Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.
10 sermons cite this verse
… And then look at verse 16. Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you. You see the relationship? It's not accidental. The way you allow the peace of Christ to have the final say in your life is by allowing the word of Christ richly to dwell within you. Think about this. Isn't most of the worry in your life caused by changes you experience? I was thinking about that this week. Most anything and everything I'm concerned about has to do with some change that takes place in my life. I bet it's the same with you. It may be a change in the status of your health. It may be a change in your relationship with someone. It might be a change in your employment, but most of the anxiety we feel in life is caused by unexpected changes and unwanted changes that occur. And yet even though people and circumstances change, God never changes. 2 Samuel chapter 22, verses 32 and 33 say, and who is a rock besides our God? …
… that you carry with you. In Colossians 3.16, Paul writes, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. Paul says one of the ways that we teach one another theology, our beliefs about God, is through songs. So what is worship? Worship is truth with a tune. Worship is revelation with a rhythm. Worship is confession with a cadence. Worship is something that I can hold onto and carry with me. So when I find myself in the midnight hour and I don't know what on earth I'm there for, I can hold onto something that reminds me what I've always believed and what I've experienced in the Lord. It can remind me what I've been taught about who he is. So even in the midnight hour, I can declare what I learned. Remember what the psalmist said. He said, I remember my song in the night. You don't learn a new song in the night. …
… to be worshiped in this setting. In Colossians 3.16, he says, let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. Have you ever wondered why we sing songs in church? Because it's in the Bible. God tells us, I want you to sing these songs. And he tells us exactly why. He says, because the message of Christ dwells richly among you. And it's a way that we teach and encourage one another in the faith. So when we sing these songs and we sing the truth in God's word, get this, we actually start to believe the very thing that we're singing. In other words, in other words, sometimes you just got to sing it even if you don't feel it. I have a five-year-old son named Jackson, and one of his favorite songs is an old country song by Travis Tritt, It's a Great Day to Be Alive. …
… Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. As in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, Sometimes you have to have hard conversations. But also, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Also, you get to have joyful celebration. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. And then Paul says very clearly, Wives, be subordinate to your husbands. Trust them. Husbands, love your wives. Provide, protect, and care for them. Live in such a way that she can trust you. Children, obey your parents and everything, for that's pleasing to the Lord. And then fathers, don't provoke your children so they may not become discouraged. Here is this incredible, incredible guidance from the Lord. and it's guidance we can put into practice right now so that your family and my family
… And verse 16. Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Did you notice something there? Those are the exact results of being filled with the Spirit. hear, it's not being filled with the Spirit, it's the Word of Christ richly dwelling within you. It has the same results, therefore it has to be the same reality. So another way to understand being filled with the Spirit is to understand that it means that you are permeated by the Word of Christ which richly dwells within you, richly dwells well would be a parallel to filled. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It means to have the Spirit dominate richly every facet of your inner person. And in Ephesians, it's the Spirit, but here it's the Word concerning Christ. Why the difference? Because what the Spirit came to do is to show you whom? …
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. We've been doing that. We've been doing exactly what verse 19 says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. The context of this text is worship, then. Clearly it is worship. Verse 18 is the curious verse that we need to address, and we began to do that last week. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." What does that have to do with worship? That is the question. And the answer is to understand something of the historical background that Paul was facing in the Roman and Greek world. When Paul contrasts drunkenness with being Spirit-filled, he's contrasting pagan religion with the true worship of God through Jesus Christ. …
… The one who is saturated by the Word of God is wise, and he walks in wisdom. Colossians 3.16 puts it this way, "'Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.' Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, in all wisdom." We know what God's will is. We know what He desires. We know what pleases Him. We know about Him. We know His character. We know the truth revealed in Scripture. We understand Satan's traps. We know how to resist the devil, defeat temptation. We know how to walk wisely. That's life's priority. Walk in wisdom, and the blessings will just be poured out on you. But, secondly, not only does the believer know life's priority, he knows life's brevity. Look at verse 16. Making the most of your time, that modifies the walking wisely. He understands the brevity of life, making the most of your time because the days are evil. You don't have time to be foolish. You don't have time to waste. …
… and him I will trust. So when I was thinking about this, here's this passage in Colossians. It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. What is that? It's actually a confession of truth, scripture, and even in song. It's interesting. They would apply psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. Psalms are biblical songs. Hymns are things that were written, songs that have been written. Spiritual songs are the spontaneous. And they actually, there are times for them to be sung to each other, which is not a practice that we do, but we should maybe learn how to do it. Except some of you just sing softly. That was a bad joke. That was a bad, bad joke. Yeah, that was like when Chris went to visit my dad when he was in his final days. Chris said, I feel like I'm supposed to sing over you. …
… They see it as food. It becomes something, it says in Colossians 3.16, let the word of God dwell in you richly. And one of the great differences between being a moralistic, religious person and having new life is the truth actually begins to shine. It begins to be something that actually you feed on, that you take on into yourself, that becomes part of you. You digest it. There's a sweetness to it. There's a relish to it. You can't believe it. Before you get this new life, you might respect the Bible, but the idea of reading it for pleasure, you just can't even imagine. The hunger, the hunger for it that happens after you have new life, even though you don't understand most of it, you want so badly to, but before you've received new life, you don't even really care that much. You know you believe it, maybe. Many of you, without new life, are still very religious and you might say, I believe everything in the Bible, but there's not a hunger for it. It's not food to you. There's not a panting to understand it. You say, well, yes, I like reading it so often, but so much is hard to understand, but I rely on the clergy to tell me about it. That's not the way somebody with new life understands truth. You see? Moralism applauds it. New life eats it, feeds on it. Okay, secondly, moralism, moral religion, dead religion, and new life religion are completely different also not only in their …
… Colossians chapter 3, listen to this verse. Let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Listen, if I'm going to hear from God, it is very important that I spend time meditating upon the Word of God. He says, let the Word of God richly indwell you. Meditating upon the Word of God is an active way of listening because oftentimes when I'm not searching for any particular thing, when I'm not seeking a particular answer, God in the time of meditation and quietness will indeed speak to our heart. Actively meditating upon the Word of God. All right? Number five, confidently. What do we mean by confidently? I mean simply this. Confident that as I listen to him I will hear what I need to hear It may not always be what I want to hear But God is committed to speaking to us What we need to hear And as we've said before He doesn't come to us with prefaces He doesn't come to us with introductions He speaks to us exactly what we need to hear So we must listen confidently That what I need to hear I will surely hear without question All right, next humbly. I must listen to him humbly. Now what do I mean by that? …