Colossians 3:12-17

12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

It’s here in Colossians 3 that there is a shift as we move from what we belief to how we behave. In the first few chapters we see Jesus as supreme over His creation and His church, and here we see He is also supreme over the Christian. You see there are practical implications that should be evident if one surrenders to the supremacy of the Savior. As such, we move from principles to practices, from the indicative to the imperative. Because it does little good if we can declare and defend the truth but fail to demonstrate it in our lives. In contrast to the pagan religions of Paul’s day who paid little attention to personal morality we are called to Christ like conduct. The pagan religions could bow before an idol, put their offering on the altar, and then go back to the same old life of sin. What they believed had no direct relationship with how they behaved. Their worship didn’t affect their walk. Today there are many Christians whose conduct doesn’t match their confession because they have a compartmentalized Christianity. What do others witness in your walk; does your behavior match your belief? We are called to be in the world not of the world. Paul’s preaching reminds us that we are set free from the powers around us, that we don’t have to repeat the problems of our past. As Believers we are called to put on the new nature and pursue God. The focus is not on rules or results but a relationship. Transformation involves trusting God, spending time with Him in a relationship. Paul’s proposal is that we live for the Lord and as he talks about the new nature he starts first with our:

1. POSITION

Verse 12 says: “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves” Paul starts with a statement of who we are. We are God’s chosen people, and it doesn’t get any better than that. Instead of coming to the One who wants us many of us are working to try and be wanted by the world. We are trying hard to fit into the culture instead of trusting in the Creator. The difference between being chosen and trying to fit in is the difference between our work and His. One involves being wanted, while the other involves working. Paul reminds us that the path to true and lasting change begins with position because position determines our:

a. Perspective

Colossians 3:1, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven” This is a simple and yet significant truth. But the reality is that if you are saved you can set your sights on what really matters. So often we let our past pain and present problems determine and dominate our perspective because we forget our position. When we lose sight of whose we are we lose sight of who we are and why we are here. Position is paramount and to illustrate that I want to share the following story. One day the commander of a great army had his prize steed run away from him. An alert private immediately jumped on a horse and chased after the steed. When the private returned the horse the commander smiled at the private and said, “Thank you,…Captain!” The overjoyed private immediately took his old uniform to the quartermaster and exchanged it for that of a captain. He then ran back to the barracks, packed his bags, and moved into the officers’ quarters. In an instant, the commander-in-chief had changed his status from that of a lowly private to that of a commissioned officer. He never once doubted the commander’s words, instead, he believed what the general had said and acted accordingly. The commander Jesus Christ has, by a single act, forever changed your status before God, by His death and resurrection, He has transformed us from chaos to chosen children. Our responsibility is to act in a way that is consistent with our new status and that is what Colossians 3 is all about. Paul is urging us to exchange the old desires, attitudes, and actions that were characteristic of our former lives for those that are indicative of our new rank and standing. Today many Christians are trying to live up to a position instead of living out their position. We are “Chosen” by God, you are significant and special according to the Savior. You see you don’t have to strive to arrive. So often we look at this passage and our thought process is, “if I would be a better Christian Christ would accept me” The truth is He already has. Not only are we chosen by the Creator but we are Holy. This means that we are set apart from a sinful world and dedicated to God. God accomplished this truth for us positionally now we are called to live it out practically. Just as the marriage ceremony sets apart a man and woman for each other exclusively, so salvation sets the believer apart exclusively for Jesus Christ. It would be a horrible thing if at the end of the wedding ceremony the bride ran off with another man. It is just as horrible if the Christian runs from the Lord to love the world. Not only are we chosen and holy but we are also loved. To be loved is the longing of every heart. We have a God who not only loves us just the way we are but loves us enough not to leave us that way. God’s love involves Him doing what is eternally best for us not what is easiest. This is His commitment to remain true to us, in all the circumstances of our life. God loves each of us just as we are and as we respond to His love we become who He has called us be. Because of our position as chosen, holy, loved children of God He calls us to put on our new uniform. Are you letting your past and your problems determine and dominate your perspective or are you letting your position as a child of the King?

