Col 3:11-17
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Develop the idea that God has chosen his people in love.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget when my children were born. It is really interesting, you don’t know really know this tiny person, they really look like every other baby out there just a wrinkly old man, yet you love them with the deepest love. It’s a pretty one sided relationship. Yet when each of my kids was born, there I was holding this helpless little thing absolutely in love.
It is hard to say why you love them, other than their yours, you just do.
Like when your child is born. You don’t know this person, they really look like every other baby out there just a wrinkly old man, yet you love them with the deepest love. The relationship is really pretty one sided. Yet when each of my kids was born, there I was holding this helpless little thing absolutely in love.
Or when you first fall in love, you love this person, all you can do is think about this person, you enjoy everything about the person. How do I love you let me count the ways. But it is interesting, when you love someone, truly love someone it is hard to really know why.
Because they are smart, or funny, rich or beautiful, well no really because if they lost their intelligence or humor if you truly loved them you would not stop loving them. Why do I love the other person, it is hard to come up with a real good answer other than “Because I do”, because your you.
Ready
And God’s love
In a similar way, God’s loves his people not because they are good or beautiful or worthy, but because he does, he chooses to. He chooses to love his people. The Bible describes his people as once being his enemies, and he sill loved them enough to die in their place.
And when we see and know this kind of love from God, loving gratitude is the natural response, but when we lose sight of the truth that God’s love is based on his choice, and not something in us what happens is we begin to think that God’s love is in somehow dependent on us.
And if we think that God’s love for us is something in our control and not rooted in his choice then a life of gratitude is out the window. And we can become cynical thinking that what I do does not matter, or fearful that if I don’t measure up God will not love me. Or even pride because maybe you think you deserve God’s love.
FCF: But if we don’t know or if we lose sight of the truth that God’s love is based on his choice, and not something in us what happens is we begin to think that God’s love is in somehow dependent on us. And this leads to pride thinking that you have somehow earned God’s love. Or it can lead to fear because you know your not lovely and fear that God will not love you.
and not something in us what happens is we begin to think that God’s love is in somehow dependent on us. And this leads to pride thinking that you have somehow earned God’s love. Or it can lead to fear because you know your not lovely and fear that God will not love you.
But if God’s love is not dependent on us, but based solely in him and his choice, there is no room for cynicism, or fear, or pride.
In our passage this morning we will see that God’s love is based in his choice.
That God chooses to love his people
And if this is true, what does this mean for his people? What is the consequences of this kind of love rooted in God’s choice?
It means that we should live gratefully personally and corporately.
So first individual
First
So first we should live gratefully personally.
We should live gratef
We should live gratef
Look with me at verse 12
Gr
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
And then at verse 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.
Paul appeals to the Colossian Christians to put on these personal virtues because they have been chosen by God, they are holy and beloved. And this is important. He does not say put on these virtues SO THAT you will be chosen, SO That you will be loved. It is because they are chosen, they are loved that they are to put on the individual virtues.
It is because God already has chosen and loved them that then in grateful response each person should cultivate a grateful life by putting on virtuous character traits.
Paul encourages the Colossians to actively put on these virtuous character the way that you would put on clothes when you get dressed in the morning.
To put on these virtuous character like clothes when you get dressed in the morning.
So let’s look at the Christians dress code.
to put on compassionate hearts, which in the Greek literally means bowels of mercy. That is this gut wrenching desire for mercy. It is something like empathy, feeling for another person in need
to put on kindness, that is a disposition that is ready to be helpful and generous, beneficial to another
to put on humility that is to to consider others more significant than yourself.
to put on meekness: This means to not be overly impressed with yourself. Not to think less of yourself, but to think of yourself less.
to put on patience: that is the ability to bear up under the pressure when provoked
And then in verse 14 Paul tells us to over all these things, like a big overcoat, put on love. which hold all the virtues together. For without love these other virtues will fall apart.
To live a life of gratitude means they are to do the work of putting on these virtues. There is an effort, an intentionality that is required to cultivate the virtues.
Illustration:
Illustration:
Have you ever tried to break a bad habit, or start a new habit? Maybe you are feeling the difficulty of it right now right, we are almost one month into the new year, and the new years resolution you made is a lot harder to keep than maybe you thought.
