Wisdom: The foundation for Godly discernment

All right, we are continuing our series on discernment from Colossians, living

a Life Worthy and Meg's opened up this morning with that key passage of scripture

from the first chapter of Colossians.

But today we're gonna lean into a passage from Colossians

chapter three, verses one to 14.

So have a look read along with me.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ.

Set your hearts.

So set your desire on things above.

Set your sights on the realities of heaven is another way of saying this, where

Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind, set your affections on the things above, not on earthly things.

For you died and your life that is your real life is now hidden with

Christ in God and where Christ who is your life appears you then will

also appear with him in glory.

So put to death.

Therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

Sexual immorality and purity, lust, evil, desires, greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must.

Also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger and rage and 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 have put on the new self, which is being

renewed in the knowledge, in the image of its creator here, there is no Gentile

or Jew circumcised or uncircumcised.

Barbarian, Ian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

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

with compassion, with kindness, with humility, with gentleness and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive one another.

If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all of these virtues put on love.

That is charity and benevolence, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

There is quite a lot there.

Um, but I'm just gonna hit this morning.

Just a few key thoughts from this passage, and I guess if you want a

title for this message this morning, it would be discerning what to

put to death and what to put on.

And so let me begin by asking you a question.

It's kind of a big question, bit of a weighty question.

Is your life a life well lived?

Is your life?

A life well lived was your life in 2025?

A life well lived.

And so let's just sit with that question for a moment without

guilt, shame, or condemnation.

Let's just allow that question to settle for a moment.

So this past week, I came across this calendar here.

Uh, it's a Memento Maori calendar.

Who knows what Memento Maori means?

Okay.

Essentially it means, remember.

Death and it's actually a spiritual practice.

And so it is the practice of remembering that we must die and that

indeed we could die at any moment.

This is cheery message, but Jet today, isn't it?

That came.

So this is a ca Memento Maori calendar.

And so this has got your, this says 80 years.

So 80 years, um, on the vertical.

And each year your color in a dot.

And it's, uh, to actually, it's each ma it's each week you color in a dot.

So there's 52 dots going across horizontally, and it's to remind you.

That, uh, your life here is temporal and, and, um, so the point of this

practice, which has been around for centuries and centuries, the point

is to evoke a visceral awareness of the brevity of our lives.

It was meant to help us to remember to make choices that

are in line with our true values.

Just down the bottom there is a quote by Seneca, which unless you've

probably got like bionic vision, you might be struggling to read.

It says.

As I get really close to it, life if well lived is long enough.

Life if well lived is long enough.

We tend to think in our Western understanding that life is

well lived if we live long.

But really a life can be lived long and be completely wasted, can't it?

Um, life if lived well is long enough.

And so some of you might be sitting here recoiling at even the mention of thinking

about death and that kind of thing because we live in a culture that breeds.

A pathological fear of death and of dying.

Um, but the Bible would actually agree with this sentiment,

which comes from Seneca.

Here is the philosopher with the, um, who is responsible for

that quote at the bottom there, and he's a stoic philosopher.

But the scripture would actually agree with this philosophy.

In Psalm 90, verse 12, scripture says, teach us to number our days

Psalms 90:12

that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

So some of you maybe should get this calendar.

Maybe that would be a wise thing for you to do.

Maybe this should become like everybody's birthday present this year.

That's kind of fun.

Who's going, oh yeah, I wanna get me one of these.

Oh, bless you.

Melancholy soul.

I, it's not a lot of us, but I find this very compelling,

uh, very compelling indeed.

Life if well lived is long enough, but what is well, and

who gets to define what is well.

Our culture would say that we define that for ourselves, but as followers of

Jesus, we would say that God defines that.

And that we can answer biblically in broad strokes what that might be.

It's a life of, I guess, love and sacrificial service and all of those

things, but because life is very complex and because we are complex and unique,

each one of us in our giftings, in our callings, in our capacities, in our

context, all of those things, well, there are broad stroke similarities that

we can glean from the word of God about what a life well lived might look like.

