It's good to be back and to see you again here in Dartmouth. And it's always a joy to be here and to worship together, to praise the Lord together. And I just want to open in prayer before we begin this morning. Lord, how we just thank you for these wonderful songs, which remind us of who you are.
Yes, Lord, you are amazing. And we bless you today. God, thank you for your words, which is truth. Thank you for your spirit, which is with us.
Thank you for the Lord Jesus, God, who is our Savior today. Lord, as we open your words, God, would you speak to our hearts as only you can do? Lord, would you work here and be glorified in our midst as we lift up the name of Jesus very high. Lord, bless the children in Sunday school, God, do a work with them.
Lord, bless those who are ill and those who couldn't make it today for various reasons. Lord, those who will watch online. God, we just commit ourselves to you and we ask for your help now in Jesus' name. Amen, but a hundred years ago, the beginning of the auto industry-ish around that time frame, maybe the late 1800s, but you know, a hundred years ago, Henry Ford was still a big deal in Detroit, Michigan, and his plants were rolling out the cars.
And one day the factory came to a grinding halt and they discovered there was some electrical problem in the factory. And so Ford reached out to a brilliant young engineer who had helped him design his machine works and brought him in to see if he could fix the problem. And within a few hours, he had to plan up and running again and sent Henry a bill for $10,000. Now Ford was known for being a little tight.
And in those days, that was a huge sum of money. And so he demanded to know why on earth it would cost so much to fix this problem and get his factory back online. And the young engineer replied, well, let me explain. It's $10 to fix the problem.
And it's 9,990 for knowing where to look. There's knowledge, there's wisdom. And sometimes we're looking for answers in the world today. And I would submit to you that in this day of technological advance where we've just, you know, it just continues to blow us away, the technology, compared to even 50 years ago, it's getting away from us.
You know, and I don't even begin to understand AI and all of that stuff that's going on in the way the world is heading. And with all this knowledge, we lack wisdom. And with all of this knowledge, we lack answers to the real problems of our world. And if we look around our world today, it's not a pretty picture in general.
Here in Canada, we face mounting problems for which we have no answers. And where do we as God's people turn for knowledge today? Where do we turn for wisdom? The culture would like to suggest that they know what to do.
And our government might suggest they know what to do. And science thinks that they have all the answers. And yes, science knows how to do a great many things, you know? We drive automobiles today.
We can go to the moon. And apparently they're preparing another mission for the moon. It's been a few years. And the technology is just incredible today.
And yes, science can answer many questions. But I'm talking about the real issues that face us as individuals, this world, the problems of life, the conflict between people, the war, the hatred, the big issues of life, the loneliness, the despair, the despondency, the depression. There's no answers for this. And where do we turn?
As the Lord's people for knowledge and for wisdom. And Paul comes to the Colossian Church. And in Colossians chapter 2, sorry, that's where I am this morning. And in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, for I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea and for all who have not seen me in person.
And through this book of Colossians, Paul has described to them in chapter 1 that he suffered. He was persecuted. Not only for his faith, but in his service to the Church. God had called Paul.
We know this as an apostle, as a teacher, as an evangelist. He did many things. He was a missionary and many things Paul did. But he did that in service to God for the Church.
And he suffered for it. And the things that came to the Church came through persecution. The Bible that we hold in our hands today, we have this because many people suffered to bring it to us. We wonder about that in our day and age, because people don't suffer in this land for that.
But it came to us through suffering. And Paul's ministry came through suffering. And this message that he brings to them, it came through difficulty, through struggle, and through strife. And Paul wanted them to understand this.
And it's important for us to understand that those who labor for the Lord, and that's all of us, by the way, there's a struggle involved. And I want to encourage you today to pray for your elders, and pray for your pastors, and pray for your leaders, and pray for your Sunday school teachers. And there's a struggle there. For those of you that go out and do evangelism, I'm sure on Spring Garden Road, you understand that the struggle is real.
There's an enemy that opposes us. And we face opposition at every turn. And increasingly so in Canada, we're facing a dark days ahead unless the Lord intervenes, because the gospel's not popular, and Jesus is not popular. And there's opposition.
And so this message comes with a struggle. And our message comes to us with a struggle. And Jesus brought us the gospel with suffering. And Paul continues in that.
And the message comes to us. It's a serious message. Paul wanted them to know this. And I think that's important for us to understand the struggle in God's truth coming to us.
