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get this at the right level for you. Awesome. There you go.

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Remember the word that your commanded, your servant Moses saying, if you are unfaithful,

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I will scatter you among the people. If you return to me and keep my commandments and

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do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather

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them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. There

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are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your

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strong hand. O Lord, let you be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer

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of your servants who delight and to feel your name and give success to those who are servants

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today and grant him mercy inside of this man. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for

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Brayden and I just thank you for how you're using him and are going to continue to use

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him for your kingdom. I pray, Father, that as we look at the prayer of Nehemiah today,

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that you will just speak to all of us, that you'll speak to all of our hearts. And so,

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God, we give this time over to you. It's your name. We pray. Amen. Thanks, buddy. Good job.

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So if you weren't here last week, we looked at what happened when Nehemiah heard that

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Jerusalem was desolate, that the walls were torn down, the gates had been burned. We did

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a little bit of work on that and what it means to have walls and gates and how we really

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can't relate to that here in Eldridge. It basically paints a picture of anarchy. When

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he hears, he's 800 miles away in the palace of the King of Persia. And I just have to

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guess that he's living okay for himself. If you're the cupbearer to the King of Persia,

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you have a pretty sweet gig. You're sampling the best wine, eating the best food. And unless

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somebody tries to kill the king, you have a pretty plush gig 800 miles away from the

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atrocity that is Jerusalem at this point. He doesn't know the people who are there,

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but he catches when that his people, his ethnic covenant community, were in danger and despair

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and suffering greatly. We see his heart just can't handle the weight of that. And he begins

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to weep and he begins to fast and begins to mourn. He's devastated by the news. And last

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week we learned that it is God's desire for all of us that are children of God to operate

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in a way that's filled with empathy towards one another and compassion for the world around

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us. It is the expectation of God that we should walk with one another first and foremost in

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a covenant community of faith in which we're empathetic and which we're compassionate. And

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then from there, it should overflow out of those walls to the world around us. And we

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showed with a great bit of detail that it is God's expectation on us that we would be

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people who are marked by empathy and compassion, that our hearts are moved by the sorrows and

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losses of others, that we are people, men and women who enter into the fray. We don't

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avoid it. Where we see sorrow or we see loss or we see difficulty, we don't turn a blind

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eye to that and said we engage into that. And that's what we've been called to as people

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of God. We have been shown that mercy and it is God's expectation that we extend that

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mercy. Then this week, Nehemiah, he's going to show us how to pray. And again, the reason

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I wanted to point out that Nehemiah is ordinary is that prayer is one of those really weird

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things. And I've said this over and over again. We all know if you're in this room and you're

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a believer in Jesus, we all know that we should be praying. This is not going to be a surprise

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to any of us. I don't think anybody's going, wait, wait, wait a minute. Are you saying

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that as a Christian, I'm supposed to be praying? I just don't think any of us has that mindset.

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We know that we should pray. Nehemiah is going to show us some things that I think will help

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all of us. And I think the idea that Nehemiah is not Jordan, he's hardly on the team, really.

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I mean, he's like the, if you ever watch basketball, he's like the really hyper white guy, right?

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That's sitting on the bench. You kind of see out screen. There's just kind of hyping everybody

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up. So I want us to look at how Nehemiah, this guy that's not even on the team or barely

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on the team interacts with the Lord because I think it'll be helpful for us. Braden just

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read it. He says, remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, if you

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are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep

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my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from

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there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name

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dwell there. They are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great

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power in your strong hand. Oh Lord, let your year be attentive to the prayer of your servant

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and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name. Now listen to this next

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part. Okay? This is where it's going to get interesting. It's going to tie us to the next

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section and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

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Now I was a cup bearer to the king in the month of Nisan in the 12th year of King Artexerxes

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when wine was before him. I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been

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sad in his presence. And the king said to me, why is your face sad seeing you are not sick?