There are very great differences as well.

You are not gonna be held account at the end of your days for using

a gift that you never had for being generous with resources that were

never yours to be generous with, right?

And so this is where discernment and knowing the voice of God is

needed to discern before God.

Well, God, what do you say about my life?

What does me living a life worthy look like to you?

What kind of life are you calling me into in this place that I find myself

in now with the gifts and the callings and the resources that I have at hand?

And that is the why of this series.

Discerning the Will of God at the beginning of this new year that we would

live lives worthy of the Lord, which is what Paul says in that first chapter in

Colossians and what lies underneath this.

Desire to live a life worthy because my, uh, guess assumption as we all sit here

because the human, average human person is desired, is designed to pursue a life of

meaning that pretty much every soul here today is wanting to live a life worthy.

That you would actually, if you sat still long enough to pay attention to the

desires of your heart, you would go, you know, I do, I do wanna live my life well

in a way that is worthy before the Lord.

And then what lies underneath this desire to live a life worthy?

Well, I think there sits there a desire for transformation.

That there's probably very few of us sitting here this morning

thinking I've arrived and I need no more transformation in my life.

I'm, I'm good.

Like I've just come here for kicks and giggles and 'cause I like the singing.

No, why do you come?

Because it's a deep desire within you for transformation, isn't there?

There's a longing in that space.

If you sit quietly enough and pay attention to the desires of your heart.

And so this desire for transformation is really what Paul is tapping into

with this passage of scripture here.

And he actually tells us how to do it, and it's his process of putting to

death our old life and then receiving the life of Christ and putting on

that life of Christ and walking in it.

So a life worthy is a life of being with Jesus.

That we would become more like him, more and more like him, that we would

experience an ongoing process of transformation, of shedding the old dying

to the old and putting on the new and becoming more like Christ in that process.

And so it's not about perfection.

It's about progress.

So whenever you hear the word perfection mentioned in scripture, sometimes, you

know, we think of perfection as this static state of just being perfectly

right, but that's not what the Bible talks about when talks about perfection, right?

It's talking about maturity, it's talking about fullness that you've

come into the fullness and the full maturity of who God has called you to be.

And that is an ongoing process.

Like when does a tree reach perfection?

Well, trees are always growing, isn't it?

But it's reached maturity when it is life giving, when it is giving life, when

it is sowing seed and those seeds are bringing, um, more life to bear, right?

And that is true of us as well, not about perfection, but progress.

And so as you reflect on 2025, for example, where there's

signs of transformation of growth in Christ's likeness.

Not, and this isn't about judgment and condemnation and shaming,

trying to get you to behave better by guilting you into it.

Not at all.

That's horrible.

But it's simply about naming, honestly.

And it's not about whether 2025, the circumstances around that

year for you, but how did you respond to those circumstances?

To those circumstances that weren't even in your control?

A lot of them, anyway, it's a question of, well.

How did I respond?

And so just quickly in uh, the New Testament, there's kind of two broad

categories of life that are mentioned.

Again, our English language can be quite limiting, but in the Greek, there's three

main words actually for life that just get translated in English to the word.

Life, right?

But they mean quite different things in the Greek.

And so just have a look at this slide here.

So we've got this bios slash psyche life, two different Greek words that just get

translated to life, um, in the English.

And so bios is our physical temporal life.

Survival, success, security.

But then there's the psyche as well.

And so the self that manages life identity, desire self-protection.

So this is the life we manage, but then there is the Zoe life,

and this is the life we receive.

This is God's own life that is eternal and abundant.

It is shared with Christ.

So in Colossians three, four, Paul says, Christ, who is your life, your Zoe life?

So there's two distinct categories of life that Paul is referring to in this passage.

And actually.

The whole of the New Testament refers to as well.

