Well, I forgot to announce this in the beginning, but today is Family Sunday, so the older kids, the Explorers class, you all will stay in the service this morning, and there is a special sheet for you in the bulletin there that has a way for you to follow along. It's kind of fun there. And so the trackers are excused to their classroom, but the explorers, you will stay in with us, or stay in the service with us. And the trackers this morning, they are gonna be learning about Cain and Abel. And so that'll be good. The teachers have prepared a lesson for them. And so they're gonna be learning about that. And we want to be praying for them and praying for us as well as we get into God's word. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for, again, this time that we have to gather together to get into your word. Your word matters the most for us. It is really the lifeblood of the Christian walk, Lord. You use your word to bring change to our lives, to help us to walk rightly in your paths. And Lord, we want that for our kids as well. We want them to hear your word, to study your word, to learn it and to walk in it. And so we lift up the tracker class this morning as they go off to their class, as they go and learn about Cain and Abel and the whole lesson there of how sin, immediately after Adam and Eve, or just its effects have come into the world and the sin nature that's there and all of that. And so Lord, we just pray for them. Lord, use your word to bring change to their lives, help them to understand it and know it. And we pray the same for us, that as we get into your word, that you would help us to understand it, help us to grow in it and to walk by it. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we are in Colossians chapter three this morning, so turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter three. Last week we concluded chapter two, where Paul addresses the specific ways that the false teachers were judging and pressuring the Colossians. They were insisting on rules and regulations and the chasing of spiritual experiences that Paul calls prideful, ignorant, and worthless. Their focus had shifted from Christ to a sensual desire for more, which drove them into legalism and obsessions with angels and dreams and visions. And Paul says, the only thing that you need more of is Christ. You must hold fast to Him. He's the one who brings spiritual growth to the church. He's the one who brought you out of darkness. You have died to the flesh. You are alive in Him. Why go back to the world and submit to these, you know, legalistic and arrogant regulations that have the appearance of wisdom, but really threaten to lead you astray? The point Paul has made is that Christ is enough. He really is preeminent. You have everything that you need in Him. He is the image of the invisible God, the creator of the universe who holds all things together. He's the head of the church and He is the fullness of God. What more could you possibly want? You were once lost in your sin, dead, at war with God, and living in the filth of your sin, and He has made you alive in Him. More than that, you were crucified with Christ. The old you that was enslaved to sin is dead, and you are forgiven. You are reconciled to God completely. It really is a special kind of deception, a wicked, insidious deception that can make someone feel that they need more. that they don't have everything that they need in Christ, that they have to submit to all of these different rules and regulations and chase after these experiences. And yet, that's exactly what the false teachers were doing, pressuring the church to turn away from the sufficiency of Christ and pursue worldly wisdom instead. So again, Paul exposes them for their foolishness and helps the Colossians to see their error. And this morning, after he has set the foundation of Christ's preeminence, and he has exposed their error, he will give the Colossians some direct applications concerning their walk with Christ. This is kind of where the rubber meets the road. If Christ is preeminent in everything, and you are holding fast to him in everything, and now you have everything, then what? What now? I'm free from the regulations and the foolish pursuits of those who want us to submit to their systems, but now what? If their system doesn't produce godliness, how do I grow in godliness? What should be my perspective? How should I think about sin and temptation? What does my position in Christ mean for my daily life? I should not be taken captive by worldly philosophy, but how can I change and grow? How does change come? Paul has provided the truth, now he provides the homework. The homework. He gives us the takeaways that we bring to our daily lives so that we aren't taken captive by the world's systems, but we are daily changed and sanctified by the truth. So let's read our text together. We're in Colossians chapter three. We're gonna be looking at verses one through 17 this morning. Colossians chapter three, starting in verse one. It says, 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. For 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. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, 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 mouths. 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. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. put on them 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, the above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Well, there's something ingrained in all of us that longs for more than is apparent in our lives. There's a deep universal yearning for significance and purpose and transcendence beyond kind of the mundane things that we are used to. This is why pop culture is filled with stories of ordinary and extraordinary people discovering their true identity and embarking on quests or adventures to save the world or bring or to do these amazing things. You know, you can think of things like Star Wars, right? A young man, Luke Skywalker, discovers that he's a Jedi with these superpowers, right? Or you got Superman, a farm boy from Kansas who discovers he's an alien from outer space with superpowers and the ability to save the world. Or Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, a simple hobbit who discovers that he is uniquely able to destroy the Ring of Power and save Middle-earth. Or, for you kids, maybe Poe in Kung Fu Panda, who is accidentally selected to be the Dragon Warrior. Or how many of you kids have read or heard about the Winged Feather Saga? I know Josh's favorite, one of Josh's favorite books. The Igiby children discover that they are gifted and hold the secret to the lost legend of the jewels of good King Wingfeather. You see, we love these stories. These fictional stories of ordinary people with hidden destinies and unrealized significance. I think this is built in us. It scratches an itch that's in our soul. We're meant for more than self-gratification. There's a longing for significance and impact. And for sure, this longing is also tainted by sin. We want to be the heroes of our own destiny. We want to have a legacy. We want power and prestige. But nevertheless, there's something that God put in our soul, a feeling that God is calling us to something wonderful and great. And though we delight in these stories and these legends, the reality is God has indeed chosen us for a great task. He's set us on a new path. We have a new identity in Him. We're called to a race. We're called to an adventure. We're called to war. We're called to glory. Not for our own sake, but for His. And Paul connects the dots for us here this morning. The more that you're looking for isn't realized in the here and now. It isn't realized even in those rules and regulations that we've discussed or in chasing certain experiences. It isn't realized in your own efforts for enlightenment. It's realized in the appearance of Christ, in that appearing that we long for. It's realized in how you've been transformed for the day of glory, reformed from the ways of the world and conformed to the image of Christ. In Colossians 3, one through 17, Paul calls us to something greater. something that satisfies that deep longing in our souls, the real adventure that we are made for. And so in verses one through four, Paul reminds us that we have been transformed with a new identity and a hope. And in verses five through 11, Paul reminds us that we are reformed, called to put to death the old sinful self. And then in verses 12 through 17, Paul reminds us that we are conformed, called to put on the new self. renewed in the image of our creator. And this is no fairy tale. This is your story in Christ. You are indeed ordinary, but God is extraordinary, and by his grace, you are chosen, holy, and beloved by God, and you are called to keep your mind trained on him and what he has called you to do by putting off the old self, putting on the new and living for him. So let's begin with verses one through four and how we have been transformed. Verse one, if 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 the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. The point is this, all that follows is founded on these first few words. If then, you have been raised with Christ. This is the overarching point of the last few weeks. This is everything. It's everything. Not only is Christ preeminent, but he has redeemed you. You are born again. You are made alive. You are forgiven. And if this is true of you, then seek the things that are above. Why would Paul urge this? Well, because we don't tend to do that, do we? We don't. What are the things that we seek? We're all pursuing something. What are you pursuing? A better job, right? A better promotion, more comfort, more money, respect, notoriety, success? Maybe you don't even know what you're pursuing. But Paul says, if you belong to Christ, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Seek the things that are above. You see, in the United States, we can kind of be inoculated to Christianity to some degree. There's a practice of some of just adding Christian things to their life. I'll say that I'm a Christian. I'll go to church. I'll hold to Christian values. It's the right thing to do, after all. It's a form of godliness but denying its power. And Paul is saying that if you have really been born again, it is logical to assume that what you are seeking has changed. Your mission in life has changed, your desires have changed, your priorities have changed. But what we see in our culture is not generally radical change. We often see lightly affected church goers. Not men and women transformed by the power of the gospel. Not men and women seeking above all the things of God. You see, Paul says that we should seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Don't miss this logical connection here. If indeed you have been raised with Christ, you will set your goals accordingly. This is because being a Christian is not just a certain set of beliefs, it's a change in identity. A radical change. Think of it like this, when a couple gets engaged, what do they immediately start doing? They start planning a wedding and their life after the wedding. They're making all of those preparations and plans. They're thinking through wedding details. They're thinking through where they're going to live. They re-evaluate their job situations and their finances. They start consolidating their stuff. They start thinking about the future, and they picture their future with their spouse, and they plan for the future considering their spouse. It would be ridiculous if a man proposed and it changed nothing about how he makes decisions or thinks about the future. As a single man, he could plan for a 10-day camping trip with his buddies, ask no one for permission, and think very little about his safety. As a single man, he could take a job 100 miles away on a whim. As a single man, he could keep his dirt bike in the living room. But as a married man, he no longer thinks like a single man. He no longer seeks only what pleases himself. He seeks to care for, to support, and to cultivate his family. He understands the treasure that he has, and he knows that all