Theme: Christian Living
Text: Col. 3:1-4
Prop: Every Christian needs to maintain Christian living daily.
Trans: How do we go about daily Christian living?
Intro: Last week and only one other time since I have been here have I preached on the subject of baptism. And the reason I preached on that subject last week was because I knew there would be the baptism of Brittany, so I thought it a appropriate time to do so again. But I don’t really feel that I have preached on that subject too much as of yet. And there could be more to be said about it, matter of fact there could be a lot more said about it.
But now since I’ve got you thinking that I’m going to preach this morning on the subject of baptism again, I’m not. Why, because I know who is out there sitting in the pews and I know that a majority in this church are Christians and that the majority of you decided to follow Jesus and be baptized into Him many years ago. This morning I want to talk about living a Christian life. How every Christian needs to maintain daily Christian living and how we should go about that everyday. With that said read with me in Colossians chapter 3 verse 1ff.
Now Paul tells us in those verses about living a Christian life and some things to do in living a Christian life and he gives us some reasons why we should do that. But first I’d like to take notice of one word in this passage.
There is in those verses one of the biggest words in the English language. You might be saying or asking yourself what is he talking about there are no big words in this passage, but there is. We have lots of big word in the English language, don’t we? Most of the big words are words that are hard to pronounce and are very long words like Antidisestablishmentarianism, which by the way when I was sub teaching this week was a word that the students were going to have to spell for a spelling test. The word has 28 letters. And then there’s Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, which has 34 letters. And then there is another word that I heard about this week from Mr. Pelfrey, it’s a medical term and that has 100 letters in it. A word that would take more that one line of text when typed out. He read about the word in a magazine article he was reading, however, he said, they didn’t print the word.
So you might say that those are some pretty big words, but the biggest word in all of those verses is only 9 letters long, at least in the NASB, and that word is only “therefore”. You see the biggest word in there has noting to with the amount of letters because it’s only 2 letters long, and that word is “if”. Paul says, “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ.” And Paul said that, knowing that they have been.
Now what does raised up in Christ mean? It means baptized in Christ. That they have put their old self to death and have been raised up to a new life in Chirst. Paul knew that they had been, Paul knew that they were Christians. He was saying this knowing who they were in Christ. It would be like me saying. If you are from Leonard Christian Church. If you are from Shelby county. If you are a Christian, and most here are. You see I know that you are all those things, and he said that knowing they had been raised up in Christ. He knew they were already Christians and so he addresses them in that way.
You see the word if is a big word especially if you take in context with 1 Cor. 15:12 & 13 it says; (read the verses in the Bible) “if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised.” Paul said that in 1 Cor., knowing that Christ was raised from the dead. For he saw Christ Himself and he knew the testimony of the other apostles that saw Him to, after He was raised from the dead. If is a big word because if Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, we have no purpose in being here and we would have no purpose in this life. If Christ were not raised from the dead all would be hopeless, wouldn’t it.
But we do have purpose in this life however; because we know just as Paul knew that Christ was raised. Paul says to the Colossians, I know you are Christians, I know you have been raised in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection. And now because of that you have some things to do.
Things To Do:
I. Keep Seeking The Things Above, vs. 1
The first thing he says to do is “keep seeking the things above.” You have sought them he says, for you are Christians, but he says, keep seeking the things above. In meaning, I think, he’s saying, set your priorities in the right order.
Mt. 6:33 says; “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…” If our priorities are set in the right order we will be seeking God and His kingdom first. Acts 17:27 says; “….they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us”
Yes, God is not far from each on of us at anytime, matter of fact if you are a Christians; He is in you right now. But this says that we should grope for Him. Now I didn’t know exactly what the word grope meant, though I had an idea, but this is what it means, “To feel about with or as with the hands, as in the dark; to look for uncertainly and blindly.” According to Webster’s Dictionary.
Sub Point 1. We should seek God with no regard to anything else, seeking Him blindly. He should be put on a pedestal so high in our life that nothing else comes before Him.
In Hebrews Paul talks about people putting other things before God and in Hebrews 10:24 & 25 he says this; “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some…”
You see if we are seeking God, if you are groping for God, we will not forsake coming together in this church assembly. We will not forsake our meeting together for it is opportunity for us stimulate others, to encourage others and to get that ourselves. And it’s our set apart time to come and give praise, honor and glory to God the creator of heaven and earth.
