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Thanking God for My Church (Colossians 1:3-8)
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Sunday Message recorded 23 November 2025
by Senior Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
Recommended
Transcript
Expressions of Gratitude and Community
00:00:06
Speaker
Thank you, Jana and Modena. That was beautiful. Hope you were able to follow along the words. I didn't know the words to that song, but now I'll never forget them. Were it not for grace?
00:00:16
Speaker
Where would any of us be were it not for God's grace? Guarantee you, I would be on some pointless trail to nowhere. But I'm so glad that the Lord has saved my soul. And I'm here with you, my brothers and sisters in Christ. And so glad that you're here today. I see people that are here home from college and so forth. So it's great to have you back. It's good to see all of you here. If you're visiting, we're especially glad you picked a great Sunday to come because we've got lunch waiting down the hall. And we would love for you to be with it, even if you didn't even know a thing about it. We'd love for you to join us.
Lunch Logistics and Blessings
00:00:51
Speaker
We've got lots of people that put together the meal.
00:00:54
Speaker
And so all of you are welcome to go. um You know, each year I've always said i want to start with the desserts. I've always said you can get in the line if you want to I'm going to go to the dessert table first. Well, this year somebody's on to it because they put the dessert table in the corridor leading into the Family Life Center.
00:01:14
Speaker
And so I won't be able to beat you this time. But anyway, that's where you're going to get your drink. And you can get your dessert and then pick out a table and put your drink and dessert.
00:01:24
Speaker
Trust people. They're not going to get your pie, whatever you get there. And then go get in the line, the serving line. And the serving line
Gifts for Children and Thankfulness Reflection
00:01:32
Speaker
goes to the right, goes to the left. can go either direction. And you can even go back through again if there's still food there later. And I'm sure there will be.
00:01:41
Speaker
But anyway, just wanted you to know that we're glad that you're here. Our deacon, Laverne, will be closing our service in here today. So we've asked him, why don't you go ahead and say the blessing and give thanks for the food in here? So when you get in there...
00:01:57
Speaker
Once you go through the line, you can start eating. You can even start eating your dessert if you want to, you know, skip the line. But also, let's say that there's someone here, a mom and a dad, and you have children from sixth grade and younger. If you would like, if you've got plans today, you can't be here, we understand.
00:02:17
Speaker
But Trudy Stavanoa prepared gifts today. for every child. And so if you want to go down to the Family Life Center and just find Trudy, she'd be glad to give your child a bag that's got their name on it and so forth. I look, they don't have a bag with my name on it. So this is, you're beating the pastor today. You get something I don't get.
00:02:37
Speaker
I hope you'll turn to Colossians 1, verses 3 through 8. That's where we're going to spend a little bit of time today. They did tell me, hey, you're on the time frame today. We've got to get out of here at 11.15. So anyway, I can definitely do that because I know what's waiting.
00:02:54
Speaker
But Colossians 1, verses 3 through 8 says, On October the 4th, 2025, I was having a sabbatical. i was You gave me this incredible sabbatical. I'm still thankful for that. But one of my quiet times, I read this passage.
00:03:11
Speaker
And I thought, look at that. You know, the Apostle Paul is giving thanks for the church in Colossae. But you know what? When I read it, I said, Lord, that's my church family in Columbus.
00:03:24
Speaker
And so I am so thankful for you. So we're going to look at this passage in terms of thanking God for my church. And so you may want to say, okay, Lord, that's one of the things I need to add on my list. I hope you're thankful for our church.
00:03:39
Speaker
You know, I read an article. It's actually from last year, but it said, here's what Americans are thankful for this year. And most of them, many of them said, I'm thankful for my family. I hope you're thankful for your family.
00:03:52
Speaker
One guy said, I'm thankful for life itself. I'm glad to just be standing upright. And then another one said, I'm thankful for her health. One person said they were thankful for their job.
