September 15, 2024 • 43 mins
If you died tomorrow, would you say you lived with no regrets? That your life stayed on the right trajectory? That you have full confidence you lived the life you were meant for?
That's what we explore in this message, preached at New Hope Community Church in Moncton, NB, Canada.
Listen in to one of Noah's most powerful sermons!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Let's pray together as we come to the word.
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for today.
Lord, we thank you for yourkindness that you expressed to
us.
God, you didn't try it, youlive it, you are it, you are
kindness, and Jesus is loveincarnate, walking around and is
now seated at the right hand ofthe Father, empowering us by
(00:28):
your Spirit to live out thatkind of kindness.
God, we thank you that, whetherin life or in death, whether
asleep or awake, we are with youbecause of what Jesus did.
Father, we thank you that, nomatter what we're struggling
with, the things that we'redealing with behind closed doors
or in full view of everyone wholoves and cares about us, in
(00:50):
all those things, god, you'renot only faithful, but you're
intimately caring for each ofthose things.
So, as we come to the word,help us, lord, to put to death
anything in us that is keepingus away from closeness with you.
Small or big burden or huge,massive issue, we just release
(01:15):
it into your hands.
Your word says cast yourburdens on the Lord and he will
sustain you.
Well, here we are.
Here's our burdens.
Help us, sustain us and help usto be in touch with you, as we
hear from your word In Jesus'name amen.
(01:38):
Death, that's a funny thing,right, death.
It's funny because it'speculiar not so much ha-ha, I
mean, depending on the death.
There's an old series that usedto I think it was A Thousand
Ways to Die.
Did you ever watch that before?
Man, some of the most bizarreways people have passed away.
There is one moment in my ownlife where I should have died
(01:58):
and I didn't.
No, it wasn't when I was runover by a car or choked on a
spaghetti noodle.
That one time, at the age offour, it was another time.
It was when I was a relativelynew driver.
It was like you know, this islike 10 years ago.
Okay, I'm driving around.
I think I might be 18 years old.
I'm driving down this hillthat's called the Quinpool Hill.
It's near Quinpool Road.
(02:19):
It's a very, very steep hill.
Now at the top of this hill,you're thinking, oh, this isn't
going to be bad.
The speed limit is 80kilometers per hour, it's going
to be fine.
But as you get going, yourealize you're going to put a
lot of tension on your brakesand on the person in the
passenger seat, the faster thatyou get into this decline at
(02:41):
this hill.
So, as a teenager, once I gotout of having my permit and I
was able to drive around, Irealized that it's just easier
to lean into it.
Enjoy your need for speed alittle on the Quinnpool Hill.
You know what I'm saying.
Now, I did mention this is anear-death experience, so you
know where this is going.
So, anyway, here I am, I'm onthe decline, I'm going
relatively quick and usually atthis point I would gear down,
(03:02):
you know, go to third, try to,you know, ease into it a bit,
maybe go down a second.
If I'm really freaking out,listen to that transmission,
just purr, you know.
But no, this isn't what I didToday.
I was like you know what, I'mjust going to go for it.
So I start leaning into thespeed.
I see just enough around thecorner to know that there's no
other cars on the road, or no,that there's no other cars on
(03:29):
the road.
No was a relative term, it wasassume.
I assumed there was no cars onthe other side of the road.
And so I'm getting down thishill and I'm like, wow, we're
getting quick now.
We're going 100 kilometers anhour, we're going 110.
And I, by the way, I'm all bymyself.
I say we, it's just me andwhatever came out of me at that
moment.
And I'm coming down the hilland I realize that there is in
(03:50):
fact a Ford F-150 coming onreally close to the line and by
close I mean not in his lane atall and I also realize there's
gravel on the road, coming outof the tiny Quinnpool Road
that's at the bottom of this,this hill, and so I realized
there's this perfect storm.
Not only am I driving reallyquickly, but I'm also realizing
(04:10):
that there's something actuallyshoving me closer to something
similar to marbles on the roadand I start to drift at the, the
point at the hill where youactually get to the very bottom
of the valley, which is actuallya bridge, so it's even narrower
and I'm going way too fast.
And then I'm going even fasterBecause these breaks of mine are
(04:31):
not doing it anymore, and Istart swerving this way and that
way and I'm like I'm screamingat the top of my lungs.
I don't know what music isplaying, but it's sort of
something with a guitar solo init, you know.
And finally the turn screen, Ithink.
At some point in my mind I'mlike God, help me, you know,
help me.
And at some point this fishtailends, the speed decreases.
(04:54):
I'm at the other side of thisand I'm like, oh, I really felt
something empty out of me.
I don't think it was anything Idrank that day or anything, but
I did feel like it wassomething like you know, that
feeling of just that, thatdropping feeling, you know, and
I don't know what.
I couldn't really pick it up.
So I was just like you know,and the song that happened to be
(05:15):
playing was not anything likeACDC, you know, it wasn't
Thunderstruck, it was ChrisTomlin's Amazing Grace.
And so I'm coming up and it'slike amazing grace, and I'm like
how sweet the sound that saveda wretch like me, you know.
(05:36):
So I get to the top of the hilland, by the way, I'm really
close to my family home at thispoint I pull into the driveway.
I don't tell my dad whathappened, of course.
Who would Dad, if you'rewatching, anyway?
So I pull into the driveway, Iget out, I'm like this is
awesome, I'm alive and I neverfelt happier in my life, I think
.
And that moment, up until thatpoint.
(05:57):
You see, I might have mentionedit before in another sermon, but
by the time I was eight yearsold, I'd started to struggle
pretty significantly withanxiety, with depression.
You know ideations of, you knowthings that are similar to
murder, but for more, foryourself.
And at that moment I justforgot all about that because I
just stepped really close todeath, or drove close to it
(06:19):
anyway, and as I got up onto theporch and I'm holding myself
together, looking out over thebeautiful countryside vista
before me, I realized that mylife was just handed back to me.
That's kind of dramatic,because there's plenty of other
times where I had to, you know,taste death a little and I'm
(06:39):
like, yeah, whatever, it'sanother Tuesday, but for this
time in particular, it was areminder, a very stark reminder,
that my life is not actually inmy hands, that the thing that's
actually holding me together isgrace.
And I thought I should praisethe Lord and I did.
I sang really, really loud likehow great thou art, or whatever
(07:02):
, out of key, because all Iwanted to do was like say thank
you, god for giving me back mylife, which very, very easily
could have just slipped out ofmy hands right then.
And there Some of us forget notsome of us, all of us, at some
point or another, forget thatwe're not invincible At some
point our life is going to be atan end, that at some point
(07:24):
we're going to have to face upto the reality that our life is
not meant to be our own.
And I find, whether you'rereading a near-death experience
or experiencing a near-deathexperience or something similar,
what the takeaway often is is Ibetter redefine how I live my
life from this moment forward,because I realize just how
(07:46):
short-term that this offerreally is.
So this sermon to death is tohelp us to kind of get back into
a mindset, as Christians, that,especially for those of us who
follow Jesus, we ought toremember always that our lives
are not our own, that we werebought at a price, that in fact,
(08:08):
it was someone else's death whopaid the price for us, and it
is to death that we must live.
So next, slide there.
Tracy, you are today put todeath, you're put to death.
You were put to death when youput your faith in Jesus and now,
as an active follower of Jesus,you are put to death.
(08:32):
Live like it.
Live like it.
How often are we in situationswhere we forget that our lives
are not in our hands?
How often are we complacentwith the culture and the comfort
of our day to the point wherewe forget that the life that we
live is not just temporary, butit's meant to be purposeful,
(08:55):
it's meant to be intentional.
The other day I was thinkingabout the idea of wasted years.
You know, when you get closerand closer to older age, you
start to look back on your life.
I'm not so much an older age,but I do often look back on my
life and I think am I on thetrajectory that I want to be if
(09:17):
I was sitting on my deathbedtomorrow?
Because you can't reallycontrol what value you add to
the world in the end.
What you can control is whatyou're going to do with the life
that you have.
And you think, let's say, youhave 90 minutes on earth.
A lot of us maybe might live to75, 80, maybe 90.
(09:37):
So let's just imagine you have90 minutes of a day.
That's about the size of akid's movie.
You know About the length of aVeggie Tales classic?
Maybe you know If you were tomiss two minutes of that, how
big a deal would it be for theoverall story?
Let's say 14 minutes.
How disoriented do you feelcoming back into that movie
(10:00):
theater, or coming back intothat task or coming back into
that 90-minute period.
