Colossians 11:07 (Abbie Sawczak).

I want to invite you today to go ahead and open up your Bibles or we'll have it on the screen to Colossians chapter 3. Our teaching text today is from Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 12 and I'm going to jump right in by reading that for us today.

Colossians 3:1 says this, since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful earthly things like lurking within you have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires.

Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him.

In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free, Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Being Alive in Christ

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that is alive, that is active, that continues to speak to us today, and we ask that you would do just that. So we take a moment to pause, to invite your Holy Spirit to come to speak to us, to open up our ears, to hear our hearts, to receive. And Lord, we ask you, would you speak through these words today. In your precious and holy name we pray. Amen.

So we're continuing our series through Colossians, and as we're reading this today, it's all about being alive in Christ. Being alive in Christ.

You see, we've talked about a lot through these past few weeks that we're living in a day and age where church is not really attractive anymore. Even people who follow Jesus don't always want to be committed to a church, and especially people who don't want to follow Jesus really don't want to be committed to the church. And often the church is where we tell people about Jesus. And so what that means for us today is followers of Jesus is that if we are going to fulfill the Great Commission to go and to make disciples of all nations, then we are going to have to really, really make disciples as followers of Jesus. And part of what Paul is talking about here is that in order for us to make disciples of Jesus, we have to live like we are alive in Jesus, alive in Christ.

The Baptism Illustration

So Paul's talking about this idea of being raised to life with Christ, and this was first introduced by Paul in Colossians 2, verse 12, where Paul uses this baptism illustration to illustrate the spiritual reality of what happens to us when we choose to follow Jesus. So if you're unfamiliar with this idea of baptism, it's Jesus shows us this where Jesus steps into the water and as an outward symbol, he was fully submerged under the water and then came fully back up out of the water. So we too today, when we choose to follow Jesus, we get baptized and we fully go under the water to signify that we too have died with Christ and we're leaving our own ways. And then we come back out of the water to signify that we're being raised to life to walk with him in new life.

But last week we talked about how the Colossian church had gotten into these religious practices where they were looking through those things to save them. So I want to be clear as we go in today that our actions do not save us but we do need to actively pursue change and transformation in Jesus.

So the discipline of fasting, it does not save us but it reminds us of our need for Jesus and that he's the one to sustain us. Prayer does not save us, but it connects us with our Savior. Worship doesn't save us, but it reminds us of Jesus, the one who did. So going to church too doesn't save us, but it helps us center our weeks and center our lives around Jesus. So all of these things, these religious practices, they're important to us, but they don't save us. In the end, it's Jesus.

Set Your Hearts Above

But we're going to kind of break these verses down a little bit today, starting in verse 3, right away, where it says, Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things above, not earthly things.

So Paul is first saying, set your hearts on things above, and then he's saying set your mind on things above. And we read this again in Philippians 4, verse 8, where he says whatever is pure, whatever is noble. If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. So if we're talking about what does it look like for us to be alive in Christ, so much of it starts with our thoughts. What are we thinking about. Is it pure. Is it noble. Is it earthly or is it eternal, heavenly thoughts.

It says in verse 3, you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ. See, we understand the concept of when someone physically dies. But what we sometimes forget is that when we say yes to following Jesus, that we are saying yes to putting to death our old self, to letting it die. Because we know when someone physically dies here on earth, that's it, their life is over, it's done. But with our spiritual following of Jesus we get to die to our old self and be raised back to life to walk with Jesus in new life.

So the big idea, the kind of the main point, if you want to know what am I supposed to get out of this message today, it's that you are alive in Christ. So live like it. We need to live like we're alive in Christ. But Paul is going through these verses here now, and he's talking about the things that we need to let die, the things that we need to end, the things that we need to put to death. Because again, remember, if we're saying today that the only way that the kingdom of heaven is going to come down to earth and that people are going to come to know Jesus is because of the way that we make disciples, we have to ask ourselves, are we living alive in Christ. Have we truly put to death our old self, or are we still walking in some of those ways.

