in 1961, an MIT meteorologist by the name of Edward Lorenz ran some routine experiments and he found some unusual results. What he discovered was that these little tiny insignificant changes in data in his experiments would have these long-reaching changes in his final results. So, just little bits of changes in the data, by the time the data got all the way worked out in his experiment, the final result was hugely different. And he and other scientists in the field of chaos theory called this the sensitive dependence on initial data. Doesn't really ring in your ears very well, does it? The sensitive dependence on initial data. But he later simplified the term to this. He called it the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect. In 1972, Lorenz presented a scientific paper entitled, Predictability. Does the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas? He's learning how to reach people, isn't he, with his message. And his premise was, of course, that a butterfly's wings flapping in one place, it doesn't really cause the tornado in Texas, but it sets off a chain of events that put into motion other events and other events and other events until finally there could be a tornado in Texas. So he wasn't bringing us that we have to stop all butterflies from flapping, but he was trying to get us to understand that little bits of changes have long term effects and they are multiplied over time. And the effects of those can look completely and drastically different. Well, in our lives, in our spiritual lives, there are certain things that I believe have the butterfly effect. One little, seemingly insignificant deed has snowballing effects that by the time it gets to its end result, the Lord has taken that deed and made it A hugely successful enterprise or the Lord has taken that deed and had it affect many, many people. There's also, I think, a reverse butterfly effect when we do not do certain deeds, that it has great effects down the line and they may not be all good effects. And so when we learn from Scripture, there are certain ways that we are to act or certain things we are to do. When we do those things, the butterfly effect, if you will, in our spiritual lives is that the Holy Spirit takes those acts and multiplies them because they're done to and for the glory of God. And when we have things in front of us that we are commanded to do from scripture that we refuse to do, there's also a negative butterfly effect in where the Holy Spirit in in his superintending of our lives, there are things that don't happen after that should be happening. It also happens in the realm of sin. One little capitulation to sin, as we learned last week and the week before, as we were learning how to put to death our sin. can have long and drastic effects in our lives. And so last week and the week before, we spent this time in what some would term a negative set of sermons. Negative, because I screamed at you over and over and over, kill it, kill it, kill it, kill it. And some might go away from that and say, why so negative? And I believe that is grace, don't you? Because that is Paul speaking to us, saying you have the ability to do this. It's not only the ability, but you have been. This is this is now who you are. Understand who you are. So you begin to act like that. Well, the beautiful thing is Paul didn't just leave us with throwing stuff off. Remember, we've been using this metaphor for clothing. And Paul says, take off the dirty garments, throw them away, take those things off that are not glorifying to God. But then he doesn't leave us standing there, does he? He tells us in the verses we'll look at today what we are to put on. And this mirrors who we are in Christ, because before we knew Christ, we were sinners. We were we were completely and totally filthy and enmity. We were enemies with God. And then the work of Christ on the cross is benefited to us, it's credited to us so that now we don't stand in our own sinfulness, we stand in Christ's righteousness. So we have put off all of the sinfulness in Christ and we have put on all of his righteousness in Christ so that we stand righteous before God. And the beauty is that since that has already happened, hear my words, since that has already happened, our life is different. And so now you need to understand this and this is going to sound like a broken record. This has been since I've gotten here that I have talked to you about my my my pleas to you from Scripture are not a plea for you to get righteous. They're a plea for you to act in light of the righteousness you've got that you have received, and if we get that mixed up, we're going to be you talk about a butterfly effect. We will all be great legalists, will we not? Because we'll have all of what we're supposed to do dangling in front of us and we'll spend our life climbing the ladder to God so that we might be righteous. At the same time, we say salvation is by grace through faith. We say it with our words and our life looks totally different. So this this concept is basic to the Christian life. It is definitely important. That's why Paul is getting to it now in these verses starting in chapter 12 or chapter three, chapter 12. We're going to add some verses, some chapters to Colossians, if that's OK with you. Chapter 3, verse 12 in Colossians, he has set us up through all of his teaching on the supremacy of Christ, through all of his teaching on what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, through all of that. Now, he finally gets to the point where he's telling us to start doing things, putting off and putting on. So if we miss the foundation, If we miss the foundation that what I'm calling you to, what Paul is calling us to, what Christ is calling us to is obedience