By the time you get to the end,maybe you're at minute 84,
you're starting to feel likeyou're rounding the plate of
this particular story.
But that's the idea is that allof us are living out a story
and a lot of times we feel that,coming out of wasted years or
difficulties or sin or even justthe Christian life, wishing
that we would have put our faithin Jesus sooner, that we would
(10:22):
have put our faith in Jesussooner, we come into our life as
if we're halfway through amovie, disoriented and
struggling to figure out what'sthe purpose here.
Who are the major characterssupposed to be?
Am I in this movie?
Like what's going on and there'sconfusion for us if we don't
have the whole picture in frontof us on a regular basis, the
thing that adds so much more ofthe value of focus is the
(10:46):
understanding that the bigpicture is that you have only
one life here on earth to live,and then the judgment, and then
when Jesus returns, and thenwhen you stand before the Lord.
And my question that I want usto explore is are you on a
trajectory today that you wouldhave genuinely no regrets?
(11:08):
Not before the world, notbefore a bucket list, but before
the Lord and even yourself.
Would you say that right nowyou're on a trajectory, no
matter how old or young you maybe, that you would have no
regrets standing before the Lordas Christians?
Beyond that point, we are putto death in that, whatever life
(11:31):
we thought we were living,whatever life we thought was in
our own hands, that's over now.
When you get married, whateverthought you had of having the
single life, bachelor living orbachelorette living, that's over
now.
You might have every once in awhile.
You know your spouse goes awayfor a bit, you get to watch
Netflix all by yourself withsome Cheetos or something, and
(11:53):
they don't need to bark at youabout not doing your diet or
something like that.
But I mean, by and large, yoursingle days are over.
You have to think about yourlife as oriented around your
spouse and it's similar with ourdevotion to Jesus and our
relationship with God.
Whatever life you thought youhad before you knew Jesus is
over now and every once in awhile the enemy wants to sow
(12:15):
this seed that actually our lifeis in our own hands.
Actually our life does belongto us.
Actually, you know you do wantto do whatever you want to do
and you don't have to worryabout it, because God is totally
going to support you in yourChristian freedoms.
But the reality that Paul andPeter and so many other gospel
writers and Jesus himselfaffirms is that, no, when you
put your faith in Jesus, youdied.
(12:37):
And your life now is not here.
Your stock, your investments,your desires, your preference,
your future, it's not in thislife, it's not in the things you
think you can get by your ownstrength.
It is, in fact, in Jesus and inhim alone.
So we're going to read fromColossians, chapter 3.
(12:59):
Now, before we're not going toget into the slides, okay, I'm
going to challenge us all tojust take a moment and pause and
just hear from Colossians,chapter 3.
Just hear it.
Fix your gaze on a particularpoint in the room, do whatever
you got to do.
Maybe look at that guy's eyesas he's staring at Jesus and
being like you know, whateveryou got to do.
Just focus on something in theroom, close your eyes, whatever
(13:21):
you have to do.
But I want you to really payattention to what Paul is saying
in Colossians, chapter 3,verses 1 to 14.
It says this not on earthlythings, for you died and your
life is now hidden with Christin God.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
(13:58):
appear with him in glory.
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 ofGod is coming.
(14:20):
You used to walk in these waysin the life you once lived, but
now you must also rid yourselvesof all such things as these
anger, rage, malice, slander andfilthy language from your lips.
(14:41):
Do not lie to each other, sinceyou have taken off your old self
with its practices and have puton the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in theimage of its creator.
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
(15:01):
barbarian, scythian, slave orfree, but Christ is all and is
in all.
Therefore, as God's chosenpeople, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves withcompassion, kindness, humility,
(15:25):
gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other andforgive one another.
If any of you has a grievanceagainst someone, forgive, as the
Lord forgave you, and over allthese virtues, put on love which
(15:46):
binds them all together inperfect unity.
Jesus, we just receive thisword and I just pray that for
whatever we need to hear fromthis.
Highlight it to us, show uswhat you want to show us,
(16:07):
convict and correct, encourageand comfort.
Comfort in Jesus' name, amen.
So we'll go on to the nextslide there, tracy.
So Colossians, chapter 3.
It's one of my favoritepassages in scripture and a lot
of the people that I read aboutspiritual formation whether
that's Dallas Willard or, youknow, john Mark Comer, a few
(16:30):
other names you may or may nothave heard of these guys
consistently bring up passageslike this.
Colossians, chapter three Paulbasically really reiterates this
exact message over and over andover again, whether it's in the
book of first Corinthians or inother parts of the new
Testament.
It's echoed even further thebook of Hebrews, even Peter kind
(16:51):
of notes on this sort of thing,this idea of virtues being
built into us.
But this is something that isnot new to the New Testament
ethos of what it looks like tobe a Christian and follow Jesus.
There's a lot of things goingon here.
One of the things that's goingon is it's a completely
different set for your mind, amindset.
(17:13):
It's a completely differentparadigm, if you will, a way of
thinking about life, because younotice that Paul isn't talking
about one particular, small,specific thing.
He is completely broad strokingthe life of faith in front of
this Colossian people.
Now, here's the thing.
One of the other reasons why Ilove this passage is that Paul
(17:35):
is a genius.
He is absolutely brilliant inhis ability to communicate,
specifically in the Greeklanguage, to a very, very Greek
audience.
Now, this city, the book inColossae, were filled with
intelligent people who wouldhave been aware of what Paul was
doing here when he startedsetting this tone of death and
life and also landing onclothing.
(17:59):
Let me ask you a question whenyou are dead and buried, what
covers you?
When you are in a coffin,you're lowered down or, you know
, you get thrown into a shallowgrave somewhere in the backwoods
.
When you die, what covers youother than you know, your
clothing, or that weird likeepoxy fill that they put into
(18:22):
your body at the funeral home,like, what covers you?
Dirt, right, you're coveredwith dirt.
Six feet of it, ideally.
Or you know less in othersituations, but in other
situations okay.
So if you're dying, if you'redead, if you're put in the
ground, you're done, your lifeis over, you're covered with
dirt, that's that.
But if you're alive and you'rewell and you woke up this
(18:45):
morning.
What covered you?
Clothing, ideally, hopefully,because we are that kind of
church that does that.
You know, we wear clothes tochurch.
This is the thing is that, likePaul sets up this whole idea,
this contrast between death andlife and nakedness and being
clothed, and we miss it if wedon't pay attention to the whole
(19:07):
thing as a whole, as we don'tlook at the big picture, if we
don't pay attention to the wholething as a whole, as we don't
look at the big picture, we missit.
But this idea of being deadversus being alive, he's like
you're dead but also you'realive.
So don't live like people whoare dead, but remember you're
dead to them, so they might bealive, but like you're dead.
So it seems really confusing ifwe don't look at it the way.
(19:28):
But when you look at theoriginal language, you look at
the original language, you lookat the way that Paul formulates
all of this.
It is absolutely brilliant.
So he in the middle of this bookof Colossians, which, by the
way, he's trying to correctphilosophy here.
Now, I'm not sure if you guyswent to university, remember
philosophy class, but it waskind of a drag for people that
are not into philosophy, okay,but just to sum it up, there's
(19:50):
ideas that are starting toinvade the church at Colossae,
ideas that are deceptive, ideasthat are actually very strictly
opposed to the message aboutJesus.
And Paul makes it very, veryclear no, no, no, no, no.
Jesus, fully God, fully human,came to earth, lived a perfect
(20:11):
life and everything centeredaround him before and everything
centered around him now andeverything will always center
around him forever.
And he finishes on that thoughtand leads into since then you
have been raised with Christ,this supreme figure at the
center of all the universe, whois preeminent before every other
(20:34):
thing in the world, who existedwith God forever, eternally,
before the created universe evenwas a thought in any of our
minds.
Because you've been raised withthat Christ, at Christ set your
(20:55):
hearts on things above, onthings that are eternal, on
things that are consistent withthis risen Christ whom we serve,
because it's absolutelyinsulting to do anything less,
it's insulting to the heart ofGod to do anything less than
focus on him.
These political issues, thesedifficulties that we're
experiencing in our day to daylife, all things that, because
we care about them, god caresfor us in them.
(21:16):
And yet, at the same time, whenyou really look at the big
picture, it's one politicalleader now and another one 10
years from now.
It's one difficulty today andit's another one Tuesday at 2 pm
.
And the reality is that, yes,it's important to God that he
care for us in the nitty-grittydetails and yet, at the same
time, he's always trying to callus upward, to focus on things
(21:37):
above things overall, thingsthat are the part of the big
picture, not just thenitty-gritty stuff that gets us
distracted.
