Putting Down Roots - Week 4

Well, good morning, welcome to Church of the Cross. He my name

is James, and I just want to say Happy Mother's Day. And I

got one little special Mother's Day my mom. She is a child pastor,

she's a children's pastor, and so she's not in service right now, but

she'll watch us service later. So Mom, Happy Mother's Day. And but

you know, our mother sacrificed so much. And my mom was my Sunday

school teacher for many years, and so my whole foundation of knowing the Bible

I received from my mother. And this is also the first year that my

first thought when I woke up this morning, this is the first year I

won't be calling my grandma because my grandma passed away. And she was a

woman who every day of my life, every day that I existed, she

prayed for me. And so Mother's Grandmother's You're so special and we love you

and we want you to know that we care deeply for you. Now today

we are doing a text that if you walk out of here feeling like you

got punched in the nose, that's that's pretty understandable. It's a tough test,

but we're working through Colossians. And when you work through the Bible,

you come across texts that are pretty tough. But I also believe that if

us as a whole church said yes, we're gonna live that text out,

we would be a different church. We would change our community, and we

would be the type of church that God has called us to become. So

can you pray with me real quick? And let's just dive in. God.

We love you, We thank you so much for your grace and your

mercy. Help us today as we dig into your word. Challenge us today

and speak to us in Jesus name. Amen. You know, it's kind

of hard right now to imagine life without my cell phone. I don't know

about you, but it feels like that almost everybody no either has a cell

phone in a purse, their pocket, or their hand at all times.

And I and there are sometimes literally where I will feel like a phantom buzz

on my thigh and I'll go down to reach down for my phone and there's

no phone there, and it's almost like my legs going. I need my

security blanket. I need my security phone. And I do believe that this

has become our generations security blanket. And and it's to be honest for a

lot of us. It's a great tool to stay in connection with people,

but also it's probably the biggest tool of distraction ever invented. I think that

we would agree that, hey, we love our phones, but there's one

time, one time that we should all agree to put our phone away,

and that's when we're driving. You know, we could, because we cannot

drive good while we're being distracted by our phone. Now, I've lived here

about five years, and almost every day I'm on four sixty five or sixty

nine, and I can't tell you the amount of rex not that I've seen

on four sixty five or sixty nine, because you know, you're kind of

playing a defensive driver. Is kind of scary out there. But on the

first light as you get off the exit, or the first or the last

light before you get on the textit, you know what, because as we

get off the exit, we're like, did anybody miss me? No one

texts me. I was on the road eight minutes and nobody text me.

And then we hit the car in front of us. And then right before

we get on the you know, we just gotta get those last destructions in

before we get on high By get on highway, if I can do that,

you know, and then we don't pay attention. Monday, on my

way to end the work, I saw three fender benders, all at the

first light outside of the highway. So I think we would agree that our

phones distract us. But you know, there's been a lot of people who's

been trying to do a good campaign to help us realize we cannot be messed

with our phones and driving. First of all, the great philosopher Jim Morrison

said, he said, keep your eyes on the road, in your hands

upon the wheel, And those of you who know that song, you're cool

anyways. But I'll tell you what our government, and God bless our government.

Our government decide to put billboards up so that as you're driving, you

would take your eyes off the road, look at the billboard and be reminded

to keep your eyes on the road. And then I pull that up a

little bit more. Also, there's an encouragement to text safety. So our

government's like, hey, listen, we care so much about you. Just

take your eyes off the road for a moment, read this billboard, then

text us and we'll tell you how to be safe. And I think the

text just says put your phone back up now. Brussels, Belgium actually try

to make it a big point because they want their young generation to grow up

not texting and driving, and so for a season they actually had all of

their drivers next, um people, um make people take the driving test while

texting and using their phone. And this is a real video. This is

a real thing that the government did and they taped some of this. And

so check out people taking their driving test while having to text. Check this

out. Yeah, if you don't up here, we come up to be

pulled up? What is up with? Just re imagine what exact amout?

No women, if I have on the tree, if what she perfectly do.

