Colossians 3 Devo #2

Introduction

This whole week we’ve been talking about what it looks like to set our minds on the things above - not on earthly things. We’ve looked at how we can do this during our lesson times, worship times, during recreation and crafts, and also whenever we’ve talked with our cabins at night. We’ve looked at how God made everything there is - including us as humans! We’ve seen how sin creates a problem and it separates all of us from God. We’ve looked in the Bible to see how God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to save us from our sins by dying in our place on the cross and raising back to life. Some of you have responded to what Jesus has done and you’ve repented of your sins and asked God to forgive you and you’ve placed your faith in Him. Last night we talked about how we all are supposed to do this - regardless of our past and our actions today, we all need Jesus to save us!

This leads us to our final group time this morning before we go home. Today we’re going to be back in Colossians 3, but today we’re going to be in verses 5-11 as we look at what Paul says about looking at the things above. In this life, we’re all looking at something. We’re all following something. We have to make sure that what we’re following is what God wants us to follow!

Colossians 3:5–11 CSB

5 Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, 7 and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. 8 But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator. 11 In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

There is a contrast here between the things of earth and the things of God. The Bible tells us that each one of us have a temptation to sin and we have to put this temptation to death because if we don’t there will be a consequence. The Bible says to put away impurity, lust, evil desire, greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language. This is quite a list! Why do you think the Bible tells us to put those things away?

Because those are things that Christians shouldn’t do

If you were to make a list of all the things that distract you from looking at God’s things above, there would be a bunch of things on that list. Friends, stuff, sports, money, phones… the list goes on! What the Bible is telling us is that in order to break those habits, we need to replace them with some new habits and only we know ourselves and our struggles and that means that only we can really know what we need. Do you remember what 2 Corinthians 5:21 told us a few nights ago

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus took our sin - we are a new creation and we are born again and this is good news! But it doesn’t stop there… Jesus also gives us His righteousness to live a new life the way that God wants us to live. Jesus helps us to seek the things above. He is the vine and we are the branches, this means that whenever we are connected to Jesus, we’ll produce fruit and look different than we did before Jesus. My question for us this morning is this: How has Jesus helped you look different?

Less angry

More patience

Less worry

More joy

Whenever I was a teenager, I thought that I had my whole life planned out for me. I was going to graduate high school and go to Baylor University in Texas and go into Medical school and become a neurosurgeon and make a lot of money and save lives while working on people’s brains. That sounded like a good plan! But it wasn’t God’s plan for me. See, Jesus has helped me over the years remember that my life isn’t just about me… it’s about Him. Jesus has saved me for a reason and that reason is that I would serve Him. If you’re a Christian, that’s why Jesus saved you - to serve Him! This means that our plans might change a little bit as we grow but if we’re following God’s plan for our life, it’ll always be a good change!

The fruit that God produces inside of us is the fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22–23 CSB

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.

So, how do these things shine through our lives?

By subtracting other things from our lives. What God wants is for us to stop letting things like anger and pride and bad words dominate our lives and instead to practice patience, kindness, and humility. That’s not easy to do, but it’s possible because God is with us and because Jesus has changed us.

One of the best ways to grow in these areas is by reading our Bible and asking God to help us apply what we read in our daily lives. The Bible is a big book - and maybe you’re looking at your Bible and you think that it’s so big that you could never possibly read it all the way through. Are you ready for some good news? It’s possible for a child to read through their Bible from cover to cover in a year. It might be hard, but it’s not impossible. I know that because whenever I was in 5th grade, we had to do this in a Wednesday night Bible study class I was in called Leaders in Training. Me and several friends read through our entire Bible’s that year and it was hard… but it made it easier since other people were doing it with me! How many minutes a day do you think it would take to read through the Bible in 1 year?

12 minutes a day

Maybe that seems like too much time, if you just do the New Testament, it’s 3 minutes a day and you’ll read through the whole New Testament in a year! It’s doable. The best way to seek the things above is by reading your Bible, spending time in prayer, coming to church, and having Christian friends to encourage you and lift you up instead of drag you down to do things that you shouldn’t do. If you get nothing more out of this camp then those things, it’s a good week because reading our Bible, spending time in prayer, coming to church, and having Christian friends are things that will help us the rest of our lives!