A Christians Control Tower

the theme of praise and thanksgiving really runs throughout the text of Scripture that we're going to look at this evening in Colossians chapter 3 verses 15 through 17. Every airport has a control tower and I've never been in one. I know someone here who has, the Walt Smith was an air traffic controller in the Air Force for his career. And so he knows what this is all about but from what I understand an air traffic control tower is the place where everything that is done at the airport by way of movement of planes is controlled. All the decisions are made there by way of contact with planes that are in flight and are preparing to land and also planes that are on the ground preparing to take off decisions about plane movement is made in that control tower. Who can take off when, who can land when, where they're going to land, which runway they take off from, all that's decided there. The decisions about that airport and its planes are made in that air traffic control tower. It's one of the reasons why it's so high if you're in a major airport like this one you see on the screen at Washington's National Airport. One of the reasons are so high is so that the air traffic controllers can see all that's happening on the ground and make sure they know the place of every airplane that's on the ground. Well just like an airport must have some kind of control center from which decisions are made, our lives must have a control center from which decisions are made. There are controls in the Christian life that Paul talks about here in Colossians chapter 3. Contrary to the external controls that were being promoted by the cult in Colossi in the first century that we've already looked at, Paul is going to introduce a different kind of controls. Now the external controls we found in Colossians chapter 2 were legalistic external observances that were imposed on people primarily from the Mosaic law, but back in chapter 2 verse 16, just to get a feel for this again in the context to know what Paul's talking about here. Chapter 2 verse 16 says, therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of things that were to come, the reality however is found in Christ. So what he's saying is there are people who try to impose on you external measurements of what it is to be spiritual. Do you keep certain religious festivals, what you eat or drink, certain Jewish holidays and how you observe Sabbath days and so forth. Verse 20, he says, since you died with Christ to the basic principles of the world, why as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules? And I remember we talked about the basic principles are the same as that word he used in Colossian Galatians where it's referring to Jewish legal observances, legalistic external do's and don'ts. And he says an example of these rules in verse 21, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These are all destined to perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings and he talks about how they have an appearance of wisdom but really don't have any ability to develop spiritual life and bring us to spiritual maturity. So legalistic observances really do not have what it takes to create mature Christians. So Paul says in contrast to this cult that is promoting these legalistic rules about what is spiritual and what's not, I'm going to give you a different kind of control center that will enable you to make decisions in the Christian life. And that's exactly what he talks about in verses 15 through 17. Now I want to say a word about control in the Christian life. Whenever a person denies legalism as Paul was very strongly opposed to legalism in chapter 2, whenever a person denies legalism there is always the potential to swing to the other extreme. And the other extreme is a license and perversion of Christian liberty that basically says anything is okay because everything is just a matter of personal conviction. If I don't have a conviction against it then it must be alright. And that is just as dangerous as legalism that can lead to all kinds of sin that is excused or rationalized away as Christian freedom. And so Paul is going to balance things a little bit here by saying there are some controls in the Christian life. There is a system of controls but rather than being external they are internal controls. Now let's see what they are. There are three of them in these three verses. The first internal control that dictates our behavior as Christians and our lifestyle is the peace of Christ, verse 15. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called peace and be thankful. So the peace of Christ is our first internal control mechanism that God uses to keep us straight, to keep us walking and living as He wants us to. Well what is the peace of Christ? Let's talk a little bit about what that is. In verse 15 he is talking about the peace of Christ. What is this? Well it is not some kind of inner peace by which we determine God's will for our lives. Now that is often how this verse is used. This verse is often used to promote the way you really know what God's will is for you is when you have a real inner peace about something. Well there may be something to that although I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that because you can have peace for a lot of reasons. You can have peace because you are going to deep sleep. You can have peace because you are well fed. You can have peace because things are going great and you not have any problems. All those can be false signs of peace and not be any indicator of God's direction and purpose for your life. In the context Paul is not talking about some inner individual peace by which we determine God's will. He