Colossians And The Christian

Father we thank you for your salvation. We confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and he's the very reason that we're here today that his resurrection and his ascension is a reason we celebrate Sundays and the Lord's Day.

Prayed that Lord you would prepare our hearts to hear your word that we would obey you in love and We would continue to preach the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord and saves lost sinners. Even in 2017 in Christ's name.

I pray. Amen. How do you live as a Christian in the year? 2017. How do you live as a Christian and John July 8th and July 9th 2017. There's a lot of things today that seems to attack Christ's sufficiency.

There's a lot of things that question is Jesus Christ Lord and if he is Lord, what does that mean? What does that mean to the Christian. What does that mean to the unbeliever and In today's pluralistic society and if anything post Christian society There's a lot of things that question who Christ is.

What did he do 2 ,000 years ago? Is it relevant? How do we preach the gospel. How do we obey the scriptures even in 2017. What are some of the things that attack Christ's efficiency? Yoga. Believe it or not even CrossFit which I'll talk to you in the next few weeks about political conservatism versus political liberalism.

Man-made rules like Sabbath worship man-made dress codes. Dependence on length of church membership and What we see a lot in the church perception of Ministry importance that is one ministry being more important than the other therefore people comparing and causing confusion in the church.

Confusion, Stress, and False Sources of Relief in Modern Society

Well, let's take a step back. How would you in one word if there's one word you would use to define society right now. This is a question that I would ask wherever I'm in the world. How would you define the state of society right now?

Let's look at America, let's look at Massachusetts. Let's look right today. July 9 2017. How would you define what's happening in society today? Confused someone said confused then. Immoral. Okay, I like that Becky said it's a mess it's backwards.

Yes Becky was Becky was essentially talking about Romans 1 and 2 where everything that's supposed to be right is is Put down and what is what should be exalted is Is destroyed. I Would one way I would put it an agreement with everything you guys have said is chaos.

Everything seems to be in chaos. There's a there's a lot of someone's attorney, right? Corruption that's there too. There's there's panic in the nation. There's panic in In companies in society, there's a lot of people who are clearly stressed and depressed and It seems to be moving into the church as well, which is why I'm here today.

Which is why I'm talking about this here inside the church. I'm not preaching this to unbelievers. I'm teaching this topic for the next four weeks. To believers who are redeemed who love Christ. So how do you handle the situation?

So people are highly stressed. They're highly depressed. Including what looks to me as Christians and when you're stressed you look for relief. That's human attitude. What are some of the things that people turn to for relief today.

Okay, so if you're stressed think personally and if you're an if you're an unbeliever, you'll do certain things, but even as believers. What are some of the things you do when you need to find relief now?

Let's not try to be holier-than-others and say that I'm always in front of the scriptures. I'm listening John MacArthur entertainment specifically things like television. Games. Oh, how do they kind of distract you?

They kind of bring your temperature down a little bit as you're looking away from the stress and at this Entertainment box or whatever it is. There's lots of entertainment here, right and name it. There's here.

What else do people turn to? What? Vacation. Okay, I did not hear that. Did you say vacation? Oh, sorry. I heard you right. Yes. Okay vacation. Okay vacation. I didn't. It's actually a good way of losing stress.

But it's not about Christ so therefore it's bad. Yes good music. Music is a good way and music is a good way to find relaxation again. There's nothing wrong with music in itself. We're not necessarily saying that that is bad.

What are some of the main things that? Unbelieving people do right now. Okay. Let me take that back. It's actually in the church as well. What do you see people in other churches doing? Yeah, I'm not trying to say BBC is better than other churches we're all horrible people and I'm not saying that we're better than others but what are some of the people outside of the of BBC even in other churches tend to look to a lot in 2017 self help books talk shows.

Self help. What else can we say? Entertainment like like you said What else what's what's becoming bigger and bigger it's it's started 20 years ago, but now it's. It's huge. I already kind of mentioned it yoga yoga.

Yoga is huge. It's massive. It's getting into schools. It's already in workplaces. How does a Christian think about it why I talk about yoga probably next week is because in talking to Christians I don't think most people understand what yoga is or can articulate what's wrong with it Biblically, and that's a problem.

