Sermon Transcript
Well, this is fantastic, isn’t it? You come to worship and you’re not sure what God’s going to do, but he always shows up and does something. And I sense that in my heart already. I hope the same for you this morning. We’re here to connect with God.
We’re here to connect with each other. And it’s always interesting to see after a worship service like this how that happens, how God works in us, things that he gives us that we take with us. Sometimes it happens in the vertical relationship. Sometimes it happens in the horizontal relationship. One of my favorite stories in terms of this horizontal relationship, we experienced it in Phoenix.
There are a couple, I’m just gonna name them Tom and Sue. That’s not their real name, so you won’t know who they are. But Tom and Sue came to our worship over there in Phoenix, and they didn’t know each other, so they came as singles to this service that we had, and they enjoyed it, and they continued to come. But they also noticed each other in the service. So I think if I remember correctly, he sat somewhere near the back and she sat somewhere near the front.
And so during worship service experiences, they noticed each other. Now, I don’t, you know, I don’t know if you notice people around you this morning, but anyway, they, they noticed each other. And after a few weeks, Tom felt that he wanted to get to know Sue better than just seeing her from a distance. So he week by week kind of gravitated toward the front. You know, I mean, he repositioned himself and gave up his favorite chair in the back, but he continued to move toward the front until finally he positioned himself right in front of Sue, so the row right in front of her, knowing that we would do the meet and greet time, just like here where we, you know, do the meet and greet.
And so he figured that it would give him an opportunity to meet her. So that morning we said, now turn around. Greet each other, and he turned around and she just happened to be there. And, you know, he met her and found out her name, and they had a real brief conversation. Well, this kind of went on for a few weeks until finally we had the coffee break.
And we did coffee breaks over in Phoenix where it was actually a part of the worship service. It was an in-service experience where we gave people about 10 minutes to get some coffee and get some treats that we put out on the table, but also to just connect with other people. So we wanted them to go deeper into relationships. Well, they knew that this was coming, and unbeknownst to the other, they were planning on spending the whole coffee break with the other person— Tom with Sue, Sue with Tom. And so we said, okay, so let’s have the coffee break, get to know somebody, and gave the time.
We actually had a countdown timer on the screen so people knew how much time they had. And as soon as the break started, there was another girl that came over and started talking to Tom. So Sue did not get the chance to talk to him, and he felt bad about that because he wanted to talk to her, but this other conversation took the whole time. So after that worship service, he decided that he needed to let her know that he didn’t know that girl he was talking to. So, he caught her after the worship service and just, you know, started a conversation and said, oh, by the way, got this into the conversation, I was talking to this girl.
I don’t know that girl. I’ve never met her before, and I don’t really have an interest in her. But anyway, so however he said what it was that he said, he just wanted to make sure she knew that he wasn’t interested in this girl. So, that all happened, and they had a good conversation. In fact, it was good enough that, you he invited her out for dinner.
And so they made a dinner reservation or appointment, date, whatever you want to call it, to have dinner together later in the week. And so they did that, and they enjoyed it. So they continued to get together like that just as friends, and their friendship actually turned into a dating relationship. And after a while, their dating relationship turned into a possible pre-engagement relationship. And so they came to me and they asked if I might do some pre-engagement counseling for them, so we did that.
And after the pre-engagement counseling, I don’t know, a period of time went by, they got engaged. So then they came to me and they said, would you mind doing our premarital counseling? So I did their premarital counseling, and they then set a date on the calendar to get married. And so after we finished the counseling and the wedding date came, they asked me if I would do the wedding. So I did the wedding, and it was out in Phoenix in the outskirts of the city at this ranch out there.
It was a beautiful location. And as you can imagine, you know, they’d done it up really well, and it was just a gorgeous event. And they did what every other couple does when, you know, they get married. They stood before each other and they took their vows to have and to hold from this day forward, and, you know, all the rest of the vows. When a couple makes that kind of a pledge to each other, that commitment to be husband and wife for life, they’re at the same time making an over-and-done commitment.
I think of it this way, an over-and-done commitment. It’s also a way of saying to the other person, I’m done with my former life. I’m done living as a single. I’m going to live from this moment on as a married person with you. That’s why we put the ring on.
You know, I’m done dating other people. I just want to date you. In fact, that’s one of the interesting questions I ask couples when we’re doing that kind of counseling. I say, are you done dating? And by that, are you done dating other people?
Are you, are you going to get focused on this one person and this one person only relationally and go deep into this relationship? So they made that kind of commitment. At least it seemed like both of them made that commitment. They went off for their honeymoon. They went to Hawaii.
