What is Your Mind Set On?

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Take out your Bibles with me and turn to Colossians chapter 3.
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Today we're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 to 4.
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And the title of the message is, What is Your Mind Set On? Two weeks ago today, I had my 43rd birthday.
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And birthdays tend to make us reminisce about the past, take stock in the present, and look forward to goals and hopes for the future.
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And I realized at 43 that I definitely have different things on my mind now than I did when I was in my 20s, or when I was in my teens, or even when I was a little boy.
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There was a time when I didn't see superheroes as fantasies, I saw them as options.
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But as we mature with age, we often begin to get a better view of the things which are important.
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Fantasies and things like that begin to sort of be put to the side and even goals begin to wane as we begin to see our years going by and we realize that this life really is fleeting.
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As we inch ever more closely to eternity, we begin to realize just how important that life is and relatively unimportant this life is in comparison.
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When I was with my Sunday school class this morning, I had the youth class and I asked them, would you give up a thousand good years for 50 great years? Would you give up a thousand years for 50 years? And they all sort of just, we kind of talked that through.
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And what the reason for that analogy was, is I was trying to say, look, we focus so much on the little bit of time we have here.
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And you know, at 43, if I live a normal lifespan, I'm half done and I could die tomorrow.
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I could be 99.9% of the way and not know it.
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And the reality is, none of us knows when this life will end, but we all are guaranteed one thing, and that is eternity is going to be a lot longer than what we have here.
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Even if we spend a hundred years here, even if we live to be a centurion, it's a person who lives to a hundred years, it's still so small in comparison to eternity, not even really to be compared.
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Yet in many ways, we get so caught up with what's going on here and we don't think about eternity.
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We let this life become everything and eternity to almost be nothing.
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So today we're going to read Paul's opening to what I would say is the more application portion of this epistle.
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And we're going to see that he begins this section with a bridge from the more doctrinal to the more applicational.
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And the bridge is basically this.
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What is your mindset on? Is your mindset only on the things of the earth or are you setting your mind on things above? So with that, let's stand and read Colossians 3.1.
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
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Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
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For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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And I pray that now as we seek to have an understanding of your word, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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I pray that you would open the hearts of your people to hear and understand the truth and that your spirit would be the teacher.
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Lord, I desperately need your Holy Spirit for without him I am nothing.
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And this lesson is nothing.
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But I pray that your spirit would work by the preaching of your word to inflame the hearts of believers toward looking above with ever more anticipation for eternity.
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And Lord, for those who are not yet believers, I pray that today would be a day of reckoning where they would be faced with the reality that this life is fleeting and eternity is vast and sure.
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Lord, prepare us even this day for eternity in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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In all of Paul's letters, well, almost all of Paul's letters, there seems to be a point where he moves from the heavily theological to the more heavily practical.
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We see this most obviously in the letter to the Romans where the first 11 chapters deal with so much theological truth.
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And then right at chapter 12, he begins this practical application of his theology that carries to the end of the book.
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Well, in Colossians, we know that this happens, but there is some debate as to when that actually takes place, because it's not quite as obvious as it is in Romans.
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The transition from the doctrinal to practical is more subtle because in one sense, he has already been exhorting us to practical things even in chapter two.
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He's already been exhorting us to not be taken captive by vain philosophy, to not allow people to judge us according to Jewish ceremony and not to disqualify us in regard to things such as the worship of angels or asceticism or severity to the body.
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He's already been dealing really with a lot of practical things.
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But in chapter three, he really dives into what I would say are the day-to-day life things that we have to struggle with things like idolatry and impurity and sexual immorality.
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And he's going to name these things by name, even how we use our mouths in conversation.
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He's going to address the very practical way that we live.
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So the next several weeks into the next few months is going to be highly practical.
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And the transition point, I believe, is really our passage for today.
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I believe our passage today functions as a bridge.
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It is a bridge for the apostle Paul to say this simple thing.