You can't defend the truth. And if you can't say something is wrong. How do you protect your families? How do you stay away from it? So yoga is one of the biggest things that people are turning to all over the map no matter what your age group is no matter what your Educational background is or your financial background is people are turning to yoga left and right.

The other things that people like to do, especially if you're unbelieving if you do not have regenerate hearts, which is a work of God. What are some of the people what is what some of the things that people do sex drugs?

Relationships. Something that's even becoming bigger time in the gym. CrossFit is Wonderful thing, but if you look at the trend that CrossFit is taking and I don't know how many of you do CrossFit. There's nothing wrong with CrossFit.

There's nothing on CrossFit. That's not what I'm saying here, but there's an interesting trend I noticed in my study for CrossFit about how it's being used more and more for Spiritual purposes. It's actually being used now on Sunday mornings where there's attendance taken in CrossFit gyms and Where you are now coming not just for physical Nourishment you're actually going to CrossFit and and doing the exercises and taking part in whatever you call Relationships as part of spiritual fulfillment and you read flags yet for anybody know.

What are other ways that people like to de-stress that they like to attack the problem instead of attack? Maybe what looks like a problem. What are some of the things we've seen since? President Donald J. Trump became came into the office.

What are some of the things we see a lot? Protests. Protests are growing. People are spending a lot of time to de-stress by going out and protesting sometimes in violent ways. Yes, don't ask me why they protest.

I don't know. I've never protested before. They like to join groups of men and women who are along the same political background. That's very big. That's very very big. There's a lot of time on the internet and a lot of time watching cable news channels.

Now even though I'll talk about politics on the third week I'll ask you the question how many of you have heard the word or the term big sort? Hopefully I pronounce it properly. So RT sort the big sort.

Something that's happening in the United States right now. You Know God saved Becky too, so. So the big sort is this massive geographical movement right now where people in America are Dividing themselves up even in a particularly neighborhoods where they're moving to neighborhoods where people in that neighborhood have the same political view and it's a trend that started a few years ago, but with Changes in the political spectrum in the last year more and more people are moving to geographic locations neighborhoods where their neighbors and other people have the same political mindset and That is a big way that people are looking to de-stress right now.

It's called a big sort. You can look it up. It's it's starting to get bigger and bigger. People are so stressed about the political climate and so stressed about what's going on around them they want to move away from anybody and everybody who's off the opposing view and run to neighborhoods and parts of the country where They have people to agree with.

I will get to the Bible. So please don't get me wrong. This is all the introduction. So don't worry. I am NOT going to base any of this just by statistics. On top of all of this. There's another trend that has just started again over the last year or so.

It's adding to the stress. It's adding to the frenzy and I'll jump right to it. Can anyone tell me how much. The viewership on cable news channels have increased over the last 12 months. Just over the last 12 months even more the last seven.

Viewership on cable news channels have increased. By what percentage did you just make that up? Okay. So totally irrelevant. 750 percent. Seven hundred and fifty percent. Fox News is Fox News alone is number one right now.

Has increased their revenue more than three hundred and sixty percent. Viewership is increased. People are now turning on their televisions and keeping them on on all times of the night. Again, is there anything wrong with this?

No, I'll get to that. But they are enjoying the viewership. They are enjoying adding to the stress and the frenzy of People and It's non-stop. The information is being spewed out all day long all day long non-stop.

The news itself is not bad, but this is not just news. This is analysis of the news. This is not just reporting it has turned into speculation and conjecture and most people the average viewer does not discern or Process that information carefully.

They look at it. They say it has to be true because it's coming from this handsome man or this beautiful woman on television. Who seems to be saying everything in authority and they're saying the same thing over and over in different formats in a 24-hour period.

There can't be anything wrong with that. But the viewers are not processing this information carefully. If anything they do not realize that most of this news and this information is pure conjecture pure speculation.

They panic they get they get stressed and as unbelievers they turn into turn to many questionable ways to de-stress and And statistics show and even looking at the lives of many of my own Christian brothers and sisters many of them are turning to the news and turning to yoga and turning to Politics to find some kind of relief and it's not working.

It's not a matter of whether it's working if you're a believer and you're in these habits will go through why it's sinful and What is the book of Colossians teach us? About the Lord Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of Christ not just in justification but in sanctification and in all areas that the believer is participating in.

