New Humanity in Christ - Colossians 3:5-11

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September 26, 2021 Morning Service Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA New Humanity in Christ - Colossians 3:5-11

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Good morning to all. Good morning. How are you this morning? Sounds like we're having a good time of visiting, and that's great for believers to come together and to encourage one another.
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They're supposed to encourage one another to what? Good works, right? Well, as you see, there's some decorations.
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I know Deb has done some decorations, but if you see this basket and the things in the back, the
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Russian Thanksgiving or Harvest Festival, the traditional
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Russian Harvest Festival is a different date than ours. So this is when they celebrate their
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Harvest Festival. They decorate the church with the fruits and vegetables that the
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Lord has provided. They always do an excellent job of that. The church name is the Bible Baptist Church of Praise in case you wonder.
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And so we thank the Lord for them and for their... If you notice, this was in English, and they even helped us out a little bit with what that one says, right?
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The Lord is good to all and has tender mercies over all his works.
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And we do thank the Lord for his tender mercies, don't we? Just want to remind you that we,
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I think most of you here know that, but we have an adult Sunday school that meets at 9 .30
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each Sunday morning, and it's been a real blessing as Pastor Ilgen is going through the
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Book of Psalms, and I appreciate that very much. We also have a prayer time at 6 in the evening on Sunday evening when we come together and just have a time of prayer for Faith Bible Church, for the people of the church, for our nation, and for our country.
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And we just uphold all of these things before the Lord at that time, and we encourage you, if you can, to come out and join us for that time also.
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Also want to remind you that there is a men's Bible study each Saturday at 3 .30,
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and they're going through the Book of Hebrews, so we encourage you to, if you can, to attend that.
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Also, I wanted to mention to you that some of you, as we've had newer people come in to the church family, we have church directories out on the foyer as you go out laying down there.
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We think they're correct, but you pick one up and look, and if you see something that's not correct, you please let me know or let one of us,
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Harold or Pastor Ilgen, know if it's not correct. So as you go out, pick up a church directory, and as we say on the bottom of the church directory, it's for church use only.
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We're not out to sell your address to anybody or anything like that. It's just so we know each other and are able to call and talk with each other, and that's the only purpose of the directory.
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So you feel free to pick one of those up. Let's open in a word of prayer this morning.
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Our Heavenly Father and our God, we do come before you this morning and uphold this service, especially today.
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Be with every individual that is here. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you would give us open hearts and open ears to hear what you have to give to us.
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Pray that you would direct it to each of our hearts, and may we be willing to hear what you have for us. Be with Pastor Ilgen as he brings your word again this morning.
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Pray that you would give him the liberty and freedom to say your word, and we would thank you for that,
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Lord. We do pray for our country and our state and our city,
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Lord. As we watch the news, all of us, I think, are troubled at times, but we realize,
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Lord, that you're in control, and we would ask, Heavenly Father, that you would continue to give us peace and that you would allow the freedom to worship to continue,
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Lord, and we would thank you. Now, guide and direct us in all that's done. Be with the music of the service as we sing praises to you,
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Lord, and may it come from our hearts, and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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Good morning. May the Lord satisfy us early in the morning with his mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
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And let's stand. Every day and every trial and just say, trust and obey.
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It's just that simple, and yet we make it so hard, don't we? This morning's scripture reading comes from Ephesians 4.
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Ephesians 4, and we're going to read verses 29 through the end of that chapter.
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Ephesians 4. Okay, verse 29. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
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And do not grieve this Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
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Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking, and evil speaking to be put away from you with all malice.
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And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
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May God bless the hearing of this word. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
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Let's stand and sing. Please turn with me to Colossians chapter 3.
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Colossians chapter 3, verses 5 through 11. Therefore, put to death your members, which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
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But now you yourselves are to put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
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Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
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Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian,
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Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are so thankful that Your word is so good to us.
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And Father, we are thankful that You have made us into a new humanity in Jesus Christ, something we could not have done with even the best of our works.