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We are not called to vain philosophy.
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We are not called to Jewish ceremony.
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And we are certainly not called to pagan mysticism.
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But that does not mean that we as Christians will live like the heathen, because we do, in fact, have a call to live for Christ.
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And therefore, here is what that looks like.
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It's not all those worldly, earthly things.
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But in fact, it is to be seeking the things that are above.
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Now, I do want to mention one quick thing.
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There is a parallel in Paul's writing that I find interesting.
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If you go back to chapter 2 and look at verse 20, he says, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations? That is what we call a conditional clause.
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And in this sense, I believe it is actually what we would call a first-class conditional clause, which means it is a conditional clause that is assumed to be true.
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And the assumption is, is if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, it's as if he's saying, since with Christ you died.
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It's not if, as if like maybe you did.
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No, since you have, then this.
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Well, when we get to chapter 3 and verse 1, we come to the same idea when he says, if then you have been raised.
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The if there is not intended to be a question mark, but rather it is intended to be, and I use this example this morning with Manoah in our classroom.
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I said, this is the way this type of condition would work.
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I said, Manoah, if you are a man, then you should act like a man.
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Now, I'm not questioning if Manoah is a man.
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I'm saying because you're a man, you should act like a man.
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You get how that works.
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But the if is intended to be the conditional clause that says, because this is true, this would result.
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Make sense? And that's what we see when we come to chapter 3.
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
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You could easily retranslate that in a way to simply say, because you have been raised with Christ, or since you have been raised with Christ.
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The only way in which this would not apply to you is if on this day, today, you are not yet a believer.
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And Paul's not writing to unbelievers.
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He's writing to believers.
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So in this sense, I believe the clause is that sense of understanding that this is true.
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But I will say to you today, if you are not born again, if you have not been raised with Christ, let this verse be to you a challenge.
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Let today be this important thing.
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If you are raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
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And if you have not yet been raised with Christ, repent of your sins and trust in Christ that you too might live.
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But as believers go, it is assumed that we have died to the world.
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We have been raised with Christ.
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And we can see this confirmed in verse three, because in verse three, it says you have died and your life is hidden and you will appear with him.
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So it's a statement of assurance.
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It's not a statement of doubt.
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It's a statement because not a statement of, oh, if as if you don't know.
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So in chapter three, we come to four verses which tell us that our mindset is to be changed because we have been changed.
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In chapter two, verses 20 to 23, Paul tells us that strict rule keeping has no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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But that does not mean, as I said earlier, that we live like the heathen, unrestrained and without boundaries.
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No, we live a new life, a life that finds Christ as its pursuit.
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And I want to quote to you from a commentary.
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This is a Greek commentary by Brian Finlayson.
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He says this, he says, Paul now addresses the issue of life, which is the product of being raised with Christ, a life shaped by eternal verities rather than ephemeral laws.
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And those are fancy words, so let me make it a little simpler.
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A life shaped by eternal truth rather than temporary law keeping or temporary rule keeping.
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Why is that the distinction? Well, the distinction is this.
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You will either spend your life pursuing temporary rule keeping, which is bound to fall, or you will spend your life pursuing greater faith in Christ, and in Christ he will not fail.
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You say, well, what's the difference? The difference is results.
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Because here's the thing, you give a man nothing but rules to keep and he will either embrace them in pride and self-righteousness or he will despise them in heathenous rebellion.
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And we see that.
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The Pharisees loved the rules, and they made keeping the rules the pride of life.
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But Jesus said, what? You are hypocrites.
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And then we see the heathen who despises the rules because he thinks that's all following Christ is, is a list of do's and don'ts.
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But rather, following Christ is about finding our hope and joy and our trust and our faith in him.
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As I said, you give a man nothing but rules to keep, he will either embrace them in prideful self-righteousness or he will despise them in heathenous rebellion.
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But if you give a man a Christ to love and seek and who embraces him and seeks him, his life will change.
