Sermon Tone Analysis

When we think about iPlay, we draw certain images of recreation and maybe things that are unimportant in life.

Really, I drew on that title in part because it's really a reflection of the society in which we live because so much of what we do, even as we work, is geared toward the recreational time we'll have.

We look here in the ancient text at a time when people certainly struggled as well as had times of recreation and enjoyment, when they worked six days a week instead of five.

We now live in a society where we go to lakes and boat or fish.

We go to rivers and streams to do the same.

We go to mountains to ski.

We go into the woods and forests to hunt.

We go to the ocean to enjoy the beaches.

We go to movies for recreation.

We go out to restaurants to feed ourselves, but in part for the enjoyment of it.

So much of the money we earn, we spend doing things with it.

In fact, it has crept into Christianity itself.

There is often the lamenting of the fact that so much of Christian worship sometimes seems to be geared more toward entertainment than reaching out to the heart of God Himself.

What we tend to do with the time that we have away from whatever the occupation is we're employed at or the school we're involved in really occupies a great deal of our time.

To ignore that, to ignore what we do when we're not sleeping or working or at school, I think would be to greatly ignore much of our lives.

So I want us to speak about that this morning.

I think the Bible has, of course, direction for us this morning, and I want to invite your attention this morning to Colossians 3. The key verse of Colossians 3 is going to be the seventeenth verse, but I want to begin at the first verse to give us our context and to bring us to this all important and well known verse 17.

Paul, writing to the Colossians, has been talking about what it means to be in Christ…what it means for Christ to have the preeminent role in your life, and what it means to do away with the old thoughts and the old mindset, the old man, and to embrace this Christianity in Colossae and for us in Saline County as well.

When we come to chapter 3, he makes this statement.

He says, /"If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God."/ Well this verse just picks up where we left off, if you were with us last week.

We looked at the matter of dying to self…that to live the Christian life and the abundant life means that we have to take on the mindset of resurrected living.

That means that a true believer is one who dies to self in order to be raised.

If you look at the verse, you see that we are raised with Christ.

Christ, if you'll remember from our previous discussions, was different after the resurrection.

He walked with an authority.

He ascended to heaven.

He sat down at the right hand of the Father.

Now Paul says in like manner, "If then you were raised with Christ, we are to seek the things that are above."

In other words, if we are to live resurrected lives, we need to focus our mind heavenward.

We need to think how would heaven react?

How would heaven want me to act in a certain situation?

Where would heaven want to go to the movies?

What would heaven want to do?

We need to begin to think with the mind of Christ and therefore seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

In the next verse he continues by saying, /"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."/

Now, that may seem kind of strange to us because our movie mentality tells us that's harps and clouds, but we're going to discover what heavenward thinking is all about here as we look at our text today.

Paul wants the Colossians to quit thinking earthly thoughts, to quit thinking and focusing on the things that earth says is important.

In other words, the things the world says, that your worldly friends say, that your worldly goals and ambitions would draw you to.

Instead, begin to set your goals and ambitions, even the very words that come out of your mouth and your way of living, so it sounds heavenly; it sounds heaven sent.

It is heavenward, and the reason for it he tells us in verse 3, /"For you died..."/

You died.

Not you ought to die, not you ought to think that you died, not that you ought to kind of pretend like, "Well, the things of the world aren't important."

No, he said as a matter of fact, if you're a believer in Christ…you died…you died…and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

The life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God.

The life we now have, if we want to know the meaning of our life, if we want to know purpose and direction in our life, that direction, that definition, that meaning is hidden wherever Christ is.

If you want to find…What does God want me to do with my life?

You'll find it in Christ.

That's hidden in Christ.

Our direction, our purpose, our meaning, our motivation for living is inside Christ who sits at the right hand of God and we need to find our meaning and our direction there.

He then goes on to tell us down in verse 5, therefore put to death the old lifestyle.

Listen to what he says, /"Therefore put to death your members…"/ In other words that is your old way of life, your old characteristics, your old way of thinking.

/"…which are on the earth."/

(The earthy, the worldly ways of responding to the crises and the opportunities of life.)

And he gives us examples, /"Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and/ [that old word] /covetousness, which/ [Paul equates to] /is idolatry."/

If we are to find our purpose that is hidden in Christ, we're going to have to live as dead to this world, and if you're living in this world in fornication or covetousness, if these things motivate and drive and appeal to you my friends, you have not yet died to self.

You have to live your life in Christ.

You have to set your mind on the things above.

We have to make our goals and purposes the goals and purposes of God.

Does that mean everybody is going to be a preacher?

No, but a whole lot more people would be.

Does that mean that everybody is going to be a missionary?

No, but a whole lot more people would be.

Does that mean that everybody is going to sing in the choir?

No, but a whole lot more people would.

It means that you begin to focus heavenward and not considering what other people think, not even considering your own selfish motives and desires, but…What would heaven do in the situation that is before me?

So how then do we live?

Paul begins to tell us what heavenward thinking is all about in verse 12, as we move up to 17.

In verse 12, he says, /"Therefore, as the elect of God,/ [the chosen, the children of the very God, and notice how he describes you] /holy and beloved…"/ You see, when you die to self and you've set your mind on the things above, that holiness becomes more something you can appropriate instead of just some distant fantasy.

Then when God says, /"Be ye holy for I am holy,"/ that's no longer just a cliché for you that is something that you desire with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul.

/"As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies."/

Do you want to know what heaven is about?

Do you want to know what they're thinking about and what they're talking about in heaven?

Do you want to know what the conversation is in heaven?

Do you want to know what Christ is focusing on as He sits at the right hand of God? Do you want to know what He's thinking about, what He's saying?

Paul is telling us here.

He says if you want to think heavenward, if you want to set your mind on the things above, if you want to die to self and live to Christ, then you're going to begin to focus on these things.

You're going to /"…put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,/ [and above all] /longsuffering..."/ Those are the attributes of Jesus.

Those are the attributes of our salvation.

Those are the attributes of grace itself.

It is tender mercies.

If we're to be a people of God, we have to be a merciful people.

We don't tire of being merciful.

The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that God's mercies are fresh every morning.

He never comes to a point where He says, "I've been merciful enough, and I'll be merciful no more."

We come up with that.

We wonder why God doesn't do that.

We often sometimes even kind of question…how can God think like that because we don't think like God.

God says mercy rules our lives, and not only mercy but this longsuffering nature.

He says in verse 13, /"…bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another;/ [forgive them is what he's saying] /even as Christ forgave you..."/ Do you want to know how you think heavenwardly?

You think as Christ thought.

You think as God thought.

You think as they thought before the foundations of the earth were ever laid, when they decided they would forgive you for your sin.

So we forgive one another for our sins.

If we're to think heavenwardly, we are to be a people who forgive, not conditionally forgiven, not if you take care of things I'll forgive, but we forgive as Christ forgave, unconditionally by grace and mercy.

That's heavenward thinking.

That's not worldly thinking.

That's not going to get your bills paid.

That's not going to get that loan paid back.

That's not going to get your fence fixed, but if you are to be Christ-like you will forgive.

You will simply forgive as Christ forgave you.