I remember when I was playing baseball in little league and I developed a bad swing habit. When I started swinging the bat I would drop my shoulder and swing up at the ball. Then a coach told me to change my swing. He told me to swing like I was chopping a tree down. Well, changing swings was not easy, to unlearn a habit and lean a new one was a challenge. And as I would walk up to the plate, I’d hear the coach yell, chop wood from the dugout.
It took a while but after enough repetition I learned a new habit to chop wood when I would swing. The repeated action gave me a new habit.
Application:
The same is true when it comes to puting on personal virtues. There is this old saying: “Sow an action reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character.”
If we want to live grateful lives by putting on these personal virtues then first we must be moved by the reality that God has chosen to love you, not because of anything you bring to the table, but it is because of him.
Because gratitude for God’s must be the soil for the seeds virtuous character grows.
it is then we can put on these virtues is through developing habits.
And this takes some bit of intentionality, but the Holy Spirit uses habits to form our character.
How do you do it? We can’t go through this whole list, but we can briefly look at one virtue in this list. Let’s look at humility as an example. Maybe you want to grow in humility, maybe your spouse has told you you are arrogant on more than one occasion, or maybe you got your work evaluation back and you get feedback that says you don’t take instruction well.
Well let’s take one virtue, humility as an example. Maybe you want to grow in humility, maybe your spouse has exposed your arrogance on more than one occasion.
And your like well okay I don’t see myself as arrogant, but I know humility is a good thing, remember because if you have a strand of arrogance you probably will not be able to see your arrogance very well right.
But you have received this feedback, so you set out to develop humility.
So first you memorize a scripture passage and meditate throughout the day. Let’s say you memorize where it talks about how Jesus humbled himself and gave his life for you. And how we should in humility count others more significant than yourself.
where it talks about how Jesus humbled himself and gave his life for you. And how we should in humility count others more significant than yourself.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Then every morning you pray and ask God to make you grateful for the humility that Jesus showed and make that real in your life.
Then let’s say every day at work you make a point to learn one new thing about someone else.
:
Then maybe in the evening you make a habit of asking your spouse about their day before you start talking about your day.
And you do these things even when you don’t feel like doing it. “when your heart is not in it" you still put on humility just like you put on your clothes in the morning.
And over time what happens is you gain a new habit, and over time learn how to ask questions of people that make them feel valued, you learn how to listen better, and the Holy Spirit uses these habits to form in us individual virtues.
So out of gratitude to God, that he chose to love you, not because of anything you have done but because he loved you. We respond by putting on these individual virtues. And it takes some intentionality and creativity to figure out how you might seek to cultivate these virtues in your life.
As we cultivate gratitude for what God has done it moves us to respond by putting on habits of individual virtues enabling us to live our individual lives of gratitude.
Growth in
it moves us to respond by putting on habits of individual virtues enabling us to live our individual lives of gratitude.
There are many ways to put on these virtues, these habits of character, but it usually involves discipline and practice, but the Holy Spirit will use the actions and habits to form in us these virtues.
But a life of gratitude is not just lived personally
It is also lived corporately
It is also lived corporately
Look with me at verse 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.
So first a corporate life of gratitude will be marked by praise. As the word of Jesus, the message of God’s love, takes up residence in a community the people praise. And as they sing with thankfulness in their hearts toward God they teach and admonish one another. Singing and praising God is not simply about the individual experience or preference or style. It is about teaching and encouraging one another. When we sing we sing for one another with gratitude toward God. Corporate gratitude manifested in praise is contagious, encouraging, and strengthening.
When they sing, they sing to one another, did you notice that, they sing to one another with thankfulness to God.
A corporate life of gratitude will also be marked by forgiveness.
Look with me at verse 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.
A cooperate life of gratitude will be marked by forgiveness. Paul has told the Colossian church they are the body of Christ, so if they are to be true to their corporate identity they need to embody the forgiveness of Jesus with one another. To forgive someone is to not hold their sin, their fault against them and absorbing the cost yourself. Jesus forgives us by not holding our sin against us but instead absorbed the cost of our sin by dying on the cross in your place.
