Rightly Focused? - [Colossians 3:1-4]

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Lord Jesus, we thank you. We praise you. We want to honor you. We want to glorify you. We thank you that we can sing praises to you.
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We thank you for an opportunity to look at your word, to dig into your message,
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Lord. We just pray that you would be honored and glorified. Lord, may it be a message that penetrates the hearts of those who don't know you.
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Lord, those would be people that would be tasked or have such a desire to come now to you,
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Lord, as you draw them, we would ask in your great and precious name that that would be happened through this message.
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Lord, again, nothing of my doing, nothing of anyone else's doing, but again, it would be all for your glory and your glory alone.
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We just thank you and we praise you now this evening in your holy and precious name. Amen. So it looks like I'm competing against the
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Olympic Games at this point. I think the closing are going on now, so a little bit smaller group here.
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But it works out well because my illustration is we're actually going to be around the Olympic Games.
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So as we're seeing the Olympic Games now starting to wane, as we're getting to a closure here, the masses now have started to change their focus elsewhere.
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They're already going off and looking and watching other things or being entertained by other aspects or avenues.
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But I wanted to just illustrate something that I think would really resonate with those who have either seen the
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Olympics or understand the Olympics in any way or means, and it will help illustrate what I'm going to be talking about today from the
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Word of God. So picture in your mind one of the sprint runners out there.
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Probably the most famous is Usain Bolt. If anyone has watched the Games, you would have heard or understood the gentleman's name,
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Bolt. So if we look at Bolt and we see him as a sprinter, you can clearly see that this man has physically and mentally focused his attention and trained specifically for the sport that he is in.
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So he is really focused on a sprinter and he has met the needs that the sport demands, again, physically and mentally.
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And although he's very fit and he's very good at what he does, it's interesting that he probably wouldn't make a good gymnast or he probably wouldn't make a good swimmer or he probably wouldn't make a good badminton player.
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But with him pictured in your mind, Usain Bolt, and this great person who can run and sprint very well and has set world records, think with me now of a fictitious character running alongside
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Usain Bolt. This person will be a little bit different in their physical appearance.
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He or she looks nothing like a sprinter as you would imagine it. Instead, they have this, you know, instead of a long, slender -shaped body as we see most of the runners have, almost no fat on them, this person weighs in at about 400 to 420 pounds and is measured in at about 5 '1 height, so you can just picture what this person looks like.
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Additionally, this person has really not focused on the sport of running at all. They've focused their mind and their attention on sitcoms, on national
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TV. Now these two things alone, this non -mental focus and this non -training or not physically beating your body into submission would be something that would probably not allow this person to complete the race that they are running in.
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And not only is this person not in the correct physical and mental condition for the race, but imagine if you would that they're wearing a snowsuit with a parka fully closed up and they've got swim flippers on.
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It's a very different person. They would have a very hard time to win the race. If they didn't have a heart attack when they first started off, they would probably never finish the race.
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Do you think such a person would look the part of a sprinter? Do you think such a person would, if you looked at him on the street, you would say, that is an
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Olympic sprinter? I don't think you would. And that's exactly what
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Paul is going to discuss in our message today. As we are going to look at the text, Paul is going to detail really what the local body should look like and that a person should be heavenly focused at all times, no matter the outcome.
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The Colossian Church was struggling and dealing with a few things that we'll outline here in the next couple sections.
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But for those who are taking notes, let me give you what we'll be talking about this evening. Those who like to make notes or any other type of information.
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I'm going to give you today three reasons why a Christian should be heavenly focused.
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Three reasons why a Christian should be heavenly focused and not worldly bound.
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And then at the end I'm going to give you three questions that will help you to see, are you aligned in the same way that Paul is in the text that we'll be looking at.
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Are these three questions that will really kind of come out and say, are you running the right race? Are you even in the race?
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Don't you think an Olympic sprinter should look like an Olympic sprinter? Don't you think a swimmer should look like a swimmer?
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Don't you think a Christian to the world should look like a Christian?
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Shouldn't a Christian be heavenly focused? Because you yourself are a new creature in Christ, as we'll detail more as we go along.
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And shouldn't it all be apparent in your life, as you show love, kindness, obedience, and the new desire that only you as a
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Christian can? Do people see you differently than the rest of the world?
