I went to our local thrift store and bought an outfit, (Dark brown 1970’s pants, Hot Pink 1980’s shirt, Ugly tie, and 1950’s navy blue sports coat with red stiching) to preach this sermon. It went over real well.
A Sharp Dressed Man
Colossians 3: 5-14
By now the all of your Christmas presents should be open and the trash hauled off to the dump. Some of you have already stood in the long lines to take back the gifts that were the wrong size, style, color, or just plain wrong.
When I was growing up Toys gave way to clothes, and my parents used to have a philosophy about shopping for me around Christmas and my Birthday. They would go to a store and find the ugliest outfit they could and get it for me. They knew that I would love it and wear it, and I usually did. Today you probably think that I went and got some of my clothes from High School to preach to you this morning. They say that the clothes make the man. And to a point I believe that’s true.
If you see someone who is wearing ragged and dirty clothes their hair is unkempt and dirty you generally make some assumptions about them. But if you see someone in a Brooks Brothers Suit the assumption is usually not the same.
There is a story told about an incident that happened at a Cadillac Dealership in Tennessee. A man appeared on the car lot back in 1956 wearing an old hunting cap, a dirty pair of overalls, and muddy boots. He meandered around the lot for almost 30 minutes with no one offering to help him. The manager of the Car lot asked the newest employee to go and see he could get him to leave. It wasn’t good for business to have unsavory characters out there with potential customers. The new sales man obliged and went out to meet the man.
The man in the overalls greeted the sales man with some questions about some of the cars, and the standard equipment on the vehicles. The salesman was rather short with his answers, trying to be polite but also trying to let the man know that he wasn’t really interested in wasting his time. After about five minutes the man in the overalls asked the salesman if they would accept cash for the cars or did they need a check. Trying not to laugh the sales man said either would be fine. So the man in the overalls said I would like to pay cash for this car, in every color.
The man in the hunting cap, dirty pair of overalls, and muddy boots was none other than Elvis Presley.
In our passage today Paul discusses our clothing. Not our physical clothing, but how we dress and present ourselves to the world around us. He tells us that we who belong to Christ need to take off the worldly attitudes or attire of sexual sin, perversion, passion, lust, and greed (which is the same thing as worshiping wealth). anger, hot tempers, hatred, cursing, obscene language, and all similar sins. And don’t lie to each other.
There have been so many times that I have wanted to look at these lists found here and again in Revelation 21 and Galatians 5 and use them as a check list.
Sexual sin – Nope
Perversion – Nope
Lust – Nope
Greed – Nope
And I usually feel pretty good about myself so I stop while I am ahead. But Paul goes even further
Anger – Only justified anger, that’s spiritual right.
Hot tempers – Well it’s not as bad as it once was and any growth is spiritual growth
Cursing – Haven’t said my favorite word in months
Obscene language – Who is to say what is Obscene and what’s not.
And don’t lie to each other – I don’t lie especially to my brethren. Well maybe just little ones like when they ask me how I am and I say fine when really I’m not but they don’t want to hear about my problems so I am really doing it for them.
The Holy Spirit sees fit for Paul to write one more thing found in verses 9 and 10 “You’ve gotten rid of the person you used to be and the life you used to live, and become a new person.
Have we really become a new person? Are we really that different from world, or do we blend in with the wickedness quite well. If we are going to become the person that God desires for us to be most of us have got to change our clothes. We have got to take off the rags that the world offers us and be dressed in the robes of the believers. We must be dressed like those who have been chosen by God.
Let’s read again starting in verse 12 about the attire of a sharp dressed man or woman.
As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
The first thing we must put on is Compassion. Luke 10:25-37
Compassion does something. We can’t be compassionate and just sit there and look at the plight of others. Compassion causes us to show others the love that then need so badly, and the one who loves unconditionally. Compassion must lead us to involvement.
It’s like the story of a fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, that had fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O’Gorman, was undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, and all his hair was falling out... so he had his head shaved. But then 13 of his classmates shaved their heads, so Ian wouldn’t feel out of place.
Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys, and before long they all trekked to the barbershop. "The last thing he would want is to not fit in," said Kyle. "We just wanted to make him feel better."
Ian’s father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys had done. He said simply, "It’s hard to put words to."
"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2.
The next item we as believers must put on is Kindness. Ephesians 4:29-32
In this world that lives by the motto Dog eat Dog why should we show kindness to others? Because kindness is our natural response to the grace God has shown us.
Kindness is the character of God. God desires for us to show kindness to others because that is part of His wonderful character. He is full of loving kindness toward us. And God didn’t just tell us He loves us, He proved it.
Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
When God saved you, He began to change you. You no longer want to live like those people who don’t know God. Church, we live by a higher standard. I believe that the more you understand and appreciate God’s grace and mercy, the more you will want to show kindness to others.
The third thing we need to put on is Humility. 1 Peter 5:5
This is probably the hardest item for us to put on. You see it doesn’t matter if we have $5.00 in our checking account or $5 million dollars in our checking account we all can be very full of ourselves. And when we live a life full of pride we must spend every waking moment defending and reestablishing our superior positions in the minds of everyone we meet.