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This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king,

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let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my

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father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? The king then

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said to me, what are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to

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the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight that

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you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves that I may rebuild it. You have two

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things happening here. Two different types of praying that are occurring. You have a

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big block of prayer. This is what he's doing. In fact, we read early on in this chapter

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that night and day he was praying. You have this kind of set aside block of prayer. Now

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if you have a background in church in your teenage years, you were taught it. It's called

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quiet time. That's what we call it. That you would set aside a part of your day for the

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sole purpose of being in the word of God and praying. Now I always thought we should name

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it something other than quiet time because it sounds a little bit like discipline. Like

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you go in the corner and you think about that. Like you go have some quiet time. We probably

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could have done better with that. As a people group we could have been better at that. But

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it's called quiet time. A set time of day where you're able to just commune with God

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in Bible study and prayer. But if we notice that's not all that Nehemiah did. We find

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this rhythm of pulling aside and getting alone with the Lord daily throughout the scriptures

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and especially throughout Christian history. It's a spiritual discipline to do so. What

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I want you to notice though is also on top of this communion with God. That was day and

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night. This set aside time that Nehemiah had. You also see kind of these shotgun prayers.

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So he just prayed, give your servant favor with this man. I mean he's at work. That's

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important to grasp. He's at work. He's not at church. He's at work. He's poured the

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glass of wine. He's sampled it. He's waited to see if it was poisonous or not. And then

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he took it to the king. And then the king says to him, you look sad. What's up? What's

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going on? Well may the king live forever. My loyalty is with you. Why should I not be sad

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when my father's graves are in ruin? And then the king says, what are you requesting of

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me? Okay then he's like, okay God. Verse 4 he says, okay God. I prayed about this earlier

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today. Right? It's a shotgun prayer work. So you have these kinds of prayers being established

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here. Where you have this built out set of time between you and the Lord. And then you

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have these little shotgun communications throughout the day. Now if we're honest, for relationships

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to really flourish and have a lot of vibrancy, both of these are necessary. It's funny how

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one feeds the other. If you have a set time where you're saying, I'm going to pray. I'm

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going to lay these things before the Lord. Wouldn't it make sense to you that it would

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overflow as you like, let's take the guy at work. Let's take the guy at work that you

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don't like. Think about him. Think about her. Whoever that is. Think of that person that

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you can't stand. You have that person at work. You have that person in your life that you

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kind of struggle with and you struggle with being kind to them. You struggle with showing

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compassion to them or showing any sort of patience to them. If in your prayer time in

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the morning you say, Lord, help me with this person. Help me with this individual. I just

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do not care for them. Now I know you love me. I know I have some ugly stuff in me that

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you'd like to deal with, but I just lack patience and compassion and love for this person. Then

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you say, amen. Then you get in your car and you drive to work and there they are. They're

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the first person you see. They're walking right up to you and you're aware, okay, I've

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laid this before the Lord. I've given this time to him. Now you can shoot that shotgun

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prayer, right? And go, okay, here we go, Lord. Here we go. Give me patience. Give me grace.

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Give me the words. Help me see that they are made in your image just like I am. I mean,

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those are those types of prayers. If human relationships work this way, how much more

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do our relationships with our heavenly Father work this way? And here's what I'm saying.

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If you don't have a block set of time or you don't shotgun prayer, I'm not saying you're

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not a believer. I'm just saying that the vibrancy of that relationship with God has suffered.

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You're not robbing God. You're robbing yourself because to behold Jesus, to have a relationship

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with God is to be transformed by him. And I fear so many of us are stuck in bad patterns

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simply because we won't connect with the relational component we've been rescued into. If you're

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thinking morally and not relationally, you're thinking wrongly. Now I want to say this because

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I believe it's true and helpful. You will not live your life. If you do not live your life,

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it will live you. If you do not live your life, it will live you. You're never going to fill

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your spaces with prayer ever. If you get an hour to kill, an hour opens up during the day.

