A New Suit of Clothes (Part 3)

English Standard Version Chapter 3

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Rules for Christian Households

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

4 Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.

PUT ON

When I was a kid growing up in Canada, one of the things that we did a lot of was play ice hockey

And during the winter, that was about ALL we did. We talked ice hockey, lived, and breathed ice hockey

And we all dreamed of becoming stars one day

which was really reaching high for a kid like me who wasn’t very athletic

I remember when a kid burst onto the scene of the National Hockey League and began to take the hockey world by storm

he wasn’t the biggest guy out there. He wasn’t the fastest.

But, he was the best hockey player out there

His name was Wayne Gretzky. He played for the Edmonton Oilers, Number 99

We all dreamed about playing hockey like Wayne Gretzky

And I loved hearing about the exploits of number 99 and the Oilers whenever I could

And I wondered, what would it be like to be chosen to be on the Oilers and play right along side of Wayne Gretzky

Imagine my delight when one year for my birthday, my folks gave me a hockey jersey in the Oilers colors

It didn’t have the logo, but that was OK

I’d put that jersey on and strap on my skates and pads and grab my stick and go out to the rink, and for that time, I WAS an Edmonton Oiler.

I was Wayne Gretzky

Interesting what putting on certain clothes does to you and for you

Well, you know what? You’ve been chosen as well. You’ve been chosen by Almighty Creator God to be on His team of image bearers

And He is offering you a new suit of clothes to put on!

And He chose you, not because of your great ability or because you are going to make Him a lot of money like an NFL star

But He chose you because He wanted to and it gives Him great pleasure. Just read Ephesians 1 and you will understand that

It gives Him great pleasure

And the reason that it gives Him great pleasure is because He loves us

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.

Folks, this should be a huge motivator for us! God has chosen you! You are holy, set apart! He loves you!

Do you believe this? Down deep in your heart? Or do you just kind of give a head nod to it

Yeah, I’ve been told all my life that God loves me

OK, but do you really believe it?

I’ll be honest with you: there are many times in my life when I struggle to truly believe in God’s love for me

There’s probably a number of us in this room that struggle with this

And this is so important because I believe that a lot of the things that we struggle with: the things that we talked about before

lust, evil desire, covetousness

As well as the anger, and fear that we feel toward one another, the deception, the slander, the focusing on the negative toward each other

All of these things are made worse when we struggle to truly believe that

God loves us, that He has chosen us, that He has called us

there are other things as well: Depression, the physical ailments that come from depression

How much of this would fall away the more that we understand how much God loves us

I know that there are medical reasons for physical ailments too, but sometimes I wonder

So we have been chosen by God who loves us, and in that light, it is our privilege to put on the uniform of the people of God

It shouldn’t be a chore. It shouldn’t be something that weighs us down...”Oh man, I just gotta be a better person”

No, it is a privilege to put on the clothes that identify you as belonging to Jesus

So that when others see us, when we are around others, they can identify us

Hey, that guy belongs to Jesus!

How do I know? Because he’s wearing the right uniform!

And as you know, I’m not talking about outward dress

If churches want to emphasize uniformity of dress, that’s ok. I won’t criticize them for doing so.

But I hope that they won’t do so at the expense of missing what the Scripture emphasizes: That is, the putting on of a new heart, and a new character

So, now, Paul describes to us the kind of clothes that we are to put on if we have been raised with Christ

And, as with the things that we are supposed to put off, I’m not going to spend a lot of time describing each one of these thigns, because

First of all, these things are all closely related. I don’t think that we have to spend a lot of time differentiating between them all

And Again, we don’t suffer from a lack of knowledge, do we?

We know what these things are and we know that they are important

I don’t know if any of us, when I read this passage, were going, “huh, didn’t know that was in there. First time I’ve heard that I’m supposed to be kind and compassionate!”

The reminder that I need and maybe some of the rest of us need is to put these things on.

invite Heidi up

New life in the Church

Put on compassionate hearts

mercy, pity

The kind of hearts that allow us to look at people and see through the things that annoy us about them

And understand that this person has some tough circumstances that they are going through

kindness

humility

Lack of pride

meekness (sort of sounds like the Sermon on the Mount, doesn’t it?)

Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth”

it’s like humility. the kind of heart that says, I don’t need to be recognized

I’m happy to serve

patience

The capacity to tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without becoming angry or upset

An “ouch” for me

Because as my family can testify, this doesn’t describe me nearly enough

And it’s something that I need to put on

bearing with each other

“putting up with each other”

sounds awful, but putting up with each other is a spiritual quality

Paul knew that we aren’t always going to get along great and that there are times when we annoy each other

in cases like that, “bear with each other.” Put up with each other

forgiveness

renouncing our right to collect on a debt and handing it over to God

often, there is healing that needs to happen

Just because you have forgiven, doesn’t mean that you are automatically healed

But with a doubt, forgiveness is certainly the start of healing

I do not believe that healing can happen if there is not forgiveness

LOVE—binds everything together

can you imagine trying to put on any of these qualities without love?

Can you imagine trying to have compassion without love? Can you imagine trying to be kind of you didn’t love that person? Being humble without love, and meek and patient without love?

It’s like the fruit of the Spirit that is listed in Galatians

At the top of the list is, what? LOVE

We would be, as it says in 1 Cor. 13 just like someone banging on a piece of metal. Sort of annoying and pointless

Trying to put on all of these things without loving God above all else would be....a chore to say the least

And maybe that is why some people just give up on being a Christian because they know these things are important, but they haven’t learned to love God

They’ve just been told that they need to act this way.

But it’s actually LOVE that binds all these things together. These things come out of our love for God and our love for each other

And they should be things that people can see

Thanks Heidi

So, here is the thing about these clothes: They are meant to be put on and left on!

