SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, choir and orchestra, praise team for a great morning in worship.
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to pick up where we left off last week.
SPEAKER_02: We started talking about identity, and we've been talking a little bit about our spiritual growth we represent in our triangle.
SPEAKER_02: So turn with me to Colossians chapter 3, and I want to talk to you today about how to deepen your understanding of your identity in Jesus, of who you are in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We talked last week about this question, about our identity in Christ, when we've trusted him as our Savior, and He has saved us through His grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_02: He comes into our lives, we come into Him, and then He begins the process of helping us understand what happened to us when we got saved and how to grow and be transformed to be like Him.
SPEAKER_02: So when we talk about that triangle here at First Baptist Church, if you're visiting with us, this is just a shorthand way that we use to describe that process of being transformed to be in the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: As we grow closer to him, there are three biblical principles that are put together that form that sort of spiritual chemistry of how we walk with Jesus and how he works in our lives to do his work in us and transform him to be like us to be like him.
SPEAKER_02: The first is that foundational level, our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That is, we are saved, we are his, we have made him our Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_02: And so my identity as a Christian is I have trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior, and when I was saved, I was made a part of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot separate being a Christian and a part of the church.
SPEAKER_02: You can't separate those.
SPEAKER_02: If the church is the body of Christ and you are in Christ, then you've got to be in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That is our identity of who we are.
SPEAKER_02: And then from that foundation, the relationship part of our life with Him is just how we grow closer to Him, how we focus on Him.
SPEAKER_02: That's easy.
SPEAKER_02: That's the process of prayer, Bible study, and faith choices.
SPEAKER_02: So it's a part of staying in the Word every day, talking with Him in prayer, listening to Him speak to us.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're going to talk to the Lord, He's going to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02: And He begins to say, Hey, I want you to go this direction.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to step out of faith.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to do this.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to take this out of your life, put this in your life.
SPEAKER_02: And you're obeying His instruction, His work, how He's developing us.
SPEAKER_02: It's that relationship part of who we are.
SPEAKER_02: And then there is a ministry part of who we are, and that's when we serve others, we serve the body, we are exercising out what God is putting in us.
SPEAKER_02: And the way that grows is as an equilateral triangle.
SPEAKER_02: And as those things grow, they all grow together.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is this dynamic part of our Christian life where we continue to grow and be transformed like Him.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what the Bible does not allow for is treating this, even if you're thinking from a perspective of your identity, we do not get to treat this as just a piece of our life.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a schoolteacher, I'm a Baptist, I'm a libertarian, I'm a razorback, I'm a cowboy, I'm a sooner, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: You don't get to just put those things in, and it's just one piece of that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a mom, I'm a dad, I'm a brother, I'm a husband, I'm a wife, I go to church, I do this for a living, I do that, I love to go camping, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: It's not one piece of who we are and what we do.
SPEAKER_02: And too many people treat our going to church or being a part of the church family, or I believe this in terms of theology, and I believe this in terms of economics, and I believe this politically, and I believe this about relationships, and I believe I have the right to do this.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a piece of that.
SPEAKER_02: You are first a Christian if you know Christ as your Savior.
SPEAKER_02: If you have trusted Him and He is your Lord and Savior, then what happens is you are first a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And then He tells you how to do work.
SPEAKER_02: How to be a husband, how to be a wife, how to be a son, how to be a daughter, how to be a grandparent, how to be a teacher, how to be an accountant, how to be a dentist or whatever you are, how to be this and how to be that.
SPEAKER_02: He tells you what place all those things fit into our life and how they work.
SPEAKER_02: Our identity should be driven first through an understanding that I have given my life to Jesus and I am surrendered to him.
SPEAKER_02: It is his life now, and it goes the way he leads me and teaches me and empowers me to go.
SPEAKER_02: And in that process, what's going to happen is, as that triangle grows, as we are, as it's represented in an illustration, as we are learning how to walk with him, what happens is he transforms us into his image.