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I said it a few weeks ago, I'll say it again.
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The gospel is not merely behavior modification.
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And that's what Paul's dressed in chapter 2.
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You've got all of these methods for behavioral modification.
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And how does he end chapter 2? Which do nothing for the soul.
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They have no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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So what does he, he comes off of that with this.
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek therefore things that are above.
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And what we have in chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 is we have a set of indicatives and imperatives, things that are and things that should be, things that must be, things that are commanded.
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And we have indicatives about us and we have indicatives about Christ.
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And then we have commands that result from both of those things.
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I want to give you the outline very quickly of the us and the Christ and then what we are commanded to do.
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It's a little bit of an odd outline because it's basically three outlines.
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But first is what the passage says about us.
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And we're going to go back to these but very quickly to give you the outline.
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It tells us about us.
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One, it says we have died.
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Two, it says we've been raised.
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Three, it says our life is hidden with Christ in God.
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And four, it says we will appear with Him in glory.
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Those are four things that it says about us.
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If you're a believer, you have died, you've been raised, your life is hidden with Christ in God and you will appear with Him in glory.
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That's four things it says about you.
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And then there's three things it says about Christ.
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Number one, it says Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
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Number two, it says Christ will appear again one day.
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And number three, it says Christ is our life.
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So we have what we are.
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We have what Christ is or who Christ is.
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And then finally, we have our commands.
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Seek the things that are above.
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Set our minds on things that are above and don't set our minds on things of this earth.
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So that's the outline.
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So let's go back to the first part.
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What does this passage say about us? Well, first it says you have died.
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Notice that it says actually those exact words.
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It says that we have died.
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Look at verse three.
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It says for you have died.
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Now, this is not regarding our deadness and sin that happens when we come into this world.
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Did you realize you come into this world dead in sin? There's a big debate about that going on right now.
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Some people believe that you don't die until you exercise your own will to actually sin.
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But the Bible says we are DOA.
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You know DOA means dead on arrival.
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Now dead meaning we are spiritually separated from God.
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We have a spiritual alienation from God.
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We are dead in our trespasses and sins.
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But that's not what it's talking about here.
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When it says in verse three, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God, what that's talking about is that's actually talking about your salvation.
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And you say, wait a minute, how is death talking about my salvation? Because the Bible says when we came to Christ, we died to this world.
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And if you want to see that more clearly, turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter six.
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Hold your place in Colossians because we'll go right back.
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But go to Romans six and look at verse one.
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What does it say? What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound by no means? How can we who what? Died to what? Sin.
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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ were baptized into his what? His death.
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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.
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You see, when you came to Christ, when you were saved, when you were born again, there was actually a death that occurred.
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You died with him.
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Isn't that what we say in baptism? Buried with him in baptism, raised to the newness of life.
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That's the picture of dying with him, dying to the world, dying to self, dying to sin, and being raised with him.
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So in Colossians, Paul says, you have died because you died with Christ.
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And the second thing we see is not only have you died, but you have been raised.
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Go back to chapter 3 verse 1.
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He says, if then you have been raised.
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I know we're going, we're jumping around the verse for a second, but I'm trying to build something here.
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We died and we've been raised.
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As I said, baptism is a picture of our having been raised to the newness of life.
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I won't make you turn there, but in Galatians chapter 2 verse 19, it says this, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God.
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I have been crucified with Christ.
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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
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I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
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You understand that's the raising.
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I have been crucified with Christ.
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My life was stopped at the moment I became a believer and I got a new life in him.
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And now the life I live, I live by faith in him.
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It's a new life.
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That's what Paul is stressing here.
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If then you have been raised with Christ, if you've been raised with Christ, that means you were dead and now you live.
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There's a great song.
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I just wish it hadn't been written by Phillips, Craig, and Dean, but it's, I have been crucified with Christ and yet I live, yet not I, but Christ who lives within me.