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We pray that we would lean on Your grace and mercy and always remember
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Your steadfast love for us in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Although the world may categorize
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Christianity or describe Christianity as a group that avoids a long list of things, that is not how the
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Bible portrays Christianity at all. In Paul's letter to the Colossians, the list of vices, sins, that we must avoid, the list does not even show up until the halfway point of the letter.
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What came in the first half? The supremacy of Christ. The marvelous reality that Christians are united with Christ.
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Only after Paul laid the foundation of Christ's supremacy and his finished work on the cross that reconciled all things to him, he starts talking about what the implications are.
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So what? Because we are graciously and saved and united with Christ, not that we did anything to deserve to be united with Christ, we can finally live in a manner worthy of Christ.
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It is never the other way around. Other religions and cults start with how to live sinlessly so that the followers may be united with their gods.
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You have to avoid these actions. You have to abstain from these foods. You have to give this much.
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Then you experience the blessing. Then you experience the forgiveness. And only if you have done that, you can now approach the deity,
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God. For Christianity, that is not so.
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For Christianity, we approach Christ in our sinfulness and brokenness to be forgiven and be united with him in his death and resurrection.
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It is what Christ has accomplished for us. Only after that, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit and his powerful word, we are called to live in our new identity, free from sin and under Christ the
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King. Because we are made new, we live as new men and women in Christ.
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Christ does not offer behavioral modifications but a human transformation.
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The main point of this text is because we are united with Christ, we are made into a new humanity.
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Because we're united with Christ, that's our new identity. We're united. We are made into a new humanity.
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First point, because we're united with Christ, we put to death our sinful life.
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Because we're united with Christ, we put to death our sinful life. After commanding us to commit ourselves fully to the heavenly things, because of our new identity in Christ, Paul commands us to eliminate, remove things that do not belong to Christ.
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Verse 5, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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Because we are now new men and new women in Christ, Paul urges us to put to death your members which are connected to your former lives.
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The word members metaphorically signifies the parts of your body which you used to rebel against God in your former lives.
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Body parts that were instrumental in actively submitting to the old order of sin and death.
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These members, Paul describes, are on the earth. They are not of the heavenly origin.
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They do not belong to the heavenly realm, but they are the leftovers that belong to our former lifestyle.
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And they have nothing to do with your current identity, your regenerate life in Christ.
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Paul uses this similar concept in Romans 7 .23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me to captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
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Because you are united to Christ, you put to death parts of you that have no connection to heavenly things, no connection to Christ.
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Put to death parts of you that are opposed to Christ. For those who are raised with Christ, it is only natural that we discard every remnant of the old order.
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This is a command to live in a manner that is worthy of Christ. Paul's command to put to death is quite powerful.
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What we are to do with sin is not to play with it. It is not to go gentle with it.
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This is not a friendly game. This is a battle where your life depends on it.
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You either put sin to death or it will put you to death. Christians, we don't compromise with sin.
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We don't negotiate with sin. Oh, I will give in just this once.
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No, we put it to death. The only reason why we can fight against sin is because we're united with Christ, the victorious
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King. As we're united with Him in His death, we're removed from the bondage of sin and death once and for all.
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In our unity with Christ in resurrection, we're given a new life, being sanctified by the
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Holy Spirit of God. To fight against sin, we completely rely on Christ and His finished work on the cross.
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We depend on His heavenly weapons rather than our flesh. So what are we to put to death?
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The list has five sinful actions and desires. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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The first two on the list of earthly things are fornication and uncleanness. These relate to any sexual relations outside the covenant marriage between men and women.
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For example, prostitution. Polygamy, marrying multiple people.
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Adultery, cheating on your spouse. Similar to the
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Western culture, the Roman and Greek cultures accepted these types of sins.
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Unless it was excessive or unnatural, the pagans did not mind.
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It was your business. In one sense, however, our culture is more degenerate than the
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Greeks and Romans, because we actually celebrate these sexual sins.
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We expose them as good and tolerant to children in public schools and libraries as we invite guests like drag queens.
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We set aside a month to celebrate homosexuality.
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The Greeks and Romans didn't do that, which is an abomination to God.
