Wear It and Bear It

If God's been good to you, I invite you to stand to your feet and join us as we praise Him together for His goodness. Can we start off with a great hallelujah in the house? Come on, why don't you clap your hands together? Why would I ever doubt your goodness? You are the only one who's never failed me. I've been a witness to your greatness. I've seen the mountains move and tombs made empty. You do more, so much more than I could imagine. Right when I see the storm brewing, you do something incredible. You're my refuge. You're my way through. You are faithful to do something incredible. All my help is in your presence. I can trust that you'll do something incredible. We believe that today, so we declare. No doubt about it, you are faithful. Your word is true and it has never failed me. I serve a God who's more than able. When I am weak and strong and mighty, you do more, so much more than I could imagine. Right when I think you're done moving, you do something incredible. You're my refuge. You're my way through. You are faithful to do something incredible. All my help is in your presence. I can trust that you'll do something incredible. Come on, if you know that your God is faithful and true, won't you lift your hands to him as we declare his word. We believe this. What I've been asking and what I'm thinking, you will exceed it. I will believe it. What I've been seeking, the things I'm dreaming, you will exceed it. I will believe it. What I've been asking and what I'm thinking, you will exceed it. I will believe it. What I've been seeking, the things I'm dreaming, you will exceed it. And I will believe that right when I think you're done moving, you'll do something incredible. You're my refuge. God, you're my way through. You are faithful to do something incredible. All my help is in your presence. And I can trust that you'll do something incredible. You're my way through. You are faithful. And all my help is in your presence, God. Yes, it is. And I know. What I've been asking and what I'm thinking, you will exceed it. I will believe it. What I've been seeking, the things I'm dreaming, you will exceed it. I will believe it. What I've been asking and what I'm thinking, you will exceed it. Yes, you will, God. What I've been seeking, the things I'm dreaming, you will exceed it. You'll do something incredible. If you believe it, lift up a shout of praise.

Come on, let's keep worshiping an incredible God who does incredible things, whose name is our strength. His name is what we can depend on in every moment in our lives. Jesus, we trust you and we sing out your name. We love you, Lord, as we sing. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind. Because I know there is peace within your presence. I speak Jesus. Oh, I just want to speak the name of Jesus till every dark addiction starts to break. Declaring there is hope and there is freedom. Oh, I speak Jesus. Sing, your name is power. For your name is power. Your name is healing. ♪ Our name is life, yes it is ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire, we're fire Lord ♪ ♪ Oh I just wanna speak the name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Over fear and all anxiety ♪ ♪ To every soul who's captive by depression ♪ ♪ Oh I speak Jesus, we speak your name oh God ♪ ♪ For your name is power, your name is power ♪ ♪ Your name is healing, your name is life ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire, burn like a fire within us Lord ♪ ♪ For your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is life, break every stronghold ♪ ♪ Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows ♪ ♪ Burn like a fire ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains and Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ And Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains and Jesus in the streets ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ♪ ♪ And Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ For your name is power, your name is healing ♪

♪ Your name is life, break every stronghold ♪ ♪ Your name is life, break every stronghold ♪ ♪ Shine through the shadows, burn like a fire ♪ ♪ Your name is power, your name is healing ♪ ♪ Your name is life, break every stronghold ♪ ♪ Shine through the shadows, burn like a fire ♪ ♪ I just wanna speak the name of Jesus over every heart ♪ ♪ And every mind, cause I know there is peace ♪ ♪ Within your presence, so I speak Jesus ♪ ♪ We trust in your name Lord, we speak Jesus ♪ ♪ We'll sing out Jesus, in the darkest times my God ♪ ♪ We sing to you, we sing Jesus, for you are light my God ♪ ♪ So we shout your name, we'll shout Jesus from the mountains ♪ ♪ And Jesus in the streams, Jesus in the darkness ♪ ♪ Over every enemy, and Jesus for my family ♪ ♪ I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, and Jesus in the streams ♪ ♪ Jesus in the darkness, Jesus in the darkness ♪ ♪ Over every enemy, and Jesus for my family ♪ ♪ I speak the holy name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Shout Jesus from the mountains, and Jesus in the streams ♪ Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy, Jesus for my family, I speak the Holy Name, Jesus. We lift Your Name, Jesus. We magnify Your Name, Jesus. We exalt Your Name above every name, Jesus. So we join together and we sing this, a thousand generations falling down in worship, sing the song of ages to the Lamb. And all who've gone before us and all who will believe, sing the song of ages to the Lamb. As we magnify His Name, we say, Your Name is the highest. Your Name is the greatest. Your Name stands above them all, above every throne, all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your Name, it stands above them all, and the angels cry, holy. All creation cries, holy. You are lifted high. You're holy, holy forever.

Oh, and if you've been forgiven, if you've been redeemed, oh, sing the song forever to the Lamb. You're the source of our freedom, God. We sing, if you walk in freedom, and if you bear His Name, oh, sing the song forever to the Lamb. We will sing, we'll sing the song forever and amen, and the angels cry, holy. All creation cries, holy, holy. You are lifted high. You're holy, holy forever. Hear your people, God. Hear your people sing, holy, holy. To the King of kings, you are holy. You will always be so holy, holy forever. Come on, let's declare the worth of His Name. Say, Your Name. Your Name is the highest. Your Name is the greatest. Your Name stands above them all. Above all thrones, all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your Name stands above them all. It has all authority. It stands above them all. Your Name. Your Name is the highest. Your Name is the greatest. Your Name stands above them all. Above all thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your Name, oh God, stands above them all. And the angels cry, holy. All creation cries out, holy. You are holy. You are lifted high. Lord, you are holy. You're holy forever. Hear your people. Hear your people sing, holy. To the King who's above every king, you are holy. You will always be Holy, holy, holy forever. Oh give me that from your heart. Won't you tell him one more time, you will always be, you will always be, holy, holy forever. Lord. Now somebody give a holy God an awesome praise in the house today. Only he is worthy forever and ever. Amen, amen. Well I'll tell you what church, it's an amazing time that we're going to have in the presence of the Lord today. Why don't you take a moment to greet a neighbor near you. Tell somebody hello. Share the love of Jesus with somebody that you haven't seen all week long. And we'll be right back to continue with service in just a moment. God bless you all. Amen.

Good afternoon. You guys can do better. It's not the first service. Come on, try it again. Good afternoon. Yes, that's awesome. Welcome to Faith Church. Thank you for being with us this afternoon. And a very, very special thank you to our first time guests. If it's your first time here at Faith Church, or it's been the first time in a long time, will you just raise your hand? We just want to clap for you, celebrate you for coming. Yes. Go ahead and leave your hand up until an usher serves you. Also, too, if you wouldn't mind grabbing your phone and tapping the back of the seat in front of you, which sounds confusing, but you'll see it, and a form comes up, go ahead and fill that out. That is a great way for us to connect with you and send you some information about our church. Also, right after service in the atrium, we want to invite you to our connection hub. Some of our team will be there to answer any questions that you have and give you some more information about what happens here at Faith. If you wouldn't mind, go ahead and turn your attention to the screens as we share with you what's coming up this week. Welcome to Faith Church Orlando. Here's a look at upcoming events. Parents, if you're looking for a school

that cares as much about your child's spiritual formation as you are about their education, then Faith Christian Academy is the school to begin building your legacy. At Faith Christian Academy, students are raised with excellence, character, and a foundation of faith that lasts. Serving preschool through 12th grade, we provide an environment where your child is both academically challenged and spiritually developed. Our programs include strong academics along with opportunities in science, technology, and fine arts. We also offer weekly chapel services tailored for every age group, helping students grow in their relationship with God. Faith Christian Academy is now enrolling for the 2026-2027 school year. Spots are limited, so don't wait. Visit fcalions.org today to learn more about how to build your child's legacy. Or stop by the Grand Staircase and speak to one of our representatives and take the next step today. Exciting things are happening at Faith. Here's a look ahead. ♪♪ We encourage you to connect, grow, serve, and reach here at Faith. So stay connected through the Faith app or our website. Have a blessed week. ♪♪ Now we're going to go ahead and continue to worship God in our giving.

♪♪ I pause for the clap because the Word of God says that the Lord loves a cheerful giver. And there's people in here that it really is exciting to give. Number one, because the Bible says to do it, so it's cool to be obedient to God. It says that we are supposed to give our... our first 10% back to the storehouse, back to the local church. So we get excited to be obedient, but we also, we see what that does when we tithe. It goes back to just stuff around here. It happens, ministry happens because you tithe. For example, if any of you were a part of the Fine Arts Festival this past weekend, if you're, yeah, let's give it up. Because you tithe, we get to do that. For our young people, for our students, it's such an amazing program that we have because you give. And let me challenge you, some of you are like, oh yeah, I tithe every time I get paid, awesome. The second step is to give to Kingdom Builders, and that's our lane of generosity, and that's anything above the tithe, anything above the 10%. It goes to fund projects all over the world. For example, our featured project, which you probably remember, we featured it this month, is Jaira International. It's a school in India that was recently demolished

by the government and they built a highway right through it. And this school is a school for human trafficking victims and their children. This is a school that they would come, they learn how to read, they learn how to write, and most importantly, they learned about Jesus. But here's the thing, how many of you know that God always turns around, whatever the enemy intended for evil, he turns around for good? So Jaira International and Faith Church Orlando has decided to partner together and rebuild that academy and make it bigger and better on property that the government will not take over, amen, and we're building this brand new school that's gonna be able to actually be able to teach even more children than the previous school. And we've committed to give $125,000. So I wanna challenge you, be a part of that. When you give to Kingdom Builders, you get to make a difference in a young boy or young girl's life. So let me challenge you today, whether it's your first time tithing or your first time giving to Kingdom Builders, do it joyfully. I promise you, you'll never regret giving. You can go ahead and look at the screens and pick your favorite way to give. And then right before we pray,

this week, Sandy Simmons went to be with the Lord. So if you don't mind remembering her family and keeping them in prayer. Let's go ahead and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day that you've given us. We thank you for the opportunity we get to give. Bless this tithe. Bless this Kingdom Builders offering. Bless Jaira International, Lord God, as they're building it and it grows, Lord God, let it impact so many students for generations to come. We love you, Holy Spirit. Have your way in this place. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for giving and welcome to faith. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

♪♪♪ We will rejoice and be glad in Him. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in Him. We'll rejoice, we'll rejoice and be glad in Him. Amen. We serve a God that is making things new every day. Amen. So let's worship Him that way. Sing, leave behind what happened yesterday. Cause today there's a new thing happening. Leave behind what happened yesterday. Cause today there's a good thing happening. Sing leave behind what happened yesterday. Cause today there's a new thing happening. Sing leave behind what happened yesterday. Cause today there's a good thing happening. Cause today there's a new thing happening. Leave behind what happened yesterday. Cause today there's a good thing happening. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice, we'll be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. We'll rejoice, rejoice, be glad in it.

