Living the Gospel

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Don FilceK; Colossians 3:12-17 Living the Gospel

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan Specific things like anger malice slander obscene talk sexual immorality lust greed some of the
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Smattering of things that that God told us through that text a couple weeks ago But this week we see a new list a new list of things
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When he tells us all to take off these evil things He doesn't leave us standing in the cold in our skivvies
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But he he gives us something to put on in its place Something to put on our lives rather than just a whole process of taking things off taking things off But no we are to put something on unless the things we put on this morning are things to replace those evil
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Behaviors those evil characteristics those evil patterns that we find readily available in our hearts and in our lives
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Our text this morning reads like a list of commands because Frankly, it is a list of commands
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But each command focuses on a part of our lives that needs a reformation in the light of salvation
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Not that we go out and preach this list to the world that this is what you have to have to be acceptable
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To Christ, but rather these are the things that we get to put on in light of having been saved by Christ And so what do what is our message to the world?
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There is a Savior There is one who died for you to give you a new life and give you a new start
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That's the message that we have for the world But the message is different for the church and that is that you have a
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Savior who has loved you and therefore Desires for you to put on new behavior to put on new character
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And so that's what we're looking at this morning. And the outline is simply this In verses 12 through 14
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Christ describes our character in verses 15 through 16
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Christ defines our Community and in verse 17 Christ directs our calling
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So I got a little of alliteration in there for you guys those of you that that like that kind of thing There you go.
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You're welcome but There you go, dude. All right But we all need an improvement to our character right that will ultimately impact our community and all of that is fueled by His great calling on our lives
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And so let's open our Bibles to Colossians 3 12 through 17 If you're not there already Open up there
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Colossians 3 12 through 17 if you don't have a Bible or a device to navigate to a Bible on your lap please just raise a hand so that somebody can bring you a
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Bible and We want everybody to have a copy of God's Word on your lap there to reference and to look at What follow along as we read
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Colossians 3 12 through 17? put on then
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After we've seen all these things to take off in the last text put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved compassionate hearts kindness humility meekness and patience
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Bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful Let the
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Word of Christ dwell in you richly Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do 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 Let's pray as we get an opportunity and the band comes to lead us in psalms hymns and spiritual songs
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That we might sing with thankfulness in our hearts. Let's pray father I Do thank you so much for the cross of Christ that leads us to a life of gratitude leads us to thankfulness leads us to joy
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Father I recognize that some of us Bickered and got on each other on the way in the car on the way here
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Some of us woke up with a joyful song in our hearts and that frustrated everybody in our family Or there's all different kinds of things that have happened to us
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Even yet this morning that have impacted the way we're feeling we're so driven by circumstances So father, would you let one circumstance shine all the brighter that would that it might fuel our worship and that is that we are redeemed
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That is that we are okay in your sight because of what your son has done for us and made that Fuel our attitude in our heart towards hearing your word and going out and obeying it this week
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Father let that be the fuel moment by moment and especially in this moment where we have the opportunity to corporately sing songs to you but thankfulness drive us because Despite all the petty inconveniences and all the the frustrations and little things that get in our way father it is just that you have saved us that really should fuel our hearts and so I asked for that this morning
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I asked that we would sing together with joy and with gratitude and it's in the name of Jesus that we pray.
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Amen Amen, you can go ahead and be seated Big thanks to the band for leading us in worship this morning
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Just very grateful for the time and energy that they put in their morning starts pretty early on Sunday morning They're usually practicing at 730 on Sunday morning.
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So just really grateful for their dedication and their commitment Encourage you to get comfortable you can get more coffee or juice or Donuts while supplies last there.
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You're not gonna bother me if you get up and come up and do what you need to do There remember that restrooms are out the hall hall to the end turn right and go down down that way men's upstairs women's downstairs
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We want you to use the restrooms on this end of the building There are some down here where we save those for the kids ministry.
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So use those down here All right, thinking about Colossians 3 12 through 17.
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I'd love it If you had your Bibles open there and just kind of keep it there so that we can kind of keep referencing it I'm gonna I'm gonna keep tying into those verses there and that's gonna be our outline
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By and large as I'm as I lined out for you before Well when it comes to changing clothes,
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I think most of us in the room are pretty much experts You got some experience. You got some time logged.
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You've got some, you know, how many of you would say I've done that a few times I've changed my clothes a few times like I can do that like you get it years of practice
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Now not all of us have equal skills at fashion but all of us could swap out a shirt pretty fast or a pair of pants and just no time at all right and so when
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Paul When Paul's instructions and go something like this take something off put something on we get the analogy
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Don't we you get that you can figure that out take something off He's using an analogy of clothing and putting something else on But it's possible to get up get caught up in the order to be too specific
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In other words to carry the analogy a little bit too far You know, you could get into the order for example
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Well first you have to take this off in order to put this on or does this displace this or whatever?
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And so you could get into the nuances, you know, I'm here in Michigan often you dress in layers, right? You don't know
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I mean by you know You wake up in the morning and it's it's 12 below zero and then it's 80 degrees by the afternoon or something
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I mean exaggerating a bit but barely But you know what I'm saying so you dress in layers so are you allowed to put some of these things on over the top of other things and you could just kind of get a
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Little confused about the analogy or carry it so far that it becomes illogical or doesn't make sense
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But I believe that you could focus so much on the removal of some things and neglect putting something back on And and the fact of the matter is the
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Christian life is not neutral So it is not just what we take off that matters most but it is also the good that we put on It is not sufficient to go through life avoiding malice
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Just I wasn't I wasn't malicious today to anybody. Is that the standard for the Christian life?
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Think that through carefully. Is it the standard that you're not malicious? How many you know, it's good to not be malicious. Did you get that?
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That's it. That's important. That's good But is that the standard? Well, I I wasn't sexually immoral today
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So I guess I'm okay, or I avoided greed. I wasn't greedy today, you know, and I took that off.
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So, okay But the absence of evil would be great in our lives. That would be that's how many you know, that's a good foundation
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That's a that's a great place but what Jesus wants for you and I is The presence of good in our hearts the presence of good in our actions in our moment -by -moment lives
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His people are called out to be a force of positive change in a world desperately in need of peace compassion and joy
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Hear the difference. It's not I mean a lot of people think of religion as a bunch of don'ts Take a bunch of stuff off and throw it away
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But what about the things that he desires of you and I and that's what this text is looking at here this morning
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And when we see the things that Paul tells us to put on in verse 12 It becomes apparent that we cannot layer our clothing and he answers it for us.
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We cannot be both compassionate and Malicious simultaneously those those two don't work together.
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They the the wardrobe clashes Okay, and they can't be put on we cannot be both patient and sexually immoral
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Simultaneously, we cannot possess humility and slander others at the same time
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Do you hear the incompatibility in those lists that we that list that we went over a couple of weeks ago? And the list that we're looking at today
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So Paul is here in our text giving us a metaphor for the everyday moment -by -moment
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Choices we make I want to caution us but also guide us a little bit in our religious minds
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We have a tendency to take passages like this Where it talks about putting things on and we talk about the armor of God how many are familiar with the armor of God?
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and so, you know you can get into a Mantra or a formula for putting on the armor of God every morning Any of you ever been had had a pastor or a preacher or a lesson that told you to put on the armor of God Every morning.
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Well, I would suggest to you that the armor of God is something you need to appropriate every day of your life And these character traits are something that are a moment -by -moment decision that you make, you know
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You could go ahead and take this passage and say well when I put my shirt on in the morning I'm gonna utter a phrase about putting on compassion and then with each sock
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I'm gonna think about kindness and the other sock. I'm gonna think about humility and you could go through this list
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Etc. Etc. And with each article clothing how many of you think that would be a good exercise? It might be a good exercise, right?
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Like there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and it would be great if and hear me carefully if if that would help you to be truly compassionate in your driving
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Would it think that through if you if you every day every morning when you put your shirt on you suddenly, you know
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Said I want to be more compassionate. That's a good start to your day But then about what about when you're driving your car?
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What about when your co -worker does something that drives you nuts and you've told him it drives you nuts for the fifth time in a row
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By 10 o 'clock in the morning What about those things that are the irritants in our lives?
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I mean, maybe I'm not hitting the one for you, but you know what it is for you You know what gets you riled up and ruins your sanctification come
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Monday by lunch. You've already lost all of this, right? I mean we all we all relate to that and whatever it is
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So it's what the goal of this is not that you come up with a formula that you can just kind of say check that box put on compassion this morning and that's it how many of you know that that's a moment -by -moment thing that you need to address in your life and Sometimes you're doing well at it and sometimes you're not and sometimes you're like I need to take off malice right here right now
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And I need to put on compassion and that's behavior. That's action. That's the way you're rolling in your life And it's not just compassion, but it's kindness humility meekness and patience
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I'm not saying this I'm only saying this to clarify that routines and rituals are not what
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God desires of us He wants us to exhibit the right character in our lives So be cautious about rituals and routines and and consider is it helping me or not?
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And is there something else that I need to do about this? But my first point this morning it because we are
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God's chosen because we are declared holy because we are loved by him There's these three motivations those three motivations are there for us in verse 12 as Paul begins to do this one thing
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Describe the character of a follower of Christ. That's our first step this morning
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He's going to define the character of a Christ follower Or describe the character and and God has
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God has chosen us that's a motivation for us It's not a point of pride, but the text is very clear.
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We are chosen in him It's not for pride, but it's quite the opposite. It's intended to have the opposite effect
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God didn't choose us because we're super amazing because he was getting a bargain with you or boy He just looked and he said boy
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You've got the skills you have honed yourself to be a fine spiritual machine, and I need one of you
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So he saved you that's not the point God didn't choose us because we're super amazing super amazing as a matter of fact take this one on for size
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God said that he threw the Apostle Paul that he chooses the are you ready for it?
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He chooses the foolish things of the world Take that on for a minute consider what that says about you and I who are chosen in him
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He chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise Now let that settle in as we consider his choosing us
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We rejoice in being chosen because of what his great?
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Grace towards us we recognize we don't deserve it, but he's chosen us in him
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We don't deserve it, but we are indeed chosen and that should motivate us When we consider the way that we came into the family of God by his own gracious choice
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Our character will be fueled by gratitude by thankfulness We recognize that we owe him our everything and those of you who have encountered
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Christ in that way You know exactly what I'm talking about. You know that there's a sense of unworthiness that comes with the recognition of Christ on the cross for you and If you've really come to that place, then you then you recognize that the only response the only right response is thanks thankfulness deep gratitude and Respect for that that offering that sacrifice and that should fuel our lives
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That's that's meant to be fuel for our lives moment by moment when it comes to these character traits Another component of the fuel for our character is his declaration of our holiness now holiness in our minds is a mixed -bag
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Word it's got a lot of different notions And I've I've tried my best to preach multiple times that the word holiness has more to do with you are being set apart for God's service less to do with you doing everything righteous righteous is a always right kind of word so when you hear the word righteous, that means always right and Holiness is more set apart for God's purposes set apart for his use.
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I have used the illustration of a pair of scissors that a Professor of mine would would illustrate holiness his mom had a holy pair of scissors now
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It's not that they did everything right and they always cut a straight and true line It was that they were her cloth scissors
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And he said he had been actually punished and disciplined and spanked for using those scissors to cut binder twine and cut all different kinds
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Because those were her holy scissors and she made that abundantly clear they were holy in other words set apart set apart for what purpose strictly for Cutting cloth.
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Well, what is the life of a person who's been redeemed by Jesus Christ? Who's been saved set apart for his purposes set apart for glory set apart to be
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Compassionate humble meek all of these things. So that's that's part of the fuel of the
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Christian life is that he has called us holy He has set us apart in him
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We obey his commands his calling to us is to be a force of spreading his love in his kingdom not our own
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We do what he desires because he is the one who has set us apart for himself The word holy here is more like think in terms of conscription
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It's like being set apart into his army for his purposes responding to his commands
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And the last component that fuels our character is that we are This is beautiful. We are loved the text says be loved
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Without this it would look like the motivation for the Christian life is just raw duty. It's conscription into an army
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It's being made holy. It's being set apart We owe him our everything but the one issuing the commandments is one who has demonstrated his lavish and deep love for you
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And I by dying on the cross for our sins He is our Savior.
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He's our Redeemer. He is our friend because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ So the motivation to obey these commands come straight from our understanding of the gospel
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How what's the fuel for these things? It ultimately comes down to your recognition and understanding of the way you were saved
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He chose us to be his so we should walk like him. He set us apart for his own purposes
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So we should obey him. He loves us. So we should trust him enough to do what he says
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And now we get down to the character that he desires for us the the character traits that he desires to see expressed in our lives and the following is a list of Expectations of the follower of Jesus Christ that Paul is saying should characterize the way that you and I roll day to day now
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There's some room for conviction here The list is convicting to me But I believe that each each of us while we look at this list
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We'll immediately see that these are good targets to shoot for that These are these are beneficial that if we take these on and we put these on our lives and we actually live them out
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And walk in them throughout the day that our relationships in our households will improve our relationships with our
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Family our co -workers our community will be better Not that not that everything's gonna not that this is a silver bullet to fix every problem in your life
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But that you will indeed be a force for good in your community if these things are yours I think you'll see that as we go through the list
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The first thing that we are to put on I've already mentioned is a compassionate heart I find it interesting that the first thing that Paul addresses is the way we feel internally
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Compassion is more of a feeling type word. It is internal and it's about the way that we feel towards others
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I believe that we're a bit of a hypocritical society And bear with me it we move in and out of compassion based on our feelings at the time
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Compassion for those who are hurting Sure. Do you see that in our culture? Do you see that as a high value in our culture in our society?
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Do you see that in your own heart? I'm sure you do There's been a lot of compassion in our community in light of the tragic events of last weekend
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Right. Have you seen an outpouring of compassion and outpouring of care? Yes, and that's a great thing
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But where is compassion when we're the ones doing? hurting Where is compassion for our spouse when we are the one who is lighting them up with words of harshness or criticism or Being angry or frustrated or when we somebody's cut us off in traffic and we're we're using digital communication with them
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Hopefully you're not doing that don't do that You know what I'm talking about Wait, wait, where's compassion in the moments that aggravate us and irritate us
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Where's compassion when we are the ones saying hurtful words? This is the compassion that Jesus wants you to put on Not compassion for the wounds that someone else has inflicted on someone but a compassion that impacts the way you treat others the way that you avoid hurting them because of being constrained by Your compassion for them.
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Do you hear the difference? Do you see how subtle that difference is? but that's why I say we're a hypocritical society because we
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Sure have compassion for someone when someone else has hurt them But then we go around hurting others ourselves as well
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And That's the compassion that our hearts need Not a compassion that just feels bad for others
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By the way, I really think that a lot of what we express in our culture is mere pity Which is compassion that that lacks any motive for action.
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That's how I define pity pity is a We feel it right you feel it when the when they show the kids
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On the TV screen who have no food and you feel pity for them. But are you moved to any action?
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Well, no, then that's pity And that's different but acts of love begin with that sense of compassion in the heart, but they don't end there that desire for improvement
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Desire for others a lot in life to be improved isn't the end But we should also put on kindness the second trait which in the
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Greek is a word that shows Action on behalf of others. So this is the action part This is the counterpoint to compassion which is in the heart
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But we are to be people of action who do indeed improve the lot of those that are suffering around us
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This is when we do something about the problem that they're facing and Christians should be quick to act on behalf of those who are hurting
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Humility is the next one and humility is a life character that serves others by putting their needs first Many might understand this character trait is putting themselves down or thinking poorly of themselves
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I mean, it's a fuzzy word right like humility or humiliation is a related word And so is it just you know saying oh, yeah, everybody else is better than me.
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I'm terrible at basketball. I'm terrible at this I'm not very good at that. And is it always just a self -effacing attitude?
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Is that what humility is and I would suggest to you it isn't Humility is a complete outward focus.
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It is a focus on the other That is humility a truly humble person isn't considering how they stack up against everybody else
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That's something other than humility you can't be measuring yourself according to others and be humble simultaneously a
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Truly humble person is just looking around Figuring out how to serve others first That's humility
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It's not thinking of yourself It's not in essence.
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It's kind of funny Sometimes the way that we think of humility ends up forcing you to think about yourself It's it's all we would define it as all the way that you think about yourself
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And I'm saying that humility is the very nature at its very nature is an other orientation. It is a
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Consideration of others with very little thought to how you figure into the equation at all.
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That's humility But now this next one this this one. This is a word that's fallen on hard times meekness
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And being this is a character trait on the list that probably has the sharpest teeth in the sense of biting into our culture
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Taking a chunk out of the way that you and I live the way that our culture and our society goes
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All of these others are really hard to apply. But at least we recognize them as beneficial, right? You recognize some of these how many you recognize compassion is a beneficial trait to have
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Probably your employer would say Compassion is a good trait to have meekness,
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I Don't know where I don't know where you work. I know where I work Unfortunately meekness is acceptable where I work
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So I mean, but I'm guessing that in a lot of your places of employment meekness isn't rewarded regularly
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That ultimately it is putting yourself forward and propelling yourself and creating a great and awesome
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Resume for yourself that helps you to propel forward in your business in your corporation in your industry
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At least that's what I gather From what I see out in the world around me and what I when I talk with people it seems like that's more and more
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Increasingly the case not by not not advancement by meekness Advancement by self -promotion
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And so in our society meekness is not really that respected. Am I am I getting that right by the way? I'm not necessarily getting feedback.
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Is that is that correct? Raise your hand if you think that that's pretty accurate at least as far as what you see in your workplace in your system the society around you
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I think it is I Guess I could just go here
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You don't need to do more than turn on the news and watch the current political process to see that our culture values brash loud self -promoting people right
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Meekness is rarely found in our political process and the meek are quickly marginalized in a society that is enamored that falls in love with brash pride and self -confidence
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But the character of a follower of Jesus is meek meekness
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I'm gonna define that for you. You're going. What does he mean by this a calm? gentleness a
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Calm gentleness and that is the calling of the Christian life Now some of you in this room, you're like ready to just shout like because it's your personality
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You'd like to just shout right now Don. God made me with a boisterous personality. I I can't help it
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I mean, I'm just the way I was raised in the the character quality that God has put in me. I'm confident.
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I'm strong I'm I I tend to accidentally find myself in the center of attention all the time
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I'm I'm a loud individual some of you know some of you are laughing because you're you're ribbing your spouse right now like see
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Yeah, you know here. He's talking to you If that's so I would just tell you this
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God wants you to express that personality in a calm and gentle way
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He wants you to express that boisterous outspoken loud
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Center of attention kind of personality in a calm and gentle way figure out what that means for you
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Figure out what that means for the way that you need to figure that out in your moment my moment day by day because you are to be putting on Meekness moment by moment in the way you roll in life
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Gentleness as a fruit of the Spirit. I don't I don't find it very often mentioned I don't remember hearing a message on meekness before I Think it's something that we need to recognize as a central character trait of the
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Christian life We're a boisterous loud brash society asking a European that's ever met an
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American Right, that's just our culture. That's the way we roll That's not that's not that's not
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Christ like Paul next turns to patience Patience by the way,
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I would define as simply and and having studied it this week is simply enduring wrong without vengeance or rage
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That sounds a little different than maybe what you think of as patience And we've turned that word around to the more nebulous concept of waiting for something.
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I can just say, okay Well, I was playing Angry Birds on my phone and I was patiently waiting in the you know
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At the Secretary of State's office or something like that. We think of it as simply waiting out waiting out a long line
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At the Secretary of State's office or something like that But it is waiting
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There maybe at the Secretary of State's office without rage hear me carefully when it aggravates you
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When it aggravates you you cannot You cannot exercise
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Patience unless you are first bothered Okay, being bothered being aggravated is a necessary Starting point for patience if you enjoy
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Angry Birds You are not exercising patience. You're exercising Entertainment you get it
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But if you have someplace to be and you're running late Now it's time to exercise patience because how many of you know that when you're okay?
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Texting on your phone or doing whatever waiting for something you're all right by that But how many of you have ever been like kind of felt like?
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Shouting at the person you're waiting for to hurry up. Anybody ever felt that way? ever
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Kids getting the shoes on getting ready for church in the morning or anything like that I can confess that I have felt compelled to yell at somebody who was holding up my time my day
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Patience is not responding in vengeance not responding in rage But you cannot exercise it unless you're bothered which by the way means that Paul recognizes that Christians You will be bothered
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He will be bothered and not only will you be bothered out there in the world in the long line at the
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Secretary of State's office or wherever but but you're gonna be bothered in here I know that that comes as a shock to you because this has just been perfect for you up to this point
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But there's gonna be times where you're bothered in here. Look at verse 13 We need to exercise patience with one another in the church because we will at times have complaints against one another
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There will be times when we rub each other the wrong way and we will need to exercise further than patience another word forgiveness
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The pathway forward in the church is forgiveness when there is complaint and a word of caution I'm misapplying this text real quick.
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Paul is giving the general tenor of the Christian life here He's telling us the way that we should roll the types of clothing that we should wear if you will
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But he's not explaining in detail. For example, the way that we handle church discipline It's it's clear that Paul had no patience for false teachers
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He had a He had many strong words and even strong actions for those who were sexually immoral
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For example in the Church of Corinth and we're not repenting of their sins So he's not saying that we always just forgive as a blanket statement always just let it go always just milk toast always just just weak and and just kind of like I'll just let sinners sin and When he's saying that forgiveness must characterize our lives
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Must characterize the Christian life We are to personally forgive the wrongs that others do to us
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Even though the church may need to take some disciplinary action from time to time I don't want to be clear that after reading a book on forgiveness
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This past year called unpacking forgiveness by a guy named Chris Braun. I actually have two copies of it out there
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I ordered a couple copies just in case somebody wants to pick one up I don't know if you've noticed we're gonna start having some books out there at the table
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And I just I like the idea of getting good resources into your hands There's a suggested donation envelope in there
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If you can't afford it, you just take it and we want people reading good resources And so those are available for you out there if you can those suggested donations are just the cost
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We're not making money off of those. This is not a racket going on out there, but it is primarily to get good resources but this is unpacking forgiveness that I read and it really helped me to form a better view of what it means to forgive and I've come to the conclude come to a new conclusion on the way that Christians are called to forgive we are to forgive as this text says as Jesus Christ forgave we are to hold out a pathway to others for them to be restored in a relationship with us forgiveness is about Relationship.
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It's about there is no forgiveness if there is not an attempt to restore relationship with the other
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It's not that's not forgiveness that might be trying to appease your own conscience or trying to solve an issue in your own heart
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But if you are not trying to restore a relationship with that other individual, then you are not extending forgiveness yet We cannot by the way make them reconcile with us, but we can provide a bridge
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Upon which restoration can happen. So being a person of forgiveness means being the one who builds the bridge
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Whether or not the other party chooses to meet you on that bridge is up to them but build it strong build it clear and Build bridges to reconciliation with others that says
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I really am ready to do what I can to try to make this, right? One other quick side note on forgiveness that really gets me gets me going is this misguided pop psychology drivel?
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That has found its way into the church and permeates the church to the point where I think Probably when I mentioned forgiveness all of us in the room have heard this and that is this false notion that forgiveness is for you
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Forgiveness is for the one who is forgiving someone that it really is if you have unforgiveness in your heart
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It's holding you back and it's keeping you down and man It's keeping you from reaching your potential some good -sounding advice that we forgive others so that we can feel better Huh scripture
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Does not say that anywhere It never says forgive so you can feel better about yourself
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Forgive so that you can be okay Now does it deal with this forgiving someone else deal with bitterness in your own heart?
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Does it help her? Yeah, but that's not the motive That's never the motive scripture says something so much more
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Beautiful than what our culture and society says about about forgiveness being for you like We forgive
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Because we have been forgiven so much That is the consistent message of forgiveness in the pages of Scripture forgive
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Out of gratitude and thankfulness for the great weight that was on your shoulders that has now been removed
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That's the motive for forgiveness Scripture uses forgiveness to speak and demonstrate the gospel
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If we just accept the psychobabble of society about forgiveness women and we end up making forgiveness about a humanistic self -fulfillment project
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Well, I had some hurdles in my way, you know Trying to make myself better trying to advance and get ahead and I found out well
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I got a little unforgiveness in my heart here So I just fixed that so I can move ahead and surge ahead in my life and meet my goals and boom.
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Oh, boom I'm just ticking these things off and removing hurdles from my pathway to make me a better person.
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Is that the motive for? Reconciling is that the motive for restoring relationships?
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Not at all. Not at all. I Mean people will tell you by not forgiving you're just holding yourself back
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No by not forgiving you are missing the gospel By not forgiving you are missing the gospel
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You are acting proud and forgetting the heavy burden of sin that was set against you it has now been released
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And you're forgetting that Jesus Christ took that burden for you You're missing a chance to live out the gospel in the eyes of others forgive
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But don't forgive for yourself Forgive because you have been chosen by God forgive because you are set apart.
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You are holy you are owned by him and forgive because he loves you and Told you to build bridges to those who have hurt you
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Just like his son modeled for us building bridges to even those who crucified him lastly
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We're to bind this whole outfit of character together with the outer jacket of love It's not just an accessory.
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It ties the whole thing together man. It makes the colors pop It makes everything match and holds it together in a perfect bond
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Love holds all the others together in place Compassion kindness humility meekness patience and forgiveness.
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I mean look at that jacket. I just boom drives that outfit, right? I Know nothing about what
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I'm talking about that slide is up there So I had to mention it but meekness patience and forgiveness are all bound together by this final character trait of love and I believe that verse 14 just helps to define all the previous traits that he's mentioned as flowing from a heart of love of giving to others
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We do it for God. Yes Because of the motivations mentioned that he owns us that we're his that he loves us
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But the Christian also has been set free to love our neighbor as ourselves So one of the motivations of putting these things on One of the motivations is indeed to serve others and to love our neighbors as ourselves
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But now that Paul has described the character of a follower of Christ he goes on to define our community
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Think about it. Think about this carefully if we are all personally putting on the character traits found in verses 12 through 14
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What will our gatherings be like? Well our church be like What would it be like in a church where?
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Compassion kindness humility meekness patience forgiveness and love are being pursued by all How many think that sounds like a beautiful thing
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I sound like a glorious thing that sounds awesome I think we've been close to that here at recast.
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I really do I'm not trying to candy coat this and I mean, you know your own heart so, you know, Don You don't know what's going on in here
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But I really take zero credit for any of this that I see but yet I have indeed seen these character traits
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Blossoming in people's lives and growing here in our midst. I've seen people caring for one another I've seen love abounding and especially in those moments where people are going through difficulty
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Compassion and kindness being applied with meals being taken to people who are going through difficulties and prayers being offered it and Genuine bearing up with one another.
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I love to see that happen And in verse 15 Paul identifies that our calling was not just to be chosen holy and beloved as individuals
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But we were called to be that together in community and we were called together into one body into relationships to demonstrate
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Peace and thankfulness he goes on in this section to say what is one of the reasons? We are got called together in community to demonstrate peace and thankfulness.
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There are some things Scripture bears out. There are some things that you cannot Exhibit on your own.
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There are some things that you must have others in your lives in order to emulate and show to the world around you things like peace
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We need other Christians and the Christian life to demonstrate peace to the world around us
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Recast Church exists in part to demonstrate peace and thankfulness To the world and for this reason
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Paul tells us to let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts Now think about that command.
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We are being commanded to let something control us. What is that thing? The peace of Christ we are to let it sit on the throne of our lives
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Let the peace of Christ rule you let the peace of Christ decide how you walk through Monday through Saturday The peace of Christ drive you
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I believe we all need to take that as a command as a wake -up call this morning Because there are a list of things
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I can identify that want to rule my heart Do you identify some things that are standing by?
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Ready to take the throne if you vacate it if you let Christ if you if you let
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Christ step out of the throne room Of your life How many of you recognize some things that are just very eager to grab that throne and sit down and rule from there?
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things like fear Fear is standing by at a moment's notice ready to take over my heart this past week
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I found myself in public places thinking about the events of last weekend Anybody else think and anybody else think and meditate and consider and contemplate and find yourself look over your shoulder at all this week
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Was there ever a thought while you were in a parking lot? Did it ever cross your mind this week? It did mine
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I was sitting at Sweetwater's writing this very sermon just a block or two away from the events of last
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Sunday night And and I'm actually thinking in my mind as I'm sitting there and I'm writing this sermon
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I'm actually thinking what if it what if something goes down in here? Where's the doors? Where's the exits? What would I do? What would my action plan be right here right now if everything went down and somebody walked in?
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You ever find yourself thinking those kinds of thoughts What an apt message for you and I this morning what an apt message for our community
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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts not fear How can we be moved there
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Because we recognize that our all is in his hands Everything is his
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Fear seems to my heart Like a reasonable driving force in our community right now
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And Jesus is saying to us as a church. Let peace that the peace of Christ rule in your hearts
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You have nothing anyway So let's just go out into our week trusting in him
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Don't let fear hold you back, but the peace of Christ rule in you recast and Peaceful trust in Jesus should characterize our community
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But further we should also be defined by thankfulness and be thankful in Verses 15 through 17 the word thankful occurs in each one of those verses 15 and 16 and 17
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Identifying that we should be a thankful people And our theology matters a lot on this point if we understand salvation correctly, then we will be more
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Thankful if we get it, right, we'll be more thankful if we get it wrong.
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We'll be moved to pride So if we if we understand salvation correctly, it moves us in the right direction
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You see the consistent message of the Bible is that God saved you despite you If we realize how sinful our hearts truly are we will be shocked and even
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Scandalized that God would save someone as wicked as we are The more you've been saved from Jesus identifies in a parable the more you will be thankful If you're if you're if you're forgiven a debt of $5 awesome if you're forgiven a debt of 5 million
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Awesomer right? Okay, and that's the that's the that Jesus uses that in an actual illustration to say that to us
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So how thankful are you? Really? I would suggest to you that your thankfulness is in proportion to how bad you think you really were
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How lost were you How desperate was your situation? I'm not talking about whether you're a drug dealer or not
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It's a recognition of how distant and and how in trouble you were each Person from the worst and vilest offender to to a person who was raised in Sunday school class
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But has never given their lives to Christ all of us were destined for in eternity in hell without The intervention of God in our lives without the cross of Christ So how thankful are we?
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We need to be a community who gets this right and so we need to be a community that lets the Word of God dwell in us richly
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We need teaching and admonition that covers the wisdom of God. That's one of the reasons I preach Chapter by chapter and book by book through the
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Bible is I've got my favorite subjects But we would only get to those favorite subjects if I was just picking out verses Picking out chapters to preach on or even worse yet Just my own topical thoughts about movies or different things in the headlines or whatever
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But I'm convinced that what we need is the full counsel of God to come to bear in our lives
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And so I'm attempting and to do my best to teach his wisdom and not my own Sometimes I fear there's that word fear again that my sermons can be bland or a bit academic and My heart my heart behind that is an explanation of the
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Word of God that his word is teaching us that God is showing us what he has to say through this text and Then admonishing us
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With warnings about the things I see in our society and the things I see in my own heart and the things I see in our hearts the things that God's Word wants to correct in us a
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Lot of people don't consider by the way that the songs that we sing take part of the teaching that That we do here on Sunday morning
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As far as defining our community we are called to be a people of peace and thankfulness We are called to be a people who let the
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Word of God saturate us and set up shop within our hearts We are to be people of the word
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And we are not just to invite the Word of God over once a week on Sundays to kind of hang out for lunch
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We are to let it dwell in us richly Make a make a spare apartment for the word in your heart and in your life.
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Let it dwell in you richly Let it have the run of the place. I Hope that that's the case
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Here at recast church in what we teach and in what we sing There's a whole host of various song forms that are available to us
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He talks about Psalms hymns and spiritual songs And I think he does so to cover a broad spectrum of in the
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Greek times the different kinds of songs that were sung now Those words get loaded And we take the word hymn straight from that text and so we define him as kind of like an old more stodgy type of song
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But these are these are just various kinds of singing and various types of chanting that would have happened in the
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Greek world at the time and so he's just saying we have at our Disposal when it comes to admonishing and teaching one another a whole variety of songs at our at our disposal
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Whatever we can do musically is acceptable within the church But the fact of the matter is
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I want to be clear that that I choose songs based on the words first That's always the driving force
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When you guys submit a song or Dave or Dave and I encounter a song that we'd like to I'm always trying and say
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Dave Don't send me don't send me a YouTube clip. I want that later I want to hear how the song plays but more than anything
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I want to see the words that just send me the lyrics so I can I don't get caught up How many know them that you've ever been like driven emotionally by a song?
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It's like I mean, that's that it's kicking and and you don't even realize what the words are You ever had that and you're like,
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I can't even sing along. But man, this is cool And I don't want us to find ourselves in that situation so more than anything
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I'm concerned about the words and not getting carried away with the emotion of music now I mean, you know good good music matters, too, right?
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I mean we could have a song that has a great message that it just can't can't we can't bring it what for whatever reason? Or it's just really cliche and it's musical arrangement or whatever
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I don't assess those words first because songs have power over us the early church fathers recognized that and they said
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They said what we sing in the church we become as a church and so songs matter significantly and Our singing needs to be seasoned with Thankfulness in our hearts to God.
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That's one of the main reasons we sing and gather together is to express gratitude and thanks to God each week
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Lastly and quickly we're going to cover the last point as our application and that's number three
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Paul closes by directing our Calling he here directs us to our main calling in life the main focus
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We are to give thanks to God main calling in life. Do you hear thanks in that? In the midst of a grumbling and complaining culture.
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I am standing up here saying thanks is a central calling in your life We are to give thanks to God the
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Father Through Jesus by every action and every word being done in the name of Jesus now.
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He's talked about admonishing one another He's talked about the teaching that happens here in our gathering. That's important reading.
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Your Bible is important worshiping God by praise and music He's covered that so further.
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He's going on to say what you do Do as worship to God What you do?
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Well, you kind of go. Well, wait, I mean is a prayer So you have to pray while I'm plumbing. Do I have to pray while I'm driving the truck in delivery?
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Would I have to pray while I'm installing kitchens? Do I whatever it is that you do while I'm teaching in the classroom?
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Whatever it is that you do throughout the week Is that something that you can you know? it only becomes worship when you when you pray or only becomes worship when you share the gospel with the guy in the cubicle next to you or No in everything
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You do in everything you say do it in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God.
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Is that a beautiful picture? Isn't that a beautiful calling? Everything you do not just singing songs on Sunday.
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No, God isn't just merely concerned with what you do here Well, you you got it.
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You got it nailed guys because you showed up at church on Sunday. So Bravo No, he's saying I want a moment -by -moment
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Recognition of Christ in your life That's what that's the calling a heart of gratitude and thankfulness
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And everything that we do Whatever we how many that's convicting just a thought that you would take everything that you've said this past week and run it through the filter of thankfulness and Having said it in the name of Christ What if every sentence at the end of every sentence that you uttered this past week you had to say in the name of Christ?
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Whoa, okay a little heavy -handed. Sorry, but that's what the Word of God is indicating for us
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You know that that might have some restraining influence on the things that we say in the things that we do Yeah Whatever you do, it'd be difficult to show malice in the name of Jesus Right to hope that harm comes to somebody else in the name of Jesus It would be hard to tell an obscene joke in the name of Jesus, right?
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It would be hard to slander a co -worker in the name of Jesus All of our actions and all of our speech should be flavored in thankfulness to Christ I'm thankfulness to God in the name of Christ And if the gospel has its way in our hearts
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It it becomes an increasing pattern of life for us More than something that happened to us in our childhood at summer camp you know you walked you walked up to the the fire or you walked up to your counselor and and Prayed a prayer along with them or something or more than the
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Transaction that occurred at a vacation Bible school or by your bed as a child while you knelt there with your mom and prayed a prayer
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Of salvation awesome, but it should inform our behavior moment by moment and day by day
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We should live the gospel demonstrate the gospel in our forgiveness demonstrate the gospel in our compassion and our kindness towards others
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It should inform our behavior moment by moment and day by day So as we come to communion this morning
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Feel free to come to one of the tables during this next Song and take the cracker and the juice if you've asked
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Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior And remember that salvation is not just a get -out -of -hell -free card
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But it changes every aspect of the way that you play the game If you're in with Christ God has chosen you
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Beautiful. He's chosen you. He has set you apart Called you holy and He has loved you called you beloved
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So go out and live the character of the kingdom this week go out and be the community of Christ this week and Fulfill the calling of Christ this week.
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Let's pray Father I thank you your goodness knows no ends it has no bounds and Towards your people towards your children towards towards those that you have chosen and called holy and called beloved
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There is no end to the goodness that you will express to us You have reserved for us in a destiny in an eternity on a new earth where there will be no sickness
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There will be no sorrow. There will be no tears. There will be no more death So I pray that the fears of this life would fade away in the light of that Everlasting eternal peace that you are granting to your people even through this text this morning
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That we can let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts knowing that That whatever the end holds for us, whatever the future holds for us, whatever
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Suffering tragedy promotion goodness glory wealth poverty. Whatever is out there for us
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Is all guided by your good hand And it all results for your children in peace in rest in Unity in love in joy in wholeness
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Let that peace be the peace that drives our character that fuels us in meeting this calling and Drives us deeper into community together
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Pray that as we come to communion as we come to this table and reflect on the sacrifice that has bought all of that for us father that we would be just moved to exuberance thankful father be awesome to see a couple fist pumps and just just Enthusiasm in this time of reflecting and what you have done for us.
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This is not a morose time This is not a funeral, but this is a celebration that the pipe the price has been paid and he has raised again