And What happens once the most people get de-stressed? They go back to the cable news channels and the vicious cycle begins again and again. The problem is not cable news. It's not internet. The problem in 2017 is the same problem.

We had last year. It's the same problem. We had in the year 2000. It's the same problem. We had in 1905. The same problem we had in 8060 when Paul was writing Colossians. It's sin it's sin it's separation from God.

It's not the cable news. It's not the Internet. It's not CrossFit in one way. It's not even yoga. It is sin. It is human sin. It is human depravity and and and all of creation is mourning under the weight of sin and as we see in Colossians and Thessalonians.

Waiting for Christ to come back and recreate the new heaven and the new earth. So the goal of this series is how does a Christian process all of this information. How does the slave of Christ remain calm?

How does the church handle these situations. And how do we keep preaching Christ in Christ alone and What do we turn to when we if we are panicking? Is anybody bold enough or willing to admit that? Perhaps you have been stressed.

I'm not saying that you've turning what I'm not asking what solutions you've turned to but have you been stressed and anxious? Because of all the things you've heard and and Seen whether it's on television or whether it's in your co-workers, especially for those in the scientific and technology community.

Anybody stressed anybody willing to admit that they're stressed? Okay, and he's not even getting persecuted because he's a Christian. This is I don't know if you can call it persecution, but this is not because he's a Christian.

This is because of some political view that he holds on to. Yep. So Becky stressed about her son getting beaten up. Anybody else Willing to admit that's a hard to admit that so so Pauline takes the wise approach of just not dealing with information.

She she turns it off. No, no, no, not. It turned that it turns it off. Yeah, that's a it's a good way. I mean if you're in that all day and you're not in the word. You're going to be you're gonna explode like a lot of Christians.

That's what a church is doing today. The big thing in church is today to de-stress their members yoga. It's coming in huge it's it's it's it's pushed hard and Again I don't want to make my entire goal of the series only about yoga, but as an Indian man.

As an Indian man was a Christian by God's grace. I can't understand how it's coming into churches and I'll go into that. What is the inerrant infallible Word of God have to do in these situations. How does it guide us?

There are many books we can turn to we can turn to Psalms which is which are timeless. We can turn to any of the Pauline epistles not Pauline's epistles Apostle Paul's epistles you we can turn to any of them.

They are great. They are Resourceful, they are inerrant. They're infallible. We can we can trust them. They stand the test of time. There's the book of Revelation which reminds us Christ is coming back.

He will make everything, right and and nothing's going to change that and that there is an Inescapable judgment of God and there's there's nobody's going to escape that that is coming and we know that for certain.

So there's a lot of books I could go to but as I've been saying I'm going to go to the book of Colossians. And I'll get started today. I'll walk through all four chapters. And I'll touch a bunch of things yoga politics church membership even church leaving because it's all of this comes whether believe it or not into play and.

And hopefully this will be encouraging to you and you can help others. In this church and even in other churches process some of this information. We what do we know about Colossians a quick overview, right?

We know it's written by the Apostle Paul. We know that it was written because the pastor of the Colossian Church Epaphras was in a mode of panic at that time because there was false teaching coming into his church.

So he's he's guess what he's stressed and instead of turning to yoga or CrossFit. He went to his Mentor the Apostle Paul who was in prison in Rome and says help me. All of this false teaching is coming in.

Most of the teaching is attacking the person of Christ the sufficiency of Christ the glory of Christ. Help me and so Paul responds in light of Epaphras is concerned with this wonderful book. It is written primarily to the believers at Colossae primarily at the church that is led by Epaphras it's it's along with this letter that Philemon was also sent.

It's sent with Tychicus and Onesimus. Paul has never met the Colossians personally. He's never seen them personally, but Paul but Epaphras was saved under one of Paul's ministries at that time and so the way Paul treats the Colossians is like his own children.

There's a lot of passion. There's a lot of care. There's a lot of love that he writes to these believers with about but what is similar and what's interesting for us and why I'm doing the series and why I'm going through the book of Colossians says.

Even at that time there were many cultural and philosophical ideological ideologies that were attacking the church. There was false teaching coming into the church. So let me ask you this. What is the immediate consequence of false teaching immediate consequence?