And while they were in Hawaii, Sue caught Tom on several occasions looking around at other women, other cute girls that were walking by in Hawaii. She caught him looking at other women, taking second, third looks, that sort of thing. She didn’t know what to think of it until a couple of weeks after their honeymoon. They were back and she walked out into the garage and she caught him looking at naked women on a computer.
And you could imagine what the phone call was like when she called me up and said, Dave, what’s going on? I mean, I didn’t see this coming. What’s going on? And of course, she had reason to feel that way because they They were married. That old life was something that should have been put behind them at the moment that they said, I do.
They married one another. That picture, I want you to just let that picture rest in your mind this morning because it so well fits what we’re going to look at in Colossians chapter 3. If you have your Bible, go with me there to Colossians chapter 3. We’re looking at verses 5 through 11. Last week we got into this very practical section of the book where we talked about how God wants us to be heavenly focused, not earthly focused.
Our minds need to be set on things above, how our hearts need to be set on things above, not on things that are on the earth. And, and the rationale for that was that we’ve died, he said, we’ve died to the old life. Well, having said that, then he comes to the believers at Colossae and he wants them to know what that old life is that they died to. He’s going to pinpoint it for them so that there’s no mistake. And we’re going to read this in just a second, but I want you to think about this in light of a wedding.
Not somebody else’s wedding. I want you to think of this in light of your wedding to Jesus Christ. Because if you’re a Christ follower, there was a wedding, there was a marriage, and you are Christ’s bride. And what that means, and what that means for me, is that Jesus wants us to be over and done with the previous life. Then it’s gone.
It’s something that we don’t go back to. It’s something that we intentionally leave behind. So this is what Paul wrote to them in Colossians 3:5 and following. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. And then he defines what is in the earthly nature of the old life: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
You could just simply ask the question, what is the bride of Christ to be doing with the old life? And the answer is the bride of Christ is to be over and done the old life. In fact, to the degree— and I want you to notice 2 phrases that are used here. The first one’s found in verse 5, where it says, put to death, put to death the old life. I mean, this isn’t a life to play around with anymore.
This isn’t a life to, you know, sort of be half in or half out. It’s a life that’s gotta go completely. It needs to be dead, dead and gone. And then the second phrase is found in verse 8, where it says, ridding yourself of. You must rid yourself of all of these things.
So you need to put to death this old life, And you need to rid yourself of this old life. So it’s something that in a marriage, if you’re going to have a marriage to another person, you better put behind you the old life if you expect to have a marriage. And in the same way, in Christ, if we’re going to have a relationship in an intimate way with Jesus Christ, we got to put to death the old life. Now, what do we specifically need to put to death? Well, he gives us a list.
He gives us a list of 12 things. You can call them the dirty dozen. You can call them whatever you want to call them, but they need to be put to death. I gave you a chart on your message note sheet this morning, and I would encourage you to take a look at this chart just for a moment, all right? I would ask you to look at your chart, okay?
This— I’m going to ask you to grade yourself right now on this chart, all right? We’re going to do a little bit of looking at whether or not you are putting to death the old life. If you’re a Christ follower, I want you to ask yourself, is this sin a big problem in my life still? Is this sin a little problem in my life still? Is this sin no problem in my life?
Okay, there are graduations that we could add to all of that, but this will get at it enough to identify for us whether or not we’re moving past this old life? So he gives us 12 matters that we need to consider. First of all, there’s sexual immorality. What’s that? Verse 5, it’s sex outside of marriage.
Sex outside of marriage. Sex is for marriage in God’s plan. Sex outside of marriage is sin. Secondly, impurity. Verse 5, filthy thoughts or filthy intentions.
That’s what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about what’s going on in the mind. Which lust is the 3rd matter here, verse 5. Lust is sexual or sensual looking for self-gratification. It might be pornography.
It might be taking the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th look, whatever it might be. You’ve got evil desires also in verse 5. What’s that? It’s desiring that which God forbids. So God has a plan for our lives, and he forbids certain things for our good and for this relationship that we share with him and with others.
It’s wanting what it is that God forbids— evil desires. Greed, he adds, verse 5. Greed, which he says is idolatry. So it’s all about serving self or serving something other than God. It’s a self-serving compulsion for more.
I’ve just got to have more and more and more. How much do you need? Remember what Rockefeller said? A little bit, just a little bit more. Yeah, greed.
And then there’s anger, and this anger is anger that has been stockpiled. So it’s these emotions that have been stockpiled instead of resolving them. It’s unresolved hatred that’s down inside of you, found in verse 8 there. And then continuing in verse 8, there’s rage. What’s rage?
