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Amen. Colossians chapter 3. So we're going to finish up Colossians chapter 3 this evening. This will be the third sermon in Colossians chapter 3, and I hope that you can see now as we've read through Colossians chapter 3 a few times and, you know, we've done some preaching on the verses, you know, for about two-thirds of the chapter, hope you can see the richness of Colossians chapter 3 as far as the Christian life goes. Look down at verse number 16 of Colossians chapter 3, where we'll be continuing this evening. Look what the Bible says in Colossians chapter 3 in verse number 16. The Bible says, 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. So first of all, I want to point out at the beginning of that verse, before I get into the sermon, just notice how it says, you know, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom. And it says, teaching and admonishing one another. So not only are we, you know, we saw earlier in the chapter how it gave us all this advice on dealing with and getting along and making us a more tight knit group together, but we're to teach and admonish one another from the word of God, from the word of God. Now admonishing means it doesn't say teaching and encouraging. It doesn't say teaching and celebrating. It doesn't say teaching and, you know, being joyful. It says teaching and admonishing. That means teaching and warning one another. It means teaching. I mean, that means that there's a lot of, you know, that's why, you know, like hard preaching or whatever they call it, you know, now is really just preaching what the Bible actually says. Because the Bible is a lot of warning. It's just a lot of warning. And, you know, people that just get up and just preach like, oh, you're the best and everything's great and everything's wonderful. You know, they're just picking and choosing, you know, the top 10%. They're eating the frosting, you know, and they're not taking anything else. We're to teach and admonish, warn one another in Psalms, the word of God, hymns and spiritual songs. And then look what it says, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. So first of all, you know, the Bible here in Colossians chapter three, this is a very rich chapter in the Bible as far as your Christian life goes. If I was to just give somebody who was newly a Christian, a chapter in the Bible that says, okay, you're a Christian now, what does that mean for my life? You know, Colossians chapter three, it'd be a good one to drop on top of them because it's just so complete in its, you know, just biblical richness that it gives to the believers. You know, it's talking about one another together. And this evening, you know, I hope that I can give you a reason to, you know, to sing in your heart because there's, there's a lot of good to be had from, you know, listening to Colossians chapter three, you're blessed this evening. You know, you look at, you know, what's going on in the world and, you know, it's like, we just got over COVID and it's like, oh, here we go. You know, it's just another thing and look, but I want to tell you this evening and hopefully I can get across to you that you're extremely blessed this evening. You're extremely blessed. Hopefully I can give you a reason to sing in your heart this evening. So we've seen, you know, great advice in chapter three on warning against, you know, the beginning of the chapter against blasphemy, you know, wickedness, you know, just sins of the flesh warned against, you know, being, you know, around people that are, you know, wrath, malice, filthy communication, you know, then, then in this, in this middle of the chapter, it switches to advice, you know, between you and your fellow Christians talking about, you know, deal with each other in truth, you know, be long suffering with your fellow Christians, you know, have, what do we study this word almost in a whole sermon, have some forbearance with people around you. That means, you know, putting up with people. That means, you know, where you may have something where someone actually did something to you, just suffer yourself to be defrauded, you know, put up with people's garbage. If you can, basically, and then, you know, of course, forgiveness goes right along with that. Now look at verse number 17, finally, the Colossians chapter three, after it goes through all those things, you getting rid of the junk in your life, the sin in your life, dealing with your brothers and sisters in Christ in a godly way. Now it goes even deeper into detail on your life. Look at verse 17. And then it says, Hey, it says, by the way, it says, 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. He's saying, everything I'm about to tell you to do, do it like you're working for the Lord. And he says it again in a verse a little bit down the road. So we'll get to that in a minute. But then he goes into verse number 18, when he says, now he starts giving some family advice. He starts giving marital advice and advice on, you know, the Christian family. Look at verse number 18, it says wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Now