Colossians: Why (and How) Should I Do Good Anyways?

So we're continuing our way through the book of Colossians.

So this is this letter that Paul wrote to this church in Colossae.

So this would be a town in central southern Turkey, and Paul most likely is in prison in Rome, and he's writing this letter to this church.

And so what we've talked about, and I want to kind of refresh your memory, and if you haven't been here, this will be new, you'll be picking up with us.

So four chapters in this letter, in this book of Colossians, the first two chapters, chapters one and two, are filled with promises of God to us.

I mean, just one promise after the other, one promise after the other about who we are in Jesus and our security and our acceptance and our love that we have assured and his work for us.

And Paul is pouring it out.

And so these should be called the indicatives, right?

These are the indicatives of God to us, what's been indicated to us.

And then there's this shift starting from chapter two into chapter three, and we'll see it.

It's pretty immediate as soon as we jump into the passage that Sam just read.

And all of a sudden, there's a shift, and we begin to see some imperatives, some things we should do, some practicals.

So, because of all of the promises, because of our position we have that's sealed and secure in Jesus, what's been indicated to us, because of this, here are some practicals about what the Christian life should be.

But what we see in this letter is the way this is structured, is we see what the Christian life should be like, like how we should live it.

That any practical, any imperative should be lived out of a promise, should be lived out of what's been indicated to us.

When we divorce these two, we end up in places we would never intend to go.

Like when we leave the promises just to kind of live out the practical, it's like, okay, like Jesus was the way into the Christian life, but really, all right, so I'm in.

Now I will live this out on my own.

I will put myself to work, I'll become a better person, I'll just become more and more disciplined on my own.

But I'm really when it comes to the promises of God, I'm sort of going to forget those, kind of leave them back in one and two of Colossians.

I'm moving on.

And when we do this, we can so easily end up in legalism and moralism.

But what's clear in this letter, the way that Paul even structured it, is that none of it is legalism.

Like none of the Christian life is legalism.

Right?

Legalism says, like, if I improve by a set of rules, then I'll be accepted by God.

And it just doesn't end.

Maybe you've been in those places.

Maybe you've been in those churches, or maybe you've done that to yourself, and it just doesn't end.

Right?

Moralism's the same way.

It's the same thing.

If I obey, then I'll be accepted.

But see, the gospel says, and this is what Colossians just paints a picture for us.

It says, no, no, no.

You're already accepted.

So obey.

Right?

If we get these wrong, then we head down a track of legalism or moralism.

We head down pride and judgment and comparison and exhaustion.

So we must carry these promises into the practicals.

And that's what we see Paul do in this passage.

Maybe this is all new to you.

Right?

Like, like, I mean, this way of thinking about the grace of God not just being the doorway in to the Christian life, but it being all of the Christian life.

Like maybe this is new to you.

It's so groundbreaking.

We're so excited for you.

Or maybe you're here and you're going, like, you know, I try.

I've tried this.

Like, I tried the Christian life.

And you're going, man, I tried to get my act together.

I used to be like this, and then I started, I tried to get my act together.

And like, I got a Bible, and my friend told me to get this book, and I started going to church.

And I tried to get my act together.

And you know what?

It didn't take.

And I just wonder, maybe, maybe you tried moralism.

Maybe you didn't really try the gospel.

Maybe you tried legalism.

Maybe you didn't try the gospel.

Maybe you've hear, and and and just motivation for you for the Christian life has always been guilt-driven.

And Paul's just dismantling this.

And he's saying, no, no, no, none of it is guilt-driven.

It is all driven by the full assurance that you are secure in Jesus.

And maybe you're here and you're wondering, like, man, in light of all of this, like in light of the never-ending grace, never-ending love that's always there.

Jesus is sufficient.

I don't have to add to the work.

Like, what?

Like, why what's my motive?

Why should I even want to do good?

Right?

Like, I can just go do whatever I want.

What's the incentive to be good when I'm declared good by Jesus anytime, all the time?