Rage is explosive, uncontrolled anger. It is just out of control anger. And then there’s malice, verse 8, calculated vengeance. This is intentionally hurting somebody else in some vengeful way. And then there’s slander, verse 8, vicious words that abuse other people, abusing them with our words.
And then there’s also verse 8, filthy language, he says, put away, put behind you, put to death filthy language. What’s that? Putrid language, foul language. Literally, it’s rotten, it’s repulsive. It’s, it’s using language that’s totally inappropriate to God’s children.
And then verse 9, he adds lying. Do not lie to each other since you’ve taken off your old self with its practices. What’s lying? Lying is the intention to deceive. So it could be a verbal, a verbal lie where you’re deceiving others by what you’re saying.
It could It could be— excuse me, it could just be a silent lie. You’re just not going to say, but you’re deceptive in that you’re not replying or not saying what needs to be said. So, there’s lying. And then a final matter on this list is prejudice, verse 11. Prejudice is a biased or it’s a hostile attitude toward people or groups.
There’s no place in the body of Christ for that because we’re all one in Christ. And so he says here, there is no Greek or Jew, talking about these racial distinctions. In the body of Christ, there are no racial distinctions. Circumcised or uncircumcised, that’s religious distinctions. There are no religious distinctions here.
There’s no barbarian and Scythian. Now we’re talking about status differences, the differences between people that have or have nots, the rich, the poor. Who sit in coach or first class or whatever you want to call it. You know, it’s that— those kinds of differences between the slaves or the free. So now we’re talking about class distinctions, those who are served or those who serve.
And then he goes to say, but Christ is all and is in all. So Christ changed everything. That’s what he’s saying. Since you’re in Jesus Christ, he’s changed everything, and now we’re all one in Christ, and the ground is level at the foot of the cross. You’ve heard that before.
And so prejudice isn’t to be something that’s a part of our lives. Now look at your list. Don’t look at somebody else’s list right now, okay? Your list. When you look at your list, do you see any room on your list for some progress in some area?
Is there anything on your list you look at and you say, I gotta put that to death. I haven’t put that to death. I haven’t rid myself of that. See, what Paul’s first of all going after here is the intention to put it to death. It’s the intention to rid yourself of that completely.
I mean, that’s a great list, isn’t it? That’s a list that would make you think, won’t it? I oftentimes use different survey tools with couples when we’re working toward marriage or engagement or whatever it might be, and these tools produce a list. They produce a list of potential strengths and potential weaknesses. For instance, recently I just became a facilitator with the Cymbus tool that’s out there.
It’s a brand new tool. SIMBAS stands for Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts. SIMBAS. And so I went through the, the, the, you know, training for this, and then they recommend you do some testing. So they sent us a couple of free links.
And so Bernice and I took this profile. We took it. We’ve been married 40 years. It’s okay. We took the profile.
We wondered what might show up. Would we show up as perfect? Answer? No. 40 years still doesn’t get you perfect, right?
There were things that showed up on the profile. We look at that and we say, okay, so those are some things that, well, we were kind of aware of, but it’s nice having it in color print right there in front of you, you know, to look at. Well, that’s what this is. This is just a list to cause us all to say, you know, how am I doing in these areas? Am I making progress?
Do I even want to make progress? Do I want to put these things to death? Do I want to rid myself of these? Really, what this list is calling for, what Paul is calling for here, are 2 commitments. Let me just summarize the 2 commitments for us this morning simply this way.
He’s saying, get past your past. You got to get your past into your past. You got to get past it. And, and it’s interesting because he generalizes our past in 2 areas. I don’t know if you saw this as we read through, but you can go back to verse 7.
He first of all generalized it as how you walk. So he says in verse 7, pay close attention to how you walk. You used to walk in these ways and the life that you once lived. And the life that you used to walk was a life that was filled with these kinds of sins. You know, it’s interesting when you look at the list, about a third of the list has to do with sexual immorality.
I was thinking to myself, you know, if sexual immorality was a big problem then, I think in a lot of ways it’s a bigger problem even right now because of how easy it is to fill your mind with trash and how easy it is in this culture today to basically give up God’s standards of purity before marriage. It’s really easy in this culture today.
Several years ago when Promise Keepers were really big, it was these rallies men would get together. I remember reading about one particular rally where there were like 1,500 men that were there, and they were there to be encouraged in the Word of God and, you know, to worship God in song and so forth and to surrender to God. But anyway, they— during that time that they were there, they asked the guys a simple question. They said, in the past week, have you viewed pornography? And you know what they found?
