Moments in the life of a Pastor

Colossians 3:1-11

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your^[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

1. PRESENT PROBLEM

Why is it so difficult for Christians to set their sights on the eternal over the earthly? To live in a real relationship and let that dictate our life, verses the riggers and responsibilities of this life? Why is it hard to be heavenly-minded? Some might answer because of sin and there is some truth in that, we have two sets of desires that are warring against one another, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit, pure passions verse pagan plans. Paul spoke of this conflict in Galatians 5:16-17 –“So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.” But our difficulty in focusing on eternal values cannot be completely blamed on our sin nature. One of the main reasons that this is such a difficult dilemma is that we are divided between two realities. While we are citizens of Christ we also walk in the world. While we are trying to set our sights on the spiritual, we are sojourners through the secular. This is such a difficult predicament that Jesus prayed for power on our behalf: John 17:14-18. Twice in His prayer Jesus declares that devoted followers are not of this world, but twice Jesus specifically says that God’s plan is not to take Christians out of this world, but rather, to send them into the world. Herein lies one of our greatest dilemmas – How can a Christian live in this world without loving this world? How do we set our sights on eternal realities while living out our earthly responsibilities? Colossians 3:1-2 addresses and answers this dilemma.  What Paul is saying is that to be heavenly-minded we are to conform to Christ, our daily desires, attitudes, and actions must be surrendered as we set our sights on the Savior. To be heavenly-minded simply means loving what Jesus loves, thinking like Jesus thinks, and viewing our daily life from a place of heavenly perspective. Your first thought is probably, “Well, I’ve tried that many times and I just can’t do it consistently.” And I can sympathize with you because I’ve been down that road, it usually works this way: We hear God’s Word and the Holy Spirit convicts our heart of some sin, so we determine that we are going to fix it. We make it about do and don’t as we try to eliminate “this and that” from our life. We go home and try our best to live up to our commitment. However, most of the time we find that, no matter how determined we are, we are still subject to the sins. We experience failure which brings frustration, which often leads us to believe that since we can’t live the kind of godly life we might as well forget it. But then we hear God’s Word the Holy Spirit convicts our heart and the whole thing starts over again. The problem is often that we try to move forward using a formula, when we are called to walk by faith not a formula. 

Colossians 3:1-11

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

Paul has taught us about praise, prayer, the preeminence of Christ, God’s purpose and plan, proactively pursing Jesus, poisonous practices of piety and now he talks about living with Power. He  starts with a reminder of the raised resurrected life of which baptism is a symbol. The death and resurrection of Jesus to many is just an objective fact concerning how the world was reconciled to God. For Paul his unshakable conviction was that the open tomb opened the way to a life of powerful possibilities. He wanted the Colossians not only to believe in the power of Christ’s resurrection but to claim and live in that power. Paul also wanted us to know that this power was provided for every believer because it is not determined by our circumstances but Christ. The gospel is intended to be personally received, it is intended to change life, to become a living reality in those who believe and receive Jesus as their Savior. The resurrection is the foundational principle for truly living the Christian life, so he taught them the secret of Resurrection Living in Colossians 3:1-11.  Paul starts with:

1. PAULS PROPOSAL

Live for the Lord, passionately press on pursuing God’s path

QUESTION – Where are you at in your walk?

The answer to that question is discovered by finding out what we really love and what our goals are. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What three things are you working hardest for right now?

2. What are the three things you love the most?

3. What are the three things you think about the most?

Paul’s proposal calls for us to pursue the eternal over the earthly. After all that rusted wreck of a car in the junkyard was once new, shiny, sleek and desirable. Those clothes you took to goodwill were once nice and fashionable. Many of us are chasing the empty instead of the eternal and it takes looking beyond the boundaries of this life and seeing the best. Paul is calling us to see the big picture instead of our own little world. Paul invites us to proceed forward in the Christian life the problem for many is that we get hung up on the hurts and the here and now. The 2 enemies of Paul’s proposal are our paralyzing past and our present problems:  

• PARALIZING PAST

You can’t fully embrace God’s purpose while you’re living in the past. 

Breaking free from the bondage of our past requires more than behaving but believing. Healing comes when you release the hurt and hold on to the hope, you can’t hold on to both. Letting go requires looking to the Lord not our past pain.  Paul talks about:

1. PUT OFF – Past practices these includes both attitudes and actions.

• PUT ON – God’s provision, your new nature. Again this deals with our attitudes and actions, we are to be renewed as we learn to know our Creator and become like him.

The pagan religions of Paul’s day taught little about personal morality, a worshipper could bow before an idol, put his offering on the altar, and go back to the same old life of sin. What a person believed had no direct relationship with how he behaved. Paul says we don’t have to be stuck in our pagan past.