You almost see it instantly when it comes into a church or into a group of believers. What is the what? What is it? Dissension love it. I didn't think anybody would get that right, but excellent. It's dissension is fighting in between church members it's argument and disagreement and chaos within the church body and As you look at Colossians 3 and 4 you can see that Paul is addressing issues inside the church, which were coming out of false teaching and Whether you believe it or not.

That's exactly what we see in churches today. When you move away from biblical teaching when you have a low view of Christ and you look away from Christ you suddenly start arguing and fighting and against each other within the church.

So yes, that is the immediate consequence of false teaching. High Christology that is the doctrine of Christ is the theme of this great book. And if you love Christ, you love the book of Colossians. My wife Cass and I we've been in this book for nine months now.

So if you ask us anything from any cultural point of view, we're gonna quote Colossians anything. How do you put your children to sleep caution three and four? I don't you know, it's it's it's we're breathing it all day long.

So be careful if you ask us any questions, it's gonna come out of this book so as I said, there was there was chaos in the society in Colossi, but that was starting to come into the church and Guess what?

If you look at the history around that time the people in Colossi were starting to shake they were disturbed. There was chaos they had all this cultural pressure coming from outside and Then there was false teaching that was coming from inside.

The Colossian Church was clearly Troubled now, there's a classic case. We often hear it in the church here. Theology affects dash affects dash. All right. We know this very well. What is it theology affects your Methodology and methodology affects your Doxology.

I Would say if there's any anything that affects if I can even put something in front of that in any way I would say Your doctrine of Christ how you view Christ. How do you view the sufficiency of Christ how you view the pre-eminence of Christ affects all theology?

So I would even add one thing not that you should write this down or use it at home. But Christology affects your theology affects your doxol affects your methodology and your doxology. So what you believe about Christ affects the way you behave in the church and how you behave outside the church.

It does affect the way you behave in 2017. It does affect the way you live at home. So what is your view of Christ? When you stop to see the times the word Lord is mentioned in the book of Colossians.

Does it take you back to the Christological hymn, which is found in Colossians 1 15 to 20? Do you stop to define that term because the term Lord is so commonly used in our circles and even in our own lives.

We tend not to stop and say okay. What does that mean? If you've been following pastor Mike across for the last few years. He's been even substituting the word Lord with something else. Anybody knows what that is?

Yahweh and why does he do that? Why is he doing it's his personal name? It's what is he trying to make us do as his sheep? He passed my wants us to stop and say okay. What does it mean to say Lord? Do we understand it because we're moving so quickly on to the next verse or not thinking about what it is.

But Paul has his mind on Colossians 1 15 to 20 as he addresses all of the other issues in that book. I Know the next four weeks. Even when I talk about all of these other things our hearts and our minds should be on Colossians 1 15 to 20.

It should be on the person of Christ the sufficiency of Christ even for our sanctification. Now what's. I'll go I'll do it let's go through Colossians 1 if you have your Bibles open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter 1 he's addressing clearly believers in verse 2 and in verse 3, he immediately bursts out in praise for God and He praises the believers in Colossae.

Why. Because not only do they have love for the gospel. They have love for one another and he praises them for that and He states one thing clearly right up front verses 6 7 that the gospel truth is absolute truth that even in the chaos and confusion in Colossae and Around the world the gospel truth remains unchanged and look what he says in verse 7.

Actually, it's in verse 6 that even now in the whole world as indeed in the whole world. It is bearing fruit and increasing. The gospel truth bears fruit that it is able by God's power and grace Redeemed lost sinners and that it is sufficient.

For the growth of believers bearing fruit fruit always has a connotation of growth. He goes on to mention this man called Epaphras who is their pastor. Now if you look you may ask the question Why is he mentioning him here?

There could be many but it could be because he's trying to differentiate between a path first a true teacher and the other false teachers that Around there and he's praising him. He says good things about him that in verse 7 towards the end.

He says he's a beloved fellow servant he's a faithful minister as opposed to the unfaithfulness of others and He has made known to us your love in the spirit so Paul wants the Colossians to remember What Epaphras has taught them and To remember to grow in that and not listen to these other false teachers who are coming in but there are so many good verses in this book and Look at verse 11 with me May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy.

The word all is used a lot in the book of Colossians. It's used a lot to describe the sufficiency of Christ. It's also used a lot to describe how we should behave as slaves of Christ as believers of Christ.