And so he says since you havebeen raised with Christ.
He didn't say since you live alife like Jesus.
Specifically, he said since youare raised with him, meaning
you are dead and you are raisedto life.
(21:59):
In Ephesians, chapter 2, he hasthis idea Because of God's great
mercy, we who were dead havebeen raised to life in Christ
and seated with him in theheavenly realms.
Well, christ is above and we'reapparently seated with him in
the heavenly realms.
Well, christ is above and we'reapparently seated with him at
the right hand of God.
So, set our hearts, set yourhearts on things above and your
(22:20):
hearts being, like you know, thecenter of your emotional life,
your desires, your preferences,your decision-making, your will.
Set that on what's above wherechrist is.
Set your minds on things above,not on earthly things.
So okay.
So here's your emotional life,your desires and preferences.
Put that above.
Okay, now that we've got thatcovered which, by the way, is
(22:42):
interesting that he focuses onthat first doesn't start with
the intellect first.
Too many of us, especially inWest, focus so much on the
intellect that we miss the heartaltogether.
What a tragedy.
God doesn't live in our brain.
Jesus didn't come to set histhrone in you know, that part of
your brain that remembers likecalculus.
Jesus came to set his rule inyou, in your heart, in your
(23:06):
decisions, in the things thatyou most care about in life.
Set your heart and then setyour minds on things above, not
on earthly things, in yourthinking, in your feeling, in
the things that you care about.
Set them Intentionally.
Take the action step of settingthem on things above where
(23:27):
Christ is, for you died.
You died and your life is nowhidden with Christ in God.
Who here has ever seen Weekendat Bernie's before?
Has anyone ever seen that movie?
I haven't even seen it.
(23:48):
I just know the concept.
So it's okay for me to talkabout it.
Okay, I've never seen the movie.
I have no idea if it'sinappropriate or not.
I don't know.
I don't know and I don't care,because the idea is this this
these guys, they have this.
I think their their friend isdead and they pick them up and
they put sunglasses on them andthey host a party at his house
because they're like well, forWeekend at Bernie's.
Bernie's passed away, he's gone, but too many of us are trying
(24:12):
to live out a Weekend atBernie's thing where we start to
wear the clothing put on theattire, let our friends tell us
and label us and tell us whatwe're all about, and then play
it out as if we're really partof the thing.
We're dead, even if we do tryand participate with these
things.
I hope and pray that you feelabsolute, complete misery and
(24:36):
emptiness in those contexts,because you should.
And if you've ever wonderedonline listener why maybe that
weekend party just doesn't sitright with you anymore, it's
because you're a follower ofJesus.
You died to that stuff.
It's done now.
It's just not the same now, andit shouldn't be because you're
dead to that.
Stuff is done now.
It just doesn't.
It's just not the same now, andit shouldn't be because you're
dead to that.
Have you ever gotten tired ofthe political arguments that are
(24:58):
constantly happening, whetheron your socials feed or in your
family?
Is it possible that you'retired of those things because
you weren't supposed to indulgein them that much to begin with?
Is it possible that theconcerns that we had, whether it
be about COVID-19 or apresidential election which, by
the way, isn't even in ourcountry or anything, even when
(25:19):
faced with wars and rumors ofwars, you know what Jesus says
about that stuff Don't worryabout it.
Party what?
See who play?
Don't worry about it.
It's a war.
People are dying.
Jesus Don't you care, he does.
But you understand that the bigpicture, god is over all of
(25:39):
those things.
He is.
Even though he doesn't causethose awful pains to children
across the world, even thoughhe's not intending to hurt
people in other nations, he issovereignly superintending it
all to work towards his greaterpurpose.
He calls us to pray for andinvade into those situations,
not with a political agenda, notwith an ideology, but with the
(26:01):
gospel and with the heart ofChrist, which, by the way, is
where our hearts are set right.
So maybe what we need to dowith those particular things is
remember that we are seated withChrist, literally the center of
the universe.
Maybe we have better things tothink about.
Maybe we have better things todiscuss.
(26:25):
Maybe we have more grace tooffer in those conversations,
because ultimately, we know thatsomeone else is in control, not
us to offer in thoseconversations, because
ultimately, we know that someoneelse is in control, not us, and
it's not bad to talk throughthose things.
In fact, it can be helpful andneeded.
It's about your heart and yourmind.
What is it set on?
Is it set on Christ in thatstuff, or are you set on it
(26:47):
while you're in Christ?
Because you're going to see aconsequence come out of either
of those two options.
Your life is now hidden.
With Christ and God, the stuffthat you're really looking
forward to is Jesus.
It's in Jesus, it's from Jesus,it's through Jesus and it's for
Jesus.
All the things, as Paul says inColossians 1, were made by him,
for him and through him, andthen he lands not long.
(27:12):
This at Christ is all.
Christ is in all.
Your day-to-day life is not tobe found in the things that this
world takes delight in, but inthe things that God's heart
takes delight in your life, thethings that you care most about
in the world, and not only that.
Also the energy from which youlive is drawn from Christ and in
(27:38):
fact, it is hidden with Christin God.
Notice, okay, so there's thisidea of hiddenness being covered
, being almost clothed.
People aren't always going tosee every area where you have a
conviction about Jesus.
Right, that's hidden withChrist in God.
What comes out of that stuff,what comes out on the outside,
(28:03):
what we do clothe ourselves with, what people do see, should not
be our constant red-bloodedconvictions about this or that
thing, Even if it's based onJesus.
What people should see is JesusAll over you, all day, every
day.
That's what the world needs.
That's what you need to justlive well and thrive, because
(28:25):
your life, raised with Christ,is now hidden with Christ in God
.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
There's a lot that could comeinto that, but I'm not going to
touch on that too much.
We're going to move on to thenext slide there, tracy, because
Paul moves on to talk about thestuff that is meant to be put
(28:46):
to death.
You know the thing that themessage is titled about Put to
death.
So, first of all, you were putto death and for some of us,
publicly.
How many of you are baptized inthis room Right are baptized in
this room, right?
Yeah, I'm glad you raised yourhand.
I was like, oh, that'ssurprising.
No, we're good, we're a Baptistchurch.
I thought what If you werebaptized?
(29:09):
Then you publicly declared andenacted that you are dead and
you are alive in Christ.
You publicly declared that youwere basically executed,
spiritually speaking, andeverybody should, by this point,
know that you're put to deathto this world and this world is
put to death to you.
(29:29):
As Paul says in other places, Iam crucified to the world, the
world is crucified to me.
Put to death, therefore,whatever belongs to your earthly
nature.
So the earthly nature here,this Greek word that he's using,
is actually just oneinteresting phrase, which just
means dirt.
It doesn't mean nature.
(29:54):
The English is trying to helpus understand the meaning here,
so it's not a bad, badtranslation.
But also it's like what Paul istrying to say is something
metaphorical, not direct.
He's trying to say put to deatheverything that belongs to this
land.
Put to death everything thatbelongs to your dirt.
If you're dead to this world,then you're buried in it and you
don't need to live out thethings that are consistent with
(30:16):
the stuff that you're always allaround, all the time.
You are meant to be living alife that is altogether
different, even though you'recovered in a sense with the
world.
The world is all over us.
We, like worldly secular people, designed our clothing.
Probably People who don't knowJesus sewed it together.
(30:36):
People who don't know Jesussold it to us.
But Paul says put to deatheverything that's connected to
this land in which you're buried, because one day you are going
to be revealed in glory.
So put to death anything thatis putting to death that hope in
you.
Put to death anything that isattempting to put that hidden
(30:59):
life in Christ to death in you.
Put to death anything that'sconnected to this life that
you've left behind.
It's no longer yours.
Let it die.
And I wish I could get moreinto all the different things.
The whole sermon series couldcome out of Colossians 3, but
don't worry, I won't do thattoday.
Today, sexual morality,impurity, lust, all these things
(31:21):
, things that are connected toidolatry, things that are
actually image worship.
It's making something elseother than God, god.
Let's move on to the next thing, the next slide there.
Tracy, you used to walk inthese ways in the life you once
lived, in the life you oncelived the life you once lived.
You don't live this way anymore.
(31:42):
But if we take that on and wemake that mistake, god isn't
trying to condemn us, but he istrying to cleanse us of those
things that are consistent withthat old life.
Amen, on to the next slide,tracy.
And the same thing with thosethings anger, rage, malice,
slander.
Is that consistent with thejesus we serve?
No, moving right along, do notlie to each other.