So in summary, bias is the life we live.

Psyche is the self that tries to control it, and Zoe is the life of Christ that

frees and transforms both of these, which have been corrupted by our earthly nature.

And so how do we experience transformation?

Three things that, this passage of scripture that we just read point

out three things, three ways that we can experience transformation.

And the order is important.

As Paul lays out, um, his order is intentional there.

So we begin by centering ourselves in our reality in Christ.

That's what happens in those first four verses of the passage we read,

and then we crucify our earthly nature.

We put that earthly nature to death.

And then we clothe ourselves.

The word in Greek there for clothing is actually like falling into, right?

So it's uh, sometimes I think we might imagine more like the clothing of Christ

to be like a pair of tight fitting pants or a straight jacket, right?

But it's not because it's like, oh, sometimes you can

feel so hard to get on, right?

But no, it's actually we're supposed to fall in into these ways of being and

living, which is kind of nice, isn't it?

Like you imagine this most comfortable, imagine it like,

okay, an odie for example, right?

You don't wrestle your way into an odie unless you're struggling to

find the hole for your head, right?

'cause they're so enormous.

Um, but there's something like falling into it, right?

And that's really what, um, Paul is getting at here.

These ways of Christlike living.

Things we had to put on and fall into.

And so firstly, centering ourselves in our reality in Christ.

So transformation begins with an awareness of our position in Christ.

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your

sights on the realities of heaven.

That's the, um, new living translation version of that

first verse that we read before.

And you know, really that's what Adam was doing this morning in

the scripture that he was reading.

And I guess if there is a word for this morning that seems to be coming through,

it's around this idea of elevating.

Thinking into heavenly places, into heavenly realities.

Um, I love that CS Lewis quote at the end of the N Series.

That further up and further in, further up and further in,

I mean, who's read the books?

You know, when you get to that part of the book, it's like, yes.

And this is what the call is today to go further up and further into the truth of

who we are in Christ and the reality of our life that is now hidden in Christ.

And then what that means for us now in the here and now and how as we

apprehend that more and more in our imaginations, then we are more and more

able to shed the old and to put on the new and to live lives worthy because we

are truly beginning to live lives that are transform more and more into the

image of Christ as we wear his clothing and take off the clothing of death.

Amen.

Thanks, Chris.

All right, second point, crucifying our earthly nature.

The old self is selfish.

It is self-focused.

It is inward looking, it is fearful, anxious, and sinful, and in so doing

it is unable to reflect Christ.

Which is what we have been created for, isn't it?

To be image bearers.

But our old self has corrupted us and has prevented us from aiming,

being able to fulfill that calling.

Um, I think a really helpful illustration of this that might help us apprehend

what Paul is getting at here and maybe help make us relevant for us in

the here and now is you think about when Jesus, um, rose from the dead.

So he is in the tomb and he is wrapped in grave clothes.

And what were, one of the things that was noticed when the disciples

got to the tomb and they looked in the grave, clothes were lying there.

He had shed the clothing of death now that he was walking out in resurrection

life and in resurrection power.

And you think about the story of Lazareth.

Yeah.

So Ge d Lazarus is dead and Jesus calls him back into life.

And what's the first thing that Jesus says is get the grave clothes off him.

Get the clothes of death off him so that he can walk in life.

And so there is an invitation here today through this word this morning for all

of us to do the same, to take off the clothing of death that we are wearing.

And to walk in the life of Christ.

So in that passage we just read, in between verses five and 11,

there's two lists of sins mentioned.

I think I've, do I have them here on the slide yet.

So personal sins, sexual immorality and purity, lust and greed and idolatry,

and then communal sins, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language.

Both undermine human flourishing identity in Christ and community, and it's not

hard to see how these things bear the image of death, and if not, surrender

to death, they will slowly kill you.

If the first list of sins will rob you of your humanity.

The second list will rob you of community because sexual sin isn't

sin just because it's sexual.

