Getting Your Priorities Right

Colossians 3:1-4

PP: Our relationship with God must lead us to live a life focused on eternity.

1. Recognize Your Position in Christ (v.1a)

2. Prioritize Eternally Lasting Pursuits (v.1b-3)

3. Be Motivated by Christ's Coming Return (v.4)

Intro:

There is a Polish guy, by the name Mariusz Pudzianowski, who is famous for winning the World’s Strongest man contest, 5 times.

As you can imagine this guys a freak of nature. To get to his size it required a lot of things, primarily eating and working out.

You know what his diet was - 10 eggs and 3 lbs of bacon for breakfast, a couple Snickers and 3 Musketeer bars … till lunch which is polish pork chop and potatoes, and then more chocolate, dinner is the same as lunch … just more meat.

He works out at night, has a protein shake, and more chocolate.

You’d think that’s enough to get you sick .... but no… more chocolate at 3 AM

Safe to say this guy’s priority is eating as much as he can and working out

his focus is on things that really are temporary and things that really don’t matter.

There are things God tells us to focus and prioritize our lives on.

And today if we understand these priorities we’ll make the best use of our life because it prepares us for eternity.

We are going to look at a passage that gives us those priorities and reasons for why we should give our life to them.

Turn with me to the book of Colossians… chapter 3

False teachers were coming in and imposing things to do and follow (dietary, festivals, and angelic experiences and were saying to trust these things to be right with God.

What Paul says throughout the letter is that Jesus is superior over these things and he is the only way to be saved which means our focus only on him

Col. 3:1-4

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Paul combats these false teachers by referring to Christians at Colossae as being “raised with Christ”

that first word “if” makes it sound like he is questioning or doubting

but actually it’s better translated since

so it’s not meant to doubt … rather he is making it known that this is an accomplished fact

But why does he bring up the Resurrection here?

Well let’s think about what the Resurrection is … after Jesus lived a perfect life , he died the death we deserved, he resurrected from the dead 3 days later.

We often don’t think about the the Resurrection and it’s significance

But when he rose from the dead he proved he had defeated sin and death and that the sacrifice of himself to the Father had been accepted.

now if you looked carefully at v.1 you noticed that Paul is saying that they have been raised with Christ

let’s back track for a little, think of the order of what Christ did

he died, was buried and then rose, here he is saying they rose

now drop down to the beginning of v. 3 - he says they died also

How does this happen? - Well this happens at the moment when you repent and place your trust in Christ.

The moment you do this you, you are now recognized by the Father as “in Christ” -

this is a new identity, new position before God

I want you guys to understand this new position in Christ

1. Recognize Your Position in Christ (v.1a)

Of course I want to make it clear if you haven’t turned from your sins and placed your trust in Christ - you are not in Christ yet

but I do want you to understand what this position means

When Paul uses phrases like “with Christ” and “in Christ” it means you enter into a relationship with Christ

Let’s turn to Rom. 6:4 to get a better understanding of this

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

we said that this is describing a Christian’s relationship with Christ

if you guys are ever at the baptisms we do here at church, you know that Pastor Mike asks that q “Does baptism save you?” -

he makes it clear that the word baptism means “being placed into”

and placed into Christ that saves you

As Christ died, was buried, and rose again - so you’re old self/life dies, is buried, and you are spiritually resurrected to a new person

Listen to this familiar passage that maybe makes it a little easier to understand

2 Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

turn back to our passage

if you guys notice the phrase “with Christ” or something similar is used 5 times in just these 4 verses

showing that Christ did all the work, he lived a perfect life, he died the sufficient death, and rose so you can be made right with God

you see understanding our position in Christ means we understand where our trust is - it is in him!

Now Paul starts there bc a right understanding of our relationship with God allows us to be able to value the things God wants us to focus on

This is what Paul says in v. 1b-3

here we have two diff. things: things that are above (which says are things where Christ is) and things that are on earth

think of them like eternal things and temporal things

It’s clear here that God wants us to prioritize eternal things

2. Prioritize Eternally Lasting Pursuits (v.1b-3)

I remember when I was in elementary school, our house had a big water leak and we had to go live in a hotel for about a week.