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And all it is, is this verse.
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Phillips, Craig, and Dean are anti-Trinitarian, so I have a problem with them, but that's a, that's another story.
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Doesn't matter.
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What's funny is they're three, you know, they're like the Holy Trinity of contemporary Christian music in the 90s and they didn't believe in the Trinity.
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So it's like, sorry, very weird sidestep there.
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But, but I used to sing that song all the time.
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Come on the radio, I'd hear it.
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I have been crucified with Christ, but yet I live, not I, but Christ who lives within me.
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It's just a wonderful truth to have in your heart, to walk through your life, reminding yourself that you have died and been raised already.
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In a spiritual sense, it's already done.
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These are all things that have been accomplished, not looking forward to, but having experienced already.
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And this is talking, of course, about regeneration.
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Regeneration is the dead soul being made alive, the dead spirit being given life.
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Ephesians chapter 2, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
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That's a present reality.
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That's something that's already happened.
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We are seated with Christ in heavenly places.
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You say, no, I'm not.
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I'm right here.
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Well, we're going to see in a minute that your life is hidden with Christ and God.
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You don't even know what your life is like yet because you're seeing it through a veil.
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But the life we have is hidden and one day is going to be exposed.
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And when it's exposed, you're going to be like, I don't even know what that old life was like.
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I don't want that old life anymore.
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The things that matter so much now are not even going to be a dot on the radar.
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See, that's the point of all of this is you have died with Christ and you've been raised with him.
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And then the next one is your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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Now, I want to say about that phrase, which is in verse three.
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Yes, your life is hidden with Christ in God.
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And I think that there always is only one meaning to a text.
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And I must admit with this one, it's hard for me to discern exactly what the meaning is because I find myself between two, two places.
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The first of what it could mean is when it says your life is hidden with Christ and God, it could be referring to the safety and security that we have as believers, because we have died with him.
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We have been raised with him.
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And now our life is hidden in him, meaning that we are protected in the same way that when you, you put something into a deposit, you're putting it there for protection.
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You're hiding it away so that it's safe and a safe.
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And that's the way we are safe for eternity.
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The Bible even says that it says that we are given the Holy Spirit as the down payment, as the, as the surety of our salvation.
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And therefore we are safe.
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People say, do you believe in one saved, always saved? I say, well, I believe in one saved, always safe because I'm safe.
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So right.
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I'm safe in him.
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And that could be what Paul means when he says our life is hidden with Christ and God, because it could be referring to like a one commentator said, uh, Jameson Fossett Brown says it's like a seed buried in the earth is protected by the earth until it springs forth with life.
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And that's us.
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We're, we're protected in Christ until the second coming where we spring forth with new life.
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And that's a beautiful picture and certainly could be the intended meaning, but there's also something else that could be intended here.
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And I'm leaning more in this direction.
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And that is that what he's saying is that the true life that we have in Christ is not yet.
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And I just said it a few minutes ago, is not yet really known to us.
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It's hidden in the sense that we don't really know what it's going to be like, but it's already there.
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It's hidden.
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It's not exposed.
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It's not readily available for us to see because we are still bound in the flesh.
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We don't see the spiritual realities that are actually going on around us and in heaven and all about.
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And if we could see those realities, it would be very different, but those things are hidden now, but not forever.
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And when will they manifest? When will that hiddenness manifest when he returns? Let me tell you something.
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When Christ returns, there is not going to be any more hiddenness in your life.
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All things will be exposed.
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All things that we thought had been put away will now be known.
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You say, I'm scared to death of that day.
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Well, if you're a believer, the greatness is our sins are covered.
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That's a blessing to consider.
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But understand when Christ comes, that which is hidden, everything is going to be made known and who we are truly in him will be made known.
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And that's what we see.
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It goes on to say, when Christ appears, then you will appear with him in glory.
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You understand that's one of the great promises we possess as believers.
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We possess the promise that when Christ appears, we will be with him.