We'll rejoice, we'll be glad in it. We'll rejoice, rejoice, be glad in it. Oh come on, let's rejoice today. Why not rejoice today? Alright, hold on church. Hold on, we're going to practice this rejoice thing. And I want you to put a big smile on your face. And we're going to take about 20 seconds. Because this is the day that the Lord has made. God is good and we're going to rejoice and be glad. So come on, let's take 20 seconds and clap our hands and lift our voice. Come on, God is good. You are good, God, and we rejoice in you. We rejoice in your presence, oh God. Thank you, God, for all that you are. Amen. You can be seated. God bless you. Man, I am excited to see you here today. And of course, we had services streaming today at all of our campuses. Our Michigan Street Campus, our Red Bug Lake Campus, our Narcoossee Road Campus. And also today's service streamed at the Central Florida Reception Center. Come on. Listen, all those locations. We just put our hands together all the time and say, God, thank you. We just continue to rejoice in what God is doing around us and what God is doing in us. And I hope you are ready. Everybody look me in the eyeballs. I hope you are ready for God to do something real in your life today. Alright?

And so we're excited for that. And I want to say this too. This last weekend, as Pastor Sonja mentioned, was the District Fine Arts Festival. There was thousands of people here and students here from all over the state. And we host that event for our Assembly of God district and network and all the churches that are coming from there. And we're always honored to host that. But I'm telling you, that takes a lot of work and puts a lot of pressure and weight on our staff. And so many people that serve and all the volunteers. And so I just want to say thank you to them. Can we say thank you to all of them? And I'm telling you, it is a big thing. And I want you to know that our team really represented your church well the way we were able to host that event. And our students, of course, did amazing. And we had over 350 middle school and high school students advance to the National Fine Arts Festival, which is amazing. And we had like almost 50 entries that either got first, second, and or third. And so it was just an incredible weekend. And so we're so grateful for what God is doing there. And we've been in this theme where we've been talking about, Add Me in Real Life. And so I'm going to continue that series today, Add Me in Real Life. And basically, you know, we're saying that we're going to take a look at the interpersonal real relationships in our life. And it's not to say that no connection can happen digitally or that connection's not real if it's, you know, online or something like that. That's not what we're saying. But I think we are saying this, that we need to be very intentional also about our real life every day, like face-to-face relationships. And kind of looking into God's Word and seeing how can we navigate that best. And how do we kind of figure out? What that would look like and the way we can honor God in our real day-to-day real-life relationships and today I'm gonna talk about how to navigate and deal with Difficult people how to deal with difficult people because there are some Difficult situations and some difficult people along the way and so we're gonna we're gonna talk about that I'm gonna read in Colossians chapter 3

and I think that Colossians chapter 3 kind of provides a Cheat code for difficult situations. I think it provides kind of a cheat code for dealing with difficult people I think it's kind of gives like a secret sauce for how to kind of work through navigate some of those sticky Situations that we kind of have sometimes with people that maybe are more abrasive or or more difficult to deal with So I think this is some great stuff here Colossians chapter 3. So let's read this verses 11 through 14 And this what the Bible says Paul says he authors Colossians. He says here There is no Gentile or Jew There's no circumcised or uncircumcised No barbarian or Scythian no slave nor free But he says but Christ is all and is in all Therefore as God's chosen people holy and dearly loved clothe yourselves with compassion With kindness with humility with gentleness and with patience Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone Forgive as the Lord forgave you and over all of these virtues put on love Which binds them all together in perfect? Unity today title my message today is Wear it and Bear it Wear it and bear it. Let's pray and ask God to speak to us Will you will you pray when kind of join me in that just say God just whatever you have to say speak to me Let's let's pray that together Lord. I just pray that you would speak to us today, and I thank you for your word I thank you that your word applies to our life right now And so we just we come to you. We approach your word with an openness God We approach your word as authority in our life and God We just we just ask you to speak to us where we are God let there Just be a fresh and prophetic Anointing on what you are saying to your church right now and give us ears to hear it We pray in Jesus name and everybody said Amen Amen, I don't know if anybody here is excited about this

But coming up here in the very I think this summer Coming up is the the World Cup is happening is anybody excited about the World Cup, and I think it's coming to the United States Yeah, some of you are and I I guess I'm relatively excited about it like I'll just be honest with you soccer is not My it's not my favorite sport. It's not my top couple favorite sports But I mean I appreciate soccer, and I actually played a little bit of soccer When I was a senior in high school is the first time I ever played like Organized soccer I waited till my senior year of high school And I was on the soccer team at my school my senior year of high school And as you might imagine I was amazing at it I mean college scholarships pouring in they said I had a chance to be one of the greats They said World Cups were in my future But I gave it all up to pursue the call of Christ on my life and to be a preacher No, I'm just kidding. I mean I am a preacher, but I wasn't great at soccer. Okay. I wasn't saying that all right But no I did play my senior year. It's the only time I played soccer and and again I'm not I don't dislike soccer matter of fact I'll watch I'll probably watch some of the World Cup and I What I love you know what I love about watching a soccer game is that I can watch a soccer game And I can take a pretty long nap and when I wake up the score is the same as it was when I went To sleep and so I feel like hey, that's good I didn't miss anything and we're right here still in it, and it's still 0-0 so I love that about soccer and The other thing that I liked about soccer when I played soccer, and this is gonna sound funny But the other thing I loved about soccer when I played was the shin guards There's just something about Putting those shin guards and having those long socks and just kind of feeling like a warrior You know like you're just you're just wearing that and the reason why of course Soccer players wear those shin guards is because in all of that contact and interaction with all of the players on the Field your team and the other team as everybody's trying to kick the ball sometimes They're gonna maybe even be trying to kick the ball But they're gonna kick you in the shin instead and our shins are so sensitive So there was just something about having and wearing that shin guard and I wore that shin guard so that I could bear

The brunt of a kick that was coming my way and most the time it's not even intentional But I've seen clips of soccer games or somebody does kick somebody in the leg intentionally, and I've seen sometimes those players don't even react to it, because why? They've got something on there where they can wear that shin guard and bear the brunt of that kick. Well, I think that's kind of what Paul was talking about here in Colossians chapter three, that there is something that we can wear on our life that gives us the ability to bear when something comes our way, when there is a kick from somebody, intentional or unintentional. Either way, man, friction is gonna happen. Anytime that there's people doing life together, friction is gonna happen. We can count on that, that there will be some problem people, and there will be some tough interactions to deal with, and some things that we gotta work through emotionally. And man, Paul gives us a cheat code for it here. This is the cheat code. The four things I think that we need to understand that I wanna break down today from Colossians three, the first part of the cheat code is this, we gotta understand the danger of divisiveness. Second, we gotta understand the garments of God, and we'll get into that in a moment.