SPEAKER_02: The more I understand who Jesus is, the more I am understanding that I am connected to the body of Christ because I'm connected to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: As I begin to walk with him and study his word and he speaks to me, and as I begin to obey and learn to trust him, as I begin to serve others, I begin to look more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I begin to think more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Things are taken out of my life that shouldn't be there.
SPEAKER_02: Things are put into my life that make me become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It is a dynamic relationship that is moving to transform us into his image.
SPEAKER_02: Now, as we read Colossians chapter 3, I want you to get in your mind those three principles, and I want you to see how often the Bible is stirring each one of those pieces of that chemistry that's in our spiritual lives.
SPEAKER_02: Now, here's what we get in Colossians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_02: He's been reading already, he's been teaching them already, and he gets to this point, and so he says, So, if you have been raised with the Messiah.
SPEAKER_02: So that's a rhetorical question that he's setting up there.
SPEAKER_02: So if you have been raised with the Messiah, if you know Christ as your Savior, so let's just take a minute in chapter 2, look at a couple of verses and just see what that means, because that is very important to understand what's happening there.
SPEAKER_02: He is asking a rhetorical question that sets up its own answer.
SPEAKER_02: And so we've got to understand what that means.
SPEAKER_02: First of all, in Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, here's what it says All, all, all, not some, not lots, not it's profitable, not its good.
SPEAKER_02: All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: There is no answer for life that is not out found outside of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Every question that you have in your life, every question mark, Jesus is the answer.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus brings the answer, he has the answer, his work in you answers that question.
SPEAKER_02: Any question you have about who am I?
SPEAKER_02: What's God want to do in my life?
SPEAKER_02: How am I going to work this out?
SPEAKER_02: All of that, Jesus is in all of those.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Now then he says this if all of that knowledge and wisdom is found in him, then how do we know him?
SPEAKER_02: How are we saved?
SPEAKER_02: How do we make him our Savior?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible teaches us what we've been singing about this morning, what you know to be the gospel, all of us have inherited a sin nature.
SPEAKER_02: We are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we all sin.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody in this room pretty much is old enough to know you've done things and that was wrong, and you need to ask for forgiveness and all of that.
SPEAKER_02: We know that we are not perfect.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible calls that sin.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible makes it very clear that because of that sin, as a holy God, he must judge that sin.
SPEAKER_02: And that we know what the good news of salvation we've been singing this morning is that God looked down out of heaven and he saw us in our mess and he saw that sin.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of being done with us, he sent Jesus to come and to live a sinless life.
SPEAKER_02: He goes through all the questions and struggles and everything else that we go through.
SPEAKER_02: Except Jesus did it without sin.
SPEAKER_02: He was sinless, and then he went to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus was not sent to the cross, Jesus went to the cross on purpose to pay the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: He took his sinless life, he went to the cross, and the Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3 that he bore our sins on himself.
SPEAKER_02: I love that picture.
SPEAKER_02: To bear something means that you pick up a weight and you carry that weight for a purpose.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus on purpose bore the weight of our sin to the cross, and there he died and took the full wrath and punishment of God for sin.
SPEAKER_02: He paid it all.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we sing, Jesus paid it all, and all to him I owe.
SPEAKER_02: And so then he rose again, conquering death and sin.
SPEAKER_02: He was raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_02: And when you come to Christ, you make him your Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is you believe the historical fact of what we just described.
SPEAKER_02: And then when you trust him to his death, pay the price for your sins, you surrender your life to him.
SPEAKER_02: You give him your life, all that you have been, you are, and you ever will be.
SPEAKER_02: You give it all to him.
SPEAKER_02: What happens is that exchange, spiritual exchange occurs.
SPEAKER_02: Your sins are paid for.
SPEAKER_02: So when you have trusted him as your Savior, that's what you've trusted in.
SPEAKER_02: You've said, I don't have an answer for the sin in my life.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for where I'm going.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for how I am going to describe this.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for how I find a way out of this struggle.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for defining what I'm going to be in life when I figure it out.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have an answer for all that.
