Life in Christ (8)
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Having the mind of Christ...
Having the mind of Christ...
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
The J.B, Phillips puts it this way,
Romans 12:2 - Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within… J.B. Phillips
A.W. Tozer said, “Modern religion focuses upon filling churches with people…The true gospel focuses on filling people with God.”
I believe that we need to take the time and ask ourselves the question,
“What is my heart set on?”
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.
The world wants our hearts. Satan wants to distract us from what is really important. He wants us to be so focused on the things of this world that we don’t have any time for the mission of God.
For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
When we are so busy, it can be hard to slow down enough to know the will of God. What are His thoughts?
How can we know His ways, when we are relying on the wisdom of this world?
This morning, I want to encourage you to take time to wait on God. We need to know His mind. We need to know His heart.
I watched a short video clip of a man from Calgary. He ran the Dream Centre in Calgary for the last twenty years.
His name is
Jim Moore
Jim Moore
Just going to show you his video. 7 minutes
Let’s read our Scripture. For the sake of time, I’ll break it up into a couple of parts.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ...
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ...
Since we have died with Christ, since we have died to our sinful nature, the snake is dead, even though it is still moving, we know that sin no longer has dominion, and authority in our lives.
Satan wants us to believe that it does, but he is a liar and the father of all lies.
Now we have been raised to life in Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ...
1. Set your hearts on things above...
1. Set your hearts on things above...
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim. In the light of His glory and grace.
Since you have been raised with Christ, it’s time to turn our focus from things that are only temporary to that which is eternal.
Don’t turn back and look at what you are leaving, like Lot’s wife. She turned into a pillar of salt.
She was grieving what she was leaving even though it was being destroyed.
This world is only temporary.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Life Application New Testament Commentary Living the New Life / 3:1–17
The Greek word for “set” means to seek something out with a desire to possess it.
Our hearts our the seat of our emotions, our spirit.
We can’t have one foot in the world and the other one in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus gave His all for us and He wants all of us.
2. Set your minds on things above...
2. Set your minds on things above...
Not on earthly things.
What do we spend all of our time thinking about?
Are we too busy thinking about our work, our pleasure, and even our families, to be focused on eternity?
Do we need to think about our work? Do we need to think about our families? Do we need to have a little fun in life?
The answer is yes, but where does God fit in?
He is our One and only, not just our first on a long list of priorities.
If you fix your eyes on Jesus, He will make sure that everything else is taken care of in your life?
How can we be sure of this?
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Let’s not wait until we are at our wits end to seek God, let’s go to Him first. He will take care of you.
We can fill our lives with earthly things which include man-made rules of how to please God: Legalism, customs that we need to follow, eat we eat, when we worship, and even how we worship.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
We can choose to glorify God in all we do instead of focusing on a list of do’s and don’t that are just preferences.
It can be so easy to live preference driven lives rather than purpose driven lives.
Last week, I used the illustration of contemporary Christian music. We might like hymns better than choruses. We might like pews better than chairs.
The real question is, “How can we reach others with the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
Many times I’ve asked myself the question, “What is God calling us to do? What is He doing and how can we join Him in it?”
For you died...
For you died...
The NLT puts it this way,
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Jesus died on the cross, He made payment for all sin. He became the atoning sacrifice. He cannot die again.
When we come to Christ, we die to this life. Once again, the snake is killed, but it takes a while for the sinful nature to die.
Sanctification, which means being made holy, begins at salvation and continues until we see Jesus face to face.
We are hidden with Christ in God
We are hidden with Christ in God
“Hidden” implies both concealment and safety; both invisibility and security.
We are not yet glorified, but we are safe and secure in Christ. (BKC)
Our security comes because
He is our life...
He is our life...
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
What a promise.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
We have the promise that Jesus will come again. The trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise, and we who are alive and remain with be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the clouds, and thus we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
Let’s read the rest of our Scripture text as we continue,
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
So put to death
So put to death
The NLT says,
Colossians 3:5 (NLT)
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you...
Let’s not have any parts of our hearts hidden from the Lord.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
We shouldn’t even have anything to do with them: sexual immorality, impurity, lust and evil desires.
Greed is the same as idolatry because we are worshiping the things of this world.
The rich young ruler
went away sad when Jesus told him to sell what he had and give it to the poor. He had great wealth.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
There is a battle that wants to rage inside of us whether or not we should do what is right. Which voice are we going to listen to:
The flesh or the Spirit
The flesh or the Spirit
If there was no consequence, it wouldn’t matter.
If there is no God, if there is no heaven or hell, it wouldn’t matter, but
Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming.
God is calling us to walk in His ways. He wants us to here His voice and to follow Him.
Before we knew any better
Before we knew any better
we used to walk in these ways.
Paul now switches from the cravings of our sinful nature to the
Thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.
Thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
Have you ever had a good house cleaning where you went into your closet and took things out that hadn’t been looked at much less worn for years?
God wants us to get rid of any sinful attitudes that we have. These directly impact others.: anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, and lies.
We have already taken these clothes off when we came to Christ.
You have been given the righteousness of Christ.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus took your sin so that you can be clean before God. You have taken off the old self...
and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
Let’s be renewed by the transforming of our mind. Then you know God’s will.
Let’s look at the last verse.
In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
Here, Paul is speaking to those who are followers of Christ.
Maybe you have heard songs that we are all God’s children, leaving the impression that everyone gets to go to heaven no matter what.
The Bible doesn’t teach that. What this verse teaches is that God has no favorites. He loves us all enough to send Jesus.
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
After we read a verse like this, there shouldn’t be room for pride, because God supplied it all, we need to believe and receive, surrender and follow Him all the days of our lives.
In closing, I just want to share for about a man that God used in my life.
Pastor Tucker
Pastor Tucker
His name was Pastor Tucker. He past from death to life last Saturday around 5:30pm.
He loved Jesus with all of his heart, and you could tell it. He didn’t go to pastor a church because of it’s size, because it had money or didn’t. He went because he was called, and he loved people.
He laughed with people and he cried with people. He prayed with people and he called us to seek God and to love him with all of our hearts.
This morning, I want to do the same. Don’t leave here today without the commitment to love Jesus with all your heart, and to follow him all the days of your life.
You will never make a more important decision. I want you to know that you can seek God here and you will find him.
He had funny sayings. He was from Newfoundland. He might say,
Go ahead, and back up
Go ahead, and back up
Take your time and hurry up
Take your time and hurry up
All together now, one at a time
All together now, one at a time
but one thing that I will never forget were the altar services where people would come around the front of our small church, and seek God.
Singing with hands lifted up.
“All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give.”
“Jesus, Jesus Lord to me. Master, Savior, Prince of Peace, Ruler of my heart today, Jesus, Lord to me.”
“I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back no turning back.”
Will you decide today that there will be no turning back? Will you choose today to serve the Lord?
He will never fail you. Heaven and earth will pass away, but Jesus never fails.
Let’s pray!