00:04:03
Speaker
And one teenager said, I'm thankful for my driver's license. I passed the test. And so he was glad about that. Someone else said, I'm thankful for a kidney transplant. Someone said, I'm thankful for my eyes. You ever thank God for vision?
00:04:17
Speaker
You know, that's that's a gift. Another person said, you know, I'm thankful because my husband just celebrated his 90th birthday. And then some
Gratitude in Paul's Letters
00:04:27
Speaker
said, I'm thankful that we're going to be together this year We can't always be together for Thanksgiving, but I'm glad that we can be together for the holidays.
00:04:36
Speaker
But I think the one that really touched me the most, speaking about thanking God for my church, was 60-year-old lady named Ann in Noblesville, Indiana. She said that she had lost her husband of 29 years to cancer seven years previous to the interview.
00:04:53
Speaker
She said, i am most thankful for the love and grace of God. For without it, my present blessings of family, friends, provision,
00:05:05
Speaker
church community and abundant life would not be possible. I think I'm starting now to see some of the fruit that God has brought into my life as a widow.
00:05:19
Speaker
I wasn't willing to look for a long time, but now I can see it. Isn't that precious? You know, the apostle was thanking God for a local church in the city of Colossae.
00:05:31
Speaker
Colossians 1.3 says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. Like I said, I'm thanking God for you. I was thanking God for you every day of our sabbatical, but also thank God that I can be here with you today.
00:05:49
Speaker
You know, the primary theme theme of the letter to the Colossians was not Thanksgiving. It was the supremacy of Christ. Do you know how great our Savior is?
00:06:01
Speaker
Well, that's the theme of Colossians. You should read through it. It's only four chapters. But there is an underground stream of Thanksgiving flowing through every chapter of Colossians.
00:06:15
Speaker
And you may say, Really? I'm telling you the truth. Let me go through it really quickly. And if you're a note taker, you can write these down. But for example, in chapter one, verse three, like I said, the apostle Paul was thanking God for the local church in Christ.
00:06:31
Speaker
But if you were to drop down to verse 12 of chapter one, he said, you know what I'm also thanking God for? I'm thanking God for the eternal inheritance that we have in Christ.
00:06:43
Speaker
So I thought, wow, he's just on a roll, but he doesn't stop. If you were to go over into chapter two, he says, I'm also thanking God for the spiritual overflow that has come into my life through Christ.
00:06:56
Speaker
Here's how way he describes it in Colossians two, verse seven. He said, you know what? I am abounding in Thanksgiving. Are you abounding in Thanksgiving this year?
00:07:07
Speaker
Even in chapter 3, verse 15, and then again in verse 17, he's still thanking the Lord. For example, he's thanking God for the internal peace that he has in Christ. He said, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
00:07:25
Speaker
So he's saying, deep in my heart, there's a peace there. And I'm so thankful. that I have that peace. And then verse 17, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Have you ever been looking for a general purpose in life?
00:07:46
Speaker
Paul says, I'm glad that through Christ, I found something that unites everything I do. You know, everything you do in your work, everything you do in your family life, everything you do, you know, at school, if you're a student,
00:07:59
Speaker
Everything can come under one category. I want to honor God. I want to honor Christ. I want to praise him. And i I want to thank him for all that he's done. So whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. But one last one is in chapter four. So he was thanking God in chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. But then in chapter four, he says, continue steadfastly in prayer.
00:08:27
Speaker
being watchful in it with thanksgiving. You know, sometimes when you're praying, you're praying about problems. You're praying about struggles. You're praying about needs.
00:08:37
Speaker
And if you're not careful, that can be sort of where you get stuck emotionally. But I don't think he was stuck emotionally there because he said, you know what? While I'm praying about all those different challenges that I have in my life,
00:08:51
Speaker
I'm giving thanks all along the way. He said, I'm being watchful in it with thanksgiving. have you ever fallen asleep? One time I was kneeling down by my bed and I fell asleep.