Same thing with those thingsAnger, rage, malice, slander.
Is that consistent with theJesus we serve?
No, moving right along, do notlie to each other.
(32:03):
Why?
Because we literally serve theGod of truth.
His law says that he alwaystells the truth and he never
lies.
So why does it make sense forpeople who are literally living
in him not just in his household, but literally having our life
built up in him?
Why does it make sense for usto be liars?
Why does it make sense for usto deceive one another or tell
each other something, to makeeach other feel better about
(32:25):
something, or even to makeourselves look better than we
would like to?
Why?
Because we put on the new self.
Notice this putting on thing.
He's moving on into clothes now.
At first he was talking aboutdirt, now he's talking about
clothes.
It's very confusing, Iunderstand, but it's also very
clear in that our day-to-dayliving in this world in which
we're buried, we ought to beclothed with the Christ in whom
(32:49):
we find our life.
So he goes on.
It's being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator.
That word renewed just meansupdated.
It's like when you get a newcomputer system or a phone and
it just updates hey, an update'sready, the other one's going to
be obsolete.
Everything you've been used toup until this point is all going
down tubes, okay, and at somepoint that's not going to be
supported anymore.
You're not going to need to goback there.
(33:09):
It's going to be updated, it'sgoing to be renewed.
How many of you guys arefrustrated by the way Windows
has changed over the years?
Come on, give me something, orApple or any of that.
It's frustrating because youget so familiar with how a thing
works, but God says that it'sthe same with us.
Sometimes we actually need tolet go of a way that we've lived
and survived in Christ even, orin order that we might be
(33:36):
renewed, updated, continuallyliving more into the life that
God has called us to live.
We're being renewed in intimateknowledge, in the image of our
creator.
Instead of worshiping images,instead of giving ourselves over
to idolatry and sexualimmorality and so on and so
forth, we are giving ourselvesover to the image of God in us
and the image of Christ that isconstantly being worked into us
(33:58):
like yeast into the dough.
Go on to the next slide there,tracy.
Why?
Because Christ is all and is inall and therefore, as God's
chosen people, holy and dearlyloved, clothe yourselves right.
So I want you, as we arerounding the plate here, I want
you to take a look at some ofthese virtues on the screen.
Now we see you know holy anddearly loved.
(34:20):
Okay, that's your identity.
You're already that.
By the way, you don't have tobe compassionate to be dearly
loved.
You don't even have to actgentle to be holy.
You are already holy.
God has set you apart as holy.
Now he's making you into theimage of holiness.
He's set you apart.
You are his special people.
You are his chosen one.
(34:40):
You are holy and dearly loved.
Now, as a result of thatidentity, clothe yourselves Now.
Take a look at this list?
Is there anywhere on thisscreen or on the page, as you're
looking at it, that you'rethinking that's not really me at
all, because there's a few forme and there's probably some in
(35:08):
your life that you're doinggreat maybe, and it's not about
performance but like, is itpresent?
It's not about performance,it's present.
Is this present in me?
Are you consistently gentle?
You're like, yeah, of course.
Are you gentle on theTrans-Canada Highway?
Are you gentle with yourdashboard on Gunningsville
Boulevard?
You know, that's the question.
(35:28):
Are you gentle with the kidthat stresses you out?
Are you patient with waiting,not just for annoyance to be
removed from your life, but areyou patient with God bringing
something good into your lifeyou believe he's promised you,
(35:50):
and so on.
This is not meant to shame us,but it should alarm us a little
if it's not present.
But it should alarm us a littleif it's not present, not
because God wants to condemn you, but because God wants to
(36:11):
cleanse everything off of you.
That isn't this.
And if you see the opposite ofthese things making its way into
your life, as contrasted in theverses before anger, rage,
malice, slander, gossip,whatever filthy language from
your lips it's not meant tocondemn you but to challenge you
.
And, yes, it's okay for youremotions, set on Christ, to feel
(36:32):
disturbed and alarmed thatthese are not present in you, so
that in that, god will meet youand impart it to you.
God says, if we confess oursins, he's faithful and just,
not only to forgive us our sinsbut to cleanse us of all
(36:53):
unrighteousness.
Anything that's not this.
So identify what's going on thisweek, what's going on with you
right now, in this hour, thatyou are not compassionate or
gentle or patient, that Godreally wants that for you
because he loves you so much andmaybe you really want it.
(37:14):
I pray you have such a deepdesire for this that you forget
about the stuff you used tothink was valuable.
A deep desire for this, thatyou forget about the stuff you
used to think was valuable andwhat binds them all together,
except love Agape.
It's the same word, by the way,that's used here for dearly
loved Agapeo.
Not just agape strictly, butlike a love of delighting in.
(37:37):
You're loved.
And you're dearly loved, you'redearly delighted in, you're
dearly adored.
God just wants to wrap you inhis arms and just fill you with
his delight for you, and that'swhat he wants us to do for each
other.
All of us are quirky, whetherit's at New Hope Community
(38:00):
Church or anywhere else in theworld.
I think a person who's afollower of Jesus is a little
quirky and we just, you know,sometimes we just have to forget
about the grievance and thinkabout the God, who loves us, who
shows us this delight, looks atus as sons and daughters and
treat one another with that kindof delight, and it binds them
(38:24):
all together in perfect unity.
By the way, in Greek that'sjust one word, it's telios,
maturity.
It puts everything backtogether, all the things that
you're trying to working on hereand there and figuring that out
, repenting of this andconfessing that.
Well, love, it's going to putall that stuff together in one
big ball called perfection.
Not a perfection offlawlessness, but of being fully
(38:48):
grown up.
So the question is here are yougoing to grow up to live in that
perfect unity, bound togetherby love?
Are you going to grow up?
You might be 85 years old todayand there's some part of you
that is not gentle or impatient,that's not in touch with God,
(39:08):
but that means you need to growup and that's good.
Let God tell you to grow up inthe most loving way that he
possibly can, which is hey, Ilove you so much.
I love you as if you were thefavorite.
He loves all of us as if we'rethe favorite child.
You might have lost that alongthe way, but he delights in you
(39:30):
so much and that's why he wantsyou to grow into who he is
already making you.
So next, slide there.
Tracy, you are put to death.
Live like it.
There's something in your lifelike just get the word stop,
(39:51):
just stop.
If there is something in yourlife and I know it's not that
easy always but make acommitment today and a
commission to yourself that youwill stop, that you will rest,
that you will put to restanything in you that is putting
you to shame, what is thatsecret thing that you hope
(40:11):
nobody else finds out about?
And today I was in prayer and Ireally got a sense that the
Lord was really showing me thateverything that has put me to
shame will be put to death.
Everything that is putting youto shame right now, even if
(40:35):
nobody else knows about it, willbe put to death.
Knows about it will be put todeath.
The question is are you goingto wait until another time when
your life is spent and there isno more time?
Or are you going to start todayto stop, to put to rest those
(40:55):
things that are putting you toshame, to put them to death
through Christ?
As Paul says, by the Spirit,put to death the misdeeds of the
body.
Repent of your sin, confessJesus is the only way to receive
life and salvation and joy andhope.
Jesus Christ is the only way.
(41:18):
So why are you entertaining anyother avenue?
Some of you watching online.
Maybe you're only just checkingout the church for the first
time, maybe it's the 17th time.
That's totally cool.
We live in Moncton, by the way,if you want to come see us Now,
here's the thing.
Well, moncton area, you knowSteve's Mountain, whatever,
we're here, we're local.
But here's the thing.
Maybe you just are scrollingthrough and you're just watching
this.
Today I'm going to speakdirectly to you and tell you
(41:40):
Jesus Christ is the only otherway, and you kind of already
know that, don't you?
And the only reason why youtuned in today was because God
wanted you to hear these words,which is that Jesus Christ is
the only way to live the lifethat you've been longing for,
and his love for you is deepenough and the power that Jesus
exalted by dying on the crossfor you is enough to bring you
into the folds of love.
(42:00):
It's enough.
Is it enough for you?
Is it enough for us?
Are we going to grow up andlive the way that God has called
us to live today?
You're put to death.
Will we live like it?
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for your presence, and we
thank you.
We thank you for your constantlove for us.
(42:24):
We thank you for your intimacywith us, whether it's just that
little shoulder pain or some ofthe deep hurts that are
completely ripping our gutsapart right now.
Maybe it's a sickness that aspouse is enduring, or it's a
sin that we need to overcome.
God, we confess Jesus is theonly way.
(42:48):
Help us not entertain anotheravenue.