notice how it says as it is fit in the Lord, I'll get to that a little bit later as well. But it's talking here about, we talked a little bit about this on Sunday night, but here it's talking about proper family structure. Okay. And it starts with the wives. So ladies, you know, we talked about this on Sunday night, but ladies, the Bible here is saying that your husband is in charge. You know, I don't really know these days if I need to tell the man this or the woman this, you know, like husband, you're in charge or wives submit to your husband. But the Bible here is addressing the wives in verse number 18, it says your husband is in charge. You need to submit to your husband's leadership. Turn to Genesis chapter two in verse number 18. So this is a good question to ask yourselves, ladies. You know, on a daily basis, you should be asking yourself this type of question. Look at Genesis chapter two in verse number 18. When God first created the woman, this was the purpose that he did it. He said in verse number 18 of Genesis chapter two, he said, and the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help meet for him. Now this isn't meet like you meet somebody on the street. This is I'm going to make a help that is suitable for him. I'm going to make a help that is proper for him. So this is a great question for wives to ask themselves. Are you a help that is meet for your husband? Are you a proper help to your husband? Do you, I mean, think about your daily life, wives. When you have your daily life and your husband is doing the things that he's doing, supporting his family, you know, going out, working, are you a help to him or are you a burden to him? You know, the problem is today, you know, women today are taught to, you know, they're not taught to be a help to their husband. They're taught to compete with their husband. That's what feminism is teaching girls today. It's teaching girls. It's teaching young ladies that you need to compete with men in every aspect of your life. That is not what the Bible teaches. There are separate roles. We went over this in detail on Sunday night, but the point is this. You should not be ladies. You should not be competing for the preeminence or the leadership in your home because it's not yours. You know, just in general, in your life, this goes for men and women, whenever you want to be in charge of a situation that you're not in charge of, that's always bad. When you're just saying to yourself, I should be in charge or I could make a better decision there, that is always a bad thing. Number one, it comes from a place of pride. And it comes from a place of pride. And as far as husbands and wives go, it is God that has put the man in charge of the home. So you should not want, turn to 3 John chapter 1, 3 John chapter 1. You should not want to be in charge when it is not your place to be in charge. That is always a bad thing. As a matter of fact, it's not something, I mean, even men and people that are in charge, you shouldn't want to be in charge, even if you are in charge, just for the love of being in charge. Just for the love of what the Bible calls in 3 John chapter 1, look at verse number 9, the love of the preeminence. That's a bad thing. 3 John chapter 1, look at verse number 9, I wrote unto the church, but diatrophes who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. So here's a person, here's a person that's not supposed to be in charge, but that is loving to be in charge. He's loving to be in charge and he's putting other people down. So as a rule, if you're not in charge of a situation, in this case, wives, let the person who's in charge, who's your husband, be in charge. Be a helpmeet to him. So some people have, look, some people have the preeminence. This is what God is saying here, and in this case, your husband has the preeminence in the home. That is the way it is. Look at Colossians chapter 1 in verse number 18. Look at Colossians chapter 1 in verse number 18. Colossians chapter 1 in verse number 18, look who else has some preeminence here. The Bible says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, remember when we studied this, that in all things, he might have the preeminence. So the man, God has put the man in charge of the home, but Jesus Christ has the preeminence in everything, okay? So you should not want preeminence where you don't have it, where it's not your role. And even if you are in charge, men, you shouldn't be in charge, you just shouldn't love the preeminence of it. Because here's the thing, if you love the preeminence of it, you don't understand the role itself. Turn to Colossians chapter 3, look at verse number 19. So life should submit to her husband's leadership. You won't hear that much today, but that's what the Bible teaches. Look at verse number 19. Now we go to the husbands. It says, husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. The husbands are like, yes, preeminence, I'm in charge. But here's the problem, here's the problem, turn to Ephesians chapter 5, turn to Ephesians chapter 5, especially young men, especially young men, and I don't mean to