Third, we gotta understand the force, this force called forgiveness. And fourthly, we gotta understand that over all of it, there is a layer called love. And so let's start with that first one. Let's start with the danger of divisiveness. We gotta understand how dangerous divisiveness is, how really demonic, I mean, the Bible talks a lot about people who sow discord and sow division, especially in the church, and that is such a dangerous behavior to get involved in divisiveness, because here's the thing, relationships are tough enough already. Like there's gonna be enough stressors on our interpersonal relations without adding a predisposed divisiveness when we come into it. And I think Paul knows, of course, that we are capable of that. And so that's why in verse 11, he goes here, and look at all these dividers. He says, here there is no Gentile or Jew. Here there is not circumcised and uncircumcised. Here there is not barbarian or Scythian. Here there is not slave or free. All of these things that would normally bring division, he's going, we don't play like that. We're not doing life like that. He says, no, here Christ is all and is in all. In other words, when I take the name Christian,

and when I become a follower of Jesus, it is no longer about the differences that I have with other people. No, now it's about what I have in common with other people. It's no longer that I go into situation with my predisposed, like, no, I'm not like them, and I'm not like them, and I'm not like, no, when I wear Christ as my covering, now I go into situations, I go into interactions with people with the idea that I am going to find what we have in common. I'm gonna find what we share. There was a, I read this week about the French Foreign Legion, and this was an incredibly, like, powerful military force, an army, we're talking way back, back in the mid-1800s, and they became a critical part and a powerful force in the advancing of France's colonial empire, again, in the mid-19th century. And for people to join that army, and people joined that army from all over the place, from different countries and from different walks of life, but to join that French Foreign Legion meant that they had to come underneath a unique and radical rule. And that radical rule was under, it was a Latin phrase that all of those soldiers knew about.

The Latin phrase was this, Legio Patria Nostra. That's perfect Latin, by the way, not at all, okay. Legio Patria Nostra. And for all you non-Latin speakers, what that phrase meant and means is the legion is our fatherhood. The legion is our fatherhood. In other words, when someone came into that army, what they had to commit to is like, this is my association now. This is my connection now. This is my reputation now, this army. So you would have people coming from other walks of life. You'd have Russians in that army, and you'd have Frenchmen in that army, and they would come together, not as their own countrymen, no, no, now this fatherhood, this legion, this is our fatherhood, this is our connection. You would have people that would go to war against the countries that they grew up in, but because they were in this French army, because this legion was their fatherhood, now they're fighting against what used to be their former connection. And I think that's a decent picture, and that's kind of what Paul is saying here. Man, when we come into Christ, it's not even.

And like our, watch this, our nationality even comes underneath the banner of Christ. Our socioeconomic differences, no, they come underneath the banner of Christ. Our generational differences, hey, they come underneath the banner of Christ. In other words, we are Christians first. That's what I love about our church, that it's so different, and there's so many different nationalities, and there's so many different generations, and there's so many different walks of life. But I love that when we come together, come on, we're not looking at our differences. We're saying, no, under the banner of Christ, Christ is in all, and we are in Christ, and that's what we choose to focus on. There is a growing spirit of division that will constantly, I mean, it'll cause you to kind of go into circumstances. And if you go in focused on division, and sometimes we do that. Sometimes you're like driving down the road, and you see somebody with a political bumper sticker that's different than your politics, and already you're like, I don't like that person. Where's that, you don't even know that person, and you're like, I don't like him, and then they cut you off, and you're like, I knew it. I knew people who vote like that drive like that

all the time, I don't like that person. Like, what is that? We're going into it determined to find a difference. And if instead of that, we'll go into a situation convinced that we will have something in common, it is a secret sauce for dealing with hard to deal with people, because division is a conflict multiplier. You go in thinking we're divided, man, we're gonna find some things to be divided about. You go into a relationship thinking we're divided, you'll find something to fight about. But you go in focused on instead what we have in common. This should happen, yes, in the church, oh, this should definitely happen in the church, but this should happen at your workplace. You should walk into your workplace not focused on how I'm so different from, no, what do we have in common? This should happen in your school, this should happen in your neighborhood, not to focus on differences. No, why? Because we wear the name Christian, and with that, it's just a different approach to interpersonal relationships. We gotta understand the danger of divisiveness, especially in our culture today. I think we also gotta understand the garments of God, and Paul starts talking about these things,

these garments that we are to wear, that we're to, he says, clothe yourself. We're supposed to clothe ourself with, and so let me read verse 12 again. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, he says, clothe yourself. Like, be intentional about this. Put this outfit on, clothe yourself, and then he says, with compassion, with kindness, with humility, with gentleness, and with patience, clothe yourself, like, be intentional. Like, we all decided today what we were gonna wear to church. You made a decision to wear that, or for some of you, your wife made the decision for what you were gonna wear, and we're glad that she did, okay? But you decided to wear what you were gonna wear, and this is what Paul's saying. You're used to this, you do this every day. You decide what you're gonna wear, and so Paul says, every day, decide that you're gonna put on these garments that God has in mind for you. Paul starts to list these things, like, God had a merch drop, and some of you missed it, all right, because some of you haven't been wearing this stuff, and I want you to know God had this merch drop for you in mind.