We are put to death in Christ.
Let us live like it In Jesus'name, amen.
Amen.
Let's pray together as we come to the word.
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for today.
Lord, we thank you for yourkindness that you expressed to
us.
God, you didn't try it, youlive it, you are it, you are
kindness, and Jesus is loveincarnate, walking around and is
now seated at the right hand ofthe Father, empowering us by
(00:28):
your Spirit to live out thatkind of kindness.
God, we thank you that, whetherin life or in death, whether
asleep or awake, we are with youbecause of what Jesus did.
Father, we thank you that, nomatter what we're struggling
with, the things that we'redealing with behind closed doors
or in full view of everyone wholoves and cares about us, in
(00:50):
all those things, god, you'renot only faithful, but you're
intimately caring for each ofthose things.
So, as we come to the word,help us, lord, to put to death
anything in us that is keepingus away from closeness with you.
Small or big burden or huge,massive issue, we just release
(01:15):
it into your hands.
Your word says cast yourburdens on the Lord and he will
sustain you.
Well, here we are.
Here's our burdens.
Help us, sustain us and help usto be in touch with you, as we
hear from your word In Jesus'name amen.
(01:38):
Death, that's a funny thing,right, death.
It's funny because it'speculiar not so much ha-ha, I
mean, depending on the death.
There's an old series that usedto I think it was A Thousand
Ways to Die.
Did you ever watch that before?
Man, some of the most bizarreways people have passed away.
There is one moment in my ownlife where I should have died
(01:58):
and I didn't.
No, it wasn't when I was runover by a car or choked on a
spaghetti noodle.
That one time, at the age offour, it was another time.
It was when I was a relativelynew driver.
It was like you know, this islike 10 years ago.
Okay, I'm driving around.
I think I might be 18 years old.
I'm driving down this hillthat's called the Quinpool Hill.
It's near Quinpool Road.
(02:19):
It's a very, very steep hill.
Now at the top of this hill,you're thinking, oh, this isn't
going to be bad.
The speed limit is 80kilometers per hour, it's going
to be fine.
But as you get going, yourealize you're going to put a
lot of tension on your brakesand on the person in the
passenger seat, the faster thatyou get into this decline at
(02:41):
this hill.
So, as a teenager, once I gotout of having my permit and I
was able to drive around, Irealized that it's just easier
to lean into it.
Enjoy your need for speed alittle on the Quinnpool Hill.
You know what I'm saying.
Now, I did mention this is anear-death experience, so you
know where this is going.
So, anyway, here I am, I'm onthe decline, I'm going
relatively quick and usually atthis point I would gear down,
(03:02):
you know, go to third, try to,you know, ease into it a bit,
maybe go down a second.
If I'm really freaking out,listen to that transmission,
just purr, you know.
But no, this isn't what I didToday.
I was like you know what, I'mjust going to go for it.
So I start leaning into thespeed.
I see just enough around thecorner to know that there's no
other cars on the road, or no,that there's no other cars on
(03:29):
the road.
No was a relative term, it wasassume.
I assumed there was no cars onthe other side of the road.
And so I'm getting down thishill and I'm like, wow, we're
getting quick now.
We're going 100 kilometers anhour, we're going 110.
And I, by the way, I'm all bymyself.
I say we, it's just me andwhatever came out of me at that
moment.
And I'm coming down the hilland I realize that there is in
(03:50):
fact a Ford F-150 coming onreally close to the line and by
close I mean not in his lane atall and I also realize there's
gravel on the road, coming outof the tiny Quinnpool Road
that's at the bottom of this,this hill, and so I realized
there's this perfect storm.
Not only am I driving reallyquickly, but I'm also realizing
(04:10):
that there's something actuallyshoving me closer to something
similar to marbles on the roadand I start to drift at the, the
point at the hill where youactually get to the very bottom
of the valley, which is actuallya bridge, so it's even narrower
and I'm going way too fast.
And then I'm going even fasterBecause these breaks of mine are
(04:31):
not doing it anymore, and Istart swerving this way and that
way and I'm like I'm screamingat the top of my lungs.
I don't know what music isplaying, but it's sort of
something with a guitar solo init, you know.
And finally the turn screen, Ithink.
At some point in my mind I'mlike God, help me, you know,
help me.
And at some point this fishtailends, the speed decreases.
(04:54):
I'm at the other side of thisand I'm like, oh, I really felt
something empty out of me.
I don't think it was anything Idrank that day or anything, but
I did feel like it wassomething like you know, that
feeling of just that, thatdropping feeling, you know, and
I don't know what.
I couldn't really pick it up.
So I was just like you know,and the song that happened to be
(05:15):
playing was not anything likeACDC, you know, it wasn't
Thunderstruck, it was ChrisTomlin's Amazing Grace.
And so I'm coming up and it'slike amazing grace, and I'm like
how sweet the sound that saveda wretch like me, you know.
(05:36):
So I get to the top of the hilland, by the way, I'm really
close to my family home at thispoint I pull into the driveway.
I don't tell my dad whathappened, of course.
Who would Dad, if you'rewatching, anyway?
So I pull into the driveway, Iget out, I'm like this is
awesome, I'm alive and I neverfelt happier in my life, I think
.
And that moment, up until thatpoint.
(05:57):
You see, I might have mentionedit before in another sermon, but
by the time I was eight yearsold, I'd started to struggle
pretty significantly withanxiety, with depression.
You know ideations of, you knowthings that are similar to
murder, but for more, foryourself.
And at that moment I justforgot all about that because I
just stepped really close todeath, or drove close to it
(06:19):
anyway, and as I got up onto theporch and I'm holding myself
together, looking out over thebeautiful countryside vista
before me, I realized that mylife was just handed back to me.
That's kind of dramatic,because there's plenty of other
times where I had to, you know,taste death a little and I'm
(06:39):
like, yeah, whatever, it'sanother Tuesday, but for this
time in particular, it was areminder, a very stark reminder,
that my life is not actually inmy hands, that the thing that's
actually holding me together isgrace.
And I thought I should praisethe Lord and I did.
I sang really, really loud likehow great thou art, or whatever
(07:02):
, out of key, because all Iwanted to do was like say thank
you, god for giving me back mylife, which very, very easily
could have just slipped out ofmy hands right then.
And there Some of us forget notsome of us, all of us, at some
point or another, forget thatwe're not invincible At some
point our life is going to be atan end, that at some point
(07:24):
we're going to have to face upto the reality that our life is
not meant to be our own.
And I find, whether you'rereading a near-death experience
or experiencing a near-deathexperience or something similar,
what the takeaway often is is Ibetter redefine how I live my
life from this moment forward,because I realize just how
(07:46):
short-term that this offerreally is.
So this sermon to death is tohelp us to kind of get back into
a mindset, as Christians, that,especially for those of us who
follow Jesus, we ought toremember always that our lives
are not our own, that we werebought at a price, that in fact,
(08:08):
it was someone else's death whopaid the price for us, and it
is to death that we must live.
So next, slide there.
Tracy, you are today put todeath, you're put to death.
You were put to death when youput your faith in Jesus and now,
as an active follower of Jesus,you are put to death.
(08:32):
Live like it.
Live like it.
How often are we in situationswhere we forget that our lives
are not in our hands?
How often are we complacentwith the culture and the comfort
of our day to the point wherewe forget that the life that we
live is not just temporary, butit's meant to be purposeful,
(08:55):
it's meant to be intentional.
The other day I was thinkingabout the idea of wasted years.
You know, when you get closerand closer to older age, you
start to look back on your life.
I'm not so much an older age,but I do often look back on my
life and I think am I on thetrajectory that I want to be if
(09:17):
I was sitting on my deathbedtomorrow?
Because you can't reallycontrol what value you add to
the world in the end.
What you can control is whatyou're going to do with the life
that you have.
And you think, let's say, youhave 90 minutes on earth.
A lot of us maybe might live to75, 80, maybe 90.
(09:37):
So let's just imagine you have90 minutes of a day.
That's about the size of akid's movie.
You know About the length of aVeggie Tales classic?
Maybe you know If you were tomiss two minutes of that, how
big a deal would it be for theoverall story?
Let's say 14 minutes.
How disoriented do you feelcoming back into that movie
(10:00):
theater, or coming back intothat task or coming back into
that 90-minute period.
By the time you get to the end,maybe you're at minute 84,
you're starting to feel likeyou're rounding the plate of
this particular story.
