SPEAKER_00: Uh go with me to the book of Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in this wonderful epistle for the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to pick up in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just say a special thank you to again to all the leaders who took our youth.
SPEAKER_00: I know many of you took vacation time to go.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Jerry and Casey, thank you so much for being our youth pastors and pouring into the next generation.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we're gonna be looking at Colossians 2 and 3 today.
SPEAKER_00: If you have it in your Bible, say amen.
SPEAKER_00: We've had a uh couple different men in here who they were kind of in between jobs and they work at uh Buckeys.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is well documented that Bucky's has some pretty rigorous standards when it comes to dress code.
SPEAKER_00: Like you had to wear a red polo, and it better look sharp, it better be tucked in.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I'm gonna use Kent as an illustration today.
SPEAKER_00: He wore his for me.
SPEAKER_00: Right, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: Good job.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So when they hire someone, you know, you've you gotta wear the red polo, you've got to wear a particular kind of pants, no open toe shoes.
SPEAKER_00: If you have tattoos, they cannot show, body piercings cannot show, and you can't even have an off-color dye in your hair.
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be like a normal-looking color on your hair, like pretty rigorous standards.
SPEAKER_00: We've been in Colossians for a couple of weeks now.
SPEAKER_00: In week one, we looked at the unmatched glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then last week we looked at how that all-glorious Christ transforms people who are born again.
SPEAKER_00: And similarly to Abucky's employee, when Jesus transforms us, he gives us new garments, garments of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This is a metaphor that's used throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 61:10 says this the prophet says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He has covered me with a robe of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when he left home, he was in the pig sty, I assume, a bit odorous, ragged clothes.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came down, he got him a shower.
SPEAKER_00: He took off those old stinky clothes, and he was clothed with his father's robe.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6, Paul tells us metaphorically to put on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then Revelation throughout the book, it talks about now having these special garments in Christ, but in the end, we who persevere will receive right white robes representing purity in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a helpful way to think about our text today.
SPEAKER_00: So after reminding us of who we are in Christ in chapters 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, Paul makes a shift in chapter 2, verse 6, and here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling us to live in accordance with that identity.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: Here's who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Celebrate that.
SPEAKER_00: Now walk with him, walk in your new identity.
SPEAKER_00: Then in chapter 3, here's what he does: he tells the believers in Colossae and us to put off certain behaviors and to put on Christ-like, let's say, virtues.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this would have evoked the language that he uses, would have evoked this clothing metaphor amongst the Gentiles and the Jews in this church.
SPEAKER_00: In the first century, see, clothing communicated a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And it used to in this country.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know, almost nobody, you know, even people in the bank, if you noticed it, the bank officers don't even wear suits anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But in the first century, clothing communicated a lot about people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it communicated what you were, communicated where you were on the social hierarchy.
SPEAKER_00: It communicated how much money you had or didn't have.
SPEAKER_00: It communicated a lot of times your occupation.
SPEAKER_00: It communicated even your religion.
SPEAKER_00: And watch this, it even communicated your morality.
SPEAKER_00: And when we come to Christ by grace, I think this is what Paul's saying here.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he gives us these new clothes of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: those old clothes of the flesh, those raggedy clothes, are still hanging in the back of our closet because the Bible says that the flesh, our sinful nature, is always wrestling, it's always at war with the Spirit of God in us.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing: we've got all the pure and righteous clothing, all the garments that we need to look sharp.
SPEAKER_00: But daily we have to appropriate that blessing.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we come to the closet, the spiritual closet every morning and we go, look, wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not putting on those old clothes today.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, I die daily.
SPEAKER_00: That means every day we choose, by God's grace, by the power of the Spirit, we choose to wear those garments.
SPEAKER_00: We must walk in accordance with the new identity.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here's the thing: we've got to take off some clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And we got to put on some clothes.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, what garments do we take off?
SPEAKER_00: Look at uh Colossians 3.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 9, he says, Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self, those old clothes, if you will, with its practices.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna categorize what he says to put off in two main um categories.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, we're to put off worldly, those old beliefs, let's say.