It's sin because it's cotus.

It says, I will do anything, use anyone, abandon any conviction to get what I want.

Anger, rage, and malice.

What those do is reduce another person to an object of contempt with whom you have

no connection, compassion or community, and if idolatry robs you of your humanity.

These sins rob other people of theirs.

So they become not a creation to behold, but an OB object to consume

or an obstacle to be navigated, right?

And this is the most dehumanizing way to be in the world, but it's

a way that is, uh, prevalent throughout our culture, isn't it?

People exist either for me to consume, or obstacles for me to navigate, and that is.

An antichrist way of being.

So Paul says, later, rest, sexual sin and greed take off garments of slander

and anger and filthy language that bind you so tightly and smell of death

and decay for you have died to this.

And some of you might be sitting here going, oh no, I

would never do those things.

Yeah, no, no.

Let's go a little bit deeper.

Let's not imagine the worst person that you can think of

who engages in these behaviors.

Let's go to those deep hidden places at the heart, right, because.

The actual core of these behaviors, um, if we are willing to be honest,

are in all of us because they're part of our earthly nature and we're

all in a process of shedding them.

All right.

Thirdly.

Clothe ourselves in the life of Christ.

So this Zoe life that Christ came to give us, sorry Zoe.

This must be very confusing for you.

Um, it is active, relational, and participatory.

It grows as we put on Christ's virtues as we sink into them.

And this is you living out of your authentic self, right?

Your earthly nature is not truly who you are.

That's the corrupt.

Malformed version, but this is why Paul says at the beginning of this third

part of the scripture that we read, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly

loved, that is the truth of who you are.

That is authentically who you are.

And so God invites us to put on clothes that are designed for life.

That are designed for human flourishing and community.

Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness,

and most importantly, love.

And man, it doesn't take a huge amount of imaginative juice, right?

To think if everybody in the world was closed with compassion, kindness,

humility, gentleness, patience and forgiveness and love that human life

would flourish in this world, right?

So how do we do this?

Let's get a little bit practical.

This ultimately is about trusting the story.

What Paul isn't saying here is, do better and try harder.

Earn God's favor and approval.

He's not saying that.

Remember he said, as God's chosen people, you're already chosen and you're already

holy and you're already dearly loved.

What he's saying is trust the story.

Be faithful to the story of Jesus and his gospel, and live as an

active participant within it.

And here's where I wanna come back to discernment for a moment.

And I wanna revisit our definition of discernment to really hit it home.

Have we got that dip?

There we go.

Discernment is a cultivated ability to perceive and respond to God's guidance

as a natural expression of a life rooted in loving attention to God, one shaped

by scripture, community obedience, and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

So as you consider this list that was just up there before it's put

that list back up of these vices and virtues that Paul talks about in

this passage, what might you discern God saying to you here this morning?

What might you need to put to death?

What grave clothes might you need to be shedding and what

do you need to be putting on?

And what might the Holy Spirit be prompting you in this moment?

There might be a particular word there that really stands out to you.

And, you know, for me, interestingly, um, you know, one that I have had to shed in.

Recent time just in the spirit of transparency and authenticity

and all those wonderful things, vulnerability, um, is actually grievance.

And uh, so last year through a process of discernment, we really felt Adam and I,

God telling us you need to go to marriage counseling and saw out a few key issues.

Now, fret not people, their marriage isn't on the rocks or anything like that.

But we could recognize a couple of places in our marriage where we

were really stuck, where there was the stench of death, if you wanna

put it in the context that we've been talking about this morning.

And it was not things that we had been able to overcome ourselves.

So we needed help with that.

And it was so interesting that what came to light for me in the

first session, which I had not even realized, was there was a low

lying chronic state of resentment.

I had just learned to live with that was towards Adam, right?

And uh, and I say this because I think it's something that can easily

creep in, in marriage easily, easily.