is talking about peace in the body of Christ. That that should be a determining factor about how we live and decisions we make. It is quite clear for instance in verse 15 or verse 13 that he is talking in the context here about the body of Christ. Verse 13 he says bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances you may have one against another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. In this whole section of the epistle Paul is speaking about how to get along with each other in the context of the church. How to be at peace with each other. So when he goes right on in verse 15 to say let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts he is not talking about some kind of individual inner peace. He is talking about peace in the body and he reinforces that in the last part of verse 15 by saying since as members of one body stressing unity you were called to peace. So the peace he is talking about is a defined force in the latter part of the verse. It is peace in the body of Christ. It is in relationship with one another making decisions on the basis of what will promote unity and harmony and peacefulness in the assembly in the body of Christ. So rather than creating difficulty and trouble it is the idea that our decisions should be made based upon what creates unity and harmony in the body. Now having described what that is let's talk about how it works. How does it work? Well look at the verse again. We are talking first of all about the peace of Christ. This is a peace of God which means it does not come from us. It does not originate with us. We do not naturally live this way and act this way and respond this way. This must come from the Lord. This must come by virtue of his strength and his power, his calmness, his forgiving spirit, taking over our spirit and enabling us to have peace with one another. So this is the peace of God, the peace of Christ. It is not some kind of natural personality type of a person who just has a peaceful disposition. But I want you to see what else he says here in verse 15 about how this works. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. The word rule means to decide to make a decision or to literally umpire to make a call to make the decision or to referee. In other words when there are opposing views or opinions peace is to be the deciding factor. When people disagree we need a referee. If you wonder whether or not referees are needed just go to a basketball game sometime and just listen. Just sit in the stance and listen. And when something happens you will have the fans on one side rooting for one team say that's a bad call ref. The guy was walking. It's obvious he was walking. And the other guy on the other team the other fans will be saying that crazy ref doesn't have any eyes at all. He needs glasses because he wasn't walking at all. Bad call. And so both sides will be refereeing the game. If you did not have any referees every basketball game would be utter chaos. Every sporting event would be utter chaos. If there was not someone who has the courage to say I will make the decisions. I will make the call on this. Regardless of what the fans on this side think of the fans on that side think the decision is made by the guy with the stripe jersey on. Then nothing would get done in that game except fans yelling back and forth. I've been in those kind of situations and you have to. Of course you've never disputed any referees call but you know people who have people who sit beside you or something. But I've been in situations like that where I've heard people yell the whole game. The referee evidently was a complete idiot. Never got anything right. You see but there has to be someone who is responsible to make those decisions. What Paul is saying is when there is disagreement in the church the decision is to be made by the peace of Christ. That is to make the decision in our hearts. Now exactly how that works. This umpire, this peace of Christ, this calm spirit is describing the manner of the decisions that we make in the body of Christ. In other words there is to be a calmness of emotion. Emotion is kept down. Thoughts are properly expressed so that we deal with others in a way that is peaceful and harmonious, promotes unity and does not stir up trouble. In other words when I get in a situation where I'm ready to push the button to accelerate to another level and put a little power on and really go after somebody the Bible says no no no that's not the way to approach this. Let the peace of Christ make the decision here. When you feel like really going after then let the peace of Christ calm your heart and your mind and your thoughts and your words and let that be the controlling factor. Let that be the umpire, the referee, the decision maker in this situation. So the manner of our decisions is described with the peace of Christ or controlled by the peace of Christ but also the goal of our decisions would be refereed and decided by the peace of Christ. And by that I mean that the goal of every decision we make in the body of Christ and everything we do in the body of Christ should be for unity and harmony, oneness and peace. Now we're not talking about a peace at the expense of truth. This is not a peace at all costs. This is a peace that is reflective of the proper attitude, the proper speech, the proper goals for the church to be in unity together, moving together. Moving toward the purpose that God has for us. In other words personal agendas are set aside and that which is best for the direction of the church is what is done. That is exactly what Paul's talking about here. So what he's speaking of is the peace, the calmness, the spirit of unity and harmony that is the