The Supernatural Christian Life, Part 1

Lord God, we come before you this morning. Having worshiped you in song. Having sought after you through the worship. Seeking to lay hold of you.

Lord, we ask that you would give to us eyes to behold Christ. We ask that you would help us. To see. The one who is high and lifted up, seated on his throne.

The King of kings and the Lord of Lords, the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Help us, God, to behold your Son Jesus, reveal yourself to us this morning. Lord, I pray for anyone who is here. Who currently is dead.

In their transgression and sin. That for anyone who is here, who has yet to be raised. I pray, Lord, that even now, you would be grabbing hold of their attention and that Father, you might draw them to yourself. That Lord, you by your Spirit would perform a miracle.

You are the great physician. You are the one who can perform miracles, and we ask this morning, Lord, for the miracle of salvation for anyone who is here, who has yet to be born again. I pray Lord that you would honor the preaching of your word, that you would be honored by the reading and the explanation of your word this morning. Lord, go before us and minister to us.

Give us eyes to see Christ's ears to hear him speak. And we do pray, Lord, for. Other churches in our city. Throughout our state and our nation.

Where the word is being preached, we pray, Lord, that you would add your blessing. To the reading and to the preaching of your word this morning. We pray for our nation, Lord, that you would so move. In this nation and in particular in the churches of this nation to where Lord, there would be a third great awakening.

We ask for revival, we ask for power, we ask for deliverance, we ask for forgiveness, Lord, for our sins. And that Lord, you would begin. A mighty work Let it begin with us. Lord, we bring ourselves to you.

And we lay ourselves. At the throne of your grace, at your nail scarred feet, and we pray, Lord, that you would in fact do business with us this morning. And that you might cause us, Lord, to gain ground. In our growth We pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. I want to begin, this morning with a couple of acknowledgments. Perhaps it might better be said to call them confessions. I'm gonna confess.

The first thing that I need to confess is that I believe that I suffer from a form of what psychologists would call OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder. Please don't misunderstand me. I am not endorsing the use of such a label.

I am simply acknowledging for argument's sake that if there is such a thing as OCD, I believe that I have it. This condition began manifesting itself during my middle school years and for a bit of context, it might be helpful for you to know that prior to middle school, I was an obese boy. I was overweight. You could say that I was fat.

Not that I'm skinny now, but I was obese as a young lad in elementary school, and I still have vivid memories of things that were said to me that were hurtful. I remember a kid named Charlie who would often call me fat boy. On another occasion, I was swimming, and a girl named Paula sang out to me. Fatty and Skinny were sitting in the bath.

Fatty got out and Skinny left. Needless to say, Not funny I remember looking ahead to middle school and being extremely scared of the fate that awaited me there. One of the requirements in middle school back then was that the students showered after PE and students were not permitted to wear bathing suits in the shower. You get the point About that time, my mom and her boyfriend sat me down and they asked for a commitment from me.

If we buy a set of weights along with a weight bench, they asked, will you promise to use it every day? I guess they were trying to tell me something. My answer was yes. That summer, I dropped 35 pounds and I entered junior high unrecognizable.

I remember one kid looking at me with an absolute confused look like he knew he had seen me before and he wasn't quite sure, and he said, Carlos? It did not dawn on me that I would have been so different looking to my peers after 3 months of a summer. It was during this time that my OCD went into overdrive. I was consumed with my weight along with the exercise regime that I created for myself.

I counted every single calorie and I weighed myself every single day, at least once. And I would shift myself on the scale to try to make myself seem lighter than perhaps I really was. I was fearful that a few extra calories would absolutely ruin my physique, and so I would exercise just a little bit more to protect myself. I would jump rope every day.

If I messed up prior to 1000, I would start all over again. If I jump rope 999 times and then messed up, I would start afresh. 123. Every week, I would get on my slant board and I would do 5000 setups nonstop, taking me about 3 hours to accomplish the task.

Over the years, I have seen this OCD expressed in a variety of ways. my wife noticed it early in our marriage when I questioned her for her failure to iron my boxer shorts. Since then, my wife has been convinced that I struggle with some form of OCD. She's so gracious, but every once in a while, she will say something to the effect of your OCD.

my default setting is to want things in order. I will open the cabinet and I will align the mugs perfectly, realigning them so that they are all in proper place. I will redo the bath towels in the cabinet so that they are perfectly situated, lined up, and in their proper place. I should have joined the military.