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Moreover, the current technology allows people to commit these sins at home privately.
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It's hidden and dark, and you can keep your clean reputation publicly.
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No one will know, except God. These sins are inherently selfish and self -focused.
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The goal is for the pleasure of the person, and by any means possible.
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It is a cruel betrayal to your spouse. It is traumatizing to the whole family when they find out.
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Most strikingly, it is treasonous to God. When you partake in these sins, who is getting worshipped?
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You or God? For those who are united with Christ, however, this is something we have to put to death.
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We have nothing to do with it because we don't belong to the old order of sin and death anymore.
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We do not seek out earthly things. For those who are fighting against sexual sins, and you would like more support and biblical counseling, please come talk to me after the service.
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There are ways to fight against sexual sins effectively by renewing your mind, by the power of the
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Spirit, and with God's truth. God's truth is powerful. It is more powerful than your sin.
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God is more powerful than your sin. And Jesus is the true counselor who sets you free.
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It is not me. I am merely there to direct your attention to Him. And I have seen people liberated from sinful habits by the grace of God, through His Word.
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You're not alone in this fight. God is fighting alongside you. The third one is passion.
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This is an intense desire that overrules everything else.
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For example, Romans 1 .26 talks about homosexual relations as dishonorable passions.
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For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.
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Here, God gave these idolaters, these sinful women, to their sinful, unnatural desires that overrule the natural law, the natural relations between a man and a woman.
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Nowadays, we live in a culture where emotions overrule truth.
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Feelings overrule facts. But as Christians, we are to put to death these passions and operate on what is true.
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We make decisions based upon facts and objectivity and according to God's will.
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Not according to our feelings. This does not mean you ignore your emotions.
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Right? That's unhealthy. It just means do not be driven by your emotions.
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Do not be enslaved to them. Truth must drive your emotions.
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And truth must drive your life decisions. Not what you want at that moment.
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The fourth thing that must be put to death is evil desire. For those who are made new in Christ, even our desires are made new.
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We no longer desire what is evil. We no longer desire what God calls evil.
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As God sanctifies you more and more, you will notice that some of the movies and shows which you used to enjoy and you used to look forward to are no longer entertaining anymore.
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They become distasteful because they mock God and dehumanize other human beings.
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And if you're a businessman, the former desires to get ahead by cheating or at any cost, that's gone.
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You just want to honor God in every business transaction you make. If you're a student taking a test that you're not prepared for or you start writing your essay that's due midnight, which you just started, you put to death the desire to secretly cheat.
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Even though you might not get caught, you put that desire to death.
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You desire to honor God and your desire to delight in God, your desire to please
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God, trumps the former evil desires that sought success at any cost.
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The last one on the list is covetousness. Unlike the previous four sins, this one has a further description, which is idolatry.
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Covetousness, often called envy, is an intense desire for something that does not belong to you.
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At the core of covetousness is entitlement. It's this idea that you deserve it.
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It should belong to you. At the core of covetousness, it says, that's my right.
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Envy says, I want that, even though I didn't earn that.
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I have the right to it, although it belongs to someone else.
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This can be for wealth, a bigger house, a better car, a bigger paycheck.
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And this can be for reputation. It's the mindset that says,
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I deserve to be more well -known. I deserve all of the attention in the room.
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You can be envious of relationships. How come I am not dating anyone?
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I deserve to be married by now. And now the question is, why is this idolatry?
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This sense of entitlement questions God's goodness and faithfulness.
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If you believe that you deserve a better job, a better house, a better relationship, you are ultimately questioning the one who has the power to provide and has not,
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God himself. To have this entitled view is to tell
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God, well, I can do better than you. I know what's best for me, and you don't.
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Let me tell you how this can be better, God. Covetousness places your thought higher than God's thought, and your plans is more superior to God's plan for you.
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Thus, covetousness idolizes self. It de -Gods
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God and deifies self. For those who are united with Christ, covetousness must be put to death.
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Covetousness is incompatible with serving the Christ, the cosmic king.