This low lying resentment can creep in and we can excuse it and we can justify it,

but it's grave close and it's emanating the stench of death in your relationship.

How can there possibly be the depth of intimacy?

How can a marriage possibly bear witness to the truth and the mystery

and the wonder of the gospel?

When there is unforgiveness and low lying resentment, but it had been there at such

a low level and a low frequency that I hadn't really noticed it and picked up

on it until somebody asked the right question and pointed it out and poked.

And I can't tell you how glorious it is to have that now exposed, brought

into the light, as Paul talks about.

And Ephesians, you know, have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of

darkness, but rather expose them, bring 'em into the light, make 'em visible

so that you can turn from them so they confess, and so you can be healed.

Yeah, healed.

And then another one, and I think which has become very relevant for me, and

I wonder how much for many of you too.

Another one that can go so easily unnoticed is actually this area of lying.

And some of you might be going, well, that's really interesting, Dar, because

really you're one of the most annoying truth tellers I've ever come across.

Um,

but it's in the area of self-justification.

That, uh, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit that I've

really begun to have a heightened sensitivity around within my own self.

So what is self-justification?

Self-justification.

It's not about the truth, it's about protecting self from shame,

from loss of respect or exposure.

And it's something I think we've almost got this weird social contract

that we accept it and excuse it.

In one another, and we know the other's doing it.

We know they're just making up crap, just making up excuses, right?

Rather than just owning the mistake we've made or the sin we've committed, we make

up a manner of self-protective excuses.

And they're all very creative sometimes.

Um, so think of, you know, say you've dropped the ball.

Uh, you've forgotten something, you've let someone down.

And so the self-justification, self-justifying lie is, you know,

I'm just not really good with dates or times, ha ha, um, oh,

you know, I had a really busy day.

You know, what's happening here.

So the explanation is an attempt to protect identity.

I'm not irresponsible, rather than just naming the impact, which was

I actually didn't prioritize you and just naming it and owning it.

I'm doing the best I can.

I mean, gosh, how many times do we self-soothe with that one?

And again, this isn't about guilt, shame, and condemnation.

This is about naming these lies that we gravitate to and go, why am I, why

can't I just own the truth of this?

Because I'm a broken, fallible human being using the process of being formed.

But we only get formed when the truth, the lighter truth, shines

into these places in our soul.

You know, oh, this is just how I cope.

Oh, at least I'm not as bad as this is just my personality and a particular

favorite in our culture right now, or this is just my trauma speaking.

You know, we, we, we come up with these things to avoid just being honest about

what is really going on, and it is a form of lying and what it does when we do it.

It puts a wall up between me and you.

Every time say, I let you down, and I make up a lie, a

self-justifying lie, a wall goes up.

Whereas if I am just honest and go, I actually, I let you down here.

You know, I didn't prioritize you like I should.

I was actually being selfish.

I was actually being distracted, and I am so sorry.

That builds intimacy, right?

But when we lie, we self justify.

A wall goes up.

This is all so much grounded in community.

So.

Self-justification is a form of lying rooted in a desire to appear respectable.

How can it be 11 o'clock already?

We justify ourselves because we fear being seen and fallen.

We protect ourselves because we doubt we will be loved if we are honest.

And the irony is that self-justification blocks the very intimacy and

healing that we long for.

Ask yourself the question in a moment where you think you might

be self-justifying or excusing.

Am I explaining myself to be understood or to be exonerated?

And that question alone exposes most acts of self-justification if we are

willing to be brave and humble and honest.

So how we transfer from vice to virtue, from death to life, number

one, transformation happens through the spirit, not me at willpower.

This is really important to know you're not on your own here.

Okay?

The Holy Spirit is with you and for you, and desires to empower you to this end.

Yeah.

So we gotta know that we gotta ground ourselves in that.

Otherwise we just get.

So crushed trying to make ourselves better.

And many of you know the weariness of that place of trying to do sin behavior

management in your own strength.