It's not an unimportant message. It was important enough that Paul was willing to give up everything in service to Christ, to bring this good news to the world, and these teachings to the church. And so it's couched in this struggle and in this persecution. And in verse two, Paul says, I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God's mystery.
There is four things in this passage that Paul wants for the believers. And the first one is encouragement. And I wonder, could we use any encouragement today? We need encouragement, I do.
And there are times we become very discouraged, especially as Christians, especially in a culture which is increasingly against us. And we face opposition. We see little results, or we seem to see little results for our laborers, and we begin to become discouraged. And we wonder what is really going on.
And we wonder, are we, in fact, on the winning team? And we wonder where it's all going to end. And we need encouragement, friends. I live in Cape Breton.
And there's not many Christians in Cape Breton. There is a percentage of the population. In fact, there are parts of the world, like the United Arab Emirates, has a greater percentage of Christians than does Cape Breton. I love that's hard to believe.
We had a student from our seminary out a couple of weeks ago. His name is Olatunde. He is from Nigeria. And he's studying at our seminary in Alberta.
And the Lord has called him to Canada to do ministry. When I explained to him the situation in Cape Breton, he was shocked. And so he asked me to take him to the town of Port Hoxbury and drive him through. And it's a town of maybe 4,000 people, other than Sydney, like up at the top end of Cape Breton, where you have a lot of towns and cities and villages, other than that area, Port Hoxbury is actually the biggest town in Cape Breton, Ireland.
And yet there's almost no church activity there at all. And so Olatunde, you can pray for him, if you will. He just called me a week ago. He says, Mark, we're convinced the Lord would have his come and move to Port Hoxbury and to share the gospel.
And so here's a brother coming from Nigeria who is looking to come to Cape Breton to serve the Lord. We're excited about that. But we need encouragement. And when you live in places like that, you can become discouraged.
And I remember you go to the, has anybody ever been to North Carolina, South Carolina? Yeah, right? So that the Bible Belt, right? And you go down there.
And there's mega churches on every corner, right? And there's signs everywhere. And there's Christians everywhere. And everybody is, it's incredible.
We have friends who live in a town called Packlett, South Carolina. It's a town of 3,000 people. They have 27 churches full every Sunday. They talk about how do they reach the 30% that don't come to church on a Sunday?
70% go. And when I go to a place like that, I mean, I understand there's cultural Christianity. I understand that not everybody in the building knows the Lord. But it's encouraging to see lots of the Lord's people and to realize you're not alone.
We were just at J2N this weekend at Mount St. Vincent, Jesus to the nations. And man, wasn't encouraging. I mean, we get in there on the Friday night for the worship.
And there's a thousand people at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax shouting the name of Jesus. I mean, the roof was coming down. And man, that is so encouraging to see all these young people and teenagers so excited about the Lord to shout his name.
And you just say, thank you, God. We need that encouragement. Friends, we need encouragement. And Paul wanted the hearts of the believers to be encouragement.
This church was facing persecution. And Paul faced persecution. And we find encouragement as we read God's words. And we find encouragement as we spend time with the Lord in prayer.
We find encouragement. We come together as his people for fellowship. And that's why it's so encouraging to come together on a Sunday morning just to be with the Lord's people. What an encouragement it is.
There's others who also love the name of Jesus. It's not just me. We're not alone. And the Lord is still at work.
And that's very obvious if we would just open our eyes and see. And so we need encouragement, beloved. And we need this encouragement together in the church. Our context this morning is Paul speaks to the Colossian church is the church.
And yes, as individuals, we need to be encouraged. But oh friends, this is for the body of believers. As we come together to encourage one another in our common faith. And we are encouraged in the Lord as we hear his word again.
As we sing his praises, we go out from here. Encourage. I sure hope so. Well, I sure hope so.
Because we're just impacted. And we're face to face again with God's truth. And the presence of the Lord among us. And how precious.
That is one of our prayers in Inverness is that everyone who comes to the door will sense in a very real way. And forgive me. I'm going to get Pentecostal on you for a minute. That they will sense and know the presence of God with us.
And that's important. The Holy Spirit here amongst us. The power of God as his word is proclaimed as a love of Christ is felt and not just felt. There was a preacher.
Some of you will know this name, Merti Getty. Going back a number of years now, if you're a little older. You'll remember Merti Getty an old time brother and preacher used to preach across Canada from coast to coast. And one of his sayings was about the gospel and concerning Christ that she's better felt than felt.
And his point was is that yes, we have a message and we have a truth claim. But we experience this truth in reality. And we want people to know how incredible the Lord is and how amazing it is to know him. And Paul wants the hearts of the believers to be encouraged.