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Or is it hard to distinguish? So turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles to the book of Colossians.
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We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3.
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I have listed verses 1 through 17, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 17 because I think for context it will help us to better understand what
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Paul is talking about here. But I'm going to mainly focus on verses 1 through 4.
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That's where our text is going to be today. 1 through 4. So the remaining parts, 5 through 17, will be really to give context.
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So let me read this. Follow along in your Bibles. Book of Colossians chapter 3. And again, verses 1 through 17.
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Paul writes this. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
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Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.
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For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
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Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
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On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.
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Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
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Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
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Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, siphon, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.
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Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
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If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive.
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And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
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Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thanksgiving in your hearts to God.
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And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the
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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through Him.
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So before I jump into the actual text itself, let me give you some background on the book of Colossians itself, because I think it's important to understand why
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Paul is writing to the church, so that we can understand better verses 1 through 4 in the book of Colossians.
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What's even more interesting, and in some ways sad, the same struggles that this church is facing, and that Paul is directly addressing here in verses 1 through 17, are the same issues that are happening in many evangelical churches today.
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Paul's main issue is the battling of false teachers, and the false teaching that was influencing and raised questions for many of the new believers who were part of the local church.
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These false teachers were coming in and preaching and teaching something completely different than what Paul and the rest of the apostles were preaching.
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The problem really revolved around an influx and an influence of Gnostic teaching.
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It was trying to divide and destroy the unity of the church itself. And you may remember that Gnosticism taught that the spirit is relatively good, or the spirit is good, and the physical body or physical nature of anything is considered evil.
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This briefly should raise some concerns in your minds with what Gnosticism is, compared to the physical bodily death and resurrection of our
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Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. If the body is evil, then Jesus could not have actually come to this earth, lived a perfect life, paid the penalty for your sins and mine.
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The Gnostics said that Jesus was only spirit and never had a physical form.
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Gnosticism also taught that there was a special or secret knowledge that either one could grasp or one could be given that would make them in the know, or gnosis, which is what the term comes from, knowledge.
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And if you had this gnosis, if you possessed this gnosis, you were considered to be a believer.
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You were part of the true believers. In the more current form, you'd be one of the cool kids on the block if you had this extra knowledge.
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And yet, this was very confusing to the new Christians. And Paul wanted to use the book to ensure that believers knew their position in Christ and also put to death the false teachings that were going around at that time.
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He wanted to clear it up. And as I said earlier, again, these are the same struggles that a lot of Christian churches are facing today.
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And not only was it the standard teachings of Gnosticism, but they were also bringing in mysticism,
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Judaism, and paganism, all kind of blended together with Gnosticism to just confuse the church all the more.
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And again, we're seeing that grow rapidly in our churches in many ways. So with that background, with that understanding, let me jump now really quick just into some overview of the text we're going to be looking at today, just so you can get an understanding of kind of where it is at and where it's coming from.
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Verses 1 -4 of chapter 3 really summarizes the first two chapters of the book.
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So the first two chapters of the book, Paul lays out this great theology, this great understanding, this great knowledge about Christ, who
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He is, the preeminence of Christ, what His position is, what our position is before Him.
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And then when he moves into chapter 3, it's a summarization of those two chapters kind of wrapped up here in verses 1 -4.
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Christ is the focus of this section of text. And it's interesting, if you look for key words in your verses when you do your
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Bible study, you will see that in the first four verses, Christ is used four different times.
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It is a key word here that we need to look at and understand, and we'll be digging into that more.
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The section of the book Paul really is speaking about, it's a larger section, which really goes into chapter 4, verse 1 even, is all around Christian living.
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So once he's taught the theology, now let's put into practice what that theology is.
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And he covers the following topics kind of throughout these. He covers the reasoning of Christian behavior, which is what we'll look at today, chapter 3, verses 1 -4.
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What a Christian's life does not represent is seen in 5 -11 as I read.
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And the life within the local body of the Christian, so Christ in the local body and the
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Christian, how we should act is verses 12 -17. And then the life of how we should be in the home, which
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I did not read, is covered under 3 -18 -4 -1.
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What we're going to look at though is Paul is very focused on sanctification also in verses 1 -4.