SPEAKER_00: And first, you you gotta understand that one of the main reasons that Paul is writing this epistles is because in Colossae, false teachers are everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: There are false Jewish teachers, and there are false, like these pagan teachers who are infiltrating the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so, number one, um, Paul says you've got to put off this idea of works-based righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show this to you.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to chapter two and look with me at verses 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Let no one pass judgment on you.
SPEAKER_00: This is a highly Gentile church, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And he's talking to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00: Now, watch this.
SPEAKER_00: These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance is in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So, under the old covenant, many of you know this, there were customs, purity customs that were required for God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Many of the rabbis, as strenuous as those rules and customs were, many of the rabbis added to those.
SPEAKER_00: They tightened the law.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says here, he says, listen to these believers, he says, you're free from practicing those customs because all of those pointed to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All the sacrifices, all the purity rituals.
SPEAKER_00: We are pure, we are forgiven in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So you don't have to wash your, I mean, you should wash your hands, but you don't have to do it in a particular way when you walk in the church to somehow purify yourself before you come in.
SPEAKER_00: But see, within the church, there are these group of Jews called the Judaizers, and they were teaching, they were saying they believed in Jesus, and they would tell these Gentiles when they came to Christ, well, great, you can come in, you can come to Jesus, but you also basically need to become a Jewish proselyte.
SPEAKER_00: You need to start following our laws, so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what those people were teaching, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: And some of the Gentiles are, you know, buying it, and they're it's a burden to them.
SPEAKER_00: They can't experience freedom in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is works-based righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, we are saved and we are sanctified by grace through faith in Christ, period.
SPEAKER_00: And rules-based righteousness, by the way, is pretty common in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have come from churches like that, and and and they would say, Oh, yeah, we're saved by faith, but everything's about what you do.
SPEAKER_00: You never quite feel good enough.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 2 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism.
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is the harsh treatment of the body in order to gain some kind of spiritual benefit.
SPEAKER_00: So there were pagan now, Paul's shifting gears.
SPEAKER_00: There were pagan philosophers and philosophies in Paul's day that promoted gain by being really harsh to your body, denying yourself of any part of God's good creation.
SPEAKER_00: Shortly after the New Testament era would come Gnosticism, Gnostic thought, which saw the spiritual as good and matter as evil.
SPEAKER_00: And in many cases, this led to this kind of ascetic behavior, like people wouldn't marry because that was the pleasure of this world, that they would avoid certain foods and they would deny almost any worldly pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you today, God's creation is good?
SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to worship it, but we're supposed to enjoy it as long as it's not sunful.
SPEAKER_00: George Whitfill, a central figure in the great awakening that happened in the mid-1700s, he fasted.
SPEAKER_00: He all of a sudden became interested in God and he fasted, it's well documented, for about 40 days.
SPEAKER_00: And he was almost on his deathbed.
SPEAKER_00: And he was so angry because he was saying, God, I'm doing this for you.
SPEAKER_00: Have I not earned enough?
SPEAKER_00: Have I not done enough for you to love me?
SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, men, including John Wesley, came around his bedside and said, Whitfield, you're missing it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to earn God's love.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to put your body through this to somehow be accepted by God.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Whitfield was saved by grace and became one of the greatest preachers the world has ever known.
SPEAKER_00: So the the point here is we've got to throw off the belief of this earning our righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Are good works important?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Is living a holy life important?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but they're the evidence of salvation, as I say often, they're not the means of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've got to throw off those garments of works-based righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Christ gives us these garments by sheer grace.
SPEAKER_00: There's another belief we must throw off, and that is mystic spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: Now you need to listen here because this is really relevant in our culture today.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_00: Let no one, Paul writes, disqualify you insisting on asceticism and watch this worship of angels, going on in details about visions, puffed up with reason and a sensuous mind.
SPEAKER_00: Does this not sound like our culture?
