A Reflection of What We Behold

A Reflection of What We Behold

Colossians chapter 3, verse number 16 this evening. And here in verse number 16 we read, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts that we've read here this evening. I was just thinking once again of this past week, I preached on the matter of how we need to cry to God. Help us, give us wisdom. I need wisdom in a lot of different situations of life. I need wisdom from God. And yet, if I'm going to get wisdom, what did David say? He said, Psalm 119, verse 130, wasn't it? He said, By words giveth light, the entrance of the words of God. Give light to us. They give understanding to the simple. We said the simple are those who don't know, but they need to know, right?

And the fools are those who reject the knowledge and the light. They reject it. It's not that they haven't heard, it's they didn't listen, right? The fool doesn't listen, but the simple is listening. The simple needs to listen and needs to learn and gain the wisdom, to gain the instructions of life. And you know, in a sense, we can hear people talk about, you know, that go before us, that are before us in age. They can talk about different things that are ahead for us, but in a sense, we are simple and we need wisdom for each new stage of life because we've never been this way before. There are certain principles, there are certain things in God's word that certainly, they lap over every season of life that we find ourselves in, but there is a certain sense in which we need to hear it all over again because there are things that God will make us wise in for that season of life that we didn't even, ways that we didn't even see it before.

And we didn't need to see it at that time from God's, from the gem of God's word, you know, but as the light refracts through that, that stone, so to speak, of the beautiful gem of God's word, there are different things that come out about that, that refracts. The light comes to us in a unique way that we need for that particular season of our lives. So this is why we're told here to let, well, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Let it, let it saturate you. Let it saturate. Let it saturate your thinking. Let it, let it soak in. You know, we like a good soaking rain, don't we? Not, not, don't let it, you know, there, you know, there's, there's little raindrops that hit the ground and they settle the dust, but they don't do a lot of good because they, they just wet the dust down.

But the ones that actually penetrate and get down into the soil and get to the roots actually benefit the plants. They benefit the, the plants and help them to grow. And so it is with God's word. We need to, we need to meditate in God's word. It's been said that we, well, it's been said you are what you eat, but spiritually that's the same too, isn't it? You are what you eat spiritually. You are what you meditate on. And it's said another way, what we give our attention to is what controls our, our lives. Where, where we set our affection, set your affection on things above the scripture says, not on things on the earth. Get, get your hearts, your mind's attention, your, your, your, the, the eyes of your heart, get them on the Lord and get them on his word and not on this world, not on yourself, but get them on the Lord.

Let his word dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Look to him in prayer. And then as it says, as we just read here tonight, we see these different portions of this passage. We see the first. The first part is meditation. Let it dwell in you richly. Chew on it, you know, in all wisdom, that's illumination as dwells in us richly. If we really are meditating in God's law day and night, then we're going, there's going to be illumination, right? There's going to be enlightened and under enlightenment of our understanding to, ah, that's what I need to do. That's what I need to say. And then we need to go say it right. And we need to go do it. Uh, it says teaching. And it modifies. We start seeing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You know, Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And it goes on and it says, my cup runneth over. Well, whatever's in your cup is going to run over, isn't it? Whatever's in that cup, which is what you're meditating on day and night, what's saturating your thinking, it's going to spill over for good or for bad. It's going to run over and for good or for bad affect others. And I think of it. You know, this way, we have one cup and every day we get to fill it with good things or bad things. We get to fill it. We get to fill our hearts and minds either with the word of God or with worry and fear or whatever it may be. We get, we get it filled up.

And then inevitably, uh, when the test comes, the tests come that what's in that cup comes out, doesn't it? It's revealed. It's revealed. It's revealed. Just like the, just like the whatever's in that teabag when it gets put in the hot water comes out. It's the same thing. It's the same thing when trials come to our, our lives. And then ultimately, not only are we teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, but then it says now Godward singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Praise. So meditation, illumination. Uh, godly speech. We might say edifying speak. We were just told recently that we're to edify one another. We're to comfort one another, right? And then we are to praise the Lord. Uh, your praise to the Lord has a lot to do with what you've been thinking on, right? What have you been meditating on? Have you been thinking on the goodness of the Lord. I will, I'll, I'll, I'll dwell on the goodness of the Lord. I'll, I'll delight myself in the Lord. Well, that's the pattern that the, that, that, uh, Paul is setting forth here in verse number 16. And then it goes on into what we do. What's wherever you do in word or in deed, right? Or deed. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. And there's always this need of giving thanks, right? Giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So it all starts, it begins with what we meditate on. And, and it ends with what we say and what we do, what he, what we say and what we do.