We don't do great when we're distracted. That's the point. We don't

do great almost anything when we're distracted. May of fact, by the time

we get to Coossus chapter three, Paul is warning the Collossus about the dangers

of distracted living. And so what is distracted living? If you're a follower

of Christ today, let's look at distracted living is focusing on the secondary things

in life instead of the primary. You're focusing on the secondary things in life

instead of the primary. So just as when we were supposed to focus on

the primary thing on the road, and we can start getting in conversation,

start playing with the radio, start getting on our phones. Well, we're

focusing on the secondary things, and it can get us in trouble. And

I don't think that we do these things on purpose, especially spiritually. I

think we just tend to drift into the secondary things of life. Now,

while most of the time it's not going to bring a disaster to your life,

but when we allow distraction to happen spiritually, we allow ourselves become distracted

spiritually, it can't have eternal consequences. Look at this next quote. A

distracted Christian will often fall back into their old lifestyle, an old attitude again

and again. See when we take our eyes off of Christ and we start

focusing on the secondary and things in life. Over time, because of this

distraction, we will start picking up the old sins of our life. We

will start picking up the old attitudes in our life. See, when you

came to Christ, you became a brand new creation. The old person is

gone. You were born again. And all of a sudden, as you

became this new person of Christ, God changed the game for you. He

gave you a new set of directions. God was gonna lead your life,

guide your life, and He has a new purpose for your life, a

new mission for your life, a new God given destiny for your life.

And because God now is the leader of your life, if you keep your

eyes on him, he will lead you to your eternal destiny and you'll fulfill

your purpose your own earth. But when we take ours off of the primary

and we get focused on the secondary things in life, we do not accomplish

the purpose, the will that God has for your life. If you want

to fulfill the plans, the beautiful plans that God has for your life,

you can't allow distractions to own you're a life. And here's a statement I

believe to be true almost all the time, that we miss out more by

distraction than by decision. We miss out more by distraction than by decision overs.

I don't think people wake up one day after following Christ for thirty years

and they're like, I don't want to do Bible studies anymore, I don't

want to go to church, I don't want to seek the Lord now.

I think it happens over a season, we become preoccupied with distractions of this

world, and then little by little one day at a time we drift away

from Him and the purposes that He has for our life. So Paul,

when he brings about this teaching here in the third chapter, Paul is saying,

all right, I want to show the church how to fulfill not only

your own personal the plans that God has given for your life, but also

how can we together change culture, change the world, and become the church

that God has called us to be. So please let me tell you something

as we dive into this text. I beg of you, those of you

who belong to churches are crossing. I beg of you to allow this text

today to grab a hold of your heart and ask God to help you live

by this text, because if you do, it will change you and it

will change our church. All right, let's dig in here we go,

classus chapter three. What does it say, since then you have been raised

with Christ? He says, set your heart things above or Christ has seated

at the right hand of God. And he says it again, set your

mind on the things above, not on earthly things, for you died and

your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is

your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory. Now

what's he saying? All right, let me break this text down very simplistic.

He said, Hey, set your mind on things above that has.

Set your sights on where God is lean. You don't get distracted. Set

your eyes on Christ so you can become the type of person he's calling you

to be. Look to Jesus so you can become like Jesus. Set your

sights on his will and his purpose for your life. Don't fall victim to

distract a living None of us an assuring can become like Jesus. We can't

live like Jesus and fulfill the plans that Jesus has for us if we're being

distracted by the things of this world. See, since Christ gave us a

new law, he gave us a new set of directions for our life.

And if we get distracted by the things of this world, we're gonna find

ourselves, of course, an off mission. Let's just be honest. Let's

get very practical. Today we live in a society where it's pretty normal to

spend ten to twenty hours a week on social media. Ten to twenty hours

a week on social media, allowing social media to fill our mind with its

ideas and its thoughts. And on top of that, there's a lot of

us who spend ten to twenty hours a week on cable news. On one

side or the other are numbing out to television for hours on end every week.