I wonder, could you use some encouragement today? And then he says, I want them to be joined together in love, unity and love for the Christians, for the church of God. And that's a tough one for us at times. And I am certainly guilty in my lifetime of not loving the brothers and sisters the way I should, of being far too judgmental of my brothers and sisters in Christ, of thinking that somehow I know new better than everybody else in the room and just looking around with judgment.
But Paul wants them not only to be encouraged but to have this unity in the love of God. And that is so vital for us as a church friends. We can't operate as a church apart from it for God. It is love.
And he calls us to love one another. And over and over again in the New Testament, we see this, right? Love one another, love one another. And we have a unity in Christ today and a unity that is based in the love of God because he loves me and because he loves you.
And because you have put your faith in him and so have I, we come together in this beautiful thing called the body of Christ and it's his body, it's not mine. And he brings us together and he is made peace through the blood of his cross. He gave himself for us. We read about that in chapter one that through his own sacrifice, he has taken us from darkness to light and brought us into the kingdom of the sun he loves.
And he calls us to have this to be unified in love for one another. Friends, it's hard to love one another sometimes. I know that, you know, because we can be grumpy at times and we can be rude at times and we can do and say things that don't commend ourselves to others. And sometimes it's a challenge, right?
God knows. But it's a love I believe that is that cares more for the testimony of Christ than for myself or my ways or my rights or my privileges or my preferences. So you need to go beyond that to the testimony of Christ Jesus said, right? This is how the world will know that you are my disciples if you all have the same doctrine.
If you all hold to the precisely same theological statements, if you all look exactly the same and dress the same way and use the Bible version that I've chosen for you, know if you love one another. If you love one another, this is how the world will know that you are my disciples. Why? Because God is love.
And the love of God transcends this world and this world knows nothing like it. What can compare to the love of God? That the Lord himself should come into this world and lay down his life for me and for you. And for all of this world and those people that we struggle with and those people that we don't like and that we might even hate sometimes, Jesus loves beloved.
Every one of them with all of their addictions and their problems and their hang-ups and their unloveliness and all of the mess, do you realize that God loves that person just as much as you? Not one bit less. We're all, the crown is leveled at the cross. And so as we come into the body of Christ, we have this incredible privilege to love one another, to be disciples of Jesus, to show the world what the kingdom of God is like.
And I really believe the church is a microcosm of the kingdom of God now. It's to be a picture of what it'll be like in the kingdom of a people from every tribe and language and nation and every background saved by the blood of the lay and brought together in unity. In Christ and loving one another in that unity for the testimony of the Lord. And what a beautiful thing it is and we see the barriers come down, we see the political divide come down, we see the racial divide come down, at least it should, in Christ.
And so Paul has a desire. I want you guys to be encouraged and I want your hearts to be joined together in love. It's a tough one for us as a church and you know where we're planting some of you know the story in Inverness. In many parts of Canada and Northern Canada, like Northern Ontario is very similar to Eastern Canada and pockets of Eastern Canada.
You know we're the only evangelical church in town. That's it. Now where I'm from in Ontario, you know in Southern Ontario, Eastern Ontario I can pick my flavor quite easily. You know if I want to be about just wrestling and Pentecostal brethren, whatever.
I mean I can pick and choose and there's usually in the town you've got the whole selection. But where we are in Cape Breton, there's only one church, only one. And so how important that is our testimony? And what a damage we would do to the Lord's name should our church become filled with infighting and division.
And that can happen in churches. I know I've been there, probably been the cause of it. The Lord forgive me years ago. And it is so vital our testimony to our community and to the Lord's name that we are united to one another in love because of Jesus.
That's the number one thing to love it. And may the Lord help us. And I'm not saying doctrine is an important. Don't hear me say that.
I'm not calling for a broad ecumenism which is not squarely. Listen, we stand firmly on the word of God. And on the grammatical, historical, exegesis of that word, what does it mean? Absolutely amen.
It is our foundation. It is our guardrails. But there's a lot of things in the scriptures that are up for debate friends. That's just the reality of it.
And so we need to be gracious with one another and to love one another and to see something bigger than our particular preferences when it comes to debatable matters. So may the Lord help us. And then there's a third thing he says. That they will have all the riches of complete understanding, this pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
What's a pursuit that's been going on? Ever since people were created in the world. The pursuit of knowledge it goes on today. I'm 57, almost 58.
I'm still in school. Opened to be done by the time I'm 60. Knowledge, right? We chase after it, we go to school together, we try to find it in different places.
We Google it and it seems like Google pretty much knows everything for sure. You know, the pursuit of knowledge. Where can it be found and how are we chasing after it? And the Lord wants us through Paul to come to a complete understanding of knowledge, a complete understanding of it.
Well again, the knowledge of this world can do great things. But it can't really address the deep problems of the soul, of mankind, the people, the needs of our heart, the conflict that exists between us, the violence, the divide. It seems like civility in our society is rapidly disappearing, you know, and we're so divided. And so deeply divided on issues.
Knowledge, he wants us to come to a complete understanding. And so we want to seek that together in the church again. It's built on this foundation, friends, encouragement and unity and love. It flows from that.
And we come together as a church and we study the scriptures together, we study them individually at home, we listen to Sunday sermons, we come together for discipleship and Bible studies and prayer times and we avail ourselves of all of these ways to increase in our learning, about the ways of God, the knowledge of God, the things that God would have us to know and those are all good things. And we do that in the community of the church. And there's nothing wrong with our individual studies. Very important friends, but the fact is I need you and you need me.
And God didn't reveal all of his truth just to you. And sometimes another brother or sister have maybe a little longer in the faith, maybe the Lord has dealt with different situations and the Lord has given them wisdom in those situations of life. And I need that. And I need to hear your interpretation and your view of that matter.
And that's when we come together in the church, united in love. And we grow together as we exercise our gifts in the local church. And the church is supposed to be about this kind of family, that we are stuck together and we grow together, we're committed to one another. It's not supposed to be Sunday morning only.
I have a good friend back in Ontario. And he says, Mark, I'm a smoke. I said, what's a smoke? He said, Sunday morning only.
And he was proud of it. I only go to church Sunday mornings. And that may be the case. I mean, we have reasons, legitimate reasons why we can't gather all the time.
Some of its work related, family related. We understand that. But the Lord has more in mind of us coming together just once on a Sunday morning to hear the preacher. We're to come together to exercise our gifts, to grow together, to learn together in the church that we might come to a fuller man, a complete or man, a more mature man in Christ and come to a complete understanding of the truth that God would have us to know.
And that leads to this, the knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. The knowledge of God's mystery, Christ. And we didn't start in chapter one today. Where Paul talks about that the mystery of God is now revealed, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And you know, we know the Bible, right? It's like progressive revelation. What do we mean by that?
Well, when we open the Bible to Genesis chapter one and verse one, we don't yet have a complete understanding of God's historical plan of salvation. But by the time we get to Jesus, we do. And so what we mean is, is as we read through our Bibles, and God progressively reveals over time his plans and his designs. And when we come to Christ, we come to the fullness of it.
We've come to the capstone. We've come to the epicenter of God's plan of the ages, the mystery that was hidden in days past, that the prophets searched for, and that they had glimpses into, but was not fully revealed until Christ came, that he, through his own sacrifice on the cross, would bring together all people in one body, in himself. And so this mystery of Christ that God wants us to understand the end of our pursuit of knowledge is to understand this mystery, that God's mystery is Christ. And it's all about him.
You see friends were in him this morning by faith if you put your faith in him. And I wonder, have you this morning for sure? You know that with certainty. Have you put your faith in the Son of God?
Are you in him today because that's God's mystery, that if you come to him by faith and you commit your life to him and you ask him for forgiveness, you will receive it and you will be placed in Christ and Christ is in you, that's the mystery of God. That we're not saved by works and by religion and by doing good things and being good people and following some code of conduct. No, it's about this incredible relationship of being in Christ and he in me, the hope of glory. That's it.
It's a person friends. And Paul would say in chapter one, we proclaim him. We proclaim him. We come to the Gospels.
And what do we have in the Gospels? We have an account of who Jesus is and what he did and what he's yet to do. We have a person set before us friends. The word of God made flesh, God incarnate, who came into this world and lived with us and dwelt among us.
You know the Gospel writers could have said, well, you know, there was a guy named Jesus and he really liked kids, trust me on that and moved on to the next chapter. But the Gospels present us with stories and anecdotes and examples and we see how Jesus actually reacted to little children and what he said about them. And we understand more fully who he is, who God is and his love for those little ones, you see. And we encounter a person in the Gospels and the mystery of God is Christ, not doctrine apart from him, doctrine is important for him.
But everything is about Jesus. And Jesus is not secondary in this universe. He is primary. The universe was created by him.