It says here, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry, because of the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived.

You see, when we choose to follow Jesus, there is a moment of transformation that happens, and then it continues to happen. So we surrender our lives to him, but then we're surrendering to every day, continuing to put to death our old self. Because the thing about following Jesus is that he can completely transform and change our heart, but he's not going to then force your mouth to not physically move and say those words again. You then have to practice of saying, okay, I know Jesus, I know his language, so then I'm not going to talk like that.

Or these things that I did before, I'm not going to do that because that's not Jesus. He's addressing first here a lot of sins that are sexual sins. And what Paul's addressing here is he's addressing first sins against our own self and our own body. And he makes it pretty clear. Again, in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 18, Paul is writing, he says in this verse, run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Run from it, Paul is saying, like completely run.

Sexual Sin and Idolatry

So in the Old Testament, if you read a lot of the Old Testament laws, a lot of sexual sins that people would commit, you would be killed for as punishment. Like that would be it. Now today, if you were to cheat on your spouse and have an affair, no one's probably going to physically kill you for that. But we still know it's not good. Like you shouldn't do it. But it's not the same way as it used to be in the Old Testament. And so in a lot of ways, because back then it was so serious, people knew that's wrong.

But now we find ourselves in these positions where culturally more and more has been accepted by culture, but still not by Christ. And so we constantly have to say, is the life I'm living, am I sinning against my own body. Am I harming my own body through these sexual sins.

And more times than not what we see here when it comes to sexual sin is it rooted in selfishness. And I love here because Paul kind of breaks it down right for us. Where if you go back to that verse again and he kind of says it in this order. Where he starts with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and then he's kind of showing us, because the root of it is evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Now at first glance, you might be like, well, why is he talking about greed and sexual immorality all at the same time. Well, I think he's showing us right there that oftentimes sexual sin is rooted in selfishness. It's rooted in us getting to a spot where we look at someone as something to be consumed for our benefit rather than someone created in the image of Christ and someone that we can serve and we can love and help become like Jesus. And all of these things, sometimes we can just, if we're not careful, look just like the rest of the world.

And so Paul is addressing this so clearly here. But the question is, with all of this, because this is an extensive list of sins, but he's just naming a few things that's like, hey, you need to die to that. You need to get rid of that in your life. The question then comes with, how do we change. How do we change.

How Do We Change

Well, I think one of the first steps for us to change is we have to actively choose Christ over comfort. Because what I think happens to us more times than not is we just get so comfortable in the way that we were living that even when we surrender our lives to Jesus, or maybe we even surrender that one thing to Jesus, we find ourselves just falling right back into it because it was comfortable. It was what we knew. Even if it wasn't best, it's familiar. And we would rather be stuck with familiarity than step out in faith to what God has for us.

I can think of my grandmother. She had this same black purse for years and years and years and years. I mean, it was like duct taped. It was falling apart. It was almost hanging by threads in different places. And it was like every Mother's Day, every birthday, every Christmas, we tried to buy her a new purse. People would even physically buy her these beautiful purses. They would try to get ones that look just like the purse she had. And even though the new one was going to be better and keep her more organized and actually hold her stuff in there, she wanted the old because it was familiar.

And so many times in our life, we never take the step of faith that God is asking us to. We never choose Christ because we just want the comfort and we want the familiarity, even if we know it's not good. And I've been there far too many times in my life where I've stayed in the wrong relationships or I've stayed in the wrong situations because it was comfortable and it was familiar.

We have to be so cautious to ask ourselves, are we choosing Christ or are we choosing comfort. The next is choosing Christ over control. A lot of times we stay in situations where we're not living like Christ, but we're still living like our old self because we can at least control the outcome then. And if we start to live like Jesus, then maybe there's some things that we can't control anymore. But following Jesus is all about daily giving him the control and saying once again, God, I'm choosing for you to be at the center. I'm choosing for you to lead the way.

