Logos.com
|
Bible
|
Blog
|
Forums
|
Sermons
|
WBSA

Bishop Dr. Julius Soyinka

Ultimate Power Gospel Assembly, Nigeria | 38 sermons

March 2013

This sermon has not been rated.

Link to this page▼

Find Sermons

by Bishop Dr. Julius Soyinka

Sermon

SET YOUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ABOVE Colossians 3:1-2...

SET YOUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ABOVE

Colossians 3:1-2

-  It is possible to determine a person’s true character by finding out what he or she really loves and what his or her goals are. Ask yourself these questions:
1. What are the three things you are most earnestly working for right now?
2. What are the three things you love the most?
3. What are the three things you think about the most?
- This is essentially the same method used by Jesus to determine a person’s true character. Matt. 6:19-21. The heart is the seat of the emotions and it determines how and what we think (Prov. 23:7) -- "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:"
- If you will be honest with yourself, you will probably find that, for the most part, your affections, as revealed by your thoughts, are more focused on the things of this world than on the things of God.

I. A GREAT DEMAND
-  Why is it so difficult for Christians to set their minds and affections on eternal things? That is to say, why is it so hard for God’s people to be "heavenly-minded" people while here on earth?
-  Some might answer, "Because of our sin nature." Certainly there is some truth in that. 
- Christians do have two sets of desires that are warring against one another -- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit. Paul spoke of this conflict in Gal. 5:16-17,  Rom. 7:21-23.
-  But our difficulty in focusing on eternal values cannot be completely blamed on our sin nature.
-  The fact is that God has placed Christians in a difficult (though not impossible) situation. He asks Christians to be citizens of two worlds.
-  In fact, this is such a difficult predicament that it merited a special prayer by Jesus on our behalf: Jn. 17:14-18
a. Notice that twice in this passage Jesus declares that His followers are not of this world (vs. 14,16). 
b. But twice Jesus specifically says that God’s plan is not to take Christians out of this world, but rather, to send them into the world (vs. 15,18).
-  How can a Christian live in this world with its responsibilities and temptations without loving this world and being conformed to its values? The tension of this situation is addressed throughout the Bible.
1. (Phil. 3:20) -- "For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
2. (II Tim. 2:4) -- "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
3. I John 2:15-17
-	 On the other hand, the Bible also speaks of some very definite responsibilities we have while here on earth.  Our work, family, health, friends, money, etc.
-	So how can a Christian be heavenly-minded, and yet give the proper attention to our responsibilities here on earth?

1. According to our text, to be heavenly-minded means to conform our everyday desires, attitudes, and actions to the image of Christ.
2. In other words, being heavenly-minded simply means loving what Jesus loves, thinking like Jesus thinks, and viewing everything in our daily life from His heavenly perspective.
1. We read the Bible or listen to the preaching and the Holy Spirit convicts our heart of some sin in our life.
2. We determine that we are going to fix that. 
3. So we make a mental judgment to eliminate "this and that" from our life and we may even go so far as to replace it with something more godly.
4. We pray for strength and announce our decision and commitment to God.
5. Then we go home and try our best to live up to our commitment. However, most of the time we find that, no matter how determined we are, we are still subject to the sins and pleasures of this world.
6. So we fail. Our failure brings frustration which often leads us to believe that since we can’t live the kind of godly life that we want, there is really no use in trying.
7. But then we read our Bible or listen to the preaching and the Holy Spirit convicts our heart and the whole thing starts over again.

II. A GODLY DESIRE
-  Jesus Christ has, by a single act, forever changed our status before God. 
1. By His death and resurrection, He has transformed believers from enemies of God to children of God. 
2. And now our responsibility is to act in a way that is consistent with our new status.
In  Colossians 3:
1. Here, the apostle is urging us to exchange the old desires, attitudes, and actions that were characteristic of our former lives for those that are indicative of our new rank and standing.
2. Paul says the path to true and lasting change begins with
-	 a CHANGE OF DESIRES ("seek"-vs. 1) that leads to
-	 a CHANGE OF THOUGHTS ("affections"-vs. 2) and results in
-	 a CHANGE OF ACTIONS.
-  That’s fine. But what are we to think about and desire? Twice Paul mentions those "things above". But what are the "things above"?
-  Paul clarified what he meant by "things above" with this phrase: "where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."
1. This concept of Jesus being seated at the right hand of God the Father is indicative of the Lord’s power, authority, and position.
2. Thus, Paul was no only asking us to love and meditate on the things in heaven, but also  on the qualities that characterize the life and rule of Jesus Christ who is in heaven.
-  Throughout the Bible we find lists of the "things above" which we are to seek;
1. Galatians 5:22-23 (fruit of the Spirit)
2. Phil. 4:8
3. James 3:17
-  And so we have come full circle back to our original definition of what it means to be heavenly-minded. It means to continually desire and long for, to pursue after, those qualities that characterize the life of Jesus Christ. 
-	As we long for these qualities and think about them, they will transform our lives.

CONCLUSION:
-	 this kind of dramatic change is not only possible but it is commanded by God and prompted by the Holy Spirit. 
-	But it all must start with a choice on your part. You must choose to desire most the things of God. You will not be able to make this choice until first you decide to divorce yourself from being fleshly-minded. You can take the first step right now by asking God to make His desires your desires.

Sermon Details

Sermon Illustration

Welcome to Sermons.Logos.com!

Find sermons by typing words or passages into the Find box, e.g.:

faith
Eph 2:8-9
raising teenagers
topic:joy
humility type:illustration

Help on searching...
Contribute a sermon to share with others (requires free registration).

Please sign in or create a new account using the form on the right.

Sermons.Logos.com is a service provided by Logos Bible Software. Please send site feedback to sermons@logos.com.

Enter your search terms in the box above.

Please sign in to contribute.

Searching for Sermons & Illustrations

Basic Use

To perform a simple search for sermons and illustrations, type your search terms into the search box on the left and press enter. The sidebar will switch over to the search results tab and automatically load the first submission. To view more search results, simply scroll down. Additional results will automatically load into the bottom of the sidebar as you scroll.

hope
faith like a mustard seed

You can modify your search to only return results containing two or more of your terms by using the AND keyword. The OR keyword can be used to specify that you want results that may only match one of your terms. Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.

love AND patience
joy OR happiness
"walk with God"
joy AND "hard times"
(servant OR slave) AND (Jesus OR Christ)

Advanced Searches

Sermons.Logos.com also supports more advanced search syntax. Sermons are broken down into several sections, or fields:

author | The name of the contributor
title | The title of the submission
passage | Passages related to the submission
topic | Topics addressed by the submission, e.g.: forgiveness, marriage
tag | Tags attached to the submission, e.g.: men's retreat, Easter Sunday
type | 'sermon' or 'illustration'
language | The language the submission was written in, e.g.: en, es, ko
content | The full text of the submission

By default a search will look for matches in any field. You can also specify which field you want to search by inserting the name of the field directly before your search term.

title:faith
tag:"Father's day" AND type:illustration
topic:"John the Baptist"

Bible references are treated as special search terms. Sermons.Logos.com understands verse ranges, and will match submissions that contain any references within the range you specify, not just the exact reference. If you search for John 3:15-17, you will also get results with John 3:16. A Bible reference is specified by using angle brackets, such as <Eph 2:8>. If you forget to use the angle brackets in a simple query, don't worry, it will still be recognized as a Bible reference.

Genesis 1:1
<Eph 2:1-9>
passage:<Proverbs 3:5-6>

Name:
Email address
Password:
Confirm

Name:
Email address
Password:
Confirm

Sign in with your Logos.com account

Sign in with your Logos.com account