Of course, my mom is one of those moms that loves to move things around in our house (one thing here one week and another thing over there the next week)

Now that hotel we were in was not the best looking and honestly could have used my mom’s touch.

But because she knew we were only going to be there for a short period.

She didn’t bother to be preoccupied with temporal things because she knew we were going to come back home.

Jesus says something similar about temporal and eternal things in Matt. 6:19-21

treasures on earth are those things that are temporary and don’t last

treasures in heaven are those that are eternal and do last

if your treasure is in eternity, in your relationship with God … your priorities will be things that last

If we had an eternal perspective … our decisions, our plans, activities would change

this effects how you view people around you - are you going to share the gospel with your friend

Will your pursue learning about God in His Word

Will spend time looking over the small group questions before you come to TNN

Will study your material for TRAIN so you can know more about God

Are you going to be spending your time at church or on the field?

this is all where you’re priorities are

Now that doesn’t mean you never care about other things …

like caring for your body, studying for school, or even working hard to be good at your sport or hobby

But it is about not making those the priority of your life because … they don’t continue to eternity

you gotta ask yourself what’s more important? What will last?

do you want to be rich and have everything you want? - that doesn’t last forever

do you want to be the smartest person in your class, so you study your butt off to do great- but all to make yourself look good

We want to be focused on eternity … listen to what Phil. 3:20 “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

this world isn’t even our home … it’s in eternity with God

the question you should ask yourself is

“Do I believe that spending time on eternally lasting things is a better payoff than spending it on temporary things?”

look back at Matt. 6:25, 26-33

The answer to the question … all depends on whether you believe God will take care of you in regards the temporal things or not

Read

let’s turn back to our passage in(v.3)

not only have you died to sin/old life but your life is hidden - this speaks again to our relationship to God

for the word hidden think conceal

what that means is that … to unbelievers it’s hidden … that are you spiritually alive

they do see that we are different … but just don’t get what God does in Christians,

the Bible says that they can’t comprehend

1 Cor. 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” - they think your crazy

here’s the thing if you prioritize eternally lasting pursuits …

people around you will just not get it … and they’re even going to say you’re the one wasting your time, they will say you’re the fool

Look with me to 1 Pet. 1:3-5 - which says that we have our salvation and future inheritance secure & protected by God which is unable to be seen by those around us

flip back with me to v.4

what we just read in 1 Pet. will all be realized when Christ returns and we’re with him forever

3. Be Motivated by Christ’s Return (v.4)

One of my favorite stores to go to is IKEA, it’s gigantic inside, there’s so much to see

but what’s sorta ironic although the place is so magnificent and overwhelming

the furniture they sell is so simple and not extravagant

what’s more ironic is that it’s founder, by the name of Ingvar Kamprad ($43.7 billion)

this guy lives like a normal person, he flies commercial and doesn’t have a dude drive him around

he instead drives a 2012 Volvo

if you were pull up next to him as you are driving or flying in a plane, you would have no idea this guy’s a Billionaire

God says we are richer than this guy and have a greater inheritance than him - that’s awaiting us -

Do you believe that?

Read v.4 again

when Christ appears all the time and energy, even ridicule for focusing on the future … will all be worth it

Lastly turn with me to 1 John 3:1-2 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

this is our motivation to seek things above (right now) because of the hope of eternity

Again is eternity or the present more important to you?

Conclusion:

I remember growing up I used to love to hike with dad.

I thought I was cool because I had all the essentials for hiking - special shoes, nice sun-blocking hat, a backpack that you can drink water from, and compass.

But tell you the truth - I didn’t really know how that compass worked - I just knew that wherever that the needle would move it was towards the north

the compass was intended to navigate me to tell me where to go & what to do

the things we do in life should in a similar way be pointed and oriented towards the future return of Christ

Let’s pray