SPEAKER_02: And all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And you find that when you come to Him and you trust Him as your Savior, and you are born again.
SPEAKER_02: You are raised in a new life.
SPEAKER_02: You are given a spiritual life that you did not have because you were under judgment of sin.
SPEAKER_02: You realize that you are loved, and no one loved me as much as God did when He sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price for my sins.
SPEAKER_02: I am guilty.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what to do with this.
SPEAKER_02: And then you understand that Jesus took every single sin and he nailed it to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: And when you trust him as your Savior, you are clean, you are forgiven, you are loved, you are in his presence, and then there is a reality that must happen because you have trusted Christ as your Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Now, that we understand what it means when he says, if you have been raised with the Messiah, if you have trusted Christ as your Savior and you've given your life to him, because you believe that every answer to every question is found only in him, if we have done that, then there is a response that is the only reasonable response that anyone can give.
SPEAKER_02: If you have been raised with a Messiah, then seek what is above where the Messiah is.
SPEAKER_02: Seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_02: Set your minds on what is above and not is what on the earth.
SPEAKER_02: For you have died, and all of your life is hidden with the Messiah in God.
SPEAKER_02: Because he's the one who saved you, he's the one that paid the price for your sins, he's the one that you rest in, that you are raised with in newness of life.
SPEAKER_02: Your life comes from him, and so your life is totally in him.
SPEAKER_02: As you continue to read in verse 4, the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_02: When the Messiah, and he tells us again, who is your life?
SPEAKER_02: You have no life outside of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
SPEAKER_02: And there he's talking about the eternal life that we have when Jesus is fully revealed, and when all of this is sorted out and we begin eternity, you are with him forever.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, because your life is with him, because of the promises of who you are in Jesus, because of all of that, therefore, there is a response that is required to giving your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, put to death what belongs to your worldly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: What is idolatry?
SPEAKER_02: It's worshiping something different than what we are required or supposed to worship.
SPEAKER_02: And when we are pursuing things that are behaviors that are not a part of our identity in Christ, it is literally worshiping something other than Him.
SPEAKER_02: It is sin.
SPEAKER_02: Because of these sins, God's wrath comes on the disobedient.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, God has to judge sin.
SPEAKER_02: And then he says, and you once walked in these things when you were back there living in your sin.
SPEAKER_02: But now, because your sins have been paid for nailed to the cross, now because your life is in Jesus and he is in you, now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.
SPEAKER_02: Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices.
SPEAKER_02: He continues to get this picture of an old self and a new self.
SPEAKER_02: He's giving us this idea of transformation.
SPEAKER_02: You were dead, now you're alive.
SPEAKER_02: You were guilty, now you're forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: You were in your sins, now you're in another condition.
SPEAKER_02: There's an old person of who you were before you were saved, when those were your activities and your desires, and now there is a new person.
SPEAKER_02: And so he says, Because of these, God's wrath comes on the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them, but now you must also, he's put away all that stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Do not lie to one another, since you've put off the old self and his practices, and you have put on the new self.
SPEAKER_02: You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
SPEAKER_02: In Christ, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free.
SPEAKER_02: But Christ is all and in all.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, here's another one.
SPEAKER_02: Because your life is in Christ, because your sins are paid for, because you are changed, because you are his.
SPEAKER_02: Not only are we putting away things, but therefore God's chosen ones, holy and loved, again, he's giving us that sense of identity in who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You are loved, you are set apart, because you are God's chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
SPEAKER_02: Accepting one another and forgiving one another.
SPEAKER_02: If anyone has a complaint against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive.
SPEAKER_02: Above all, put on love, the perfect bond of unity.
SPEAKER_02: And let the peace of the Messiah to which you were also called in one body control your hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Be thankful.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we don't live in a world where people are thankful.
SPEAKER_02: That's not the attitude that we run into most of the time.
SPEAKER_02: Be thankful.