beat on the younger people, but especially young men, they want leadership for all the wrong reasons. I see this all the time with young men, you'll see this with young men, you know, out in the workforce, you see this with young men even wanting to get married. Young men are like, yeah, I'm going to get married and she's going to listen to what I have to say and I'm going to be in charge, you know, and all this. But look, the problem is that the young man wants this preeminence for all the wrong reasons and then they realize, then once they realize what it takes to be good at it, all those reasons aren't valid anymore. Look at Ephesians chapter 5, because they don't realize that to be in charge and to be a good leader, according to the Bible, is to love, is to provide, is to protect, is to sacrifice. That's what being in charge means. Look at Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 25. The Bible says in Ephesians 5, 25, there's a lot of parallels, by the way, between Colossians and Ephesians, especially in chapters 5 and 6 of Ephesians and Colossians chapter 3. Look at Ephesians 5, 25. The Bible says, husbands love your wives. Okay, what does that mean? Because nobody knows what love means anymore. Everyone's like, oh, I love everybody. I love everything. I love, you know, flowers. I love weeds. I love everything, right? But that's not what the Bible says. The Bible actually defines love. Look what it says. Love your wives. Look, now it defines it. It says, even as Christ also loved the church and now it, okay, we all know the story of Christ, but then it goes further, it says, and gave himself for it. So Christ, they define the definition of love here. So husbands, you are on the hook right here. It says you are to love your wives. Oh, I love my wife. Lovey-dovey, you know, and I feel the butterflies, you know, when my wife comes around and all this. Hey, that's great. But that's not really what love is. Love is sacrifice. Well, what kind of sacrifice? The whole thing. That's what it means. As Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. You can't misunderstand that. You are to love your wives and your families as, that's how you're to lead. You are to lead through that love, through that sacrifice. Turn to Luke chapter nine. To lead in a loving way is to sacrifice. This is where the guy that just wanted the preeminence is like, oh, man, it's like, oh, I wanted to be in charge so I could be the boss and then I could just say, hey, do it my way and everyone just listens to me and bows down to me and all this and I get my way every time. Look, I suppose plenty of people lead that way, but that's not the leadership that the Bible teaches. That's the problem that we have, man. Turn to Luke chapter nine. Look at Luke chapter nine. Look, Jesus was the example of this. Jesus was the leader and look, people wanted to follow Jesus and people keep running to Jesus and saying, hey, we want to be like you. We want to be with you. Can we be with you? You're in charge and you're, you're the leader and look what Jesus says in Luke chapter nine. Some young man comes up to him and says, I want to follow you. I want to go with you. And Jesus says to him, he's like, look, he says, it came to pass that as they went a certain man said unto him, Lord, I'll follow thee wherever so thou goest, he's like, I'll go with you anywhere. You know, and I don't know where this, this person's heart was. I don't want to be too hard on this person, but look what Jesus says. Jesus immediately maybe senses that this is one of these people that has the wrong idea of leadership, the wrong idea of what it takes to be Jesus. And he says, and Jesus said to him, foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. This guy wanted to go out and save people. He wanted to go with Jesus and Jesus says, Hey man, he's like, this whole life, he's like, this whole life is all sacrifice, bud. That's all it is. It's not like Jesus was up on this throne, living this perfect life. And then when he was 33 years old, he came down off of his, his throne and then went and sacrificed himself to the world. Look, his whole life was sacrifice. His whole life. It says he doesn't even have a place to lay down his head. He had no home. He had no possessions. It was just service, service, service. That's all it was. That's the kind of leadership that is required of you. The whole thing. Jesus was like, the whole thing is sacrifice. So Ephesians chapter five is telling husbands, he's like, Hey, this is your model. This is your model. You are the leader and look, you don't have to be a good one. You have the role. God gives you the role, but if you want to be a good one, this is your model. And I mean, you might as well be a good one. I mean, you're in the role. You might as well be good at it. The Bible, look now, this is why you should be joyful tonight because the Bible is telling you where you sit, where your role is, wives, husbands, we're going to get to the kids here in a couple of minutes. The Bible is teaching where you all sit and then it's teaching you how to do it well, how to do it right. Look at verse number 