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It's kind of a key theme, a key idea, a key area that he's looking at. And he's really looking at our desire towards holy living, our sanctification, the process.
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And I'll talk about that in a little bit. But Paul wants to show that the
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Christian has new values, new desires, new loves, new affections.
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And those do not come from your own power, your own will, your own flesh. They only come through Christ Himself.
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He shows that conversion of the Christian should show a radical change in mind and body, which produces a desire which is very different from the world.
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Just as God is holy and separate from sin, this continued process that we have, this sanctification, is trying to get us to be more
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Christ -like. So let me quickly define what sanctification is for those who might not understand what the term is.
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Let me give you a dictionary definition here, and maybe it'll be more clear.
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Sanctification is a term meaning being made holy or purified. It is used broadly of the whole
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Christian experience, though most theologians prefer to use it in a restricted sense to distinguish it from related terms such as regeneration, justification, and glorification.
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So you may be asking yourself, well, how is it different? What is sanctification? How is it different from these other terms?
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And that's a good question you should be asking yourself. Sanctification is this continued process.
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Justification and regeneration and glorification are a point in time where sanctification is the life of the
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Christian himself. If you think about it as a stock ticker or any other type of data that you might chart in a graph, on a line chart, sanctification is showing the
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Christian continuing to move in an upward direction. It is that constant flowing, moving upward as you grow in Christ, as you read the
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Word, as you pray, as the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures to you. It's that continued process. Now, this is not to say that we don't have times, excuse me, this is not to say that we don't have times or seasons consisting of both very highs and lows in our
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Christian walk where on that chart we may see a season of a drop and a spike up and a drop and so forth.
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It's a flow. It's not always this constant trend or this constant movement in an upward motion.
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But over the life of the Christian, it would be a trend in an upward direction, an upward fashion. And again, it should be noted that none of this is by your ability.
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It's not your working for your sanctification. It's not a process, but it is only through Christ and what he has done for God's glory alone that we are continuing to be sanctified.
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So if you look with me at the first verse of chapter 3, what you'll see quickly is that Paul covers a couple areas here throughout these four verses, these first four verses that we'll be covering.
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And I'll just give you a quick outline of what he's covering and then we'll get into detail on that. But Paul really covers the
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Christian's past, dying and being raised as you'll see, the present, one's focus on things above, what we should be doing now for our sanctification, always being focused above.
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We need to be rightly focused in our minds. Again, obtaining the prize, going for the goal as Paul talks about, beating our bodies into submission as an
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Olympic athlete would. And then lastly, we see that he talks about the future state of the
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Christian. We see when appearing with him in glory. And again, because of these three things, because of these three, the past, present, and the future, we as Christians need to be thankful and focused on always having our minds
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Christ -centered, heavenly word, heaven -focused. So let's jump into our text.
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I think it's a good background, some good details, but let's now jump into the text. And one of the first things that should stick out to you like a sore thumb should be the very first word in your
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Bibles for chapter 3, verse 1. Based on your translation, you'll see this is a very key word, especially if you're doing
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Bible study. This is a word that if you come across it, you should stop and ask yourself, well, what is it?
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What does this mean? What is it pointing to? Why is it there? It's a key word to Bible study, and you need to recognize it as being important.
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It's called a transitional word. It's a movement from one thing to another, and sometimes it's to close what happened over here or it's to transition into a new subject or a new topic, but it's a transitional word.
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And based on, again, which Bible translation you have, the ESV uses the two words if -then.
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The NAS uses therefore. The NIV uses sense. And these are all transitions that essentially what
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Paul is writing here is if you look at the ESV for if -then, I'm a computer guy, so I right away think of computer words.
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If -then to me is if this happens or if this is occurring, do this.
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If you were saved and regenerated by Jesus Christ, then have a focus that is heavenward in your direction.
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So if this, do this. And that's what Paul's laying out for the Christian is he's, again, taking all the theology from the first two chapters and showing us what we should be doing.
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And in this, Paul, there's a summary section that Paul uses in chapter 2 that we'll briefly take a look at.
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And from that summary section, what he'll say is what I've taught you through chapter 1 and most of chapter 2 is foolishness, and now he'll move into chapter 3.
