New in Christ

Colossians 3:1–4 “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.”

We are one with Christ so we must set our mind on things above. Our time on earth is short so we cannot spend it worrying about little things. We can’t waste our time wondering if that one cute girl or guy is actually into us. We can’t waste our time doing things just so we can impress our peers. Our time on earth is too short for that. We have to focus on eternity. In our time we can either accept Christ or deny Him. Jesus came down to earth and was fully man and fully God. Yet He humbled Himself down to the form of a servant. Not only did he spend His life serving sinners He died a criminal's death on a cross. But it didn’t end there. He rose three days later and conquered the grave and gave us a way to be reconciled with God through Jesus. It may seem like life will be super easy now that I have Christ but your life becomes a constant battle between spirit and flesh.

Colossians 3:5–9 “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”

Paul says we have to put the earthly desires in us to death. Our sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness (which is idolatry), anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. We have to kill these things that are inside of us. Sexual immorality, we see it in ourselves and others. Many of us are constantly looking for short-term pleasure with someone. Our impure motives, we do a good thing for someone but only so we can look good in front of others and not because we wanted to serve them. We have these passions and lust that builds up in us. We see someone we find attractive and they take up all of our head space for the rest of the day. We have evil desires when someone does us wrong. Instead of forgiving like Christ we have to get back at them. We want to live by the a hand for a hand logic.We are covetous and greedy people. We hate to see someone similar to us do well. We want all the attention and it gets frustrating when someone else gets it. All of these things are selfish and not selfless. These are the things that God despises. Verse 6 Paul says “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” God is the judge. He knows our true desires and our heart. We cannot fool God by doing good deeds for the wrong motives. When our life is driven by the things Paul lists, we are living a life of sin. We are living a life for ourselves but thats not what life is about. Life is not me me me. It doesn’t really matter what I want or what I have the ability to do. Our life here is about glorifying God. He is the creator of all and we are created to glorify Him in our actions. We have to kill these selfish things living in us so we can put on our new self. When we put on our new self in Christ we are trusting in the Holy Spirit to lead us in everything that we do. We trust that God can transform our hearts.

Colossians 3:10–15 “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. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”

This change is not instant; we don’t just wake up one morning and not lust anymore. They take time, work and commitment from us. We have to make the effort to live a godly life. We have to now put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. To put these things on we have to be in tune with the Spirit so the Spirit can do a work on us. We have to seek first the kingdom of God. It takes awhile to notice these changes but they happen. When I look back to my sophomore year of high school when I first got saved I see how much I have grown. The things I used to find funny I don’t find as funny anymore. Some of the shows I enjoyed watching I don’t enjoy as much anymore. As I started to focus more on heaven the more I realized that the things of the world are just not as interesting as they used to be. All of this was over a span of four years. A four years I spent just trying to grow closer to God. It wasn’t perfect. I still messed up a lot. There were dry seasons and vibrant seasons. I took a lot of commitment from myself and trying to stay in tune with the spirit. It takes time. The reason I feel it takes so long is because we don’t really grasp what Paul says. There are three things that we do. The first we try to cover up the old with the new. We do nothing to change all we do is cover it up. We tend to be like the pharisees that only clean the outside of the cup and not the inside. Second we want to take off the old self and stick it in the corner. We’ll take it off but it's still in the closet. When the weather gets cold we still have that favorite jacket to go back to. We keep the old habits the old us, we keep it around so when things get bad we have something comfortable to put on. But Paul does not say to take off the old and keep it around. Paul says to take off the old and put it to death. We have to take off the old us and kill it. When we do that we have new clothes to put on. The clothes that we did not make ourselves. The clothes that only our creator God can make and give us. When we have those on and when we devote ourselves to wearing those clothes. God works. He works with us and around us. We become instruments for His kingdom but not because of what we did. But because He loves us.

Colossians 3:16–17 “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Paul tells us that we have to let Christ’s word dwell in us. We have to meditate on the Bible day and night and let the words lead us in what we do. How we connect with God’s word is different for everyone. Some people get a lot out of being in settings like this in fellowship with other believers. Personally I get a lot out of getting by myself and just reading and praying. It’s something different for everyone but I challenge all of you to find time this week to spend seeking after God. Taking off the old selfish you and putting the new selfless you that you have in Christ. So that all we do will be for the glory of God. Christ Jesus is the one who gave us life so our life should be dedicated to Him.