He's got your size picked out, and he wants you to put these things on, and we know what it's like to put on a certain outfit for a certain situation. We do that all the time. Like, you're not gonna wear, maybe to the gym, the same thing you're gonna wear to a funeral. No, because you understand that, well, for this, I need to put on this. It's something we do all the time. You're not gonna maybe wear something around the house that you're gonna maybe wear to a wedding, and especially if you're in the wedding. I mean, sometimes, when you're in a wedding, you know, and the people are saying, well, if you wanna be in the wedding, you gotta buy this dress, you gotta buy this suit, and we found them on sale, and it's only $1,100, so you should be fine to be in the wedding, so just buy this stuff and be in the wedding with us, and so, but weddings now have gone from just, like, telling, you know, the people in the wedding what to wear, and now they're telling, sometimes, what, like, everybody in the crowd, like, when you come to the wedding, you gotta wear this shade of khaki and this shade of cream, and then they're like, I want RGB 714 khaki. I don't need none of that 717 stuff. Like, we're going this shade of khaki and this shade of cream, and that's what you're gonna wear

if you come to the wedding. So we get used to this thing of, like, wearing certain things. Obviously, if somebody works certain places, have you wear, what, a uniform, because you're representing. Like, thank God for the uniforms at Chick-fil-A. When you need to find somebody to get you some more sauce, you know who to ask, because they got the little Chick-fil-A polo on. So we understand this concept that kind of. We wear certain things for certain environments and this, this is what we wear for the environment of life with people. What's Paul say? First Paul says we put on compassion. Compassion is just, think about it this way, to extend mercy to somebody, to just kind of widen the margin for error for somebody. Compassion is just to soften the way that you might receive what they, I don't know if anybody's ever done, maybe back in the day, did you ever do like an egg toss contest where you got a partner and you're throwing an egg back and forth and you're trying to catch him and see how much distance, anybody's ever done that before? Wave if you've ever done that before. Yeah, matter of fact, does anybody have an egg

in this service now, has anybody got an egg? Pastor Matt, you have an egg? This is completely unplanned and unrehearsed, I can't believe this. He's got an egg here in this service. And so if he and I were in an egg toss contest and he was throwing the egg to me and I'm receiving it, we're gonna do it, and by the way, someone suggested that we hard boil the egg so that in case something went wrong, we wouldn't have a mess. But I decided not to do that, okay, because that's not, it's all risk, all reward here, okay? So he's gonna throw me this real egg and I'm gonna hopefully catch it. Every time it goes up, it hits the lights and I get a little scared. Okay, I caught it. I don't know if that deserves an applause, really. But it's real. No, I said it, I don't know if it does. You're fine. In that interaction between he and I just now, his toss was less consequential than my catch. How he tossed it, honestly, it matters, but it doesn't matter near as much as how I received it. He could do the perfect toss to me and if I had caught it with my hand going forward, we got a mess, like churches out early. I'm like, God, you're dismissed.

I gotta go take a shower. We would have a mess on our hands and he could throw it kind of wrong and maybe kind of out of the way and maybe a little too hard. And when that is coming my way, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to receive. However he threw it at me, I'm trying to receive. You know what that is? That's compassion. Because I'm gonna tell you, there are people in your life who may not know how to throw it at you and what they say to you, maybe they didn't throw it to you the right direction and maybe the way they looked at you, maybe the way they treated you, maybe they didn't treat you with the right way. And if we come at that with force, come in the other direction, now we've got a mess on our hands. What compassion says is, look, I know what you said and I know what you did and I don't even know what you're going through, but I'm gonna receive this in a way that we can still have peace. It's giving, it's broadening. It's broadening the margin of error as we do life together. And it's a beautiful thing for us to wear as Christians, to wear compassion.

Paul says put on kindness, put on kindness. And the Greek word that gets translated into the English word kindness here means this, it means benevolence in action. So a lot of times we think about kindness and we're like, no, I mean, I'm a pretty kind person, I think, I mean, I'm not mean, so I'm probably kind. And we think about it as this overall, like general description of our life. That's not what Paul's saying. No, Paul's saying active, like benevolence in action, like you're doing kind things to people, you're doing kind things for people. This is what we wear as Christians and this will be a secret sauce for your interpersonal relationships and when you're dealing with people. And when I talk about kindness, a lot of us immediately go there and we go, you know what, pastor, I think I am gonna, I'm gonna do more kind things to the people that are kind to me. Like, I think I will, because there's a lot of people that are so kind to me and I wanna return that kindness back to them and that's not what Paul is talking about. No, Paul's saying even the people who don't show you kindness. Can we get real for a second? Even the people that show you maybe

that their attitude is not right towards you, even the people that are mean to you, what would be our response to that? We go in, because we put that on in the morning when we get ready, we're walking into that situation where someone may treat me poorly and yet I have still already predisposed, I've made the decision, no, I'm gonna be a kind person. I'm gonna give out kindness even if I'm not getting kindness from somebody. Paul says put on humility. Humility, and I promise that when Paul writes this, especially in that pagan day, they did not think humility was a trait to be admired. No, they admired pride and forcefulness and dominance. That's what that culture, and so humility was actually seen as a negative. So Paul writes this, it's very counter-cultural when he's saying, hey, we're gonna put on humility as Christ followers. And I think sometimes we misunderstand. what humility is and there's this, sometimes this false humility that sometimes we fall into a trap of. You know what false humility sounds like is when we start saying stuff like, oh, I mean, I'm nothing and I don't matter anyway and it's not about, you know, I don't know, I don't have anything to offer and it's this, and what that actually is when we fall into that trap,

that kind of pity party humility, that's actual pride. Because pride manifests in different ways. Pride is just an overemphasis on self. So sometimes pride manifests as arrogance, but sometimes pride manifests in this false humility where, oh, I'm just nothing because it's just all about me. So humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking of yourself less. Humility is putting other people, it's like it's not so much about me. It's like when everybody walks into a room today, when you walked into church tomorrow, when you walked into the classroom or you walk into your place of employment, people usually walk into a room or an environment with one of two attitudes. And you can either walk into an environment, you can either walk into church with this attitude, the attitude that says, here I am. Some people do that, man. They walk into an environment, it's like, here I am. Here I am. Some people walk into work, here I am. Some people walk into church, here I am. And yet other people, people who have allowed and put on humility on their life, they walk into that same environment and they say, there you are, there you are, there you are. And read your gospels. And I want you to look at how Jesus entered environments.

