Message Outlines
Week 1: Colossians 3:1-4 Focused on What’s Above
Week 2: Colossians 3:5-11 Out With the Old Self
Week 3: Colossians 3:12-17 In With the New Self (Part 1)
Week 4: Colossians 3:12-17 In With the New Self (Part 2)
Series: Colossians
Week: Four
Passage: Colossians 3:12-17
Title: In With the New Self (Part 2)
Focus: Eternal Embracing (Virtues)
Opening Week: To Set and Seek What is Above
1. Seek: The External Action
2. Set: The Internal Action
3. Secure: Safety in Christ
Second Week: Cautions (Material Abandonment)
1. Avoid Immorality (Fornication)
2. Avoid Impurity (Uncleanness)
3. Avoid Worldly Passions (Lust/Excessive Affection)
4. Avoid Evil Desires (Illicit Cravings)
5. Avoid Greed (Covetousness)
Last Week: Four Virtues (Part 1)
1. Compassionate Hearts
2. Actions of Kindness
3. Humility
4. Meekness
Introduction: As believers we called and commanded to “clothe ourselves” or conform to the image of Christ. Paul gives the believer’s virtues, or ways of practicing Christ’s actions so that God can continue to mature us and Christ’s peace will rule our hearts. If the Word of God is going to dwell richly there must be application and action on not only knowing Christ but doing what He commands.
In our applications and actions the “new self” is put on through appropriate attributes and attitudes.
Virtue #5: Have Patience (Endure/Slow to Avenge)
• Explanation: Patience is the action of being self-discipline or practicing self-control when faced with aggravation, frustration, or being annoyed. Paul stated earlier in Colossians that “you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might” when enduring these hardship so that your attitude of joy will increase. (1:11). I have some questions when it comes to patience…
o To whom must we be patient?
• Be patient with God
• Psalm 75:2 “I will judge with equity.” (Let God judge!)
• Be patient with each other
• Ephesians 4:2 “Bearing with one another in love.” (you sin just as much as he does!)
o Why must we be patient?
• Patience is valuable (It’s worth it)
• Proverbs 25:15 “A soft tongue will break a bone.”
• Patience is better than pride
• Ecclesiastes 7:8 “Patient in Spirit is better than the proud in Spirit.”
• Patience demonstrates love
• 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love does not envy or boast.”
• Patience is evidence of the Holy Spirit working in our lives
• Galatians 5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is…”
• Illustration: The Story of Towzer as a puppy.
• Application: We were less than patient with Towzer as a puppy. However, he bore our immature grumpiness with a massive amount of patience. He never once retaliated. There are so many times when I wish I could have our dog’s mentality. If we could have a patience that overlooks a multitude of offenses.
o Patience overlooks the offense.
o Patience bears with human frailty and failure.
o Patience shows mercy and kindness to those who exasperate us.
o Patience gives control over our souls to God and allows Him to do His work.
• Questions:
o How do you react when others aggravate you?
o Do you respond with humility, meekness, and patience or do you respond with intolerance and indignation?
Virtue #6: Bare With One Another (Forbearing [key word]/Sustain/Endure)
• Explanation: Bearing with one another (or forbearing) means that we “put up with each other” (sometimes easy, sometimes hard). The basic definition of forbearance is "refraining from the enforcement of something." In the church world we call this “grace”. Grace is an act of “undeserved favor”.
o Forbearance refers to God's patience expressed in God's willingness to hold back judgment for a time.
• Romans 2:4 “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.”
• Romans 3:25 “In his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”
o So what?
• Forbearance Gives Opportunities for Repentance: God's forbearance does not mean that God disregards or overlooks sin, but yet God gives His people an opportunity for repentance.
• Forbearance Gives Grace: If God is able to maintain His reputation as a just judge we also are to exercise this grace in the lives of others.
• Forbearance Advances the Kingdom: This is not only love, it is the act in which we “bear with one another” so that the kingdom of God can advance.
• Illustration: Joel Gregory tells the story of a seminary prof who taught the forbearance for forty years until he retired. One day he poured a new concrete driveway to his house. Finished, he went into his house to rest. Returning later he discovered that the neighborhood kids were putting their footprints all in the wet concrete. The angry professor chased the kids down in a rage and beat the tar out of the ones he could catch. Hearing the commotion, the professor’s wife rushed into the yard, saw the angry professor thrashing the kids, and began to reprimand him: "What a shame," she said. "For forty years you have taught love, forgiveness and forbearance. Now look at you! You’ve lost your testimony."
• Application: Grace often only gets poured out to those in which we like. Forbearance allows grace to be given to those who have been passed over and need grace the most in the Christian fellowship. We see intrusions, inconveniences, and interruptions that disregard our convenient state. However…
o God works the most in life’s intrusions
o God matures His people the most in times of inconvenience
o God flourishes when man’s plans are interrupted
• This is the forbearance we need to acknowledge and the grace in which we did not deserve!
• Questions:
o Do your actions give opportunities for yourself and others to repent?
o Do your actions both extend grace to others and allow God’s grace to be received in your own life?
o Do your actions advance the Kingdom of God or keep it from continuing?
Virtue #7: Forgive Each Other (Gracious/Kind/Pardon)
• Explanation: Paul stressed the importance to forgive whatever grievances (or complaints) those may have against others. How?
o Forgive as God Forgave: As we just said, this means pouring out grace freely without wanting something in return.
• Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
o Forgive Without Holding a Grudge: Grudges have no place in a Christian’s life for they may lead to the sins previously mentioned in Colossians.
• Colossians 3:8-9 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.”
• Illustration: Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day!
• Application: There are people who not only need grace poured out on their life but they also need forgiveness. This could be in a major area or a minor area.
o NOTE: Keep in mind that forgiveness is given to those who need it the most but it is the job of the other person to receive it. Be prepared, some people will not accept forgiveness. This involves giving God time to move their heart and the other person to remove a personal grudge.
• Questions:
o Who do you need to forgive?
• If you have been forgiven, then you must forgive also!
Virtue #8: Put on Love (Charity/Affection/Good Will)
• Explanation: Over all of these virtues, Christians are to put on love. The “putting on” of love is the same as “putting on” all other virtues.
o We are to be immersed in it so that we become identified by it.
• The virtues that set us apart us will identify us as disciples of the Christ. This love that Paul speaks of is "beyond" or "above" all these things." It is the supreme virtue upon which all the other virtues depend.
o Watch:
• Unbelievers can…
• Be compassionate to those who are suffering…
• Kind to those they like…
• Humble before those they consider greater…
• Gentle when it move forward their own agenda…
• Patient and forbearing with those they love… and
• Forgiving when it is to their advantage.
• Christians…
• Go beyond all of that when they are grounded in the love of Christ. The perspective has changed from earthly ethics to an everlasting eternity.
• Illustration:
• Application: Love is the cover of the book. Love is the supreme importance of the story. Without love, nothing can stand. Without love there can be no actions, motivations or other acts. Love is the perfect bond that holds all other virtues together. Love is the unity that is desired and the unity give first and foremost from Christ as a gift to all to be administer to all for all eternity.
• Questions:
o Are you living a virtuous life of mere morality and ethics or are you serving Christ by being virtuous with the foundation of love at the center of all things?
Conclusion: How do we continue to let Christ’s peace rule in our hearts?
• Have Patience
• Bare With One Another
• Forgive Each Other
• Put on Love
“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 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. 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.” –Colossians 3:15-17