And let me tell you something. If we spend ten to twenty hours

a week on social media, we spend ten to twenty hours a week on

cable news. We spend all these hours numbing out, and all these things

are feeding us all week, every single day, hours upon hours. And

then we spend one hour a week, or maybe one hour every other week,

completely devoted to God. Let me tell you something that's going to impact

our soul. If our mind is preoccupied with what this world is teaching us

and we only give God one hour a week, it's going to impact our

soul. It's gonna shape the way we think, it's gonna shape the way

we experience God. But but James, I have my family, and my

family takes up all my free time. Oh y'all, listen, I'm not

talking about that. That that's that season in life. This is your mission,

This is the plan that God has for you in a season. What

I'm talking about is being distracted or consumed by things that push us off mission,

okay, or push us off the purpose of becoming like Jesus. Now,

I'll be honest, I get distracted with the best of them. I

am a horrible driver. When I went to my last church as a youth

pastor, I said to them, listen, I can't drive the kids on

the church bus. They were kind of weirded out, like why, And

They're like, oh, this time he's gonna tell us about a dui or

something weirdness fast. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm just

a really horrible driver. And like you turn on a song, I want

to sing it, kids, I want to talk about something. I'm gonna

turn around like yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. And if there's

a deer within seventy five thousand miles, I'm looking for it. And I'm

a horrible driver, I know myself. But to be honest, I mean

it's kind of funny us talking about driving. I'm using that as a just

kind of a place to step all from me because I think that if we

were honest, a lot of us get consumed by our own passions and they

become the primary thing in our life. And said the secondary thing, and

for me that's always been the battle, especially from all through my twenties and

early thirties. I could become consumed with my passions. For instance, there's

there's been a couple of seasons I was so consumed with golf that if it

was snowing, I was out there. If it was raining, I was

out there. I had special outfits to go against the weather. I in

my main cave, I had a punting greens. As you stepped out my

back door, I had a driving net, and I would spend so many

hours if I was at work, I was daydreaming about golfing. At night

before I went to bed, I would daydream about golfing the next day,

and when I woke up, I would think about golfing, and it had

a huge impact on my life in my bank account and again amen like and

I become consumed. Vision has been like that for me in seasons. I've

told this story before, but when I was at a pastor's camp for the

United Methodist Church, we had one day off and I saw a sign that

says do not enter, and I saw a waste disposal place, but there

was a pond next to it, and I was literally willing to become a

superhero by being affected by this toxic waste just to catch a large bass.

And so I snuck in, did all this stuff, and then I almost

drowned, almost died a couple of times. It was ridiculous. And again

the first plate point of entry says, do not enter. And so now

every year, every year at the United Methodist Pastors Camp, I am the

story of warning. I am the example of unhealthy obsessions. That's that's what

I left on this world. But anyways, but I've had these seasons,

Lob. You probably don't know that I've had seasons we're guitar playing consuming my

life. I had a neighbor one time come to me and said, are

you a professional musician? I go know why? Because that's all you do

is play. And here's the thing. I never played a note in front

of anybody. It was just I was living in my own musical fantasy,

you know. And I just have these obsessions with whatever is grabbing home my

heart. A lot of you will probably surprise about this, but I've had

a couple of different seasons where I was completely consumed by working out. I'm

not kidding. Under this layer of business. Engravy is one spectacular body.

I mean, there is there's a stud under here. You just you just

gotta dig for him. Okay, But you know, you have these seasons

where we become assume by things like like like hunting. Well, God speaks

to me there. Let's not talk about that today. But all of us

we have these things that consumer life, and the things that are primary all

of a sudden becomes secondary in our life, and the things that secondary become

primary. And I remember this big moment. My life for the Lord is

like James, I have bigger plans for you, but I do need more

of you. I just need more of you. And so in twenty sixteen,

I put all of my hobby equipment up in a storage unit and that

stayed there for a couple of years, and then I bring a little bit

out at a time as I can handle, as I can control it.

Because I had to make a decision that I can't let anything in this life

consume my life above what God has called me to do. When I noticed

that my eyes are off Christ and my and my mind and my daydreams are

in another place. Now, the things that are supposed to be primary have

become secondary. Now, let me tell you here's what I've been observing in

a church world. We really struggle with these secondary things. I've seen people

in the last few years become so obsessed with politics on either side that you've

lost friendships, your family has broken up, there's people you're not talking to.

People leave every church in America, have people leave their church because they

couldn't sit next to someone who didn't have the same ideology as them. We

let the secondary things become first. And I've seen people so focus on fixing

up their home that they can't they don't have time to be in groups,

that they're so consumed of career advancement that that church and God become a secondary

thing. Or especially here in North Indian Hamilton County, recreation is the primary

thing around here, and having fun outweighs having a spiritual, vibrant life.