Real humility, not the fake kind we try to pass off at times, comes when we see ourselves as Christ sees us. When we ponder our past failures, and sins, and look at our great limitations of our life we can’t help but humble ourselves before an all powerful and holy God.
Humility is probably the rarest article of spiritual clothing found among God’s people. Pride however is plentiful. Pride is a junkyard dog feeding on everything in sight, including the blessings of God. If we are not careful even the answers to prayer can make us think that we are something special when in reality we are not.
Our next spiritual garment is Gentleness. James 3:13
The Phillips translation has translated gentleness as “The grace to accept life.” Things don’t always work out the way that we hoped that they would, and the bottom drops out of our best-laid plans. Life has it’s disappointments and that’s where gentleness comes in. When we don’t live a life of gentleness we dishonor Jesus and His sacrifice by venting our irritation as if God was not aware of our struggles, and let our world spin out of control.
We buy a new car and it has some defects and we are ready to go into a tirade. Children don’t act like little adults and we loose our cool. The person in front of us doesn’t realize that the light turned green and we lay on the horn. There are people who go through every day living in anger because something has not worked out the way they planned and they think life is unfair.
But we must realize that God has not only showered us with His love and grace, but he made us two promises.
1) We Will Struggle
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
2) We will endure
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
That brings us to the article of patience. 2 Peter 3: 8-18
There are many words that could be used to describe us. "Patient" is not one of them.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes. I remember one cartoon pictured Calvin’s father sitting at a computer saying, "It used to be that if a client wanted something done in a week it was considered a rush job, & he would be lucky to get it. Now, with modems, faxes, & car phones everybody wants everything instantly."
About that time Calvin walks by holding a microwave dinner, reading the instructions. "It takes 6 minutes to microwave this," he says. Who’s got that kind of time?"
It seems that the faster life becomes, the more impatient we are. But in many ways the kind of patience that can help us get through our daily frustrations of someone committing a 21 item in a 20 item express line violation is a minor league compared to type of patience as Christians we are called to wear.
Biblical patience has to do with long-term situations. That is what Peter told his readers in 2 Peter 3. Already late in the first century Christians were becoming impatient with the fact that Jesus had not yet returned. They started to ask, "What in the world is God waiting for? We didn’t think Jesus would take this long!" So in this his last letter Peter reminds us that God’s time is not our time.
God is well aware of our time and what’s going on here. But he has a purpose for letting the time pass. In the Bible God’s patience with us is what gives His compassion the chance to save us. Over and again in the Old and New Testaments we read that God is slow to anger and that precisely this patient slowness is what keeps him from any snap judgments. God’s ability to stick with us desperately flawed folks is what mediates between wrath and grace.
Our final article that we need to put on is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
We use the word "love" a lot, & I’m afraid that our use of it can be rather confusing. For instance, I love Trista. For the last 8 years she has been my companion, my encourager, my counselor, and my friend.
I also love Crockett Mississippi. It is the Spencer Home place and at many times in my life a place of refuge.
But even though I used the same word "love" to describe my feelings toward Trista and Crockett, you realize that I don’t love them in quite the same way. Our word love is a catch-all for many different feelings. "I love my Dog, I love cherry pie, I love my truck, I love this church.
Since we use the same word to express all those different emotions, we sometimes get confused. I remember while living in California the little girl next door would always tell me good bye with the phrase, “Good bye, I love you … just not in that way.
We are told to put on love, but how do we do that? To me it seems to be the perfect garment to end with. It just seems to encompass all of the other garments that we have discussed today. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience all hinge on the amount of love we have in our hearts.
Do you want to see the garment of love acted out? Then look at 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8. The Holy Spirit is leading Paul to say, "This is how love acts. This is how it behaves."
"Love is patient." That means that I don’t get into a hurry with you if you don’t do things the way I would like for you to do them. I’ll wait. I’ll wait for things to change. I’ll wait for those edges to be knocked off, & I hope that you’ll wait for me in return.
"Love is kind." I wouldn’t say anything unkind to you because you are the object of my love, & the important part of my love is to make sure that you feel loved. Therefore, I couldn’t be unkind. I won’t envy you. I won’t boast about myself. I won’t become proud, because I am more concerned about you than I am about myself.
"Love is not rude," means that I won’t crowd before you in line, & if we get to the door at the same time, I’ll open it graciously & let you go before me. It means that I am not self-seeking. It means that I am not easily angered. I won’t throw temper tantrums any more. It means that I won’t keep any record of wrongs. We must all tear up our lists & throw them away & start anew with each other.
Love has to trust. God shows His continual trust in us because we are His only plan to get the good news out. There is no plan B. There is no other way. It is just us. And He trusts us to put on the right garments so that His kingdom will be attractive to a world that so desperately needs a little compassion, and kindness, and humility, and gentleness and patience, and most of all love.
God is love and like the apostle, we can only exclaim, "I love God because He first loved me."