I know that some of you are thinking, what is so bad about that? I like to keep myself in shape. I like for my possessions to be in their proper order. I think it is professional to have my boxer shorts neatly pressed.

If that is what you are thinking, welcome to the OCD club. I suppose my OCD wouldn't be such a problem if I applied my condition to things of the Lord. In 25 years of being a believer, I have to admit that I have not always been obsessive compulsive about the Lord. In our passage this morning, we will learn that having OCD for Jesus is actually a good thing.

I thought about entitling this sermon being OCD for Jesus, but rest assured that is not the title, but I am hoping that this introduction will make sense as we dive into the text. I wanna ask you to turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter 3 verse 1, and as you are turning in your Bible, let me provide a little bit of context. Paul's letter to the Colossians is similar to other letters and that Paul presents doctrine ahead of duty. He transitions from a position to practice.

He announces the truth and then he applies, applies the truth to our lives and for example, we see this pattern in the book of Ephesians, 1st 3 chapters doctrine, last 3 chapters duty, and we see this in the book of Romans as well, the 1st 11 chapters, it's the gospel. In the beginning in chapter 12 and verse 1, he says, therefore, by the mercy of God to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable. We, we go from doctrine to duty, from position to practice, from the truths to how those truths get applied and worked out in our lives, and we see this pattern in Colossians as well.

For all intents and purposes, the first two chapters address doctrine.

And inside of the doctrine, he gives to us a high and exalted view of King Jesus. I encourage you to read about what Paul says concerning Christ and be blown away by the glory and the majesty and the greatness of Almighty God. He gives to us doctrine, but beginning in chapter 3, we see this, this transition. In chapter 3, he begins to focus on our practice, how we live our lives, he begins to shift away from, the vertical, if you will, and towards the horizontal in our lives.

Beginning in chapter 3, as Paul paints the picture of how we are to live, he addresses our relationship to Christ first. It's our relationship to Christ, and then our relationship to self, it's how we live our own lives, it's putting off and putting on, and then from there he will advance to our relationships to believers within the church, from there to the family relationships. Wives, to husbands and children, to parents, and then he will move towards the relationship between slave and masters if you will, our working relationships and then beyond that, our relationships with the unsaved, and so this is, this is what he does, throughout chapters 2 and chapter 3 and so with this big picture in mind, I would like for us to read Colossians chapter 3 beginning in verse 1.

If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. The actual title of our message this morning is The Supernatural Christian Life. The Supernatural Christian Life, 8 truths that we must embrace in order to experience the supernatural Christian life.

I could easily have entitled this The Resurrected Life, The Abundant Life, the victorious Life, you get the idea, but I want to say upfront that in my preparation for this message, I originally intended to present 8 truths, I will. Over the course of two sermons, this is the first of a two-part sermon entitled The Supernatural Christian Life. We will have time today to cover the 1st 4 truths. Let's begin with truth number 1, we have been raised up with Christ.

We have been raised up with Christ. You see that in verse 1A. If then you have been raised up with Christ. The word if in the Greek is known as a first-class condition.

It is best understood as since, since then you have been raised up. Paul is not saying that his readers might not be raised as much as he is affirming the fact that they have been raised. The larger context makes it clear that Paul affirms that his readers have been raised. Consider the larger context all the way back beginning in chapter 1 verse 2, Paul calls them saints and faithful brethren in Christ.

In verse 3, he affirms their faith in Christ Jesus as well as their love for the saints. In verse 6, Paul declares to the Colossians that the gospel has come to you, he says, constantly bearing fruit and increasing. In verse 13, Paul tells them that God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and he has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. In verse 21 of chapter 1, he proclaims that although you were formerly alienated and hostile in your mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

Then in chapter 2 verse 6, Paul affirms his readers to be believers when he says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, he assumes that they have received by faith the Lord Jesus Christ. Into their lives and so he says, so walk in him, having been firmly grounded, firmly rooted, grounded on the foundation of the gospel. In verse 10, he says that in him you have been made complete. Complete, circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him, who raised Jesus from the dead.

In verse 13 of chapter 2, when you were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he, God made you alive together with him, Christ, having forgiven us all of our transgressions. And so with the larger context, we are left with no doubt that Paul assumes his readers to be Christ followers. They are in fact as 3:1 declares, raised up with Christ. The word you have been raised up is sunnegerthite, Sunnegerthite.