goal for the church ought to be that which makes decisions for us but not peace at all costs. He's simply saying when you disagree, handle those disagreements in a way that contributes to peace. You disagree with someone else, go to that person in a peaceful calm manner and talk about it, deal with it. Don't let the emotions rise and spill over and start powering up for something, just let peace rule. And when there's disagreement within the church, do that which will lead best toward peace and harmony and oneness and unity, the peace of Christ. Now the attitude that promotes this peacefulness is described at the end of verse 15. And be thankful. Be thankful. It's interesting to me that thankfulness is tacked onto the end of this seemingly out of character but when you think about it it really does fit. It is important in developing peace to have a thankful attitude toward God and His working. You see if you're thankful to God it means that you recognize God is sovereign, God is working no matter what happens, God is working in your life and God is working in the church through sometimes difficult situations, through sometimes difficult people. God can even use people that irritate us. You know that? God can even use people that irritate us to accomplish His purpose in our lives and in our church. So the peace of Christ being thankful promotes that peace. Being thankful to God, recognizing Lord you are in this situation. I thank you that you are a sovereign God. This is not taken you by surprise and I can trust you to work all of this out. So thankful attitudes lead toward the peace of Christ not only in the church but in your home at work at school wherever you may be. Make decisions based upon the peace of Christ, the peaceful spirit that leads toward harmony and unity in the body that you're concerned with. Esop's fables are depositories of great wisdom sometimes and one of the fables that Esop tells has to do with four bulls, these four bulls were always together, rarely ever separated. They stayed together and there was strength in them being together because there was a lion that was usually around the perimeter of their living place and that lion could never attack the four bulls because he knew that he could not overcome all four of them. But in Esop's fable when one of the bulls would lag behind just a little bit or become just a little separated from the others, the lion would go whisper in that bull's ear, the other bulls are saying bad things about you. And then a few days later maybe one of the other bulls would be off to himself a little bit and the lion would whisper in his ear, the other bulls are saying bad things about you and eventually he did that to all four of the bulls and what happened is the bulls began to pull away from each other in suspicion that something was going on that they didn't like and the lion one by one was able to pick them off and have them for dinner. Now that's exactly what the lion, the Bible speaks about, the devil who is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may destroy for speed or five, eight. It's exactly one of the tactics he uses in the body of Christ is to whisper in our ears, you know someone is doing this, someone said this about you, someone doesn't like this, someone and on and on it goes to the point that we begin to pull away from each other and then he is able to attack and drag us down. There is strength in unity and harmony and that's why Paul emphasizes this in his epistles in Romans 14, 19 he says let everything be done, make every effort for peace and mutual edification and in other places in the epistles he talks about the importance of peace. Here it's to be the referee, it's to be the umpire, it's to be one of the internal controls that causes us to live and behave and act and speak and think the way we should, the peace of Christ. Second control in the Christian's life and inner control is the word of Christ, not only the peace of Christ but the word of Christ, look at verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing, Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. The word of Christ, notice what Paul says about its place in our lives. He says in verse 16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. What is the place of God's word in our lives, the word of Christ, it's to dwell there. It's an interesting word to dwell, it means literally to be at home. To be at home, to relax, to be at home. Let the word of God have a place of unrestricted liberty to be at home. You know what it's like to be at home, don't you? When you're at home, you can kind of kick off your shoes and stretch your feet out. Maybe put on more casual clothes than you would wear out in public. Maybe kind of let your hair down a little bit and you're really yourself around your family. You don't have to put on anything that kind of presents an image to anybody. You're really yourself at home. You know what it's like when people make themselves at home and you're home. When they come in and take over the remote on the TV and start pillaging through your refrigerator, start wearing your clothes, I mean that's a little bit too much at home. But what the Bible says here is that the word of Christ is to be allowed to do that in our lives. It's to be allowed unrestricted liberty to be completely at home. In other words, let the word of God filter through every aspect of your life. Give it unrestricted liberty to speak to you, to warn you, to teach you, to encourage you. The word of God, the word of Christ is not to be a stranger in our lives, saluted from a distance, coldly academically evaluated. The word of God is to be allowed open access to every part of our lives. No door