That over half of them in the past week had viewed pornography. Over half of them. I mean, why does Paul make a big deal out of this? Because this is a big deal. You can’t go intimate into the relationship with your groom, Jesus Christ, if you’re still messing around with sexual immorality.
Any more than Tom was going to have a relationship with Sue Do you think that that was a problem in their relationship after that? Absolutely. Are we going to be able to save this marriage is where it was initially. But if we’re going to go deeper into our relationship with Jesus Christ, we have got to rid ourselves of this kind of behavior. I can’t walk that way any longer.
But the bigger question here is, do you want— do I want to put my past into my past? Or do I want to continue to bring it with me? Put your past into your past. That’s what he’s saying. Kill it.
Get rid of it once and for all. But then he says also, verse 8, pay close attention to your talk. To your talk. You say, my problem isn’t sexual immorality. Well, it might come up now.
Verse 8, he’s talking about the lips. He’s talking about matters like anger and rage and malice and slander and filthy language. Rid yourselves of all such things from your lips. Ephesians 4:29 says, do not let any— and Paul’s going after getting rid of all of these things here, so it’s such an appropriate passage. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what’s helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Anybody have some room for improvement here? Let me remind you of verse 9: do not lie. Yeah, we all have room for improvement here, don’t we? I mean, we oftentimes can get caught in saying things that are putrid And things that are filthy and things that are hurtful and things that are uncontrolled and things that are mean and things that damage other people.
We’re told that we have about 30 conversations a day. That’s an old statistic. I think it’s probably less than that now because most of our conversations are by text messaging. You know, but however many conversations we have a day, every one of those conversations is an opportunity to get this talk thing right or the possibility of get the talk thing wrong. In fact, we can send an email back and use inappropriate language or an inappropriate response in an email.
What this is saying is, is we can’t live that way any longer. We’ve got to Change our talk as well as our walk. Some of you know that Dr. Phil asks a question of those who come to him and are looking for help, a question similar to this: Do you want to make a change? We’re in a series we’ve called Time for a Change, and that really is the appropriate question to ask when we’re talking about the old life and putting behind us the old life and killing it and ridding ourselves of other of it. Really, the question here related to the passage is that one.
Do you want to make a change? Do I want to make a change? Am I over and done with my former life? Am I done with the life that’s done me in? Now, there are 2 incentives that are found here for moving into this new life.
He’s saying get past your past, He’s also saying, get into your future. And he gives us 2 incentives for moving into the future. There is a negative incentive and there’s a positive incentive. Did you see the negative incentive as we read through it? It’s found in verse 6.
It says, because of these, talking again about these sins, because of these the wrath of God is coming. There’s the negative incentive. Sometimes parents use this kind of incentive. If you do that, then you’re going to be disciplined. You’re going to spend time in your room, whatever it is, negative incentive, right?
Well, here’s a huge negative incentive that Paul brings into this discussion. He says it’s because of these things that the wrath of God is coming. Sins like these are ultimately the reason that God is going to bring His wrath. And if there’s wrath coming on sins like these, should you continue to live in sins like these? I mean, first of all, for your own self’s sake, you know that God hates these kinds of sins.
You know that God has taken action to, as a result of this kind of sin, make it possible for a person to be forgiven so that they don’t come under the wrath of God. But knowing that, why in the world would you continue to live out those kinds of sins? Bible says in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, verse 8, he— speaking about God— he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You think Paul’s writing this with happiness? Absolutely not.
There is a day coming when people are going to experience God’s wrath, and these people who experience God’s wrath in this day that’s coming will experience it because they wanted nothing to do with God and they wanted nothing to do with his life and his lifestyle.
So Paul is saying to these Christians, Why in the world would you continue to live out sins that God is ultimately going to punish? Why would you go there? In fact, said differently, Christians need to see— or excuse me, Christians need to live in such a way that unbelievers are convinced that there is a God. They need to see a difference in our lives. And if we continue to live this old life, how in the world are we ever going to bring to them the new life?
We can’t. So the greater incentive in some ways for us as believers here is to, with hope that these people that need Christ and will one day not come under the wrath of God, the hope is, is in seeing the lives that we’re living, they will be convinced or they will be drawn into a relationship with Jesus Christ. That my walk and talk are so real that I want to put this old life behind me, so I got to for witness. I mean, that’s the negative incentive. What’s the positive incentive that he gives here?
It’s found in verse 10, and it has to do with the renewing of us into the image of God. He says, and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. When you came into relationship with God, God gave you a new self. And his intention is to ultimately transform you. If you go back into the Scriptures all the way to the very beginning, we know that man and woman were formed.