to who we now are in Christ. If we miss that, I have failed and you will fail in your Christian life because you will do everything out of your own flesh in order to gain Christ. When Christ, you have gained through his work. So, if you're not already in Colossians 3, by now your Bible should be turning open to Colossians, just falling open on its own to Colossians. Colossians 3, we're going to read our passage here from verses 12, 13 and 14. I want to tell you that 12 through 17 is one paragraph in the Greek text. It's one paragraph. It's too much to handle in one sermon, so we're going to take it in two sermons and two outlines. But Paul begins a paragraph in verse 12 and finishes this in verse 17. So we're going to look at the split right down the middle today. We'll look at 12, 13 and 14. And what I want us to get out of this, what I want us to understand is what Paul tells us to put on. He does not say that it's already put on you. He's already said that, right? He said earlier, let's go back and put ourselves in context here. Let's go back. Verse five. Now, let's go to verse one, but not careful, go all the way back to one, one to keep us in context, but three, one, three, one is where we're going to start. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Four, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. So verse three is very clear. You have died and your life is, present tense, hidden with Christ in God. Verse five. Put to death therefore, so the therefore is pointing us back to those first four verses, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of these things the wrath of God is coming, in those you too once walked when you were living in them, but now You must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." Now, notice the language. He's commanding us to put these things off because we've already put on the new self. The new man is already here. The old man is gone. The new man is here. Therefore, the new man has a job description, and that's to put off the old and put on the new. It's already happened, and yet we are constantly fighting sin in this life, so we must continue the battle. Verse 11, here there's not Greek and Jews circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythians, slaves, free, but Christ is all and in all. Now, he's going to go to the positive side. This is our text for this morning in verse 12. He's already told us what to put off, what to put to death. Now, verse 12. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. So we have moved from putting off to now putting on. So we've understood what to put off already. We've talked about how to put that off in an entire sermon, how to do that, how to how to be open and aware of our sin and ready to crucify it. But now, Paul turns to what we are to put on. And you may feel like that we've gone from the negative to the positive. And I hate to burst your bubble here, but Paul's going to continue to meddle in your life, OK? He's going to continue to meddle in our life and telling us what our lives should look like. And he's going to use some strong language that we must do certain things. But remember, it's because we already have put off the old man and put on the new in Christ. That's what our job is now, is to act in light of who we now are. I'm going to tell you that these verses affect family life. These verses affect body life. These verses affect your work life. They affect your marriage. They affect how you parent. They affect how you obey parents. They affect every single relationship in your life. So just saying that alone should say that God has something to say to every single person in the room today with these verses. Amen. If you don't have relationships with any other person, put up your hand. OK, that person could leave, probably I wouldn't let them leave, but if somebody was bold enough to put up their hand, I'd let them leave because it might not pertain to them. No, I wouldn't either, because I know that when they went out of here, they'd engage people, wouldn't they? They may not think they have relationships, but we all have relationships. Some are close, some are distance, but we live in relationship with other human beings. The roadmap, what we're to put on, all the things Paul could tell us about our new life. He begins with putting on character traits and how we deal with other people. So here's what we'll see in these verses. Paul continues his teaching on sanctification. That little phrase, continues his teaching on sanctification, could go all the way into chapter four. I'll probably leave it out in future outlines. Paul is talking about, I think I have our attention now, that Paul has switched to sanctification. He's switched to that aspect of salvation in which you and I both have a part. All the other aspects of salvation, when we talk about the order of salvation, all those other aspects are all of God and none of man. Whether it's election, or it's justification, or glorification, or any of those other aspects, several more we could name, sanctification is the one that you and I are both active in. We cannot be active in it if there's not a first cause. The first cause is God acting in our life. causing us to have this righteousness of Christ to our account. But then after that, we partner with the Holy Spirit. And so this is what we're talking about all the way through the first few verses of chapter four. So what we'll see is that Paul continues his teaching on sanctification as he gives three commands concerning the Colossians' new garments, keeping in mind this picture of this metaphor that he's using. Because you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, Put on the proper inner garments and wear the garments well. That's what we'll look