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But chapter 2 shows that you need to understand that apart from Christ, if you follow laws, if you follow
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Jewish tradition, if you follow anything else but Christ, there's no value.
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It's foolishness. It's vain. So look with me quickly at verses 20 -23, chapter 2.
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So if you just look back briefly, or it might be on the next page in your Bible, so the previous page, Paul says this in this section of verses 20 -23.
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And, again, this is just a rap context around what we're going to look at here in 1 -4. Paul says to the
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Colossian church, 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?
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Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings.
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These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
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Let me make it clear from this section of this verse, and as we move into 3 -1 -4, that Paul is not saying that he is looking for an outward moral view, as we would think of as the
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Pharisees provided when they walked around in their robes and tried to teach and preach
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Scripture, but didn't even know the Messiah. Not at all. Nor am
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I saying that keeping religious laws, as we just saw there, is something that would save us.
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No, not at all. Remember, Paul is speaking mainly to believers here who came from a life of Judaism.
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The false teachers are here preaching and teaching something that is completely wrong from the
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Gospel message. And Paul is trying to say that although you are bringing this extra baggage of your tradition and your works -based religion, that all has no value in stopping you from indulging in the worldly acts of the flesh.
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He specifically says no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Both from our text and from that found in chapter 2,
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Paul is saying that because of the work of Christ on your behalf, you should desire to be obedient to the
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One who has saved your soul from eternal punishment. He did this by suffering and dying a brutal death on the cross and was raised from the dead so that you, and you, and you, and you could all be saved.
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As you'll see shortly, it is only when you are in Christ, Paul loves the term in Christ, and we see it throughout his writings, that such desires of the flesh can truly be removed.
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If you are not in Christ, if you are not a Christian, if you are not controlled by the
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Holy Spirit, then you will be controlled by your fleshly desires that were outlined by Paul in our text.
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Just as with strong theology and a saving work of Jesus Christ brings about obedience, just as that brings obedience to the
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Christian, in contrast, Paul is telling the Colossians in chapter 2 that out of false teaching and out of weak theology, one will reap sinful desires no matter how hard you try to stop it.
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It can't be done on your own. You're not going to have that heavenly focus. One, it's an impossible thing, but your desires will take over and you will continue to be just like we see in Romans chapter 1.
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The false teaching that came was devastating and confusing to the Christians, just like many of the false teachers today who prey upon the weak and the immature in their faith.
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If you are a Christian here today, if you would say that you are a Christian here today and you could look at what
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Paul has said here in our text and you say, I am a Christian and these are my desires. I'm always looking heavenward and I'm striving and I'm in Christ.
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If you are a Christian here today, you're no longer alive to the world and dead to Christ as the non -believer is.
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You're no longer dead to Christ. Instead, you are alive in Christ and now dead to the things and the powers of this world.
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What a blessed and burden -lifting thought that you have the power not to sin based on what
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Jesus Christ has done. It's an amazing truth. We don't have to indulge in the flesh because we are and should always be heavenly minded, heavenly focused.
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Paul again wants the Christians to know that once you are in Christ, you move from one domain where your
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Father is said to be the devil and you hated God with all your heart, mind and strength to another where God now is your
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Father and as much as you hated Him, you now hate the things of the world. It's a moving from darkness into light.
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It is a moving from death to life. It is a desiring of things that are light instead of darkness.
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In our text, verses 1 and 2, if you look there quickly, verses 1 and 2, you'll see probably two parallel commands that Paul gives to the
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Christians at Colossae and they are commands for you and I as well. There are two imperatives.
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These are commands to the church along again with you and I and an imperative is this ongoing action, something we should always be doing and Paul gives us two of these, one in 3 .1
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and one in 3 .2. And remember these commands as we go through the text and we look at this and always come back to these two commands as to why
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Paul is telling us to do these things in verses 1 through 4 is to help us meet these commands.
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Two commands are this, fairly easy, you probably have already seen them, but it is one, set your heart on the things above, is the first command.
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It's found in verse 1. The second command is in verse 2, it says set your mind on things above.
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Heart and mind, two different things, but we need to focus them on the things above.
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And that's why I titled this message, Is your mind rightly focused on the things above?
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Again, they sound like simple commands. They sound like very simple things to do. But for the Christian, it's an impossible thing to do.