SPEAKER_02: Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because your life is with him.
SPEAKER_02: You are hidden in him.
SPEAKER_02: All of the answers to life's questions are in him.
SPEAKER_02: All the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are all found in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Let the message of the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom and singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts.
SPEAKER_02: And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just talk a minute about singing.
SPEAKER_02: I had an opportunity on Friday, some of our men from our men's ministry groups, we went and worked with one of our partners in ministry, Pathway to Freedom.
SPEAKER_02: It is an organization that us and other Christians around the state we help fund and support and be a part of.
SPEAKER_02: They are a prison ministry, and so they are validated by the Arkansas Department of Corrections, and men who are in prison apply to be a part of this program.
SPEAKER_02: And when they are accepted, they come into this program.
SPEAKER_02: They spend 18 months in a dorm that is built for them with all of classrooms and all that stuff that's built for this program in the rightsful prison on the campus there.
SPEAKER_02: And they come in there and for 18 months they teach them about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They disciple them.
SPEAKER_02: They spend 10 to 12 hours a day in studying God's word and learning what caused them to end up where they were and then trying to rebuild so that they have a future in life out there.
SPEAKER_02: And they learn in such a deep way that they're the certificate of debts against them, their convictions, man, God has nailed that to the cross with Jesus and they are free.
SPEAKER_02: Let me talk about it.
SPEAKER_02: We went on Friday, and what happens is churches that support them, we take turns once a month.
SPEAKER_02: We go in there on a Friday.
SPEAKER_02: So I went with about 14 or 15 of our guys and three or four men from five or six different other churches, and so there's about 30 plus of us in there.
SPEAKER_02: We go in and we have church and worship with these guys.
SPEAKER_02: I got a chance to preach.
SPEAKER_02: Then we break out into fellowship groups and we have discussion groups, and all those men that went with us, they're leading those discussion groups with these men who are either finding Jesus or they've been saved and changed.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you what worship looks like.
SPEAKER_02: There was a praise band and three or four men who were singing.
SPEAKER_02: There were guitar players, drummer, keyboard player, uh, they were playing the bass.
SPEAKER_02: Those guys in their white prison garb, they stood in front of 180 inmates who were in this program with them, and 30 so of us, and they began to sing.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you what, you've never grasped what it meant that Jesus has truly forgiven us of our sins and what it means to be a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: Until you've heard 180 men sing, I have been forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: You have brought me through this, and Jesus, you are my rescue story.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, I sat there in conviction.
SPEAKER_02: And I thought we come into church and we sing and we value what the music was and was this and was that good, and I don't like this song and all this kind of a deal.
SPEAKER_02: Because it's easy for us to get a control of our life and do our life the way we want it and think we're in charge, and to relegate Jesus to just a piece of our life rather than the essence of our life itself.
SPEAKER_02: And we can hide that sin's not this bid, and I can do that.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody knows that, and I'm this, and I'm doing better than those guys, and I got okay, and we can compartmentalize Jesus, but let me tell you what, those men spend their day understanding that Jesus has forgiven them and has a plan for their lives, and when they sing Jesus rescued us from our sins, I'm telling you, they believe it.
SPEAKER_02: And people who see it believe it.
SPEAKER_02: And the Bible tells us that we are supposed to let the message of the gospel dwell richly in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: You want to know how your relationship is with Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: What came out this morning?
SPEAKER_02: What came out of your mouth and heart?
SPEAKER_02: Were you attached to the magnitude of who you were before Jesus saved you?
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you haven't done something that you ended up in a terrible place, but you know you could have outside the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you what, I've lived enough life now I understand what I would have been without Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I understand in deep detail where I could have ended up without Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And when we say glory to Jesus, when we say the message of the gospel, let me tell you what.
SPEAKER_02: It means that you will not spend an eternity in hell.
SPEAKER_02: It means every question in your life, God has stepped in through Jesus and brought an answer to you.