Matthew 6:12-15

“12 and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13 And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

When we look at the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11 we see Jesus disciples coming to Him and asking Him to teach them to pray. They saw Jesus not only communicating with God but communing with Him and they wanted what He had. They wanted to know how to pray so that God would listen to them like He did Jesus. They knew that there was power in prayer and they wanted to experience the same powerful prayer life that Jesus had. But when Jesus gave His disciples the words to the Lord’s Prayer He provided a pattern for prayer not a formula. Our problem is that we have turned the Lord’s Prayer into a formula for results when in reality it really provides a framework for relationship. The power is not in the words but in the One who hears them. Formulas can become fatal especially as they relate to relationship, because formulas can cause us to start manipulating and forcing God to get what we want. Instead of driving us deeper into relationship they reduce our conversation to a one-sided monologue where we direct God to a certain desired response. Now for many a formula may not look that different than a framework, but there is a definite difference. Where a prayer formula focuses on the words we say, a prayer framework focuses on the One we say them to. Where a formula for prayer focuses on what we do, a framework focuses on who God is. Instead of the focus being on our action it’s on the Almighty where His character becomes central not our effort. A formula fools us into acting as if it’s our actions that initiate God’s response, where a framework guides us to God’s already initiated love for us and provides a platform for us to receive His response. How do you know when you are treating the Lord’s Prayer like a formula, you start using it as a means to get something rather than get God. Getting something from God is not nearly as great as getting God. When we approach the Lord’s Prayer like a formula we will end up with a fuzzy focus and lose sight of the point of prayer, which is to grow in our relationship with God not to get. Today when it comes to the Lord’s Prayer we memorize it, sing songs about it and repeat it reverently but did Jesus intend for us to repeat His words in order to pray? No and He actually warned His disciples against “vain repetitions” when He said in Matthew 6:7 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.” Some believe that saying the same thing over and over again somehow helps their prayers become more holy and reverent. But it’s not about repetition it’s about real conversation. When it comes to repetition there is only one part of the prayer that is repeated, that of forgiveness. This one concept was so important that Christ not only mentioned it in the Lord’s prayer he went back to comment on it, using three time more words to define what he said then he used to say it. When we come to the forgiveness piece of prayer we need to understand that just like prayer forgiveness is not a formula it’s a process. So how do we forgive, especially if those we are forgiving are unrepentant? We look to the Lord and His example. In Luke 23:34 as Jesus hung on the cross of Calvary He prayed: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing” Jesus forgave in the face of unrepentant hearts. Jesus understood why they were doing what they did and understanding why people do the things they do can help us as we take that big step towards forgiving them. The people that were bruising and abusing Jesus were broken, and just like us they suffering from the sickness of sin. When Jesus forgave His focus wasn’t on their faults it was on the Father. Instead of punishing people He prayed for and paid for them. How do we forgive, by focusing on the Father and His forgiveness. You see it’s when we seek His forgiveness and see the serious sickness of our own sin soaked hearts that we realize to withhold His forgiveness would be hypocritical. We forgive by and because of God’s grace. We may never forget and it might not be right to but over time the memories will, through forgiveness and the Fathers faithfulness lose their power over us. At first forgiveness may not seem to make sense, but we need to remember that it will make a difference. We have a choice, we can forgive or hold onto the hurt and harbor the hate, but when we refuse to forgive we need to remember that we also forgo the Fathers forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t easy but it’s not as hard as hating, because hating consumes the heart while forgiveness cures the heart. Are you going to put your energy into releasing or resenting? I have learned the hard way that when you have a hurt that needs to heal its best not to pick at it. Many of us carry more spiritual scars than we should because instead of prayer we turned to picking. Today the process our world presents us with for dealing with our disappointments and hurts revolves around revenge and retaliation. But hurting never brings healing, instead of bringing closure it brings chains. It not only adds fuel to the fire but pain to our prison. Seeking to right the wrongs with revenge is like trying to pacify the pain by drinking poison. What the world needs is the radical reconciling love of the Redeemer, and nothing represents our faith and points people to the Father as powerfully as forgiveness. The answer to the continual cultural conflict isn’t more money, education, or legislation it’s the Fathers forgiveness. We are a fallen people that first need to experience the Fathers forgiveness and then seek to extend it. 2000 years ago Jesus entered and ended the debate on which lives matter when he died for all. Our greatest witness to the world probably isn’t going to be our words but our walk of forgives. Today as you petition the Father for forgiveness who are the people you need to present with His forgiveness? Because the practice of forgiveness is the most powerful and precious present that we can present to the world.