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They cannot set their mind on things above. They cannot set their hearts on things above because they hate it.
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But for the Christian, again, we can't turn around and go, that's all of me, what a great person
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I am because I'm a Christian now. We have to understand that you are a Christian only by God's sovereign decree and only by the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf and through the help of the
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Holy Spirit in illuminating and convicting us of our sin. But because we are given these two commands, we need to dive into the first of three reasons.
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Remember at the beginning I said I was going to talk about three different reasons and they're coming now. But these three reasons again are to show that your mind should always be heavenly focused and not earthly bound.
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And you'll see that these commands that God has given to us, they're not commands to be mean and to make life hard, but instead they're out of love and affection that we should want to be obedient.
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We should want to do these things because Christ Jesus paid the price for the sins of you and I.
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That's why we should be heavenly focused. No other reason. So look back with me at the first verse of chapter 3 and we'll start looking at the three reasons.
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And I'm going to start with reason one. And you can probably see it very clearly, but reason one that you should be heavenly focused is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This fact alone should keep your mind and heart focused on the things above as we're commanded here in this
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Scripture. And if you look with me at verse 1 of chapter 3, it says this,
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If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
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There's our command. Where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Let me point out a few words as we dive into the text here.
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Paul writes, You have been raised with Christ. And he continues by saying, Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
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The theological content found in this one verse alone, as we read verse 1 here, this is enough to fill multiple sermons.
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I know Pastor Mike is sitting back there and saying, How can you even cover 1 through 4 in a single message where I could spend 4 messages just in verse 1 here?
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There's so much theology in that one sentence. It's an amazing sentence.
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But I don't have time to dive deep into this today as we're going to cover more verses than that.
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But just be aware of how deep this really is as you read that verse. So often as we read our
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Bibles, we just quickly skim over it and we don't think deeply upon it. And this is just rich with theology.
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And as you'll see, I'm going to ask a couple of questions as we dive into this. So as I look at the text itself from verse 1,
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I've asked some questions and I'm going to answer those questions because I think you might have the same questions yourself. If not,
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I hope you'd be asking these types of questions as you read the Scriptures. And the first one is,
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What does it mean to be raised with Christ? What does it mean to be raised with Christ? I see it says there,
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Paul says, You have been raised with Christ. But what does that mean? Simply put, when
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Jesus Christ was raised from the dead after willingly going to the cross to be punished and die a brutal death in your place and mine,
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God accepted the perfect work of Christ in exchange for the believer's sins. The good news for the
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Christian is that at this point of salvation, at this point, you positionally have received
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Christ's righteousness in exchange for your sin debt. The account of sin is wiped away upon Christ's resurrection.
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If Christ had not been raised, we have no means of salvation.
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And that's exactly what the Gnostics were coming and teaching and preaching to the church at Colossae.
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Salvation could not have been accomplished apart from the shed blood and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself.
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And Paul wants his reader to know that because of the work of Christ, you as a believer were raised.
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And if you look at it, it's past tense. Were raised. You were raised. If you're a Christian, you were already raised.
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He uses the word have been. You were raised when
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He proclaimed victory over death and sin when He said it is finished.
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It is finished. The second question I'm looking at as I looked just at the very first one and for the same reason, is why was
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Christ raised from the dead? Why was He raised from the dead? Why does that matter to me as a
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Christian? And Jesus Christ was raised by God as the one who was the perfect, obedient one to be the only sin sacrifice for you and I.
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Upon Christ's death, His burial and His resurrection, God made a way for Him to remain righteous.
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So God can remain righteous. He can remain holy. He can remain just while also providing a means of mankind to come before Him without the fear of His wrath.
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It's not by our work. It's not by our goodness. As Pastor Mike talked about today, how so many of us today, if you said, are you a good person?
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We would say, yes. Well, that's not what it is. It's all by Christ, for Christ, and for God's glory alone.
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Had Christ not gone to the cross? Even if we think about what the Gnostics were bringing to the church, if Christ had not been raised and He was, let's say, spirit and never even died on the cross, if He had not died there, each and every one of us here today would have no hope.
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We'd be hopeless. Why are we here if that's the case? We, along with all of creation, would be condemned to an eternal punishment under the righteous and just judgment of God Himself.