of his choices affect his family. And a man who is engaged starts thinking in that way, anticipating and preparing for marriage. And that's what Paul's getting at here. Christians naturally start thinking about their master in heaven. They start planning and preparing and behaving like Christians. The king at the right hand of God has chosen you and one day he's gonna return for you, act like it. Stop behaving like you don't have a master in heaven. You say that he is Lord, you say that he is master, act like it. But more than this, Paul says, Verse two, set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. What do you think most about? What receives your attention? What you love will captivate your thoughts. And if you're primarily concerned about earthly things, you are missing the mark. Now, you might say, you don't understand, Pastor, like things are really stressful right now. But don't you get it? I mean, Matthew 6, Jesus says, do not be anxious. He says, don't be anxious about your life. And at the end of chapter six, he says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. See, that's what Jesus teaches, is he teaches, seek first the kingdom of God. Put your mind there first. Seek those things first. and don't be anxious. If we belong to Christ, he's gonna care for us. We know that, we believe that. He's gonna supply all of our needs. He's the sovereign God who will give you exactly what you need according to his good purposes. And that's often the problem. We don't often want his purposes. We want our purposes. We want our way, and that causes us anxiety. We want control, we wanna say how our life unfolds. But God says to trust him, to set our minds on things that are above. How can God be glorified in my life? How can I honor my Lord today? How can I serve him? How can I serve his people today? How can I grow in holiness? Why would we think like this? Well, look at verse three and four. It says, for 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. We are to seek the things that are above. We set our minds on the things that are above because that's who we are in Christ. That's who we are in Christ. You have died to thinking that is only set on this world and the things of the world. You've died to that, don't go back to that. You've died to your previous sinful preoccupations and your life is hidden, it says in Christ. You have a new identity, live like it. But there's more. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. You see, if you're in Christ, this is not all there is. I'm sure you've heard the expression, you're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. You've heard that, I'm sure. That's exactly right, when your mind is preoccupied on earthly things. You're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And the point is, is that none of this matters when Christ returns. If you're so consumed with attaining some kind of happy, comfortable life and you fail to pursue holiness and invest in the kingdom to come, you're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is going down. What are you doing? There's another illustration that has kind of stuck with me. It's in Randy Alcorn's book in The Treasure Principle. He writes, Suppose your home is in France, and you're visiting America for three months, living in a hotel. You're told that you can't bring anything back to France on your flight home, but you can earn money and mail deposits to your bank in France. Would you fill your hotel room with expensive furniture and wall hangings? Of course not. You'd send your money where your home is. You would spend only what you needed on the temporary residence, sending your treasures ahead so that they'd be waiting for you when you get home. What we're getting at here is that it's foolish to spend all of your time, all of your energy, all of your money, all of your resources, and focusing on just the temporary residence that we have here that ultimately doesn't matter. But I suppose that's what we do, and it exposes a lack of faith. We know that Christ is going to return. We know that this life is not what it's all about. We know that these things, we know these things well. We know these things as a matter of fact, but it's kind of filed away in our minds as something that doesn't have relevance today. Like right now, in this situation. Right now, I gotta worry about my car payment, right? Right now, I gotta worry about this or that. And Paul is saying, no, no, it's everything, everything. I use the analogy of getting married earlier. What about when you find out you're having a baby? There's something that really shifts your perspective, right? Imagine a couple who's expecting their first baby. They've been to the ultrasound. They've heard the heartbeat. The due date is circled in red on the calendar. Any day now, this little one is coming home. They're excited. They're telling everyone, the baby is coming. Now picture this, in the final weeks before the due date, instead of putting up the crib, washing the tiny clothes, baby proofing the outlets, and stocking up on diapers, they decided to turn the nursery into a full-blown workshop for fireworks. They're buying gunpowder in bulk. They're rigging up loud explosives. They're filling the room with flammable materials. The house smells like sulfur. There's fuses running across the floor. They got a sign on the door that says, danger, high explosives, don't enter. You might ask them, you know, aren't you worried about the baby arriving any moment? And they just, you know, they shrug and say, oh yeah, yeah, the baby's coming eventually. But right now we're really into pyrotechnics. It's absurd, right? It's a ridiculous distraction. And yet, that's kind of what we do. Jesus is coming back and we filled our lives with ridiculous distractions. We're made for more. Jesus is coming and we will get to appear with him in glory. Act like it. That's what Paul is saying. Act like it. Okay, so what do we do? Well, we've been transformed, we understand that. Now, be reformed. Turn from the old. Look at verses five through 11 there. It says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, 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. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. What Paul is saying is in light of who you are in Christ and the future glory that is to be revealed, put off the old. Put off the old ways. We have a couple different lists here. First, there's a list of these fleshly passions, and then second, there's a list of fleshly behaviors or responses. And here's how the natural man works. He says, put away what is earthly in you. And here's the deal. When you trusted Christ, you were regenerated. That is, you were given a new nature, a nature that is free from the demands of sin. That is, though you were once enslaved to your passions and desires, you're now free by the power of the Holy Spirit living in you to say no. You're free to turn away. You've been empowered to turn away from your sin. That's not exactly true of the unbeliever. The unbeliever plays a shell game with their passions and desires. Do unbelievers change? Yeah, they do. There's unbelievers who are ex-alcoholics, ex-drug addicts, ex-thugs, ex-adulterers. but this isn't true biblical change. And I'll explain what I mean, okay? For the unbeliever who doesn't have the Holy Spirit and doesn't have an eternal hope, he can learn to stop certain behaviors, but he can only do this by adopting different moral code or to work on different behavioral habits or shift his sins around. Okay? And the world is skilled at helping them do this. This is how the alcoholic, you know, you can show an alcoholic, right, how much they're hurting their family or hurting their body and attempt to arouse enough shame or compassion to motivate them. They'll use accountability groups that add an extra level of motivation. They'll adopt other religions or try on different moral codes. They'll work on better habits or different ways of thinking, but ultimately, when all is said and done, a worldly reform is really just shifting their sinful habits from socially acceptable ones, from socially unacceptable ones to socially acceptable ones, like pride. That's socially acceptable. Self-determination. or serving different idols of the heart. They'll teach them to take pleasure in other things besides the ones that are destroying them outwardly. So the believer can shift, the unbeliever can shift their sins, but they cannot put them to death. That's the point. They can't put them to death. They can't repent because repentance is done in faith turning to Christ. But the believer can. This is why Paul commands this, put to death what is earthly in you. Now let me say this, the believer's not perfect, right? That's why he urges this. The new nature that is free from the bondage of sin is not yet free from the enticement of sin. We have a kind of hybrid nature, a nature that is transformed, that's regenerated, but is not yet free from sin's influence. There's still a part of us that is enticed by sin, lured by sin, and that we will fall to sin if we tolerate sin in our lives. And this is what Paul is urging. You, believer, still have a propensity for sin, but you must kill it. You have to put it to death. Don't take any prisoners. Don't hold back. Don't flirt with it or accept parts of it. Crucify your sin. Don't tolerate it. And he gives some examples. Look at verse five there. Put to death, therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. These are what he describes as earthly. And we know this is exactly right. The world is full of, you know, filled with sexual sin, impurity, lust, desires for evil, covetousness. This is, you know, hedonism at its worst. Whatever brings me pleasure, whatever fills my desires, whatever I can get away with, that I will pursue. That's what the world is consumed by. This is what unbelievers are enslaved by, and this can't be true of us as believers. 1 John 2, 15 through 17 says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. You see, you can't both pursue the Lord and the world. God is the giver of good gifts. He's the one who has designed us to experience and delight in pleasure, but the world takes God's good gifts and distorts them for sin. Instead of experiencing healthy pleasure with thankfulness within God's ordained means, the world is selfishly driven, even compelled by their own sin nature to pursue pleasure outside of God. And it results in confusion and destruction, and they are never satisfied. In fact, notice the last one on the list, covetousness, which is idolatry. At the root of these passions is a desire for what they don't have. And so in their discontentment, they seek to fill their insatiable appetite with sin. The person with their mind set on earthly things will always become an idolater. They may not worship a literal statue, but they will worship at the altar of their own pleasure. You can make an idol out of almost anything. And look at the result, verse six. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. Not only do these things demand more and more, and they never completely satisfy, and you're laden with guilt and shame, but even worse, there's a consequence coming. There's an eternal consequence coming. Paul says the wrath of God is coming. This is the anger of the Lord. And you might say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. God is love, right? God is good, right? How can you be angry? God is angry at sinners precisely because he is loving and good. You see, if God loves righteousness and goodness, he necessarily hates everything not righteous and not good. You see, if the creator of the universe is the authority over all the universe, and if he is good and just, he must hold sinners accountable. There must be justice. Evil judges turn a blind eye towards sin. Corrupt judges let criminals go free without justice. That's what they do, but God is just. You might say, but God is forgiving, right? Yes, and he's also patient, and he's kind towards sinners, but he is still just. This is why the only way to be reconciled with God, the only way to be saved from God's wrath is through Jesus Christ. God sent his son Jesus to live the