SPEAKER_00: And not holding fast to the head, capital H, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
SPEAKER_00: So he talks about the worship of angels and visions and these kind of sensuous minds.
SPEAKER_00: Now there's some research that's been done from some organizations like the uh Pew Research Center and Gallup polls, and they found out that a significant number of Americans, I mean a significant number, does define themselves as quote-unquote spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: They say, Well, we're not religious, but we're spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you ask somebody where we're they're at with God, and they say, Well, Terry, I'm spiritual, you ought to pause.
SPEAKER_00: Because that does not mean that they're a Christian, and honestly, in this culture, that word's been hijacked.
SPEAKER_00: It probably means that they're not.
SPEAKER_00: And so they believe sometimes in some form of God, and many even pray, but they believe that they connect in the spiritual realm through angels in visions and practices like meditation.
SPEAKER_00: And this too, it's crept into the church.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, goodness, especially in the charismatic church, there's some never mind.
SPEAKER_00: See, I listen to the Holy Spirit sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: There's almost an unhealthy focus on the supernatural, isn't there?
SPEAKER_00: Many self-proclaiming Christians try to connect with God through practices that are very, very mystical.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul calls these people inflated by empty notions of their unspiritual mind.
SPEAKER_00: The very people that are mystical like this, they think they're spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: Paul just flat up, uh, flat out, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit says they have unspiritual minds.
SPEAKER_00: And he says instead, here's what he says: why are you seeking these visions and these experiences with angels and all this mystical stuff when you can go right to Jesus Christ who created all the spiritual?
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go to the head.
SPEAKER_00: He created everything, spiritual and physical.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there it is.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to put off these beliefs, these wrong beliefs.
SPEAKER_00: Then we've got to put off worldly behavior.
SPEAKER_00: Go to chapter 3, verses 5 through 9.
SPEAKER_00: Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.
SPEAKER_00: And then he lifts them out: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idultery.
SPEAKER_00: On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
SPEAKER_00: In these, he writes to these believers, you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away.
SPEAKER_00: Put them in the closet.
SPEAKER_00: And then he lists some more anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just go through these very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us the gift of sex.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful gift.
SPEAKER_00: And it's meant to be practiced between one man and one woman within the marriage covenant, marriage relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this there's some churches that are confused about this.
SPEAKER_00: You might share this message with them.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's sexual morality?
SPEAKER_00: It is anything outside of sex within heterosexual marriage.
SPEAKER_00: These are heterosexual acts between a boyfriend and a girlfriend.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, young people, um, and I don't care to talk about this because you're hearing it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I had to have it eight when my son was eight years old, and this was years ago, I had to have this talk with him because he was already hearing in school.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a thought in your school right now, in your schools, it's going around, is how can I say this?
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you don't have, let's just say, intercourse, okay, and you can do everything else, and it's not sex outside of marriage.
SPEAKER_00: It is if you are sending explicit pictures to your boyfriend or girlfriend, which is like kids consider it like kissing was in my day, it's nothing, that's sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And and God says this is why the wrath of God is coming.
SPEAKER_00: I'll leave that there.
SPEAKER_00: Homosexual relationships, sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: The way our culture doesn't like that, do they?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, uh the culture wants us to affirm that they say that's love, it's not loving.
SPEAKER_00: The loving thing to do is tell the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather be honest now than for anybody to stand at the judgment seat.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think they'll say on that day, why didn't you tell me?
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word, interestingly, here is uh pornoga, from which we get the word pornography.
SPEAKER_00: Pornography, friends, it's sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to list impurity, which is lust, also related to sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: In the Greek, the meaning goes beyond uh the physical behavior and includes the motives behind sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 7 21, Jesus said, For from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, sin starts in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Your body doesn't just do something, no, it comes from the heart.
SPEAKER_00: That's where sin starts.
SPEAKER_00: So lust is in the heart, and that causes this immorality.
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: These first two sins that God lists here have to do with sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And so some of you in here might go, well, yeah, that's that's those progressive Christians, and that's the people of the world.
