A New You
Letters From Prison • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 8 viewsNotes
Transcript
Fight philosophies of the mind
Fight philosophies of the mind
Resist religions of the hands
Resist religions of the hands
Love God with all your heart,
Love God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength
soul, mind, and strength
Last we talked about knowing Christ and what He’s done for us.
In Him we know who we are, why we’re here, and what we need to do.
Ok, we didn’t talk about WHY we’re here but it’s inherent in who Christ is and what He’s done.
He came for us that we would come to Him.
We were created to participate in the fullness of relationship with God.
We rebelled and became broken - Jesus spanned the gap between heaven and earth, kicking out the teeth of every obstacle - to make the way for us to be restored in fellowship and participation in the Trinity of God!
Also, last week we talked about things that actively subvert or divert our intentions to get to God and read in Chapter 2 that it’s only through Christ!
One thing I should have clarified is that philosophies, sabbaths, festivals, etc... aren't bad things, but they are not a means to salvation and they have no eternal value.
No where in the Bible does it instruct you to fast. However, Jesus fasted and He said when you fast… so fasting is useful to get your spirit a bit of a break from your flesh.
Essentially, whatever you do, do unto Christ.
Don’t pray, fast, sabbath, read your Bible, or go to Church out of religious obligation or compulsion. Do it out of the continuing relational conversation you have with Christ Jesus, your Lord and Savior, through the Holy Spirit!
Even traditions aren’t bad - and can be good in many ways - but they are not sacred.
Now there were some practices mentioned that you should not do, like practice false humility or the worship of angels. Those are bad.. don’t do that.
This brings us to Chapter 3 where Paul continues to exhort the Colossians and Laodiceans to embrace their new identity in Christ, all that it means, and all that it yields in our lives.
LET’S READ: Colossians 3:1-4
LET’S READ: Colossians 3:1-4
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
In Col 1:1-2, we see that being a new person, with a new position, gives us new passions and a new perspective. Paul puts that out there and then unpacks it.
A NEW YOU
A NEW YOU
You are now a new person - a new species - a new humanity
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
We got a new heart growing in us and a new spirit just as Ezekiel prophesied:
19 I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
He’s renewing our minds as we yield them to Him as it says in
2 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.
Our physical DNA has remained… for now, but our spiritual DNA has changed!
When it says in Col 3:4,
New International Version (2011) Chapter 3
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory
It’s not talking about a place - it’s talking about the return of Christ - Christ will be here, so we will be too, BUT we will have new DNA - new bodies!
2 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.
21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
The more steadfastly and intently we look at and spend time with Jesus, listening to Him, obeying Him, being with Him, and being in Him, the more we become like Him!
We become like that which we focus on/worship.
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW POSITION
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW POSITION
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
If we are seated with Christ in heavenly places and Christ is at the right hand of the Father - that puts us in a pretty good position!!!
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW PERSPECTIVE
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW PERSPECTIVE
The world is a different place when you’re looking at it from above.
But Paul doesn’t say look at the world. He says look up.
Set your HEARTS on things above! Set your MINDS on things above!
When you are a new person seated in a new position with a new perspective
What you see is different.
How you see it is different.
What you look for is different because what you long for is different, so how you act is different.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE NEW PASSIONS AND PRACTICES
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE NEW PASSIONS AND PRACTICES
We create an appetite for that which we exposed to. In the world it was filthier humor, more explicit language, more stimulating pictures and videos, more self gratification, self promotion, and more just plain selfishness. But now, it’s more of Jesus, more worship, more Holy Spirit, more wholesome fellowship, more encouragement, more edification.
If these new passions don’t describe you, it may be because you’re not dead yet… not even a little
I was delivered from filthy language, worldly music, and worldly movies when I felt the grieving of the Holy Spirit over these things.
What I listened to, what I set before my eyes, and what came out of my mouth all affected me, infected me, affected my spirit, and infected those around me.
9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW PEOPLE
AS A NEW PERSON, YOU HAVE A NEW PEOPLE
#mypeople
Colossians goes from Who Christ is, to what Christ has done, to who we are in Christ (who we were to who we are), to how we act in Him (how we did to how we do), to how we relate to others.
Actually - we belong to a new family!
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel
30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
We are part of a new family defined no longer by our physical DNA
No longer by the blood of our physical parents in this life (YES- we still HONOR them while we have the opportunity)
Our family dynamic is defined by the blood of Jesus and obedience that comes from faith.
No longer is our family defined by ethnicity, proximity, culture, or color.
Our family is defined by whose we are.
With our new identity, are we stuck on what we can't (or shouldn't) do anymore? or are we enamoured with what we can freely do now? - [moving up to a supervisory position in a workplace can cause conflicts - because you've 'changed']
Have you truly denied your flesh and died to yourself so that Christ may live in you and you may, as a NEW PERSON fulfill your NEW PURPOSE?
IS CHRIST YOUR ALL?
IS CHRIST YOUR ALL?