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We would face directly the wrath of God that Jesus Himself faced on the cross.
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The third question in just this section I looked at is, well, why is it important that He's seated at the right hand of God?
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Why is that important? Is it important? And it's a very special, prominent place.
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This location was very, very special, and it may even raise a thought in your mind as you read
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Scripture of Psalm 110, verse 1, where the psalmist writes, the
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Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool.
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Similar references to this right -hand seat are made in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and even the books of Acts.
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And it was a seat of power. It was a seat of authority. And it represented Christ's victory over His enemies.
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And the enemies of God, namely sin and death, were the two enemies that He has now seated and is the
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King of kings and Lord of lords. And this phrase represents the ultimate power and authority over all which
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Christ received through the death and resurrection. It is His victory. It is His preeminence.
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It's exactly what we saw in Colossians 1, where preeminence is spoken about by Paul to the
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Colossians, that Christ is victorious and preeminent above all things. He is the Lord of lords.
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He is the King of kings. And that's clear in our Scriptures. Paul wants his reader and the
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Colossians to see and understand that Christ's physical death and resurrection is important, which was, again, very different from the teaching that was being presented to them through the false teachers.
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Paul was battling that at all times. Paul wanted to make sure that the Colossians at the church, the young Christians, the young Christians that had all this additional baggage to them, understood what was being said.
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And he wanted them to be heavenly focused. So the first reason to be heavenly focused is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it has an effect on both the believer and the nonbeliever.
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We don't always think to the nonbeliever side of things, but his resurrection has an impact to both.
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So let me ask you the question. Are you heavenly focused because of the work of Christ in your life?
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Because Jesus Christ died and was raised from death through the resurrection, are you wanting to show your affections towards him?
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It's important. And Paul is saying just that. So let me go to reason two.
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Reason two, if you're taking notes, to be heavenly focused, again, a very deep theological reason, as we'll see here in verses three and four.
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And that reason is because you've been given a new source of life. Not only was
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Christ raised through the resurrection of Christ, do we have this heavenly focus, but it's because we have a new source of life, a new source of life.
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You've been given this new source of life. I don't know if you heard that well, but you've been given a new source of life.
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The source that you had previously, before you were a Christian. The only way I can describe that source, and I hate to be crass in this way, is it was like drinking from a cesspool.
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And yet this new source, this new source is the pure and living water that flows from Christ himself.
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Look with me in your Bibles at verse three of Colossians chapter three.
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Here, Paul in verse three gives us the second reason you should be heavenly focused. And Paul says this, you have died.
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And he also says your life is hidden with Christ in God. Think about what
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Paul is saying here. Again, think about if you were one of these
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Christians in Colossae, and you were confused, think of what Paul is trying to say here to the reader, or the one that heard it.
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He's stating a fact that you have died to your sins, by and only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
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And you yourself have been raised as a new creature in Christ. And Paul is saying because of that you should be acting like one.
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You should be directing your attention, your affections, your love, your desires, and everything else heavenward.
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You should be becoming more Christ -like. This is where sanctification comes in. You should be directing yourself and saying,
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God today, make me more and more like you through your word, the
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Holy Spirit, Christ's work, and the power of God.
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As we know, but God, are you being focused?
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Are you seeing that you are a new creature? Do you see that you have a new life? Has your life changed from what it used to be?
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Is it hard to distinguish yourself before you were saved, to yourself now that you have been saved?
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Or have you seen a radical change, as Paul talks about? And if so, if you say, yes,
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I have this change in my life. If so, are you fully focused on the prize?
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Are you fully focused on the Christian race? Are you focused on what needs to be done?
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Are you filling your mind with the word? Are you praying and communing with God, and being thankful and grateful for all the things that have been done to you?
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So let me see if I can answer a couple of questions just out of this verse of Scripture alone.
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As you look through it, again, deep and theological, but you may be asking yourself a couple of things, and that is, so what is this dying
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Paul speaks of? It says, you have died. I've died. And for most of you, you look pretty alive.
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You look to me as I look out there, and hopefully you would say the same for me. You look pretty lively. You're here, so you may be saying to yourself, what is this death that Paul is speaking of?