And what Paul writes about is he says, no, don't go and sin all the more, but you're just missing the point that when the grace of God captures you, there's a heart change.

And then obedience comes from a new identity.

There's a restructuring of your heart.

And so we're just going to go through Colossians 3, a bit of a Bible study this morning.

We're going to work our way through this.

And this passage is so incredible when it comes to seeing how the promises and the practicals work together.

And hopefully, hopefully, I'll do some measure of a good job of sort of breaking this apart so we can get it.

So verses 1 and 2.

Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

So set your heart and your mind.

I mean, it's a poetic way of saying, set your heart and your mind and your focus and kind of your direction, your personhood is headed in.

Set it on God and God's ways and his great grace to you.

Like set it on the gospel, what he did for you.

So don't leave it.

Like don't leave the gospel to head into everything you're going to do for Jesus.

Like continually set your heart and mind on what he did for you.

And this is where we say, we said it last week, is the gospel's not the ABC to the Christian faith.

It's the A to Z of the Christian faith.

Verse 3, for you died.

So that ego, that flesh that wants to redeem yourself after you massively screw up, that ego that wants to make yourself feel more and more important by the things in the world or things in the church, that died.

You are hidden.

Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.

So our lives are hidden with Christ in God.

So you know, earlier this week you're driving down Cobb Parkway, you're listening to the fish, or you're listening to Christmas music for next month, no option on that.

And so you're getting every Christmas song you could ever get.

And you know, you're and you're headed down and you hit that red light, and you text, you think nobody saw you, and and you know, you wipe your nose on your shirt, and you're by yourself, you think you're by yourself, right?

At some point in the drive, your mind starts to wander, you start to think about like, like, how did I get to where I'm at at age 42 or age 22 or age 62?

And maybe you feel some uncertainty or insecurity about something you did a long time ago, or you start to wonder, and you start to be unsure about these things, and and maybe even you feel alone because you feel aimless, or you feel like, you know what, I just don't see myself getting better as a person or as a Christian, or maybe you're just aimless as like what's the direction of my life or the direction of my children, and you can just feel so alone, but you're not.

You're never alone.

Because your life is hidden in Christ.

So it doesn't matter where you go, like you watch seven Breaking Bad episodes in a row and you feel like a horrible human being afterward.

Because you can't imagine how anybody could be a good Christian and waste that much time like that.

Right?

Or you do something that you would never even mention in public.

And you feel like there's just no way.

I've got to be alone in this moment.

And the passage is saying, no, no, no, no.

You are hidden in Christ.

Wherever you're at, you're you're in Jesus.

And it can almost sound cheesy to some extent, right?

Because we just heard it so many times if you've grown up in the church, but it's just true.

Wherever you are at, you are hidden in Jesus.

And I just love the finishedness, language of this verse, right?

Like you died, your life is hidden.

Not like except when you or if you or when you do this, or if this happened.

No, no, no.

Like, it's over.

It's sealed, it's done.

So we're gonna jump from verse 4 to verse 9.

See a couple other promises, and we're gonna come back and we're gonna look at some of these behaviors in between.

Verse 9.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, or that word could be uh renovated, right?

That you get this image of like this horrible, broken down house and coming in, just like just tearing it down and rebuilding something good.

It's being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its creator.

Here, there's no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scathian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

Therefore, because of all this, so good, because of all this, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

So uh we don't dress real fancy here, like at church.

Um, but I always this is probably the nicest I look all week.

I mean, this is about this is about where it gets.

And what happens uh at our house when I get home, I don't know what happens at your house.

What happens at our house is I get home a little bit after Christy and the girls get home and they're all sitting at the table eating, and I walk in and I put my stuff down.

I I walk straight back to our bedroom because this is coming off.

You know, so like I'm I'm not vegging out on the couch wearing this.

Right?

I mean this is a little bit of like the like project myself as like a measurably smart, well-mannered human being in front of a group of people type of outfit.

But when I go to vegging on the couch in like rest mode, something else has got to go on.

And so I I go back to uh let's see how this will work.