perfect sinless life that we failed to live, and he died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin. The wrath, the anger that God has for sin, that judgment that we deserve was poured out upon Jesus Christ, his only son. You see, justice was satisfied with Christ, so that if you turn from your sin and you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you can be saved. Saved not only from the wrath to come, but saved unto eternal life. And God no longer looks at you in your sin, he sees Christ's righteousness. This is how God forgives sin. It's through Jesus Christ. It's not just a blanket covering of sin that he just says, oh, I'll just pretend it doesn't exist. No, it's through Jesus Christ. The wrath of God, the justice of God is satisfied in Jesus. because He took the penalty of our sin. And for believers, those who have turned from their sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ, not only are we forgiven, but we're given new life in Him. The Holy Spirit frees us from the demand of sin. He gives us new desires, a heart to follow Jesus and keep turning away from the sin that tries to entice us. Look at verse seven there. In these, 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 mouths. We're called to put to death all of this because this isn't who we are anymore. We're in Christ, and because we're in Christ, we can put away all these sinful responses. We don't have to be angry like the world. We don't have to be malicious like the world. We don't have to slander each other like the world. We don't have to be obscene like the world. And finally, we don't have to lie like the world. Look at verse nine. 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. You see, the command is to put to death these things in you, put them away, to turn from these things, and instead, put on the new self, the new self. It's not enough to turn away from sin, to just put off sin, you have to put on the new self. Live consistent with who you are in Christ, follow Christ in obedience. And that would sound difficult or even impossible if it wasn't for the next part, that new self that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. When God saves us in our sin, he doesn't leave us in our sin. There's a change in desire, but even though the old self still has its demands and you are enticed at times, God is renewing the new self. You're being renewed to be more like Christ. And this is the lifelong work that God does in you. He is making you new. And he does it through knowledge, it says. As you read God's word, as you study it, as you know it, the Holy Spirit uses the knowledge of the word to convict you and to bring you into greater obedience to Christ. And this work is universal for all who believe. It's not reserved for Gentiles only or Jews only, it's available to all who believe. And that's what he says there in verse 11. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. It's not an ethnicity thing. All who put their faith in Christ are now a part of God's family and they're being renewed and reformed. So Christians are transformed, they're to be reformed, and now we see that they are to be conformed. Look at verse 12 there, it says, 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 also you must forgive and above all put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful let the word of christ dwell in you rich richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in work or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul is giving a principle by which we can overcome sin. But before we get into that, I want you to just take note of who you are in Christ. He says you are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. This is that new identity that I was talking about earlier. You, my friend, church, you are in Christ. You're chosen by God. Chosen for what? Well, chosen for salvation, for one. When you came to Christ, it wasn't like you did all of that on your own. It isn't that you're just smarter than everyone else or more spiritual than everyone else. No, you were dead in sin, completely unresponsive to the things of God. And by God's grace, he opened your eyes and he breathed spiritual life into you. He drew you to himself and he transformed your heart. He gets the credit for that, not you. But he chose you to be a witness to the world as well. He chose you to be sanctified in the truth, to be an example of God's redeeming grace. God has that for you. He said, this is the way I want you to walk. He's chosen you to be holy. And you are, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you are chosen, you are holy, you are beloved. That is your identity in Christ. And in that identity, here is how you combat sin. Notice the the principle Paul is conveying here, put off the old and put on the new. This is the key to sanctification. This is the key to overcoming all of our sin problems. Put off and put on. This is real repentance. Not just that we put sin to death in our lives and make no provision for the flesh, we ought to do that, but we also have to put on the right things. Think about it like this. for an alcoholic who's trying to stop drinking, you know, you might say, stop drinking alcohol, right? And the answer is, okay, I'll try. And they might try, they might try really hard, but the more they try to just stop drinking alcohol, the more they're focusing on alcohol. The sin takes that occasion, and sin takes occasion in that focus to bring some intense temptation. The flesh craves what it can't have. The desire and the rush and delight of giving in to our sinful fleshly desires is powerful. That's the nature of our heart. Jeremiah 17 9 says the heart is deceitful and desperately sick. Your heart will deceive you, and the more you focus on just purely saying no, the heart begins to justify and deceive you to give in. And you start all over. That's not what the Bible calls us to do. You're to put away your sin, you're to turn from it, but then you're called to put on right living. You can't just pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and just try to resist sin. You will always, always, always fail. Always. And what Paul does here is he gives us a big list of right living. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. This is in contrast to the ways of the world. So instead of anger, wrath, and malice, you put on compassion, humility, and peace. Instead of slander and obscene talk, you put on kindness, meekness, patience, forgiveness. Instead of sexual immorality, impurity, and covetous idolatry, you put on thankfulness. You see, it's completely empty to just say, stop sinning. That only makes our wicked hearts want sin more. You have to put off and put on. Now I won't comment on every one of these virtues, but I will make a couple points. First, notice the command to forgive. I point this out because unforgiveness, bitterness, is a poisonous sin. It will destroy you and open the door to many different sins. Bitterness is kind of like the multi-tool of Satan. He can make you go anywhere and do almost anything when there's a root of bitterness in your heart. That's what destroys families. That's what destroys churches. So put off bitterness and put on forgiveness. Forgive. Paul says forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. When you consider your great sin and what you have been forgiven, you can easily forgive others. And notice he says you must forgive. There's no option. You must forgive. Look at verse 14. And above all, above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. So here's another one. Love rules over all. Love is the greatest commandment. If you're loving God and loving others as you should, it's like a force field against temptation to sin. Bitterness, maliciousness, slander, obscene talk, immorality, evil desire, and covetousness are all symptoms of a lack of love, and the remedy is love. This might sound kind of foreign to you, but if you are struggling with a particular temptation, it's probably because you're focused too much on self. If you put that away and you decide to go and do something loving for others, you're going to find that temptation loses its power. Often when we are struggling the most with temptation, Going and doing something sacrificial for someone else is the last thing we want to do. Our flesh says, no, I do not want any of that. And it's the very thing that will kill temptation in your life. When you go and you love others, when you sacrificially give for someone else, you get the focus off of yourself, that's how you stay free from temptation. Additionally, if you're struggling with sexual sin, which is covetousness or idolatry, Paul says, be thankful. Be thankful. Discontentment leads you to justifying just about any sin. When I feel like I deserve something I don't have, my heart deceives me and tempts me to take what I think I should have a right to. Thankfulness puts an arrow right through the covetous heart. Now look at verses 16 and 17. Here is the catch-all. If you want to grow in godliness, if you want to have success putting to death what is earthly in you and put on godliness, here's what Paul says. Verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thanksgiving in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. The word of God is what will transform your hearts. It gives you the ammunition, the defenses to stay away from sin. Let it dwell in you richly, it says. That is, be saturated in the Word of God. If you're struggling with sin, it's because you stopped reading God's Word. You stopped meditating on it and thinking about it. You stopped maybe going to church. You stopped plugging into the health and the lifeline of the Word of God being driven into your mind. Instead, you started setting your mind on the world. You need the word of God in your life, but you also need it in community. It's not enough just to read it alone in your room or to listen to it in the car, those are good and helpful things, but you also need biblical teaching, biblical admonishment, that's rebuke or correction. You need to respond to it in worship and thankfulness together with the people of God. And finally, the key to putting off and putting on is to do everything for Jesus. Everything you do, do it for Jesus. It says whatever you say, whatever you do, do it for Him. Do it with a thankful heart. If you approach all of life with that mindset, with your mind set on Him, there's gonna be wonderful, beautiful, good fruit that comes out of your life. This is how God has called us to live. Though we are ordinary and He is extraordinary, He is working in us and will one day come with power and glory. He's calling us to be ready, to put off the old self, to put on the new, to put to death the sin that belongs to the old self and put on God's ways. Honor the Lord. We're called to so much more. So walk in it. Let's pray. Lord, It's true that we, in this sinful world, are stuck at times. We, at times, are given over to our flesh. Lord, we stop plugging into the things that'll bring us spiritual life, and we start walking in our own understanding, in our own ways, we start thinking about earthly things, we start being consumed by all the things that would distract us, and the end result is sin and more sin. I pray that you would help us. I pray that you would grow us, help us to be not only transformed, but then in that transformation to be reformed and conformed, that we would put off the old and put on the new, that we would walk in your ways, that we would glorify you with our lives. I pray that you would help us, God, help us to have that focus in our families, to have that focus in our work, in our jobs, Lord, in every sphere of life, that we would walk in a way that honors you, that we are doing it for you and to your honor and your glory. and that you would help us to be strengthened against the temptations of sin, that we would walk holy and blameless in you. I pray for that. I pray as a church that we would grow, Lord, that we would be a light to our community in holiness, that we would be dedicated and devoted to honoring you in every aspect of our life. May that be true of us. We know that you can do that, in Jesus' name, amen.