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Now I don't even know if that happens in our world today. Rarely, it rarely happens in mind

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that I have an hour to do nothing and wonder how should I fill it. But if that happens to

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you, you will never fill that hour with prayer. You're going to catch up on some game. You're

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going to catch up on some show that you're streaming. You're going to catch up on your

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social media. You're going to do whatever else it is you do, but you're not going to

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fill that hour with prayer. I'll tell you why. Because there's a war. There's a spiritual

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war occurring about you connecting relationally to God. If all God is, is an ambiguous idea

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to you that you love. You love the idea of God, but not necessarily love God and have

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a relationship with God. Transformation is slow potentially or it doesn't happen at

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all. So what happens is you begin to become churchgoers who are not walking in the fullness

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of life that God has brought to you through Christ. But if you connect relationally with

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God, if you set aside periods of time to pray and consider and then from there you have,

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it overflows into the rest of the areas of your life. Now, now we're moving. Now transformation

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is occurring. Now you're a bit dangerous to what is evil and dark in the world. If you

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don't think that our enemy has a vested interest in us not praying, then you're walking in

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some foolishness. That's why you don't fill your space with prayer. That's why prayer

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is a struggle. So, so here's the way I want to encourage you this week. If you're one

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who struggles with setting aside a block of time to pray, you're going to have to say,

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this is when I'm going to do it. If you don't, you're not going to do it. And here's how

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I would encourage you. Don't be Jordan. Don't go, I'm going to set aside an hour of my day

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every single day this week and I'm just going to dive all in. I mean, go for it if you want

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to. Do it, do it if you want to. But I'm saying we've all seen guys at the gym who set aside

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an hour of hard labor and we haven't seen them since. They're probably sitting in some

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sort of ice bath or something. I don't know. But what I would do if I were you, if you've

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struggled historically with setting aside blocks of time for the Lord, what I would

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do if I were you is I would just set aside five to ten minutes. Set aside five to ten

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minutes just to pray to the Lord. And part of that prayer needs to be, help me be mindful

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of you during this day. One of the things I like to do is I pray my calendar. I'm praying

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for the meetings that I'm going into. I'm praying for the interactions I'm going to

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have. I'm laying those things before the Lord. And so when those meetings come, I get to

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circle back around and then I get to do the shotgun prayers, right? Okay, Lord, I've laid

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these things before you. Recall these things to my mind. Strengthen my heart. Give me the

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courage that I need. Give me the words to say, and then I move into the meeting. That's

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how it works. You need to get it in your head right now today. Pull out your phones, whatever

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it is, and you need to say, this is when I'm going to do it. Here's five minutes I'm going

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to set aside and I'm going to do it or you're not going to do it. And then here's my next

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suggestion. Don't make it law. Don't make it law. If you make it law and you miss for

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this reason or that reason, then when you break the law, you're not going to have a tendency

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to go back. If it's just this is when I set aside my time to pray and listen, listen,

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I'm going to throw this out there because I never want to think, want you to think that

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I'm better at this than anybody, but I miss sometimes. I miss my block that occurs in

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the morning and there have been times because of situations or scenarios or other things

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and I miss that time. And I don't think in that moment God is like, oh, you make me sick.

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I think the blood of Christ covers that. And I'm going to shock and prayer that day and

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I'm going to wake up the next morning and I'm going to start over and the mercies of God

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will be new. God will not be disappointed. Although I do believe that he's a jealous

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God who longs for time with us. You'll have to set out a little section to do this or

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it's simply never going to occur. You're never going to just magically fill your time with

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the Lord. You don't need to view it as law. You don't need to view it as being like Jordan

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where I have to have these long, eloquent prayers and I don't even know where to start.

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You need to start somewhere small and let it build. That's how everything good works.

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It should start small and sustainable and let the Lord grow it from there. Don't overestimate.