It is indicative erist passive, second person plural. And if that doesn't make sense, don't worry about it. It is a statement of fact. You have in fact been raised up.

It's a done deal. It has already happened. The passive indicates that it is something that has happened to the Colossians. They did not raise themselves, rather, God is the one who took action.

God is the one who raised them up with Christ. And we should also note that Paul is not speaking to one person alone. He has every Colossian believer in mind when he says you, you all, if you want to add a southern sense to it, y'all have been raised up with Christ. Paul's declaration here underscores the fact that prior to being raised up, we were dead.

We were dead A physically dead person has no ability. Whatsoever to respond to To physical stimuli. If you were to present an in and out double cheeseburger animal style along with french fries and a chocolate milkshake to a dead person, I guarantee he will not respond. There will be no sign of life.

Likewise, prior to being raised up, we were dead and we had no ability to respond to spiritual stimuli. We did not, nor could we raise ourselves. But according to this verse, we, we have been raised. And this implies change.

It means that we are no longer dead in our transgression and sin. It means that we are raised to life, it means that we are alive, not physically alive, per se, but spiritually alive. We are physically alive, but he's talking about spiritual life. We are new creatures in Christ.

That's what the Bible says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things are new. This is something that we did not cause to happen.

The prophet Jeremiah in 1323 interrogates us with a question. Can the Ethiopian change his spots or his skin, or can the leopard change his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. In short, Jeremiah is saying that if an Ethiopian can change his skin and if a leopard can change his spots, then we have the ability to do good to the glory of God.

But the Ethiopian cannot change his skin. The leopard cannot change his spots. We know this to be true, and it follows that we cannot do good to the glory of God apart from his work in our lives. We are unable in and of ourselves to raise ourselves so that we might live to the glory of God.

Being raised required nothing less than a supernatural work of God, and our Christian lives then is a supernatural life. Paul is telling his readers that such a miracle, such a supernatural work of God has taken place in their lives when God raised them up with Christ. Our being raised is linked to the fact that Christ himself has been raised, and Paul says we have been raised up with Christ. Implied in the statement is the fact that Jesus himself was raised.

If we look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, there Paul bends over backward to make a big deal about the literal death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul declares that Christ died, he was buried. raised, and appeared to hundreds. He goes on to say that if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching and our faith is in vain, and we are of all men most to be pitied.

The fact is, is that he was raised and we were raised up with him through our faith in him. Implied in Colossians 3:1 is that something powerful has happened to us. In Ephesians 1:18-20, Paul prays for his readers to know the surpassing greatness of his power to us who believe. God's great power is available to us who believes, and Paul goes on to say that God's power to us is in accordance with the working of the strength of his.

which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the very power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power whereby we have been raised up with Christ. Do you believe that? Do you embrace that?

In your heart of hearts, do that to be true, that you have been raised up with Christ? In Colossians 3:1, our being raised is clearly and directly linked to the historical and literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and I ask you this morning, again, have you been raised up with Christ? Have you experienced a repentance over your sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope for salvation? Has the miracle of the new birth taken place in your life whereby you are a new creation?

Have you been born again? Have you come all the way over to faith in Christ? Have you crossed the line? Have you been transferred from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light?

Have you entered into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there a new law at work in the members of your body waging war against the law of sin and of death? Have you been raised up? With Christ Implied in Paul's declaration is the fact that his readers can be confident that they have been raised up with Christ.

Earlier in chapter 2 verse 12, Paul says, chapter 2 verse 12 of Colossians, you were also raised up with him. Through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. We were raised up with him, how through faith in the working of God to raise his son Christ from the dead, through belief in Him, through trust in Him, Through acknowledging him as our savior, as our Lord, as our King, we through faith in him, he says, have been raised up from the dead. The Colossians through faith in the resurrection of Jesus have themselves been raised up with Christ and by way of extension, we too are raised through our faith in Christ alone.

This is absolutely foundational to the next truth that we must embrace if we are to experience the supernatural Christian life. Number 2, we have a responsibility. To relentlessly pursue Christ. We see this in verse 1B.