SPEAKER_02: And we are to dwell richly in the picture that Jesus saved us and walks with us, and we have an eternity because of what he has done.
SPEAKER_02: If we are walking with him and truly growing in our relationship, these things begin to change how we see life and what we do.
SPEAKER_02: Big idea for us in this message is this.
SPEAKER_02: This walk with Jesus, this process of your triangle growing because these things are happening, these biblical principles are happening in your life.
SPEAKER_02: This is a dynamic growth process, and it requires change, and it requires us to be willing to change.
SPEAKER_02: It requires us to be willing to say, I am not going to do life the way I think I ought to do it because Jesus is calling me to do it a different way.
SPEAKER_02: It means that I'm taking the things that I cling to in my life, and I realize because Jesus saved me, he is the only source of life I have, and I have got to give that to him and let him have that.
SPEAKER_02: My life should be a constant process of, Lord, I am sorry, I repent of that, I forgive, uh, please forgive me for that.
SPEAKER_02: That is not where you are.
SPEAKER_02: That is not where you want to be.
SPEAKER_02: If I go that direction, it will distract me from you, who are the only source of life.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to give it up.
SPEAKER_02: We spend our lives in the broader church in today's culture comparing ourselves to someone else, or clucking our tongues about this or that, or we want to drink and social drink and engage in all these things that the world engages in, and we get in these theological arguments about water to wine and Jesus and all this kind of stuff when what we understand is if the world is telling you that thousands and thousands of people are dying from things like that, that our role as believers is to stand for something else and point people to the hope that is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We should look different in our lives, and there should be something going on that is driven by my sense of who I am in Jesus, that my only source of life is in him, and he is trying to do something in me to show the rest of the world that they can have it too.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a category of our life, it is an identity in who we are.
SPEAKER_02: The fundamental question in who are you must be answered in Jesus and nowhere else.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this dynamic process, he tells us what is involved in it.
SPEAKER_02: He says in verse 1, it's very simple.
SPEAKER_02: He says in verse 1, if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: Set your mind on what is above, where Jesus is, and not on things on the earth.
SPEAKER_02: My goal in life is not to make more money, it's not to be better than that, it's not to be better than them, it's not even to be a good person.
SPEAKER_02: My job is to be Jesus with skin on so people around us can see how Jesus lives, walks, loves them, how Jesus defines a life.
SPEAKER_02: That's what my job is.
SPEAKER_02: That's what my purpose is.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the only source of life that I have is Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm supposed to set my mind on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That means you're supposed to be anchored in him.
SPEAKER_02: It is so, I was blown away with those prisoners.
SPEAKER_02: I was in one of those discussion groups with another brother from another church, and we were talking with these guys, and there's probably 40 guys in there.
SPEAKER_02: And I'd say, tell me about what's your picture of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: If we're supposed to set our minds on Jesus, we'll be like Jesus, give me your picture of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm telling you what, these guys are quoting Scripture in chunks.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, they're quoting the, they're not telling you about Jesus healing the lame or the leper.
SPEAKER_02: They're not telling you about some lady come and touch Jesus' robe and all that.
SPEAKER_02: They're quoting the entire passage of Scripture to you.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know it that well?
SPEAKER_02: Do you know Jesus that well?
SPEAKER_02: Do you spend that much time learning who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_02: You spend that much time focused on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Is He where you have set your mind?
SPEAKER_02: And then when we set our mind, He gives us two other things we do.
SPEAKER_02: We put off the actions that are the opposite of our identity.
SPEAKER_02: We put off those sinful actions.
SPEAKER_02: You see, we're supposed to be in the process of, ooh, that is not like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That is wrong.
SPEAKER_02: That tempts me to move away from Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta put that away.
SPEAKER_02: That means when he convicts you of sin, you repent of that and you remove that out of your life.
SPEAKER_02: That means you remove the things that are structurally in your life that are not Jesus-like, that are not an example of Jesus, that are not an example of Jesus to your children, to your husband, to your wife, to your family, to the place where he's put you to work, where you're to be a testimony of Jesus, you're to remove those things out of your life.