20. Go back to Colossians chapter three. So wives, be submissive to your husband's leadership. He is in charge. He is in charge. Well, I am smarter than he is and you know, he is, look, you're trying to have the preeminence over him. You know, it's, if there's too much of this type of stuff going on in marriages today, look, be a help that is proper for him. Be a help that is meat for your husband. And then husbands are to lead in a servant leadership sacrificial model, just like Jesus led. Look at verse number 20. Now kids, let's use the family integrated church tonight, kids, children, obey your parents when you feel like it, unless you want a cookie. What does your Bible say? It says children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. I don't know about you, but if I was a kid, I would want to be pleasing to the Lord. Look, turn to Exodus chapter 20 kids. This is one of the 10 commandments right here. Obeying your parents. Kids, you need to listen to your parents. Turn to Exodus chapter 20 and look at verse number 12. The Bible actually, the Bible actually defines this or connects this to how long a child will live. This is how serious this is. Exodus chapter 20, look at verse number 12. It says, honor thy father and mother that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. It's literally one of the 10 commandments that kids obey their parents, kids. Your parents are charged by the word of God to raise you in the word of God, to teach you the word of God. You need to be following this lead. Go back to Colossians chapter three, Colossians chapter three. Now we get into something that's a lot of people I'm pretty sure don't understand, but look at Colossians chapter three. Look at verse number 21. So children, obey your parents in all things for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Verse 21, fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Go to Ephesians chapter six, because this is very similar to the verses that we see in Ephesians chapter six. This dichotomy between the children and the parents, where the children are to obey their parents and then the parents or the father in particular, and I'll explain that in a minute. You probably already know, but they're not to provoke their children to wrath. This isn't talking about spanking your kids and then they get mad at you. This is not what this is talking about. It's talking about provoking your children to anger, lest they be discouraged in their Christian life. So we're talking about some kids, some young people that have some understanding at this point. All right, look at Ephesians chapter six and verse number one, and this is going to be a very similar verse to the verse for the wives. In verse number 18 of Colossians three 18, I'll read it for you again. It says, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. You notice how, you know, the Bible gives you that disclaimer there. So your husband, ladies, your husband can't tell you, you know, remember Romans 13 always applies. Romans 13 means that, you know, you will be subject unto, go ahead and turn there. Let's just look at it. But it says, obey your husband. So we have, you know, we have Jesus Christ, we have your husband, and then we have you. So if you're a lady, you're your direct person that you're submitting to is your husband. But it says as it is fit in the Lord. So the problem is though, is your husband can't go and just tell you to do something that's against what the Lord says, okay? Your husband can't say to you, you know, hey, you know, you're not going to worship the Lord anymore. You know, that is not what Colossians chapter three 18 is talking about. Look at Romans chapter 13. Just remember Romans chapter 13 always applies. Let every soul be subject, verse number one, unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. And a lot of people use this to say, you must listen to the government no matter what. I don't even know how they get that out of this. What this is talking about is that you must be subject to the higher powers. And then it goes into, you know, some responsibilities of government, which, you know, is rarely being carried out in this modern day. But the point is, is that there's a hierarchy here. There's a hierarchy. So anybody, my highest power is the Lord. So anybody in my life, it's very simple. This goes for wives, husbands, men, women, children, anybody that is telling you to do something that's against the Lord is, it's just, it just trumped by the higher power. So your husband can't tell you, hey, you know, we're going to worship this, this rock now. You know, it's, it's not valid. That's not fit in the Lord. Okay. And it's the same thing. So if you look at Ephesians chapter six, I probably had you turn all over your Bible and now you're lost. But if you're still in Ephesians chapter six, look at verse number one, it says the same thing for children. And this explains a little bit verse number three, or this provoking your children to wrath as well. So we see a little bit more detail in verse number one of Ephesians chapter six. It's the same advice, but it