SPEAKER_00: I I I'm, you know, I'm not like that.
SPEAKER_00: And you put yourself on some kind of you know, pedestal.
SPEAKER_00: But watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Before you judge people involved in those sins, you might want to take the log out of your eye because Paul's not done.
SPEAKER_00: Ready to get some toes, step down?
SPEAKER_00: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Here he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Next is misdirected passion.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 6, 21, Jesus says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to enjoy God's good creation, but we're not supposed to worship it.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, Jesus is supposed to be the treasure of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: And of course you would say he is, but does your pocketbook, does your calendar, does your conversation testify to that?
SPEAKER_00: Let me just be really honest.
SPEAKER_00: Anything that you put above Christ is an idol.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna just share with you, and I'm not trying to be funny, so don't laugh at me, all right?
SPEAKER_00: This is very serious.
SPEAKER_00: So most of you know that I took up, along with many other people from this church, we took up pickleball a few months.
SPEAKER_00: What do they text if they want to join?
SPEAKER_00: Text pickle to our uh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So we we started playing, and uh I had a real knack for it.
SPEAKER_00: I I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_00: Got what's that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta let me finish.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part I don't want you to laugh at.
SPEAKER_00: So I I was, you know, uh, we were playing with beginners, but but Dylan and I, my son, we were doing really well, went to most of our games, and and uh I went and took a uh a lesson in Lexington at an indoor court, and the guy, my my the the pro there, he said, man, he said, You you're great, you're gonna be awesome in a year from now if you keep with it.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, so here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Got a little conceited, but I got real serious.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the people that started with us won't play with us anymore because we got too serious.
SPEAKER_00: We got about five of us that are like, you're gonna die if you play against us, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's no mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But I got here here's what happened.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why I'm telling you this.
SPEAKER_00: It completely for several weeks just took over my life.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not joking.
SPEAKER_00: I'd be writing a sermon, this is confession, and I'd be thinking about who I'm gonna play next.
unknown: You were in a pickle.
SPEAKER_00: I was in a pickle.
SPEAKER_00: Good one.
SPEAKER_00: Who said that?
SPEAKER_00: Mike, of course it was.
SPEAKER_00: That was good.
SPEAKER_00: So much for not laughing.
SPEAKER_00: So, so here's the thing I got really serious, and so this is so funny.
SPEAKER_00: I've been playing since mid March.
SPEAKER_00: I got a pro touring bag.
SPEAKER_00: I got clothes, Dylan and I played a tournament yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: And buddy, we were decked out.
SPEAKER_00: We were decked out.
SPEAKER_00: Pickleball shoes, pickleball hat, pickleball shirt, pickleball shorts.
SPEAKER_00: I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_00: Nikki, no joke, even got me pickleball socks, like with pictures of paddles and pickleballs on them.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the deal.
SPEAKER_00: I just became obsessed.
SPEAKER_00: And so Dylan and I decide we're going to enter this tournament.
SPEAKER_00: And so we go yesterday to this tournament, and because not enough people joined each level, they put all the levels together.
SPEAKER_00: People have been playing for years.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, hi, we're going to be all right.
SPEAKER_00: We may not win, but we're going to show them how good we are for just playing this long.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, I have never been so humiliated in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And that is saying a lot.
SPEAKER_00: The games are to 11.
SPEAKER_00: We played five games.
SPEAKER_00: Our total points were about seven or eight.
SPEAKER_00: I said, don't laugh.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: I was really mad.
SPEAKER_00: I was really upset.
SPEAKER_00: I had prayed.
SPEAKER_00: I'd asked God, you know, just help us out there.
SPEAKER_00: Father and son team.
SPEAKER_00: I asked our other players on our little page to pray.
SPEAKER_00: They apparently didn't.
SPEAKER_00: I never, after the guy that served first, my heart just dropped.
SPEAKER_00: I hit it back, but I'm like, oh no, this is a different game.
SPEAKER_00: So I was really mad and frustrated when I went home and just my dream shattered.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I was going to be pro next week.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you what happened.