We have a responsibility to relentlessly pursue Christ. He says keep seeking the things above where Christ is, keep seeking. The command to seek is present tense, active voice. It is a command to be continually obeyed, whereas we were passive in being raised up with Christ, we are now, we are now active in our pursuit of the things above, to be specific, we are to seek after Christ actively.

Before being raised, we had not the ability to seek after the Lord. Paul in Romans chapter 311 underscores this fact when he says, there is no one who seeks for God. John says it this way in John 6:44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, no one can come, no one will seek, unless God draws that person to me, Christ says. This passage indicates that no one will seek after the Lord unless he is drawn by the Father to do so.

Paul to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:1 declares that we were dead in our transgression and sin, and again as dead folks, we were not seeking after the Lord. Yet we are now told that we have been raised up with Christ, and this resurrection, if you will, this being raised up with Christ is the basis for our seeking after the Lord. The reason that we can actively seek after Christ is because God acted upon us and he raised us up with Christ and we are now given command to seek after him.

The writer of Hebrews declares in Hebrews 4:16 that we are to draw nearer to his throne of grace, we are to seek after him, we are to come to him and behold the beauty of the Lord and worship and adore and seek Him.

And we're to do this with confidence. You will recall Pastor Mike's message on January 21 in which we learned that Mary chose the one thing. The one thing that was most important. She chose to sit at the feet of Jesus.

She listened to him and without doubt, she beheld his face, she stared at him, she looked at her King of kings and Lord of Lords. In Psalm 27:4, the psalmist declares one thing. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all of the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple. Christ is to be the object of our affection.

We are called to love the Lord our God, to love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind, we are to love Him. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are reminded of the fact that as we behold him, the beauty of the Lord, Paul says, we are being transformed from one level of glory to the other. You see, the key to the transformation in our life is that we behold Christ through the eyes of faith and that we see him. Paul knows that the focus on the resurrected Lord is foundational to supernatural Christian living, and in our passage today, we're given charge to keep seeking the things above, namely Christ.

He says where Christ is. I ask you this morning. Are you seeking hard? After Christ.

Is he the supreme object of your affection? Do you desire him more than anything or anyone else? When left with a choice between seeking the Lord. And playing video games, what do you choose?

Do you spend more time seeking a relationship or something or someone versus seeking the Lord. The Lord is the someone that you should prioritize as the one that you spend time with and seek after. Jesus himself directs us in Matthew 6:33, seek ye first, seek ye first. The kingdom of God.

The psalmist in 42:1 says, as the deer pants, For the water brooks, so my soul pants for thee, oh God, and so I ask again, do you hunger and do you thirst after the Lord? Brothers and sisters, we have been raised up so that we might be enabled and empowered to seek after the the supreme object of our affection. Do you hunger and thirst? If your answer is no, no, I do not hunger and thirst after the Lord.

I am not relentlessly pursuing him, then I would encourage you to review the first truth. And then to couple that with the next truth, number 3, number 3, we have a sufficient resource in the person of Christ. We have a sufficient resource in the person of Christ. Note what Paul says.

Since then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. This is a loaded statement. This statement is chocker full. of truth for us to wrap our mind around, implied is the fact that Christ was raised bodily from the dead and then ascended onto the right hand of the Father.

I was brought up in the Roman Catholic Church before being born again, coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I attended mass regularly and I recall spending much time focusing on the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucified Jesus was always displayed on the crosses in the Catholic Church. I remember having a necklace with an image of Jesus hanging from the cross, but what I do not remember is any emphasis on the fact that Christ was raised bodily from the dead and he ascended onto the right hand of the Father.

One pastor writing about how the resurrection changes everything says this, and I quote, Books like The Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney, The Jesus Gospel by Liam Gallagher, and Pierced for Our Transgressions by Steve Jeffrey, Mike Ovey, and Andrew Sack. All help us greatly. I love the fact that he affirms how important it is to focus our attention on the death of Christ and all of what that means for us. He says, I am not concerned that there is too much emphasis on the cross, and I would agree, I think.

He says, I am, however, anxious that in surveying the wondrous cross, we also study the resurrection. We must remember that the cross is just as empty as the tomb and Christ is now glorified. Having completed his work, the truth is we cannot be truly cross-centered without also being empty grave-centered. Jesus was not just our prophet and priest, he is our reigning king.