They were formed in God’s image, right? But that image was deformed. That image was deformed when man and woman fell into sin. And ever since, God has desired to transform us into his image again, not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed into the image of God. And he’s saying, and this is the positive incentive here, he’s saying that if we will walk away from this, if we will rid ourselves of this old life and move into this new life, we will be renewed in the knowledge of our Creator.
We will become more and more like Christ. We will become more and more like our Creator. Now how does that sound? To be more like God, to be more forgiving, to be more loving, to be more full of wisdom, to be people that are making an impact difference in the lives of others, to be a person who experiences fulfillment and satisfaction according to God’s plan in our life. Doesn’t that sound like something better that we could experience?
Than what we used to experience back here. You see the greater incentive? John Piper says this about that focus, this greater incentive focus. He says, the fire of lust’s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone, even the terrible warning of Jesus, we will fail.
We must fight it with massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust’s pleasure in the conflagration of holy satisfaction. So he’s saying there needs to be a greater fire, and this greater fire is found in the superior happiness that is found in Jesus Christ. It’s found on the other side of an over-and-done commitment, on the other side of that kind of commitment.
So what’s it saying to us? A couple of things. It asks questions like, are You really? Am I really over and done with this former life? Am I?
Ask yourself that. Have you had enough of it? Are you ready to put it to death?
To rid yourself of it? To give it up? To move on?
I mean, if we’re a Christ follower, it only makes sense. Right? It only makes sense that we would move on because we’re the bride of Christ.
And we can’t go deep into this relationship with Jesus Christ if we don’t let go of this. I gotta let go of that.
So simply said, do I want that? Am I living like that? Because the depth of the intimacy that I am enjoying right now in my relationship with God is directly connected to the depth of the over-and-done commitment that I am living right now.
In other words, am I done with what did me in? Am I done with that?
Now, we know we’re not going to get this perfect. But moving in this direction, and in this case, it’s more about the direction than the perfection.
But if this is going to happen, this begins with the commitment that Paul is calling this church at Colossae to.
If there’s going to be intimacy in marriage, like you want this marriage to share, it’s got to begin with an over-and-done commitment to have and to hold for life. In the same way, this thing has to begin in the Christian life with a commitment to be over and done with this and to have and to hold Jesus for life.
And the incentive of this— and in doing that, we become more and more like the God that we love. Wow.
Let’s pray. Lord, thanks for speaking to us this morning from this amazing passage.
Forgive us for all these times that we’ve not been over and done with this former life, this old life.
Thank you for your patience with us. Thank you that you’re not done with us. Thank you for your unending love. Thank you for your word to us today.
Lord, help us get past our past. Help us get completely into this relationship with you. May it happen in greater ways in the days ahead than it has even happened in the past. May it happen every day as we make decisions to rid ourselves of the old life and to move into this new life.
And Lord, I pray for anybody who’s here today that’s not sure that they’ve ever made that decision to let go of the past, that today would be the day of making that decision. That if they are one of your children, then they will come to realize they’re married to you, and that changes everything. And so, Lord, help them embrace all that that means even now. And if that’s the commitment you need to make today, tell God, I want to make— I’m a done I’m done with my past commitment, Lord, my past life. I’m done with that.
And I want to be completely into this future life, this now life with you. Tell him. And if you’ve never received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, that’s the first commitment. And yes, even this passage says so that you won’t come under the wrath and punishment of God. There is a hell.
There’s a place that people are going to end up because they reject God. God doesn’t desire that you spend eternity there. He desires that you share life with him now and forever. And he’s provided a way for that to happen through his Son Jesus, who he gave on the cross. He gave his life that you might have life.
And really, this is a choice between death and life. Every choice that we face really is a choice between death and life, and God offers you life. Will you receive it? It’s found in Jesus.
If you want that life, tell him that this morning. Lord, forgive me, please. I’ve been living like this life is what’s important, and, and I know that it’s empty. Forgive me.
I don’t any longer want to live as if I’m God. I want to live as if you’re God, because you are. And I ask that you’d save me. You’d save me from my sins. You’d save me through your Son Jesus.
You’d adopt me into your family.
And you’d change my life, Lord. God hears prayers like that. Bible says that if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we’ll be saved.
God longs to save you from the punishment to come. He longs to save you now and give you life today, forever. Receive the gift. Father, thank you that we again have an opportunity this morning to connect with you and with each other. We pray that the things that we’ve talked about will help us in deeper ways make the connections and the commitments that you desire, that we might become people who represent you well, that people see Christ in us.
For it’s in his name we pray. Amen. This morning, as you