SPEAKER_00: I woke up mad and I went out.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, I got to get through this before I preach.
SPEAKER_00: I went out and I sat, opened my garage door, sat out, looked out into the front yard and did some prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Asked the Lord to help me.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, in all honesty, here's what the Lord laid on my heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you why I didn't help yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: Because you've made it an idol.
unknown: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: I will tell you anything can become an idol in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And in this area, how often is sports an idol?
SPEAKER_00: We gotta take those idols off, those misdirected passions.
SPEAKER_00: Goodness, I gotta I gotta hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Evil desire is the next one.
SPEAKER_00: That is simply to long for what the Bible forbids.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just an action thing, it's longing in your heart for what the Bible forbids.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Then there's covetousness.
SPEAKER_00: So if I haven't hit you yet, I'll get you here.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greedy desire to have more.
SPEAKER_00: It's when you look at me before yesterday and you go, man, I wish I had his pickleball skills.
SPEAKER_00: Now you realize you do.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, it seriously, um Bud and Jan this week are the people who lead our Young at Heart Ministry ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Kim, they're in Ireland this week.
SPEAKER_00: No, I thought they were going to Ireland too.
SPEAKER_00: Scotland first.
SPEAKER_00: Scotland first, then Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, they're going to Ireland.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: I love Irish culture.
SPEAKER_00: I've never been excited about VBS before, and my wife does it.
SPEAKER_00: I just, oh my gosh, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: It's great for the church.
SPEAKER_00: Kids love it, leaders love it.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my favorite thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited this year because it's an Irish thing.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: Bud and Jan are in Ireland, and my dreams to go there, and honestly, I I'll probably I've got family still in Northern Ireland, and I'll probably just, you know, financially, probably not be able to do that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to new creation, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Buskie.
SPEAKER_00: When man, I can go there all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the thing, though.
SPEAKER_00: When I hear of people going to Ireland, I'm happy for them, kind of.
SPEAKER_00: But I get a little bit covetous, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, seriously, do you ever do this?
SPEAKER_00: You see your your neighbor's home or the car they drive or the boat they have, and you think, come on, I work as hard as they do.
SPEAKER_00: I deserve that, right?
SPEAKER_00: And you start coveting.
SPEAKER_00: And this happens, you know, one of the explicit examples in the Old Testament is coveting someone else's spouse.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't react at all to this if you're sitting by your spouse, but you go, man, I wish my wife was like her.
SPEAKER_00: I wish my husband was like him.
SPEAKER_00: Very serious.
SPEAKER_00: Then we're to put off ungodly speech.
SPEAKER_00: Now here you go.
SPEAKER_00: So you go, well, you got your chest puffed out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not into all that sexual immorality thing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, fair enough.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: But watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's in the same list.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna watch what he says.
SPEAKER_00: This is all about speech.
SPEAKER_00: This was in verses three, eight, and nine.
SPEAKER_00: So you've got anger.
SPEAKER_00: There is a righteous anger, but this is to have an angry and bitter disposition.
SPEAKER_00: You're always so you're always upset, you're easily offended, always mad about something.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the disposition of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's wrath, that is boiling anger that erupts into harmful words andor actions.
SPEAKER_00: You just lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's malice, which is ill will towards people that you don't like.
SPEAKER_00: You want harm to come upon them.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's slander.
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, this is why churches split.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the desire to ruin someone's reputation, particularly with exaggerated or untrue statements.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens often, this is done in quote-unquote prayer meetings.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let's just pray for Sister So-and-So because she's a horrible person and we want God to, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And it sounds so sweet, it's from the pits of hell, let me just tell you.
SPEAKER_00: So here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Ungodly speech is in the same list with sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, take off those garments.
SPEAKER_00: Put them back in the closet as far back as you can.
SPEAKER_00: And I would just ask you, are you wearing fitting clothes?
SPEAKER_00: Are you still wearing those old garments?
SPEAKER_00: So those are the ones you take off.