SPEAKER_02: You're to put off those things that are not identified in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And then you're to put on the things that look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Now, watch how this works.
SPEAKER_02: Set your mind on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Let's think about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He took my sins, as it says in chapter 2, he nailed them to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: What are those sins?
SPEAKER_02: Well, he gives us a list here.
SPEAKER_02: Put to death what belongs to your worldly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, greed, idolatry.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, like I got all that.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the big ones.
SPEAKER_02: Like, we put those, like, I'm not doing any of that.
SPEAKER_02: Let's put those away.
SPEAKER_02: I got it, man.
SPEAKER_02: That's right, Pastor.
SPEAKER_02: You preach on about that, you know, impurity and greed or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you like we love it when, you know, pound away, Pastor.
SPEAKER_02: Tell them about all that sin.
SPEAKER_02: Look what else he says.
SPEAKER_02: Put away the following.
SPEAKER_02: Anger.
SPEAKER_02: Who are you angry at?
SPEAKER_02: It's the same list.
SPEAKER_02: Slander.
SPEAKER_02: Who you talk ugly about?
SPEAKER_02: Who are you gossiping about?
SPEAKER_02: Who are you rendering opinions about that you don't agree with, that you don't like?
SPEAKER_01: Do not lie to one another.
SPEAKER_01: See, it's all the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: When we get a picture of who Jesus is, and we begin to set our minds on who Jesus is, and we see who Jesus is, and we see how loving he is, and we see his integrity, and we see his courage and going to the cross and we see his holiness, and we see how he functions and how he loves people and how he steps into lives and how he does all those things.
SPEAKER_02: It begins to see, okay, my life is supposed to look like Jesus, and this does not look like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That did not sound like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think Jesus probably thinks that about that person.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think Jesus says that about that person.
SPEAKER_02: See, it begins to change life.
SPEAKER_02: Look at this language, filthy language.
SPEAKER_02: Holy cow.
SPEAKER_02: Man, in today's world, unbelievable.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, listen, my previous career, my secular career, I know what filthy language looks like.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was a lawyer.
SPEAKER_02: People say that guy cusses like a sailor.
SPEAKER_02: Well, they're wimpy.
SPEAKER_02: They don't know how to do it, with all due respect to my Navy guys.
SPEAKER_02: Lawyers, they raise it to an art form.
SPEAKER_02: They are educated in language, and they put filthy language in such flowery and aggressive terms.
SPEAKER_02: It is a strange work of art how well they cuss, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's amazing what happens.
SPEAKER_02: I went on a golf tournament, kind of law that I practiced.
SPEAKER_02: We were human resources law basically, so we're playing a golf tournament, and it's union reps, it's HR people and lawyers and legal counsel.
SPEAKER_02: So I get paired on a foursome, and they're mixing us all up.
SPEAKER_02: So I get in a golf cart and I'm waiting, and this guy comes up.
SPEAKER_02: He's about 6'6, weighs about 270, and it's all muscle.
SPEAKER_02: Big old huge guy.
SPEAKER_02: We introduce ourselves and he says, Hey, my name is so-and-so, so-and-so.
SPEAKER_02: I'm from Mississippi, and everybody there just calls me cornbread, so call me cornbread.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all got a picture?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, nice guy, but I mean he was intimidating.
SPEAKER_02: He was a big hulking intimidating guy.
SPEAKER_02: We get to the first T box, and I mean it is 310 yards, it is gone.
SPEAKER_02: I get to the T-box, I'm so intimidated at that point.
SPEAKER_02: I slice it over and it's in the woods so far, we don't even bother to look for it.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he goes with second T, he hits it, I do the same thing, third one, I hit it in the water.
SPEAKER_02: We get to the fourth T box, and I'm telling you, he says, Are you sure you're a lawyer?
SPEAKER_02: I said, I said, Am I that bad off the T-box?
