INTRODUCTION
When people a persons tells you that they want to become a Christian, we can tell them what the Bible tells us we MUST do in order to be saved. (Hear, Faith, Repent, Confess, Immerse)
What about after the baptism, we must we do once we are immersed into Christ?
Does our commitment to the Lord end at the baptistery?
Once we make the team, what is our responsibility to the team (family of God, the church). What does it mean when the Bible says that once we are in Christ, we rise and walk in a newness of life?
Over the next three weeks I want us to look at what we MUST do once we belong to Christ.
Our relationship with Jesus is no different than other relationships we have in our lives. For a relationship to work, it takes work. A good relationship with our spouse does not just happen, it takes effort, the same is true with Jesus. If you want to have a close relationship with Jesus, it will take effort.
These things that we must do are not things that we do to gain our salvation, but instead they are things that we will do in response to our salvation.
Today I want us to turn to Colossians 3:1-4.
What should the focus of a faithful person be? Where should our mind be, what should we be seeking in life as a Christian? What direction should we be setting ourselves toward as a Christian? What is our motivation for a proper focus in our lives? These are the questions that we will answer today as we look at:
The Focus of the Faithful
READ COLOSSIANS 3:1-4
SERMON
I. SEEKING V1
A. What are we seeking? Does it matter? If we are going to have the focus of a faithful person, we have to know what to focus on. We are told that since we have been raised up with Christ, we are to seek the things above.
Look at 2:12-13, 20. We are dead to the stimulus of the world, alive to Jesus. Once you were dead in sin (Eph. 2:1-3), but now you are dead to sin.
Since we have been raised with Jesus and we died to sin, why would we seek and set our minds on the world, what does the world have to offer to us? DOES A DEAD PERSON SEEK FOOD AND MONEY? DEAD CAT.
Since we belong to Christ and have died to the world, we are to seek the things that a person who belongs to God’s kingdom would seek.
Seeking the things from above is a description of the practical pursuit of the Christian life. What are you seeking in life? What do you want out of life? Is what you want out of life going to reap eternal benefits for you?
In the context of the book, the people to whom Paul was writing to were considering leaving Jesus for the world. They are being reminded to let their earthly practice be worthy of their heavenly position. Live up to what Christ has done for you!
When we seek the things from above, we are not chasing phantoms, but the treasures of heaven.
B. “Seeking” to desire and strive for. Our interests and attitudes, ambitions and our whole outlook on life are molded to our relationship with Christ. Our allegiance to Him takes first place over all other things in life.
“Keep on seeking” Seek with perseverance. Strive for. Not just seeking to discover, but seeking to obtain. If you were looking for gold, you would not just say, there is the gold and leave, you would come to obtain the gold you were looking for. Matt 6:33 13:45. When you seek the treasure of heaven, you do not just look at it and say, “That is nice” and walk away. You take hold of it.
C. When we belong to Christ, our whole life focus changes. Read with Philippians 3:7-10 with me.
Where Jesus is, is where we want to be. ROAD MAP ILLUSTRATION.
We are seeking the things from above because that is our home.
We are citizens of heaven.
Following a campaign speech, a young man rushed up to Senator
Everett Dirksen and said, "Senator, I wouldn’t vote for you if
you were St. Peter!" Dirksen eyed the young man for a moment,
then said: "Son, if I were St. Peter, you couldn’t vote for me,
because you wouldn’t be in my district."
But what would life be like without any hope beyond our time upon this earth?
II. SETTING V2
A. Not only are we to seek the things above, but we need to set our minds on things above. The focus of the faithful person will be on heaven.
Our minds are on heaven and our feet are on the earth. We are to be salt and light to the world while keeping our focus on heaven.
B. Set your mind on “Keep on thinking about.” It does matter what we think and we are responsible for our thoughts. Think Heaven.
C. Not on the things that are upon the earth. Paul does not mean that we should never think the things upon the earth, but that these should not be our aim, our goal, or our master. The Christian has to keep his feet upon the earth, but his head in the heavens. He must be heavenly-minded here on earth and so help to make earth like heaven. (DRIVING A CAR WITHOUT THINKING WHERE WE ARE)
The thoughts should be occupied about the things where Christ now dwells, where our final home is to be, where our great interests are. Since we are raised from the death of sin, and are made to live anew, the great object of our contemplation should be the heavenly world.
If you attempt to talk with a dying man about sports or business, he is no longer interested. He now sees other things as more important. People who are dying recognize what we often forget, that we are standing on the brink of another world. The focus of a person who is about to lose their life is different than it was when they thought they had years and years of life.
Trivialization in the church, as in society, results in a loss of the ability to think. Christians are lured to view the world as the worldviews itself--uncritically and without a basis for understanding. Many of us find ourselves "getting along by going along." And the Christian community slowly, imperceptibly "moves two inches a year toward total decline." -- Don McCory in Eternity, (Oct. 1986). Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 2.
If our minds are not set on heaven, then we will slowly get absorbed into the world.
It is like the farmer who went each week to the Farmers’ Market to sell, among other things, the cottage cheese and apple butter made on his farm. He carried these in two large tubs, from which he ladled the cottage cheese or apple butter into smaller containers the customers brought. One day he got to the market and discovered he’d forgotten one ladle. He felt he had no choice but to use the one for both products. Before long he couldn’t tell which was which.
III. SALVATION V3-4
A. The faithful will focus on Jesus with whom our life is hidden. Our union with Christ in death motivates us to seek and set. 2:20, 3:1
Your new spiritual life is no longer in the sphere of the earthly and sensual, but is with the life of the risen Christ, who is unseen with God. Compare Philippians 3:20.
B. The early Christians regarded baptism as a dying and a rising again. When a man was dead and buried the Greeks very commonly spoke of him as being hidden in the earth; but the Christian had died a spiritual death in baptism and he is not hidden in the earth, but hidden in Christ. It was the experience of the early Christians that the very act of baptism wrapped a man round with Christ.
C. In verse 4 Paul gives to Christ one of the great titles of devotion. He calls him Christ our life. Here is a thought, which was very dear to the heart of Paul. When he was writing to the Philippians, he said, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). Years before, when he was writing to the Galatians, he had said, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Galatians 2:20). As Paul saw it, to the Christian Christ is the most important thing in life; more, he is life.
CONCLUSION
Once you step out of the waters, the adventure and the relationship with Jesus is just beginning.
What are you focusing your life on today? I have heard it said that you want to spend today preparing for what you want to be tomorrow. What do you want to be tomorrow?
Keep your focus on Christ.
Next week we are going to look at cleaning our closet for Christ.
