Colossians #8: Spiritual Detox

We are in a series of messages based on the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Colossea. That’s in modern day Turkey just so you know. We have titled the series Jesus is Enough, because that’s the basic message of the letter Jesus is Enough. Paul was writing to the church there to tell them this because there were some teachers in town who were telling the people that in order to be real Christians, they needed to believe in Jesus and do these other things as well. Apparently Jesus wasn’t enough for them, but Paul says don’t believe those folks because they don’t even know him to begin with.

So that’s where we are… I invite you to pray with me as we begin.

Lord, I ask you to come right now and teach us. Teach us about your way and the life that you have for us to live. Teach us how Jesus is enough to overcome our sin today just as he was back then when Paul taught this letter. Empower us to live this out.

We love you… amen.

Happy Fathers day to all you dads out there. I hope you have some meat on the grill and some fresh vegetables ready for a fantastic dinner.

I love this time of year with all the fresh fruit and vegetables. We have these big ole bowls of berries in our fridge all the time and every night we have fresh squash or beans… it’s great. Michelle tells me how good for me all this green stuff is… I’ll admit that I prefer ice cream still… I try to help it out by adding blueberries. I got to thinking the other night how I should probably just eat the blueberries. I tried it, but it just wasn't the same.

I have a friend who was in my youth group years ago she has been posting online about some sort of cleanse she is doing. She gave up all sorts of great tasting food… because it was having a bad effect on her body.

Sugar, flour, pretty much anything that tastes good she removed from her diet. It wasn’t a fast from everything, but it was a fast from everything we love to eat.

As she got closer to finishing, she started posting about how she started to notice changes not only in how she felt on the inside… but on the outside too; her skin was changing because of how she had changed her eating habits.

I haven’t figured out what all exactly this entails but I have an idea.

It’s amazing how quickly our body will react to a cleanse like this, we remove impurities from our bodies by limiting the impurities we put into it… it works because our bodies are perfectly designed to do the work of detoxifying our body…

That is the principle behind a Detox, and I’d say also a spiritual detox.

There is a great book by pastor Craig Groeschel called Soul Detox that you might want to get to go a bit deeper on this idea.

In the sermon notes I put a link to a reading plan that will take you through a process of a spiritual detox…

One the points he pulls out in the book and one which we are all aware, but we tend to not think about often enough is the fact that we aren’t just a body… we have a soul.

But, we aren’t just a body with a soul… we are a SOUL with a BODY.

That’s how we were created by God and they are inseparable.

Genesis 2:7 NIV

7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And part of God’s design is that we are perfectly designed to spiritually detoxify as well. That’s what Paul gets in to in Colossians and we are studying this week in our series Jesus is Enough.

Up to this point, Paul has explained to us the Gospel and how what Jesus accomplished on the Cross is transformative for our souls.

Now he goes on to how the Gospel spiritually detoxifies our lives.

The first principle in this detox Paul points out in Chapter 3:1-4

Colossians 3:1–4 NIV

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.

Principal number one.

Understand Your New Position

Understand who you are and who your life is connected to.

Everything about the Christian life is based on the supremacy of Jesus and his work. Because Jesus has risen from the dead to new life, the Christian life is essentially our being raised by Christ’s spirit to a new life. Because he lives… a real life, we can live a real life too… he makes that possible, so get your mind off things of this world… because this isn’t your home.

No set your mind on things above.

Your old way of living was focused on the things of this world… because this world was all there was… but now you have been put in a new position.. at God’s right hand, hidden with Christ in God.

At his right hand. In scripture, the right hand of God is a pretty important place. It’s the place of strength, power, authority. It’s his right hand that protects, holds knowledge. God’s right hand is referred to as the instrument of his blessings and his glory.

Being alive in Christ… at God’s right hand says a great deal about who you. Because of our position… God imparts to us a new perspective which Paul tells us to use to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Without a new understanding of you identity, it’s impossible to set your mind and heart on anything else.

I was talking to someone the other day about why kids from poor communities seldom strive for greater, why they settle. He told me it’s because they don't see anything else. My sister who was a speech pathologist for years, told me about one day when she was talking to one of her students about what she wanted to be when she grew up… the girl said she wanted to be a secretary at the welfare office… because that was what she knew as successful.

The most she could imagine was limited to what she could see.

You see, as we realize our identity in Christ, then we are opened up to seeing ourselves and our future from God’s perspective… and that is very different.

So we start to cut away everything that are contrary to this new identity. This is the purge part of the detox.

That’s what Paul describes next.

Paul says starting in verse 5, “You are alive… why entertain yourself with things that are dead.”

Colossians 3:5–9 NIV

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. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices

Paul’s saying this is not what a life in Christ looks like… but I have good news, Jesus is enough to detox your life…

Detoxify Your Life

the problem isn’t our body… The problem is, in our corrupted relationship with God we fails to use the gift of our bodies in concert with God’s design.

For example, sex and sexuality is a gift from God, to be used in the context of marriage… and when it’s practiced there… it is good… real good… and it glorifies God.

So you see, it’s not that sex, or good food, nice cars, money, or anything else is necessarily bad, the problem is that those things can become our idol… what you live for…

Paul is talking to Christians and he says…

“I know you all now live for God.... so remember you are in christ and so that old world is dead. That old way of living, the standards and values you used to have… they are dead. Now Leave them alone.”

It’s pretty clear the problem for them was the same as it is for you and I today.

we have our feet in two worlds. this one and God’s Kingdom.

And frankly we too easily get caught up in this world… and forget about the ways of God.

