LITURGICAL OPENING — PSALM 34:1-8
• I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
• My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
• O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
• I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
• They looked unto Him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
• This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
• The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
• O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
(Psalm 34:1-8)
GREETING
Good Morning ... and too, God be the Glory!
I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. And there is a Word from the LORD ...
So let us turn our hearts and our Bibles to the letter to the Colossians ... chapter 3, beginning at verse 1.
SCRIPTURE READING — COLOSSIANS 3:1-11 (KJV)
(v.1) If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
(v.2) Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
(v.3) For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
(v.4) When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
(v.5) Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
(v.8) But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
(v.9) Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
(v.10) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
(v.11) Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
NEIGHBOR TURN
Turn to your neighbor and say ... Neighbor — IT'S TIME TO PUT OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON THE NEW.
You may be seated ...
PRAYER
Father ... the task of teaching Your Word is once again in my keeping. I commit myself to do the very best that I can. Speak to me ... that I may speak for You. Right now, Lord ... remove self. Remove pride. Hide me behind Your cross. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight. This is my prayer. Amen.
INTRODUCTION — THE SERIES REVIEW
We have come a long way together in these seven weeks. Let me remind you where we have been.
Week 1 — The Culture in the Middle. The operational problem is always a culture problem. Go on unto perfection.
Week 2 — When Communications Go Small c. Gossip, silence, and spin destroy the middle. Love one another as He loved you.
Week 3 — Collaboration That Isn't Competition. God designed diversity for the common good. Stop competing. Fill the table. There is room.
Week 4 — Board of Peace or Prince of Peace. Boards manufacture peace. Only Christ provides it. Kiss the Son.
Week 5 — Persevering When Everyone Else Quits. The fire will come. But if not — we will not bow. He is in the fire with you.
Week 6 — Trust That Can Be Tested. Fear not. Stand still. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
And now ... Week 7. This is not just the conclusion of a series. This is the call to rebuild.
Not next year. Not when the conditions are right. Not when everybody agrees. NOW.
Point 1 — Set Your Mind on What's Above
Point 2 — Put Off the Old Culture
Point 3 — Put On the New Culture
POINT 1 — SET YOUR MIND ON WHAT'S ABOVE
Colossians 3:1-4
Paul opens with the word IF. But in the Greek this is not a conditional "if." It is a first-class conditional. It means: SINCE this is true ... therefore do this.
Since you have been risen with Christ ... seek the things above. Since you are a new creation ... live from that new creation. Since the old man is dead ... stop letting him run the meeting.
The Greek word for "seek" in verse 1 is ZETEO — dzay-teh-o — to seek with focused intentionality, to make the pursuit of something the organizing principle of your life.
(Greek: zeteo — dzay-teh-o — to seek, to strive for, to direct deliberate effort toward a specific goal)
You cannot rebuild a broken culture by accident. It requires ZETEO. Focused. Intentional. Sustained pursuit of the things above.
Verse 2: "Set your affection on things above."
The Greek word for "set your affection" is PHRONEO — fron-eh-o — to have this mindset, to let this be the operating system of your thought life.
(Greek: phroneo — fron-eh-o — to think, to have a mindset, to set the direction of one's entire frame of thinking)
Culture is downstream from mindset. You cannot build a Kingdom culture with an earthly mindset. You cannot produce trust if PHRONEO is set to fear. You cannot collaborate when PHRONEO is set to competition.
The rebuild begins above. It begins in the mind. It begins when you decide that Christ is the organizing principle of this culture ... and everything else flows from that decision.
THAT is where the rebuild starts. (Repeat)
POINT 2 — PUT OFF THE OLD CULTURE
Colossians 3:5-9
Paul gives us the most uncomfortable part of the rebuild. You cannot put on a new culture ... until you have put off the old one.
Verse 5: "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth."
The Greek word for "mortify" is NEKROO — nek-ro-o — to put to death, to treat as dead, to refuse to give life to.
(Greek: nekroo — nek-ro-o — to put to death, to make dead, to deprive of power over you)
Verse 8 gives us the list of what must go in the culture:
ANGER — the sustained rage that becomes the posture of a culture.
WRATH — the calculated, explosive kind that uses power to intimidate.
MALICE — the active desire to harm, the hidden agenda that does damage under the cover of ministry.
BLASPHEMY — defaming speech, speaking harmful things about people in the body.
FILTHY COMMUNICATION — in the Greek, AISCHROLOGIA — the talk that degrades and shames. Gossip. Innuendo. Small c communication.
And verse 9: "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds."
The Greek word for "old man" is PALAIOS ANTHROPOS — the pre-Christ self, the default human operating system that produces broken cultures.