00:09:03
Speaker
And there was a roommate of mine that was underneath there. And he grabbed my leg. You know, about that time I fell asleep. And when I woke up, I had, they called it the mark of the beast. But my bread spread had these three lines on there. It had three lines across my forehead. Amen.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I told him, don't you ever hide under my bed again, buddy. You heard all me confessing my sins, you know. But anyway. You know, where was Paul? I bet it was hard for him to thank God.
00:09:30
Speaker
I mean, here he is four chapters in. He's still thanking God. Where was he? I bet he was having a great day. I bet he was, you know, drinking lemonade somewhere and taking it easy.
00:09:41
Speaker
No, as a matter of fact, chapter four, verse three in chapter four, verse 18 says, when Paul was writing this letter to the Colossians, he was actually in a prison. It wasn't comfortable. Maybe where you are in your life, maybe this season, it's not a comfortable season for you.
00:09:58
Speaker
But I want you to know that one of the things that brightened Paul's heart in terms of giving gratitude to God was these churches. He thanked God for Colossae. But you know, if you were to read Ephesians 116, he thanked God for the church in Ephesus.
00:10:14
Speaker
Maybe you're still thankful for another church. Maybe you're a member of this church now, but you were a member of many churches through the span of your life. Why not give God thanks for those churches as well?
00:10:26
Speaker
He was thankful for the church at Philippi. Do you know that Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, they were all written in prison. And so it's amazing. He's coming out with these prison letters and he's coming out with Thanksgiving.
00:10:39
Speaker
When he thanked the Lord in 1 Thessalonians one two for the church in Thessalonica, he thanked the Lord in 1 Corinthians one four for the church in Corinth. Do you get a pattern here? Do you detect a pattern?
00:10:52
Speaker
I detect the pattern that Paul is saying, if I don't have anything else to thank the Lord for, i can thank the Lord for brothers and sisters in Christ. I can thank the Lord for
Faith, Love, and Hope
00:11:02
Speaker
people that have been a mentor to me. Are you grateful for the Lord's church that's here in Columbus?
00:11:09
Speaker
You know, let's focus our attention this morning on three reasons Paul was grateful to God for the church in Colossae. And like I said, during my recent sabbatical, these things that we're about to read, they remind me of you.
00:11:24
Speaker
And I'm going to point that out as we go through this passage. Would you stand in honor of God's word? God's word's a different kind of book. That's why I give us the opportunity to express our respect toward his book, to express express our honor toward God that we even have a copy of it. So you look along. If you can't, don't have one, you can look at the Pew Bible. By the way, the one who donated those Bibles to our church said if anybody ever doesn't have a Bible, they're welcome to take the Pew Bible.
00:11:53
Speaker
We've got others in boxes. So you you need a Bible, you take that pew Bible. But we want you to open God's word and see what God has said. It will create thanksgiving in your heart. You can also see it on the screen.
00:12:07
Speaker
Here's what it says in the version I'm reading from, which is the ESV. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you.
00:12:18
Speaker
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant,
00:12:52
Speaker
He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, gladden our hearts.
00:13:05
Speaker
Help us count our blessings. I pray that somewhere in the list, that we would say, you know, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for my church family. I'm thankful for the place where I learn about God, where I can go and worship with others right here in Columbus.
00:13:19
Speaker
So bless us as we gather. give this time to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:13:30
Speaker
Did you notice what he said and the way he said it in verse three? He says how often he thanks God for his church. He said, we always, that's a long time. And then that's a lot. that's ah That's a lot of repetition there. He said, we always thank God.
00:13:48
Speaker
We always thank God. when we pray for you. So let's see how he was thanking God. Maybe you're saying, give me reasons that I could thank God for our church. Well, let me give you three. Number one, I think he thanked the Lord for his church because he saw God moving within the church. He saw God moving within the church.