So I I I go back to, and if you're listening online, I don't I just don't know what is even gonna happen right now.

So I go back to our room and it's just gotta come off when you when you're done.

This comes off first.

Just take it off.

Oh my gosh, and it's like I've been in this for like four hours.

Just take this off.

You can't lay on the couch with this on, but this collar is like really stiff.

So I have a t-shirt on, you can relax.

I mean, there's a point in this that it's not gonna go any further.

So it's just it's it's just you don't feel comfortable, right?

Like with this on.

And so this comes off, and what comes on is something that doesn't make it out of the house often, is this.

This is my track jacket.

There's a hole there, there's there's several holes really with this, and and this goes on.

This this is what goes on in the house.

And Christy doesn't let it out of the house.

I mean, this is the last time you're gonna see it.

I tried to sneak it out of the house this morning, and this sort of goes on.

And I put this thing on, and all of a sudden, and all of a sudden, like this is this is good.

You know, this this is this is acceptance.

This is belovedness.

Right?

It knows me.

You know what I'm saying?

Like this is years and years of knowing me, and I'm good.

I'm at rest with this song.

Right?

Here's the point, right?

It wasn't just for me to take my clothes off.

Is this this track jacket?

This is the beginning point.

You take off the old and you put on the new.

You put on your belovedness, this security that knows you and accepts you.

And this creates a heart change.

And that's what we're about to read about.

And that's what that's what we're ready to read about it now.

Like we're ready to read about behaviors now.

So verse five.

Put to death, and so remember you're secure, you're beloved, you got your jacket on that knows you and loves you, so you're good, your heart's at rest.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

Sexual morality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry, because of these the wrath of God is coming.

So first, I mean, just kind of a big list here, right?

Sexual morality.

So this would be referring to at the time, there's this huge problem of people sleeping with harlots, sleeping with prostitutes.

I mean, it's just kind of rampant going on.

And Paul's like, don't do that.

It's destructive.

Like, don't do that to yourself.

The the second, you know, impurity and lust.

I mean, this sort of covers everything else.

I mean hey, sex is wonderful.

Like, we're a pro-sex church.

Amen.

Anybody else?

There's there's three of you.

I mean, we're a pro-sex church.

In the confines of marriage.

Right?

I mean, it's fire.

It is fire.

Inside of a fireplace, it is good.

Outside of a fireplace, it is destruction.

You know that.

Because you you've ruined a relationship.

Right?

Like like I've ruined relationships with physical boundaries that just disappeared.

We know that.

We know it's destructive.

But when we're not finding our love and joy and peace in Jesus, we start to do crazy things.

And Paul keeps going, he says, put to death evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Just be done with that.

Be done with using these things to try to find love and joy and peace.

Like you don't need those things to save you.

Like Jesus can save you.

He is your savior.

So put those things to death.

And don't move on from Jesus to go try to put those things to death.

Put them to death by finding your sufficiency in Jesus.

So we live out the Christian life by remembering what the Christian life is about, which is what Jesus did for us.

The human heart, we are searching for acceptance, and this search sends us to crazy things.

And what we see in this passage is we see this list in verse 5.

And when we go and we do these things, and we have a reaction of guilt and shame, and they can produce behaviors like we're going to see in verse 8.

And in all of it, we can see how we're doing verse 9.

We're just lying to each other about who we really are.

And the whole time we should be focusing on, set our hearts and minds on, all right, verses 1 and 2, that we're chosen, we're holy, we're beloved, and in verse 10, putting that on.

So Christy and I uh we had two flights we had to end use by the end of the year, and so we uh we put the kids towards grandma, and Thursday morning we flew to Orlando for two days to get away, and so we leave our house Thursday morning at 7 a.m.

and we drive down there and we get down there to the economy lot and we park at the back of the economy lot, 55 D Red South Terminal, and it's cold.

This is not preference good parking, by the way.

That we passed on the walk up 15 minutes after we're walking from our car, we saw the preference good parking, and we're walking up, and then we get to security and we're in line like everybody else, and then there's the cool line, right?