Now, this list can go on. And here's what Paul's trying to say

to the Colossians and to us today. Says, if you don't dedicate yourself

to seeking God and this Kingdom first and foremost and the plans He has for

your life, other things are going to take the spot on the throne in

your life, and as a result, you will not fulfill the purposes that

God has for your life, and that will impact your church because your church

needs you to fulfill the plans for your life, because you impact every single

one of us. So we keep our eyes on Again, I think nine

times out of ten, it's a decision. It's not a decision we make,

but a distraction that we let happen. Now, let's get practical.

We need to live in this world, so yeah, we need to work,

but while we worth remember that we're taking Jesus with us. We need

to pay our bills, but we need allow the Holy Spirit to whisper to

us about how to spend our money. And we got to have fun,

but we have to make sure that's a secondary thing in our life. And

here's a good question to ask yourself if you don't know where you're at on

this, let's look at this question. And you might want to grab out

your phone and take a picture of this, but this is a great question

to ask yourself from time to time. God, am I letting anything distract

me to the point that it is hindering your plans for my life? Or

my witness? God is there anything that's distracted me to the point that it's

hindering your plans for my life? Are you waiting us? All right,

Now, here's what we're gonna do. So Paul has this big opening,

It's like, keep your eyes on Christ, don't get distracted. And then

Paul just switches, he turns the page and then he gets right down to

the juggular. All right, this next part is gonna be tough for a

lot of people. Paul. What he does is he says, hey,

when we take our eyes off of Christ, we tend to fall into sexual

sins, our social sins. We tend to fall into sins that affect our

own spirituality, or we tend to fall into sins that affect all of our

relationships around so sexual and social sins. And so here's what Paul saying,

Hey, we got to declare war on this. So point number two today

is simply this, we avoid distraction when we decide to kill the sin from

our old life. And again he separates it into two categories, and he

begins with sexual sins. And I just want to pause right here. I

felt convicted to say this Thursday night, I will say it again today.

I believe wholeheartedly that the church does not have the power in the influence that

it should have because of sexual sins in the church. And then I'm talking

to a lot of us who if we struggle with pornography and we struggle with

lust all day. Then someone comes up and says, you should lead a

small group. But you don't feel worthy to lead a small group because no

one knows this about you. But you have these secret sexual sins, and

so you stay out of leadership. And because you stay out of leadership,

you don't make disciples. Because you don't make disciples, people's lives aren't changed.

And I believe that that's happening all over the evangelical world, is happening

all over, and I believe it's happening in this church where we have these

secret sexual sins. And because of that, God cannot do his full will

our life, and we can not fulfill the purposes and plans God for us

of our life. So Paul says, hey, don't get distracted, because

when you get distracted, check out what happens. He says, here's what

you need to do. Not only keep your eyes on Christ, but you

need to put to death Therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality,

impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Now, I want you to know that the translators here are not using dramatic

language by saying put to death. Actually, when you look at the Greek,

that's exactly what Paul is saying. He says put to death. Okay,

he is saying kill the sin in your life. And what he is

saying is that, hey, anything outside of God's design for sex, which

is in marriage between a man and a woman. He says, anything outside

of God's design for sex, don't have anything to do with it. Put

it to death in your own life, in your own life. Route that

out. Now, it's interesting the phrase he uses here to put to death.

It's actually very fascinating. It's the phrase that doctors used when it comes

to putting something to death through atrophy. Okay, Now, this makes a

big difference on how we learn how to do this. Atrophy we know is

where a muscle is not used for so long that it dies. So if

you don't use your arm forever, the muscles in your arm die. If

you don't use your leg, muscles forever, your your legs want to die.

And that's what he's talking about. When it comes to sexual sin.

He's saying, you don't, you don't. You don't get near it,

you don't mess with it, you don't touch it, you don't have anything

to do with it. For so long that those muscles in your body,

those muscles in your mind that's always calling you back to sexual sin, always

point you to lust, always point you to take you know, this way

or this or that way that's outside of God's will. He's saying, don't

mess with it. For so long, the atrophy sets in and you've killed

those desires. You've put those desires to death. In other words, you

come down to the ultra wants to say, God, I really blew it.