Illustration:
Useful was his name and he was a slave. He did not have it as bad as some slaves, but he was still a slave. And one day he had enough, while on an errand instead of using the money to buy a tool he bolted. Risking the wrath of his owner if he were caught. He ran away. But where does a runaway slave go? He went to the only place he knew to go, to the man who came through preaching a while back. He came to the one they called the Apostle. And when he met him the apostle told him about the grace forgiveness and freedom of Jesus. And useful was changed, he knew hope, he knew freedom, he knew forgiveness, and he became like a son to the Apostle, and started helping the Apostle spread the message. But what the Apostle said next surprised him, shocked him.
But what the Apostle said next surprised him, shocked him.
He said he knew his owner, when he came through his town a while back, his owner believed in the grace, forgiveness, and freedom of Jesus. And that he, useful, who had become so useful to him needed to go back to his old owner, that they needed to be reconciled. He said he needed to go back not as a runaway slave, but as a fellow brother in Christ.
And so the Apostle Paul handed Onesimus, which means useful, a letter to carry to his former owner Philemon.
And in his letter Paul says to Philemon
I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
Philemon
and that Philemon should receive him back
no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
And then not only receive him, but to forgive him as Christ has forgiven him, that is why he asks that Philemon officially set Onesimus free legally
Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
Philemon
That is I know you will free Onesimus
Application:
we should cultivate gratitude
Because Philemon and Onesimus experienced forgiveness they are to in turn forgive one another.
Peace of a grateful heart
If the church wants to live a corporate life of gratitude we should forgive one another as Jesus has forgiven you.
that is grateful for the forgiveness of Jesus will forgive one another.
Forgiveness is hard its uncomfortable.
Peace
So how do you forgive someone? Well the first step to forgiving someone is acknowledging that they have done you wrong in some way.
Many times we don’t forgive because we can’t even admit to ourselves that we have been sinned against.
When we have been wronged in any way we want to make someone pay.
We say, oh its no big deal, or I don’t care, or it doesn't matter.
But then we give that person the cold shoulder, or we just gossip about them a little. Or we say we don’t care, or we take it out on the dog.
The first step in forgiveness is actually acknowledging that we have been wronged, and not make excuses for the other person.
It also means that you have to refuse to make someone else pay, but you absorb the cost yourself.
Which is exactly what Jesus did for you, he took the cost of your sin so that you could be forgiven.
Forgiveness is not an option for a Christian. And you might say. “you don’t know what they have done, I can’t forgive them.” But here is the thing not forgiving will eat you alive it is like a gangrene of the soul.
Now forgiveness is often a process, and sometimes all you can say is I want to want to forgive, but I am not there yet, and there need to be space for that.
Forgiveness is a process and often you will have to forgive over and over and over again as the pain of the wrong done to you comes to you mind over and over and over again.
But as you forgive you will find your soul set free and gratitude will well up inside you, because you will know more intimately what it cost Jesus to forgive you. You will know that much more how much he loves you, and how much he forgives you.
The more you experience how much you have been forgiven, the more you will experience gratitude and a desire to forgive.
If we are to cultivate a corporate gratitude we need to lean into forgiveness. To have a fundamental disposition or readiness to forgive.
But if we are to cultivate a corporate gratitude we need to lean into forgiveness. To have a fundamental disposition or readiness to forgive.
Why did God forgive? Because in love he chose to forgive you. Because he is forgiving.
Conclusion:
Yesterday were were out on a walk and Eden Rose was riding a balance bike was was just a little too big for her. But she was doing a good job. I would help get her started and then I would run next to her just to make sure she was getting the hang of it. Well we made a turn and started to go down a hill, and the hill was just a little too big for her to handle. And she started to lose control. I was running along side her telling her to squeeze the brake, squeeze the brake, but that was not happening. She was careening out of control into the ditch. And right as she and the bike left the road and into the ditch, I snatched her up off the bike, the bike went down, but she was okay. Scared but no crash.
God did not leave us to careen off the road, but rather because of his great love chose to snatch up his people. A life of gratitude is lived out of the reality that you are God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.
And our passage reminds that we should cultivate gratitude in our life. Actually it seems that we were made to live out of gratitude.
Love awakens love. We began our passage with these words AS GOD’S CHOSEN ones, holy and beloved. The starting point is with God. He is the first to move.
Our passage began this morning by saying AS GOD’S CHOSEN ones, holy and beloved. If ever we desire to have gratitude in
Our passage began this morning by saying AS GOD’S CHOSEN ones, holy and beloved. If ever we desire to have gratitude in