at today. But in the beginning of this proposition is because you were God's chosen ones. God's chosen ones. What does that mean? Paul just presupposes it here, doesn't he? He presupposes that the people that he is speaking to, the people who are the church at Colossae, who are believers, who are the faithful ones in Christ Jesus, he presupposes that these people are chosen by God, that God has set his affections on them in some way, that the reason they stand where they stand is because of God's work in choosing them. And these two words that he uses, he uses holy and below. The God's people are holy. They're set apart for God's glory. They are holy because of Christ's righteousness and holiness in them. But they're also beloved. They're loved by God. Now, this is beautiful because it takes all that Old Testament language about God's chosen nation, Israel, and places it right in His chosen people that are now in the new covenant. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 7. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession. Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, he has chosen you. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord said his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So God chose Israel for His own glory. He chose them because He set His affections on them. It wasn't because of their size. It wasn't because of their character. And we are chosen in Christ not because of our character or who we are or because we're such a good catch for the kingdom. We're chosen because God has elected before the foundations of the world to set His affection on a people. He's chosen that not only provide a way for those people to be saved, but He's chosen the people who would be saved. Romans chapter 1, the same language is used. This idea of being chosen and holy and beloved. Romans 1, 7, in the introduction to Romans. Paul begins his introduction by introducing himself and what he's doing. And then in verse 7, he's writing to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Loved by God and called to be saints. Holy ones. Righteous ones. Called to represent Christ on behalf of God. 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. All of that wonderful, rich language from the Old Testament applied to New Covenant believers that we are the people of God. And we are the people of God because God has chosen a people for Himself, not because a people chooses God. But because God has chosen the people for himself, turn to Ephesians chapter one passage, many of you could probably cite from memory, but we need to see it since we're talking about the electing purposes of God, the sovereign idea of God's choosing the people for himself. Ephesians chapter one, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. To the saints, so these are believers, holy ones, that's what the word means, who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Listen to the wording. Even as He chose us in Him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. So God chose us before the foundation of the world, before anything was, God had a plan to choose the people and provide redemption for them. And He chose us so that we would be holy and blameless. Holy and blameless. Now, if he chose a people that was going to be holy and blameless, and we know that the garden stands in between that choosing and today, something else has to happen, right? Because not one of us can be holy and blameless. Something else has to happen. So in God's great plan to elect a people for Himself, He also provided the means by which they would fulfill their calling to be holy and blameless. Look at verse 5. In love, he predestined us for adoption as son through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. So in the beloved one, in the loved one, Jesus Christ, he has blessed us, the beloved. So you and I become loved by God because He sees Christ, the beloved one, in us. We have been brought into His family. We are now considered to be in Christ. And this predestination that He has done, this choosing of us that has a goal from the foundation of the world, He is the one who carries it out in Christ on our behalf. And why? To the praise of the glories of His grace. Now, I don't mean to pop your bubble, but it ain't about you. It's not about me. It's all about the glory of God and Him bringing glory to Himself by concocting the plan, carrying the plan out, and making all the provisions for the plan His doing, so that, as Romans said, He will be what? Both the just and the justifier. He stands holy and righteous. Look at verse 7. In Him, so this is all the results of this election, of this choosing of us. In Him, that is in Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He sent forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. So we had a plan. He carried it out. He sent his son. You and I would have redemption of our sin. We would be forgiven of our sin because of the work that Christ did. And all of this would happen in him. I wish we had time to just exegete this passage and make a great sermon. Or 10. Verse 11, in Him we have obtained an inheritance. So this is in this election, in this choosing, we have obtained an inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Again, it's God working in the counsel of His will for His own glory. And He not only just says, oh, I think this should happen. He carries it out. He sees fit that it would be carried out. Verse 12, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. This is all the plan of God. All wrapped up, and more, wrapped up in this little word back in Colossians 3. This little word that tells us that we are God's chosen ones. For his glory, we are chosen to be holy and righteous. We are chosen to be set apart