Don't do it.

Okay?

The spirit is there to work with you, but this is where

discernment is needed, right?

Because where the Holy Spirit is revealing things to you, there

will be his grace to empower you.

To find transformation in that place.

Yeah, so if you just look at that list and start from the top and work

your way down, okay, well, but is that what the spirit is revealing to you?

He knows you intimately.

He knows where you need to begin.

He knows which thread to first pull, to begin to unravel the complex web

of dysfunction that exists within you to listen to his guiding and

trust, his empowering presence.

He who began a good work in you will see it through to the day of completion.

We've gotta apprehend these truths and rest in them.

Two death of the old self is relational and participatory.

So putting to deathly earthly nature is not abstract self-discipline.

It's a participation in the life of Christ.

So we gotta identify with Christ's Des death and resurrection, and this

is what Paul was doing right the beginning of this passage by drawing

our attention to our heavenly reality.

Our old selfies actually already crucified.

It's a matter of faith and choice and not striving.

So the believer turns attention away from the world's norms, ego, greed, and anger.

And towards God's kingdom life, we are transformed, not by what we intend

to do, but by what we attend to.

And this is where I think we gotta activate our imagination, set our sight

on, set our sights on heavenly realities.

You know, the other night we, we had the joy of having dinner with Roz and

Steve Scrim and their gorgeous girls.

And those of you know, Steve Scrim, he exists at a fairly high

frequency level of being right.

But you know why I'm convinced one of the reasons for that?

Yes.

It's, you know, personality and disposition, all that.

But Steve, probably more than anybody I know, actively activates the discipline

of holy imagination like that, the amount of time that man spends just put imagining

himself in the life of the Trinity.

Now you only sit with him for five minutes.

He's gonna start me talking about the life of the Trinity and the dance of

the Trinity, and how you're all caught up in this love and all of this, right?

And it's all very expressive, but that's where his mind is, and it

oozes outta every fiber of his being, this life and this love,

and this passion, this conviction, because that's where his mind is set.

And so some of us have gotta actively begin to discipline our thinking,

activate our God-given imaginations as to what that might look like, and

set ourselves in heavenly places.

Okay?

You're not gonna be transformed if you just look at the doom and

gloom of your brokenness, but as you imagine the truth of who you are in

Christ, your life is hidden in Christ.

What does that mean?

I'm hidden in the Trinity.

What does that mean?

This holy community of love and self-giving, what does that mean?

And I'm not gonna tell you, you can imagine it and allow the

Holy Spirit to reveal it to you.

All right?

Is a process, not a one time event?

We've talked about that before.

But this is where repentance and confession is really a key part of this.

And even though I have really run out of time, I do wanna hit this point.

'cause in I was reading Matthew three this week.

Okay.

Repentance and confession.

So, so, so necessary for this.

So before Jesus step begins to step into the fullness of his ministry, before he

is baptized, there is John the Baptist.

And what is John the Baptist doing?

John the Baptist is calling people too.

Repentance And why is he doing this?

To prepare the way of the Lord.

Yeah, because that's what repentance does.

And it says in Matthews, three people repenting.

They're getting baptized, they're confessing their

sins, and then Jesus comes.

And it's that same pattern is mirrored in our lives, right?

We repent, we turn from the old, we turn towards the new life.

In Christ, we confess, and that prepares the way for the life of Christ in us.

So this is such an important discipline for us, one that we

must actively avail ourselves.

Cells too, because it is so healing and life-giving and transformative.

Alright, focus on life.

To replace death, you'll never successfully avoid sin.

By trying to avoid sin.

You succeed by pursuing God and the sin falls away in the process.

All right, I touched on that already.

Okay.

Let's just look at these practical steps just quickly.

Next slide.

Abiding Christ daily.

Cultivate a conscious awareness of his presence.

You know, it like just coming to church once a week.

Maybe once a week is not gonna cut it.

