Scripture: Colossians 3:1-4; Psalm 121:1-8
Theme: Looking Up rather than Nose on the Ground
Paul wants to help all of us be able to live a New Life – 1. In Christ we have New DNA 2. In Christ we have a New Perspective
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
I want to talk about living a life of looking up; a life of growing in Christ. That is what our passage centers on this morning.
The Apostle Paul is writing to a newly formed congregation that is very diverse and is dealing with several interesting issues.
One side of the church’s religious DNA was stepped in paganism, mysticism and angelology (the worship of angels). It was nothing for someone on this side of the church to have faithfully served one or more of the local gods and goddesses; the most popular being Zeus, Athena and Artemis.
The other side of the church was dealing with the issue of Jewish legalism. There were many who believed that in order to be a “real follower” of Jesus you had to adhere to all the rules of Judaism; especially those that dealt with special days, special seasons and even special diets.
The Apostle Paul wrote to them to explain that as Born-Again Christ followers they could live above all that noise. They didn’t have to live a life of paganism, nor did they suddenly have to adopt all the rigorous rules of Judaism.
In saying that, we must understand that Paul would have never abandoned nor disregarded the Ten Commandments or the Two Great Commandments of Jesus. Those were bed rock. Those were foundational stones. What he would have gone back on were some of the 613 rules that had attached themselves to Judaism over the years.
Paul was doing his best to help these young disciples in Colossae be able to steer their spiritual boats between Jewish legalism on one side and paganism, mysticism and angelology on the other side.
That was not always an easy thing back then or even today.
+We still have those in the Church at large that love to dabble in astrology, the Zodiac, fortunetelling, angel and saint worship and lean way to far towards Neo-paganism and New Age mysticism.
+We still have those in the church that love to draw red lines around everything that they think is wrong and demand that everyone live according to their standards which many times are not the standards that we find in the Bible.
So, this letter of Paul’s has as much value today as it did 2,000 years ago. The words he shares here in the first 4 verses of chapter 3 are good for us to read, reflect upon and allow the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us.
Let’s look at a couple of the things that Paul wants us to understand:
I. Paul wants us to understand that in Christ we have a new DNA
Repeatedly, the Apostle had to remind his readers that they were now in Christ Jesus, they were new people. They had a new heritage and a new direction. They were no longer the same people they were before they accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and LORD.
Have you ever participated in one of those ancestry tests?
They are a lot of fun to do. You can order the ones that allow you to send in a little saliva to their labs or you can go more in detail and have some blood work taken.
Either way, it is interesting to get your results.
Recently, ancestry.com sent me some new information concerning a test I took some years ago. They notified me that with their more advanced testing my ancestry is now:
+51% English +22% Scottish
+18% Welsh + 5% German
+2% Norwegian +2% Irish
I think that it is interesting to know where your ancestors came from and how they came to America.
But I don’t think that it is the most important thing. After all, we didn’t get to choose whether we were going to be European, Indian, African, Asian or Hispanic. That was out of our control.
Physically, we all must come from someplace – Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas etc…
Our writer, the Apostle Paul had a Jewish heritage. In fact, he was able to trace his lineage all the way back to the Tribe of Benjamin (the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel). He was related to such famous people as King Saul, Prince Jonathan and Queen Esther. Not a bad bunch to have in your family tree.
The Colossian Church was made up of people who had all kinds of ancestry. There were people there that had Jewish, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Persian and Babylonian roots.
Talk about a mixture of radically different traditions in one congregation. They were quite a blend of different cultures and beliefs trying their best to understand one another and live beside one another. All of that had to provide for some interesting conversations, ideologies and cultural beliefs.
That is why I believe the Apostle Paul wanted to remind them that when they came to faith; when they came to Christ, they gained a new heritage; a new shared DNA.
I think he wanted to share with them that they were more than just their physical ethnicities, cultures and traditional beliefs.
He wanted them to focus on the fact that in Christ they were now a new people. A new people who shared God’s Holy Spirit. They were now One in Christ; forgiven, redeemed, infilled with the Holy Spirit and being restored into the image of Jesus Christ Himself.
Likewise, this morning, we are more than our physical ancestry, our cultural backgrounds and even our different religious paths. When we come to faith in Christ Jesus something happens that fundamentally transforms us from the inside out. The power of the Holy Spirit does something wonderful in us. The Holy Spirit transforms us and melts us together as the Family of God.
Listen to what the Prophet Ezekiel writes to us in Ezekiel 36:26-27
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
The Apostle Paul shares the same news with the congregations at Corinth and Galatia:
“So, from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old is gone, the new is here!” – 2 Corinthians 5:16-17
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” – Galatians 3:28
This is something we need to constantly put before us – the reality that when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts, our minds and our souls there was something that really happened. We just didn’t repent – turn from evil – towards God. That in itself would have been wonderful, but the LORD did an amazing work in our lives that transformed us; that changed us and is continuing to change us from the inside out.
We need to get this down in our souls because there is nothing more that the devil loves to do that to lie to us and tell us that nothing happened when we came to faith or when we were baptized. He loves to tell us that we are the same person we were before we confessed Jesus Christ as Savior and LORD. He loves to tell us that we are still his property and under his penalty and power. He loves to tell us that we are evil, that we are worthless and that in the end the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY will reject us.