I saw something this week, someone shared, and it was a, it was a visual and it has these, some questions on it. And it says, what if we began to treat our Bibles the way we treat our cell phones? Boy, I tell you that one, that really, that really, uh, is a very pertinent question for, for me. We, we, we, we need to ask that question. What if we began to treat our Bibles the way we treat our cell phones? What if we, it says, carried it with us everywhere? Um, well, you might say, I've got, I've got a Bible on my cell phone. That's true. There's just, you know, there's nothing else on that Bible except the Bible, right? No, there's nothing else to get distracted with in the Bible than the Bible. I know we can't be reading it every moment of the day, but we need to take the name of Jesus with us.

We might even just take a few verses with us, but it's something, it's something to meditate on, right? Something to keep the Lord at the forefront of our, our thoughts. Well, it asks the question, what if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it? How many times have you turned around and gone back and got your cell phone, right? What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it? You know, how do we ever survive without cell phones? I actually remember, I remember that time existed as a child. I mean, even, even, I still remember to this day the first cell phone that my dad got. It looked like he was getting ready to detonate a bomb or something. It was this big old, you know, the big old device. And now we have these little, little ones. We, actually they got smaller in the 2000s and they got bigger again. But anyway, they, they have more computing power, right?

Well, it, it asks the question, what if we checked it for messages throughout the day? What if we used it in case of an emergency? What if we spent an hour or more using it each day? Wow, those are some searching questions, aren't they?

That doesn't, obviously, I'm not, you know, I'm not going to throw my cell phone out. I don't think you're going to throw your cell phone out. But we, we need to be conscious, right? We need to be conscious that God's word is, is really the lamp to our feet, the light to our path. It must dwell in us richly in all wisdom. The God of this world knows, he knows that what we meditate on is, is going to spill over into what we say and what we do, doesn't he? He knows what you, and, and, and a lot of, a lot of the social media and things like that, they're geared to keep you consuming, right? Keep, keep thinking on this, keep looking at this. And it, God wants to guide us in his word. But, you know, there's also the devil wants to.

He wants to guide us in our thinking away from God's word. He wants to get us thinking thoughts that we shouldn't be thinking. Meditating on things we really, even if it's not a terrible thing, it might just be a waste of time that we shouldn't be thinking on. But without God, we, without God, we're not going to, we're not going to have the right words to say. I think I mentioned last week, I know I mentioned last week, that we are in need of wisdom. And if we don't have it, we're not going to have the right words to say. If we don't have the wisdom, then we're, we'll end up sinning and doing a thing that we'll, we'll sin against God instead of pleasing him. Because we won't have the right thoughts. So we won't have the right words and we won't have the right actions in our lives.

Look in Philippians 4 with me. Philippians 4. There's a direct, there are direct commands given to us here. You know it, I'm sure, very well. Philippians chapter 4, verse number 6. It says here, Be careful, be anxious for nothing. There's no reason for you to worry and be anxious. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brethren. Brethren, whatsoever things are true. There's a lot of stuff that we hear about, that we read about, that we don't really even know if it's true, do we? You know, somebody said this was the case. And all kinds of conjecture. Allegedly. You know, there's all these things. But we, there's plenty that we can give ourselves to thinking all that we know is true. Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest. Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Don't waste your time on things that are not worth thinking on. Spend your time thinking on things that are worthy of your consideration. Worthy of your consideration.

Well, give your attention to the right things. And God's peace. Don't be anxious, but give your attention to the right things. And God's peace will keep your hearts and minds. As you let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, right? And as you meditate on his truths. As you pray. And as it says here in verse number six. In everything, instead of worrying about it, in everything pray. And give supplication with thanksgiving. That peace will keep our hearts. And our hearts and minds. We know the passage well. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed on thee. Thou wilt keep him. It's a promise. Whose mind is stayed on thee. Because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah said. Because he trusteth in thee.