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Don't overestimate your own awesomeness. If you can take the posture, I really stink

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at this. I've been walking with the Lord for X amount of years and I've just never

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been good at this. Then you can set up goals that are obtainable. Don't overestimate your

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own. If you think I should be able to do what people who have been following Christ for

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30 years should be able to do, then I love you but you're a fool. Start small. Set some

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goals. One of the reasons Nehemiah is able to pray like this is he has some really strong

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beliefs about who God is. Nehemiah is able to pray this way because he has some really

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strong ideas about who God is. Some of the things we see in this prayer is he believes

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that God is a covenant keeping God. He believes God keeps his promises. That's what he believes

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about God. If you ask Nehemiah, what do you believe about God? He says, I believe that

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God keeps his promises. You can also see the prayer Nehemiah believes God actually hears

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his people. Don't blow past that. Don't skip that part because if you believe that God

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actually hears you, you will actually pray. If you believe that you're having a conversation

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with the Creator of everything, the God that saved you, if you believe that he can hear

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you when you pray and you're not just talking to some wall or you're not just going crazy

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and talking in your head but if you actually believe that he hears you, he can do some

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great things. He believes that God is powerful, that God's hands aren't tied, that he's not

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praying in vain, that God is able to act. Though God will at some time say no, he has

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never once said, I can't. Then he believes God is merciful. This is who he believes God

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is and all those things are clearly seen in Nehemiah's prayer. He believes these things

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about God. Now, I'm going to throw this out there knowing full well some of you are not

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believers in Christ. Some of you are nominal in your belief of Christ. Maybe some of you

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have been dragged in here by a friend in an attempt that they would leave you alone and

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you're just coming so you can say that you've tried it. I'm assuming there's all these kinds

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of people in this room but here's what I'll tell you. This is true. You can't even argue

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with me about it. Everyone in this room is a theologian. Every single one of us. Theology

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is simply the study of God and everyone in this room, even the most hardened atheist

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has a view of who God is and what God is like. Even if that view is there is no God. And

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then from there, from our beliefs about God, we begin to create doctrine. We begin to develop

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systematic theology, what we believe God to be like. Now, here's where I want to warn you.

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If your beliefs about God are rooted only in what you think, you have created an impotent,

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cheap, weak God who will never be able to sustain you. If you created your own God, let me let

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me guess what he's like. He gets you what you want. He doesn't say no to you very often.

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Is that not the definition of a cruel parent, a parent who never says no to his child? Now,

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here's what I know about my kids. My children are addicted to high fructose corn syrup.

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I mean, it's really starting to be an issue. I mean, they like itch. They like craven. And

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it's getting bad. We've had to say no, believe it or not, multiple times. Now, I'm not saying

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no to candy for breakfast because I'm a bad dad. I'm saying no to candy for breakfast

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because I'm a good dad. Now, in the same way, a God of your imagination will not give you

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what you need because you don't know what you need. You know what you think you want. And what

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we see Nehemiah doing in his prayer life is praying through chunks of scripture and letting

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the Word of God roll back up to God, not because God needs to be reminded of what he wrote,

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not because God needs to be reminded of what he said, but rather we need to be reminded of what

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he said. The persistent prayers of the saints before God are not to remind God, but rather to

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remind us what God has said. So what I thought we'd do in our last 10 minutes together is to do

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a lab. Now, maybe some of you are so far removed from college or maybe you didn't even go to college

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so you don't even know what a lab is. A lab is simply putting into practice what you are learning

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in the classroom. And I thought we could do what we could do this morning is actually let the Word

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of God drive our prayers. And so I want to show you a little bit about that, how that works. And

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then I'm going to turn you loose for a little bit before we conclude with singing unto the Lord. So

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if you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Everybody's going to need one. Colossians chapter

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three. I'm going to start in verse one. If you don't have one, there should be one around you. If

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you can't find one around you and you don't have your phone and you don't have the app on your phone,

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then we're going to put the verses on the screen, but everybody's going to need to do this. Now,

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I'm going to pray these first parts and then for the last five or six verses, maybe you can keep

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praying that we cover. So Colossians chapter three, starting in verse one. Here's how it reads. Now,