But none of that is true. When we receive Jesus Christ as Our Savior and Our Lord something amazing happens. We experience a heart change. We experience a mind change. And we experience a destiny change. We go from being a sinner condemned to damnation to being a Born-Again Believer promised the joys of everlasting life.
We may not fully realize it in the beginning, but as we grow in Christ, we will see that we are not the same person we were before Jesus. As we grow in Christ, we begin to experience some changes in the way that we live here on this earth. As we grow in Christ, we notice that we are thinking differently, treating people differently and wanting different things to happen in our lives and in our world. As we grow in Christ we see other people differently, we love them more and want what is best for them more and more.
It is all rather exciting!
It is one of the reasons why one of the greatest images of being Born Again in the Early Church was the picture of a butterfly. Just as the butterfly is so much different than the caterpillar so too is the person with Christ than the person without Christ.
Paul goes on to share with us one more piece of advice:
“Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above not on earthly things.”
II. Paul wants us to live an Enlightened Life
Paul wants us to understand that not only do we have new DNA, but we also have a new frame of reference, a new mindset. Paul wants us to live an Enlightened Life.
+We are to no longer spend most of our time dwelling on things of this earth; that will one day turn to rust and dust.
What I am about to say may hurt us a little bit, but they are just facts:
+One day the diamonds and the jewelry that we may love will either be worn by someone else or be remounted and sold again.
+One day the monies that sit in our 401-K’s, bank accounts and CD’s will be in someone else’s name, or they will have been spent by someone else.
+One day our favorite chair, our favorite outfit or even our favorite car will be thrown into a landfill, sold at some Goodwill store or rusting in someone’s scrapyard.
All those things are not maybes, they are realities. That is what happens to everything here on this earth. It all is designed to change hands and to eventually turn into rust and dust.
Paul is wanting those who have been born again to capture a new vision. He wants us to set our minds and our hearts on things above. He wants us to spend the majority of our time on working on things that have everlasting value.
Now, in saying that Paul didn’t tell us that we didn’t have to deal with some earthly things – things like food, water, shelter etc…
Paul was very realistic. He not only preached the Gospel of Jesus, he also worked as a tentmaker. Paul knew that you had to have food, water, clothing and shelter.
Each day that he was able, he would work with leather and other materials to make tents. Tents that would be used around the Temple. Tents that would be used by those in the military, those who traveled and those who didn’t have a permanent brick and mortar or stick home.
In Paul’s day there were not very many hotels and motels or Air B&B’s like we have around us.
Most people had to walk from point A to point B. That meant that they would be having to sleep under the stars and would need a good durable tent. Part of Paul’s business was to make those tents.
It was Paul’s tent money that helped him be able to travel and share the Gospel.
That is one of the main reasons why those who hated Paul made sure that he received such harsh physical punishment when he was arrested for sharing the Gospel. They thought if they couldn’t stop Paul from sharing the Gospel of Jesus, then they would do their best to break him physically and therefore financially. But, they were wrong.
I remember some years ago, listening to Dr. Leonard Sweet share how much physical torture the Apostle Paul had to suffer. All the beatings and the multiple times he was ship wretched took a toll on him. Dr. Sweet told us that very likely in just a few years of traveling Paul’s legs and feet were permanently damaged, his shoulders battered and that most of his fingers had been broken multiple times by his persecutors.
If you can’t kill a man or stop him from talking about Jesus, then the best thing you can do is to try to stop him from being able to travel, write and make a living. But Paul was not a man you could easily stop.
When he couldn’t write very well because of the pain, Paul used a writing secretary. He would dictate what he wanted to say to the different churches.
When he had to travel, he would do his best to travel by boat, by donkey or in a horse drawn cart. If he didn’t have an easy way to travel, he would do his best to walk a few miles each day despite being crippled.
Different congregations began to do their best to provide for Paul’s needs. They knew that he couldn’t work as much with all the beatings that he had received.
Paul very much understood the complexity of living here on earth.
Even more so he understood that his frame of reference of feeling and thinking had to come from Christ and stay in Christ.
+How he looked at people and things
+What he thought about people and things
+How he valued people and things
Coming to Christ transformed Paul’s whole frame of reference.
Paul knew that the only way he was going to be the person God wanted him to be and to experience the life God wanted him to live was by constantly keeping his heart, mind and soul glued in on things above and not only earthly things.
Did you happen to read Monday’s devotional in The Upper Room (July 14, 2022) by Michelle T. Johnson?
Michelle writes about how she started noticing something while she was walking her dog. She noticed all the things her dog missed because he always had his nose to the ground. He missed the birds flying overhead and he missed the squirrels nearby.
Suddenly, she noticed that she too often had her “nose to the ground” in her life. She noticed she spent a lot of time looking at her phone, making sure she replied to this email or to that message. She noticed that all too often she was looking down and not up. She was in fact living a “dog’s life”.
So, she began to make herself look up. She began to see the children playing as she would walk her dog. She began to see the geese flying, the trees coming into bloom and more.