You and I were created by him and for him. And nothing is understood apart from him. Even the scientific knowledge that we gain is because God created us in his image with the ability to think creatively like he does. There is nothing apart from Jesus.
He is the first and he is the last. And this universe is his. And this world is his and the people are his. And everything in it is his.
And the suffering was his and the cross was his. And this book is his. And this church at Northbrook Bible Chapel is his body. It is not yours.
And worship is his. And glory is his and praises his and the kingdom and the power forever and ever. It's all about Christ. He is the center of everything.
And we come to verse three in him. It's in Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. It's found nowhere else. It's in him.
Are you in him today? Do you know him by faith or united to him by faith? Has there been a time in your life? When you have come to understand what the Bible declares about all of us, it's a horrible thing to contemplate.
I don't like thinking about it. I don't even like telling people about it. But the Bible says this that we're all sinners. That's the negative, right?
We're all sinners before God. All of us, each of us. And to be a sinner does not mean that the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst. The history has ever known.
People struggle with that. I talk to a lot of people. And they think, well, I'm not a sinner. Mark is I never murdered anybody.
Being a sinner means I'm the worst of the possible worst. No. But all of us have said no to God. All of us have turned our back on God.
All of us have rebelled against God in some way and in some fashion. We come very short of the glory of God. We cannot make it on our own. Have you come to that place in your life where you have agreed with God in his assessment of you?
And it's a humbling process to come to Christ and say, Lord, you're right. I am a sinner and I've got nothing. But I'm calling upon you, Jesus, to forgive me and to save me. And in that moment when you do that from your heart by faith believing you are transferred from the Kingdom of Darkness into light friends.
And you are joined to Christ. And he is in you and you are in him, never to be separated again. Brought into this family of God that is around the world to be united in love to the Savior. Have you done that?
Do you remember a time in your life when you put your faith in Christ? Do you know him today? Is he in you? And are you in him?
You see, it's in Jesus that are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him friends. And you know, the sad part of it, you know, you look out across the world. You see so many hurting people. And I know those of you that go down to Spring Garden Road run into a lot of hurting people.
And it is a massive problem. I think it was maybe Brother Hanson this morning. It was mentioning they were in a course and talking about the need along this line. But maybe I'm wrong there.
But people are in need, aren't they? Big time. And even if they're not dealing with addiction, they're dealing with broken relationships. They're dealing with loneliness.
They're dealing with huge financial problems. And the sad part of it is that beloved you and I, in Christ, have the answers. Do you understand that? We have the answers to literally the problems of this world.
There's not a problem that anybody is facing for which Jesus is not the answer. And you and I, as being in Christ, we have access to this treasury of knowledge and wisdom. We need to be in this book, friends. And we need to be vitally integrated with our church and growing together and exercising our gifts to grow in this knowledge, to access the mystery of God, which is Christ, in whom are the treasuries of everything we need to live for him, for his glory, and to meet the needs of this world which are met in Christ.
Friends, he is the answer to literally every problem. And sometimes I just want to grab people, right? But you can't force it. And you need to establish that relationship in love to open the door to share with people in their need.
We can't force it upon people. That's a work of the Spirit of God. As he works in their heart, but may the Lord help us, right? To be ready for an answer for the hope that lies in you.
And that ought to be our testimony as we come together as a body of Christ, as people interact with us, and they see that difference. It's like, man, what is it with these people? They love each other, and we've never seen it before. And they love me, apparently.
And I don't understand why. The love of God is compelling. Friends, Jesus is compelling. And again, don't hear me wrong.
I'm not a doctrine's important. I have some too. Okay. And we have our deep theological thinking.
And that's all great. We have our textbooks in our, we form all that great stuff. But friends with the lost need to hear, and what people need to hear is Jesus. Who he is.
Who he is, the person of Christ. He is compelling. His love is compelling, and love always wins. And we want to lift him very high.
Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw everyone to myself. And I know he was speaking primarily of the cross, as he was lifted up between heaven and earth. But I believe in a very real sense, as we as a local church, lift him very high, and as we in our lives, lift him up very high through the way that we live and interact with people. He's the drawing card, you see, when he's lifted up and set before people, that's the attraction.
Not how perfectly doctrinally my church is, but Jesus. He is the center of all things friends, and Colossians chapter one gives us that he's that have the preeminence in all things. And this truth is hidden in him. What does that mean?
It means you need to be in him to find it out. You need to be in Christ to find it out. The natural man, the Bible tells us those outside of Christ cannot receive the things of Christ because they are foolishness to them. And when people resist God and turn away from God and hate on God, they don't have access to this.