SPEAKER_02: And he goes, No, I've seen a lot of lawyers who can't hit a drive, but I've never heard one not cuss when they play as bad as you're playing.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, nothing sets us apart like our language.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And I hear people play with it.
SPEAKER_02: And I hear guys that it's okay that everybody at works does it, and we kind of talk that way here, and we talk this way at home or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Kids in school, college, language is horrible in our world today.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you what, it's one of the fastest ways to set yourself apart is you communicate in a way that is honoring to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You see, here's what's also happening.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm angry inside and I talk like this and I do that, I'm feeding my old self.
SPEAKER_02: I'm feeding my sin nature, I'm feeding my arrogance, I'm feeding my pride, and I am starving to death the Jesus part of who I am.
SPEAKER_02: And then when I get tempted in something bigger, because I've been feeding these other things and I've not been putting them off and I've not set my mind on Jesus, I am now susceptible to the big things that I thought were terrible.
SPEAKER_02: One of the pastors where I grew up used to say this all the time: Sin will take you farther than you want to go.
SPEAKER_02: It'll keep you longer than you want to stay, and it'll make you pay more than you want to pay.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're supposed to put that off, but you can't just put it off.
SPEAKER_02: You've got to put something else in his place.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, You put on who we are.
SPEAKER_02: Now, look at the picture of identity.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, God's chosen ones, you are holy, you are loved.
SPEAKER_02: He is reminding us why are we chosen?
SPEAKER_02: Why are we set apart as holy?
SPEAKER_02: Why are we loved?
SPEAKER_02: It is because our life is with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It is because for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him will never perish, but have everlasting life because the certificate of our deaths were nailed to the cross because we were raised with him through baptism in the likeness of his resurrection, because our life is with him.
SPEAKER_02: He is reminding us who our identity is, and he says, because of your identity, we're not just putting on that old stuff, but we're putting on Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Put on heartfelt compassion.
SPEAKER_02: Now that's a picture of Jesus, is it not?
SPEAKER_02: You read in Matthew where the Bible says Jesus has been preaching to a crowd and he finishes preaching, you got all these people out there, and the Bible says it gives us this insight in the heart of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He looked up and he saw the crowd, and the Bible says his heart was filled with emotion.
SPEAKER_02: He broke with emotion, and it says, because he saw the masses of people as sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: I read one time, one guy's description of that.
SPEAKER_02: He's in a crowd like that, and he's looking at all these people, and he's he's trying to figure out how to do ministry to them, and he's hurting for them.
SPEAKER_02: And that scripture comes to mind and he says that God said, Look, all these people that you're looking at, they are living a life that I did not design for them to live.
SPEAKER_01: They are trapped in something else other than what I designed for them.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says when Jesus saw that, he was moved with compassion.
SPEAKER_02: There's the story of the man who was a beggar and he's sitting at this gate and he's blind and he's been blind his whole life, and the Bible says that Jesus comes up to him and he spit in the mud and he made like a paste out of the mud and he wiped it on the man's eyes.
SPEAKER_02: Now that's a bizarre way to do that, don't you think?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, Jesus, just or give the brother some glasses or something.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, that's gross.
SPEAKER_02: Why do it that way?
SPEAKER_02: Heard God say, that dude had probably been spit on his whole life.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus took what was hurting in his life and he turned it into healing.
SPEAKER_02: He took the ridicule of man and he turned it into the healing of God.
SPEAKER_02: I guarantee you that man would never in his life ever spit on anyone, either physically or even proverbially, because he knew he had been spit on, but Jesus stepped into his life and healed the point where he was broken.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, you why does the Bible tell us to be in the Word of God, to encourage each other, to let the message of the gospel dwell in us richly?
SPEAKER_02: It's because we are to be in the book of Mark, in the book of Matthew, in the book of Luke, in the book of John, and we are to be looking at these pictures of Jesus, and we are to be letting it dwell in us, and we are to be thinking about this is who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_02: This is what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_02: I am supposed to have spent enough time in the Word of God that it is soaked into my soul.
