Colossians 3:1-4 - Focus On Jesus and The Hosts Get Abandoned

All right.

Welcome back to Strength from the Day.

And we've got a kind of special out of the box format today because I abandoned Pastor.

And I can't believe you left me. You've left me. After all that I've done for you.

Which the super ironic thing is, when this episode airs, you will have abandoned me.

No, because I'll still be here.

I'm here next. Oh, no, I'm not. Never mind.

You're right. I'm not here next week. Yeah.

But yeah, but we are super excited.

I've been hanging out with my wife's family for the past several days and take some time and just kind of recuperate and rest before diving into this next season of ministry at MOBC. And Pastor is going to be hanging out with all the bigwigs.

And by all the bigwigs, I mean primarily our great friend, Pastor Kurt Skelly. And he's going to be preaching our Ignite Youth Rally, as well as a Thursday evening service at our church later this week, whenever this episode airs.

And I know I'm going to say this.

I'm just going to say Hannah is actually the cool thing, because she's speaking at this conference that we're going to. So she's speaking with Kurt Skelly and Dean Miller. I am just her bodyguard this trip.

You're the, oh, what's the phrase, trophy husband?

Sofer, that's the phrase you're looking for.

Trophy husband, for sure.

But looking forward to today, and diving back into the passage in Colossians. And, so far, just in a quick recap, we've been going through. I'll start off the recap, and then I'll throw it to you to kind of finish the next section.

So, at the very beginning of the book, we have that it's written from Paul and...

Oh, you're asking me? Timothy.

Yeah, you go back and forth.

No.

Yeah, but we've got Paul and Timothy that are writing this book to the church at Colossi, and a church that was going through a lot of attacks from some different isms and things of people that were attempting to say, Jesus is great, but you need

Jesus and this extra thing that we've got for you. Sometimes it was Jesus and the law, or Jesus and these things from the Pharisees, Jesus and giving everything up, or Jesus and super secret special knowledge, Jesus and super cool angels or spiritual

beings, all sorts of things. And so Paul is writing to kind of combat some of that as well as to establish confidence in what the Colossian believers had adopted as their beliefs, as given to them through godly leaders that had presented to them the

gospel. And he says, you can believe that gospel wholeheartedly, as well as you can believe those teachers. And don't believe people that will try and flatter you and entice you and trick you. Those are not the people that you want to listen to.

And so we looked at in chapter one, he kind of goes, I'm very thankful for you Colossian believers. Here's kind of the whole crux of the matter is Jesus and Jesus' excellence, his far surpassing glory, his work in the gospel.

And then in chapter two, he goes into, okay, so I want you guys to be rooted in Christ and in his work and in him, you have everything that you need, all of your righteousness, all of the wisdom, all of the mysteries of God's work in the world is

found in Christ. And so don't listen to the people that will try and uproot you from Christ instead. And focus on what he has done in him or in all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in him, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him.

He has completely disarmed all of the principalities of the world, all of the angelic heavenly beings that he is the one that's in control, not them and in him is all of your righteousness, all of your good works.

And so you don't have to rely on other people telling you what you need to do to be right with God in addition to having Jesus.

And so last week we had to end up with looking at our consciences and about following Jesus and some of the differences between what some people were trying to tell the Colossians to do which was pair your actions with, or pair your faith in Jesus

with these prescribed actions that have nothing to do with Christ or the gospel or having the Holy Spirit living inside of you. It was here are these things that you would never think of doing on your own, but we are telling you that you need to

observe these festivals, these new moons, the Sabbath days. You need to adopt some of these into your Christian life. The pastor had promised something, so we're going to deliver on it before we go to our next section.

But he said at the end of last episode, that he was going to talk through as we look at the conscience and as we deal with looking at the Word of God and the Holy Spirit living inside of us, that there will be occasions in our lives when scripture

does not speak directly to something. We're on a Zoom call right now, and we upload this to a Spotify and a YouTube, none of which is mentioned in scripture.

But that doesn't mean that we just do whatever we want when it comes to maybe a new technology or a new thing. And instead, we ought to allow the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to influence our decisions.