Jesus always entered environments, there you are, there you are. It was never here I am. That is humility. Paul says we should put on meekness. It's another one that sometimes we don't understand what meekness means and what it is. Meekness is when we take the powerful emotions that we will have in our life and we put those under the control of the Holy Spirit. So it's power under control. That's what meekness is. And so it's not saying that you're never gonna feel the interactions with difficult people. It's not saying that, like, you're gonna feel it. If I have shin pads on and someone kicks me, I'm still gonna feel it. I know it's happened, but because of what I'm wearing, I can bear it in a different way. That's meekness. So when a pain point comes or when somebody treats me a certain way or says a certain thing, yes, my emotions can kick up within me and go, oh man, I wanna get them back. I want vengeance for them. Or now I'm angry with them. Or now I'm bitter about what they did to me. All of those emotions are there, but meekness says those emotions are not gonna run out of control in my life.

No, I'm gonna control those emotions. There's a podcaster named Mel Robbins, and I'm not even necessarily, like, suggesting that anybody listens to her. I just happen to have listened to a couple clips that she said, and it's also a book that she wrote. And it's this theory called the let them theory. And I think it kind of describes meekness in a way. And what she says, and it comes from a poem from another person that had written a poem before that, but what she says in that is that we spend so much of our energy and so much of our time trying to control what other people do. And we get so frustrated and spend so much emotional energy angry at what someone else did, even though we can't control what they do. And so the let them theory says this. Hey, if somebody does something that you wouldn't normally do, let them. If somebody cuts you off in traffic, this is gonna go against a lot of your driving practices. Today, even as we leave church in the parking lot, if somebody cuts you off, meekness is just, oh, let them. If your friends go out and all do a little dinner thing and they don't invite you, oh, man, sometimes we wanna get so mad and start to control that situation, let them. If someone gives you a certain kind of look at work, don't make, let them give you a dirty, like, let them. And it's not to say that meekness means

that we're doormats, that's not what this is saying. But what meekness does is say, I'm gonna make this decision that I'm not gonna let someone else's chaos determine my character. So you can act however you're gonna act. No, I'm gonna wear what God has me to wear. And Paul says, put on patience. And, man, some of us need to pray. Some of you need to pray for patience because we've accepted this lack of patience lifestyle. We run around talking about how, oh, man, I got a short fuse and I ain't got patience for this and I don't have patience for you. And we shouldn't say things like that. We should say, God's bringing me. more patience. We shouldn't say, man, I got a short fuse. We should say, God's helped me have a longer patience in my life and be more. What patience means is that we are long-tempered, not short-tempered, no, that we are long-tempered. And so that's why some of us, we need to be praying for patience. May I encourage you to pray to God that God would give you patience, but let me warn you that when you pray for patience, the only way that it can kind of grow in your life is for God to send some people into your life that will test your patience. So don't be surprised when you pray,

say, God, give me patience, and then tomorrow it all kind of starts to unravel. You're like, God, what's going on? He's like, you asked me for this. And you should ask him for that because that's how you'll grow in patience. And we want to wear the garments of God on our life because not only will it help these things, oh, is that gonna help these other people, these other difficult people? Well, yes, but it's also gonna help you. It's kind of amazing when we start thinking about, and this whole time I've been preaching this, and I said, talking about difficult people, and all of our minds are like, oh, man, yes, this person's difficult in my life, and that my boss is difficult, and my spouse is difficult, yeah, my kid. Like, you're all about all these other people, and guess what? Sometimes we're difficult too. Like, we gotta understand that. Think about it, if there's this interaction between two people, and it becomes a tense, stress, friction moment, when these two people walk away, this person is going, man, that happened because he's difficult, and this person is going, oh, that happened because he's difficult. Like, we just automatically get into this thing.

So we do this to, yeah, to help, sure, to help somebody else, but also to help us. That's what we put on. So we gotta understand these garments of God. I think the other part of this cheat code is that we understand the force that's called forgiveness. Man, forgiveness is such a force. It is such a powerful weapon in your hands if you will wield it correctly. Verse 13, Paul says, bear with each other. See, he's admitting that there is gonna be some problem, people. He says, bear with one another, then he says, and forgive one another. He's admitting that there's gonna be some opportunities that you have to forgive somebody because of what they've done. That shouldn't surprise us. He says, bear with one another, forgive one another. And if any of you has any grievance against somebody, but he says, forgive as the Lord forgave you. Not only does Paul admit that there are going to be some problem, people, bear with them. He admits there's gonna be some problem, people. He also reminds you that at one point, you were a problem to Jesus. And what did Jesus do with your problem? He forgave you. Paul actually tells us to forgive twice in the same verse. When something is referenced multiple times in Scripture,

it's there for emphasis. It's as if somebody put five exclamation points. And so the first time Paul says forgive, and I think he knew that us reading it, we were gonna go, yeah, yeah, that's good, forgive, whatever. And so he comes back and says again, no, no, no. Just like Jesus forgave you, he's saying, I want you to forgive. Now, why are we supposed to forgive? Because they deserve it? No, that's not what he said. And that's not why Jesus forgave you, because you deserved it. No, it doesn't matter if they deserve it. It honestly doesn't even matter if they ask for it. We don't deserve, we don't forgive because they deserve it. We forgive because Jesus forgave us. Back in the day, they used to make cars different than they do now. Decades ago, automobile engineering was all about like strength and like we're gonna build these things like tanks. I mean, they literally did. They built cars like tanks. They didn't want those cars to give at all. And so they had heavy steel and they built those cars. Like if you run into a brick wall with this car, that brick wall's in trouble. This car, you're not even gonna notice it on this car. That's how they used to build them.

