Abide Week 4

Living in Christ

The book of Colossians covers a wide array of things. We have covered the supremacy of God and established that we as the church are to move as a body that is being lead by God as the head instructing us on where to go.

We looked at what it means to be alive in Christ and how we are not to be swayed the earthly philosophies.

From there we looked at the world and how we are constantly put in this structure established by our social construct which determines how we live. it influences our actions and the challenge was to look at you life and ask the question, who is influencing me and who am I influencing.

Today we are wrapping up our series in Colossians by looking at what it means to be a new creation in Christ.

LETS PRAY

VIDEO CLIP

How many of you like to be held accountable for your actions? Or how many of you like to hold other people accountable for their actions?

Both of these are stigmatized by society on a regular basis. Its either snitches get stitches or don’t worry about me, worry about you.

Accountability is something that has always been hard to grasp and even harder to put into practice. What does that actually look like? Is it similar to what the clip showed? Is it sitting down once a day or once a week and going through all the misbehaviors you have had?

Most of us would agree that our greatest task as a friend is to love that person regardless of what they do or how they are. What we forget is that is being complacent and refusing to call someone out when they do something wrong is not loving at all. It’s the opposite of that. Not many people would honestly say “because I love you, I can’t let you get away with that.”

As Paul is writing the letter to the church in Colossae, he is reestablishing foundational church beliefs in a way that is pointing out the wrongdoings of the church.

- He has pointed out that the church is not living as people that operate with God as the head of the body.

- He destroys their belief system by claiming that the influences they have are skewing their perspective on what living in christ actually means.

Before he goes into his greater point, which is instructions on how to live as a body fulling embracing new life in Christ, he opens their eyes to the areas that have been struggles or failures.

The the instruction begins.

If you have your Bibles turn to Colossians chapter 3.

Colossians 3:1–4 NIV

1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So to reiterate. If we aggree that God is the head. He is the decision maker. And now you see how other people were influencing how you live, and we have established that we are a new creation in Christ, now it is time to have a

POINT 1: HEAVEN MINDSET.

What is a Heaven mindset?

A heavenly mind is compelled to do earthly good because goodness is part of holiness.

To make this simpler, we live different and share love with others through our holiness so that they can come to know Christ.

By living with a Heaven mindset, we remove the barriers holding us back from spreading God’s love.

You don’t just talk to the people you know, or the people you like, or the people you care about. You lived fixed on Heaven. A life that embraces holiness so that when others encounter you they can see Jesus and experience him the same way you once did.

Imagine if we had a youth group that lived like this? Imagine if people saw Jesus through you without you having to say a word? That is living with a Heaven mindset.

Point #1 is have a Heaven Mindset.

Paul continues in Colossians 3:5-7

Colossians 3:5–7 NIV

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

Put to death the old ways. There is no more excuse for sin.

Colossians 3:8–10 NIV

8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Point #2 - THROW OUR THE OLD

Show of hands, how many of you like conflict? I always say that healthy conflict helps us grow and its 100% true, but when conflict is not healthy it is damaging.

Oftentimes the cause of conflict has a lot to do with weather it is healthy or not.

If someone seems to be upset with you and they cope with it by slander you, talking ill of you, being angry to the point of disregarding you, when the time comes to resolve the issue, you end up spending the majority of the time addressing the way the issue was handled and sometime it is over something that didn’t need to be such a big deal in the first place.

What Paul is pointing out here is the operating in anger, and rage and malice and slander and lying to each other is the old way of living. That is what the old you that didn’t know Jesus would do. But the new you wouldn’t do those things.

The new you would do the following:

Colossians 3:12–14 NIV

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

POINT #3: BRING IN THE NEW

Instead of operating in anger, malice, slander, operate in love. The way we are loved.

It is not just a command to love someone and be humble and compassionate and all those things. It is a command to do it the way God did it for us. The crazy, baffling love God has for us that even though we did not deserve it and still don’t, he sent his son to die for us so we wouldn’t have to.

Imagine living in such a way that is compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient all done out of a love that is willing to sacrifice and redeem with each other.

The most beautiful part of this passage is that Paul is talking about doing this together. As a church. As a community.

The reason I showed the clip out of Green Book is because it is a perfect example of what it looks like to this together.

- When we fall back to our ways of living as people who don’t resemble new creation, do we have someone there to remind us of what it means to live as a new creation?

- When we are living as a new creation do we have someone there to uplift and encourage us?

Paul is not talking about doing this alone or giving instructions on how you should live individually. The challenge is to do this together as a body operating in the way the God head designed us to operate.

The challenge for us as we wrap up this series is to live together as a newly created body informed by God as the head.