Stargazing: A “How to” Manual

Introduction

Good Morning. Flip to Colossians chapter 3

I am grateful

Keep Carson and his family in your prayers

as they travel on a well deserved vacation.

We are very blessed to haver a shepherd who tends his flock with such love and dedication as Carson…

Okay that ought to be enough to store up some mercy for whenever I will inevitable ned it.

[ILL]- I have found myself engaged in a similar conversation with multiple students recently

It starts with the question: How does your faith affect the way you approach homework? How does being a Christian cause you to approach homework differently than a classmate who does not know Christ?

“uhhhhh”

One student just stared at me

If we are honest with ourselves, I doubt that many of us, myself included at times, would have a better answer to a similar question.

How does your faith affect:

your choice of college,

your choice of career

the decision to accept or decline promotions

the way you treat your coworkers

the way you treat those who must submit to our leadership

wether or not you retirment

what you do during retirement.

[TRN]- As we shift to our text this morning, we are going to see that in this section of text, and arguably in the whole letter of Colossians, Paul is communicating one central message,

[CIT]: We have been raised by God, through Christ. We must live accordingly! As we explore this truth,

[PROP]it is my hope that we will walk away with a renewed passion, perhaps even a new passion, to conduct every aspect of our lives in this manner. That our very minds would be set on the things above, namely the LORD in the heavens with Christ seated at his right.

Warning

1. I would imagine a large majority of us, who are gathered here this morning, will be tempted to shrug this sermon off.

There are a few reasons for this:

It’s from the youth guy.

It is a passage we have heard over and over and over.

It is super super super easy to assume that this passage and this message pertain to others.

It deals with subjects that we naturally associate with youth.

It deals with subjects that we naturally associate with non-Christians/ false-Christians

Obvious sins naturally overshadow less obvious sins, and this passage deals with both

This temptation is misguided.

The letter is obviously meant for all Christians

This It is written to the Church in Colossi, not the city of Corinth.

Paul instructs the church of Corinth to pass it on to other Churches

The specific passage is very clearly addressed to Christians

3:1- “If you have been raised with christ…”

3:7- “and you once walked in these…”

In light of this misguided temptation, prepare yourself to listen and seek the things above.

II. Context

Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth

Paul’s letters are all addressed to specific audiences for specific reasons.

Normally he is addressing questions or problems that have arisen in the church

Paul does not make explicit the issue that has arisen in Corinth

It is possible that The issue is not a specific false teaching that is spreading, but a natural movement of Christians who are misguided and leading others astray.

It is hard to see exactly what the issue in Corinth is.

There seems to be some kind of philosophy that is leading people astray.

There also seems to be some legalism that is leading people astray

Speaking of Christians, Paul outlines two groups of people: Those you were V. Those you are

Paul makes clear in 2:2 that he writes with the desire that his words will encourage his audience and lead them to unity in love. Unified so that they may have the riches of complete understanding and the knowledge of Christ, which is the mystery of God.

I could spend hours on that verse alone, but for our purposes I want only to note the phrase “riches of complete understanding.”

This morning as we dig into a text that seems so simple, let us start to orient our entire faith over the idea that there arte riches in the complete understanding we find in the Gospel

Let our adventures through the Bible not be guided by a dread for the rules of life, but by joy in the riches of the Mystery of God.

Would we sit down and read the scripture, not to see right and wrong, but to see the God as he has revealed himself in his word, and then let the joy found in the riches of the understanding we are given drive us to mold our lives and our actions according to that revelation.

With that, let us read the Text.

Introduction

I. Seek the Things Above

As we trace the logic of these 15 verses, and beyond, their is one main point.

This main point brings up a number of questions: