The Grace of God in Truth | Part 4
Download MP3If you would open in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3. Paul says that if there is no resurrection, if Christ did not raise from the dead, we have no hope and we are of all people most to be pitied. But thank God that Christ did rise from the dead and has given us hope. And this passage deals with the outworking of that hope in our lives.
Joel Brooks:Colossians 3, we'll begin reading in verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above not on things that are on the earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears then you also will appear with him in glory.
Joel Brooks:Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Joel Brooks: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 his creator. Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and all. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts. Kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bearing with one another.
Joel Brooks:And if one has a complaint against another, forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you, So you also must forgive. And above all these things, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Joel Brooks:And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to the God, to God the Father through him. Pray with me. Lord, we do give you thanks. We give you praise.
Joel Brooks:We've come to celebrate the redemption that we have found in Jesus. We've come to lift his name up high. Spirit, you're welcome in this place. Come move in our midst, stir our hearts a deeper passion for Jesus. And now I pray that my words would blow to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Joel Brooks:But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. When you live in a house with 4 girls, there is a lot of chatter, a lot of talking that goes on, you know. It's the exact opposite.
Joel Brooks:Men can kind of look at each other, nod. That's all it takes. I've communicated a 1,000 things. And that one little nod, nod back, there's there's this there's this bond there that that women can't understand and women have to use a lot of words. And so there's this need to talk and and even though I can spend hours reading stories, talking, playing little people, and all this with my girls, I can do that.
Joel Brooks:If I steal away a little bit of time and I go off to the front porch maybe, and get get a book out, and just just a little time to myself, inevitably one of the girls will come in my lap and look at me and go, Daddy, what shall we talk about? What shall we talk about? I'm like, we've already I've used up every word I have, okay? I'm done talking. And and they will talk and talk and I find myself at times saying, oh, okay.
Joel Brooks:Can you can you just get to the point? Can you just tell me what you have to say? You know, just just get to it. Reading Paul's letters can sometimes feel like that. You know, he just kind of goes off and he goes on and on and on.
Joel Brooks:You're like, okay, Paul. Alright. Okay. Can can you get to the point? Can, can you get to the point?
Joel Brooks:Can, can you finally get to the application? Can you finally tell us what it is we are supposed to do? You know, we all crave application, so get to it Paul. And some of you might have been telling Paul to get to the point as we've gone through the first two chapters of Colossians, there is hardly a command. There, there's some vague ones, you know, hey, walk in Christ or don't let people judge you.
Joel Brooks:Those are the only 2 real commands. Finally in chapter 3, we, we get the application. We finally get what we think is what Paul was leading up to all along. What we're supposed to do. He's finally saying what we think he's supposed to say.
Joel Brooks:And if you think that way, you, you kind of misunderstand Paul. He does this in every letter. Every letter he, he he takes the first chapter, first two chapters, and he just wants to lift up Jesus. He wants to lift up Christ high. He wants to show you his beauty, show you his glory, make sure you understand the gospel, make make sure that you understand his lordship and his reign over everything.
Joel Brooks:And he pounds that in, he hammers that in before he ever gets an application. For him, the point is the lordship of Jesus. The point is the gospel. And if you understand these things, the natural overflow is gonna be, oh yeah. Now do these.
Joel Brooks:Do these. And so Paul wants to make certain that we understand the order of these things because otherwise we're going to try to earn God's love. We're gonna try to get our act together. We're gonna try to do things. We're gonna try to not slander.
Joel Brooks:We're gonna try to flee from sexual immorality. We're gonna try to do all these things and clean up ourself and make ourselves somehow presentable to God. Paul says, you can't do that. You have to understand Christ, supreme, glorious, Christ saves you, apart from any work. And once you understand that, then you begin to be freed up to obey him.
Joel Brooks:Paul begins this section with the phrase, if you have been raised with Christ. If you've been raised. So so before I tell you to do anything, the most essential element is, has Christ changed your heart? Because you're not doing things in order to have your heart changed. Christ has to change your heart and then you'll do these things.
Joel Brooks:Never reverse the order. Paul uses our conversion, describes our conversion using Easter, Easter, Easter terminology. To be converted is to be raised with Christ. To be converted is to be so identified with Christ by faith. So identified with them that when he was raised in a very real way, we were raised too.
Joel Brooks:We were spiritually lifted up, changed, converted. We are so connected to Christ that earlier in Colossians, we saw that when he died, we died. Colossians 2:12 says that, having been buried with him. 220 says, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world. So we are so identified with Christ that when he died, our old self died and when he rose again, we rose with him.
Joel Brooks:Someday we will know that resurrection and full. And so we've been given a new life. We are now with Christ. So that, that phrase with Christ or it's some of your translations might say, in Christ. So it's the same preposition there, in Christ or with Christ.
Joel Brooks:Paul uses that term a 132 times in his letters. For Paul, if, if he were to sum up Christianity, he would say it's this, it is in Christ. That's what it means. We're in Christ. We're in Christ when he died.
Joel Brooks:We're in Christ when he rose again. We are to be found in him. It's the focus. It's the theme of his letters. It's the essence of all Christianity is to be found in him.
Joel Brooks:Paul then gives us 2 commands here, which set up the rest of the application. 2 commands. He says that we are to seek the things that are above. We're to seek the things that are above and we're to set our minds on things that are above. So we're to seek the things that are above and we're to set our minds on things above.
Joel Brooks:Some of your translations might say to set your heart on things above. Because it was literally to set your heart on things are above and it's to set your mind on things above. So Paul is saying, set your heart, your affections and set your thoughts, set both of those things on what is above, not on what here is here on the earth. And, and he repeats this. I mean, to seek these things, to set these things.
Joel Brooks:He's saying that this is something that we need to be diligent. We need to to focus on. We we don't need to do this half heartedly. We need to pursue this with everything. It's not just a Sunday activity.
Joel Brooks:It's not just a a hobby. We reorient our entire lives to seek with our affections and to seek with our minds what is above. You've heard the phrase, you know, to be heavenly minded. Now, outside of a Christian church context, I have never heard that phrase used positively. Have you?
Joel Brooks:You've typically heard, you know, the phrase, that person is so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good. So heavenly minded of no earthly good. And actually it's it's the opposite that Paul would say. He Says, no, no, no, no, no. To be heavenly minded is to be a earthly good.
Joel Brooks:And you know, outside these walls, people will say this, they'll say, you know, that person has got their feet firmly planted on the ground. That means a good thing. That person is grounded. And when you say a person is grounded or they have both feet on the ground, you're saying that they're responsible. They've, you know, they, they know what's going on.
Joel Brooks:They're moral upright people. Paul says, We've gotta set our hearts and we gotta set our minds on what's above. And it's only then will you be of any earthly good. Only then will you be able to put aside sexual immorality, evil desires. Will you be kind?
Joel Brooks:Will you be humble? Will you be patient? Will you be forgiving? Will you truly be able to love people? Not if your feet are on the ground, but if your mind and your heart are pursuing what's above.
Joel Brooks:Now, why isn't it the case that those the world looks at and see as heavenly minded? Why is it that those heavenly minded people are not earthly good? I think when we think of being heavenly minded or setting our mind on things above things above, we're thinking of the wrong things actually. Paul is not saying this. I want you to think about heaven.
Joel Brooks:I want every one of you to picture streets of gold now. Focus it. Set your heart on those streets of gold. Set your heart on that glassy sea. Set your heart on when there will be no more tears or pain.
Joel Brooks:I want you to think about those things. Focus on those things. He he's not at all saying that. Because if if if you believe that, if that's your focus, you're in you're in a sing, you know, I'll fly away, and you just want to get away from this world, Not help redeem it. That's not what Paul is saying to think about.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 1 again. Says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. That's what Paul has been leading up to for 2 chapters. When, when I say you're to think of things above, what I'm saying is I want you to think of Christ. I want you to think of his lordship.
Joel Brooks:I want you to think of how he has ascended and he is now seated with all power and all glory and he is currently reigning over all. That's what I want you to set your minds towards. That's what I want you to set your affections towards. Not just heaven in general. Think of Christ.
Joel Brooks:Him exalted, him supreme, him reigning. Don't set your affections on streets of gold. Fix your eyes on him. You know, if you, if you fix your affections in your mind on any other thing, you're just gonna get bored. You'll just be bored.
Joel Brooks:If if you have kids, you realize that kids can watch things over and over and over and never seem to get bored. They can listen to things over and over. I don't know who it was. I'm I'm trying to forgive you of this, but somebody gave us, when Caroline was 1 years old, Shout to the Lord Kids, I think, volume 2 CD. And it has been in our car CD player now for 7 years.
Joel Brooks:7 years. It's like you turn on and it's still, you know, how many times can you sing, yes lord, yes lord, yes, yes lord, over and over for 7 years. It's been our theme song. And and and our kids don't get tired of it. They they they always wanna hear it, you know.
Joel Brooks:Hopefully, a day will come and a day will come soon when they're like, I'm bored of that. You know, because when you grow up you can't take the same things over and over and over. If you're a grown up, you can't set your, all of your focus, all of your mind and all of your heart on sports or on your job or on something like that because you'll just get bored. You can't even set your affections or your focus on things of heaven. You know, if I just said, think of those pearly gates and you just thought of them.
Joel Brooks:Well, after a while you're just gonna get bored. Yes, they're in heaven, but they're also just gates. But if you think of Jesus, and you said all of your mind, and you said all of your focus on him, you will never get bored because you can never exhaust him. He is always revealing new facets of his glory. He is always showing new ways of his love.
Joel Brooks:He is this fountain always dripping new glories, and new grace, and new beauties, and you will never exhaust that. That's why when you go to heaven you won't be bored. It's not just gonna be sitting on a cloud playing a harp. No. You're gonna be responding new and fresh in worship as Christ continually reveals himself to you.
Joel Brooks:And that can never be exhausted. Everything else, when you look at Christ, is boring. Money, boring. Job, boring. Christ has enthralled me.
Joel Brooks:So how do we do this? How do, how do we seek him? 1st, you have to be converted. I want to just jump over that. You have to actually have been raised with Christ.
Joel Brooks:That's why Paul says, if you've been raised with Christ, you need to have your heart reborn. Not, not just, you you know, some of you might be in church your whole life, but you're still thinking I gotta do something. It's not what you do, it's what Christ has done. And through what he has done, he changes and he transforms our hearts and we have been raised with him. And you cannot seek God unless this has happened.
Joel Brooks:I know we use words and, in church, we call some people seekers. You know, somebody who has showed some spiritual interest, we might call them a seeker, but in the Bible, there are no seekers. Nowhere. Paul actually says no one seeks after God. Our very first parents, Adam and Eve, they didn't seek God.
Joel Brooks:They hid from God and we come from a long line of people who have hid from him, not sought him out. And it's not until Christ changes our hearts, changes it to where we're born again that we actually can seek him. And now after our hearts are changed, we don't hide from God. Paul says that we are now hid in Christ. We don't hide from Christ.
Joel Brooks:We are now hid in Christ. Look at that verse 3, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ. We now find a refuge there, our closeness there, our safety there. And then once we are converted, the way we seek Christ, there's nothing novel here. We seek him through his word, We seek him through prayer.
Joel Brooks:We seek him through Christian fellowship, singing to one another. Look at verse 16. It says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts. That's how we seek him as we remind ourselves. We of Christ, We try to stir up our affections by doing those things.
Joel Brooks:And I realize it's hard. You know, I have not only do I have a number of kids, but I have a really old house. And if I want to get up early and read my bible, it is extremely hard in a 100 year old house because every step, you're like, you know, just kinda creeps. No matter how early I get up, it's 5 o'clock and I know which steps to try to avoid. I have to avoid the 4th step after the landing because if I actually touch that step, it will wake up the entire house.
Joel Brooks:And so it takes me about 2 minutes sometimes to go down the steps as quietly as I can. It's just it's just something with children you can call, you know, Natalie, I can say her name a 100 times. Natalie, Natalie, Natalie, and she'll never hear me. But if I try to walk down the steps at 5 in the morning and there's one little creek, daddy. I mean it's just it's it's unbelievable.
Joel Brooks:It's so hard to steal those moments away. To spend time in the word and seek. It's hard and it's something we have to do. To be shaped by his word. To let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.
Joel Brooks:We have to spend time gathering together, reminding ourselves of Christ and how he reigns on high. We have to fix our eyes on him, and and when we see that so clearly, that begins manifesting itself in how we live our day to day. And one of the ways that we're gonna remind ourselves tonight is through testimony. I'm going to end short so we can hear from others and let them testify about how the lord has changed their lives, how the lord has redeemed them. And another way we are gonna remember and help focus is by partaking of the Lord's supper, in which we remember the death and the resurrection of Christ, our Lord.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me, Lord. We do acknowledge that you are Lord of lords, King of Kings. You currently are in heaven and you are reigning. You are not some disembodied spirit up there, but we believe you have bodily risen. You were raised from the dead.
Joel Brooks:And we come humbly now, we acknowledge your lordship. And I pray that this week we would do whatever it takes to focus our hearts and our minds on that reality. And I pray now as we hear testimony, Lord, that you would stir us up in our affections and our thoughts towards you. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