But that's the idea is that allof us are living out a story
and a lot of times we feel that,coming out of wasted years or
difficulties or sin or even justthe Christian life, wishing
that we would have put our faithin Jesus sooner, that we would
(10:22):
have put our faith in Jesussooner, we come into our life as
if we're halfway through amovie, disoriented and
struggling to figure out what'sthe purpose here.
Who are the major characterssupposed to be?
Am I in this movie?
Like what's going on and there'sconfusion for us if we don't
have the whole picture in frontof us on a regular basis, the
thing that adds so much more ofthe value of focus is the
(10:46):
understanding that the bigpicture is that you have only
one life here on earth to live,and then the judgment, and then
when Jesus returns, and thenwhen you stand before the Lord.
And my question that I want usto explore is are you on a
trajectory today that you wouldhave genuinely no regrets?
(11:08):
Not before the world, notbefore a bucket list, but before
the Lord and even yourself.
Would you say that right nowyou're on a trajectory, no
matter how old or young you maybe, that you would have no
regrets standing before the Lordas Christians?
Beyond that point, we are putto death in that, whatever life
(11:31):
we thought we were living,whatever life we thought was in
our own hands, that's over now.
When you get married, whateverthought you had of having the
single life, bachelor living orbachelorette living, that's over
now.
You might have every once in awhile.
You know your spouse goes awayfor a bit, you get to watch
Netflix all by yourself withsome Cheetos or something, and
(11:53):
they don't need to bark at youabout not doing your diet or
something like that.
But I mean, by and large, yoursingle days are over.
You have to think about yourlife as oriented around your
spouse and it's similar with ourdevotion to Jesus and our
relationship with God.
Whatever life you thought youhad before you knew Jesus is
over now and every once in awhile the enemy wants to sow
(12:15):
this seed that actually our lifeis in our own hands.
Actually our life does belongto us.
Actually, you know you do wantto do whatever you want to do
and you don't have to worryabout it, because God is totally
going to support you in yourChristian freedoms.
But the reality that Paul andPeter and so many other gospel
writers and Jesus himselfaffirms is that, no, when you
put your faith in Jesus, youdied.
(12:37):
And your life now is not here.
Your stock, your investments,your desires, your preference,
your future, it's not in thislife, it's not in the things you
think you can get by your ownstrength.
It is, in fact, in Jesus and inhim alone.
So we're going to read fromColossians, chapter 3.
(12:59):
Now, before we're not going toget into the slides, okay, I'm
going to challenge us all tojust take a moment and pause and
just hear from Colossians,chapter 3.
Just hear it.
Fix your gaze on a particularpoint in the room, do whatever
you got to do.
Maybe look at that guy's eyesas he's staring at Jesus and
being like you know, whateveryou got to do.
Just focus on something in theroom, close your eyes, whatever
(13:21):
you have to do.
But I want you to really payattention to what Paul is saying
in Colossians, chapter 3,verses 1 to 14.
It says this not on earthlythings, for you died and your
life is now hidden with Christin God.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
(13:58):
appear with him in glory.
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 ofGod is coming.
(14:20):
You used to walk in these waysin the life you once lived, but
now you must also rid yourselvesof all such things as these
anger, rage, malice, slander andfilthy language from your lips.
(14:41):
Do not lie to each other, sinceyou have taken off your old self
with its practices and have puton the new self, which is being
renewed in knowledge in theimage of its creator.
Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
(15:01):
barbarian, scythian, slave orfree, but Christ is all and is
in all.
Therefore, as God's chosenpeople, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves withcompassion, kindness, humility,
(15:25):
gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other andforgive one another.
If any of you has a grievanceagainst someone, forgive, as the
Lord forgave you, and over allthese virtues, put on love which
(15:46):
binds them all together inperfect unity.
Jesus, we just receive thisword and I just pray that for
whatever we need to hear fromthis.
Highlight it to us, show uswhat you want to show us,
(16:07):
convict and correct, encourageand comfort.
Comfort in Jesus' name, amen.
So we'll go on to the nextslide there, tracy.
So Colossians, chapter 3.
It's one of my favoritepassages in scripture and a lot
of the people that I read aboutspiritual formation whether
that's Dallas Willard or, youknow, john Mark Comer, a few
(16:30):
other names you may or may nothave heard of these guys
consistently bring up passageslike this.
Colossians, chapter three Paulbasically really reiterates this
exact message over and over andover again, whether it's in the
book of first Corinthians or inother parts of the new
Testament.
It's echoed even further thebook of Hebrews, even Peter kind
(16:51):
of notes on this sort of thing,this idea of virtues being
built into us.
But this is something that isnot new to the New Testament
ethos of what it looks like tobe a Christian and follow Jesus.
There's a lot of things goingon here.
One of the things that's goingon is it's a completely
different set for your mind, amindset.
(17:13):
It's a completely differentparadigm, if you will, a way of
thinking about life, because younotice that Paul isn't talking
about one particular, small,specific thing.
He is completely broad strokingthe life of faith in front of
this Colossian people.
Now, here's the thing.
One of the other reasons why Ilove this passage is that Paul
(17:35):
is a genius.
He is absolutely brilliant inhis ability to communicate,
specifically in the Greeklanguage, to a very, very Greek
audience.
Now, this city, the book inColossae, were filled with
intelligent people who wouldhave been aware of what Paul was
doing here when he startedsetting this tone of death and
life and also landing onclothing.
(17:59):
Let me ask you a question whenyou are dead and buried, what
covers you?
When you are in a coffin,you're lowered down or, you know
, you get thrown into a shallowgrave somewhere in the backwoods
.
When you die, what covers youother than you know, your
clothing, or that weird likeepoxy fill that they put into
(18:22):
your body at the funeral home,like, what covers you?
Dirt, right, you're coveredwith dirt.
Six feet of it, ideally.
Or you know less in othersituations, but in other
situations okay.
So if you're dying, if you'redead, if you're put in the
ground, you're done, your lifeis over, you're covered with
dirt, that's that.
But if you're alive and you'rewell and you woke up this
(18:45):
morning.
What covered you?
Clothing, ideally, hopefully,because we are that kind of
church that does that.
You know, we wear clothes tochurch.
This is the thing is that, likePaul sets up this whole idea,
this contrast between death andlife and nakedness and being
clothed, and we miss it if wedon't pay attention to the whole
(19:07):
thing as a whole, as we don'tlook at the big picture, if we
don't pay attention to the wholething as a whole, as we don't
look at the big picture, we missit.
But this idea of being deadversus being alive, he's like
you're dead but also you'realive.
So don't live like people whoare dead, but remember you're
dead to them, so they might bealive, but like you're dead.
So it seems really confusing ifwe don't look at it the way.
(19:28):
But when you look at theoriginal language, you look at
the original language, you lookat the way that Paul formulates
all of this.
It is absolutely brilliant.
So he in the middle of this bookof Colossians, which, by the
way, he's trying to correctphilosophy here.
Now, I'm not sure if you guyswent to university, remember
philosophy class, but it waskind of a drag for people that
are not into philosophy, okay,but just to sum it up, there's
(19:50):
ideas that are starting toinvade the church at Colossae,
ideas that are deceptive, ideasthat are actually very strictly
opposed to the message aboutJesus.
And Paul makes it very, veryclear no, no, no, no, no.
Jesus, fully God, fully human,came to earth, lived a perfect
(20:11):
life and everything centeredaround him before and everything
centered around him now andeverything will always center
around him forever.
And he finishes on that thoughtand leads into since then you
have been raised with Christ,this supreme figure at the
center of all the universe, whois preeminent before every other
(20:34):
thing in the world, who existedwith God forever, eternally,
before the created universe evenwas a thought in any of our
minds.
Because you've been raised withthat Christ, at Christ set your
(20:55):
hearts on things above, onthings that are eternal, on
things that are consistent withthis risen Christ whom we serve,
because it's absolutelyinsulting to do anything less,
it's insulting to the heart ofGod to do anything less than
focus on him.
These political issues, thesedifficulties that we're
experiencing in our day to daylife, all things that, because
we care about them, god caresfor us in them.
(21:16):
And yet, at the same time, whenyou really look at the big
picture, it's one politicalleader now and another one 10
years from now.
It's one difficulty today andit's another one Tuesday at 2 pm
.
And the reality is that, yes,it's important to God that he
care for us in the nitty-grittydetails and yet, at the same
time, he's always trying to callus upward, to focus on things
(21:37):
above things overall, thingsthat are the part of the big
picture, not just thenitty-gritty stuff that gets us
distracted.
And so he says since you havebeen raised with Christ.
He didn't say since you live alife like Jesus.