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And this is why I was talking about things being made manifest.
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You know what's going to be made manifest on that day? Who was real and who wasn't.
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I shudder to think about the men and women that I have been in ministry with and been in contact with and ministered to and been ministered to by that will not be in that day with the Lord in glory.
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Because they have somehow fooled themselves into believing that they were something that they weren't.
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Or they were self-deceived or deceiving others about who they were.
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I mean, think of Matthew chapter 7.
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And if you don't think about Matthew chapter 7 ever, then allow me to remind you of it.
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Because in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is talking about false teachers and he talks about them being wolves in sheep's clothing.
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And then he comes to that point where he says, on that day, many will come to me.
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What day is he talking about? He's talking about this day.
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He's talking about this day that he appears.
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He's talking about the day of judgment.
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He's talking about the great day of the Lord.
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Hallelujah.
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Amillennialism.
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This is what he's talking about.
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Because it's not 17 different returns and 14 different raptures and this and that.
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No, it's one thing.
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And he says, I'm going to return and I'm going to judge the world in righteousness and I'm going to separate the sheep from the goats.
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One thing.
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And when it happens, many will say unto me, Lord, Lord, did we not do many miracles in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And I will say to them, depart from me.
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I never knew you.
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Workers of lawlessness.
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The thing that will be exposed on that day is all hypocrisy.
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The thing that will be exposed on that day is all fakeness.
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It's called the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
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But if you are in Christ, if you have died with him and been raised with him, you will appear with him in glory.
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That's what this passage says.
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That's what it says of us.
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Now for a moment, let us turn our attention to what it says of him.
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Because this passage also speaks of Christ.
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It speaks of Christ.
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It says Christ or a pronoun for Christ five times in four verses.
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As we know of Colossians, Christ is the focal point of the book.
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Supremacy of Christ and sufficiency of Christ is the heart of this book.
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And Paul certainly keeps Christ at the forefront of this when he says, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
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See, Christ is his focus.
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And that's what he says of Christ.
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He says, Christ has been seated at the right hand of God.
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Now, when did that happen? That happened after his ascension.
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In Acts chapter two, verse 33, it says, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
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We see the reality.
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Jesus has ascended and he's seated at the right hand of God.
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Why the right hand? Why does this matter? The right hand is a place of prominence.
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It is a place of power.
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Ephesians chapter one says, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.
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Being at the right hand is because he's in the position of authority and a position of power.
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And in almost every place it says he is seated at the right hand.
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It says that in Hebrew, says that in Acts, says that in several places that Christ is seated at the right hand.
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Why is he seated? He is seated because his work is done.
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He takes his seat because the work of redemption is accomplished.
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But there is one moment that I always point to when I think of Christ seated at the right hand of the father.
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There's always one moment that I point to and you can turn with me because I want you to see this one.
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It's in Acts chapter seven, in Acts chapter seven, verse 55 and act seven.
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He's, this is the story of Stephen who spoke against the Sanhedrin and he called them to repentance and their response to him was that they were enraged.
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It says in verse 54, now when they heard these things they were enraged and they ground their teeth at him.
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But he full of the Holy Spirit, look at this, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
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And he said, behold, I see the heavens opened in the son of man standing at the right hand of God.
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I point to that one only because it is the only place I know where it says Jesus was standing at the right hand rather than sitting.
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And it emphasizes it by saying it twice that, that, that when Stephen saw him, he was standing and then he announced he is standing at the right hand of the father.
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Now some people may not see a big difference between sitting and standing.
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Some people may think I'm reading too much into this and you're welcome to feel that way if you want and maybe come and correct me later.
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But I think that the standing here is a picture of Christ standing to welcome and in one sense standing in defense of his, of the one who is about to die for his name.
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Stephen is about to die, the first one to die for the name of Christ and Christ stands for him.
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Again, you may see it differently and that's fine.
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But the point that I'm making is notice what it says about God.