On the other hand, when our mind is filled with disobedient thoughts, there is no rest in our hearts and minds. We're restless, aren't we? We're restless because we know there's bad gas in the tank, so to speak. We ate junk food and our stomach is upset spiritually. We can't meditate on this. We need to vomit it out. We need to get rid of it in some way. Don't. Meditating on this is going to bring greater unrest to our hearts and minds. It's not going to help us. It's not going to be good for us. And we regret it. Oh, it might have tasted sweet going down. But when it's in your stomach, it will be bitter and it will upset you. And so it is with thoughts that are disobedient thoughts. Thoughts that are not godly thoughts and good thoughts.

Let's look in Psalm 37 together. Psalm 37, if you'll turn there with me. You know, as you're turning there, I'm reminded of that passage in James where it says, not only be hearers, but be doers of the word. In James 1, where over there he says that we not only need to look into the mirror of God's word being a hearer, but we need to actually, you know, don't look in the mirror and then just go on the same way you were, but let the word change you. In other words, it's kind of the idea of let it, the saturating, you know, let the word dwell in you richly. Let it, look into that perfect law of liberty. Don't be a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work and you'll be blessed in your deed. That man will be blessed in his deed. That's, that's the kind of, that's the kind of attention that we need to give to God's word. But look what the psalmist says here in Psalm 37, verse number one. Psalm 37, verse number one. And the command here in verse number one is this, fret not thyself, because of evil, doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. How do we know what the, what the workers of iniquity are doing? Well, we have to look no further than the, the news reports, right? That's all we have to do.

We can, we can certainly see it on, a lot of times we get our news through, maybe not a television, not always, but through some social media report or something like that. We, we hear about it, about it in a number of different ways. And when you hear the news, when you read the reports, a lot of it is meant to cause fear in people's hearts and minds. A lot of it is meant to be shock and awe and to discourage you. I mean, how, how many times do you hear good news reports? And it's not very often, or if somebody is always slamming and slandering and, uh, you know, doing something, saying something detracting, uh, whether it be, uh, whether it be politically or whether it be about crime or whether it be about war or any number of things that are going on in this world disease, there are so many things. Well, fret not thyself because of evil doers. Don't the idea of fret, as I've said before, it's kind of as at the root of it, had the idea of, but to devour to know that's the idea we talked about like a fretting leprosy, it's the eating away and gnawing away. It's, it's a, that's what worry will do. That's what fear will will do. That fretting will do to you. Well, it will consume you, but don't let your mind be consumed with these thoughts. Don't be envious of the wicked. Don't fret yourself because of the workers of iniquity because of evil doers.

Um, as, as we read in Proverbs 23 verse 17, let not thine heart in the Senate centers. Remember Asaph Psalm 73, he was foolish when he envied the wicked, right? Because of their prosperity. Well, not like the heart in the centers, but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. That means you need to be in his word all the day long. You need to be thinking about, God. And even when you've, when you view the evil doers and workers of iniquity, you need to make sure you view all of that through the lens of God's word. It was only when Asaph went to the house of the Lord that he remembered heaven's perspective on the end of the wicked, not just their current prosperity, but their ultimate, their ultimate end. And then as he viewed it through that lens, he wasn't envious anymore. Was he? That's how it is with God's word. His word enters our hearts and minds. It gives us wisdom and gives us light. And as that word dwells on us richly in all wisdom, then we can speak, we can act, we can think right.

We can, we can be fruitful as Psalm 20, well, Psalm one talks about and certainly Psalm 23 talks about. Uh, but here we see in, in back in Psalm 37 in verse number two for they, that is the evil doers, the workers of iniquity shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Oh, we should pity them. We should pray for them. We should witness to them. We should not. Isn't that what Noah did? The scoffers. I, it didn't say that Noah preached righteousness for a family. It didn't say that Noah preached righteousness for a family. It didn't say that Noah preached righteousness for a family. He was a preacher of a few years and finally got tired and hung it up and said, I, y'all just all died in your sins. No, he kept, he was a preacher of righteousness. He kept preaching. He kept giving the truth. He didn't matter how much the, they mocked and scoffed at him. He didn't. He wasn't going to change. His hope was in the Lord. I'm sure he was tempted in a variety of different ways to throw in the towel.