But these treasures are hidden in Christ, and that's why you need to be in him. And I need to be in him, and he needs to be in you. And that you have access to this treasury. What an incredible thing, friend.
But there's knowledge and wisdom, isn't there? And we can know lots of stuff. And we can know answers, but do we apply it? Do we live it out?
That's the wisdom piece, right? And this truth is to transform our lives. We can know lots of facts about Jesus. But do we live out the truth?
Do we understand that God's goal for you and for me is to make us look more like Jesus over time? Constantly, the character of Christ, Paul labored for this until Christ be formed in you, that we live out the truth of Christ, that it affects us, that it transforms us. The way we live, the way we interact with one another is believers, the way that we interact with people who are outside of these four walls. What an opportunity we have to apply the knowledge that we have learned, the teachings of the scriptures that we have learned together in the community of the local church, and then to take them and apply them to my life and to live it out in the world all around us.
So that Jesus will be lifted up. So that people will be drawn to him and this family will continue to grow. We need the wisdom of God. Excuse me, my glasses fell down.
And so Paul has these desires for the church at Colossi and friends all wisdom and knowledge is found in Christ. Do you know him today? Incredible thing it is to be in Christ and to have an answer to share with those who are in need of him. Friends, he loves this old world.
Sometimes we don't so much, but Jesus does. And we wanna be right there with him, accessing this treasury so that we can share it with others. May the Lord help us to do so just a quick update on Inverness where just continue to be blessed in the town of Inverness and we continue to see visitors all the time. I can't explain it, I don't understand it.
And not every Sunday, but every month at least. And sometimes more than once a month, we have new people sitting in the church. Coming out to check us out to hear the message, they don't all stay with us, but they come. We have hundreds watching online, we hear from them from time to time.
We had a story recently of a man who started coming to the Bible studies. He lives in town, he has for years. He didn't know that we were there. You wonder how that's possible in a town of 1400 people in Cape Breton Island.
You know what happened? Well, one of our guys reposted the live stream. You know, you can share it on your own profile. And this guy's cousin who lives in Ontario saw it and said, hey, did you know that there's a church right in your town called Inverness Community Church?
You should go check it out. So he found out about it through word of mouth from a guy who watched our live stream in Ontario. You know, you never know who's watching. And so we are just blessed.
You know, the Lord keeps adding to our number. We keep seeing people's lives changed. And we have a lot of people that are kind of, you know, what I call in that fog, they're around the perimeter. They're exploring, they're searching things out.
They haven't yet committed to Christ, but they're searching. They're seeking. And so we pray for us that we would love one another, that there would be no division in the church, that we would love one another so extravagantly. So otherworldly that people will say, man alive.
Those Christians are ridiculously in love with one another. And with this person named Jesus. And apparently with us too, that they're willing to do ridiculous things in his name. I don't mean ridiculous in a negative sense.
I mean stuff that, you know, people go, wow, why would you do that? And friends, I think we need to love people that way. So they go, wow, why would you do that? Oh, well since you've asked, let me share with you, right?
So we appreciate your prayers and your support. If you ever up our way, please drop in and see us. We love to do that. We have a lot going on and a lot planned for the coming year.
And one of those things right now is kind of trying to figure out decisions about the building that we're currently in. Do we continue to invest in renovations? Or do we look for another option? So just be in prayer for us.
Number one, that we would love. Number two, that will be faithful. Number three, that Jesus will be lifted up very high and that he will provide for our needs as a local church as we try to reach that community for the Lord. And so we're excited for that.
Thank you for your support. And yeah, so anyway, may the Lord help us today to understand who we are in Christ and what we have access to below it as a church. That we would be encouraged together. That we would, our hearts would be united to one another in love, the love of God.
That we would come to a full understanding of God's mystery, which is Christ, the center of everything. Who in him has all the treasuries of everything you and I need for every problem we face in this life and for the problems of this world. May the Lord help us and may the Lord bless you today. Father God, we're just so thankful for your word today and Lord for all that you have brought to us.
We thank you Lord Jesus that you came into this world and lived with us and Lord showed us who the Father truly is. And God, we thank you for our love that took you all the way to the cross at Calvary, Lord to die there in our place God, that we might have peace with God today and Lord that you would have us to be encouraged and our hearts knit together in love and to come to the knowledge of your mystery in Christ God and to just have everything we need in Christ today. So Lord, bless your people, encourage our hearts, Father, we pray and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.