Specifically, he said since youare raised with him, meaning
you are dead and you are raisedto life.
(21:59):
In Ephesians, chapter 2, he hasthis idea Because of God's great
mercy, we who were dead havebeen raised to life in Christ
and seated with him in theheavenly realms.
Well, christ is above and we'reapparently seated with him in
the heavenly realms.
Well, christ is above and we'reapparently seated with him at
the right hand of God.
So, set our hearts, set yourhearts on things above and your
(22:20):
hearts being, like you know, thecenter of your emotional life,
your desires, your preferences,your decision-making, your will.
Set that on what's above wherechrist is.
Set your minds on things above,not on earthly things.
So okay.
So here's your emotional life,your desires and preferences.
Put that above.
Okay, now that we've got thatcovered which, by the way, is
(22:42):
interesting that he focuses onthat first doesn't start with
the intellect first.
Too many of us, especially inWest, focus so much on the
intellect that we miss the heartaltogether.
What a tragedy.
God doesn't live in our brain.
Jesus didn't come to set histhrone in you know, that part of
your brain that remembers likecalculus.
Jesus came to set his rule inyou, in your heart, in your
(23:06):
decisions, in the things thatyou most care about in life.
Set your heart and then setyour minds on things above, not
on earthly things, in yourthinking, in your feeling, in
the things that you care about.
Set them Intentionally.
Take the action step of settingthem on things above where
(23:27):
Christ is, for you died.
You died and your life is nowhidden with Christ in God.
Who here has ever seen Weekendat Bernie's before?
Has anyone ever seen that movie?
I haven't even seen it.
(23:48):
I just know the concept.
So it's okay for me to talkabout it.
Okay, I've never seen the movie.
I have no idea if it'sinappropriate or not.
I don't know.
I don't know and I don't care,because the idea is this this
these guys, they have this.
I think their their friend isdead and they pick them up and
they put sunglasses on them andthey host a party at his house
because they're like well, forWeekend at Bernie's.
Bernie's passed away, he's gone, but too many of us are trying
(24:12):
to live out a Weekend atBernie's thing where we start to
wear the clothing put on theattire, let our friends tell us
and label us and tell us whatwe're all about, and then play
it out as if we're really partof the thing.
We're dead, even if we do tryand participate with these
things.
I hope and pray that you feelabsolute, complete misery and
(24:36):
emptiness in those contexts,because you should.
And if you've ever wonderedonline listener why maybe that
weekend party just doesn't sitright with you anymore, it's
because you're a follower ofJesus.
You died to that stuff.
It's done now.
It's just not the same now, andit shouldn't be because you're
dead to that.
Stuff is done now.
It just doesn't.
It's just not the same now, andit shouldn't be because you're
dead to that.
Have you ever gotten tired ofthe political arguments that are
(24:58):
constantly happening, whetheron your socials feed or in your
family?
Is it possible that you'retired of those things because
you weren't supposed to indulgein them that much to begin with?
Is it possible that theconcerns that we had, whether it
be about COVID-19 or apresidential election which, by
the way, isn't even in ourcountry or anything, even when
(25:19):
faced with wars and rumors ofwars, you know what Jesus says
about that stuff Don't worryabout it.
Party what?
See who play?
Don't worry about it.
It's a war.
People are dying.
Jesus Don't you care, he does.
But you understand that the bigpicture, god is over all of
(25:39):
those things.
He is.
Even though he doesn't causethose awful pains to children
across the world, even thoughhe's not intending to hurt
people in other nations, he issovereignly superintending it
all to work towards his greaterpurpose.
He calls us to pray for andinvade into those situations,
not with a political agenda, notwith an ideology, but with the
(26:01):
gospel and with the heart ofChrist, which, by the way, is
where our hearts are set right.
So maybe what we need to dowith those particular things is
remember that we are seated withChrist, literally the center of
the universe.
Maybe we have better things tothink about.
Maybe we have better things todiscuss.
(26:25):
Maybe we have more grace tooffer in those conversations,
because ultimately, we know thatsomeone else is in control, not
us to offer in thoseconversations, because
ultimately, we know that someoneelse is in control, not us, and
it's not bad to talk throughthose things.
In fact, it can be helpful andneeded.
It's about your heart and yourmind.
What is it set on?
Is it set on Christ in thatstuff, or are you set on it
(26:47):
while you're in Christ?
Because you're going to see aconsequence come out of either
of those two options.
Your life is now hidden.
With Christ and God, the stuffthat you're really looking
forward to is Jesus.
It's in Jesus, it's from Jesus,it's through Jesus and it's for
Jesus.
All the things, as Paul says inColossians 1, were made by him,
for him and through him, andthen he lands not long.
(27:12):
This at Christ is all.
Christ is in all.
Your day-to-day life is not tobe found in the things that this
world takes delight in, but inthe things that God's heart
takes delight in your life, thethings that you care most about
in the world, and not only that.
Also the energy from which youlive is drawn from Christ and in
(27:38):
fact, it is hidden with Christin God.
Notice, okay, so there's thisidea of hiddenness being covered
, being almost clothed.
People aren't always going tosee every area where you have a
conviction about Jesus.
Right, that's hidden withChrist in God.
What comes out of that stuff,what comes out on the outside,
(28:03):
what we do clothe ourselves with, what people do see, should not
be our constant red-bloodedconvictions about this or that
thing, Even if it's based onJesus.
What people should see is JesusAll over you, all day, every
day.
That's what the world needs.
That's what you need to justlive well and thrive, because
(28:25):
your life, raised with Christ,is now hidden with Christ in God
.
When Christ, who is your life,appears, then you also will
appear with him in glory.
There's a lot that could comeinto that, but I'm not going to
touch on that too much.
We're going to move on to thenext slide there, tracy, because
Paul moves on to talk about thestuff that is meant to be put
(28:46):
to death.
You know the thing that themessage is titled about Put to
death.
So, first of all, you were putto death and for some of us,
publicly.
How many of you are baptized inthis room Right are baptized in
this room, right?
Yeah, I'm glad you raised yourhand.
I was like, oh, that'ssurprising.
No, we're good, we're a Baptistchurch.
I thought what If you werebaptized?
(29:09):
Then you publicly declared andenacted that you are dead and
you are alive in Christ.
You publicly declared that youwere basically executed,
spiritually speaking, andeverybody should, by this point,
know that you're put to deathto this world and this world is
put to death to you.
(29:29):
As Paul says in other places, Iam crucified to the world, the
world is crucified to me.
Put to death, therefore,whatever belongs to your earthly
nature.
So the earthly nature here,this Greek word that he's using,
is actually just oneinteresting phrase, which just
means dirt.
It doesn't mean nature.
(29:54):
The English is trying to helpus understand the meaning here,
so it's not a bad, badtranslation.
But also it's like what Paul istrying to say is something
metaphorical, not direct.
He's trying to say put to deatheverything that belongs to this
land.
Put to death everything thatbelongs to your dirt.
If you're dead to this world,then you're buried in it and you
don't need to live out thethings that are consistent with
(30:16):
the stuff that you're always allaround, all the time.
You are meant to be living alife that is altogether
different, even though you'recovered in a sense with the
world.
The world is all over us.
We, like worldly secular people, designed our clothing.
Probably People who don't knowJesus sewed it together.
(30:36):
People who don't know Jesussold it to us.
But Paul says put to deatheverything that's connected to
this land in which you're buried, because one day you are going
to be revealed in glory.
So put to death anything thatis putting to death that hope in
you.
Put to death anything that isattempting to put that hidden
(30:59):
life in Christ to death in you.
Put to death anything that'sconnected to this life that
you've left behind.
It's no longer yours.
Let it die.
And I wish I could get moreinto all the different things.
The whole sermon series couldcome out of Colossians 3, but
don't worry, I won't do thattoday.
Today, sexual morality,impurity, lust, all these things
(31:21):
, things that are connected toidolatry, things that are
actually image worship.
It's making something elseother than God, god.
Let's move on to the next thing, the next slide there.
Tracy, you used to walk inthese ways in the life you once
lived, in the life you oncelived the life you once lived.
You don't live this way anymore.
(31:42):
But if we take that on and wemake that mistake, god isn't
trying to condemn us, but he istrying to cleanse us of those
things that are consistent withthat old life.
Amen, on to the next slide,tracy.
And the same thing with thosethings anger, rage, malice,
slander.
Is that consistent with thejesus we serve?
No, moving right along, do notlie to each other.
Same thing with those thingsAnger, rage, malice, slander.
Is that consistent with theJesus we serve?
No, moving right along, do notlie to each other.