Like in their cruising, man.

These people are cruising by.

I don't know what kind of clearance they have or what they've done, but they're cruising, they're just kind of cruising through, and you're watching them, you're like, that's pretty amazing.

I'm over here, and there's a dog sniffing me, and all kinds of stuff going on.

And so we get through that, and then we get to our uh we get to our gate and we find two seats together.

That's pretty amazing.

It's kind of smelly in there, and there's tons of people in there, and and I go, uh I go to the get up to go to the restroom.

I I walk by the club room, the Delta Club Room.

You've seen this place?

Pristine glass doors.

I think they clean them about every two and a half minutes.

And I look at the front of the Delta Club room and I just look around at the rest of this place.

I'm like, the doors open, it's like a marble floor in there.

There's a stairwell up.

I'm like, there's a upstairs here?

I mean, a guy comes walking out.

He looks so refreshed.

I thought I think he had had a massage.

I'm not sure.

He's in there eating like platters of halibut, and I'm just like imagining everything that's going on, and this, oh, you know, and I go to the restroom and it's not great in there, and I'm like, man, that guy probably had his own like room to use the restroom.

And he's like, I come out of there, and I'm just I'm thinking about this, right?

And I start to think, what if I had all the privileges to go into the club room?

Right?

I don't know what's going on in there, but I'm imagining it's a lot better than my position out here.

What if I had all the privileges?

But I just kept making life hard on myself.

Like, like I was actually the gold, double standard, platinum guy, and but I'm still like hanging out, acting like Billy Bob from Winder, his first time on an airplane.

Sorry if you're from Winder.

But this is a little bit about like how the Christian life can be.

We can so easily live beneath the privileges Christ already earned for us.

I'm not talking about money, I'm not talking about health, I'm talking about love and joy and peace and acceptance and rest.

Like here's the point.

The point is this we increasingly live in light of the promises we have in Jesus when we do this.

We increasingly put to death these destructive forms of finding love and joy and peace.

Verse 7, Paul continues, you used to walk in these ways, these other ways of finding these things.

And the life you once lived.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other.

Since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge and the image of its creator.

Right?

So another list of things that we can so easily run to, maybe find yourself getting angry, like that tipping point for whatever reason in your life, that tipping point's getting closer and closer to when you tip over and you say something or you react.

You're like, where'd that come from?

Well, it just came from a heart that's not at rest.

You don't have on the comfy track jacket.

Like you're not living in the belovedness that you have in Jesus.

I mean, some of us have been spending so much time earning and trying to keep and trying to find someone to choose us.

If just someone would accept us.

Right?

I mean, and maybe your past is one that you are you were picked 33rd on the playground.

Like you're the last one picked when it's Dibby's up for dodgeball or kickball or whatever.

Or maybe you're the last one invited to the party, or you didn't get invited to the party, you're the last one in the bridal party, and you bear like the lines up there, and you're like on the way, you didn't even make it on the stage.

Nobody danced with you at the dance, or maybe you didn't have anybody to ask at the dance, and you're just waiting for someone.

Will someone accept me?

Will someone pick me up?

Pick me.

Will someone choose me?

Can I just reread 12, verse 12?

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved.

And maybe your scripture will say beloved.

I love that.

That's kind of an old word.

That's a great word.

That you are chosen and holy and beloved.

And this is what we put on, and we renovate our minds and our hearts with it.

We put it on over and over and over and over and over again.

Remember last year we were in John chapter 8?

John 8 · chapter mention

We talked about this prostitute.

In John chapter 8, and the legalists at the time, they found her committing adultery and they drag her in front of Jesus, is out in public.

John 8 · chapter mention

What are we going to do?

And they're trying to catch Jesus.

Like, are you going to not do the law?

And then we got you.

You say you're loving and gracious.

How are you going to treat her?

And so they're ready.

They all have stones.

They're ready to take, they're going to take her down because she has not obeyed to be accepted.

And what we see Jesus do is the opposite.

He lives out the gospel in front of them and he accepts her as for her to obey, because then he bends down a couple times, he draws in the ground.