(Greek: palaios anthropos — the old man, the pre-regenerate self, the unredeemed human nature)
And Paul says: you have PUT HIM OFF. Past tense. Completed action. The old man is dead. So stop letting him run the culture.
This is the hard part of the rebuild. Because the old culture is familiar. The old patterns are comfortable. And putting to death the old ways requires daily decision. The courage to name what has to go ... and the discipline to refuse to let it stay.
THAT is putting off the old culture. (Repeat)
POINT 3 — PUT ON THE NEW CULTURE
Colossians 3:10-11
Verse 10: "The new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the IMAGE of him that created him."
The Greek word for "renewed" is ANAKAINOO — an-ak-ahee-no-o — to renovate, to make fresh, to be in a continuous state of renewal. Present participle — the renewal is ongoing. It is not a one-time event.
(Greek: anakainoo — an-ak-ahee-no-o — to renovate, to make new continuously; a present participle indicating ongoing renewal)
The culture that does not break is not built once. It is renewed continuously.
Through capital C Communication that tells the truth in love.
Through Collaboration that makes room for every gift at the table.
Through a commitment to Culture that refuses to accept what the old man built.
Through Perseverance that refuses to bow when the furnace is heated.
Through Trust that waits on God when the Egyptians are coming.
And then verse 11 brings it all home ...
"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but CHRIST IS ALL, AND IN ALL."
No more tribal divisions. No more competition between ministries. No more communication filtered through politics and fear. No more trust withheld because of old wounds.
Because in the new culture ... CHRIST IS ALL.
And when Christ is all ... the culture holds. Not by human effort, human consensus, or human goodwill. But by the One who holds all things together.
John Maxwell says: "A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way."
(Dr. John C. Maxwell, widely attributed, including "Developing the Leader Within You," Thomas Nelson, 1993)
The culture that does not break is one that knows the Way, lives the Way, and shows the Way. And the Way is not a principle. Not a framework. Not a strategy. The Way is a Person. And His name is Jesus.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." — John 14:6
When He is at the center ... the culture holds.
THE CLOSE — THE FINAL CALL
Seven weeks. Five pillars. One series. And it has all been pointing to this moment.
The rebuild is not a program. It is not a 90-day plan. The rebuild is a daily decision by every person in the culture ... to seek the things above ... to put off the old man ... to put on the new man ... and to let Christ be all and in all.
I know what some of you are thinking: "Rev. Parks ... you don't know what broke in our culture. You don't know how long ago it broke. You don't know how many people left. You don't know how deep the wounds go ..."
And you are right. I don't know all of that. But I know the God who does.
The same God who rebuilt Jerusalem with Nehemiah ... after seventy years of exile.
The same God who rebuilt Peter ... after the worst failure of his life.
The same God who rebuilt Paul ... after he spent years destroying the very church he would one day build.
The same God who took the cross — a symbol of death and shame — and turned it into the most powerful symbol of redemption in the history of creation.
THAT God ... can rebuild your culture. (Repeat)
But it requires people who will seek things above. Put off the old. Put on the new. Communicate clearly, collaborate faithfully, fight for the culture, persevere through the fire, and trust God at the Red Sea ...
Until the culture does not break.
Until the world looks at the Body of Christ and sees what Jesus prayed for in John 17:21 — "That they all may be one ... that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."
PUT OFF THE OLD.
PUT ON THE NEW.
SEEK THINGS ABOVE.
LET CHRIST BE ALL AND IN ALL.
BUILD A CULTURE THAT DOES NOT BREAK. (Repeat)
ALTAR CALL
Every head bowed ... every eye closed ...
Over these seven weeks ... God has been speaking to somebody. Not just about culture and leadership. But about you. About the old man that has been running things inside you too long. About the places where you have been carrying the weight of a broken culture because you never let Christ be all and in all in your own heart.
Today I want to invite you to let the rebuild begin. Not with a policy change. But with you. Right here. Right now.
The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10: "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Come down this aisle ... give me your hand ... and give God your heart. The culture of the Kingdom begins in you. Today. Right now.
BENEDICTION — THE SERIES CLOSE
Seven weeks ago we started a conversation about culture. Let me close where everything always closes ... at the cross. At the resurrection. At the person of Jesus Christ who is the culture that never breaks.
Go. Build the culture. Hold the middle. Communicate with love. Collaborate with humility. Refuse to bow. Trust God at the Red Sea. And let Christ be all and in all.
Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
— Rev. Kelvin L. Parks, M.A. | C3PT Kingdom Culture Ministries | c3ptexecutivesolutions.com