At the cross, he says, we learned true humility, our hopeless sinfulness and our need of God. At the empty tomb, we fully appreciate what Christ has achieved for us and received power to live for him. A deeper, fuller insight in the truth of Jesus' resurrection, being raised from the dead will cause our lives to be radically transformed. The apostle Paul understood this, and in our passage today places great emphasis on the fact that Christ was raised and then he ascended onto the right hand of God.

We do not find Jesus hanging on the cross. Instead we discover him alive and well, having been raised bodily from the dead and ascended onto the right hand of the Father. We seek and we serve a risen King. Indeed, Christ is seated on his throne from where he rules and reigns over the affairs of men.

He is not a powerless potentate but a conquering king. He has conquered death and will one day conquer every force of wickedness across all of creation. The ascension of Jesus is a critically important doctrine. John Piper provides us with 6 reasons why the ascension matters, 6 reasons why the ascension matters.

You might, you might wanna write these down in your notes. Reason number 1, why the ascension matters, Jesus continues to work after the ascension. When he declared from the cross, it is finished. He was referring to the atoning work necessary to secure redemption for our sin.

The work of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins was completed, but he was buried, raised, beheld, and ascended, and from his throne on high, Jesus continues to work. He is at work right now as I speak. He is working, he is not sleeping, he is not slumbering, but brother and sister in Christ, he is at work and we can take that to the bank. Luke and Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 2, Luke says, the first account I composed Theophilus about all that Jesus began to do and teach.

In his first account in the Gospel according to Luke, he focused his attention on all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. The critical word began indicates that his ascension does not mark the cessation, but the continuation of his work, and Luke's second book. The book of Acts is all about the acts of the risen Lord and how God, how Christ gives birth to the church, how he causes the church to grow, and how it spreads across the land.

Well, let's look at reason number 2, why the ascension matters.

The ascended, Lord Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to his people. After the resurrection, Jesus told his followers, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter explains, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. God promised in Joel 2:28, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and this promise is fulfilled by the exalted heavenly Lord Jesus, the ascended Lord sent the Spirit to be present with his people, the Spirit is with us, brothers and sisters, to empower us for worldwide mission and to transform our lives so that we might live new lives reflecting our King.

Reason number 3, why the ascension matters. Jesus' ascension is his heavenly enthronement as King. John in Revelation 3:21 quotes Jesus is saying, He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. And so Jesus here describes himself as sitting on his throne that signifies kingship.

He currently sits on his heavenly throne where he reigns as king from on high. Reason number 4, why the ascension matters. Jesus' ascension is his return to his father. He predicted this prior to his death.

Prior to his death on the cross, Jesus says, I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and I am going to the Father. I am returning to the Father, John 16:28. He predicted this after his resurrection. Jesus said to Mary, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am sending, I am ascending to my Father and your Father.

And Jesus describes this after his ascension in Revelation 3:21 again where he describes himself as sitting on his throne alongside of his father. And so the ascension matters because it represents Jesus's ascension to, his, his return to his father. Let's go to reason 5, why the ascension matters. The ascended Jesus is our mediator and great high priest.

He's our mediator. He represents us to God. He is our great high priest. He is the unique mediator between God and man.

His death and resurrection secure our forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation with God. Note also that the exalted Lord Jesus is now in heaven, interceding for his people as our true high priest and our advocate. He's praying for us even now. He is on our side.

He is looking out over our affairs, and he is at work from his throne on high and to work good in our lives. And during his earthly ministry, Jesus' work was geographically limited. He didn't teach in Ethiopia while healing in China, but now he is at work everywhere and he is able to hear and to respond to his people's prayers, no matter the time and no matter the place. He sympathizes with our struggles and he promises to do whatever we ask in his name according to his will.

Reason number 6, why the ascension matters. The ascended Lord Jesus will return as king and he will judge someday. He gets into that in verse 4. When he talks about how when he appears.

When he appears. We're gonna have to save that for the next sermon though, guys, as tempting as it is, for now, let us embrace the fact that in our ascended Jesus, we have a tremendous resource. And we do well to access such a wonderful resource, to seek hard after him. Well, let's forward to the next truth.

That we must embrace in order to experience the supernatural Christian life. Number 44, we have a responsibility to control and redirect our thought life toward heavenly realities. We have a responsibility to control and redirect our thought life toward heavenly realities. In verse 2, Paul says, set your mind on the things above.