And you might think, “Well...yeah. Of course.”

But I think that it’s worth mentioning because

And I stress this because of how easy it seems to be to, when we come to church, make sure that these clothes of compassion, kindness, humility, etc are freshly washed and pressed and looking good

But then, when we walk out those doors, for some reason we want to take them off again.

But my encouragement for us is, “leave them on!”

These clothes are not just for church. They are for followers of Christ to wear all the time!

The difference between us and a professional athlete, such as the ones playing in the Super Bowl tonight is that at the end of the game, they get to take their uniforms off and not put them back on again until the fall when they start playing again

And they get to walk around probably in many cases without being recognized

Because they aren’t wearing their uniforms

But that’s not the case with followers of Christ

That’s not the case with us! We don’t get to take these clothes off

And we might think, yeah, I know that.

But we are living in a time where it seems like we can get ourselves into dangerous territory by being compassionate and kind towards the wrong group of people

I was reading of a pastor somewhere in the south who got himself into hot water

Simply because he reminded his church folks of our responsibility as Believers to care for people on the margins of society

And Christian people, people in his own church said things like: “Keep your politics out of church”.

Almost like, it’s fine to be kind and compassionate in church, but leave that stuff in there.

And if you are going to bring it out of the church make sure that you aren’t kind and compassionate to the wrong people, or the wrong groups of people.

Because in the real world, we better make sure that we come out on the right side of the political discussion

And I’m thinking, how strange. How concerning this is. Paul doesn’t put any qualifiers on these things. He simply says:

Be compassionate

Be kind

Be humble and meek

Because it’s things like these which are supposed to identify us as being different. They are the clothes that we’ve been given to identify us

We are not given any excuses. We are told to PUT ON these things and WEAR them.

Don’t take them off when you walk into the political arena

Don’t take them off when you talk about politicians

Don’t take them off when you talk about social issues

or when you are struggling to get along with someone.

PUT THEM ON AND LEAVE THEM ON!!

peace in your hearts

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts

I know this is one that I have problems with

My heart often is not at peace like it should be. I tend to worry about things that are outside of my control

My challenge is to let the peace of Christ rule (be in control of) my heart

But a heart that is at peace

Peace with each other

Peace with yourself—the things in your past, the things in your future, the things that are outside of your control

And most of all, peace with God through Jesus

is a clear sign of the risen life of Christ. It’s proof that you are putting on the right clothes

This peace is not just resigning yourself to whatever “fate” brings your way

But it’s an active reliance on Jesus to be LORD of your life and work out His will in your life

It is something that is given to you by Jesus

John 14:27 “27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

You have been called to this kind of peace! vs. 15

You want to know what God’s calling for you is? Well, here’s something: peace! is your heart at peace?

You were called to this peace in one body. It’s this kind of peace which should serve to strengthen the Body of Christ

Allow the peace of God to have authority in your hearts.

Singing (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs)

why do we get together at church and sing?

It’s something that we do in the new life of Christ

It’s part of our new identity

I was talking with someone about the things that we do in our service.

He was saying that in their church, their congregation had gotten pretty big and they had to cut out some things like the sharing time so that they could have enough time for the sermon

And I opened my yap and said, in my opinion, sometimes we elevate the sermon too high on our priority list

We feel like we need to cut the singing and sharing short so that we can “get to the sermon”

I said, I feel like singing and sharing are about just as important

Now don’t get me wrong. Teaching from Scripture is important and biblical

yeah, if i spend time on a sermon, it’s nice to be able to share what I’ve learned, but you know what? We are commanded to also “teach and admonish each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”

teaching and admonishing each other doesn’t just come from me reading Scripture and teaching from it

Clearly, it is also supposed to come through our singing, and, may I say it, also through our testimonies and sharing what God is doing in our lives

teaching—instruction in a formal way

admonishing—to advise someone against wrongdoing, or to instruct on proper behavior

This can all come through song can’t it?

have you been taught through a song? Learned something about God through a song? I have

Have you been warned through a song? Learned about right behavior through a song? I have

Thankfulness—Do all of this with thankfulness. Sing with thankfulness and gratitude

why? because this is a privilege.

This should be something joyful for us

We should be thankful that we get to put on a new suit of clothes and represent Jesus

doing everything in the name of the LORD

word or deed. That leaves nothing out

“The only time that I use bad language is when I’m alone or with someone”

In the same way, this leaves nothing out.

This means when you get up

When you say good morning

When you make your lunch

when you are at work, when you change the oil on your car and bust your knuckles on the frame of the car

When you talk about a politician

When you talk to that guy who just cut you off in traffic (even though he can’t hear you)

Do everything in the name of the LORD

That means, do it in His authority

if someone bangs on your door and says “Open up in the name of the law”

it’s probably the police and they have the authority of the law on their hands and you should probably think about obeying them

do you live your life in the authority that Jesus has given you?

Do it remembering that you are representing Him

Do everything, say everything with the reminder in the back of your head that you are representing Jesus

New life in the home

wives, submit to your husbands

Husbands, love your wives

Children, obey your parents

Fathers, do not provoke your children

without the risen life of Christ, a father acting in his own flesh can be a bear to live with

He can be erratic

And children can wonder, “what does my dad even want from me right now?”

They can become bitter and discouraged

New life in the workplace

Bondservants,

obey your masters

Work for the LORD

you represent him

You might work for your master, but you have on the uniform of the people of Christ

Masters, be just and fair with your bondservants

I feel like I just skimmed the surface of this passage this morning

And there is so much we could talk about

Point is, have you put on your new clothes, or are you still trying to wear the old ones?

Maybe just putting on the new ones when you come to church

Or trying to put on the new ones over your old ones