SPEAKER_02: So when I get in this spot and I see this person, and I am tempted to speak out of anger, or I'm tempted to slander them, or I am tempted to look at them and look down on them and look in a different way, that what resonates in my heart is Jesus would never say that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus would never do that.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus would not think that way.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm able to put that off.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm able to put on what I've been reading and understanding about Jesus: compassion, love, and humility, I reach into that person's life to elevate them so that they can see Jesus instead of how I would have responded.
SPEAKER_02: That's why, when the Holy Spirit is directing Paul to write this, he says, above all, put on love.
SPEAKER_02: Why does he say above all?
SPEAKER_01: What's the best description we can have of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: That he loved.
SPEAKER_02: That he loved beyond anything we can imagine.
SPEAKER_02: That when he bore my sins to the cross, that means he picked them up on purpose on himself.
SPEAKER_02: And no matter how heavy the weight of my sin is, he bore that to the cross so that every debt could be nailed there and forgiven and paid for.
SPEAKER_01: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says this new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_02: And when you put that picture of bearing our sins to the cross, and that's how Jesus loves us, and he commands us to love that way, that's exactly why in the book of Galatians, chapter 6, the Bible says this bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Above all, put on love.
SPEAKER_02: In our lives, we're to spend our time dwelling on the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not having a quiet time, just in all love, I want to tell you, shame on you.
SPEAKER_01: And my heart breaks for you because you're missing all that God wants to show you and teach you if you'll spend time with Him.
SPEAKER_01: I want the message of the Messiah to dwell richly in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Put off those things.
SPEAKER_02: If you'll spend time with the Lord and you'll get that picture of Jesus, be ready.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna say, Don't do that.
SPEAKER_02: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_02: Greg, we're gonna take this out of your life.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, he loves you, that's why he's doing that.
SPEAKER_02: He is transforming you, that's why he's doing that.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to use you in your life, that's why he's doing that.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to take that out so he can put in the impact of his love through you, touching the lives of people around you.
SPEAKER_02: And you will see your life transform by the power of Jesus in you.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot do this on your own.
SPEAKER_01: It is all Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to bow your heads as we close.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna ask you if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, listen, I've given you 14 times in this message, as clearly as my feeble mind can explain it, the gospel and how you're saved.
SPEAKER_02: Even more importantly than that, you have seen from the living and powerful word of God what it means, the extent to which his grace steps into your lives and saves us.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, I don't believe that we wake up one day and we're just smart enough to figure out we need to be saved.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that God's grace is he steps into your life and he tells you, I love you, and you need to be saved, and I'll save you.
SPEAKER_02: And it happens through the word of God, and if he's spoken to your heart, I want to invite you this morning to place your trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Respond to the work that he is trying to do in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Come and give your life to him.
SPEAKER_01: And let your eternal life be rested in him as a source of your life.
SPEAKER_02: In a moment, our people are gonna stand and sing a testimony that they believe this, that this is our testimony as a church.
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to be saved, I'm gonna invite you to come.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be people at the head of our aisles, somebody in the back in the foyer back there.
SPEAKER_02: If you need to come, you're in the balcony, come down the stairs, you're here, you come.
SPEAKER_02: If you want someone to pray with you, you come.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to ask questions about the put off or the put on or whatever, listen, if your conversation you feel like is longer than you can take place right now, then just come and tell us, hey, I want to get together and have coffee and talk through this.
SPEAKER_02: Let us walk with you through this journey.
SPEAKER_02: You come.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna pray.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna stand, and this morning I want you to respond.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you that you have written to us so clearly in your word that you have the answer to every question mark in life, every person here, whatever it is, you got it.
SPEAKER_02: You went to the cross because you love them so much.
SPEAKER_02: You died for them on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: You are offering them life in you, and I pray you'll give us a freedom to respond.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, help us to respond to you today.
SPEAKER_02: It is in Jesus' name we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.