00:14:09
Speaker
You know, many times, hey, I hang out in ministerial circles with other pastors and so forth, and you'll hear some come in bragging and some come in dragging, and they all got different stories to tell. But you know what?
00:14:24
Speaker
Some people assume that whenever God's moving, you can count it numerically. Well, I want you to know that even though I know that some people are saying, how many are in attendance?
00:14:36
Speaker
How many baptisms are there How many offerings and so forth? What I want to introduce you to is a new way of measuring when God's at work.
00:14:47
Speaker
It's not always on the surface in numerically, but I think it'll put gladness in your heart whenever you can see the fingerprints of God that are right here locally in our midst. And I think that's what Paul was thanking God for in verses four and five, the movement. He saw God moving in colosse in Colossae.
00:15:09
Speaker
But did he say anything about the attendance? Did he say anything about the number of baptisms? Did he say anything about the number of an offering, the amount of an offering? No.
00:15:19
Speaker
I'll tell you three fingerprints that he said, I'm thanking God for what I see going on at the church. The first fingerprint of God was faithfully. faith in Christ Jesus.
00:15:30
Speaker
I believe he was thankful for it. And here's why he was thankful for it. He said, I'm thankful for your faith in Christ because I can hear it. It's audio. You can hear it. He said, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Has anybody, has he anybody in Columbus ever heard you talk about the Lord? Has anybody ever heard you say, my faith and my trust is in Jesus Christ. He's the one who has saved me.
00:16:01
Speaker
Well, if so, then you can identify with what he's saying here in verse four, when he says, since we heard of your faith. I'm not talking about your mom's faith. I'm not talking about your dad's faith.
00:16:13
Speaker
I'm not talking about your grandfather's faith. I'm not talking about your son's faith. not talking about your wife's faith or your husband's faith. No, I'm saying your faith. That's when you know it's authentic.
00:16:25
Speaker
That's when you know it's real. And he's saying, you know what I've heard? I have heard about your faith, people of Colossae, people of the church in Colossae.
00:16:35
Speaker
Has anybody ever heard you say, it's mine, Jesus loves me, he's he's worked in my life. Well, I think it was the authenticity of faith and the audio of faith, but also the assurance of faith.
00:16:49
Speaker
How can you ever know that you're gonna go to heaven when you die? How can you ever know that your sins are completely forgiven? You may say, I'm going to try my hardest.
00:17:00
Speaker
I'm going to bake a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving gathering because I heard that's a pastor's favorite. And so i'm going to make sure it's up there. And I'm getting into heaven because I made the pastor happy. If you see one piece of pumpkin pie left, would you get a sticky note and put on there for Pastor Victor and put, we want a happy pastor, not a grumpy pastor.
00:17:20
Speaker
But anyway, how can you ever know that you're okay with God? There's only one way It's the finished work of Jesus Christ. And that's why he said, you know what? I'm so thankful that I see you folks have placed your faith and your trust in Jesus Christ.
00:17:40
Speaker
That's where your faith and trust is. And that's why you have assurance. that you're going to heaven. You have assurance that you're going to be forgiven of your sins, not because of how good you are, not because of your pumpkin pie you baked for the pastor. No, no, you're saying, I know that I'm going to heaven.
00:17:58
Speaker
I know that my sins are covered because Jesus' blood covers it because Jesus lived a perfect life. That's why he died on the cross. And that's why we put our faith and trust in it. It's a game changer. Everything changes. At that point, he said, you know what? That's something only God can do. That's a fingerprint of God. But there's another fingerprint of God.
00:18:19
Speaker
Someone said that vertical faith, whenever you place your faith in Jesus Christ and you're saying, okay, now I'm going to be right with God through my faith in Jesus Christ. Vertical faith precedes something else that's horizontal.
00:18:33
Speaker
Horizontal love. So in other words, when God pours his grace, his love into you, you know what you wanna do? You wanna share that love. You wanna share that grace with somebody else.