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And it's pretty clear, as we look through our text, that Paul is not speaking of physical death here.
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He's not saying that you physically died. But if you think about how
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Adam and Eve, in the book of Genesis, were alive, made alive by God, and they were given one command, and even
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Pastor Mike talked about it today, they were given one command to be obedient to, and they failed and sinned against God.
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God told them that if you did not obey me, you would die. And we see that they did not die immediately.
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They did not die a physical death, but it's a spiritual death. And what Paul is saying here, is that for a
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Christian, you have died to the things of this world.
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You have died to the sin. You have died to your desires. You have died to your lusts. You have died to all the things that Paul talks about in the remaining portions of chapter 3.
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And we need to be grateful that when Adam and Eve disobeyed, and we inherited that sin nature, we have to be grateful that God made a way for sinners to be spiritually made alive, to have a new source of life.
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And that life comes only through Jesus Christ and His dying and being raised as a substitute for you and me.
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He's replaced that heart of stone, that source of death and destruction and behavior that we have in this world with a heart of flesh.
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A beating heart, a living heart. The source that we have, the source that we've been given, is no longer a source of darkness.
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A light doesn't work when you turn it on and it's dark. Instead, a light, when it's turned on, should illuminate the darkness.
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And that's exactly what a Christian's life should be now that you've been saved. Your desires, your lusts, your affections, your wants have all been replaced from the things of this world, the things that you used to desire, to the things instead of God.
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You have died and been raised with Christ, a new creature, spiritually.
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Positionally, you have died and are seen by God as righteous because of the work of Christ.
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And because of that, you yourself need to have a heaven focus. You need to be thanking
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God for this death, for even a means that He has given for us to be saved.
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Paul also says, your life has been hidden with Christ. So I would say, well, what does that mean to be hidden with Christ?
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And here Paul is mostly focusing on the words which the false teachers were bringing and their
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Gnostic influence. Paul is trying to really show them that it isn't this hidden knowledge, it isn't this hidden gnosis that we gain while we are given it by other humans.
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Instead, it is by the power and blood of Jesus Christ. He wants to make it clear that one's salvation is not secret and hidden knowledge.
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No, it is something that is instead hidden and secure in the power of Jesus Christ.
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And additionally, he is referring to the believer's protection or deliverance from both sin and death.
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This is where we can now come to God if we have sinned and ask for forgiveness. Paul often uses the phrase, died to, in many of his other writings when he speaks of our sinful nature or our sinful state or our sinful desires.
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The believer is protected by the wonderful work of Jesus Christ.
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And I imagine a lot of times I have this picture as I read this and I think of a baby chick hidden beneath the wing of the mother.
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And how if something, if that chicken hawk wants to go after that chick, he needs to first think about and weigh the cost of, well, is that something that I can attack the hen first to get the chick or not?
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And that's kind of the picture of we are hidden in Christ. We are protected.
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We are saved. So why is
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Christ our new life is another question I have from this section. And this question is quite clear for most of you here.
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Christ is the source of our new life as I talked about earlier. And the reason to be heavenly focused is because of His willingness to lay down His life for sinners.
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Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved as we see in Acts 4 .12.
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It is only by His name, through His works, that we can be saved. And because you as a believer have a new source of life, you should be always heavenly focused and desiring to give glory and honor to the one who has saved you from eternal punishment in hell.
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So the first reason to be heavenly focused is because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the first reason.
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The second reason to be heavenly focused is you've been given a new source of life. Why would you want to go back to the cesspool and drink from it when instead you've got the pure living water of Jesus Christ?
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So let's look at the third reason to always be heavenly focused. The third and the last reason is this.
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Look with me at verse 4 in your Bibles. And it's the future manifestation, our future view of glory is why we should be heavenly focused.
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Paul says this, when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
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This is that future state I talked about. This is where glorification comes in. No matter what we're facing here on this earth, no matter what trials, no matter what tribulations, no matter what things we may be dealing with, we all have issues.
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We can be heavenly focused because we know that our Savior will take us to glory.
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Paul is telling the church again that no matter your trials you face, no matter the tribulations you endure, no matter the persecutions, you will suffer because the
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Scripture says you will suffer persecution. You can have your attention heavenward only because of the work of Christ.