And Pastor, why don't you take just a couple moments or minutes and talk through, I know you mentioned some things that you said.

There are beliefs and practices that you hold as a matter of personal conviction that you're not necessarily like telling everyone else at church on a Sunday morning from the pulpit.

God says you have to do this thing, but that you personally believe that God has for you.

Right. Well, I think I actually had a really good conversation with someone just recently about kind of this concept of legalism in the church. So I love how you just brought up the social media aspect of it.

I was just talking with someone just recently, and it's a church planter, and they said, you know, when we start our church, like the area we're going to, like door-to-door type door knocking, it just, there's not been any churches there that it's

worked for well, and we're not against it, but we're really going to be putting our money into social media ads and a lot of social media outreach. And I said to them, that's awesome. That's great.

Now, I think, and you know this, Bryon, that I love parts of door-to-door outreach, not all of it, but blissing and things like that.

But even in our community, over the last 13 years, like we've seen that the response from that lesson, that doesn't mean we don't reach people. It just means we have to get strategic.

So over the last few years, you know, our church has become more strategic in how we do door-to-door or social media posts or all of that. Well, that's a preferential issue.

That's something that the Bible tells us to be conscious of souls and to reach people. But it doesn't say, now you have to do it by this, you know. And do I believe that Paul went door-to-door?

Yeah, I think he went door-to-door in a Bible study context and went to Christian houses and maybe won the last, but at the same time, it was just Paul's life. That's again a preferential issue.

But I think, you know, when you talk about this on a family level, and this is what I was kind of getting at last week, is there are times when God is going to tell each individual family things for their family that won't be in the lives of others.

So for our family, none of our kids have been able to have their own cell phone until they are 16 and able to afford the phone bill. They can't get social media apps without us having access to everything.

They even email and I mean, my kids still don't have a Facebook. They have an Instagram and a Be Real.

I think that's the two things that they have and I mean, there's some other little apps that they use with friends and stuff like that, but we know about it. We have passwords to all of it.

Now, I've had people say to me, Dennis, that's really strict. Our kids are 13 and they have this and we trust them. I'm like, cool, I trust my kids too, but I really don't trust the devil and I don't trust social media.

So for our family, that's a preference. Now, I might get up and say something about having wisdom at the church service. I might say something about having wisdom with your kids, but I'm not going to preach it as a doctrine because it's a preference.

We really could go down the line with a lot of different things in scripture. So that's where I think the mindset then comes back to this idea that we were looking at. Last week is we have to look at Christ.

We have to look at Jesus. That's where I think going into Chapter 3, what we're going to look today helps completely. So I'm going to read the passage and then we can jump into some thoughts on that.

That's Colossians 3 and verse 1 through, I think we're going through verse 4. Is that right? All the way down to verse number 4 today.

It says this, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ siteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

For because you are dead and your life is hid with Christ and God, when Christ, who is our life, is out here, then shall you also appear with him in glory.

I really think, and again, there are many applications that we could get from this, but let's keep everything kind of in the flow of what we've been talking about. Legalism, asceticism, mysticism, all these isms.

Paul's been writing, saying, you are in Christ. So here's kind of a little shift in thinking. You have all of these isms, but you have a better way of thinking as a Christian.

What is that? You're saved. You have Christ in your life.

And if you have new life, you're risen with Jesus, you have new life with him, then you just focus on eternal things.

This idea of setting your affection on things above is not a matter of just, my dad used to say, being so heavenly minded that you're of no earthly good. That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about understanding that I have an eternal focus, not a temporal focus. And there's so much to be said here, but Bryon, I'll throw it to you.

What do you think about these four verses and how they kind of go within the context of our conversation?

Yes.

So what I kind of see here in these four verses is Paul drawing attention to the fact that if these false teachers, if the legalists, if the Gnostics, if the ascetics, are not going to be in charge of the believer's life and doctrine and practice,

then there needs to be a good, a good king on the throne of their heart. And he gives them the Lord. And he says, you have been, you've been raised with Christ. And so you need to have your mindset, your thinking, the word affections there.

