I'm Alive, Now What?

Review from past two weeks:

God’s grace was on full display when Jesus paid it all on the cross.

Grace didn’t end at the cross!

We still need grace.

Last week we saw that Jesus is alive.

Slide: He’s alive, so you’re alive.

He’s Alive, so You’re Alive

Colossians 2:13

God made you alive together with Christ.

I’m alive, now what do I do?

Slide: Big Idea - Live Life Alive

Live life alive.

Please stand as we read from Colossians 3

Colossians 3:1–17 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 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. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 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. 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.

Three step plan for living alive life.

Slide: Step one in the plan… Seek and Set.

Seek and Set

Remember playing hide and seek?

What are you seeking?

Contentment, happiness, peace, ease, comfort, purpose, financial peace, career contentment, excitement, freedom, lack of worry, etc…

Slide: Seek the things that are above.

Seek the things that are above, where Christ is - vs 1

To seek is to search to find.

Jesus said, “Seek First the kingdom...

Hebrews, “Fix your eyes on Jesus”

Set your mind on things that are above - vs 2

Set your affections...

Thinking is the key.

Set your minds on things above.

Renewing of the minds…reprogramming.

Reprogramming is a lifelong process.

We reprogram to focus, not on earthly but on heavenly things.

Slide: 2 Corinthians 4:18

2 Corinthians 4:18 ESV

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Setting the mind on the eternal - not the here and now (temporary).

Slide: Whatever you set your mind on is what you think about.

Whatever you set your mind on, is what you think about.

Building my workbench.

Slide: Picture of woodworking bench.

PICTURE SLIDE HERE

Why seek and set on things above and not earthly things?

You have died! vs 3

Remember Colossians 2:13-14

Dead in your sins. Made alive in Christ - nailed your debt to the cross.

You have died to your sinful flesh and are alive, hidden with Christ.

Since you are alive in Christ, some things need to die!

Step one Seek and Set. Step two:

Slide: Put to Death

Put to Death

As you seek and set, put to death.

Put to death what is earthly in you. vs 5

Notice the reference to earth in both vs 2 & 5

It’s not enough to just say, I won’t think about it anymore, you have to put it to death.

Kill it. Mortify It. Put it down.

Kill earthly thinking - why? because they grab our hearts devotions and minds affections and steal them from God.

Paul names some of these things. They are as true today as they were back then. God’s word is timeless.

Sexual Immorality

Porneo - pornography

Anything that is sexual in nature. Sex before our outside of marriage.

Our culture is rife with sexual immorality.

No one to blame except ourselves.

Slide: 2 Peter 1:3-4

2 Peter 1:3–4 ESV

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

What Peter proposes here is stunning. He does not say that we are corrupt because the culture around us is. In fact, the opposite is true. The culture is corrupt because we are! The culture hasn’t produced the condition of heart, but the condition of heart has produced the culture.

When a culture is a certain kind, it is always because of the people that are in that culture. This means that cultural change always means change in people, because culture is the people and people shape the culture.

Tripp, Paul David. Lost in the Middle: MidLife and the Grace of God (p. 93). Shepherd Press. Kindle Edition.

Paul writes about sexual immorality - renew your mind and put it to death.

Impurity

Anything that makes something pure to be not pure.

Like lead or aluminum in drinking water.

Instructed to be holy because God is holy but we allow impurities in our mind they corrupt our thinking. Put it to death!

Passion

Lusts, uncontrollable passions. Lusts of the flesh: sexual sin, gossip, violence, abuse, drugs/alcohol abuse, hatred, murder, drunkeness (Galatians 5:19-21)

Evil Desires

desire is a strong feeling to have something or to want something to happen.

Not all desire is evil, but there are desires that are evil.

To want something bad to happen to another person.

To desire something sinfully.

Covetousness

Greed/Idolatry

Idolatry seeks satisfaction in things on earth.

Idolatry can be a person, thing, or an ideal.

Anything that is a must in your life may be an idol.

If you are comfortable sinning to get it, then it is an idol.

Put these to death! You are alive in Christ and dead to these things.

In these you ONCE WALKED. Implication is that you will no longer walk.

Put them all away!

Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, lying.

See that you have put off the old self with its practices.

That is no longer who you are. You are a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

Step 3:

Slide: Put on the new self

Put on the New Self

Think of this like a coat or shirt.

New self is being renewed.

Renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator - God.

How does renewal come? In the mind, seeking and setting.

Slide: Ephesians 4:23

Ephesians 4:23 ESV

and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

It requires a personal, deep relationship and fellowship with Christ for us to be like Him.

We become more like Him as we are daily renewed, as we yield to the work of the Spirit alive in us.

What do we put on?

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness.

How do we forgive? Graciously, generously, freely.

Do you see why we still need God’s grace?

Givers of Grace.

LOVE

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

Be thankful.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 3:15

An attitude of gratitude contributes to an enjoyment of spiritual tranquility, whereas grumbling makes for inner agitation.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 3:16

God’s written Word, are to dwell in believers. That is, by study, meditation, and application of the Word, it becomes a permanent abiding part of one’s life.

Whatever you do, do it in the name of the Lord Jesus.

You are alive in Christ, now walk like those who are alive in Christ.

There should be a difference in your life and the life of the unbeliever - a relationship with Jesus characterized by Christ-likeness.

Next Step