00:18:45
Speaker
And that's why it's not surprising that the second fingerprint of God being at work in the church in Colossae was this, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints.
00:19:01
Speaker
The love that you have for all the saints. Let me tell you something. i have learned over the 17, 18 years that I've been here. You love people.
00:19:11
Speaker
You love people well. People don't see it because you love people in such a way that you don't want to toot your horn. You don't want the glory. So I see people do things behind the scenes. It's incredible.
00:19:25
Speaker
It's breathtaking when you see that kind of love. It reminds me of a 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 6 kind of love. Because there's a lot of definitions of love floating around out there. And I wouldn't recommend going to Hollywood for one. But I would recommend going to 1 Corinthians 13, 4 through 6.
00:19:42
Speaker
Because it says, you know what real love is? patient. Real love is kind. And there's some things that are off limits for real love. And you know what the off limits ones are?
00:19:53
Speaker
Love does not envy. Love is not rude. Love does not insist on my own way. Hey, I've seen that time and time again in here where people are saying, you know what? It's not about me.
00:20:07
Speaker
It's all about Jesus. It's all about helping other people to know that they are loved. And so it's incredible. You know, it's not irritable. there's That rules out the grumpy pastor right there. It's not irritable. It's not resentful.
00:20:21
Speaker
You know, it does not rejoice. In wrongdoing, it rejoices with something else. It rejoices with the truth. That's real love.
00:20:31
Speaker
That's real love. But then I saw as another fingerprint, the fingerprint of hope. Hope beyond this life. Isn't there something else? Isn't there something better that we can look forward to? Yes.
00:20:44
Speaker
That's why he gives the incentive of hope. Did you catch how he says it? Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven? Why did he put because there?
00:20:55
Speaker
It's like all that went before it is hinged on it. so you're So you're saying faith in Christ and love for other people, it's because of hope?
00:21:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's because of hope because you know what? Jesus overcame death. He overcame death. He rose from the dead. And if he can do that, i remember a lady who's in glory now, Janie Gregory, she told me one time, she said, Pastor, God told me something. I said, what's that?
00:21:22
Speaker
And this was Easter. She said, if God can raise his son from the dead, what can he not do in my life or in your life? I said, you know what? I'm going to write that down. That'll be a good message someday, you know. But anyway, she started laughing. But it's so true.
00:21:38
Speaker
You know what? That's why we can have hope that there's something better than this, something that's going beyond the grave.
The Gospel's Truth and Transformation
00:21:45
Speaker
Paul wasn't only thanking God, though, just for God's movement within the church. He was also grateful to the Lord for something else.
00:21:52
Speaker
And I'm grateful for it here, the message, the message through the church. Do you know that the gospel message that we have, it wasn't entrusted to Greek philosophers.
00:22:06
Speaker
It wasn't entrusted to Roman politicians. You know who it was entrusted to? People just like me and you, just like us Men and women who said, you know what? I'm going to follow Jesus Christ.
00:22:19
Speaker
And those are the ones that he said, you know what I want you to do? want you to make disciples of the whole world. i want you to go out and just share the message with everybody that's out there.
00:22:30
Speaker
And so whenever Paul was thinking about the people of Colossae sharing the message, he got to thinking of three specific things about the message for which he was thankful. He was thankful for a message of truth in a world of deception.
00:22:45
Speaker
Do you believe everything you read on the internet? Don't raise your hand if you do, because somebody's going to come by and talk to you guarantee you. But anyway, no, don't believe everything that people tell you, but you can believe everything that God has written in his word.
00:22:59
Speaker
He tells us the truth. Isn't it nice to have a message of truth? But you know what? Some people don't want to be told that they're broken when they are broken. Some people don't want to be told, hey, you've been resisting God, running from God when they are broken.
00:23:14
Speaker
But you know what? God loves us so much. He said, no, I love you too much. I'm going to tell you the truth. And believe me, when whenever I was you know a freshman and in college, God parted my hair with the truth.
