Sermon Tone Analysis

PRACTICE DOES NOT MAKE PERFECT

How many of you guys have heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect?”… Okay, now how many of you believe that “practice makes perfect?”…

I used to think so too!

Until last week.

As many of you may have heard already, and as the Dixon boys have unfortunately witnessed, my golf game was and is lacking in pretty much every regard.

To put it plainly, I’m terrible.

But, even knowing that, I still thought that at some level, I’d be able to get better, because “practice makes perfect”, right?

So, with that confidence, I seized the opportunity to play on one of the two Grace Bible Church golf teams at the TES Tradition Classic in Jupiter, which fittingly was taking place at a real-deal golf club with a real-deal 18-hole golf course.

Still, at this point, I was pretty confident in my ability to get better by the time the tournament rolled around.

Making good use of my excellent time-management skills and my knack for planning, I started practicing the night before the tournament, sometime around 10:30 started off living up to my reputation of poor play, but after an hour of trying to hit the ball and hitting it 4 times in that time span, I felt like I had a fighting chance at shocking the world.

I was wrong.

Mr. Dan Healy was tasked with chaperoning me at the tournament, bless his heart.

Despite all of his attempts to coach me up during the tournament, I think I hit one shot straight out of fifty.

The only glimmer of hope for my golf future was a 10 foot putt that I made, but that glimmer was dashed when I launched my next shot straight into the lake.

The moral of the story is this: practice does not make perfect!

I had the intention to play well, the teaching to play well, but at the end of the day, I had no clue how to actually play well myself.

And at the end of day, our attempts to grow in Christ kinda look like my attempt to play golf, don’t they?

We have the intention to grow… We have the resources to grow… We even have the formula to grow… but for some reason, we can all admit that it’s still hard to really grow in Christ.

But the problem is this, right?

Growth isn’t optional!

We must grow spiritually if we’re in Christ, right?

But at the same time, it can seem like we can’t grow spiritually, can it?

We’ve got a dilemma on our hands then.

So what’s the solution?

Sadly, there’s not really a one-size-fits-all answer, but the apostle Paul does hand us two important steps for unlocking spiritual growth in .

Last week, we started looking at this in verse 1, where we looked at one step: strive for the things above.

Tonight, we’ll spend our time in verses 2-4, where we will see another step: set your mind on the things above… set your mind on the things above.

CONTEXT

We’ve been walking with Paul all throughout the first two chapters of his letter to the Colossians, as he’s addressed the problems of false teaching and legalism that have arisen in the Colossian church.

In chapter 1, we saw Paul remind them of the wisdom of the true gospel and what it accomplished in them.

Then, in chapter 2, we looked at the folly of false gospels, as Paul exposed the false teacher and his doctrines for their lack of godliness.

Now, in chapter 3, we’re witnessing Paul lay out what the true gospel accomplishes in believers: fruit in every aspect of life.

Back in verse 1, Paul put a test to the Colossians: “Have you really been raised with Christ?”

And if their answer was yes, as he expected it to be, he laid out two commands back-to-back here in the first two verses:

1) Strive for the things above,

2) Set your mind on the things above.

We looked in detail at the first one last time, but I want to make sure we get a proper look at this parallel command: set your mind on the things above… to set your mind on the things above.

Follow along as I read verses 2-4.

SET YOUR MIND ON THE THINGS ABOVE ()

Here in verses 2-4, we find the second step to securing spiritual growth: to set your mind on the things above.

Look again at what Paul says in verse 2.

“Set your mind on the things above...”

“Set your mind on” is all one word in the original text.

Paul is telling the Colossians here to not just strive for the things of above, but to give careful consideration to them.

He’s saying, “Don’t just seek the things above, but be intent on them.”…

Or, in other words, set all of your focus, or in better words, all of your mind on them.

Just like Paul’s first command to strive for the things above, this second command is present.

You must set your mind on the things above and do it now!

This second command is also active.

You must set your mind on the things above and do it now and keep doing it for the rest of your life!

Does anyone remember from last week what “the things above” really are?… Exactly!

The things of Christ.

The things of heaven.

Essentially, Paul wanted the Colossian believers to seriously ponder the things of heaven.

Now think about what that may have looked like for the Colossians.

To seriously ponder the things of heaven would force them to take a hard look at every aspect of their lives!

For what reason?

The things of Christ are to be the driving force behind all that we do during our time on earth.

Paul wanted the Colossian believers to seriously ponder the things of heaven.

N

In , Paul makes it clear that the #1 job of Christians during their lifetime is primarily to be an ambassador of Christ.

This means that for every believer in this room, every step you take, every move you make, has an impact on the reputation of Christ in the eyes of all creation.

To connect all of that back to Paul’s words to the Colossians here in verse 2, you can’t be an effective ambassador on behalf of anything if you’re not carefully considering all of the things that pertain to who you’re an ambassador of!

We would think it ridiculous if the US Ambassador to France knew close to nothing about what America likes, dislikes, stands for, or stands against, right?

So in the same vein, it’s ridiculous if the believer, who is immediately employed as an ambassador of Christ, knows close to nothing about what Christ loves, hates, stands for, or stands against!

And even worse than that is if the believer, an ambassador of Christ, lives a life that is characterized by more of what Christ hates and stands against than what Christ loves and stands for.

With that in mind, now think about what seriously pondering the things of heaven looks like for you and me.

tells us that the Lord loves holiness.

Do we ourselves love holiness?

tell us that the Lord stands for purity.

Is that what we stand for?

And tells us that He love His glory.

Is that what we love as well?

The list goes on with how many questions we can ask ourselves about how much our will aligns with God’s will based on what He says in His Word.

The main question though is this: If we claim Christ in word, do we proclaim Him in deed by striving for all that pertains to Him and setting our minds on all that pertains to Him?

The reason why Paul puts these two commands, to strive for the things of heaven, and to set your mind on the things of heaven, back-to-back is because they go hand-in-hand!

No pun intended there, but here’s what I mean.

You can’t strive after the things of Christ without setting your mind on the things of Christ, and you’re not setting your mind on the things of Christ without striving for the things of Christ.

Make sense?

Paul’s ensuring here that the Colossians leave this letter with no confusion about what he’s exhorting them to do.

In fact, he’s making it painstakingly simple.

He’s saying, “Colossians!

Go diligently seek the things of Christ.

At the exact same time, go diligently set your mind on the things of Christ!”

And when we’re looking at the text here, one thing is pretty interesting.

Take a look at the command from verse 1.

Now look at the command we’re on in verse 2. What’s different?…

Well, not much, except for the fact that Paul adds “not on the things of earth” to the end of verse 2. Why exactly did he do that?

“… not on the things of earth.”

What he’s implying is that we all fall into two buckets.

You either are intent on the things of the world, or you are intent on the things of the Word.

What’s it gonna be?

When we’re looking at the text here, one thing is pretty interesting.

Take a look at the command from verse 1.

Now look at the command we’re on in verse 2. What’s different?…

Well, not much, except for the fact that Paul adds “not on the things of earth” to the end of verse 2. Why exactly did he do that?

Well, grammatically, there’s this thing called imperatives and indicatives, imperatives and indicatives.

Everybody who’s been at the Snob Study should be a bit familiar with this from chapter 4 in “Free To Be Holy” two weeks ago!

The simplest way to understand this concept is that imperatives are commands and indicatives are facts.

And in Scripture, they’re usually right around the corner from one another, because biblical commands must be obeyed!