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You cannot have two kings in your life. You have to serve one and dethrone the other.
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Is it going to be you or Christ? Then Paul tells us why we need to put to death these sins.
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Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
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To those who are consistently practicing these sins, to those who are continually treasuring these sins, to those who are apathetic to these sins in their lives,
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I don't care if it happens or not. The wrath of God is coming.
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Because God is holy, just, and good, and pure, He cannot let these sins just slide by.
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And if my descriptions of these sins made you cringe or even disgusted, can you imagine how must the omniscient and perfect God view these sins committed all over the world at all times?
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This is why those who regularly practice these sins, to them, the wrath of God is coming.
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What does God's coming wrath look like? Revelation 19 .15
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illustrates God's wrath using a metaphor of a winepress. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. When Jesus comes to judge the nations and rulers opposing
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Him, He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God.
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What does this winepress represent? In ancient times, people would gather grapes, harvest grapes, and put them into a big vat, a big container.
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And what would happen is the servants, they would go into the vat barefoot, and they would start squishing on the grapes, treading and trampling on them.
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And the juice would flow out, which they would collect to ferment wine. In this metaphor, the grape represents everyone who is opposing
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God, and Jesus will tread on them in judgment.
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And the gallons of juice that flows out would be their blood. This is a serious metaphor to those who do not put to death these sins in their lives.
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The day of God's wrath will be horrendous and frightful, and it is coming to those who live in these sins.
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However, Paul tells us, this fate is not sealed for all, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
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The Colossian church lived like that before they heard of Christ.
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The word once suggests that it was their past, but it is not true for them now.
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They once walked as they lived in them, but that is no longer true because they're now with Christ.
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This is important for us now because we often think that our sin is greater than our
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Savior. We believe the sins we have been struggling with for years is superior to Jesus.
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However, Paul tells us that for those who are united with Christ, they are able to put them to death.
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This command would be useless if we did not have the power to put them to death in Christ.
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These sins, fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness do not define who the
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Christians are. They're able to put them to death because they have
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Christ on their side. They can happily leave them in the past and know that the wrath of God is not coming for them because Christ faced the wrath of God on their behalf.
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This is why we do not fear the winepress of God's wrath. This is how we know we won't be in the vault like the grapes that will be trampled upon.
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God poured the full wrath that we deserved on the bloodied
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Jesus on the cross. For those who are united with Christ, there is no longer any leftover wrath for you.
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For those who trust in Christ, God the Father is not out to get you. There is no longer any punishment left for those who are in Christ because Christ paid for it all.
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That's why for those who are united with Christ can live a totally different life that's free from earthly things and fleshly things and actually pursue heavenly things.
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Their new identity. They have the Holy Spirit. They have the scriptures.
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This is the great hope we have. The command to put to death these sins is finally doable for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Now, how do Christians live differently? After putting off the old, we put on the new creation.
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After putting off the old, we put on the new creation. Here, Paul shifts to the clothing metaphor.
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But now you yourselves are to put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
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In order to put on the new man, the new creation, dressed as the new creation, we have to first put off the old.
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In order to be dressed in the wedding garment that Christ provides for us, we have to take off the filthy rags that we already are wearing.
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Here, Paul gives us five rags that we need to put off. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, and filthy language out of your mouth.
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First, we put off anger and wrath. Anger and wrath are similar.
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But in the Bible, there is a difference between the two. Anger is used to describe the vengeful hatred that lingers on in your heart.
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Wrath, however, is a flash of anger that seeks to destroy anything that stands in the way.
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Think of a flash flood. Both are sinful because they come from our lack of trust in God.
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Any desire to take personal vengeance comes from the underlying idea that God is not the judge.
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Deep in our heart, when we're angry for personal reasons, we believe
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God will not take care of the situation or the people who have harmed us.
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It comes from our deeply held belief that unless you take care of this horrible situation or your enemies, justice will not be served.
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All of a sudden, you have become the judge and not
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God. However, for Christians, we know this is not true. We serve a
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God who is so just that He will one day judge all living souls for everything they have done.