SPEAKER_00: But then Paul says, and I'll move through these very quickly, I promise, you got to put on some garments.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 3:12 through 16, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, watch this compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord's forgiven you, so also you must forgive.
SPEAKER_00: And above all, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_00: And let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So many Christians they think about the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a list of rules, what we can't do.
SPEAKER_00: Just saw a person yesterday online, this another pastor in the Simmons of God, he put the Simmons of God logo and he said, I want this on my tombstone.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I want a pickleball on mine just so he said, I want this on my tombstone.
SPEAKER_00: And he started talking about probably a lovely man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know him, lovely man, godly man.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, I grew up in an agey church and I didn't cuss or drink or chew.
SPEAKER_00: You know that old saying I don't cuss, drink, smoke, or chew, and don't hang out with girls who do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what people think Christianity is.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all come from some churches like that.
SPEAKER_00: Are there things we need to avoid as Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
SPEAKER_00: But watch this.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is not merely about what you don't do.
SPEAKER_00: I would say even more so, it's about what you do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talked way more, I think, that, about what we should do.
SPEAKER_00: Bear fruit, do this, minister to people than what we shouldn't do, though he talked about that as well.
SPEAKER_00: If you just take off those old behaviors, you're a naked Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: You got to put clothes on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so here they are.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, the garment of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing to first century Christians in the ancient world, you know, the people were merciless, like women were treated barely, pretty much like property.
SPEAKER_00: The sick were discarded, the marginalized and the impoverished were ostracized.
SPEAKER_00: And during Jesus' earthly ministry, he was constantly moved with compassion for the Samaritan woman.
SPEAKER_00: You remember the woman at Simon the Pharisee's house that we just looked at a few weeks ago, the prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: She fell down in Jesus' feet.
SPEAKER_00: He was moved at his feet.
SPEAKER_00: He was moved with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: There's no lowly people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He just cares about them.
SPEAKER_00: He preached the mic drop sermon, if you will, the sermon on the mountain to the poor people.
SPEAKER_00: And he started, blessed are the poor.
SPEAKER_00: That we read that and go, okay, sure.
SPEAKER_00: I was revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: The people would have been shocked.
SPEAKER_00: The word used here means to have a deep gut-level compassion.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, as believers, you and I, when we walk by a homeless person, or we walk by someone who's hungry, or we see somebody who has just had a broken relationship, we ought to not just talk to them, we ought to feel it in our guts.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just our stomach ought to ache for them.
SPEAKER_00: Christians must put on the garment of compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, the garment of kindness, Greek word here means to have an excellent demeanor that is gentle and kind.
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You better smile at me right now.
SPEAKER_00: We live in an angry world, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Take off the angry disposition and smile at somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Be kind and be gentle.
SPEAKER_00: Then we got we have the garment of humility.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, humility, believe it or not, was seen as a vice, not a virtue.
SPEAKER_00: You were seen as weak.
SPEAKER_00: It always had a uh a negative uh connotation if you go and you read, you know, Greek texts.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan MacArthur rightly said that humility, uh, that it is the antidote for the self-love that poisons relationships.
SPEAKER_00: Humility, biblically, is a virtue.
SPEAKER_00: Christ, the greatest example, humbled himself, leaving heaven to come be born in a manger to a poor Jewish family.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a common saying, but it's so good.
SPEAKER_00: Humility does not mean that we think less of ourselves, it means that we think of ourselves less.
SPEAKER_00: Next, we got to put on the garment of meekness, closely rated uh related to humility.
SPEAKER_00: You know what meekness is?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus demonstrated this throughout his ministry, especially at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Meekness is power under control.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we got we have some guys in here who are brutes, and and I wouldn't want to meet them in a dark alley, but you know what's awesome?
SPEAKER_00: We call them gentle, not gentle giants, gentle giants.
SPEAKER_00: Hang on.
SPEAKER_00: Gentle giants.
SPEAKER_00: That's what power under control is.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we're supposed to be weak men, guys.