I'm sure he was tempted with a discouragement. He was a human being, He kept on. And he was in the fear of the Lord, right? The fear of the Lord. That's what we just read there just a moment ago, what I mentioned. Don't let your heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the Lord. That's how Noah lived. Put all your weight in the Lord. Trust in his promises. What does it say in verse 3? Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed here. Remember, the Lord will provide. He'll feed you. Just keep meditating on his word. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. Verse 4 says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Delight means to take great pleasure in something, doesn't it? We don't have any trouble delighting ourselves. We don't have any trouble delighting ourselves in ice cream and, you know, good things, yummy, sweet things like that. At least I don't. I enjoy eating those yummy things, savory things, sweet things.

How delightful they are. Maybe we might regret it. We might be fat and flourishing if we eat too much of them. But the thing is, they sure are good. They're delightful. We should delight in God's word in that way. Take great pleasure in his word. Oh, how sweet. Like the honeycomb, the word of God is to me. I taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are all they that trust in him. Taste his word. Feed on his word. Meditate on his word. Savor his word, right? Savor it. You know, when you have a good meal, you ever have that sensation, I don't want to put anything else in my mouth. I don't want to ruin this taste. It's so delicious. It's a good steak, you know. I just want to meditate on this for a little while, you know. And so it should be with God's word. We shouldn't be quick to want to get it out of our minds, you know. Get on to other things. Well, we obviously have to do things, but Lord, help me to bring that back to my memory and my mind throughout the day. That I don't forget your word. Help me not to wander from thy commandments.

In verse 5, it says, Commit thy way unto the Lord, and trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. Do everything you do for the glory of God. Commit your way. Commit what you're doing, your path, to the Lord. Trust. Trust in him. Trust he's going to keep you. Trust he's going to guide you. Trust he's going to help you. Give you the wisdom that you need. Trust him with it. Entrust your way to him. And ask him to lead you by his word in the decisions, the directions of life. Commit your business to him. Commit your finances. Commit your endeavors to the Lord. And as we do that, he will guide us. He will guide us in the way we ought. He will guide us in the way we ought to go. In verse 6 it says, And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. He will guide thy steps aright through the veil and o'er the heights. What does the hymn say? It is glory just to walk with him. It's glory just to walk with him. It's a delight to walk with the Lord if we commit our way unto the Lord. And rest in the Lord. Verse 7 says, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself.

Fret, there's that word again, not thyself, because of him who prospereth in his way. We're told this a number of times in Scripture because it's our tendency, isn't it? It's our tendency to brew on worrisome things. To let it just gnaw away at us. What am I going to do? We worry about it. How am I going to handle this? How am I going to do this? I don't know if I can do it. I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Or why, why, why? But, as he says here, Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. If we let fret eat away at us, then what we're going to end up doing is get angry. Cease from anger. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. If you let that worry just brew and brew and brew in your inner man, it's going to start, the pot's going to start flowing over and it's going to be anger. It's going to start boiling over in anger. Forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Why? Why? Because it's a natural result of all that fretting. You know, if we realize in a given day that we're starting to fill our cup with fret, just stop filling it up with fret. Say, Lord, forgive me for worrying. Please help me to remember your word. Help me to think on your word.

I need your word to help me in my thinking. It's so, it's so easy at times. It's so easy at times. It's so easy at times. It's so easy at times because of a multitude of different kinds of trials that come to our life to just revert to fretting. But Lord, help me. Send forth thy light. In the entrance of thy words, give light. So give them to me, Lord. Help me to remember some truth in your word. If it is nothing but what we've read tonight, be careful for nothing. How many times has my, the Holy Spirit smitten me in my spirit? Chasing me and said, you know full well, you should not be, you should not be worrying about this thing, but you should be careful for nothing and everything by prayer. How many times? Well, commit thy works. Well, it says here in verse number, in verse number eight, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Don't resort to the tactics of the wicked. Two wrongs never make a right. Don't do wrong in order to get a chance to do right. Don't try to get even. Don't, don't, don't try to get back. That's the devil's tactics. You trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. And he says in verse number nine, for evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

I think about the, I don't know if any of you saw that pastor in Louisiana. I don't know. Um, here recently that, um, I just said his name earlier today. I can't think of it right this minute, but anyway, the pastor in Louisiana that, um, evidently from what they say, the, the neighbors across the road have just been just a pain to deal with for years now, evidently. And I guess the pastor came to a breaking point when what, what the, the 20 year old son was yelling threats across the road. He didn't have any weapon in his hand, but he was yelling threats against his family. The pastor's family told him he was going to kill them all. And he was out of town and all this kind of stuff. And saying things like that. And instead of reporting it to the police, which I think they had done in the past, he, he went across the road and confronted the guy and, but in a very aggressive manner, and ended up beating him down into the ground and all this kind of thing. And I thought, you know, I can understand the emotion of that moment. I, I, I, I understand why, what led him to do that. But we, and I'm not trying to say this in a holier than thou sort of sense, but we've got to be careful that we don't let anger rise up in us to the point.

