Thankful for Change

Scripture:

Colossians 3:1–17 NLT

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Thesis: Thankfulness is both a means of change and a Goal of that change in our lives.

The End of the Church Year

This is the end of the Church Year. It is the last Sunday before we enter into our season of Advent. Today, is a Sunday we

celebrate Christ as the King of our lives.

Granted, we ought to celebrate that everyday. Today though, we celebrate that Christ as the King of all life is the goal

toward which we are striving. It is our final destination.

The Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men that is around the corner is only going to happen when Christ is the king over

all.

Christ won’t be King over all until he is King of our lives. So today, I ask you to consider what it looks like to live today

with the end in mind and how our thankfulness can help us get there.

Raised to new life

Paul wrote so often about becoming a disciple of Jesus as raising from the dead. We usually read that literally, which is

true. However, he considered it to be something we experience in our lives before we physically die. Following Jesus

felt like waking up from a sleep as deep as death and finding yourself made new.

Colossians 3:1–4 NLT

1 Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. 2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.

He says that our real life is not here on earth, but it is instead hidden with Christ in heaven. What does that mean? How

can we go through life now when our true life, our true self is not here?

That may be the biggest challenge that we face as followers of Jesus in the world today.

Here are three things ways that Paul tells us we can do to get connected with that new life today.

Put to death

First, we need to put to death the sin in our lives.

Colossians 3:5–11 NLT

5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Jesus told a story, a very famous story about a father who had two sons. One got sick of being at home and ran away.

Life did not turn out well for him and one day he had a moment of heavenly insight and realized that, as bad as it had

ever been back home, it was worse being away.

The story ends with a family reunion and the estranged son rejoining the family in a new and better way than he had

ever been before. It is a good story with a happy ending, and the punchline is that Jesus says this is the story of

everyone in God’s family.

What if that young man made different choices though? What if he picked up himself and went back towards home, just

far enough to see his father waving to him from the end of the driveway, and then decided to change his mind? Maybe

he would try life as a starving slave one more time and see if he would have better luck. In fact, what if he spent his

whole life walking up and down that road, trying to make the decision to actually go home and stay home, instead of

just thinking or planning it is his head.

That is the story of us. We get to choose every day whether we will be with God or be with sin. God hates the sin in our

lives, not just because sin is bad, but because of how it hurts us, even if we don’t feel it or realize it ourselves. God loves

us as his very own child, and the sin we choose over him is only there to kill us.

When Paul tells us to put to death all of these things, he is telling us to put away, for good, forever, the things that keep

us from God, and therefore keep us from life. We cannot get better while we are still plugged into the poison in our

lives.

We’ve got to put sin to death. How do we do that? It starts with being thankful.

Jesus died on the cross for our sin and the day we believed that was the first day we stood a chance of getting rid of the

sin in our lives. In fact, the day you believed was also the first day you had a choice to head toward home or to stay in

the place your sin is keeping you captive.

Get Dressed

After Paul tells us to put away the sin from our lives, he tells us to put on our new nature as we get to know God better

and learn to be like Him.

Colossians 3:12–15 NLT

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

Our gratitude helps us to turn away from sin and it also helps us to put on the new life as well.

So if Christ died to free us from sin and then left heaven’s glorious riches for us to use in our new life, why not put them

to use?

Most of us don’t have a problem with Jesus and most of what He asks of us. There are just a few things that we are not

sure about. After all, if we follow 90% or 75%, or at least 50% of what Jesus asks of us, won’t that be enough? Doesn’t

grace cover whatever we don’t do ourselves?

Our problem is that following Jesus means saying goodbye to our old life, and there are parts we choose to hang onto.

We won’t be able to put on our new life until we let go of the old for good.

Jesus has picked out new clothes for us, and if we are grateful people we will wear them. We won’t walk out half-

dressed. It may not be our favorite style, be we will wear them for him and we will wear them well. Eventually, we will

grow into those clothes and they will fit more naturally on us. We might even get used to seeing ourselves in a different

way wearing them. Eventually.

For now, we keep putting them on out of gratitude.

Filled with Gratitude

Colossians 3:16–17 NLT

16 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

The end result is that we will be grateful people. You cannot get to holiness without becoming an overflowing fountain

of gratitude. Thankfulness changes you in deep and powerful ways. Do you want to see revival? Salvation? Do you want

to see authentic spiritual growth?

You will not find it in a place of grumbling. It won’t come through meditation. You won’t get there by singing or playing

worship music long our loud enough. That transformation comes when we recognize God in our lives and thank Him by

trusting and obeying Him.

CTA

Gratitude is the first mark of spiritual health. It is also what keeps us growing healthier.

Thankfulness has been more difficult this year, yet our struggles have revealed new reasons to be thankful.

Thankful for salvation and the freedom to choose Jesus instead of sin.

Thankful for the help in putting away the old life and putting on the new.

Thankful to be changed by God and willing to do whatever it takes to become more like Jesus.

We may be on the road home, not there yet, but the thankfulness we express with each step toward God helps us take

the next step closer to home.