(32:03):
Why?
Because we literally serve theGod of truth.
His law says that he alwaystells the truth and he never
lies.
So why does it make sense forpeople who are literally living
in him not just in his household, but literally having our life
built up in him?
Why does it make sense for usto be liars?
Why does it make sense for usto deceive one another or tell
each other something, to makeeach other feel better about
(32:25):
something, or even to makeourselves look better than we
would like to?
Why?
Because we put on the new self.
Notice this putting on thing.
He's moving on into clothes now.
At first he was talking aboutdirt, now he's talking about
clothes.
It's very confusing, Iunderstand, but it's also very
clear in that our day-to-dayliving in this world in which
we're buried, we ought to beclothed with the Christ in whom
(32:49):
we find our life.
So he goes on.
It's being renewed in knowledge, in the image of its creator.
That word renewed just meansupdated.
It's like when you get a newcomputer system or a phone and
it just updates hey, an update'sready, the other one's going to
be obsolete.
Everything you've been used toup until this point is all going
down tubes, okay, and at somepoint that's not going to be
supported anymore.
You're not going to need to goback there.
(33:09):
It's going to be updated, it'sgoing to be renewed.
How many of you guys arefrustrated by the way Windows
has changed over the years?
Come on, give me something, orApple or any of that.
It's frustrating because youget so familiar with how a thing
works, but God says that it'sthe same with us.
Sometimes we actually need tolet go of a way that we've lived
and survived in Christ even, orin order that we might be
(33:36):
renewed, updated, continuallyliving more into the life that
God has called us to live.
We're being renewed in intimateknowledge, in the image of our
creator.
Instead of worshiping images,instead of giving ourselves over
to idolatry and sexualimmorality and so on and so
forth, we are giving ourselvesover to the image of God in us
and the image of Christ that isconstantly being worked into us
(33:58):
like yeast into the dough.
Go on to the next slide there,tracy.
Why?
Because Christ is all and is inall and therefore, as God's
chosen people, holy and dearlyloved, clothe yourselves right.
So I want you, as we arerounding the plate here, I want
you to take a look at some ofthese virtues on the screen.
Now we see you know holy anddearly loved.
(34:20):
Okay, that's your identity.
You're already that.
By the way, you don't have tobe compassionate to be dearly
loved.
You don't even have to actgentle to be holy.
You are already holy.
God has set you apart as holy.
Now he's making you into theimage of holiness.
He's set you apart.
You are his special people.
You are his chosen one.
(34:40):
You are holy and dearly loved.
Now, as a result of thatidentity, clothe yourselves Now.
Take a look at this list?
Is there anywhere on thisscreen or on the page, as you're
looking at it, that you'rethinking that's not really me at
all, because there's a few forme and there's probably some in
(35:08):
your life that you're doinggreat maybe, and it's not about
performance but like, is itpresent?
It's not about performance,it's present.
Is this present in me?
Are you consistently gentle?
You're like, yeah, of course.
Are you gentle on theTrans-Canada Highway?
Are you gentle with yourdashboard on Gunningsville
Boulevard?
You know, that's the question.
(35:28):
Are you gentle with the kidthat stresses you out?
Are you patient with waiting,not just for annoyance to be
removed from your life, but areyou patient with God bringing
something good into your lifeyou believe he's promised you,
(35:50):
and so on.
This is not meant to shame us,but it should alarm us a little
if it's not present.
But it should alarm us a littleif it's not present, not
because God wants to condemn you, but because God wants to
(36:11):
cleanse everything off of you.
That isn't this.
And if you see the opposite ofthese things making its way into
your life, as contrasted in theverses before anger, rage,
malice, slander, gossip,whatever filthy language from
your lips it's not meant tocondemn you but to challenge you
.
And, yes, it's okay for youremotions, set on Christ, to feel
(36:32):
disturbed and alarmed thatthese are not present in you, so
that in that, god will meet youand impart it to you.
God says, if we confess oursins, he's faithful and just,
not only to forgive us our sinsbut to cleanse us of all
(36:53):
unrighteousness.
Anything that's not this.
So identify what's going on thisweek, what's going on with you
right now, in this hour, thatyou are not compassionate or
gentle or patient, that Godreally wants that for you
because he loves you so much andmaybe you really want it.
(37:14):
I pray you have such a deepdesire for this that you forget
about the stuff you used tothink was valuable.
A deep desire for this, thatyou forget about the stuff you
used to think was valuable andwhat binds them all together,
except love Agape.
It's the same word, by the way,that's used here for dearly
loved Agapeo.
Not just agape strictly, butlike a love of delighting in.
(37:37):
You're loved.
And you're dearly loved, you'redearly delighted in, you're
dearly adored.
God just wants to wrap you inhis arms and just fill you with
his delight for you, and that'swhat he wants us to do for each
other.
All of us are quirky, whetherit's at New Hope Community
(38:00):
Church or anywhere else in theworld.
I think a person who's afollower of Jesus is a little
quirky and we just, you know,sometimes we just have to forget
about the grievance and thinkabout the God, who loves us, who
shows us this delight, looks atus as sons and daughters and
treat one another with that kindof delight, and it binds them
(38:24):
all together in perfect unity.
By the way, in Greek that'sjust one word, it's telios,
maturity.
It puts everything backtogether, all the things that
you're trying to working on hereand there and figuring that out
, repenting of this andconfessing that.
Well, love, it's going to putall that stuff together in one
big ball called perfection.
Not a perfection offlawlessness, but of being fully
(38:48):
grown up.
So the question is here are yougoing to grow up to live in that
perfect unity, bound togetherby love?
Are you going to grow up?
You might be 85 years old todayand there's some part of you
that is not gentle or impatient,that's not in touch with God,
(39:08):
but that means you need to growup and that's good.
Let God tell you to grow up inthe most loving way that he
possibly can, which is hey, Ilove you so much.
I love you as if you were thefavorite.
He loves all of us as if we'rethe favorite child.
You might have lost that alongthe way, but he delights in you
(39:30):
so much and that's why he wantsyou to grow into who he is
already making you.
So next, slide there.
Tracy, you are put to death.
Live like it.
There's something in your lifelike just get the word stop,
(39:51):
just stop.
If there is something in yourlife and I know it's not that
easy always but make acommitment today and a
commission to yourself that youwill stop, that you will rest,
that you will put to restanything in you that is putting
you to shame, what is thatsecret thing that you hope
(40:11):
nobody else finds out about?
And today I was in prayer and Ireally got a sense that the
Lord was really showing me thateverything that has put me to
shame will be put to death.
Everything that is putting youto shame right now, even if
(40:35):
nobody else knows about it, willbe put to death.
Knows about it will be put todeath.
The question is are you goingto wait until another time when
your life is spent and there isno more time?
Or are you going to start todayto stop, to put to rest those
(40:55):
things that are putting you toshame, to put them to death
through Christ?
As Paul says, by the Spirit,put to death the misdeeds of the
body.
Repent of your sin, confessJesus is the only way to receive
life and salvation and joy andhope.
Jesus Christ is the only way.
(41:18):
So why are you entertaining anyother avenue?
Some of you watching online.
Maybe you're only just checkingout the church for the first
time, maybe it's the 17th time.
That's totally cool.
We live in Moncton, by the way,if you want to come see us Now,
here's the thing.
Well, moncton area, you knowSteve's Mountain, whatever,
we're here, we're local.
But here's the thing.
Maybe you just are scrollingthrough and you're just watching
this.
Today I'm going to speakdirectly to you and tell you
(41:40):
Jesus Christ is the only otherway, and you kind of already
know that, don't you?
And the only reason why youtuned in today was because God
wanted you to hear these words,which is that Jesus Christ is
the only way to live the lifethat you've been longing for,
and his love for you is deepenough and the power that Jesus
exalted by dying on the crossfor you is enough to bring you
into the folds of love.
(42:00):
It's enough.
Is it enough for you?
Is it enough for us?
Are we going to grow up andlive the way that God has called
us to live today?
You're put to death.
Will we live like it?
Father, we thank you and praiseyou for your presence, and we
thank you.
We thank you for your constantlove for us.
(42:24):
We thank you for your intimacywith us, whether it's just that
little shoulder pain or some ofthe deep hurts that are
completely ripping our gutsapart right now.
Maybe it's a sickness that aspouse is enduring, or it's a
sin that we need to overcome.
God, we confess Jesus is theonly way.
(42:48):
Help us not entertain anotheravenue.
We are put to death in Christ.
Let us live like it In Jesus'name, amen.
Amen.
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