locked, no secret chamber of our heart kept from God's searching gaze through His word, but everything opened. The word of God just allowed to penetrate every part of our lives and speak in whatever way God wants it to. That's what He means when He says, let the word of Christ, Christ dwell in you. But then He adds another word, He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. It's placed in our life, it's to dwell, to have unrestricted liberty to be at home, but it's to do that richly. That word literally means abundantly. In other words, give the word of God plenty of opportunity to be at home in your life. For many of us, our total exposure to the word of God may be what we hear at church. And that's wonderful, we should be hearing the word of God at church, and those of you who are here, especially on Sunday night, are getting a double dose. You've been here Sunday morning, you're here Sunday night, many of you are here Wednesday night. We ought to take advantage of every opportunity we possibly can to be exposed to the word of God. Now I understand cultural issues, and I understand pressures on families today and all of that, but I still believe we ought to be taking every opportunity we possibly can to be exposed to the word of God and let it richly, abundantly dwell, but even beyond church services. I hope you read your Bible at home. I'm not one to put legalistic standards on that of how much time it should be every day, and put you on a guilt trip if you don't do it every day. That's just not, I think, a biblical way to look at things. But certainly, we ought to be spending some time in the word of God, letting it feed and challenge and warn us, studying your Bible, listening to the word of God when you have opportunity. Let it be at home with unrestricted liberty, but in an abundant fashion, give it plenty of opportunity. This is the language of the Holy Spirit. This is the language the Holy Spirit uses. Know it well. Had someone who wanted to stay and talk with me after the service this morning for about a half hour, the second service, and it's not not anyone you know. It's not anyone who's here tonight. It's not anyone who's a member of our church. It's someone just visiting someone. The first time I'd ever seen him. And they wanted to talk to me so we sat down in the lobby and we began to talk. And this person said, I was doing some things in the house and God spoke to me. Oh, here we go. God spoke to me. And sure enough, it was some way out far out deal that contradicted the word of God. And I spent a half hour trying to share with that person how God never will speak to you contrary to his word. In fact, God speaks to us through his word. This is his control tower for us. Not some mystical voice you may hear thinking that he's telling you something to do that's contrary to his word. This is the control tower. This is the word of Christ. And we are to let it dwell in us abundantly, richly, bid home, warn us. This is what God wants us to hear. That the word of Christ dwell in you, richly. That's its place in our life. What about its influence in our life? Paul says something about this. Under the influence, under the influence of the word, there should be several things going on according to verse 16. He says, let the word of Christ dwell in you, richly, as you, here it comes. This is how it influences us as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. And as you sing, three ways, three influences of the word in our lives. First of all, teaching of the word. The word teaching means to instruct one another to impart truth to say this is what the Bible means. This is what this word means. This is what these two words together mean. This is the teaching of the word of God. That's instruction from the word where to let the word of God instruct us. Secondly, Paul says where to let the word of God admonish us and where to admonish one another with the word of God. The word admonish means to warn. And these are warnings concerning standards and obligations to the word. You see, the Bible not only has a positive ministry of teaching, of instructing us, of building up in our hearts and minds what God wants us to know. The Bible also has somewhat of a negative power to warn us against certain things that we need to stay away from or we need to make sure we don't consider in our hearts. So we don't begin to think down those lines of thought. The Bible has a ministry of correction. Now that must be done with wisdom, as he says, comparing scripture with scripture, knowing that we've got it right, making sure that we're interpreting the word of God correctly. Do that with wisdom, but let the word of God warn you and admonish you. So we have a positive instruction, negative warning or a warning against things, but then the singing part is very interesting to me. You know, the word of God instructs us, the word of God warns us, the word of God also finds expression in our music. So it's singing, singing, verse 16, Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Now those are the kinds of songs where the sing, biblical songs fit into one of those three categories. In New Testament times, we're simply the words of scripture put to music. Most of them were taken from the book of Psalms. Today, of course, we have God's completed word and we may have scripture passages from all parts of the Bible that are put to music and sung. Psalms or scriptures put some accompaniment and we let the word of God richly dwell in us through singing these kinds of songs. Whenever you sing music that is biblical, that has a biblical content, biblical message to it. You are using another avenue of letting God's word dwell richly in you. Sometimes music is a