Not on the things that are on the earth. Set your mind. On things above, he begins by stating it positively. Set your mind on things above.

This is the second command in our passage this morning. First, we were commanded to keep seeking the things above where Christ is, and the second command tells us to set our mind on things above. In a way, this is a further fleshing out of the first command. But it calls us to specifically engage our mind.

We are commanded to think God's thoughts after him. But how do we do that? How do we set our mind on things above? What is the key for this?

The answer to this question is in doing what we are doing right now. What we are doing right now is an attempt by God's grace, having been raised to set our mind on things above. And I submit to you. That the word of God, the Bible is essential in our efforts to heed this command.

Near the end of this chapter, Paul in verse 16 says, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your heart to God. He emphasizes the importance of letting the word of Christ richly dwell within us. This is key to our setting our mind on things above.

Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man thinks, he is. We must allow for gospel truths to shape our thinking. We are new creatures in Christ and we are called to think and to act accordingly. In Romans 12:2, he says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed and how does the transformation happen?

He says, by the renewing of your mind and our minds are renewed through the living word of God. This, this book is described as living. And active. It is living, it is alive, it has the ability to impart life to dead people, and it has the ability to cause those who are a lot to sustain life, and it has the ability to cause life to grow.

This is what we need in order that as we meditate on and study and allow ourselves to, to marinate our minds in the meat of the word of God, through it, we can grow. Natural revelation can take us so far, we need special revelation. We need scripture to direct our thinking heavenward towards Christ. I would like to add that this command ought not to be received as a burden.

Oh man, I've got to seek after the Lord, I've got to set my mind on things above, what a burden. It is not to be received as a burden, brothers and sisters. It is not so much that we have to keep seeking the things above and setting our mind on things above, but rather this is something that we get to do. We have been empowered to do this by being raised up with Christ, we can now praise God, set our affection on the Lord, seek after him, and set our mind on things above.

He has given to us this ability through his own resurrection from the dead and by virtue of the fact that we are new creatures in Christ, and so we ought to respond appropriately. It is a gospel privilege that we have been enabled to and actually get to set our minds on things above. In giving this command, Paul is not being law-oriented. He has already denounced a law-oriented approach to spirituality at the end of chapter two.

You see, Paul is not about through law making ourselves spiritual before the Lord, it doesn't happen that way. Just read with me if you will, backing up a bit to Colossians 2, beginning in verse 16. Listen to what Paul says. Therefore, let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, but he says the substance belongs to Christ, they were pointers to Christ, they were the shadow, but don't focus your attention on the shadow, but look to the one who is the reality, who is The substance of what the shadow points to, look to Christ, this has been his burden the whole time.

Look to Christ, he gives them a picture of an elevated Christ and Paul at the end of Colossians chapter one says, we proclaim Christ, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom that we might present every man complete in Christ, we proclaim Christ, he says to this end we labor. Striving according to his power that mightily works within us. What does Paul do when it's time to counsel people? What does Paul do in order to help people to be what God wants them to be?

He preaches Christ, the substance belongs to Christ, the power belongs to Christ, it is in him that we are able to live to the glory of God and to experience the supernatural Christian. Life. He says in verse 18 of chapter 2, let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen inflated without cause by his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head. Who is the head?

Christ is the head. Hold fast to him, look to him is what he is saying. Not holding fast to the head from whom the entire body being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is from God. God causes the growth as we are connected to the head.

He is the one that we must set our mind on. He says if you have been, if you have died with Christ through the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. This is a law-oriented approach to salvation, this is a do this, don't do that approach, and it's void of Christ, it's void of the gospel, he says these things all refer to things destined to perish with the using.

He goes on to say, these are matters which have to be sure, the appearance of wisdom.

They, they look good, they sound good, they have the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but notice what he says, they are of no value against fleshly indulgence. If we want to experience the supernatural Christian life, we must affirm and embrace the fact that we have been raised up with Christ. It's through faith in him as we behold him, as we gaze upon him, as we set our mind on things above on Christ, that through him we can experience the supernatural Christian life that God, I believe wants for us to experience.

I think it is appropriate to say That we must be, we must be so heavenly minded that we can be of some earthly good.

You will notice that Paul then makes his point in the negative. He tells us not to set our mind on things of the earth. We must avoid any and all forms of worldly thinking. Such thinking will not facilitate our experience of the supernatural Christian life.