Now, if somebody's coming and trying to actually kill my family in the moment, I'll protect them from that. But don't, we, we've got to, I think I've said before as Christians, we've got to, of all people, de-escalate. We cannot escalate situations. We ought not to. We ought not to let anger control us. Um, you know, uh, this is evil doers shall be cut off, but those that wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. So we need to cease from anger. We need to forsake wrath. We need to fret not ourselves in any wise to do evil. Well, look at verse 10. It says for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be. Oh, oh, even though we're tempted at times to get angry and to retaliate instead, once again, we need to have pity. God be merciful to these folks. God humble them and help them to see their need of righteousness. Help them to see if somebody is attacking my family, I'm not going to be praying that prayer. I'm going to be beating them off of them or shooting them or something because I'm going to protect life, but I'm talking about people. People can say all they want. They have the, they have the right to say certain things in this country.

If that, you know, maybe not, maybe they need to talk to the police department. They're communicating threats. I understand that. But the point is, uh, vengeance is mine. The Lord said, I will repay in verse 11, but the meat shall inherit the earth. Oh, we should be slow to wrath. We should be swift to hear. We should be slow to speak. The meat shall inherit the earth. And shall inherit the earth. And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. It says here in verse 11. Oh, we need to be meek. Lord, help me not to get distracted with all these peripheral things, but help me to meekly be teachable and to be taught of you and your word. May your word dwell in me richly in all wisdom. What controls our attention as Christians? What controls our attention? Where, where, where, where, where, where, where are our thoughts? What controls our attention? What controls our thoughts? Where will, where will my thoughts be at this time tomorrow? On Tuesday? Well, I guess I'll be standing here on Tuesday, but on maybe let's say, uh, Tuesday mid-morning, Wednesday mid afternoon. Where, where are my thoughts going to be? What am I going to be thinking on? I know we'll be, we'll be caught accosted with a variety of different thoughts cause we're going to be going through a variety of different tests.

week but throughout this week may God help us not to envy the wicked not fret because of the prosperity of evildoers may we God help us to not be anxious about the future but may he help us to delight ourselves in and meditate upon whatsoever is true is lovely good report honest what are all those things let us meditate on those things that's a command given to us let's think on those things set our affection on things above help may the Lord help us to delight in his and meditate in his law day and night so we'll be like give it enough time and enough attention to God's word that it can be like water seeping in and getting down to the roots in our lives and and filling our cup so that it can run over and be a blessing to someone else because we can't be a blessing to anyone else if and we can't bring glory to God if the word is not dwelling in us in fact if his word is not hidden in our hearts we will sin against him that's what the scripture says so may the Lord through his word bring light bring wisdom as we delight in his word this week what is that what I read just a few moments ago what if we begin to treat our Bibles the way we treat our cellphones what if we carried it with us everywhere turned back to go get it if we forgot it check for messages throughout the day used it in case of an emergency or spend an hour or more using it each day meditation illumination speech actions and praise we see that that sequence in collage Colossians 3 tonight.

Heavenly Father, thank you for these moments we have in your word. Thank you for the reminders. I need these reminders, Lord. I know that I am preparing throughout the week, even for the messages, for the things that I am teaching and preaching and sharing with people, Lord, but I need your word to dwell in my heart and mind richly in all wisdom, not only for the preaching of the word and the teaching of the word, but in my personal meditations. And, and, of course, out of those meditations, it certainly does affect the teaching and the preaching, but, Lord, I need it. Each one of us need wisdom. Each one of us need understanding. And as we meditate, as we delight in thy law, as we give our attention to, and as we look into the perfect law of liberty, continuing therein, not forgetting what you have to say to us, but carrying, taking the name of Jesus with us, then, then our cup can overflow with blessing, and then we can be used in a good way in the lives of others for your glory. Bless us now as we conclude this service with a final hymn, Amen. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.