says, children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Okay. So obviously a three, four, five, six, seven, eight year old kid is not going to really know what's in the Lord or not. This is implying that children grow up. Children grow up because I mean, look, folks, I hate to break it to you. I mean, if you raise your kids in church, especially if you raise your kids in this church, we're a family integrated church, here's what's going to happen. They're going to learn the Bible. They're going to learn the Bible. They're going to sit here and they're going to listen to preaching. They're going to sit here flipping around their Bible constantly for three hours a week, and they're going to read all these Bible verses and you know what they're going to start to do? They're going to start to understand. They may not memorize the whole Bible, but they're going to start to understand the philosophies of the Lord. They're going to understand, you know, the mind of God, you know, they're going to understand, you know, they're going to, they're going to know the Bible is what's going to happen. This is what we want though, right? But here's the problem. If you teach them one thing and you say one thing, but then you do another, you're going to have a problem on your hands. Because when they get older, when they become teenagers, they are going to figure this out. They're going to figure this out. If you are teaching them the Bible and then you are not living the Bible, because guess what? These kids live with you and they've lived with you for 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years. They're going to figure things. They're going to be like, uh, yeah, they're going to look, they're going to figure things out. So here's the problem. Here comes the anger and here comes the wrath. This is what the Bible is talking about. And guess what? Here comes, this is the worst part. Here comes the discouragement in their lives. Here comes the discouragement. As you say one thing and you literally live another, that's discouraging. Can you imagine people discouraging their kids from the Christian life? I mean, can you imagine that? It happens all the time. It is like as, imagine a child that grows to a young adult and the parents turn from the Lord. The parents turn from the Lord, you know, the child basically has two choices, get discouraged and walk away from the Lord too, or continue their own walk and get angry at their parents. That's look, it's the most terrible thing to witness. And you know, if you have smaller kids, you probably don't really understand this, but I don't know how many times I have to see it to basically beg you to pay attention to this. If you go down this road of teaching your children the Bible and all this, you better walk it too, is what I'm saying. Because it won't be too long until your kids are young adults, they start to realize, hey, that's not in the Lord. Hey, that's not in the Lord. You know, here's the thing, my son is 20. My son is 20. And you know, I've told you all this before, but when he turned 18, you know, the laws in the United States, they say things, right? And I told him, I was like, when you turn 18, I had a conversation with him, it's like, you know what this means? Nothing. That's what I told him. But here's the honest truth about it. He does not have to stay living with me. He does not have to stay in my home. He could leave tomorrow and there's nothing I could do about it. But guess what? That wouldn't be in the Lord. And then that's his responsibility between him and the Lord. This isn't, I hate to use them as an example, but I'm trying to get you to understand that your children are going to develop their own walk. And if you raise them right, they're going to take that walk seriously. Thank God for that. And hopefully that walk matches your walk. That's how it's supposed to go. So if I go to my kids one Wednesday night and say, Hey, we're skipping church. We're going to the casino. I would have a revolt on my hands. I would have serious problems in my house at that point, because guess what? I've got five, I've got four other people in my house right now that are mature enough Christians to know that that is not in the Lord. I mean, this isn't that hard, right? This is not that hard. Your children at some point are going to have a walk that they are responsible for too. Remember that. Turn to Ephesians chapter four and look at verse number four. Ephesians chapter four and verse number four. The Bible says, and you fathers provoke, not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Now notice how it says again, it says here, fathers. So you say, why, why fathers, you know, can't, can't mom provoked the kids to wrath here. Here's what this is getting at right here. It's saying fathers, because you're in charge. It's saying if this whole thing goes off the rails, it's your fault. That's why, look, I can't tell you how many guys I've met in the last 25 years that have been divorced and they're just like, wow, yeah, yeah, well, she or her, you know, and whatever. No, it's your fault. Oh, but she was this wicked evil person, but yeah, it's your