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It says he saw the glory of God and he saw the son at his right hand.
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This is where Christ is now.
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This is where Christ resides at the right hand of God.
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And you say, well, of course we know that.
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Do you really? Do you really know that? You see the most difficult thing that I see in modern evangelicalism is we talk a lot about God, but do we really know God? We talk a lot about what the Bible says, but do we really believe what the Bible says? And do we really live as if this is a reality that right now beyond the veil in the hidden places where we cannot see not on top of the mountain, not above the clouds, not in the sky, not in the space around the sky and not in the farthest reaches in the universe, but in a dimension that we cannot see God is seated upon a throne and his son is seated at his right hand.
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Do we believe that? That's the point.
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Because we say we do, but we don't live like we do.
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That's what Paul is trying to get across to us.
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If we believe this, it should change the way we live.
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It should affect every part of us.
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Christ right now is seated at the right hand of the father, which is again why the Catholics are wrong about communion and make too big of a deal about that.
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But they think Jesus is in the bread and the cup.
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He's not.
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He's at the right hand of the father.
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The bread and the cup point to Christ.
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They don't become Christ.
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Christ is seated at the right hand of the father and he will appear one day.
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Back in Colossians now it tells us when Christ who is your life appears, he will appear one day beloved.
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You understand this is one of the one of the one thing that all Christians must agree on.
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You know we talk about denominations and we talk about the difference in denominations and there's a lot of secondary issues that we disagree about, such as things like baptism and such as things like how we are to take the Lord's Supper, when we are to take the Lord's Supper, things like that.
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All of these secondary and tertiary things.
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But some things are not up for debate.
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The triunity of God is not up for debate.
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If you don't believe that you're not a Christian.
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The divinity of Christ is not up for debate.
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If you don't believe that you're not a Christian.
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And the fact that he will return is not up for debate.
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He will return.
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He will appear again in glory.
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We have creeds going all the way back to the early church and what did those creeds always end with what confession? And he will appear again to judge the living and the dead.
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In fact that's what the Apostle Creed said.
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It says he ascended to heaven is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
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And you say well I believe that.
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Are you living like you believe it? Does that reality change your life? If not you haven't believed it.
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You may say I believe it intellectually.
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But if it has not changed your life you have not believed it.
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And that's the third thing about Christ.
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It says Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.
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It says Christ will appear one day.
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And also it says Christ is our life.
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Now again I'm picking these out and sort of putting them in a different outline.
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But what he says specifically is he says when Christ who is your life appears.
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You know what's interesting about that that that phrase is he just says it like it's just a passing thing.
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When he's because he because really you could take out the phrase who is your life.
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You could just say when Christ appears you will appear with him in glory.
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But Paul adds in this clause.
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He says but Christ who is your life when Christ who is your life appears.
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Why did he add the phrase who is your life? Is because Christ is the source of your life.
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Christ is the substance of your life.
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And Christ therefore should be the goal of your life.
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Remember what we read in Colossians chapter 1.
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In him all things were created and in him all things hold together.
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Your life is bound up in him.
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It's hidden with Christ in God.
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He is your life.
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Acts 17 the Apostle Paul says in him we live and move and have our being.
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Think about just those three things.
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In him we live which means without him there's no life.
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In him we move.
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He said well unbelievers move.
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We move in the spirit and we move in a dimension that's different.
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Because and please don't be anti-supernaturalist.
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We are Christians.
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We believe in the supernatural.
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We believe that there's actually a spiritual reality to life.
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One of the saddest things about modern evangelicalism is we've become so absolutely enamored with science that we've given up our belief in the supernatural.
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We live a spiritual supernatural life.
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Don't let our allergies to hyper-charismaticism become something that makes us think that God doesn't still work in the spiritual.
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If you don't think God works in the spiritual anymore I got a book for you.
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I can't give it to you but I'll show it to you and maybe you can get yourself a copy.