It is great and it's necessary and it's important for many, many reasons,

but this has to be a daily practice of abiding in Christ, and we're gonna

go into a series soon that's really gonna help equip us to that end.

So practice spiritual disciplines, and that is how we abide in Christ Daily.

Engage in community, community, community.

So important accountability and teaching.

Loving and serving one another, putting all these things into practice,

shifting our desires constantly.

Choosing God's kingdom priorities over earthly attachments, and practicing the

discipline of setting our minds on things above, and allow the spirit to work,

trust God, to transform the inner being rather than relying on our effort alone.

All right.

Just before we go any further, I just wanna quickly name something.

So wherever you find yourself today, whether you're not sure what you believe

about Jesus, whether you're new to faith and still finding your footing, or whether

you've been walking with God for a long time, this isn't a message about doing

better, trying harder, trying to earn God's favor, becoming someone you're not.

This is an invitation to notice the kind of life you're actually

living to pay attention to the life you're actually living, the

kind of life you're longing for.

And the surprising claim of the gospel, that your real life is

already hidden with Christ in God.

And that transformation flows not from effort, but from learning

to live out of what is all ready.

True.

You know, Ephesians, um, is really in many ways, just an extended version of

the book of Colossians and Ephesians.

Um, Paul talks about, you know, you gotta take off the old self, which has been

corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your mind.

Just think of the mind.

It's so, so important and to put on the new self created to be

like God in true righteousness.

And holiness, and that's really what this is all about.

And so I've got some discernment questions here for you as well.

We won't go through these now, but you can access these notes through our app and

they'll be under this particular podcast, and I would encourage you to consider.

These questions to spend some time this week to carve out some time this

week to sit with these questions, questions that will help you center

yourself in your reality in Christ.

Next one cr.

It's questions that will help you understand and discern where you

need to crucify your earthly nature.

You sit with these with the Holy Spirit, and you ask him to

reveal to you, to illuminate you.

What areas are relevant.

For you.

Number three, clothe yourself in the life of Christ and some questions there.

And number four, living between it is finished and the not yet revealed,

and that's the already and the not yet reality in which we leave.

All right, friends, let's close with prayer and let you close your

eyes and bow your heads, and let's just become aware of God's presence.

Through the Holy Spirit right now.

Lord, I pray for each one of us.

The eyes of our heart would be enlightened, that each one of us

Lord would know through the power of your spirit and revelation, the

hope to which we have been called the riches of our glorious inheritance.

With your holy people and your incomparably great

power for us who believe,

Lord, open our eyes,

open our ears that we would see, that we would hear, and grant us

willing spirits to sustain us.

But Lord, I pray for each person here.

You would, even in this moment of prayer and stillness, what is that one thing?

What is your invitation?

What is that one item of grave clothing?

Perhaps that it's time.

It's time to shed.

It's time to put to death that anger, that bitterness, that rage, that malice, that

immorality, that lust, that greed.

I pray for great courage to face these very hard things sometimes, but Lord,

we rejoice this morning because we are free to face the ugliest parts

of ourselves because you love us.

What and all we have all the acceptance that we could ever need.

Our life is hidden.

It is unshakeable.

Nothing can separate us from your love.

Not even our worst day, not even our most selfish.

Self-centered, thoughtless, fearful, anxiety ridden behavior,

nothing can separate us.

So we can look with full boldness at the truth of our own brokenness,

knowing that as we do, as we bring it into the light, your healing is there.

Your transformation is there.

So Holy Spirit.

Convict each one of us where we need that your conviction and lead us in repentance.

And may we remember that it is the kindness of God that leads us

and enables us to walk a life of repentance, not outta guilt, shame,

and condemnation, but because we are chosen dearly, love children of God.

May we truly, truly know this set our minds, our affections,

our imaginations on this truth.

May we so captivated by that, everything else would go strangely, dear,

in Jesus' name.

Amen.