Sermon Tone Analysis

Mother’s Day Mindset - Colossians 3:1-4

PRAY: Lord, grant us as believers the grace to walk according the newness of life you have given us through your Son, Jesus Christ.

Just was we received Him by your grace, so by your grace strengthen our hearts to walk in Him.

Amen.

INTRO: My goal is to be affectionate, gentle, and sympathetic like a mother today.

So I may not go the direction you might anticipate with a Mother’s Day message.

Holidays Can Be Harder Days

Mother’s Day (and Father’s Day, and various other holidays alike) are hard for me.

I don’t at all dislike having a day to honor our parents.

But what happens to me on these kind of days (and the days leading up to them) is that my heart goes out to the hurting.

to the widowed spouse

to the single and lonely

to the barren woman, the childless couple

to the parents who’ve lost a child

to the parents with children leading lives in rebellion against God

to the married woman with an unbelieving husband

to those being treated poorly by family members, perhaps even because of their faith

to those struggling with sin and feeling defeated

It sort of snowballs for me so that my prayers end up focusing on those in our fellowship (and family/friends) who find holidays not a reminder of grateful celebration but a reminder of their pain.

[I REALLY appreciated recently that a family in our fellowship used a holiday to reach out to those who might be lonely or on the fringe.]

But in my prayer, which I believe is of sound biblical discernment, I find myself praying for me and for you that we indeed see today as a day of grateful celebration.

It may be a sober gratitude, it may be a sedate celebration… but if you are in Christ, if through faith in Him you belong to God as one upon whom He set his gracious favor, then you have reason for grateful celebration.

(Not because it is a holiday, but because it is a day to reflect on the Lord’s favor)

I also can’t help but think of all the unglamorous, messy, difficult days that moms just try to get through.

- In fact, the hard days have the greatest potential for God-glorifying dependence on His grace that brings him greatest glory as we trust in and delight in him despite our circumstances!

Confident Hope in God (NOT Circumstances)

The confident hope of a mother is that she belongs to God. (NOT in being the most impressive homeschool mom on social media, or the most prestigious public school soccer mom…)

The confident hope of a mom for her children is in the sovereign goodness of God that he can and he will redeem his own to himself.

The confident hope… etc. is that God is enough!

That God’s plan for you does NOT rise and fall on being married or bearing children.

That we can trust God with those who’ve gone before us in death.

That God is powerful to change people’s hearts… and to strengthen us for faithful endurance.

I too frequently find myself placing far too much focus on my circumstances and far too little focus on a good God who is redeeming all things for the praise of his glory.

A Mindset Based Only on Our Identity in Christ

Because our circumstances are so tangible, we need a different mindset that revolves around our identity in Christ and not by ANY other measurement!

[Context] Paul (in his letter to the Colossians) expresses the right thinking in the Christian life that results in progress in the Christian life, as well as in Christian unity and helpfulness to one another.

After these verse we’re looking at and before making specific application to Christian households (Col.

3:18-22), Paul will talk about the specific attitudes and practices to put off… and put on.

(vv.

5-17)) But for today I just want to remind you of the right mindset… *

How many here have issues with eyesight (nearsighted, farsighted)?

- We know what it’s like to have trouble with seeing things accurately.

As Christians, unless we view the world through the lens of our identity in Christ, we are not seeing accurately.

… not safe drivers to be around!

:-)

1. Transferred from Darkness to Light (Col.

1:12-14)

Earlier in Colossians the Apostle Paul reminded us that in fact by God’s grace in Christ Jesus we were enabled to see when were completely blind.

Or he actually says in this letter that we belonged to the kingdom of darkness but have been transferred to the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.

We were slaves to sin and lived in fear of our master Satan but have been redeemed and forgiven and set free from those chains and now belong to Christ.

2. Blurry Vision?

The Battle for Your Heart and Mind (Col.

2:4, 8-10)

So, Paul says in chapter 2, if the world’s values (on the one hand) or false teachers (on the other) are capturing you again, break free.

If they are blurring your vision, clear your eyes and set them again upon Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

Don’t focus on earthly things, focus on heavenly things, where your Mediator sits at the right hand of God working on your behalf.

See Colossians 2:4, 8-10

…even you own ‘values’ may be wrong.

- Your identity is not in children, spouse, job, where you live… It’s in Christ.

The reason it is so critical for us to stay focused on our identity in Christ is precisely because it is so easy for us to become earthly focused.

Smooth talking false teachers have an advantage against us here because we are so easily inclined (in our old nature) to be self-focused and circumstance-focused.

That recognition and admission is in fact a portion of the battle.

- Not only that, but we are not in a battle simply against ourselves (although that is a great battle), or even simply against false human teachers.

No, we are in a battle against the father of lies and his spiritual forces of evil (Eph.

6:12).

Therefore, we must remain focused on God’s grace to us in Jesus and allow Him to be our strength to withstand the devil and be pleasing to Him for His glory!

3. Who You Are in Christ (Col.

3:1-4)

Get it straight in your head what he has done for you by his grace.

You have been raised with Christ – And see Col.3:3 again: You have died [died to self, died to sin, died to your old way of thinking]... and your new life is hidden with Christ in God.

He has made you one of his treasures that he has bought literally with his life (for He died for us and rose from the dead to be our life) and is guarding by His Holy Spirit.

- Jesus has become our very life (v.4).

We have become his chosen ones, holy and beloved (3:12a).

(I don’t know how to add to this, I really don’t.

We have become his treasured little ones, set apart specially for him, and dearly loved.

And who can love better than God can love?)

Stay focused on that.

Those are the things that are “above,” as opposed to earthly things (the self-centeredness which amounts to idolatry).

It is His glory that we should SEEK and his grace upon which we should SET our minds.

Imagine us as sailors at sea.

We seek only the treasure that is eternal (a desire for people’s souls, including our own, that they may know God and enjoy him forever) and so we set our entire posture and position in the direction of our “bright morning star” Rev. 22:16.)

That is the biblical Christian focus to which Paul is calling us.

4. Praying for the Eyes of Our Hearts to See Clearly (Eph.

1:17-19a)

Finally, even your confidence for a right view of your identity should not be in your own ability but in prayerful and trusting submission to God.

Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus...

Enlightening the eyes of your hearts to know (three ways): [heart – spiritual center of man; enlightened eyes – improved vision in the following areas]

A. Hope (of his calling)

1.

The hope of salvation.

He initiated it, he has secured it, he will complete it.

(Php 1:6)

2. The hope of Christian growth and spiritual blessing.

3. The hope is also in understanding his calling.

– a call “to Christ [is a call to] holiness, to freedom and peace, to suffering and glory.”

(Stott) In other words, it’s a call to give up your life entirely and live his life in you.

Paul’s prayer is that you understand the hope of that calling.

(beauty of this hope, the joy of this hope, the security of this hope)

B. Riches (of his glorious inheritance) – either “our inheritance” or “his possession” – changes the meaning, but the application of it is the same – having received a glimpse of the end

1.

True glory and abundant riches are found in gaining God himself.

(the treasure)

2. The riches of joy in God.

In ever-increasing measure.

C. Immeasurable greatness (of his power) – Paul piles on superlatives and various power words for God’s mighty, energetic, active strength beyond human comprehending.

The same power that defeated sin and death and rose Christ from the dead.

The same power of God that enabled him to endure the suffering that leads to glory.