wonderful way of opening up the soul and really depositing something there. Music just opens up our hearts to what God wants us to hear. And so as we sing and as we hear music that is biblical in content, it has a way of letting God's word richly dwell in us in a way that is a little separate from instruction and warning. So music is a great way of getting God's word into our hearts and minds. So Psalms and then hymns. The word for hymns is a word which basically means to praise. A hymn is a praise song really in the biblical sense. It is any kind of music that is focused on God and is used to praise him. So in a particular time period, but that is not true biblically. The biblical word here means basically any song that directs praise to God. That is a hymn. And so we should be singing our praise to the Lord. And then the third kind of music that we sing is spiritual songs. These are just songs that have any spiritual message to them. They may give a testimony. They may have been redeemed. That is a testimony of what God has done for you. Or they may offer a prayer like on my knees. They may offer something of encouragement to someone else. Just any kind of song that has a spiritual message to it. A Psalm is scripture put to music. A hymn is direct praise to God. A spiritual song is any other Christian music that has a message that may encourage or strengthen or be a prayer to God or give a testimony of what he has done in our lives. So that is what we are to sing. Psalms hymns, spiritual songs. But notice how we are to sing. We are to sing with thankfulness, with gratitude in your hearts to God. Notice, back in verse 15, he said, be thankful as it regards the peace of Christ. Now he is saying, when you sing, be thankful. Sing with gratitude in your hearts. What he is talking about is an overflow of our heart. Music should always come from within. Be an overflow of our heart, expressing through our lips what is in our hearts by way of the overflow of praise that we have for the Lord. Our motive should be in all music to glorify him, that we sing with gratitude in our hearts to God. We are not singing for people. When we sing, we are singing to God. He is the audience. And there is gratefulness and an overflow of praise and a desire to honor him and glorify him. Even when we are using music to give a testimony or encourage someone else or to express a prayer, the motive for that, how we are to sing is to glorify him. It is not to be seen of men, it is not to entertain anybody. Let me say at this point a little bit about clapping, which has become very common in our churches today in Christian music. I think it is great. I think it is fine to clap as long as we understand the difference between two kinds of clapping. If we are clapping as the world does to honor the person who is singing, then we need to stop. That is not an appropriate form of clapping for music. However, there is a biblical form of clapping to honor Christ and the one whom he has used to present a message of praise to him or testimony. In fact, let us just take a moment to look at a couple of verses that tell us this in the book of Psalms. Psalm 47. Psalm 47, oh, they are on the screen. I forgot. Psalm 47, clap your hands, all your nations shout to God with cries of joy. The psalmist calls upon all nations to express their rejoicing to God and their praise to him through the means of clapping. That is a way of recognizing God's grace and God's goodness and glorifying him and praising him. Psalm 98 verse 8 calls upon creation to clap their hands. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing together for joy. Music, singing and clapping are both expressions of rejoicing and praising to the Lord. So if we are going to clap, which is biblical, let us make sure that we are doing it not to say, wow, that person has beautiful voice or I really like the way they sing or I am praising them. Let us not do it for that reason. Let us do it for the reason that the Bible teaches that we are giving honor and glory to the Lord. It is much like saying amen. Amen is a verbal response of praise. A clap may be an audible expression of praise to the Lord. Lord, we praise you, we honor you and glorify you for the message we have just heard. The testimony we have just heard. The prayer we have just heard. It honors you, it glorifies you and so we want to praise you in this way. That is an acceptable biblical kind of clapping. So just be sure that we have that distinction in mind. If all we are doing is rewarding someone who has sung, then we need to stop it. But if it is a genuine praise to the Lord, it is a biblical concept. So make sure if you are clapping and you are doing it for the right reasons. How did I get on that anyway? We are just saying with gratitude in our hearts to God. The word of Christ dwelling in us richly is an aspect of control. Notice the third one, if you will, in verse 17. There is the peace of Christ, the word of Christ. This one is the reputation of Christ. This is our great concern that we are to be concerned for his reputation and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Notice if you will, the object of our concern. The object of our concern is the name of the Lord Jesus. Our concern, what ought to cause us to make decisions about what we do and what we don't do is the reputation of Jesus Christ. And that is reflected with the use of his name. You see, when we do something in Jesus name, it means we are concerned about his reputation. We are concerned about the fact that we represent him. If you take a look at what happens quite often in professional athletics, when someone does something bad, when someone bumps an umpire or they hit another player or