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No evil act will go unpunished. Nothing will be missed by the unsleeping eye.
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For Christians, Jesus took on the punishment for your evil acts and thoughts on the cross.
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For those who do not trust in Jesus, they will have to face the judgment, the punishment for their evil acts and thoughts themselves.
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And this is why Christians must put off anger and wrath and let God handle it.
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Let God do His job. He is the righteous judge. He has the full authority to judge.
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He has all the information He needs. You don't. If you're struggling with anger and wrath and there are many reasons that you might be struggling with anger and wrath, read aloud
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Romans 12, 19. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.
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For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Say out loud until the anger, the heat of anger is gone from your heart and you have surrendered it to God.
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Surrender your situation and whoever your enemy is to God. Let God handle them.
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Let God do His job. All you have to do is get out of the way. The next one on the list is malice.
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It is the wicked attitude. It desires harm on others. It destroys fellowship.
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It is incapable of love. And this can be in one's mind, speech, or even action.
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No matter how it is displayed, God opposes it. It must not be worn by Christians.
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God cares about your intentions because He can see them and hear your thoughts.
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And He wants even your inside to be clean. Well, most importantly, your inside to be clean.
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Because if the outside is the only thing clean and the inside is not, that's what Jesus calls hypocrisy and He was not so fond of that.
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The next two on the list deal with verbal sins. Blasphemy is any speech that misrepresents
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God and His character. Some translations have it as slander.
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Slander would be blasphemy against people. So, again, it is a misrepresentation of people who are made in the image of God.
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Both directly insult God because God is the
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God of truth, not of lies. Any lies that misrepresent
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God or His people is a direct opposition against God.
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And blasphemy can occur with hypocrisy. Those who profess to be Christians, they proclaim they're
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Christians and represent Christ, supposedly, but they live in contrast to what
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Christ says. While their mouths confess Christ, their lifestyle insult
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Him. This is blasphemy because their actions misrepresent their words.
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Their actions, in the end, discredit God, whom they supposedly worship.
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The fifth sin to put off is filthy language. Any abusive or obscene language must not come out from our mouths.
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After all, even our mouth is redeemed by Christ. While the world will use gross jokes or filthy speech, even in children's movies and books,
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Christians do not put on the same clothes we put them off. It is frightening to watch children curse.
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It's frightening to watch women curse. It's frightening to watch
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Christians curse. This must not be done. Connected to the past two sins,
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Paul directly commands the church to not lie. Do not lie to one another.
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And what are the reasons that Christians do not lie to one another? Since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man, who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
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First, Christians do not deceive each other, do not lie to each other, because we have removed the old man with his deeds.
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The old man represents our old nature under Adam, the first man. Under Adam, humanity sunk into sin, right?
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We were all born in that swamp. Because Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they dragged the whole humanity into sin.
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It was our nature to sin. There was no way of avoiding sin.
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However, Paul argues that we're finally able to put off the old man,
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Adam, with his deeds and put on the new man. Who is this new man?
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It is Christ. This is why Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15 .22,
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
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In Adam, the old man, we're doomed to die in our sin. We're doomed to be damned forever.
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However, in Christ, the last Adam, we are made alive. So when we put on Christ, we are renewed in the knowledge, the truth of God in Christ.
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We are made new. Our minds are renewed. We become new humanity in Christ by the knowledge of the gospel that Christ took on our sin and died for our sin on the cross, and it is finished, and He's risen on the third day.
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By that knowledge, we're renewed. And what does the new humanity look like?
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According to the image of Him who created Him. When we trust Christ, we are restored to truly reflect
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God as Adam was before he sinned. We are able to be whom we are created to be.
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What does this look like? The new humanity is, according to verse 11, where there is neither
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Greek nor Jews, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian,
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Scythian, slave, nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
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When we put off the old and put on Christ, there is no longer any barrier among the newly created people, the
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Christians. Greek nor Jew was the broadest barrier. In the
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Old Testament, the whole world was divided into two categories, the Jews and the
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Greeks, the Gentiles. The Jews were privileged with the message of salvation because God revealed
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Himself to the Jews. However, the Gentiles, the Greeks, were separated from God as pagans.