fault though. Why? Because you know, you're like, I have a, the kids bought me a little, little sign. I don't know why they bought me this sign, but it's, it's funny until I actually think about that. My kids bought this for me, but it says I'm the captain of this shipwreck. You know, I don't know what, where I'm supposed to put that, you know, I can't put it in the church. I can't. It's funny, but I mean, the point is I am the captain of the ship and if it's a wreck, it's mine. I don't get to blame my wife. I do not believe that there is ever any zero fault divorce ever. You will not find it in the Bible. I don't believe you'll find it on planet earth because even if she was wicked and evil, you at least made the mistake of marrying the wrong person, of marrying a wicked and evil person. That was your decision and look, we know it's much more than that, but the point is even if your, your wife came in and she was this bossy person and all this, look, it's still your ship. Even if you let somebody else drive it into the rocks, it's your ship. God looks at you and says, that's yours to drive and then you let somebody else get in and drive it and smash it into a cliff. It's yours. That's why I say, fathers don't provoke your children to wrath because if it happens, it's your fault because you're in charge. Still want to be in charge? Look at Colossians chapter three, look at verse number 22, Colossians chapter three in verse number 22. This is a super rich chapter on just, you know, on just relationships with people, relationships with your wife, but I mean, think about this now. Think about this as you wives just got yelled at, like I'm supposed to be submissive to my husband and then the husband, it's like, I just have to do nothing but just sacrifice myself for my family, these people, you know, and all this, but think about how wonderful this will be if you all just accept your roles, children obey, wives submit and husbands lead like they're supposed to. It is just a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing. This is why you should sing in your heart because if you're having struggles, look, if you're having struggles in your home, one of these things is not being done correctly. Either the husband is not leading properly, the wife is fighting for that preeminence or the children are not obeying like they should and the husband is responsible for all of it, but when everybody fits into their roles that God gave them, look, it's not that one role is more important than the other. It's that the roles are supposed to work this way and then it will, it'll be beautiful. You'll have a wonderful marriage. I mean, it's a very rich chapter and it's a blessing that we have these answers when other people, they'll fight their whole lives and not know that this is the answer. Look at Colossians chapter three. Think about it. How would you know this? How would you know this? How would you know this by watching TV? How would you know this by listening to the, you know, the, I don't even know what people listen to now, but I mean, how would you know this by listening to the wisdom of the world? You would not, you would not hear this type of thing. I mean, do they even say like at a normal non, you know, Bible believing Christian wedding, do they even say that, you know, the wife should submit to the husband anymore? Probably not. I mean, how would you even know the answer if you didn't have the Bible? But we have it. Look at verse 22 of Colossians chapter three. Servants now we go into, now we're out of the family. Now we're talking about servants and masters here. Servants meaning somebody that's working for somebody that's doing financial, you know, labor for somebody. Look at verse 22. Servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Then look what it says, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart fearing God. So it says, first of all, it says, servants, obey in all things your masters. It's like, obey who you work for. Again, Romans chapter three, my boss told me to go murder a bunch of people. Well, God, okay, Romans chapter three always applies. Servants obey all things and look at, I love this, these two, these three words right here. It says, not with eye service as men pleasers. Now I made that, I made the horrible judgment call of watching part of the state of the union address last night. Okay. I mean, I just questioned my judgment as a spiritual leader of my home and the pastor of this church when I make a mistake like that. All right. And I watched the end of it. And I mean, here's a man, I know I, you know, it'll give you a little bit. Here's a man that can hardly string two coherent thoughts together. And the speech is over and he's walking through and somebody had a microphone on, it must have been his microphone or something, but all these people, that was the best thing that I've ever heard. That was the best thing that, and all this, this just men pleasers. I'm just like, I'm like, you can hardly stand listening to these people just, I mean, just that was the most wonderful people are crying, going up to him, hugging him and all these people with purple hair, never seen somebody with people with purple hair in a state of the union address. What is going on here? But anyway, look, they're just, they're just men pleasers. They're just sitting there and they're just, they're just kissing up to the president of the United States so they can just get themselves ahead and whatever they're doing. Nobody thought that was good. Okay. Nobody. I don't care where you are politically. It was a mess. Like when you can't speak, that's not good ever. Right? Like Iran, I mean, Africa, I mean, Kansas. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily. So you're not supposed to just go up and just flatter people and just, you know, give people all this, this false, you know, just this false praise, right? It says whatever you do, it's like when you're, when you're serving somebody, when you're at work, so you do it heartily. Here we go again, as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the Lord Christ. There's that, that second verse telling us the same thing again. Now this is how the Christian will be successful right here, outside of the family, because it doesn't matter who you work for. It doesn't matter who you work for. The Christian should be the most reliable, the most trustworthy, the best employee on the job. Why? Because everybody else is out there and they're complaining about the company and they're complaining about the boss and they're complaining about how they can have a better deal, somebody else, somewhere else. And like, oh, you know, these hours are too much and they shouldn't make me do all this and this and that and whatever. And it's just constant and it's just getting worse and worse and worse every single year. But the Christian should go to work and be like, hey, I'm working for Jesus Christ. That's how it should be. And people should see that about you. The Christian should be the best employee on the job every single time because you are working for the Lord Jesus Christ. And ladies, it's no different for you. It's talking about the same thing when you're raising, you're educating your children, yes, you're helping your family, you're being a help me to your husband, but you as well, when you're in your home with your children day in, day out, hour after hour after hour, you are serving the Lord Jesus Christ. You are listening. You are literally listening to the words of the Bible and carrying them out when you do that labor and teach your children the law of God. And this is, by the way, this is how the better you do that, this is how your children will stand out. And boy, will they stand out. I can't even imagine five years, 10 years down the road, how, how eye popping a Christian child will be that was raised right. And let me tell you something, ladies, raising them right is everything. Raising them right is everything because look, when they're old, when they're old, if you didn't give them an education, if mom and dad didn't instill in them character, if you didn't instill in them work ethic, I'm telling you, it's a life sentence. It's a life sentence. It is, I'm starting to think with some people it's unfixable. Look, work hard, mom. Pay attention to the details. Read, read your Bible, read your Bible and teach it to your kids and you will produce gems for this world. Gems for this world. Ladies, ladies, you have, look, you have so much power. You have so much, look, we, we love to tout soul winning and going out and giving the gospel, but ladies, you, this next generation in your hands, you have so much power, so much power to, to raise these kids in a way that can affect this world so much. Work hard at it. Work every single day and hour like you're working for Jesus Christ and like this country and like this world depends on you because look, it's the only hope that this country and this world has is this next generation and you've got one shot at it because if you wreck them, you know, I don't know how to fix it. You have to do it right. Look at verse number 25, but he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he had done and there's no respect of persons. There it is right there. You know, I mean somebody that turns out to be a mess, somebody that it's just, they're just gonna, they're just gonna go down this road where they hit, you know, they hit every, you know, they hit every tree, every branch on the tree falling down. Turn to Romans chapter three. This is such a rich chapter in the Bible and let me just give you some hope tonight. Look at Romans chapter three. Look at Romans chapter three. I was just reminded of this. I was reading this chapter, I don't know how many times I read this chapter in the last, you know, in the last three, four weeks I probably read this chapter two dozen times just reading through it and thinking about it and, you know, it's always nice to read the Bible that way too by the way. You know, instead of, you know, I understand that we should strive to read the Bible cover to cover and you should do that as many times as you can in the year, in your life, but it's good to just dwell on parts of the Bible as well. To just read through