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you want to read your Bible slowly. You want to read your Bible to read four chapters and not

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remember what you read is not a win. Read your Bible slowly. Colossians three starting verse one,

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it says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is,

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seated at the right hand of God. So what I would do in this case, in a case like this, is I would

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read that sentence and I would go, okay, what does it mean? What does it mean to be raised with

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Christ? Okay, that means that I was dead and he made me alive. That means that I'm a believer in

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Christ. That's what I'm saying. He starts off with if then you have been raised with Christ. Now,

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I'm already I'm going to already just begin celebrating in my mind, in my heart, the fact

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that I've been raised with Christ. God saved me. I am surrounded by a world that is completely

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unaware of God, and I'm not one of those. I'm going to celebrate that. He has pulled me out of

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the darkness. He has rescued me. And I would start praying out the book of Colossians, prayers of

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praise for the saving work of God in my life. He didn't have to save me. He chose to save me. Then

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the second part of that sentence is seek the things that are above. So in my heart, as I'm

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praying through this text in my heart, I'm asking, I'm asking, am I seeking things that are above?

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Now, I know the how I answer that question. I know how I do. So I need to now ask the Holy Spirit

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to do the work of illumination. I need to pray like David's prayer in Psalms, search me and know

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me. If there's stuff in here, let me see it. I need to pray Lord, are there areas in my life?

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Are there places in which I am not seeking things that are above? Or am I spending a majority of my

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time seeking things that are below? I would very much like to find that out in my time with the

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Lord in the morning. Even today, there are many areas in my life that are not consumed with things

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that are above. That's how I pray that verse. Then verse 2, set your minds on things that are above,

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not on things that are on earth. Now immediately, when I read that, I'm on this, how much of my mind

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space? How much of my mind space are on things that are above? And how much of my mind space are on

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things that are on this earth? I could tell you, here's how I answer that question for myself.

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What are you thinking about when you're going to bed at night? What are you thinking about when you

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first wake up in the morning? That's your God. That's what's driving your life. When you're laying

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in bed at night, the thing that you're thinking about as you're falling asleep, that's what's

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driving you. When you wake up, the first thing to register, that's what's driving you. Maybe it's

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some sort of conflict you're in right now. Maybe it's the Lord Himself. Maybe it's some sort of lust

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of the flesh. Whatever is in your mind is usually driving you. When you go to bed at night, when

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you wake up in the morning, when you have those times where you're alone. So this text, verse 2,

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would press on me. Where is my mind? What am I thinking about? Where does my mind go? Am I set

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on you, God? Am I set on your stuff? Am I set on things that are above? Or am I consumed with the

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world around me? This would lead me, and it has led me, to do a lot of confessing and a lot of

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repenting. Then He's going to throw grace on us in verse 3. He says, for you have died and your life

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is hidden with Christ and God. So relationally, if you think through this relationally, the Lord

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and I are really starting to click here because here's what happened. Yes, you saved me. Praise you.

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Thank you. Please forgive me where I have not been as concerned with your kingdom as I should be.

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Father, please forgive me where my mind is. How much of my attention is going in this direction

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when it should be going above? How indifferent do I seem over here? Then I get to verse 3,

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that I'm hidden in Christ. That when God sees me, He sees Jesus. And once again, this is the Gospel

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covering my shortcomings and failures. And again, verse 3, I get to, okay, now I get a praise to

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Lord for what He's done in my life. So, so far I've spent some time realizing my situation. I've

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spent some time confessing and repenting. And then He reminds me of what He has done in my life.