SPEAKER_00: That's what our culture wants.
SPEAKER_00: We're not supposed to be weak, but we ought to have power under control.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus could have called 10 legions of angels, right?
SPEAKER_00: Down at the cross, but he hung there and said, Father forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know what they do.
SPEAKER_00: That is meekness.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't weak.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, he was meek.
SPEAKER_00: Next, the garment of patience.
SPEAKER_00: How you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Patience is the opposite of, and it's not just, come on, come on, come on, but it's the opposite here of revenge and resentment.
SPEAKER_00: It's part of the fruit of the Spirit, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Let me read you this.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians 5.14, Paul says, We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, and be patient with them all.
SPEAKER_00: When the Bible talks about patience, yes, we wait on the Lord and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But when we're patient with others, it means just give them grace.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that God is patient with you?
SPEAKER_00: Guys, listen, be patient when other people aren't meeting your expectations.
SPEAKER_00: It might be an employee, it might be a child.
SPEAKER_00: Give them some grace.
SPEAKER_00: Be patient.
SPEAKER_00: Encourage them.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a confession?
SPEAKER_00: We have a couple ladies come pray for Casey right now.
SPEAKER_00: The bad part is once she starts this, she won't stop.
SPEAKER_00: So just listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Um let me say this just to brag on our church.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, you're so good at this.
SPEAKER_00: You are so patient with people who are struggling.
SPEAKER_00: Really, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We've got the garment of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Many people today are enslaved by a posture of unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Human nature demands an eye for an eye.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you struggle with this.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's words and this these verses remind us of Christ's forgiveness towards us.
SPEAKER_00: It's always forgive others as Christ has forgiven you.
SPEAKER_00: You know what you're saying to God when you don't forgive somebody else?
SPEAKER_00: You're saying, Lord, it's not wise to forgive someone who's hurt you.
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe you should rethink that.
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't deserve forgiveness, neither do I.
SPEAKER_00: Yet God has forgiven us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Then we have love above all these things put on love, which binds everything together, he writes in perfect harmony.
SPEAKER_00: Why is love the most important virtue?
SPEAKER_00: Because it is the belt that holds your clothes on.
SPEAKER_00: Everything else is bound together.
SPEAKER_00: That's why if you go to Galatians 5, that's why Paul says the fruit of the Spirit and not the fruits, plural of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's one fruit in a sense, and he starts with love, and everything flows out of love.
SPEAKER_00: It all becomes one fruit, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: We're to put on love, and by the way, it doesn't mean again affirming everyone, it means speaking the truth in love.
SPEAKER_00: And it also doesn't just mean going around saying you love everybody.
SPEAKER_00: That gets weird.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: We're not to just love by declaration, we're to love by demonstration.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we need to put on the garment of love.
SPEAKER_00: Then the garment of peace.
SPEAKER_00: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, Blessed are the peak peacemakers.
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Have I stepped on your toes yet?
SPEAKER_00: All right, so here it is.
SPEAKER_00: I'm friends with most of you on social media, and I know you need to repent today.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you write political stuff just because you know it's gonna tick off a Democrat.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're a Democrat, you know it's gonna tick off a Republican.
SPEAKER_00: You know your thoughts are not gonna change your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you post it?
SPEAKER_00: Because you want to poke the bear and tell them how right you are and how wrong they are.
SPEAKER_00: You wanna you wanna convince somebody about something politically, have a conversation, ask them why they think what they think.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to them first, be slow to speak and quick to listen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't write a book online and tell them how stupid they are and how stupid what they believe is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be divisive.
SPEAKER_00: Put on the garment of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Then put on thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15, be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: Then verse 16, sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, that's my go-to verse to say we should have blended worship.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: But but it says here, sing songs and spiritual hymns to one another.
SPEAKER_00: What when do you sing?
SPEAKER_00: When you're happy, generally.
SPEAKER_00: Be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the younger generations today, not you all, of course, but out there, they feel entitled, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: They feel like the world owes them something and they're not grateful.