00:23:26
Speaker
And it's like, wow, man, did he ever tell me the truth about my sin? But you know, that's why God said in Romans 3.23, all of sin and fall short of the glory of God. He's not going to just tell us something that's not right and not true. No, he tells us something that's true. And the something is...
00:23:44
Speaker
We all need God. Maybe you feel so unworthy to be here today and maybe you think, well, all these people in here are perfect. No, you know what? We're not. As matter of fact, the one thing we do have in common in here is all of us are sinners.
00:23:57
Speaker
Some of us are sinners saved by grace and others are sinners who need to be saved by grace. It's open to you. And so the truth is, yes, we've sinned, but the truth is also God took the punishment for our sin, placed it upon his son.
00:24:14
Speaker
That's why even though the Bible says that the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Man, it's so wonderful. The sufficiency of Christ and of salvation.
00:24:27
Speaker
Man, there's just so much good news in that message of truth. But without the teaching of the truth, others would be captured by lies. do you know that in Colossians 2, in verse 8 over there, says, See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elementary spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Did you catch that about empty deceit?
00:24:57
Speaker
There's some people, they don't really care about you, but they're going to say, this is what you need to do. But God, he really cares about you. And he said, this is what you need to do. I believe he was also thankful for a message that changes lives, a message of transformation for a life of disillusionment.
00:25:17
Speaker
You know, verse six describes the wonderful impact of the gospel upon lives. He said, you know what's happening there in Colossae? It's bearing fruit among you. I see that same gospel message bearing fruit right here.
00:25:32
Speaker
I see moms and dads, husbands and wives. And although not perfect, I see the Lord. I see his glory working through your lives. You know, I see students becoming more like Christ and children getting to know Christ.
00:25:47
Speaker
It's just amazing when you think about it. Reminds me so much of where that blind man in John chapter 9, verse 25. You know, they were kind of grilling him and drilling him with questions.
00:25:59
Speaker
And he said, look, one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see. You know, that's what you need to tell people. You know, when they ask you a bunch of questions that you don't know the answer, just say, you know what? There's one thing I know. I'm not the same man. I'm not the same woman.
00:26:17
Speaker
We're not the same family.
Personal Growth and Community Support
00:26:18
Speaker
Listen, we changed. I don't know about you, but some years we watched the same Christmas movies over and over. And we laugh at the same kind of stuff and whatever. But one of my favorites is It's a Wonderful Life.
00:26:30
Speaker
Because in that movie, a guy thinks that he wished he had never been born. And you know what he learned? He learned that that, you know what? His life was very valuable. Had it impacted many people.
00:26:43
Speaker
And so is yours. So is yours. I believe also he was thankful not only for the transformation, but for the triumph. The triumph. You know, I remember sharing with the people over in Ethiopia because he talks about, you know, it's bringing this fruit all around the world.
00:26:59
Speaker
And Ethiopia, I told him my testimony. And I said, you know what? On the day I was born, my mama and my daddy said, we're going to name him Victor. And so I said to the Ethiopians, you know what the name Victor means?
00:27:12
Speaker
And nobody knew. They looked at me with a blank stare. I said, the name Victor means winner. My parents named me the winner. I said, the only problem was I rarely won until...
00:27:26
Speaker
I met Jesus Christ. And you know what he did? 1 Corinthians 15, 57 says, thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
00:27:36
Speaker
And maybe in your life, you would say, I can't seem to win. It's like an arm wrestling match and sin puts me down every time. You know what? Why don't you ask Jesus Christ to come to the table?
00:27:48
Speaker
You watch what he can do in your life. It's amazing. Well, we saw the Lord's movement and the Lord's message, but there's one last thing, the ministry, the Lord's ministry. You see, a New Testament church offers four types of ministry.
00:28:03
Speaker
And I see them mentioned here in these last couple of verses, seven and eight. You know, I think that a local church offers a place to learn. place to learn.