for him to do his will. Now, that is a true statement. And it is. Then if you are here in Christ, these words follow on this that look at the wording that he uses put on then as God's chosen ones, as God's chosen ones. This is how you should live. This is how you must live. This is who you are. So this is what you must put on. And he calls us holy and beloved. So we are we are set apart for Christ, which is one of that meaning of holy being sanctified, being separated for Christ. But we are also for his glory. And we are also Christ's righteousness has not only been credited to us, but now we reflect that to the world. And because of Christ, we are beloved. We are loved ones. You and I are loved by the Father, the creator of the universe. So this is a love letter to his children about what our life should be. Look what he says. First, he says, put on the proper inner garments. And I make this distinction between inner and outer because of the language that we'll see in these verses. The proper inner garments, he says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts. Compassionate hearts. Literally, this word means the bowels of mercy. That's what it means. It's an in-depth compassion. Now, we're going to try to look at these words a little bit, but they overlap. I'll tell you that right now. They overlap. One without the other is probably not fully complete in itself. And so when we're talking about compassionate hearts, I want you to think for a minute. Can you be compassionate in your mind alone? If it's just in your mind, it hasn't boiled over to compassion yet, has it? It can be empathy. It can be empathy for another person's situation. You can feel that. Compassion is when your empathy bubbles over to works. It bubbles over to acts of mercy. So it is feeling empathy for someone and acting upon it. Now, look what else it says right next after that. Compassionate hearts. Kindness. So what is kindness? See, these are great little actions for us here, because we take for granted meanings of words sometimes, don't we? And you will say something is kind or something is not kind, but how do you give a definition of what is kind? There's a simple definition of what is kind. It's doing good to someone. That's a kindness, is it not? It is doing good. It is recognizing a need and doing good. So, you put these two together, feeling empathy and acting upon it, and kindness. You can see that kindness is probably not going to be capable without a compassionate heart. Kindness flows from having a compassionate heart that is exercising empathy, exercising that compassion in the realm of doing something. I want you to notice here that when Paul starts dealing with all of these different issues, We're going to get into some offenses that can happen. And I want you to notice he never deals with the one who is doing the offending. So every time you're compassionate. You're not looking at someone else's needs and saying, I need to meet them so that I can have something that or that I can feel good about myself. You're looking at someone else's needs and you're saying you are going to do something kind for them, good for them, because you know that acts. will satisfy needs that they have. And so you will be ministering in the name of Jesus Christ so that you step back and Christ steps forward. Listen, both of these attitudes, both of these characteristics, these traits come together in Jesus. Listen to Matthew nine thirty six. When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. All of these characteristics are directly tied to the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's not only that he died on our behalf. And so now we have the ability to do these things and are commanded to. They are rooted in the very nature of Jesus himself. Matthew 14, 14, when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. He had compassion. It led to what? Inaction. It led to action. He healed those that he had compassion for. Matthew 15, 32. Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry lest they faint on their way. So Jesus, when he has compassion and he does have compassion, acts upon it, feeding people. This was the feeding of the four thousand feeding people or healing people. He worked at this and he saw it and he did something. And we are now being told that this is what we're to put on. So even though I'm telling you what to put on and Paul's telling us what to put on, realize that when you put this on, you will be working, you will be acting, you will be doing things. I read this week about a club called the $93 Club. Anybody ever heard of this? I'd never heard of this before. The $93 Club started at a Trader Joe's store in Menlo Park, California in 2009 in the summer. Somebody was standing in line. Her name was Carol Hazard was standing in line. The lady in front of her, Jenny Ware, was standing ready to check out and she didn't have her wallet. So she's standing there, doesn't have her wallet. She has $207 in groceries. The lady behind her, realizing that she wasn't going to get through the line for a while, she volunteered to pay the $207. That was Carol Hazard. I'll pay for it. She pays for the food. The women leave. Then comes a check in the mail for $300. And the lady says, thank you so much for your act of kindness. Take the other $93 and go pamper yourself. Get a massage or something. Well, this lady couldn't do that. And so she began to talk to her friends about what she should do with this $93. How was it to be used? Was it to be used selfishly? And she just couldn't make herself do that. So what she did is talk to her friends. Her friends gave her ideas. And what she did was she gave the money to a food bank in Silicon Valley. And it was their mission to help feed hungry people