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It's called Prophecies of Pale Skin.
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It was written by our missionary Scott Phillips.
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Thank you.
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I saw a D and I was like he didn't even start with a D.
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His Scott Phillips wrote this book and the miracles he has seen worked among the Dao people remind us that God is still a supernatural God.
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That he is still working in ways that we often discount.
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Beloved in him we live and move and have our being.
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It's all in Christ.
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It's all in him.
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We're raised with him, hidden with him and we will appear with him.
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He is our life.
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If Christ is not your life today, why? What else is there to live for? Who else is there that deserves your allegiance other than Christ? And that leads to the last.
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That leads to our what commands come out of this? Well we see two commands.
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It really can be one because they're the same thing said twice.
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It's a parallelism here.
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We see the first says seek the things that are above and the very next thing we see is set your minds on things that are above.
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The word seek in some translations says set your hearts or set your sights on things that are above.
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The Berean Bible says to strive for things that are above.
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The New American Standard Bible because it is in the present imperative, the New American says keep seeking the things that are above.
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Because that's what this is actually saying.
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It's saying keep seeking the things that are above.
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This isn't a one-time seeking.
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This is an all-time seeking.
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This is a lifetime seeking.
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Keep seeking the things that are above.
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Set your minds on these things.
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And the first question many people ask well what are the things that are above? What are the ta'ono, the things above? Well as I said earlier, Paul is not calling us to scale the mountaintops.
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Paul is not calling us to get in a balloon and go above the clouds or to get in a rocket and go into the stars.
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But he's talking about a different dimension.
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He's not talking about elevation and elevational change.
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But understand in the ancient world that's the way they thought.
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God is above.
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Hell is below.
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And that's the way we assign things that are above and things that are beneath.
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But what we understand is that God doesn't live on Mercury.
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God doesn't live on Venus.
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God doesn't live on Orion's belt or anywhere else in the universe.
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But rather God lives outside of his creation.
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God is not dependent upon his creation.
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God is everywhere but he is not in all things in the way that the pantheists believe that everything is God and God is in everything like God is in the tree and God is in the bushes and God is in this and God is in that.
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No.
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God is over those things.
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Transcendent.
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He is above those things.
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He created those things.
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All of those things are under him.
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And so when Paul says seek that which is above, the first thing we know that he's talking about is he's telling us to seek God himself.
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Because God is that which is above.
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But also he has mentioned Christ so much.
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I can't fail but to say that he's also telling us to seek Christ because Christ is above seated at the right hand of the father.
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But might I say that there's more to it than that.
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Even more than that.
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Because in seeking God and in seeking Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we will also be seeking those things that please God and that please Christ.
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We're going to see those things in the weeks to come.
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Abandoning idolatry, abandoning sexual immorality, all of those things.
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Why? Because those things do not please God.
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When you talk to your children, do you talk to your children about the things that please God or do you just tell them don't do that? Mommy says so.
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Daddy says so.
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Or do we say we have something more than mommy and daddy.
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We have a God who calls us to these things.
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We have a standard above me.
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I'm not the standard.
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Praise God I'm not the standard.
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God is the standard.
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And as I was thinking about the things that are above, I got to thinking about what are the things that come to us by virtue of the spirit filling us.
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The fruit of the spirit.
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Galatians 5, 22 and 23.
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The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
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And what does he say? Against these things there's what? No law.
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And so what does it mean to seek the things that are above? It means to seek after God, to seek after Christ, and to seek those things that are pleasing to him.
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And the things that are pleasing to him are the things that he puts within us when the spirit comes to live with us.
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Those things that are from the spirit.
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Beloved, do we seek those things? Do we seek to be gracious? Or do we seek to be mean-spirited? Do we seek to be merciful? Or do we seek only justice for those who have wronged us? Do we seek peace? Or do we only find joy in strife? Are we seeking the things that are above? The things that come from God? Finally, he says, and don't set your mind on earthly things.
