Living Dead II

Intro

Colossians 3:8–17 ESV

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.

Sofia the First, is a children’s show about a young lady whose widowed mother marries a king and overnight she goes from being a common girl to being a princess. It’s a cute show centering around how Sofia adapts to her new life in the Court of her stepfather. Turns out that it’s easier to become a princess in name than it is to learn how to actually live up to the title of princess.

Tension

Sofia’s struggle is not all that different from ours as Christ followers. We have been named children of God, have been pronounced righteous in Christ, and are called a new creation. It’s like we have moved into the King’s court but everything is so new. We have a new name, but don’t know how to live up to it yet. The discipleship journey is learning how to live up to our new identity in Christ. We are learning how to be citizens of a new kingdom and children of God rather than children of Adam.

It’s super hard though, and we aren’t very good at being kingdom citizens on our own. Sure, we belong to Christ now. We are new in him, but we need help in living like the new is our reality rather than the old. How? That’s what Paul is helping is catch a vision for in today’s passage. Let’s move forward and as we do, let’s ask Jesus to show us how to live up to our new name in him.

Truth

I. In order to live out our new identity, it helps to remember the old we are putting off (8-11)

Since our new reality is Christ, we actively put away our sin patterns by staying focused on Christ, what he has done for us, what he is doing in us, and where we are going with him.

We are putting off such things as...

Anger

Rage

Malice

Slander

Abusive language

Lying

Fill in your own favorite sin

We must always remember that we aren’t merely emptying ourselves of sin and vice. We are filling ourselves with Christ.

Many religions encourage the emptying of self but they don’t say much about what we are to fill ourselves with. You can empty yourself but if you don’t refill yourself with what is good, you leave yourself open to all sorts of evil.

I think this is why a lot of people fail to follow Christ after claiming to repeat. They may have a very powerful encounter with the gospel, and they may get set free from sin, it unless they actively seek to be full of Christ that emptiness will be filled with something other than Christ and they will go right back into sin.

Christ is all and in all. He’s the only one who can fill you in such a way as to bring lasting hope, joy, and life.

II. In order to live out our new identity, we need regular fresh vision of what we are becoming (putting on) (12-16)

Consider how we dress ourselves appropriately depending on the place where we reside and the proper season.

Kingdom people are dressed very differently from worldly people. We desire to look the part, don’t we? Imagine what it would look like if the Sooners showed up to play Texas wearing burnt orange. That would be just plain sinful.

We don’t want to show up as kingdom people wearing a devil’s or Adam’s clothes.

Clothe yourselves with...

A heart of mercy

Kindness

Humilty

Gentileness

Patience

Forbearance

Forgiveness

Love

Peace

Thankfulness

Again, it’s one thing to talk about this but how do we put it into practice? Do you get frustrated because you study Bible, and hear sermon after sermon, but the same old struggles persist?

The key to overcoming our sin nature is not you or me… it is Christ. We have to reprioritize our lives so that Christ is our focal point if we want to overcome our sin nature.

Many people spend their entire lives trying to overcome their sin through sinful means. They basically attempt to leverage their sin nature against their sin nature and it fails time and again.

Beating our sin is not our aim in fighting our sin. Personal holiness, righteousness, and cleanliness are not our chief motivators. Rather, our motivation is the glory and goodness of Christ, and to be a near to him as we possibly can be.

Healing comes not by working for it, or through it, but by going to Jesus consistently to receive it.

We actively focus on Christ through spiritual disciplines. (16)

The daily study and meditation upon Christ’s word.

Commitment to being with and serving the community of Christ (teaching/exhorting with wisdom)

Worship both individually and corporately

With grace

Meaning not from our human nature, but empowered by the Holy Spirit.

None of this is about doing better or trying harder from a natural perspective. It is about learning to live out of God’s grace, suspended in his grace always rather than out of human striving.

This does not mean we are lazy. No, quite to the contrary, we are more active than ever at pursuing the knowledge of Christ, being at rest in him, and empowered by grace. We seek the Spirit with relentless vigor and harder than we ever ran after sin.

III. What motivates us (17)

Once we were motivated by what we could mine out of this life for our own fleeting pleasure. Now, we find our greatest pleasure in Christ and so we seek to honor him.

It is the Christian’s greatest joy to be near Christ. His name, and our gratitude for all he is doing for us is what motivates us.

Application

You must choose whether or not you will be serious about following Christ.

Take some time this week to meditate on your life. What are your current priorities? What gets the best of your schedule each day?

If there were a trial in heaven tomorrow to prove whether or not you truly follow after Christ, would there be enough evidence from your daily existence to prove it?

I am asking these hard questions because I think we all need to take a look at our lives regularly to make sure we are prioritizing the pursuit of Christ.

Write down at least three specific steps you can take intentionally each day to prioritize the pursuit of Christ and put them into action.

Remember that putting off our old nature means replacing it with our new nature and we can only do that by focusing ourselves on Christ.

Christ must become the blazing center of our lives to the extent that everything else in the peripherals burns off in the heat of his glory.

What must you do? What will you do differently? Who can help you (Holy Spirit, fellow believers)?