It's Time For A Change Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• I bet if I interviewed each of you here today, you would all have something you would like to change about yourself.

• I would like to lose 20-40 pounds myself.

• Do you realize that in order for you to be able to change something about yourself, you have to actually change some things in your life!

• For instance, if I want to lose weight, I have to change my eating habits, my exercise habits, along with my attitudes concerning food.

• Without changing these areas of my life, the weight will not come off. There is really no miracle cure that will cause me to change my weight without my changing some things in my life.

• Let us consider our life with Christ for a moment.

• How many of us are totally happy with where we are in our relationship with Jesus?

• I bet very few to none of us are.

• When we give our lives to Christ, we hear about this new life we are supposed to have in Him.

• For some of us, we sit back and wait for it to happen; only to find that it does not seem to be happening for us.

• SLIDE #2

• If we are going to have the life in Christ we want and the life He wants us to have, it is time for a change.

• Today we are going to look at three areas that will need to change in order for us to have the healthy relationship with Jesus we are meant to have.

• Let us turn to Colossians 3:5-10 together this morning.

• SLIDES 3-4-5

• READ Colossians 3:5-10

• SLIDE #6

SERMON

I. A NEW LIFE MUST HAVE A CHANGE OF DIRECTION. (5-7)

• In verses five and seven, we are given two lists of things we need to make sure we rid ourselves of.

• When you look at these lists, you may think you are immune from the items listed. I think as we examine what is at the root of these lists you will see they do apply to all of us here today.

• SLIDE #7

1. We are to allow ourselves to be dead to the old life.

• In verse five we are told we are to consider the members of our earthly body as dead to the things listed for us.

• We are to literally “put to death” these things. To consider dead means we are to hold these items in check, to restrain them. Left unrestrained, they will lead us in the wrong direction.

• If you casually look at verse three, we are told we have died with Christ, but here we are told consider our members of our earthly body as dead.

• We have died with Christ, BUT we still live in a fallen world and only we through the power of the Holy Spirit can be the one the keeps oneself in check.

• Remember, someone who is dead is no longer aroused by the world around them.

• This verse reminds us that WE have a part to play in our walk with God.

• WE need a change of direction!

• SLIDE #8

2. We need to change or direction from self-gratification to pleasing God.

• In verse five we are given a list of things that we are to consider ourselves dead to.

• Immorality deals predominantly with sexual sin. The word is the same word we get “pornography” from.

• SLIDE #9

• 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (GWT) 3It is God’s will that you keep away from sexual sin as a mark of your devotion to him.

• This notorious list includes impurity, passion, evil desire and greed.

• All of these deal with getting what we want.

• This list is actually in reverse order. The root of all these issues is greed.

• Greed is the overmastering desire for what belongs to another; it includes the breaking of the laws of right and justice in order to obtain them for oneself.

• It is the relentless urge to get more.

• This is really the root of the rest.

• We must move in a direction of pleasing God rather than ourselves.

• God is not against sex, but sex outside of marriage is wrong, no exceptions.

• As long as we live in a fallen world, we will struggle with these issues.

• The last part of verse five tells us that these things amount to idolatry.

• When we reject the true God of the Bible, we make up one of our own imagination, we make OUR desires, appetites, and lusts our god by the deification of them. What ever we put ahead of God becomes our God. WE do not have little statues in our homes, but what we have is worse because we give our lives over to them.