And they thought they'd just make them stronger and stronger and stronger until they realized that these rigid automobiles, that when there was a collision, when there was an accident, that all of the brunt of that impact was actually hitting the passengers and the drivers. And it was a fatal problem because all of the brunt of the accident and the collision was them and not this vehicle. And now they build cars very, very different. Now they build cars with crumple zones. So now if you see a collision, you drive by something that had a wreck and you'll see those cars, they just crunch up like small, like crumpled up together. Why do they do that? Because that crumple zone now takes the brunt of this collision. Collision and it protects the passengers on the inside. I think that's a pretty good way of looking at what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is the crumple zone. Forgiveness is going into a collision with somebody and saying, you know what? I'm not gonna go in this thing rigid. I'm not gonna go in this thing unchanging. I'm not gonna go into this thing like you better do things my way. No, you can, but there's gonna be more damage there.

So you can either go into this interaction with somebody with this rigid, like I'm not moving one inch on this, or you can go in kind of like, I'm ready to kind of take some of the blow of this and be kind of more concerned about maybe our relationship than maybe how right I am. I guess with any situation and any kind of infraction, anytime somebody maybe says something to me or acts in a way that hurts me, you have an option when you're dealing with a situation like that. You can always assume the worst about them. A lot of us do that. Something happens and we're like, man, I knew they did. Like somebody looks at you a certain way, like I knew they didn't like me. Look at the way they're looking at me. Like they're an evil person over there, man. They're just so mean. We can assume the worst or we can choose to believe the best that even when somebody doesn't act in a way that we would want them to act, that we can choose to believe the best about them and say, you know what? I bet they're having, I bet something's going on in their life. I bet they're having a rough week. I bet they're feeling some pain. And I'll bet that adage that they say

that hurt people hurt people, I'll bet that's what's going on. I bet they're maybe hurting right now and it's causing them to lash out and hurt some other people. What kind of, that attitude is a crumple zone. And forgiveness is powerful. It is a force. Watch this, forgiveness doesn't change the past. Forgiveness doesn't say that a collision didn't happen. Forgiveness changes the future. It changes how you can come out of it and you can come out of it without a limp on your life because you chose, come on, to forgive. Give God praise for that. Thanks for that. Last thing, last secret sauce that Paul mentions and we're done, but he talks about this layer of love. And kind of over all of that, as a matter of fact, none of the other stuff works that we've talked about so far. We have to erase it all if we don't have this layer of love. Look how he says it in verse 14. And over all of these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. It's love that binds them all together. Not the kind of love that you have watched in movies or TV shows. Not the kind of like goose bump, romance, fall into love, fall out of love.

Now I love you because you're lovable, but if you're not lovable, I don't love you so much anymore. Like not that kind of love. That's not what Paul's talking about here. No, Paul is talking about a decision, a consistent, love me or not, I love you. You're lovable or not, I love you. You treat me this kind of way or that kind. I'm still gonna be a person who decides to be a person who loves. No matter what kind of situation I'm in. I got a coworker that's taking credit for my work. I'm still gonna love that person. I got a spouse that maybe isn't being as loving to me as I would want them. I made a decision, I'm gonna love that person. Why do we make this decision every day, knowing we're gonna go into some friction, relationship, why would we make this decision to love? Because love covers over a multitude of sins. First Peter chapter four verse eight. Love covers a multitude of sins. Again, we always think about covering everybody else's sins but we're not perfect either. And so love covers over even our sins as well. I guess this whole thing could kind of be illustrated this way that this is sandpaper. It's 40 grit sandpaper. It's pretty rough if you were to feel it. And this maybe would represent like me and my life

and what I'm doing. And so we do know that we will run into abrasive people. I mean, that's what this sandpaper, it is abrasive. It's the perfect example of that word. And we will interact and abrasive people will rub me the wrong way when I interact with them. Like tomorrow when you go to work, there are gonna be somebody that is interacting with you. And then you're driving home and somebody on the road, it's gonna be an abrasive interaction with you and they're gonna rub you the wrong way. And you're gonna get home and you're gonna be telling your spouse about how rough of a day you had and your spouse is gonna be abrasive with you about it. Now, if we're not careful, we'll start to think, what I need to do is start avoiding these kind of people. I need to figure out some little bubble that I can live in where everybody's perfect, and everybody treats everybody perfectly all the time. And that's what we start to think. But can I tell you, that is not your best option, is just to avoid this altogether. Because I don't know if you realize it, but every time there has been an abrasive reaction with this piece of wood, this piece of wood has gotten smoother and smoother and smoother. And so instead of us trying to avoid any interactions with people, probably what we should do in real life,

instead of saying, God, I wanna avoid every problem person ever, what we should do is say, God, help me to attract problem people into my life. I know that's a radical, dangerous prayer, but watch this, because if I do, what happens? I just become a smoother, more Christ-like version of myself all the time. I just become more like Him. I just get to practice putting on the garments of God. And that's what I wanna pray that we put into practice in our life, that we can wear this so that we can bear what people are inevitably gonna do. And before I pray for you, I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking, Pastor, there's no way I can do this. Like you have described, everything you've described is kind of anti-me. Like I can't forgive. I can't offer compassion. I can't let things go. I kind of look, I kind of like divisiveness. Like, Pastor, this is, I can't do this. And I would say this, too. I agree with you, you can't. But Christ in you can, okay? Christ, that's why Christ is in you. That's why Paul, when he's giving this instruction,

