Putting The Word Into Action Series

INTRODUCTION

• Today is the last message in our Prioritizing God’s Word in Our Lives.

• We have examined the issue of prioritizing God’s Word in our lives.

• With all we have discusses, what does it look like to prioritize God’s Word in our lives?

• How can you tell if you are prioritizing God’s Word?

• How can you see it in other people?

• Is prioritizing God’s Word in our lives simply a matter of spending a certain amount of time in the Word, or is there more to it?

• Most believers are familiar with the biblical metaphor of the new birth (John 3:7), but birth or belief is just the beginning for the person of God.

• Eugene Peterson writes, “Birth presupposes growth, but growth proceeds from birth. … Birth is quick and easy (at least it seems that way to fathers—mothers have a different slant on it); growth is endless and complex” (Eugene Peterson, “Introduction,” in Practice Resurrection [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010], Kindle).

• The point is that we, like babies, must grow up.

• This Colossian passage is a practical reminder that once we are made new, the old self must be cast off as we mature.

• That growth can only happen as we allow God’s Word to inform and transform our lives while we live in community with others.

• The message is entitled PUTTING THE WORD INTO ACTION; however, the passage we will spend time in today could also be titled, Living According to the Cross.

• Let’s turn to Colossians 3 so we can see how to and what accomplishing that feat looks like!

Colossians 3:1–4 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,

3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

4 When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.

SERMON

Putting the Word into action in one’s life requires:

I. Redirecting one’s focus.

• Verse one offers a conditional statement- IF YOU HAVE BEEN RASIED WITH CHRIST.

• What does that statement mean?

• What does that statement refer to?

• The statement refers to baptism in Christ.

Colossians 2:12 (NET 2nd ed.)

12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

• Paul says that IF you have been baptized (RAISED WITH) into Christ, this passage is for you.

• Being baptized into Christ is not simply an external act or something we do and walk away from the same person.

• Paul is saying that since you have been baptized and the old self is dead, it is time to move toward conforming to the new life we have in Him.

• For the immersed believer, this is not an option!

• We become a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NET 2nd ed.)

17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!

• Paul explains in Romans 6 that when we are buried with Christ, something changes; everything changes!

Romans 6:1–6 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?

2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

• When we are in Christ, our focus needs to shift from the old life to the new life we have in Christ!

• We are called to quit pursuing the things of the world and start our pursuit of God!

• Our minds should be set on the things of God (vv. 1–3).

• This is not meant to be hyper-spiritualized and make us out of touch with the here and now-of reality.

• Rather, it means that everything we do is viewed through the lens of Christ and his resurrection.