Looking up and making sure that you keep your eyes on the LORD is something that one of the greatest men in the Bible had trouble doing the older he got. That man’s name was King Solomon.
Very few people have ever experienced as great a start in life as King Solomon.
+By the time he was born, his mother and father were very much in love.
+His father, David was extremely popular as Israel’s King.
+The nation of Israel was enjoying unparalleled peace, stability and prosperity.
In all respects, Solomon was raised in a lap of extravagance. Anything and everything he could possible want was at his fingertips.
+He was chosen to succeed his father as King.
Even though Solomon was not the eldest or next in line, he had been chosen by the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY to be the next king of Israel.
+He was also given the privilege to build the first permanent Temple for the LORD.
If all of this were not enough, the LORD gave him the gift of having an incredible mind. Solomon was not only able to comprehend things, he also possessed great wisdom. It is one thing to have intelligence, it is quite another to have wisdom and King Solomon had been given both.
Very few people have been set up to live such a wonderful life. Very few people have been gifted with not just earthly intelligence and wisdom but godly intelligence and wisdom. Very few people have been left enough riches to have anything they would ever hope or desire.
However, at some point King Solomon decided to no longer look to the LORD for guidance and direction. He decided to no longer look upward to the LORD or put his heart and mind on heavenly things.
Instead, he allowed himself to get bogged down in building up his own personal kingdom. He allowed himself to be deceived in how to continually make peace and build up his resources. He listened to the wrong people who convinced him that all he had to do was to marry one of the daughters of the kings that surrounded him.
As a result of that along with his own pride, King Solomon didn’t just marry a few wives but had over 300 wives and 700 concubines.
Can you imagine?
Can you imagine the insanity of it all?
Things did not end well for King Solomon or for his people.
Most of those wives did not convert to Judaism. Instead, they begged King Solomon to build temple after temple in honor of their gods and/or goddesses. They begged King Solomon to allow them to then hire false prophets, false priests and even temple prostitutes.
In a matter of years, this land that was dedicated to the One True God was now littered with temples worshipping and promoting the very false gods that the Children of Israel had since the time of Moses tried to eradicate. In a few years, the land was full of witchcraft, occultic practices, human sacrifice, temple prostitutes and other perverse traditions.
King Solomon took his eyes off God and put them on the world below. He allowed his heart and mind to become darkened to the ways of God. Even though he would forever be known as the one who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, he would also be known as the king who brought more religious pluralism and idolatry than any ruler before him. Only King Manasseh would later have a more wicked reign.
There are many Bible scholars who believed that before his death, King Solomon repented and got back on track. I hope that is true, but what I do know is that because of his foolishness the land of Israel became filled with false temple after false temple after false temple.
Paul doesn’t want this Church in Colossae to fall under the same spell. He doesn’t want them to return to live the way they lived before they experienced Christ. He doesn’t want their hearts nor their minds to be bogged down again. Instead, he wants them to concentrate their time and effort on being who they are; born again with new hearts and renewing minds.
He wants them to focus on what is most important in this life – being Born Again, Loving God and Loving Others. He wants them to focus on what is most important in this life – living a life that reflects the image of God and that brings honor and glory to the LORD. He wants them to focus on what is most important in this life; enjoying what it means to live in the Spirit and be guided by the Holy Spirit. He wants them to focus on being God’s People in God’s World transforming it to look like, smell like and feel like Heaven on Earth.
That is our challenge and choice this morning.
+We can try to have Christ in one hand and at the same time focus our attention on what this world has to offer. We can take our hearts and minds off Christ and allow the world to reshape us back into its mold.
However, if we do that then we will find ourselves once again reflecting the values of this fallen world. If we do that then things will not end well for us and for those around us.
+We can spend all our time and money on building up our own little kingdom, land and resources. We can spend our time taking care of only ourselves thinking that others need to take care of themselves. If we do that, then we will find ourselves becoming stingy, greedy, self-centered and enslaved to materialism.
Or – we can choose to live another way:
+We can allow the Lord to finish the work that He has started in us when He became our Savior and Lord.
+We can set our hearts and our minds on things that are most important – loving God, loving ourselves and others.
+We can leave behind a legacy that speaks of a person who lived for God and for others.
+We can leave behind a legacy that speaks of a person that has truly been transformed by Christ.
+We can leave behind a legacy of a person who did their best to bring heaven to earth; who did their best to physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually live out that part of the LORD’s Prayer – THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
I think that is what all of us here this morning want as well.
I know that is what I want for all of you this morning.
+To understand that you have been given a new DNA – You are a Born Again Follower of Jesus Christ. You share a lineage that includes the likes of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Deborah, Daniel, Mary and Paul.
+To understand that God has invited you to share His mind and His heart – to allow God to mold you into the person He created you to be – a person that is as different to this world as a butterfly is to a caterpillar. A person who looks up and is not like some animal who always has their nose to the ground never seeing all the wonderful world that the Lord has given us.
This morning as we close –
+What is our DNA – are we born again?
+Where is our focus – where have we pointed our hearts and minds?
Open Altar/Song/Prayer/Blessing