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This is verse 2 actually.
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He says, set your minds on things above, not on things that are on the earth.
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Not on things that are on the earth.
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Now I want to make something abundantly clear.
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Paul is not telling us to abandon the world, run off to the monasteries, and hide until Jesus comes.
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That is how some in church history have interpreted things like this.
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And they have created an ascetic lifestyle where they've abandoned the world and they've abandoned influence and they've abandoned those things and they've run to the monasteries to live apart from everything until Jesus returns.
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No, he is not telling us that the things of this world do not have a place of attention.
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In fact, if you come to me and say that, well, let me back up a second.
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We have things to consider.
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People come to me sometimes and want to talk about this life and things that are going on in this life.
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And there are things that are important.
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Men, we have to provide for our families.
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That's important.
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The Bible says if you don't provide for your family, you're what? You're worse than an unbeliever.
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Therefore, we have to consider that.
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Right? We have to consider showing love one to another.
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There's 31 times I think that we see the word one another.
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Andy and Mike did the one another's in their Sunday school class together.
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And there's 31 times we have to consider how we love one another, encourage one another, not lie to one another.
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All those things are in the scriptures.
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And so we do have to consider those things.
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And it's okay to have goals.
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If marriage is a goal for you, I pray for you because marriage is a good goal.
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And there's goodness in marriage.
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There's the gospel is pictured in marriage.
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If family is a goal for you, I pray God give you a family.
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Psalm 127 tells us that children are a heritage from the Lord.
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Church and the impact of the church should be a goal for us.
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Seeing our church grow, seeing our church impact the community, seeing the gospel spread, these should be goals.
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But understand this, the priority must always be Christ.
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Matthew 6, 33, who has it memorized? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.
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Seek ye first.
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And that's what Paul is saying here.
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Seek the things that are above.
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Set your mind on the things that are above.
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Don't be worldly.
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Where all you think about and all you set your goals for and all you focus on are the things of this earth.
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Because understand this, the things of this earth will pass away.
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And you'll either see them pass away or they'll see you pass away.
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The king must have first place.
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Turn in your Bible to Matthew 16, verse 24.
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Then Jesus told His disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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You understand the cross was an instrument of death and everyone knew it.
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Everyone who had seen a man stapled to a cross knew what this meant.
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Die and follow me, Jesus says.
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Verse 25, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
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For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Do you feel the weight of what Jesus is saying? He is saying in this moment, there's nothing in this world that's worth your soul.
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There's nothing in this world that you should be willing to exchange for your soul.
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You say, well, if I do this thing, I can have 50 great years.
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But if this thing separates you and points you away from Christ, this thing is not worth 50 years when compared to eternity.
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Because 50 years is nothing when you consider what it's being compared to.
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What shall it profit a man to be Bill Gates and have all the money, have 10 times as much money as Donald Trump? You realize that Bill Gates has 10 times as much money as Donald Trump.
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What would it profit a man to be Bill Gates or Donald Trump or Elon Musk? What does it profit a man to have everything the world has to offer and yet forfeit his soul? If you have been raised with Christ, seek that which is above.
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Seek him.
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Let's pray.
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Father Almighty, I thank you.
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I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the call of the word, which says that this world is not all there is, but that there is a life to come that is right now hidden with Christ in God that we can't even imagine.
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But when he appears, we will be as he is.
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Lord, help us to be encouraged by that reality and to be moved towards closer conformity to our Savior who loved us and gave himself for us.
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Father, I pray for unbelievers today.
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Lord, whatever it is, it's keeping them from the cross of Christ.
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Whatever it is that's causing them to say, this is better than Jesus.
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This is more lovely than Christ.
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This is more enjoyable than Christ.
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This is more fun than Christ.
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Whatever it is, Lord, I pray that they would see that nothing is worth the soul and, Lord, that we would turn from those things and turn to Christ.
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In Jesus' name, amen.