by picking up and preparing excess fresh food and delivering it daily to the social services agencies. And so she gives that money to that agency. And you know what that sparked? The butterfly effect. Because then it had a Facebook page. Because nothing can exist in our society without a Facebook page. You know that, right? I didn't exist until I moved here. Did you know that? I didn't have a Facebook page until I moved here. It was amazing. I lived anyway. But Facebook, it took off. It went viral. And all of these donations were given in then to this food bank. And it spawned all kinds of other things. Because one woman Decided she was going to pay for the groceries of the person sitting in front of her. And then instead of being selfish with the proceeds that she got, she invested it. And the butterfly effect was taken by the Holy Spirit to meet the needs of many people. That's what happens when we exercise compassion and kindness. It is catching. Now, we're going to come and look at the antithesis of this in just a minute, but it is catching what you will. You will start little Holy Spirit inspired fires when you treat other people with compassion and kindness, because you are constantly looking out for the needs of other people and doing good things on their behalf. Well, look what else he says. We're just going to we're going to make sure that we're doing the right thing, but now he's going to make sure we're doing it for the right reasons. Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility and neatness. Humility and neatness. Some of your versions say gentleness. I think neatness captures it better. Humility. Having a proper estimate of oneself and thinking of God and others over yourself. Now, the key is having a proper estimate of yourself. Now, by that, I don't mean to figure out how good you are and figure out how many stars you should give yourself. I mean, you should figure out how wretched you are and how many stars you should give Christ. That's humility, to understand who we are and who God is, where we would be without Christ, and submitting ourselves to what Christ would do instead of what we would do. So we are living humble. And that's a command, right? We are commanded to walk humbly before our God. When we are saved, the whole act of the gospel in our life, from the day we're saved and every day after that, depends on us being humble before God. Because what's the first thing we must do with the gospel? We must repent. Right? We must repent. We have to recognize our sin and who we are as a sinner and repent of that. That takes an innate humility because if it's not done humbly, it's not true repentance. It's getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar. So, the gospel in our lives, which we need to preach to ourselves every day, right? Amen? The gospel for us every day. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. When we sin, we repent of our sin and believe on Christ, both that He's accomplished the forgiveness of that sin, He suffered the wrath of God on our behalf, the penalty has been paid, and that He has given us the power to walk in light of His Word. We do that by faith. So every day when we sin, we repent and we believe. That takes us walking humbly. Without that, you can't live by the gospel. Not only humility, but meekness. This is why I think meekness is a better translation of the Greek word. The Greek word has to do with power under restraint. It's use of a wild animal who has been trained and now functions under submission to his master. So, you picture a wild horse brought off of the plane, doesn't want anything around its neck, doesn't want a saddle on its back, doesn't want a bit in its mouth. It rears up against its trainer and that trainer gently, over and over and over, walks it in the circle, in the corral. Have you seen this before? Walks it in the circle, in the corral, and makes it submit, day in and day out, and eventually, That horse begins to submit to its master, where it has a bit in its mouth, and it has a bridle, and it has a saddle, and can be turned right and left with its master, with the person who's riding it. Now, I want you to think, is that horse any less powerful? It's not, is it? But that power is under restraint. It is under submission. That's what the word means. So, you and I, if we are to walk meek with people, Then we're not exercising the authority that we have. We're not exercising the right to say you've offended me. There are times that you need to do that. I realize it's biblical to go to someone if they've offended you, but you don't have to go to them if you can walk neatly in the power of Christ, do you? Because you choose when you're angry. We talked about this in the youth class this morning. You choose when you're angry. I asked them this morning, can you ever be made angry by someone else? Can anybody else make you angry? And the natural answer is yes, but the real answer is no. No one else can make you angry, can they? They can do things that you choose to get angered about, but it's your responsibility not to be angry. So meekness says, especially when coupled with humility, that when someone wrongs me, my first step is to just, we're going to get to it, forgive them and not to exercise my right to cross my arms and be mad at them or befriend them or tell them what I think. And when we walk this way, we model Christ. Matthew 11, 28, quoting Zechariah 9, "'Come to Me, all who labor,' says Jesus, "'and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. "'Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, "'for I am gentle and lowly in heart, "'and you will find rest for your souls, "'for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.'" Matthew 21, 5, Jesus' triumphal entry. This