Okay, that's great, that's a great first step. But every single

day you're gonna to get on your knee and say, God, help me

be pure, help may be holy. Okay. It happens through atrophy over

time. And also and when it comes to sexual sin, you can't say,

hey, I'm done with it. I can't I can't mess with this

seven where this is messing my life up. But you can't really in the

back or head leave a door open where you can jump back into it.

You have to completely abstain from it until the point the atrophy has set in

and that lust muscle in our soul is put to death. Paul says,

don't have anything to do with it. Stay away, stop aban it it,

don't mess around, don't entertain it, don't joke about it. Just

stay away until that part of the desire and your soul has died from atrophy

from lack of use. So again, yeah, I could see you saying

right now, James, this is pretty drastic teaching, but sometimes it's necessarily

put things to death. In eighteen ninety eight, there was a pair of

lions who hung out by this railroad building crew in Kenya, and over time,

over a year or two, they killed I think thirty eight men,

dragged them away, killed them, and they what they would do is they

kept sitting groups out to shoe or run them away deep into the jungle.

But every time they random deep into the jungle, they would eventually return.

And so finally they said, we got to stop this. So they had

to make some decisions on how to get rid of the lions. What they

didn't decide to do was bring it into the camp and try to tame it.

They didn't bring it into the camp and say, hey, let's uh,

you know, let's not only tame it, but let's make it our

pet. No, they made a decision to kill the lions and then there

was no more death. See in for Peter, it says, that's the

devil prows around like a roaring lion, trying to destroy your life. So

that sin that's attached to your old nature, it needs to be killed,

not taking in as a pet. We can't pretend to say no to it

while keeping an option open. No, now, how do we practically do

that? Number One? I think we all need to agree about on a

couple of things. One, it's evil behavior begins with evil thoughts that the

battle against sin, it begins in our minds. A few weeks ago,

Gina's mom came into town and they're all cooking dinner, and I'm trying to

think, all right, how can the whole family be entertained tonight? And

I'm all right, all right, I got Caitlin, I got Gina's mom,

myself. What's a show that we can all watch? And I love

documentaries, We even like cooking shows. And all that stuff. But I'm

like, man, I just was in the mood to laugh that night.

And so I love classic TV. I love Dick Van Dyke show, all

that old stuff. I just have an old soul. And then I'm like,

oh, here's a series and none of us a scene. Hey,

guys, what about Golden Girls? And they're like that sounds great. So

I watched Golden Girls. It was hilarious, absolutely hilarious, cutest old ladies

on this earth. And then by about the third episode, I realize these

old ladies are these old ladies. They're dirty old ladies, like they had

one sexual innuendo afternoone and guess what, because they're so cute and I just

love old ladies, they just went past me. They went past me.

And here's the thing, you know, I don't watch porn, I don't

watch sex scenes. I don't read lusty novels. That's like ninety percent of

my battle to be pure. But one area I'm really weak in as humor,

and so Satan knows like to get those thoughts into my soul. Humor

as how it's used and I can usually pick it up really quickly. But

then they're just they're just so cute, these old Golden Girls. They're so

cute. And I'm say the dumbest thing I think I've ever said from the

pulpit. But here it goes. I became convicted not to watch Golden Girls.

I hope that does not go viral. But the reality is, in

my battle for purity and fighting off immorality, I have to be on watch

what comes into my life and humors for me and something I have to watch.

So for me, I had to kill it to cut off the show.

Paul saying, do whatever it takes, do whatever it takes to kill

the Senate. But we kill it by atrophy, by just long seasons of

not mess with fit number two. As we get back to this text here,

it's really weird. Paul lumps greed into that section that kind of threw

me off when I was studying this. Let's look at this again. He

says, put to death. Therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual

immorality and purity, lust, evil desires, and greed. Now, why

why is greed here? But when you look into original Greek, it makes

sense because it's word for Greek here or for greed here, it means to

have an insatiable desire for more. I have to have more, a desire

to have more than what God has given you or designed for you, or

what God wants for you. It's a desire, it's an unquenchable thirst for

more. And it belongs here with sexual sin. Because lust is something we

do when we want more than what God has designed for us. It supposed

to antidote to this, The antidote for the lust of life is simply this

contentment. Now, I want to help you understand what Christian contentment is.