In verse number two is the same as in Philippians 2, with, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. It's that where we turn our thoughts and our intents, needs to go to Christ because he is our Lord.

That is our most basic thought as a Christian is one who says that Jesus is king and I am not. And as we see him seated on the throne, sitting at the right hand of God, then we realize, okay, my life isn't supposed to be lived for me.

As I make my affections, as I make what I pursue and focus on, as I make that what he wants, then I'm dead. I think of Paul in Galatians 2. I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And so that's the mindset that Paul is encouraging here, the Colossians to take.

And he says, if you focus on Christ as your Lord, and instead of listening to what, what Gerald Gnostic says, or Lloyd Legalism, instead of listening to what these guys are saying, focus on what Christ has and focus on his goals.

Because then, as we do that, because our life is meant to be Christ living through us, then in verse number four, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then we will also appear with him in glory.

He says, your focus is not just Jesus' Lord and Jesus' living through me, but Jesus is returning. And Paul's focus to that.

That, as we see in Egypt Paul's letters, the Christian life is not meant to be devoid of the thought that Jesus could come back at any time. And often we just think about, okay, you know, I'll live my life, I'll die, one day I'll get to heaven.

But as the believers in the first century thought, and as we should also have the mindset of, is Jesus could return at any time.

So my life has value, that I could reach someone for the Lord in the time, and they could know Jesus for my life, how I'm living. If I'm living in such a way that I am following men, I don't want Jesus to come back when I'm doing that.

I wanna be following him and making him my life, so that when he returns, I will be faithful. So I think there's all of that, is focus on Jesus as Lord, because he's king, he's worthy, he wants to live through you, and he's returned.

Yeah. Well, I think what you just said at the beginning of that whole statement is, it's about who's on the throne of your heart.

Right?

It's about, am I living with Jesus truly in my heart, on my thoughts, affecting my thinking? Or am I doing that? Am I the one living on my throne?

Or am I allowing other people to live on my throne? So they're telling me what to do and what to think, and what to, instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do that.

And so I definitely think it all comes back to just that perspective and that eternal mindset. I love what you said, that He's coming again, and we want to live with that in mind.

So I think a great challenge then for this day and even this coming week is maybe for each of us just to pray and to ask the Lord, like, where is my mindset? Where is my affection?

Where is the, what you mentioned, the word affection, the exercising of my mind? Where is it? Where is my mind settling in?

And recognizing just number one, the responsibility, number two, the opportunity, but also the freedom that comes with recognizing that it's me and God. And God is going to direct my life.

And so, you know, I have so much to worry about about Dennis Fountain. I don't need to be concerned about Bryon Self. I don't need to, well, Bryon's not doing this or doing that, that I would do.

Well, that's okay. Now, as a boss level, I mean, there's that aspect too. But, you know, just go in person.

No, we're not going to talk about that. But just go into a personal level.

Like, if I'm concerned about leading my family and my life the way God wants me to, there's enough to focus on and work through and follow him in just in my life that is going to keep me busy.

So this week, let's set our affections, set our mind focused on eternal things, remembering the Lord could come back this week. And I want to be following, pursuing him, not the things of this culture.

So, Bryon, why don't you wrap us up and tell us what we have to look forward to.

Yeah. So next week, we will either do verses 5 through 11, or if we get particularly adventurous, 5 through 17. So we'll have a little bit.

That's a lot.

It is.

But I'm really looking forward to this next section. It's just an amazing part of Paul's. Paul's done a lot of, hey, here's like these big overall things that you need to look at with your theology and all of this.

And then next week, we dive into the nitty gritty of how this looks in real life. Yeah. Looking forward to that.

I love Chapter 3.

I think Chapter 3 is going to be an awesome place.

Yeah. So we will see you all this next Monday, or whenever you listen to the podcast. And we will be back in person together next time, which I'm very excited about.

And it'll be good. So hope that you will allow the Lord to live through you today.

And God bless. Have a great day.