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You are safe from sin and death and most importantly, you are safe from the wrath of God if you are a
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Christian here today. And it was only by the loving power of Jesus Christ, because of His work, that you have eternal life in heaven.
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I thought of as I was studying this, of Romans 8 -17. No need to turn there. I'll read it quickly.
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If you want, just write it down. Romans 8 -17 says this, We are heirs.
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We are heirs of the King of Kings and heirs of the Lord of Lords. Are you acting like an heir today?
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Are you happy with how you are walking in Christ? And can you say boldly,
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I am an heir to the throne of the King of Kings? Is your affection
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Christ -focused? This reminds me so often of those who have suffered and died brutal deaths via martyrdom and their willingness as they went to the stake to be burned or thrown in sacks with snakes and thrown in the water to be drowned and bitten first.
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It makes me think of these people and the world would say, that's crazy.
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Why don't they just lie and say, yeah, I recant my belief in God or whatever else it is, just so they can survive.
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But they understood this. They understood this text. They understood that they are heavenly focused and what that means.
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And the Bible says it was appointed for man once to die and then face judgment.
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And those martyrs understood that that was just a small suffering that they would face in exchange for an eternal life with Christ.
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And it's worth more than anything they may have lost in this world. Even their family, even their own life.
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For the unbeliever, it seems very strange that a Christian would be willing to suffer in this way.
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Yet the Christian has a future hope, a new source of life and it's because of and only by the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we have this.
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So the three reasons are this. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you should be heavenly focused.
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Because you have a new source in life, you should be heavenly focused. And because of this future hope in glory, you should be heavenly focused.
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I'm going to give you three practical test questions. Very simple questions. You can write these down. Think of them in your mind if you want to.
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That will just really help you to understand where are your affections today. And the first question is just that.
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Where are your affections placed? Is your mind and heart as commanded here in the
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Scriptures focused on the things above? Or is it instead buried in the things of this world?
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Where are your affections being placed? Are they placed on the love and the desire to please and be obedient to a loving
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God who made a way to save sinners through Jesus Christ and the
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Holy Spirit's illumination of the Word? Where are your affections? Where are they placed?
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Question two is, do you understand why your affections should be set heavenward? Do you understand it?
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And it was simply talked about here as I talked. You have died. Your life is hidden with Christ.
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You have a new source of life. There should be no other reason. There should be no other reason.
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And lastly, who is the object of your affections? Who is the object of your affections?
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Should it be Christ -focused? Should it be God -focused? But we need to be focused on, again, the things above because of what
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He has done for you and what He has done for me. I won't go into detail.
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The question comes down to sometimes is there a difference between heart and mind here in this command? And at this point,
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Paul is saying both need to be heavenly focused. Your heart, your desires, your attitudes need to be heavenly focused.
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And we need to even show that outwardly. So in conclusion, if you were to evaluate
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Paul's teachings outlined here in the book of Colossians, if you were to take and tally up and look at your walk against what the
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Colossians were facing here, how would you score yourself today?
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If you were to compare yourself as the athletes do, the Olympic athletes, where would you have placed?
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Would you be a gold medal winner? How about a silver medal winner?
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Bronze might be your area, or would you have actually been disqualified from the race altogether?
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Lord, we thank you for your word today. We thank you for those who have come out today, those who have come to listen to your word.
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We thank you that you have given us these two commands to be heavenly focused in our minds and our hearts.
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Help us to do that, Lord. Help us to be obedient to those commands. And Lord, as we leave today, help us to just think about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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Lord, if there is nothing else that we take from today that it is all through Christ and the work that he has done on our behalf.
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Lord, if there are any here today who have not put their faith and trust in you and have bent the knee to the
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Savior, Lord, I would pray that they would find someone here today to talk to, to discuss that.
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And Lord, just tug at their hearts and their minds to see that a heavenly focus is so much better than what we have here in this world for the non -believer.
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Lord, we thank you again for those who have come out. We ask that you would bless them. We ask that you would again focus our hearts and minds because we have this new source of life in our bodies.
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And Lord, because of just your goodness and kindness. We thank you for your word and the ability that we can proclaim it.
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And we just want to thank you and praise you and give you the glory for all things. And I say this in your holy and precious name.