is the quoting of Zechariah 9. I put my note in the wrong spot. Obviously, the one I just read in Matthew 11 is not a quote from Zechariah. This is the quote from Zechariah. Excuse my mistake there. Say to the daughter of Zion, this is what's quoted about Jesus' triumphal entry, behold, your King is coming to you, how? Humble and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, a foal of a beast of burden. John chapter 13, 1-15. You remember this? Jesus did what with His disciples? He washed their feet. The ultimate act of humility and the ultimate act of meekness. And in verse 15, Jesus says, For I have given you an example that you also should do, just as I have done to you. So not only did He act humble, did He act meek. Now, that's not power under restraint. The Lord of the universe, who was involved in creation and every day, every second sustains His creation. taking off his robe, setting it aside, and washing the feet of the disciples. The very ones that he came to save. And he says, I've given you an example. So, this is our example to do. Turn to Philippians chapter 2. Another famous passage. Just a couple of pages back. Philippians chapter 2. I'm going to begin in verse 1. This is all about the humility and meekness of Christ. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy, Paul says. How? By being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in what? Humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who? Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." And the text goes on to say that because of that, God exalted him highly above all other things, all other people. So our model is to be humble and meek before each other. This is in our interactions. This is how we get along with each other without fighting. I know you're perfect, but I'm not. And I want you to be meek and I want you to be humble before me, because that way, when I mess up, you give me the benefit of the doubt. You don't just send me out to the back 40 because I said something or I did something that made you mad. When we work with each other like this, the Spirit of Christ is among us. The Spirit of holiness is among us. And there is a butterfly effect. When people talk about believers going into the world and non-believers seeing us and noticing a difference, how on earth can they notice a difference if we look just like them? This is who we are. This is how we treat each other. This is how we treat others. This is how we treat people when they spit in our face. This is how we treat people when they make fun of us for our religion. This is how we treat people when they're just jerks to us on a daily basis just because they can be. And this is how the Holy Spirit sometimes chooses to overcome their sinfulness and grant to them salvation because they've seen you and I walk like who? Ourselves? walk like Christ in their midst, love them like Christ loved them, show compassion to them like Christ did. So when we're talking about being meek and humble before people, we're talking about having our rights under restraint. Teddy Roosevelt has a famous saying that I know you've all heard before. What did he say? Speak softly and carry away. Speak softly and carry a big stick. But this is what he said by this is what he said in 1901. If a man continually blusters, a big stick will not save him from trouble and neither will speaking softly avail. If if that of the softness, there does not lie strength and power. See what he means by that? You can walk as gently as you want to. Now, he's talking in the in the realm of nations and how they should how they should act. Your gentleness doesn't have the effect on people unless there's power behind it as a nation. But it's true of us in the same way, right? Because our gentleness, our meekness, our humility and kindness and compassion is not possible for us unless there's what? The great strength of Christ behind us. It is his strength in his life that is being lived through us. And if it's being lived through us, I just want you to just think about this for a second. Is there any way if Christ is living through you that you can live any other way than these characteristics? Because if you say yes, then you're telling me that Christ is not compassionate or you're saying that Christ is not meek and Christ is not full of kindness and meekness. So this is how we live. But look what else he says. He says at the end of the verse, patience. Patience. To bear up under is what this word literally means. To bear up under. Long suffering. It means we're slow to anger. We're putting up with people and things. Look at the very next verse. Bearing with one another. This is the outwork of being patient. Being patient with people means that we bear up underneath them. We put up with them. Not just to their face, but in our hearts. That's what it means for us to bear with one another. Listen to these words about Jesus in Matthew 17, 17, when the disciples could not heal the demon possessed boy who threw himself into the water. That's the setting. Demon possessed boy, epilepsy, throwing himself into fire, throwing himself into water. And the parents said we brought him to the disciples, but why? They couldn't heal him. Jesus says, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me. In other words, I'm going to continue to bear with you. Bring him to me. John 14, 8 and 9, Philip speaking to the Lord, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us. And Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Now, what Jesus could have done is say, how long have I been with you, Philip, and you still don't know me? And turn back on him and walk away. But what does he do? He bears with him and he teaches him again and say, he says, if you've seen one, you've seen us. If you've seen the Father, you've seen me. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He bears with them. First Peter, chapter 2, verse 23. Speaking about Jesus, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. Jesus dying means that we live to righteous behavior, the behavior of Jesus. And all of these characteristics are found first and foremost in the person and work of Christ. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. But what else does he tell us? We're not only to put on the proper inner garments, but we're to wear the garments well. Look at verse 13. bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. So wearing the garments well means that we are constantly putting up with each other, which we just spoke about. And if any has a complaint against someone else. Or to forgive them, and then the reason is because Christ has forgiven us first, and I love it that he doesn't say, If anybody has a complaint against someone else, make sure you wait until they come and make it right with you. You don't have to go talk to them at all. Somebody's made you mad. They need to come talk to you. He doesn't do that, does he? He talks to the person who's been offended. Look at what he says. He's very clear. If one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. He's dealing with the hearts of those who have been offended. You must forgive them. If you have a complaint against someone, in other words, somebody's done something wrong to you, the first thing you must do is forgive them. Now, how many times in your life have you taken offense by somebody else's actions or words? And then when you finally got down to it, you realize you misunderstood them or they didn't mean what you thought they meant. And yet you harbored that grudge day in and day out. And it grew and it grew into a root of bitterness. And you, because you led an unforgiving life with them, were affected drastically. or to forgive people. Why? Because the Lord has forgiven you. And then just in case we don't have it down, He says, so you also must forgive. Not should, but must. If you are the new creature, if you are the one who has put off the old and put on the new, if the old man is gone and the new man is here, this is how you live a forgiving life. Why? Because you wouldn't be the new creature if Christ had not forgiven you when you were a sinner. You wouldn't be. Because while we were yet sinners, Christ, what, waited on us to be holy? While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So we treat other people in exactly the same way. I read this week about a pastor who had a friend that he'd known for a long time. His friend's name was Steve, and he said that he didn't think God could ever forgive him. Maybe 70 percent of what he had done, God could forgive him, but they didn't think God could forgive him for everything. This pastor began to tell him about Jesus's work on the cross. He says, yeah, but you don't know me. And he told the story that started many years before of a man who stole his wife from his wife, got married to this man, divorced him, got married to that man. And now here he is in his 60s. And this man is is I don't remember what the story was, but he's coming to meet him or he was going to see him at a conference or something. And he had a gun in a holster on his ankle that he was going to shoot the man. Because all of his life he had never forgiven this man. This man had gotten in trouble after the man stole his wife. The guy we're talking about had gotten in trouble. And the guy that stole his wife sat in court and smirked at him when his sentence was read. And he just made his life miserable all his life. And this guy was not willing to forgive him so much so that he was going to take his life. And here was his ration. He's 63 or 65 years old. And he said, I'll get life sentence. There's not much of my life left. At least I get three meals and a cot and I'm taken care of the rest of my life. And he has it coming to him. So the pastor, this is his friend, and he's saying he does. He was speechless and he gets his wits about him through the power of the spirit. And he begins to tell him that it's not about this other guy. It's about him. And he says, well, you might as well go ahead and kill him because you're the one that's already in prison. You're in prison, you're in prison to your to your anger against this guy. He controls you because you won't forgive him. And that's what it is to be unforgiving. Unforgiving will kill you. To be forgiving, yes, it's to be like Christ, but it's not for the person you're forgiving. It's for you. You are the one that benefits from forgiving other people because you can live in freedom. Because if you do, if you don't forgive, you are in prison from all this anger, all this wrath, all this malice. Remember all the stuff that we were told a couple of weeks ago to put away? We're in prison. And so forgiveness, I'm not saying it doesn't have benefit for the people you forgive. It does have benefit to them, but primarily it's for you. You are supposed to forgive other people even when they're not repentant towards you. Did you know that? Someone can sin against you and you talk to them about it and then be unrepentant and keep sinning against you and guess what you're required to do? Forgive them. What are we told in the gospel? Seventy times seven to forgive them. It's for us so that we live in the grace of God and we model forgiveness to other people because we have been forgiven and Christ forgave us. We are the ones that are set free from prison when that happens. So we are constantly to put up with each other. We are constantly to forgive each other the same way the Lord has forgiven you. I love the wording that it tells us as the Lord has forgiven you. He forces us to go where? Back to the cross, doesn't it? What do you mean, as the Lord has forgiven me? While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me so that I was freed from my sins, so that I didn't pay the penalty of my sin, so that I didn't suffer the wrath of God for my sin. In that way, with that love, with that conviction, with that thoroughness, that's how I'm to forgive other people. So we're constantly sent back to the cross and the mercy of that. Look what else it says in verse 14. We are to put on the proper outer garment, the proper outer garment. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. So above all these, we can look at that as an overarching principle. But I think in the shape of the metaphor that he's brought to us, it's the outer garment. On top of all this, you put on these clothes, now put on the outer garment. Now, above everything, wrap that up in love. Agape. Why? It binds everything together in perfect harmony. Now, that could be binding all of us as people together in harmony, but I think it's binding. And I think that's true. I think that's true. Love does bind us together. Amen. It binds us together. When I first came to this church, the first thing I noticed about the search committee and their spouses was that they loved each other. I mean, it was clear, clear as a bell, even to somebody as dense as me. These people love each other. And they were bound together in their work because of the love of Christ among them. But I think it also means it binds all of these characteristics which are all intertwined. We should see these as circles that are connected, you know, all connected together because one without the other is not going to be complete. Just think about it. What does it mean if we are going to be compassionate to people without love? It's condescension, isn't it? I mean, I've known people like this, people who are well off in their money and they see people who are in a worse plight than they are and their compassion is they feel sorry for him because what? They're not lying. trying to do something to help them out of where they are. It doesn't come from love. It comes from guilt. And it's condescension to them. It's condescension that somehow their giving to them are going to lift their estate some way. It's not compassionate for those people. What about kindness? Doing good deeds? If that is not wrapped up in love, it's really wrapped up in duty, isn't it? Well, that's what I'm supposed to do. The preacher said it. I guess I better do it. The Bible says it. This is why the gospel has to be central. This is why the cross has to be central. Doing it with the right motives is always important to God. Humility. Humility is false humility without love for God, isn't it? And without love for other people. This is the same word, the same word that is used in Chapter two. You find it here. In 18, let no one disqualify you on insisting on asceticism. And then in verse 23, they have indeed an appearance of wisdom and promoting self-religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. The exact same word there is false humility, because what? It's not driven by love. It's driven by what you can get, how high up into heaven you could get. He's dealing with the heretics at Colossae. Here, we understand that if it's without love, it is false humility, which is what? A lesser kind of humility? It's no humility at all. Meekness? Power under restraint without love? You can't keep the power under restraint without love. Without a desire for the object that you are restraining your power from. Putting up with other people. Without love, all that means is that you don't talk to them about it to their face. You talk to them about it behind their back. You talk to others about how they have insulted you or hurt you or set you apart. So love binds all of this together. It is the overarching principle that this is how we function as a body. Just go right back to the beginning. I'm reminding you, this is not something that I want you to go out and do so you can say, I'm holy, I'm just, God will now like me better than yesterday. If you are in Christ, God loves you fully and infinitely because of His Son. He's just saying, act like My Son. Act like who you are. Children will say wonderful things. When asked, what does love mean? Here are some responses from Rebecca, who is eight. When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis, too. That's love. Bobby, who is seven. Love is what's in the room at Christmas. If you stop opening presents and listen. Nika, who is six, if you want to learn to love better, you should start with someone you hate. Not 70 now, seven or six, I should say, Tommy, who is six, love is like a like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well. Cindy, who is eight. During my piano recital, I was on stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and I saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. And I wasn't scared anymore. Jessica, eight years old. You really shouldn't say I love you unless you mean it, but if you mean it, you should say it a lot. And saying it without all these actions isn't really love, is it? Finally, Billy, four years old. When someone loves you the way they say your name is different, you just know that your name is safe in their mouth. Four years old. When we live the Christ life and Christ lives through us, every one of your names is safe in everybody else's mouth. Every one of your lives is safe in their hands because they are about your benefit. They are about Christ being formed in you. Don't worry about what everybody else is doing. Worry about what your role is in the butterfly effect. Live like this. Trust God and see what He does with it. Let's pray.