00:28:14
Speaker
That's what he says, just as you learned it. He's saying to that church in Colossae, remember when you didn't know anything and you came in and you said, i don't know even the books of the Bible. I don't know where to start. How do we get going here?
00:28:28
Speaker
You know, there are 14, at least, Sunday school classes that are teaching people God's Word every single week, every single Sunday. People are in those classes, and they're learning. And they're learning on their age level, wherever that is.
00:28:44
Speaker
The adults, hey, we've given up. We're not going to make adults get in age groups and so forth. Go where you want to if you're an adult. But when you're little, you need it on another level, right?
00:28:55
Speaker
And so that's the way that we do it. But you know, the students, their lives are changed. They find triumph whenever they go to camp. A lot of times they've come home, their lives are changed. My daughter, Elisa, went to a student life camp.
00:29:11
Speaker
Her life was completely changed. Kids learn memory verses in Awana. I guarantee you the Awana kids probably know more verses than I do. They got them memorized.
00:29:22
Speaker
And you know what? Since I've been here, I've already preached through the whole New Testament, just going verse by verse. I've done many verses in the Old Testament. I didn't do them all on Sunday morning, but between Sunday morning, and Sunday night, Wednesday night.
00:29:35
Speaker
So the adults are in these classes. They're hearing messages that are from the whole word of God. We're not leaving anything out. We want all of it. The other thing I think a local church offers in addition to learning, and by the way, see that word learn there in verse seven? You know what that is?
00:29:53
Speaker
That means disciple. It's the same word for disciple. Learn there, a disciple is a learner. And so whenever he's saying, just as you learned it, you were discipled.
00:30:04
Speaker
But then let's go to the second way that the church ministers. And that is a local church not only offers a place to learn, but a place to labor, a place to labor. See, Epaphras, some of you thought when he called Epaphras a minister, you thought it was a pastor, right?
00:30:20
Speaker
No, he wasn't. He started the church. He was a lay church planter, but he wasn't a pastor. And so isn't it amazing? He was just a local arrested, but he said, you know what? God's changed my life. I believe I can share that gospel with others.
00:30:35
Speaker
But you know, here in our church, we have many who are serving. We have instrumentalists that you heard today. We have vocalists. We have people in technology and sound and video. We have people who teach. We have nursery workers.
00:30:47
Speaker
We have a deacon ministry. We have people in administration and finance. We have people who are across the street every Monday and Tuesday with a clothes closet. We have ah people who maintain our property and our building, our vans.
00:31:01
Speaker
We have people who minister to children. Some who work with students, others work with adults. See, behind the scenes, there are serving so many people who are serving or praying.
00:31:13
Speaker
And that's a service, praying, praying for each of us. But a local church also offers a place of loyalty. A place of loyalty. Let me ask you, have you been burned in your life?
00:31:25
Speaker
I think the local church is designed and it should be a place where people learn, I'm learning who i can count on. I'm learning who will be be there for me. You know, he says that this guy, Epaphras, he was a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. He was faithful. Are you faithful?
00:31:44
Speaker
This church is filled with faithful people. The Lord continues to bring us people who were, let's say, from Houston or from another part of Texas or from another part of the United States.
00:31:56
Speaker
And you've been faithful in your life. And now God's brought you here. And you're continuing to leave leave behind a legacy of faithfulness. Thank you for that. Thank you for those of you who are here even before I got here.
00:32:09
Speaker
Some have been in this church for many, many years. Do you know we're standing on the shoulders of giants, spiritual giants, who lived a consistent Christian life through the years? But also I see that a local church offers a place to be loved.
Thanksgiving Proclamation and Gratitude
00:32:24
Speaker
Some people, did they do not receive love in their family that they grew up. They didn't receive it. They were told there were nothing. They were kind of sort of, you know, made fun of or whatever. But I want you to know that the church is a place where they can say, you know what?