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However, in Christ, that barrier is gone, right?
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In Christ, because that barrier is gone, there is no benefit to circumcise, which is a
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Jewish ritual to mark that they are Jews. There is no circumcised or uncircumcised in Christ.
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There is no meaning to following the Jewish rituals that make people
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Jewish because the Gentiles have shared the same blessing in Christ, the blessing of salvation, every spiritual blessing the
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Gentiles get in faith in Christ. Next, barbarian and Scythian are cultural distinctions.
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Under the Gentiles, under the umbrella of the Greeks, there were people who spoke a different language than Greek.
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And because the Greeks could not understand them, they called these people barbarians.
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And even further down the line, the Scythians were the lowest of the low.
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They were often enslaved by other Greeks. A Jewish historian from the 1st century describes the
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Scythians as, they are little better than wild beasts. It was very insulting to be called a
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Scythian. Yet, in Christ, that stigma is gone.
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It does not matter whether you are a Scythian or not. You are
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Christian first. And that is your most important identity.
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The last barrier that Christ breaks down is the social barrier, slave or free.
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Roman and Greek slaves were considered tools that talk. That's how they labeled them, tools that talk.
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They were like furniture, dispensable, dehumanized.
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However, in Christ, that distinction disappeared. For the first time in history, a slave girl and her mistress counted as equally valuable because Christ died for both of them.
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One did not receive a bigger blessing than the other. For the first time in history, a slave and his master were treated the same because they were first and foremost brothers in Christ.
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Why? Because Christ is all and in all. When Christ died for our sin and made us into a new creation, the old barriers that existed in the old creation shattered.
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In Christ, it no longer mattered whether you were of a specific ethnic background.
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You were given the same access to the one true God. In Christ, your cultural backgrounds didn't distinguish you.
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God calls both an African tribesman and a northern Eskimo woman his children.
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The gospel reaches all. Lastly, Christ abolished the social barriers.
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Christianity is for billionaires and the homeless. The PhDs and kindergartners.
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And this is why any view that seeks to divide the church along the racial line, those views are against Christ and must be rejected by the church.
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I have seen many pastors and churches preach and teach white guilt and white privilege.
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White guilt is the idea that white people need to repent of the sin of slavery because their ancestors may have benefited from slavery.
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I've even pushed back and said, what about the poor Irishmen who never afforded slaves and were themselves like indentured servants?
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They said, well, there's the color of their skin benefited them, so they still need to repent. This place is false shame and false guilt on people, white people who have never committed the sin of slavery.
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Not only that, they're seen as inferior in the body of Christ. When we make that distinction, this view is a social barrier that must not exist in the church.
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New men and new women in Christ to operate under such disgusting idea would be to diminish
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Christ's accomplishment on the cross, to unite all humanity to himself.
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And our primary identity is children of God.
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This means our ethnic background does not take the driver's seat in our identity. I'm not a
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Korean Christian, but a Christian who happens to be a Korean, right?
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Same with social. I'm not a pastor Christian. I'm a
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Christian who happens to be a pastor. None of those things give me a leg up on any of you who are in Christ because the biggest privilege in the world is not the color of the skin nor the wealth.
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It is your relationship to God in Christ. And those who have faith in Christ all are given this privilege.
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And to focus on any other privilege is to lose focus of Christ.
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If we're united by Christ, how can our ethnicities divide us?
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How dare men build up a wall of racial division when Christ abolished all barriers to unite one body?
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We do not divide the body of Christ based upon social privileges or racial distinctions because Christ is all in all.
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Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that the biggest privilege we have is the gospel, that we get to be your children, not any children of any kings but children of the king of kings, and at such a high price that Christ has bought us.
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And God, let us not lose the focus on that and build up barriers to divide the body of Christ who has been reconciled by Jesus and his blood.
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Father, we pray that we would live in that reality and let not the lies of the world distract us or put us into false shame and guilt.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Being God's people, let's praise him all throughout our day, all throughout our life.