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Intro
Why did Jesus come to earth?
Why did he live?
Why did he teach?
Why did he die?
As I was traveling with Fred Jones to Butte this week for our monthly ministerial prayer time we had a conversation about the great commission.
The point we focused on was the teaching them to observe.
The NIV is a little more forward with their translation stating teaching them to obey.
That is the idea here, to persist in obedience.
Myself and many others I think often fall short of this.
It is very easy to teach the commandments to obey from scripture but it is a different story in teaching others to obey.
Look at the ten commandments for example
You shall not make for yourself idols.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
I have just taught you the ten facets of the Law that was given to moses.
Do you necessarily feel compelled to obey them though?
This along with many other texts in scripture, the one another’s for instance in the New Testament can easily be explained as to what they are, but what about to actually obey them?
This was the point that Jesus was trying to get across to the rich ruler in Luke 18.
I believe the ruler was sincere when he said he had kept these commandments.
Jesus though knew there had to be more.
Jesus did not just want the mans actions, he wanted His heart.
This is where teachers often fall short.
I can teach you about scripture and the commands of God until we are all blue in the face.
But but about teaching to persist in obedience, to actually pay attention to the commands, to fulfill them.
To actually have them impact your life.
That is the difficulty.
In part I can’t do this.
I can present the information and try to model it as best I can but ultimately it is between you and the Holy Spirit working in your life to make any sort of change.
That is the point that Jesus was getting at with the rich ruler.
He was trying to get to his heart.
Are you asking the same question?
What must I do to inherit eternal life?
The answer is the same for each and every one of us.
Not that we have to take vows of poverty.
That was the rich rulers specific vice that was holding him back.
There is a response required on the hearers part.
We aren’t told what the rich ruler actually did.
Did he go home and do as Jesus commanded, or did he go home and think Jesus was crazy?
We can take the example to heart though.
What holds us back from making the choice to obey Jesus with our lives?
To get to heart, the motives, the inner workings of ourselves takes compulsion.
It often takes someone compelling us toward something and it takes the working of the Holy Spirit.
It also takes work on our part.
We must respond.
To give a personal example, the series events that led up to my recommitting my life to the lord happened over about a 3 year process that I am aware of.
I am sure it was actually much longer but that is when I started to notice.
It took so long, and God used some rather extreme measures to get my attention because my most frequent response was to go back to living life as I had, until I took a step in obedience.
This is the goal that I hope to accomplish today and as we continue our time in God’s word.
I hope to encourage us to take steps in obedience.
Our enemy, the devil, knows God’s word better than we ever will, the difference comes though in the fact that we can obey, whereas he does not.
Read Col. 3:5-11
Christ is all.
I would like to first begin by jumping to verse 11 briefly and then we will go and build back up to it as well.
but Christ is all, and in all.
Paul is concluding this short section by showing some polar opposites and descriptions of individuals that especially from a Jewish mindset, one would not be expected to be saved.
The point for the Colossians and the point for us is that the Gospel, does not give one group of people a higher value than another.
God doesn’t play favorites, Those who are saved, God saves for the same end.
All believers are equal in Christ regardless of class.
Christ is all and in all echoes Paul’s teaching in Col. 1:15-20.
That hymn of his praise and declaration of the importance of Christ.
Jesus is the measure by which everything is defined.
He is what truly matters.
When we recognize this fact, that Christ is everything and in everything, we have a true foundation to build on.
We have a point to launch from and also a point to build to.
Christ is all and it is Christ that drives believers to obedience.
Put to death what is earthly in you.
V.5-6
With that perspective I would like to jump back to verse 5.
This section is linked to the previous by the word therefore.
The idea is that since we are to have a heavenly mind set, we should be eager to get rid of behavior and thinking that does not reflect that mind set.
The verse begins with the command, put to death.
Put to death what is earthly in you.
Taking verses 1-4 into consideration, those that are not above.
Those things that are not all good, or righteous, or heavenly.
Literally stop them with lethal force.
Stand your ground.
Draw weapon and take aim at what is earthly within you.
You died with Christ, you have been united with Him.
Therefore put to death.
You are united with Jesus, now become what you are.
Become what He wants you to become.
We who by our faith in Jesus, have died to the elemental forces of the world, and to the power of sin, because of our union with Christ are to become dead to sin in our everyday life.
Our putting sin to death is both demanded by our unification with Christ and also directly empowered by it.
Union with Christ, because it puts us in a new relationship to sin and brings us into the sphere of the Spirit’s power, will impact the way we live.
Ultimately, then, the imperative “put to death” in this verse must be viewed as a call to respond to, and cooperate with, the transformative power that is already operative within us.
How is your relationship with Jesus?
Do you see or feel the transformative power at work within you?
One thing people often refer to it as is their conscience.
Are you standing your ground, ready to use lethal force to stop sin in your life?
Paul is telling us through his commands that the old nature is not renewed or reformed, it is put to death.
This forceful imagers shows us that Christian renewal is not simply a cosmetic overhaul of our sinful personalities.
We don’t add on a veneer of Christian values that only laminates our old nature and its value system.
We don’t just put on our church clothes over our old clothes and show up on Sunday.
The Old must be stripped of and thrown away.
We need more than small minor adjustments, we must die with Christ to be born again.
This idea hearkens back to John 3 with Jesus teaching Nicodemus that you Must be born again.
When we ask God into our lives, we might think that he takes a little look around and says, well this isn’t too bad, just needs a little cleaning, maybe some fresh paint.
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