Because we all of these things, it's not this. Now you have to do this. But it's a we get to do this. We get to change the way that we bound to the same things anymore. Why would we live as if we're dead when we are alive.

And so I want you to hear this heart that Paul, our pastor here, is telling us when he's saying these things like this is good news to us. Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and you confess with your mouth in his death and resurrection. It says that we were saved. Like, Jesus says, okay, welcome to my family. And we celebrate that. However, why would you never then talk to Jesus again. Why would you never then grow in that relationship.

It is a constant of saying, how do I now live like Christ. How do I look like Christ. Think of it this way. When you get married, your vows are a display that you're committing your life to each other. But it's just the beginning of every single day, you waking up and you choosing to love that person and get to know that person. Why would you get married to them if then after you said your vows, you were never going to speak again. Why would you get married to them if after you said your vows, you were still going to live in separate places and separate active things.

In the same way we get dressed, hopefully every day, because that's good. We should clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Jesus can do the transforming work in our hearts, but we have to choose to put it on. It's there. It's waiting for us.

So then my challenge to you is to find ways that you can practice compassion, that you can practice being kind, that you can practice humility, gentleness, patience. Romans 12 says, He says, do not copy behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So we talked about the big idea of today, the kind of like what am I supposed to do with this. Is to know that you're alive in Christ, so live like it and celebrate that you get to live like it. But in order to do that, you're going to have to change, or you're going to have to set your eyes on things above. You're going to have to first die to your old self and you're going to have to start to change.

So when it comes to kind of a practice that I want to encourage us to step into this week, it's this. The practice of mindfulness. Now, you'll hear us talk at different times about spiritual disciplines, and this is kind of one of them, of just being so attentive to our thoughts, of asking questions of why am I doing this. Are my thoughts fixed on things above. So when you find yourself in a moment where maybe you're angry, where maybe you're mad, where maybe you find yourself struggling with greed, with lust, with idolatry, so pay attention to your thoughts. Why am I thinking these things. Where did this come from. Is this a thought that's fixed on things above. And how do we continue to overcome that is training our mind to be fixed on things above.

So I'm going to ask Elena to come and we're just going to spend a few moments in prayer as we close today. Because I think for so many of us, we can be so stuck in having a relationship with Jesus, but we're still wearing the same clothes and we're looking and we're living the same way we did before. But I want to encourage you today that if you had said yes to following Jesus, that there is a better way for you to live, that there is a different type of life that he's calling you to, and it's going to take constantly seeking him, surrendering things to him.

Because as you continue to follow him there's gonna be new things that you realize whoa that's not of Christ. I'm not supposed to live that way. I wasn't created for that. And to think and to say God, will you show me. Why am I thinking this. Is this from you. Is this a thought of above. And if not, kill it. Put it to death. Paul is so serious in this. He rightly where essentially he's like you either kill it or it is going to kill you right.

You either put to death lust, sexual immorality, or it's going to put you to death. You either put to death your nasty words, your gossip, your slander, or you're going to kill every single relationship around you. This is serious stuff that he's talking about, but it's because he wants us to live like we were created to live. He wants us to live alive in Christ.

And so I'm going to invite you to stand with me tonight and we're just going to take a minute and we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to us and to show us what we need to put off and what we need to put on. And so we've done stuff like this before where we're just going to take a minute and invite you to close your eyes. And I'm going to have us ask this question to the Holy Spirit. What do I need to put off. What is it in my life that I'm still holding on to, that I'm living, that I'm looking like, that is not of you. What do I need to put off.

And we're just going to take a few seconds here and we're going to pause and we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to come and to speak to us and to reveal that to us of what we need to put off and put to death. So Holy Spirit, would you come and would you speak to us. Whether that's reminding us of something that was said, a verse, or in a unique way, would you speak to us. Would you show us what we need to put off.

The next thing that we're going to do, the last question, is we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what do we need to put on. Is it compassion. Is it kindness. What are things that that we need to put on that he's already given us but we have to actively choose to.