SPEAKER_00: The the government ought to pay for everything, my parents ought to pay for everything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, ought to have my safe spot in school, my safe place.
SPEAKER_00: Stupid.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that wasn't a peacemaking statement.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just be honest with all of us?
SPEAKER_00: We deserve nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Because these people, they you know, a lot of people today, you know what they think?
SPEAKER_00: They think God owes them something.
SPEAKER_00: I think God owes them something.
SPEAKER_00: Young people, you think your parents owe you something.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're to be nurturing, they have responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: They owe you nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: They owe you nothing.
SPEAKER_00: People in the church think the church owes them something.
SPEAKER_00: It ought to be all about them.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to sing my music.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to play my, you know, preach my sermon, you know, kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's you ought to give glory to my ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And then you get mad at God when He doesn't do something for you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we talked Wednesday, we can express feelings of anger, but you know what we think sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was really, really struggling with some mental health problems, and here I am devoting myself to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: God, you I wouldn't say this, but deep down I really thought, God, you owe me.
SPEAKER_00: I've done all this.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, what a horrible posture.
SPEAKER_00: He owes us nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he not only saves us, but every good and perfect gift comes from above.
SPEAKER_00: This building, the vehicle you came in, the person you're sitting next to, the Bible that I'm preaching from, the sound equipment, the ability to sing and to think everything is from the Lord, and we don't deserve it, but He's a God that blesses people who don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: How do you get on enclosing these garments of righteousness?
SPEAKER_00: How do you get these?
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17, one more time.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks.
SPEAKER_00: We don't put on these clothes by trying really hard.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, you know what Paul is saying here?
SPEAKER_00: He's talked about putting on these virtues, but he knows you know how he ends it.
SPEAKER_00: Put on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Every morning when you go to your closet and decide what spiritual clothes you're gonna put on, you look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You realize I'm not doing this in my strength.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you pray, lead me not into temptation today, but deliver me from evil.
SPEAKER_00: God help me put on the right clothes today.
SPEAKER_00: And you put on the power of the Spirit because it's the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your fruit, it's the Spirit's fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You just got to appropriate it.
SPEAKER_00: The story was told of a man who had uh for years lived on the streets, and he went to a rehabilitation program, and someone donated a really sharp suit and shirt and tie to him, and they were so happy, and he he looked so happy.
SPEAKER_00: The staff helped him shower and shave and get his new clothes on.
SPEAKER_00: But the next morning, interestingly, he came out and he was wearing this old dirty jacket he had over these brand new clothes.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, when they asked him why, here's what he said he said, I know these clothes are mine, but I still feel like who I'd been for so long.
SPEAKER_00: Over the past next several weeks, excuse me, he gradually stopped reaching for that old coat.
SPEAKER_00: Not because someone forced him to, but because he finally began to believe who he truly was.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't the old man anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the point of Colossians 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has given us new clothes, the old garments of anger and lust and pride and bitterness and selfishness.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer have to put those on.
SPEAKER_00: Yet many of us, you know, sometimes those old clothes aren't you, you know, this with real clothes, like the old ones are just sometimes more comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we we pick those up because we're they're just more familiar in a spiritual sense as well.
SPEAKER_00: But we forget who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life, listen, is not trying to become someone new.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life is learning to live like the person that Christ has made you.
SPEAKER_00: He's made you new.
SPEAKER_00: You've just got to learn to live in that new identity.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're here today and you're a non-Christian, I just want to invite you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You you might be thinking, well, I need to clean myself up.
SPEAKER_00: The text says no.
SPEAKER_00: You come to Jesus, he gives you the garments, then you put them on.
SPEAKER_00: He'll clean you up.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Christ today.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be able to pray with you in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here today and you're a Christian, I think most of you are.
SPEAKER_00: What garment of Christ is he calling you to put aside?
SPEAKER_00: And what garment is he telling you to put on?
SPEAKER_00: So may we praise God for the beautiful garments he has given us in Christ, and may we be faithful to wear them daily.