You are alive in Christ - leave the toys of dead men alone. Paul says we need a spiritual detox. Because the ways of this world are actually leading to death… and the world doesn’t even realize it.

.But I’m telling you it does, so remove it from your life

He lists all sorts of sins here.

Lust, greed, impurity, sexual immorality, anger rage, malice slander, lies, filthy talk… I have been guilty of everyone of those.

I thought about my attempts to detox my life from these and I remember often times I didn’t think of them so much as sins, but problems that I just needed to control.

That’s how we think of these… If I were in control they wouldn’t be such an issue

Think of your life. Whether it be greed, pride, gossip, sexual sin, lust, gluttony, anger, crude language, lying, porn, alcohol, other substances anything in your life that you know is something that you shouldn’t do, but you do it anyway.

I’m not talking about mistakes here. I’m speaking of the things that you do - that you know you are wrong but you do them anyway… that’s not a mistake… we call that sin.

Some of us say we have a sin problem, but instead of solving the problem,

Dads you know we are problem solvers right…

But instead of solving our sin problem, we just look for a way to control the problem. Because deep down we actually like the problem… but we don’t want the problem to get too big.

Paul says, the problem is too big! You need to kill it!

…but we respond… Paul doesn’t know me… I know myself better than Paul possibly could; what I need to do is just keep it under control.

So I diet.

So I put filters on my computer.

So I stop bringing it home.

So I stop talking to them at work.

So I put the credit cards in a dish way up high like i’m a toddler and don’t know where the step stool is

Then you know what happens… at least in my experience.

In my experience, when you get things under control, then i start to lie to myself????

I say… I haven’t looked at that… eaten that… done that for 9 days… 15 days… it’s been 6 months since I splurged… “I DESERVE IT” besides, now I can control it.

I deserve the thing that brought me death? Does that sound crazy?

And I go right back to the thing that I had under control.

I wasn’t in control of anything.

I never put it to death.

Jesus said in

Matthew 16:24 NIV

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In Paul’s words, Put it to death… rid yourself ...kill it.

Kill it because every time you leave your spiritual life and reenter to living by the worlds standards and expectations, you actually stop growing… its like my friend she said she cheated one day and got a milkshake… it felt so good in the moment… actually didn’t even get to finish it… she couldn’t enjoy it because she knew it was setting herself back.

Conversion to the new life of Jesus brings us into a changed lifestyle that flows out of God’s character

A life with values and standards that are beyond this world.

It has everything to do with your new spiritual identity - in Christ with God.

Look at verse 9-11

Colossians 3:9–11 NIV

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.

So, how do we do this Detox?

Detox Process

Let me echo what Paul says here this is for everyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your past is, this applies to you because if Christ is in you, Christ’s plan works in you as it works in everyone else. You don’t need anything more than for Him to do his work.

I know some of us are tempted to believe that we are different, our problems are unique. But Sin is our problem and there is one solution. That solution has one prescription. Jesus, nothing more and nothing less.

If you are dead in sin, there is one solution for you to put on. And if we are alive… we don’t live as dead people… we used to be dead, but now we are alive.

I remember when I first saw my friend talk about her diet and the whole process did not look like fun at all. Sure it might be healthy, but I think it would kill me.

But a detox, is a process of change. If it’s not about controlling our sin, but ridding ourselves of it, how do we do that?

So what does a spiritual detox look like?

First,

We confess to God for forgiveness of our sins

Paul says, it began when we put on Christ we became hidden, securely and safely rooted in Jesus… when we responded to God’s offer of love to us by confessing that we were sinners, that we fell short of his glory, and we accepted the forgiveness that he gives us when we surrendered our lives to Jesus, In that moment Jesus became our Lord.

1 John 1:9 NIV

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We proclaimed him as the Lord of our life… not our way, not the world’s way.

And since that moment, he is purifying us from ALL unrighteousness… or as Paul says “we are being renewed in the knowledge and the character of - our creator.”

Thats where it begins.

Maybe today you need to start a spiritual detox by surrendering your life to Jesus. By inviting him in to begin the process of removing sin from your life.

It is a process and Jesus said it works this way:

John 8:12 NIV

12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

He brings light into our lives, illuminating all the dark areas of our lives so we can deal with it for what it is… dead trash.

So we get rid of our old way that leads to death, we can treat it that way. Not something we store away somewhere, but something that is worthless. Trash.

Not to play with it, be entertained by it, but actually to be repulsed by it.

Here’s what James the brother of Jesus said:

James 5:16 NIV

16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

We confess to God for forgiveness and we confess to a person to find healing.

We confess to others for healing from our sins

I know this sounds like a hard thing to do. And it is, but when we do, it takes the power out of the lies that your enemy satan will use to war with you.

Remember who you are and whose you are. remember what God is doing in you, and tell someone your struggle. When you mess up, own up, and move on.

I can’t promise it will be smooth, or easy. Everyone doesn’t need to know everything. But for healing, we do need to tell someone something.

Pick someone who loves Jesus, knows you, and you trust; and tell them your story.

I promise you this, you won’t scare them away… because Christ is alive in you both and Christ is all that matters.

Maybe this week you need to tell someone what God is trying to remove from you.

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Praying for salvation and boldness and confidence for those who need to begin a detox.

Amen

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Life is much more than an accident.  Where ever you go, believe God needs you there.  Where ever you are, trust God has put you there.  He has a purpose for you being there; Christ, alive in you, wants to do something through you, no matter where you are Believe this and go in His grace and His love and His power.  Amen.