Christian contentment is where you trust, you're trusting, and you're being satisfied with

what God has given you and what God has permitted for you. In other

words, God, through his word he says, here's my design for life,

and here is my will, here's the way I want you to live.

And even though you might be coming in from the outside with different opinions,

or you might not like this or that, but the end of the

day, you say, God, I trust you so much because you're my

creator and you love me, that I am going to be satisfied with what

you said is good for my life and what you have permitted for my life.

And then you will do the work to become content with that. And

see these distractions and simple temptations. They jump up on our field of vision

every single day unless we decide to die for them. Now Paul goes on

and says, we got to work on this because in verse six, what

does he say, because of these the wrath of God has come. In

other words, there's consequences to these sins. And verse seven he says,

hey, don't get arrogant as you're eating through this. Don't don't think you

got it all together because you used to live like this. This was your

old life. And then he switches over to social sins, sins about our

relationships, sins within the church, and he says, we get distracted only

when we have sexual sins. But we'll start treating each other bad. Let's

look at this verse eight. It says, but now you must rid yourselves

of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy

language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have

taken off your old self with this practices, and you put on a new

self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of his creator.

Now, Paul, think about this he's in this city called Colossa. And

in Colossa, it's not a homogeneous community. Okay, it's a community that

is a huge melting pot, just like we're becoming in North Indy, in

Hamilton County. We're becoming a huge melting pot. And it's a beautiful thing.

And he said, hey, hey, hey Christians, my church,

there is no room for cultural snobbery, our racism, our racial barriers.

We will treat everybody with dignity, we will treat everybody with honor, We

treat everybody with respect. And so Paul then does this, and this is

the first time we see this in history. This change Christianity, and this

change the world because Paul calls out the enemies, historical enemies. That says,

ah, we're all in one family. Now he goes, hey,

there is no gentile or Jews, uncircumcised, barbarians, skiffy and slaver free.

But Christ is in alle and is in all. Now let's look at

this. I want to translate this for you. In other words, I

believe he's saying, in God's kingdom, people who normally wouldn't get along were

bound together as a family God. Paul flipped the script for the first time

in history. He says, your enemy is now your brother and your sister,

people that had formidable hate against each other. He says, now we're

all going to be a part of the church together, no cultural snobbery,

no barriers. And this is an unbelievable revelation, because let's think about this.

The Jews hated the Gentiles as so much that want. First of all,

whenever they came back to town from a Gentile city, they would shake

off the dust from their shoes. I mean, that's a huge insult.

They wouldn't let gentiles into their home, the same thing gentiles wouldn't let Jews.

Gentiles and Jews hated each other. They couldn't stand each other. Then

we get to that next group, the Barbarians and the barbarians a Scythians and

the Barbarians. Really, let me tell you what's going on here in this

text, the barbarians were people who had inarticulate language. In other words,

they weren't educated, they weren't cultured. More than likely they were very poor

people. And then he's saying, hey, we have these Greeks and these

Jews who are highly educated, highly cultured. You got some money. But

now these people who are not as educated as you are, they're not as

smooth as you are, they're not as cultured as you are. You call

them barbarians. Were one were one family, and so he only attacks people

who hated each other because of race. But then he calls part peoples who

have a social economic difference. And then we move into the Scythians. Now,

the Scythians are an interesting group. The Scythians are people who were considered

very murderous. They were a nomadic clan and they traveled around and they were

pretty much mutually hated by everybody. Josephis, the famous Jewish historian, he

has this to say about the scythe As. He says, the Skythies delight

and murdering. People. Now pay attention to this deh dehumanizing statement. Here

they're a little better than wild beast. So they had to dehumanize these people

they didn't like. Then. Even our early church father Tetulian, who is

one of the greatest theologians ever, when Marcion was committing these heresies, here's

what he said to Marcion, this was the greatest inn soul he could think

of. He says, hey, you're more filthy than a Scythian. And

so a fellowship that had Greeks, Jews, Scythians was just unthinkable in the

ancient world. But here's the thing. When the church comes together and we

decide we're gonna love on each other, we're gonna care about each other,

we're gonna cheat each other with dignity and respect, we will change our culture.