Here it is used to imply everything of everything it encompasses. Everything that's the that's the term here. Paul can't contain himself in verse 11. He's saying Everything that the believer needs to live and to grow is found in Christ.

Everything the believer needs to be joyful about everything. He needs to live in this life. No matter what the cultural setting is is found in Christ. You may ask yourself the question How do I deal with this sin?

It's ever-encompassing of that. It's anger because of politics whether it's anger because of Other societal things as anger because of our sin or other sin. Paul is reminding us that the all-sufficient work of Christ Is sufficient for the believer?

His grace is sufficient for us even in those difficult situations even when we are sinning and we don't know how to deal with our own sin and That is important for the Colossians to remember and us to remember Because they were struggling with this at that time.

Why. Because it's false teaching this confusion. There's chaos and what does it reap? Difficulty. Paul wants believers and the Colossians to know that they can endure all things in the highest and most complete sense in Christ and Then he goes on to to remind us of what the gospel means.

It's a very short section in 13 and 14. He essentially Mentions the gospel he essentially pours it out because he can't stop verse 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of Sins it is Christ who saves it is Christ who redeems and It is Christ who has rescued us.

We're not that old self anymore. We've been we've been it's the term to Save somebody's life and they're trapped in torture when they're trapped in a cage. That's the kind of term that's used here pulled out rescued saved.

That's what Christ has done for us and of course my favorite verse in the whole of Bible 15 to 20 and Kind if you look at through if you look throughout the book high Christology in the book of Colossians.

If you look chapters 3 and 4 he comes back to Doctrine of Christ. This is where what is in Paul's mind. This is what's in his mind. As he's going through this this is what should be in our minds. Especially in the next four weeks as we're looking to understand these political and cultural movements around us.

How do we stand firm? How do we teach others? How do we protect our wives and our children all of that comes from our Christology? So this section is important to understand. Let's read it together. Actually, why don't I take a break and somebody else read Colossians 1 15 to 20 this section.

Which is the Christological high point of the New Testament? Exalts Christ as pre-eminent in creation and in redemption supreme over all things first above all things and You'll be able to answer this question much better at the end of perhaps four weeks or even next week but if you have this in your mind and You have trouble at home or you have as Becky said, you know people coming after Peter.

If you have this in your mind and you understand this and you're grateful for what Christ has done for us. And you understand that he's coming back. He's greater than angels. He's greater than any dark forces.

He is creator. He is the one who saves he is the founder of the eschatological resurrection without him. There would be none. How would your responses differ if this is in your mind? Would it would it be different Anthony and it's it's great that you're not saying hey, I'm Italian.

I'm gonna do this anyway, but you look at Colossians 1. Okay. Yes, Becky says this is Mafia roots. Hey, the point is it's I. Like that, right? You're praying for you're praying for lost sinners and that is so important when we come back to political differences and how what's happening inside the church is right now is.

How do you view others you pray for your salvation no matter what? Their sin is because we know what we've been saved out of but we also see how great Christ is and How powerful he is how sovereign he is and how he is indeed all-sufficient you're viewing something.

It's a high view of Christ. Everything else seems insignificant. Everything else seems to be okay under control everything else seems calm. So let me ask you this husbands. How do you how do you deal with?

Difficulties with your wife maybe your own sin perhaps. When you are keeping in when you're keeping this in your mind because a lot Paul talks about this in in Hebrews. Sorry Hebrews Colossians chapter 3 towards the end when he talks about husbands and wives and children.

He does go into how you ought to behave as a result of this kind of thinking so. Practically, how does knowing this verse and having a high Christology in other words the only Christology. How does that affect the way you treat your wives?

This is the point where all men right and run out of the sanctuary. Well, you you you. You love her you understand the differences you understand the fall you understand That even when there is some kind of emotional misunderstanding that you understand that you have been saved and That Christ is superior and is able to give you grace even in this difficult situation because often we respond emotionally even men do and How we ought to respond is by keeping Christ in mind and therefore responding calm.

Gratefully as a result of who our Lord is and how great he is. If you have a low view of Christ somewhere at the bottom here. You can't respond. Well even into the situation. Now look at Colossians chapter 3 with me.