00:32:39
Speaker
For the first time in my life, I know that God loves me and I believe God's people. They love me. That's the way it should be. It says, and has made known to us your love in the spirit.
00:32:52
Speaker
That is, that's the way it's supposed to be. I'm so thankful, you know, for for encouragement that I see, for people sharing, giving, serving, for people who weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice.
00:33:07
Speaker
If you're looking for something to thank the Lord for this Thanksgiving, why don't you say, well, I'm thankful for God's ministry through our church. I'm thankful for the message that God has given because it's flowing through our church. And I'm thankful also for the ministry that I see in our church.
00:33:25
Speaker
You know, for many, the painting of washington George Washington crossing the Delaware, that's probably one of their favorite paintings. But I have a tender spot in my heart also for Arnold Freiberg's The Prayer at Valley Forge. Have you ever seen that painting before? Maybe not that. that We put that in there, that little clipping from a newspaper.
00:33:47
Speaker
But I think it's really amazing how he was a man of prayer and he was leading troops and they were losing at that point when they were at Valley Forge. It was a brutal winter and many were starving.
00:34:00
Speaker
But you know what? Why did he pray? Why do you pray in your job? Why do you pray as a mom? Why do you pray with all the stress you've got in your life? Well, he did because he learned from his Christian family.
00:34:15
Speaker
He did because he was a member of a Christian church. Do you know that there are many people who have testified, I saw Washington praying in the morning. Others say, I saw Washington praying in the evening.
00:34:28
Speaker
12 years later, then President Washington reflected back over the service and the sacrifice of so many. And you know what his response was? He said, you know what we need to have?
00:34:40
Speaker
We need to have a day as a nation where we can just stop. We push the pause button and we say, thank you, God, for what you've already done. And so he wrote he writes October the 3rd, 1789, this incredible Thanksgiving proclamation. This is 1789.
00:34:58
Speaker
And it starts out saying, where whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.
00:35:13
Speaker
But here's what he says. I lifted one other section out of that because I figured you couldn't read that other article there. It's kind of small print. But here's what it says. It says, that we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of his providence
00:35:45
Speaker
which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war He said, you know what, if I look hard enough, I got something i be thankful for. And I believe all of us And I believe that when we look at our church family and we see day in, day out, week in, week out, man, we see so much that we can give thanks for right here.
00:36:07
Speaker
You know, maybe you'd say, I'm not a member of a church family, or i don't know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Well, we always have a song at the end. And at the end in this song, what we offer is, if you would like to say, Lord, I need you in my life, or Lord, I need to be in a church family, then we want to always give that opportunity. It won't be just today. There will also be another Sunday. But if you need to, i want you to know I'll be standing down front.
00:36:33
Speaker
We may not finish the conversation, but we can start it. So let me invite our musicians that they would come. Let me ask you if you would stand. Would you stand with me? We're going to sing this last song, Come Thou Fount. of every blessing.
00:36:47
Speaker
You know, the fountain of all the good things in your life, can tell you where it came from. came from a God in heaven who loves you so much. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for this passage of scripture.
00:36:59
Speaker
Lord, we can thank you for our salvation in Christ, and we do. We thank you for heaven. Thank you for your good Holy Spirit. Thank you for a copy of the Word of God. But we also thank you that you didn't call us to live the Christian life by ourselves.
00:37:15
Speaker
that we can have a church family to walk with us through all the good times, rejoice with us in the good times, and to grieve with us and pray for us when it's bad times and hard times.
00:37:26
Speaker
So I thank you for that. I thank you that, Lord, we're about to go down the hall and to celebrate around tables. We've got a lot we could say. And so help us, O Lord, just to be willing to let it all start by saying,
00:37:38
Speaker
Come thou fount of every blessing. It's Jesus Christ. If there's any here who does not personally have a personal relationship with you, Lord, I pray that today would be that day.
00:37:51
Speaker
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
00:37:59
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.