We will change our community. And that's one of the things we're trying

to do here at the Church of the Crossing. We are looking around and

everyone in our community, and we're saying, we want to love on you,

and we want to walk beside you, we want to help you,

and we're going to walk together. And so Paul's dream of all these cultures

that hated each other coming together was fulfill an ad two O two travel with

me to Carthage in an arena, and here we have a lady Perpetua,

another lady called Felicitus, and here they are. They're in the middle of

the arena. They're buried to put the beast on them, and they're buried

to be attacked because of their faith in Christ. Because they would not denounce

Christ. But we have one lady Perpetua, who's a nobleman, very wealthy,

free person, and then Felicitus, who is a slave. And in

that moment as the animals came, a freeman and a slave together in Christ

held hands because of their love, their mutual love for Jesus. Christ.

See, Paul had a vision for unity. And let's look at this next

thing right here. I just want to say, hey, there is no

place for man made barriers in the church since Christ is all in all,

all right, we're gonna to close up now, all right, let me

land this plane. We got one more point, you're ready. Here we

go. All right. Lastly, today, as we close out an undistractive

life is one of love. So what does that look like when we keep

our eyes on Christ. So let's look at this text together. It says,

Therefore, as God's chosen children, holy and dearly love, clothe yourself

of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, Bear with each

other, and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against

one another, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues

put on love, which binds them together perfectly. In unity. Let the

peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since says members of one body,

you were called to be peaceful. And here's what he's simply saying. All

right, we in order for us a love on each other, we have

to stay focused on the new life. And Jesus said, if the world

is going to know for sure that we are his followers, everyone's gonna know

that we're His disciples by the way we love each other. Now, how

can we maintain that love. We have to learn how to give. We

have to learn how to be people of forgiveness. And let me tell you

something, if you stay in this church more than one week, and you

hang out with anyone in this church, you will have to learn how to

forgive. I promise you. I promise you. We're trying to be a

better church, okay. And so because we're gonna be a better church,

that means we're gonna do community together. And when we do community together,

you're gonna find out how unique some of us are. You know what.

We're all not gonna get on perfectly until every one of us becomes just like

Jesus. And I promise you that if you are not exactly like Jesus Christ

today that you are rubbing somebody wrong, somebody's forgiving you, and so we

always forgive others. See my biggest relationships in my life, The biggest relationships

in my life require forgiveness. May ask you a question, who do we

forgive the most? Well? Else those we love the most? Is that

a coincidence? No? I love my wife, I love my family,

I love my friends, I love my church. But they're also the people

that's hurt me the most, and they're also happened to be the people I've

hurt the most. And so in order for us to fulfill Paul's vision,

we got to keep love and forgiveness on repeat. See Paul says, Hey,

if we want to be the type of people that become like Christ,

and we want to be the type of community that changes our culture, we

got to do this, and he goes back to the top. Set your

heart on the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, non earthly things. Church,

Keep your eyes on Christ. We need every single one of you. We

need every single one of you to be keeping your eyes on Christ. Building

this community together so we can change our community now as we close today,

for my first three or four years of Christianity, I had ten scriptures I

read every single day. Chapter three Colossians was one of them. I was

so messed up that every single day I had to be reminded keep my eyes

on Jesus, don't do these sexual sins, be nice to people, and

to remind myself with that every single day for three years until that became a

part of my life. But man, we can so easily get distracted.

And so today, as we close, I just want to take some time

to pray today, and I want you to take some time for the Lord

to search your own soul. So we're gonna throw up a question here,

and it's a simple question that I want you to take some time to pray

through that applies to this text today. God, am I letting anyone distract

me? Or excuse me, Am I letting anything distract me or any sin

control me to the point that it's hitting your plans for my life or my

witness. Is there anything to distract me or any sin that's controlling my life.

Let's bow our heads. God, we want to come to you now,

and we want to take some time to search our souls today. But

God, you are good. See the reason you gave us this tough text

as not just to condemn anyone, but because you have dreams for your church,

for people to live in unity. You have dreams for your people to

fulfill the plans you have for them. But in order for us to fulfill

these plans and these dreams God, we have to keep our eyes on you.

And so today God speak to our souls. So here's only I ask

you to do for the next couple of minutes. I want you to look

at that question, and I want you to answer that question honestly, allow

the Holy Spirit to speak into your life, and then respond