Your favorite Clothes?
What's your worldview? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction - Tell them about changing clothes (appearance) at Basic Training.
Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS)
Haircut
Uniform
Transitional sentence - We all have a favorite suit of clothes, but is it the right suit for you?
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—
11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Today we are talking about the clothes we wear, not these clothes we wear on our bodies but the spiritual clothes wear to identify us as a follower of Christ. To do this we will look at three things:
1. The clothes of a son of disobedience
2. The clothes of a Son of God
3. How to put on Christ Jesus
I. The clothes of the sons of disobedience:
a. This dirty sinful life causes a need to change our clothes. Col 3:1-2
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Seeking - looking for, If we are seeking we know we need to change we know the clothes we are wearing don’t fit anymore, they don’t meet our needs.
Compare things to clothes - the things of the earth are dirty clothes that don’t fit and need mending. The things above is the suit we want to have on.
b. The clothes - Put offs! Col 3:5-8
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
These are the dirty old clothes that we used to wear. These are the dirty old clothes that you need to get rid of if you are still wearing them. Don’t try to wash them, don’t try to fix them, don’t even keep them. Get rid of them!
c. Point to the change in clothes - street clothes to uniform. A change in what we are wearing is necessary to help us transition from civilian to soldier. In the street clothes we still look like everyone else outside the base. We will still act like everyone outside the base, there has been no change. So to a change is necessary to help us go from a civilian, son of disobedience. to a soldier or Son of God. Except these clothes aren’t the kind we wear these are the ones that make us more like Jesus.
II. The clothes of a Son of God
a. The clean new life - washing and regeneration Titus 3:5
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
The Holy Spirit scrubs us clean. When you take really dirty clothes off it’s time for a shower. Iraq was like that. The dust got every where. Only water would remove it. That is what is happening here. The old self, the dirty clothes come off and what’s underneath gets a good scrubbing. The scrubbing is so good that we are regenerated in the spirit. Now we are ready for the new clothes. Now we are ready for the put ons.
b. The clothes - Put ons! Col 3:12-14
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
Here’s your new suit of clothes. Put these on. These are the clothes that show we belong to a new master. The old master liked us wearing the tattered rags and junk clothes. These pieces of clothing are provided by the Holy Spirit.
c. Point to the change in clothes - the new uniform.
III. Put on Christ Jesus
a. Parable of the wedding feast: Matt 22:1-14 (Expand on the parable - finish with...
11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes,
12 and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless.
13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
It’s all about the clothes. Everyone at the feast was dressed in wedding clothes, except…
b. Why your clothes matter - You don’t get in without the right clothes. Nothing we might have is good enough. Just remember we are still talking about spiritual clothes. Col 3:2-4
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
We are wrapped up in a Christ suit. We God sees us He will see the wedding clothes, not our grimy old stuff we wore before we found the new clothes.
c. The clothes provided by God (v 10) Ephesians 4:21-24
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Who remembers Mr. Rogers? At the beginning of every show he laid aside (hung up) his sweeter and put on a new one. He was laying aside his old self and putting on the new.
That is what we must do. Our old selves are being corrupted by the world. We need to take it off and put on the new clothes that God has provided. Put on the new self which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness. This is the suit of clothes we want to have on. The suit that will allow us to remain at the feast.
Col 3:12
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
So how much of this new suit do we need to put on? Let’s use a visual aid.
Put on my uniform jacket - is this enough?
Close - So what are your favorite clothes? Are you wearing the stuff that was issued by the world? Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Lay aside these things, you don’t need them. They are filthy old rags that will keep you out of the wedding feast. These aren’t the clothes that God issues us.
God issues a better suit of clothes. God issues us a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience and especially LOVE. These things are the suit of clothes that are the new self that we must become. The new self that is made in the likeness of God.
Unfortunately the old suit of clothes can be hard to set aside. Especially if you have been wearing it for a while and try to do it on your own. When we get help it’s easy. However the only person who can help is Jesus. After all its His wedding feast we are going to and He will provide the clothes. He will give you this new suit of clothes when you ask Him. He has a suit of clothes perfectly fitted for you, all you have to do is ask.
So don’t wait any longer. Just ask for a change of clothes. Put off the old self that is being corrupted by the world and put on the new self which is made in the likeness of God.
Pray!