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And He gives me grace. Verse 5, He says, put to death what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality,

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impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. So now I'm reading. And now

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I'm considering. And I'm not just considering external action. Because if you're a church folk,

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if you've been in church your whole life, you're probably nailing external actions. But what God

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is interested in is the state of your heart, not your actions. You might not have any sexual

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immorality that's outside of your heart and outside of your mind, but you might have tons of it inside

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your heart. You might have tons of it inside your mind. So this is where we begin to do business

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with God, seeking forgiveness, asking for help. Then He continues with yet another

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list in verse 7. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must

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put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talks from your mouth. Do not lie to one

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another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new

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self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek

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and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, synthian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in

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all. So again, you're going to want to walk through that list. You're going to want to pray those

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things. One thing that jumps out to me in this passage first is he calls my old life my former

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life. I immediately begin to remember the times in the past when I was not walking with the Lord.

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I think about the people of my former life, the people I used to hang out with and I think about

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oh, how some of them are now in prison. I think about some of them who are now on their third

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marriage. I think about some of them who are now dead, who've overdosed or whatever. I think about

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those who are not contributing anything to society. And so I think about my former life, but the Lord

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is like, that's not happening to you, Daniel. That's not happening to you. I'm not letting you go down

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that route. He rescued me. So now I could seriously point to all that and go, that was my former life.

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That's who I was. That's not me anymore. That's not who I am. My life is hidden with Christ in God.

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Then I go through the list. I have some anger issues right now. I have some low-grade aggravation

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that works itself out in anger. And so I need to begin to confess that before the Lord. I need to

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ask the Lord for peace. And you would take that passage and you would slowly let the Word of God

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roll back up to the Word of God. You would slowly just walk through that passage and confess what

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needs to be confessed. Ask for help. Ask for mercy where you need it. Trusting and believing that

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He grants you mercy. I'm going to ask Sharon to put up verses 12 through 17. Now here's where the

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lab starts. Verses 12 through 17 are all about putting on. We've talked about taking off. Take

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off the anger. Take off the malice. Take off the bad language. Now he starts about talking about

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putting on. He's going to say compassionate hearts. If you lack compassionate hearts, this is where

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we ask for it. This is where we confess we do. The next is kindness. Maybe you're a jerk.

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When you get stressed out, what you do is you become a jerk to your spouse. You become a jerk

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to your coworkers or those around you. This is the place where the Word of God meets you where

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you are and simultaneously, it says simultaneously, don't. And let me take you where you can. I want

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to give you kindness. I want to give you compassion. Let's leave you lacking kindness and let's move

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you into compassion. Our prayer is help me put on kindness. Forgive me for the lack of kindness

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and help me walk in kindness. And we're going to just kind of work our way through this text.

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Where have you not forgiven and you need to forgive? You see that in there. Where have you put on love

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and on and on we could go? Where have we failed to worship the Lord with gladness of heart?

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To sing unto the Lord? Where have we lacked these things? So here's what I want to do in this lab.

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I want to give you a few minutes and I want you to spend some time praying in and around this text

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of Colossians 3. I'm going to let you do that and then we'll go from there. But I want you to

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do that and then we'll go from there. But I want our church cornerstone. I want us to be as people

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have got to be marked by a people who pray, yes, in set aside chunks, but also be marked with prayer

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in such a way that our relationship with God and others flourishes. And we are transformed as we

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behold Him from one degree of glory to the next according to 1 Corinthians. So let's go Colossians

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chapter 3, 12 through 17. Let's do that together privately. Practice it. Highlight it. Circle it.

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I'm going to pray for us. I'm going to give you a few minutes and then whenever the worship team

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feels led, I'm going to ask them to come lead us in one more song. Father, we pray right now that

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as we look at your word. Help us be a people that pray. Help us see our deficiencies.

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And so God, as we spend a few minutes quiet, as we spend a few minutes looking at your word,

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as we spend a few minutes confessing and repenting these things.

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I pray, Father, that you'll fill us with your presence. Help us see your mercy. Help us see

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your grace. Help us see who you are. That you are a covenant keeping God. That you are one that keeps

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your promises. That you are one that can deliver. That we are just ordinary people asking you to do

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extraordinary things in our heart. So Father, we give this few minutes to you as we just kind of

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dive into your word, as we look at the screen as whatever we give this time to you. It's yours.

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That's all these things in your name. Amen.