Why am I talking about earthly response so much look at Colossians chapter 3 verses verse 1 if. Then Colossians chapter 3 verse 1 you have been raised with Christ. Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Number two set your minds on verse two set your mind on things that are that are above not on things that are on Earth. This is not saying you suddenly start living an ascetic life. It's not saying stop Earnings stop providing food.

It's saying that and as he goes later in the chapter 3 and 4 He's saying you let your earthly responses be governed by Your Christology by your by the mind which is set on things that are above by your mind which are set on who Christ is what he has done and The truth about him.

So that's how our earthly responses should be. So in light of who Christ is and what we see in Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 to 20 Husbands are to love their wives in calm and an understanding way. Because of who he is and because of the patience and the love that he has shown us.

Anything you want to add all the men were really quiet. Andrew absolutely. Absolutely, that's that's what Paul is trying to say here as well and I and I like the way you said it he's. Paul is an easier example to follow than Christ because he's Mortal.

Well, okay. But thank you now, that's exactly right. So how do you view your relationship with others? How what is your view of Christ? It's very important. And I love verses 21 to 23 where it talks about a status change something that we sometimes forget about.

We've been changed from putrid from a despicable state in front of in in in front of God we've been made children of God and He goes on to state that it's because of the status change. That we should obey him in love.

It reminds us of how putrid hope how despicable how dead how separated we were from God. But now you've been redeemed. You've been brought into new life. And if you look Paul almost immediately in Colossians chapter 2 towards the end to us to the rest of the book Tells you look this is the way you ought to behave not that it saves you but this is the true gospel.

Here's the right view of Christ and therefore here's the way you should behave. Obedience to the preeminent all-sufficient Savior and remember in Paul's mind even towards the end of Colossians 1 he's got the Christological him in his mind and so should we and Somewhere in the middle.

I get a little confused when he starts verses 1 24 and ends it with 2 5. Suddenly I had to change my train of thought because Paul suddenly goes into talking about the authenticity of his apostleship.

It took me a lot of studying to understand. Okay, why the sudden change? Why did you change your tone Paul? Why did you suddenly go into this section right here? I was happy with the Christological him.

Can we just keep doing that? But no, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and as divinely inspired Paul is asserting who he is as the Apostle that it didn't just come on him by himself. He didn't choose to be an apostle.

It isn't his works he gives all the glory to God and. And he tells them that unlike the false teachers his authority comes from Christ. Unlike the false teachers. He has never held back anything from the cloud from the Colossians or from any of the other churches he has poured his heart into and as Andrew Andrew just said He loved them like his own children and he shows that in this little section where he asks not only for prayer.

But also to remember what has been given to him. He gave them all knowledge. He spoke everything in love and inconsistency to them. I Have two more minutes, so I won't be able to finish everything in chapter 2, but let me let me end with this.

In verses 6 and 7 Paul commands them to stay rooted in Christ. He tells them that you need to be established and immovable in Christ and This is in light of how supreme and how powerful and how sufficient the Lord Jesus Christ is.

What does that mean? Specifically to be rooted in Christ to be founded in Christ you stand firm on the teachings of the Apostles about Christ. About his life about his death about his resurrection about how he's the second person of the Trinity about how he alone has appeased the wrath of God and When somebody comes from outside and says no he's not sufficient and is attacking those those roots you're in you you won't move.

Okay, but we're sinners and we're not gonna do this perfectly. That's why we have the church. That's why we have each other. That's why we have the scriptures. That's why Paul goes on to talk about the importance of prayer and the importance of thanksgiving which which believe it or not is huge.

In this book how you should be thankful for what you have in the gospel and in the truth and therefore not move. And he even ends were seven by talking about abounding in Thanksgiving. So you so staying rooted in Christ?

Established in the doctrine of Christ is Not only fundamental. It's very important even today for us in 2017 it's very important as all of these things got to attack our minds, and we see all kinds of things around us in the culture and Let's be frank as we deal with our own sin as we deal with our own sin.

Which is painful as it is? What do we go back to what should we keep our mind on? First the work of Christ the person of Christ and then obedience to him that comes out of that. I'll close by talking about verse 7 because I can't I can't stop by not mentioning this.

Multiple times in this book Paul tells you prayer be prayerful and be thankful. When you think about the gospel and you and when you're thinking about your relationship with others be thankful for the gospel.