when Paul's giving this cheat code of how to survive when relationships are tough, that's why Paul, in verse 11, says Christ is in all. It's not about you, it's about the Christ in you. In verse 12, he calls you God's chosen people. Come on, if you're God's chosen people, that mean you got enough God in you to start to kind of have some characteristics of God coming out of your life. That's good news. And that's what we'll pray happens. Let me pray for you, okay? I mean, I'm gonna haul out the attributes of God over your life. Father, in Jesus' name, I just thank you for every single person that right now is contemplating what it would look like if we were to become more like you. And I thank you that that is happening all over this room, that there are so many people who have decided today not just to be hearers of the word, but God, that they want to do this. They want to live this. They want this word to be a part of their DNA. And I thank you, God, that you are allowing that to happen. And I pray, God, for a moment of transformation. And I pray, God, for a shift in our life because we will have difficult situations and we will deal with difficult people. But God, we make a commitment now to do it in a way

that honors you and refines us. In Jesus, in Jesus' name. With nobody looking around, would you just keep your eyes closed for a second? I'm asking a couple of questions and I guess my first question would be this. I'm gonna ask you to just, is there some here that would say, Pastor, like, I'm kind of in this season right now, like I got some friction in relationships and I got some difficult people that I'm dealing with and I just need an extra dose of God's grace and this word was for me today. If that's you, would you just hold up your hand? Nobody's looking around. It's between me and you and God, but hold up your hand. Pastor, this word was for me. It's where I'm at right now. I just needed the grace of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hands up, all over the room. All over the place, yep. All right, you can put your hands down. I guess my second question then would be this. Because there are also many here today who were in that, I can't do this. And I agreed with you, you can't because you don't have Christ ruling and reigning in your life yet. And maybe you've never said yes to Christ

or maybe you did and you walked away or maybe you've just kind of taken the reins of your life back from God and you just realized today, no, I need to surrender my life to Christ or I need to surrender my life to Christ again. I need to believe that he can not only just be my savior, but I'm gonna have to believe again that he can be my Lord and that he can help guide and direct my life and that I could actually honor my creator with how I live my life. And some of you need to make that decision to do that today, maybe for the first time or to come back to Christ. And if that's you, you say, I just need to surrender my life to Christ today, pastor. If that's you, let me see your hand. Nobody's looking around. but just hold it up for a second. I need Christ today, yeah. I need forgiveness today. I need to come back to Christ today. Yeah, yeah, awesome, awesome. Hands up all over again. Why don't we do this, church? This is, I think, I want us to be able to process this word in our spirits. And so why don't we stand to our feet just in this holy presence of God, and we'll dismiss in about four, maybe three minutes.

But as we stand here, I wanna give you a chance to come for a moment of meeting with God in prayer. And our prayer team and our staff wants to pray. And so for those that lifted their hands, and I just need a special grace to God, because I'm just kind of walking through a bit of a season of turmoil and maybe lack of peace with some of my relationships. I want you, as we get ready to sing this song together, I want you to step out and come. If you lifted your hand saying, I need to get right with God today and make Christ Lord of my life, I want you to step out and come. Maybe you didn't raise your hand to either of those, but you need to have a moment with God today. I want you to step out and come. And the rest of us, come on, we're gonna sing this song to God that we sang a moment ago that just describes the authority that God has. And we're just gonna put Him back into the seat of authority in our life as we all sing this together, all right? And so as we sing this song together, if you raised your hand for either of those, or if you didn't raise your hand and you need to come forward today for prayer, come on, our team is coming. But come on, let's sing this together.

Say, your name is the highest. And if you need prayer today, you lifted your hand, come on. Just meet me at this front. You need just a grace of God on your life, come on. It's all right. You need to surrender to Christ today, come on. There is no better decision than you can make. Come on, if that's you. I need forgiveness today. Maybe you need healing in your body today. Come on, these altars are open. Your name is the highest. Your name is the greatest. Father, we thank you. We thank you, God, for healing in relationships, Lord, for healing in marriages, for healing in homes. We're gonna sing it again, come on. Church, I want you to lift that up to heaven. And if somebody needs to get through, let them through to come forward today. Your name is the highest. Say your name. Your name is the greatest. And his name is above all. Stands above them all. All thrones and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name. Thank you, Lord.

Stands above them all. There's still people coming, and you can continue to do so. One of the things I love about a word like this is it gives us the chance to immediately go out and just start to practice it and start to make it a part of our life. And so I encourage you to do that. Pastor Sonia's coming. She's gonna close out in prayer and pray for these and pray for any of you today that need prayer. But God bless you, we love you. If you're up here praying at the altar, go ahead and continue doing so. But I get everyone else, go ahead and raise your hands up with me. I'm gonna pray over you guys before you guys go. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you and we receive everything that you shared today, my God. I pray in Jesus' name that we walk out of here clothed in compassion, clothed in patience, clothed in humility, my Jesus. And I pray as we approach this week, we will approach with these brand new garments focusing on you, Lord God, being better people, better leaders in our work, in our home, and in our lives. My God, I come against every attack of the enemy that will try to take this seed that was planted in us today. And I pray in Jesus' name

that we will continue to love you and forge ahead. Thank you so much for everything that you've done this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen and amen. Amen. If you gave your heart to Christ this morning, if you wouldn't mind, go ahead, scanning the QR code. We just wanna send you some information to help you on your journey. Don't forget, if it's your first time here, visit us at the Connection Hub in the atrium. I hope that you have an amazing week. Make sure to come back Wednesday at seven o'clock right in here for service. And God bless you as you go. Thanks for coming to faith.