The world seeks after fame and fortune, the world seeks after personal pleasure, the the worldly person focuses on personal pursuits. We are not to set our mind on the things of this world. The writer of Psalm one gives helpful perspective when he says, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked nor stands in the path of the sinner, nor does he sit, he says, in the seat of the scoffer. The blessed man avoids worldly influence.

He is careful about the company he keeps. The psalmist goes on to say in verse 2, but his delight, his delight is in the law of the Lord, God's word, and in his law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers. How do we set our minds on things above?

It's through the word of God, meditating on the word of God, allowing it to give shape to us. And so meditating on and memorizing God's word is a critical component of the blessed life. It is essential if we are to set our minds on things above. The story goes, we're getting close to the end, so be patient, but the story goes about a talented singer.

He was a Christian man and the world offered tremendous opportunity for him. After an audition with a New York radio station, he was offered a lucrative contract. However, he was told that he would have to avoid religious themes and he would have to entertain in a secular manner. And so this Christian man felt torn.

When he returned home, he found a poem that his burdened mother had left for him to read, and he read that poem. As he read that poem, he made the difficult decision to reject the contract offer and to commit his musical career to Christ. This talented singer put the poem to music and the next day, he sang it at his father's church. Within a short period of time, he was offered a position with a Chicago radio station where he could use the gospel songs that he loved.

It was there that he met a young and fiery evangelist who asked him if he would be willing to sing at his crusades. The evangelist was a man named Billy Graham, and the gospel singer was George Beverly Shea, and the name of that poem placed on his piano by his praying mother, I'd rather have Jesus. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be his than have riches untold.

I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land. I would rather be led by his nail pierced hand. Than to be the king of a vast domain or to be held in sin's dreads sway. I would rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today.

I'd rather have Jesus than vain applause. I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I would rather be true to his holy name than to be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway.

I would rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. At the age of 23, George Beverly Shea decided to commit his talents and his time to the Lord. He chose to set his mind on things above, and the rest, as they say, is history. Perhaps you are being faced with a difficult decision.

You can either choose the high road or the low road. You can choose to set your mind on things above or you can yield it to the worldly way. Perhaps you are focusing too much of your attention on frivolous things. Your pursuits will not facilitate an experience of the supernatural Christian life.

You spend hours playing video games. Watching TV, surfing the internet, face to face with Facebook, Snapchat, and other forms of social media, all the while spending little if any time seeking the Lord and setting your mind on things above. I want to encourage you today, since through faith in the resurrected Christ, you have been raised up to seek hard after Christ and to set your mind on things above. In my next sermon, we will pick up with truth number 5 and complete part 2 of this message.

But if you are here, If you are here and you have never come to faith in Christ, you have never experienced a newborn, you have not been raised up with Christ. I encourage you today. To confess your sins to the Lord, to believe in the Lord, believe in the historical fact that he was crucified on a cross for your sins. He came not for the righteous, but the unrighteous, not for the holy but the unholy.

He came to seek and to save that which was lost. You need to believe that he died on the cross for your sin, that he was raised bodily from the grave. You can come to him right now by faith, and I encourage you, pray, pray now and ask now the Lord to forgive you and ask him to save you. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus declares, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and I will dine with him, and he with me. Therein is the invitation. Jesus, for all intents and purposes says, come, come, come to me. All who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

If that is you today, I would encourage you to come to him. Let us pray. Let's pray. As the ushers are coming forward to receive the offering.

And as the worship team prepares to lead us in the final song, Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for your word. We pray God that you might help us to have faith in you. Have faith in you, that Lord in you, we have been raised up with Christ, that Lord you through him have empowered us with an ability to seek after you, help us to see you as the risen and ascended Lord seated at your throne, and help us Lord to set our mind on things above.

Not on the things of this world. Help us, Lord, as we gather together later in our care group, bless the discussion, help us to further unpack what this means for us, use this, Lord for the purpose of our growth. We pray, Lord, that you would receive our offerings. Lord, we return back to you a small portion of what you have blessed us with, and we ask that you would use it for your glory, for the advancement of your kingdom, give wisdom to the elders to know how to use the resources that are entrusted to us as a local church, God.

And now, Lord, as we sing to you, may we sing to you, Lord, with all of our heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.