We don't know what he's doing.

But you can imagine all of the eyes of the people just fastening themselves on him.

And then he just remember he stands up and he says, you know, he who has no sin casts the first stone.

And all these legalists start to drop their stones and walk away.

And then all that's left is Jesus and this broken-hearted, broken down, worn out lady.

He says, Who's left?

Who is left to condemn you?

She looks around and she says, No one.

He says, Neither do I condemn you.

Go now and leave your life of sin.

You've been accepted by me.

Right?

The indicative, the promise.

Go now and leave your life of sin, the imperative, the practical.

But I wonder about her.

Like I wonder about her, like the next day.

Like her memories didn't go away.

Like, is she still reliving shame?

Does she still get really angry about ways she had been taken advantage of?

Does she have memories at night that wake her up?

I mean, she was sexually immoral.

She was impure.

I mean, she had lust.

She knew anger and malice and slater.

She knew all of this.

Did she have dark moments after this experience?

I mean, did she question, like, did he really accept me?

I mean, there was all those people against me.

Did he really accept me?

I mean, I just wonder if she always felt chosen and always felt holy and always felt beloved, or if she had to fight to renew her mind and her heart over and over and over again.

With the truth, not the feeling, but the truth that she is chosen and she is accepted.

And she is holy.

Ephesians says that you're chosen.

It says you were chosen before the foundations of the earth.

And it's God saying, I chose you, and I chose you even before I chose you.

You didn't even have a vote.

That's how much I love you.

I didn't even wait for you to vote on it.

I didn't even wait for you to decide on it.

I decided before you decided.

You want security and peace and love?

That's where you find it in your chosenness.

Some of you think you're the last person God would want to draw close to because of your past or your bony shoulders or whatever we make up.

And you say, no, I I chose you long before you were even performing or earning or doing.

So we flew home yesterday morning, back in the airport again.

Another Delta Club room that looked beautiful.

And you just sort of like I sort of wondered, like, you know, like what if I just gone in and they said, I would imagine they'd say, you know, kind of to your card, like your Delta Sky Miles card, of which it would not be impressive.

My account would not be very impressive.

But what if I was like, well, well, there's there's a there's another account.

And I actually get in through his account.

So all the privileges in this place I have by what he has done for me.

That wouldn't work in the economy of Delta, right?

I mean we know that.

But in the economy of God, that's exactly how it works.

That is not based on what we have done, it is based on what Jesus has done for us.

And God chooses you, and in his grace, he just wants to get his hands on that fragile heart of yours that sends you in all sorts of crazy directions like sexual immorality and impurity and lust and greed and evil desires, and all this whole list.

He wants to get his hands on your heart, and he wants to mold you, and he wants to breathe life into you and restructure the core of your identity.

That's when we read the end of 12.

And I have more clothing here just to kind of finish this thing out.

And it says, clothe yourselves with compassion.

So you have the core, right?

Like you have the core of who you are, and then clothe yourselves with compassion.

I have a ridiculous amount of patagonia.

That shows you something about my own issues.

Uh kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

And so we we clothe ourselves with that, but where does where does all this start?

Where does all these behaviors and virtues start?

This starts way back at the core of who we are.

That you are chosen, you are holy, and you are beloved.

And it's not because of these behaviors, it's because God has given it to you in Jesus.

And that's where we find it.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for your great grace to us.

We read this list and we fail.

And maybe some of us feel ashamed.

Maybe some of us feel just distraught with guilt.

Would you help us to renew our minds this morning?

And that you are enough for our failings and our sin.

And we, as best that we, we know how we we just hold open these fragile hearts of ours.

And we say, Would you come and renew?

Would you renovate this broken down house?

Would you help us not to leave the promises that you give us to move on to the practicals of how we should live?

But would we would we root ourselves deeper into these promises of this new identity that you've given us, that we can find our love and joy and peace in you, and that you choose us.

You've chosen us and you love us.

Would this reap great fruit in our lives for your glory?

Amen.