whatever, they are often fined or suspended for a while. And quite often you will find public statements by those in charge of the team saying that does not reflect well on our team. That is not the kind of team image we want to have. Same thing is true in a company. When you work for a company, the reputation of that company rides on your shoulders to some extent. And you represent that company name. You are a person who wears that company name and you represent that company or that business or that store. Whatever you do reflects on the testimony of that particular company. That is exactly what Paul is talking about here. When we become Christians, we wear the name of Jesus Christ and our concern ought to be for his reputation. So the object of our concern is that we are to do everything as though it would reflect on who Jesus is because it will reflect on who Jesus is. So whenever you are in public or even in the church and we are making decisions about what we ought to do, we ought to remember whatever we do reflects on the character of Jesus Christ and his reputation. His name is at stake. So we want to make sure that we don't do anything or live in any way that brings disrepute to the name of Christ. That is the object of our concern. The extent of our concern for 17, whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. The extent of our concern, whatever. You see, in the New Testament, we do not have detailed codes of laws, detailed restrictions about what you are to do and not to do what kind of closure to wear. In the Old Testament, they had restrictions about what kind of clothes they could wear. They couldn't have two garments or two kinds of material mixed together. They had to have a seam at the bottom, a little ribbon of blue that reminded them of who they belonged to, that they were heavenly people. There are all kinds of stipulations about the minutia of daily life. In the New Testament, we don't have those kinds of codes and laws telling us everything to do. In Galatians 3 Paul says, those kinds of regulations were designed for God's people in their infancy until we were brought up to the point that Christ came. When Christ came and the apostles gave us the full revelation of God's word through the New Testament, then what we have is basic principles, but we have internal controls, general principles of living the Christian life. The idea is whatever you do, just make sure it reflects Jesus right. Whatever it is, and Paul is not going to stipulate, it means this, it means that, it means this, every little detail of what you should or shouldn't do, he is just saying, the way you make those decisions is not by some long list of 600 rules about what you are to do or not to do. The way you make decisions about what to do or not to do in the Christian life is how is this going to make Jesus look? What is going to be done to his reputation? Because everything I do, whether word or deed, I am supposed to do it in his name to reflect his reputation. So it is not like I work for IBM, so everything I do is a reflection on that company. No, it is I am a servant of Jesus Christ. I am a Christian, so everything I do reflects on his name and his reputation in the community. So that is how we make decisions. That is the internal control mechanism. But then notice if you will again the attitude in our concern, the end of the verse, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Again with an attitude of thanksgiving. Isn't it interesting that in all three of these inner control mechanisms that dictate how we live the Christian life, thanksgiving is the spirit and attitude in which there to be carried. We have a lot to be thankful for in being God's children. You know a thankful spirit enables us to recognize we have so much in Christ, why fight over little things? Let the peace of Christ decide. A thankful spirit says, you know, we have so much to be grateful for that God has done for us. Let the salvation we have, the home we have in heaven, forgiveness of our sins, the leadership of the Word of God that leads us to the fact that his Word will make the decisions in our lives. And a thankful spirit, a grateful spirit will say, I have so much to be thankful for. I want to make sure I don't mess up the name of Jesus through my lifestyle. You see gratitude toward God, recognizing that we are the object of His love and we have so much to be thankful for. We will really kick into gear these three control mechanisms, make them work. Legalism does not mean, or no legalism, not having legalism, doesn't mean that we live out of control. It doesn't mean that we do whatever we want to do, live any way we want to live, please ourselves. Now, turning away from legalism means that we simply say, I've got a better set of controls on my life. They're inner controls. Like what's going to lead to peace and unity and harmony in the body of Christ? How's the Word of God speaking to my heart and teaching me how to live? And what am I going to do to the reputation of Christ? If I think, live, act, speak this way, those are inner controls that lead us to live the kinds of lives that in the end will please God the most. Let's pray together. Father, help us to guide our behavior, our thoughts, our words by these controls that you've given us. Thank you, Father, that we're not under a code of legalistic observances, of laws that dictate every step of our lives. But we are under control if we're living in a spirit-filled way. So help us, Lord, to submit to your controls over our lives, the peace of Christ, the Word of Christ, the reputation of Christ. May all we do, please glorify you, build up the body of Christ. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.