Illus: How many times can a person miss church on Sunday in a year and still go to heaven. Well that depends on who you talk to. How many times is to many, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, how many times is too much? Do we even think about that, is it something we should be concerned about? It surely is something that we are to do or Paul wouldn’t have told us not to forsake our own assembly together. What do you think? In the Old Testament in the book of Numbers it talks about a man that was out gathering wood on the Sabbath, and here is what it says; “Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So all the congregation brought him outside the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.” Num. 15:32-36. Now this person only missed his worship time with the Lord once and the Lord commanded him to be put to death. Rather harsh we would say.
Now it’s not my suggestion that if someone in this congregation isn’t here one Sunday that we should go out and stone him to death. If we did that we would no longer have a congregation. But it is my suggestion that us being in God’s house every week is important to God. And if we are seeking God, groping for God as Scripture says we should do, then it will be on the top of our priority list to be here on Sunday before we do anything else.
Sub Point 2. Also in seeking God it is of the utmost importants that we are in God’s Word. How can a person be seeking God and living a Godly life unless he has read God’s instructions for the way we should live.
Illus. Maybe you heard about the man that wanted to parachute (jump) out of a plane. He was told that in order for him to be able to do that he would have to attend a series of classes on parachuting before he could actually get in the plane and jump. He thought there was no reason that he didn’t need those classes, how hard could it be to jump out of a plane and pull the ripcord. So the day came along that they would all get into the plane and jump. As they were getting higher and higher he was getting more, more nervous in anticipation for the jump, but he had the nerve to go ahead and do it. It finally came his time to jump. There were many jumping that day and he followed the person that jumped before him. But when he went to pull the ripcord the parachute didn’t come out. Now he was really nervous and he was frantically pulling on the cord to get the chute open and I’m sure wishing he had those classes. But as he is now heading toward the ground now at a terminal velocity he notices something. It looks like a man and he thinks and it looks like he’s coming toward me. As he gets closer he sees that it is a man and he is coming at him, as he’s speed to the ground. And as the men pass each other he yells, do you know anything about parachutes? No the other guy yells back, do you know anything about gas BBQ grills.
You see without reading, without studying God’s Word we will not know how God wants us to live our Christian life. Folks, if we don’t read the instruction manual there is no way that we will be living and doing God’s will in our life.
II. Set your mind on things above, vs. 2
The second thing Paul says to do is to, “set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
It is very difficult to lead a Christian life day in and day out when we have the things of this earth on our minds all the time. And there are so many things here on earth that can corrupt our minds. We don’t have to go any further today than our own living rooms. You see there is a little box in our living rooms that we call a TV. Now there are things on there that is good, but you and I know that it takes some searching to find those things. While at the same time you can find bad things, and you and I know that those things are easy to find.
Illus. We have become a nation that sits around the TV for a great portion of our life. In a survey it was said that the TV in the average American household is on for 50 hours a week. And most of the shows we watch on there is something that will corrupt our minds instead of helping us to set our minds on the things above. It’s hard to compete with odds like that. Spending 50 hours a week in things that most likely corrupt us and only spend 1 or 2 hours in God’s house on Sunday setting our minds on things above.
But there’s not only the TV these days, there is the computer and there are movies. Look at the world of the Internet and how many things are on there that can corrupt our minds, and look at the world of movies and how many movies that are put out that will only corrupt us. One could sit on the computer and only look for good things, only looks for Christian things and there would be things that pop up that a good Christians and children should never see or read. I know, it has happened to me and it has happened to many at the Bible College.
Now I’m not against TV, Movies and the Internet. They can be used for good and to further God’s kingdom, but we must monitor what we do and see and what our children do and see.
Set your mind on things above. Phil. 4:8 says; “…brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.”
Instead of dwelling on the things of this earth, we need to dwell on the things that can make this world better. Concentrating on how you can serve God, on how you can make him known to the world around you.
Set your mind. We set our mind on many things in this life don’t we? We set it when we’re young to do things. Things like being the best you can be in school or in sports. To graduation high school and go on to college. We think as we go along of how successful we want to be in life and we set our minds toward that goal. When we get married we set our mind to that marriage. To be committed to our spouses and to raising a family and to supporting that family. We set our minds to providing for our retirement and making sure we have enough money when we are old. And there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But we need to set our minds on the things above more than we set our minds to any of those things.
It comes back to priorities, to putting God 1st in everything we do. In order to live a Christian life the way God would have us to do, He needs to be 1st in our thought, in what we say, and in what we do.
Now the first part of our text gives us things to do and that is to, keep seeking the things above and to set our minds on things above. Now the last of our text tells us why we should do those things.
Why:
I. Because you have died, vs. 3a
The first part of verse 3 says; “For you have died.” Because you have died is one reason you should live a Christian life. Now you may not like this when I say it, but I hope that I’m looking at a room full of dead people. Not that you are dead and no longer alive on this earth, but that you have died to your old self and are now living for Christ.
Because we have taken that plunge, because we have been baptized into Christ, we should be living a Christian live. In Romans 6 it is described to us as symbolizing Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. When we were baptized we died and because you have died, you live a Christian live.
II. Because your life is hidden with Christ in God, vs. 3b
Then verse 3 goes on to say; “your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Because your life is hidden with Christ, the wrath of God will not fall upon you. You see, when Jesus died on the cross His blood paid for our sins and His blood covers us and the only way we will ever make it to heaven is if we hid behind it.
Illus. Kids are so cute aren’t they? They think that if you can’t see their head, that you can’t see them at all. One could be sitting in the middle of the floor and pull a sheet over his head and say I bet you can’t find me. Don’t you just love it when they are at that age? Playing hid and seek with them is so fun, all you have to do is duck behind something and they think your gone and then pop up again and they just laugh.
One of the best places to hid in the house when you’re playing hid and seek is always behind the couch, between the couch and the wall. Remember, all you would have to do is crawl behind there and sit there. Sure while your crawling back there the curtains would move around and you would make a little noise in doing so, but if you set there really quite it was a wonderful place to hid for a while.
But take a little kid; yeah he thinks behind the couch is a good place to hid to. But what does he do, he crawls behind the couch only far enough to get his head behind it. Everything else is exposed. Now big brothers are great, they come in to look for you and they see right away where you are, but they’ll pretend they don’t see you for a while until they get tired of pretending and they’ll find you and the game is over.
In living a Christian life we want to be totally behind that couch that is Jesus Christ. Totally living for Him in everyway, everyday.
III. Because you will be revealed with Christ in glory, vs. 4
Now verse 4 says; “When Christ who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” This is the best reason why we should do the things we need to do to live a Christian life. Because when returns again He will take all of us with Him to live for eternity in the glory of heaven.
Some might say, wow living a Christian life sounds hard and it is at times. It’s not all glory and fun being a Christian. It’s hard work, it’s a struggle, and at times it’s down right depressing. I’ve been through all of that and I’m sure many of you have to. But don’t get me wrong, at times, I would say the majority of times living a Christian life is absolutely wonderful! God blesses us in so many ways I don’t think we realize just how much.
We have hard times and good times in the Christian life, but if we will live faithful lives to God and His word we will see someday heaven and eternity first hand. And our reward will be great.
Conclusion:
Living a Christian life is a wonderful thing. It doesn’t stop at baptism. That is only the beginning. We can’t turn away from God after baptism or act as if you have it all taken care of now, there are things we need to do. We have been enlisted into His army and He has jobs for everyone one of us.
So what we’ve talked about today is living a Christian life. We mentioned that there are some things that we need to do.
1. Is to keep seeking the things above
2. Is to set our minds on the things above, not on things of this earth
And then we have the reason why. Why should we do any of those things?
1. Because we have died - - we no longer live for ourselves, but for Christ.
2. Because we are hidden with Christ in God.
3. Because we will be revealed with Christ in glory.
Those are some good reasons why we should give our all for God everyday of our life. Whether you’re a new Christian like Brittany and like Nathan who was baptized a few months ago or if you became a Christian 50 or 60 or more years ago. We should never give up on living faithfully for God.
Now if you’re here this morning and you have never taken the steps necessary to become a Christian. It is so easy to do. All one has to do to become a Christian is 1. Hear the Gospel. 2. Believe the Gospel you heard. 3. Repent, turn away from the sin in your life. 4. Confess Jesus to God’s Son. 5. Be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and to receive the indwelling gift of the Holy Spirit. And the final to do after that, after you become a Christian is live a faithful life to God and His Word.
So if you’re not a Christian today and you have taken every step except the last one, be baptized, don’t hesitate, and don’t wait until a certain day or a certain time. Right now is the time that you can become a Christian. Tomorrow may be too late. Come forward now during our invitation hymn and we will take the necessary steps needs to immerse you into Christ. Please stand as we sing.