something again and if you're like, ah, something, I didn't really, that didn't all sink in. Just read it again and again and again and pray about it and keep reading it. But here's the thing. This is what I thought of when I was thinking about Colossians chapter three and how to just conclude this chapter. What I thought of, these two words came to mind and it's this, it's Christian advantage. I was just thinking, what an advantage that we have. What an advantage we have because guess what? We have this. We have this and you know what? We not only, look, everybody has it. It's in Barnes and Noble. You can go get it for five bucks or whatever, but we have it. We believe it. We love it and we dwell in it. Hopefully you do. Look at Romans chapter three and verse number one and I was thinking about this verse and how I've read this verse, I don't know, a hundred times before and think about this. What advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? Of course, Romans is talking about, you know, there is no advantage between the Jew and the Gentile because Israel is those that believe on Christ. We are Israel. We are Israel. So it's saying, there's no advantage to the Jew. It's like, what's the point of being a Jew then? It says, much every way chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles of God. So many times I've read this and I've just been like, well, you know, the Jews, the advantage they had is that they had the word of God. That was the one advantage that they had, but look what it says in the first couple of words right there. It says, much every way. What advantage do they have? They had every advantage. What advantage do we have? We have every advantage. Why? Because we have the word of God. Because we know how to run our marriage. We know how to run our family. We know how to run our home. We know how to run our children. We know how to run our jobs. We know how to work. We know how to do these things. When the world sits here and says, hey, no, no, no, do it this way and this way and it's all flipped upside down, it's sideways, it's backwards, it's like, no, we know. That's a serious advantage. We have all the answers, all of them, and Romans or Colossians chapter three is super powerful with all these answers for the Christian life. So look, you can read the word of God and if you can do this, and I heard brother Oliver, Deacon Oliver, I'm going to steal a phrase from him from his sermon a week ago. He says, if you can listen to the word of God and you can get better, not bitter. Think about that. If you can listen to the word of God and you can get better and not bitter, just think of the advantage you have. Think about it. You take the word of God and sometimes it hits you in the face. Sometimes it knocks you over a little bit and you're like, ah, not doing that right. But you're just like, no, I'm going to get up, I'm going to get this right. I'm going to ask some questions. I'm going to fix this. I'm going to get this right. I'm going to do it by this model right here. I'm going to follow this model instead, or you can get bitter, you can get angry, you quit the Christian life, but look, the thing is the bitter thing is not going to do you any good. It's not going to do your family any good. It's like, you're the one that's going to be ruined. Why would you do that? That's why you have to recognize that right away. It's not going to do your kids any good to get bitter. There's literally, here's the thing, get better or get bitter, there's literally no benefit to getting bitter, none. Why would you do it? That's what people will do. Here's what I'm trying to say. Take the advantage, take it, take the advantage, and even more, we're going to start a new series in a couple of weeks on end times prophecy stuff. Look, it's going to be different than what you've heard before because I think about things a little differently than some people. We're going to look at a different methodology of looking at end times prophecy and looking at building some things back from what we're seeing today and, look, I'm not going to predict the end of the world. Don't worry about it. All right? The point is, is that if you can take the advantage here, not only will you know how to run your family, know how to get along with your brothers and sisters in Christ, have a great marriage, you'll be able to see things that other people don't see. You'll be able to understand why certain things are happening now. Think about the last couple of years. Everybody's freaking out. We're not. We're like, whatever. It's the same thing with this. There's so much advantage. The advantage of the Bible, I can't even touch on it in one sermon, but even with this new series coming up called Milestones and Clues, we'll put out a video in a week or so. We're going to look at these things and we'll look at the advantage that we have because we have the answers, because we have the Bible. Even the things that we see darkly, through a glass darkly, we still have advantage and we still have hope. Colossians chapter 3, great book in the Bible. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.