Turn your Bibles to Colossians chapter 3. I know the men have come forward. If you need an outline, please raise your hand. They'll get that to you. We're going to pick up in Colossians 3 verse 1. If you're using a pew Bible, that's page 1047. And I begin today with a question. How important is your life? It's an interesting question, and since I wouldn't be able to hear you, or I'm not inviting you to yell out, I'll answer for you. Somebody did answer that. Our life is pretty important, and I think the Bible backs that up. No man yet hated his life. So we consider it individually important, and I think that's so for all of us. And I follow up with the question, so if it's important to you, what do you do to protect it? What do you do to ensure its well-being? And you may reply, hey, I get rest, I eat well, I take vitamins, I get exercise. Those are good things. I would say, wow. That's good. That certainly indicates that you value your life. And by the things you do, you're demonstrating that. Another question would be, how important to you is your spouse or your children? Pretty important, I'm sure. And I know that is for me, and I'm sure it would be for you. I know that I would give my life for my sweetheart, Janet. I would give my life for my children or my grandchildren if they were in danger. You can ask my children. I've done things over the years to demonstrate that. One time, my son, Dennis, I thought was in trouble and was in a building. And literally, I scaled a two-story building to get in. And when it was over, Dennis and I stood outside and we looked at that and he said, how'd you do that? I don't know. You do things like that when your children may be at risk. And there again, we demonstrate the value of something by our actions, by what we do. And it's so important to examine our value system as we look at an epistle like Colossians. because it calls us again and again to recognize who we serve and why we do the things we do. And so I continue in that thought of valuing someone or something, and I ask you this question, and really here's what it comes down to. How important is Jesus Christ to you? That's an important question, and you may say, Jesus is important to me. He has a place in my life. And of course you realize I would respond, Jesus doesn't want a place in your life. And you may come back and say, well, truth is, he's very important to me. And he has a big place in my life. And there again, I would have to say, Jesus doesn't want a big place in your life. You see, Jesus desires, deserves, and demands preeminence. keeping him first. Going back as we began our study in Colossians 1, verse 17, it said this, he is before all things and in him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. In what things, Paul? All things. But what does that leave out? It leaves out Nothing. And when it speaks about preeminence, it's speaking about someone who is above or before others. More important than anyone else in our life is Jesus Christ if he has the preeminence. It speaks of being superior, outstanding, to be prominent, to be first in rank or influence. Are you influenced by Jesus Christ? It's a good question. As we read our text today, ask yourself that question. Is He my all in all? And I pick it up at verse 1 because of the link. Connected throughout this these first 11 verses and I think you'll see the connection but follow along with me in chapter 3 verse 1 It says if then you were raised with Christ Seek those things which are above where Christ is Sitting at the right hand of God set your mind on things above not on things on the earth For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. I When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Therefore, put to death your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Father, thank you for your word today. And as we examine this important, practical portion of scripture, may you, Lord, prepare our hearts and speak to us. May your spirit oversee what is said and in the spirit that it is said. May your spirit prompt hearts to be open to the prompting of your work. And so bless everything that is done. It may bring you glory in Christ's name. And so I want to speak to you today about the thought from verse 11, but Christ is all and in all. And if that's true for you, if he is your all, if he is preeminent, then nothing is left out. He's our all in all. Paul said it this way in verse four, Christ is our life. Paul had it right. He didn't just give life, speaking of Jesus. He's our life. He affects every area of our life. Paul reminded the Philippians, for me to live is Christ. He's our life. He doesn't just point us to life. He is the way, the truth, and the life. So Christ is our life. And as we continue to study this epistle, we want to grow in knowledge. It's important that you get to know Jesus better, but you'll never get to know anything better than Jesus. You can go deeper with Jesus and the spirit of God helps us with that. And certainly that's Paul's intention here, but you never get beyond Jesus because he's preeminent. And as we look at this and prepare our minds, notice a couple of doctrinal truths once again. First of all, we have been crucified with Christ. We have been crucified with Christ. What does that mean to you, that we have been crucified with Christ? Verse three tells us, I've been crucified, for you died. Were you crucified? If you were born again, Certainly you were. And our name had, was right upon his death. The reason he had to go to the cross is because of our sin. And so we died with him. And I was buried in that liquid tomb called baptism. We died, but also notice, we have been raised with him. Verse one says, if then you were raised with him. So we're dead with him, we're raised with him. Because of that, verse 4 tells us, and when Christ who is our life appears, we live with Christ. As a Christian, does He not affect your day-to-day behavior? Does He not affect your thoughts when you wake up in the middle of the night and what His promptings are? Does He not help you when you face a struggle, a difficulty, a temptation? That is, you think of Him. We're living with Him. And we have the resurrected life of Christ living through us. And then our life is hidden with Christ. And I love that verse. Last time I spoke about Satan and that he's defeated. And one of the reasons is, is because we're hidden in Christ. And where is Christ? Hidden in God. And now if Satan wants to get to me, he has to get through God, the father. He has to get through God, the son. And that's not going to happen because greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world. That's why my life is hidden in Christ. So Paul is saying, I died with Him, I was raised with Him, I live with Him, and I'm hidden in Him. He's our life. He's our security. He's our everything. And that's why He should have the preeminence. That's why Paul spent so much time in the concept of who he is. And I stated that when we got to this practical section, you're gonna hear some things that are expected of you as a Christian, and you're gonna say, how, Lord? You're gonna see that worked out as you review those doctrinal truths. So what does this all mean to us? And I think three things will happen when Christ is preeminent in your life. When you hear some of them, you're gonna say, amen, that's true. Some of these topics, you may say, oh me, I'm not sure that's so true. But are you open to God working, as I just prayed, so that you can be brought farther along in your discipleship, in your Christ-likeness? There are three major verbs in this portion of scripture, building blocks, if you will, keys to discipleship. If you wanna know how to grow in Christ, Pay attention this morning. If you want to understand the process of progressive sanctification and how you can continue in that walk successively, pay attention to what Paul says here today. These are the keys to helping us become more like Christ. In verse one, we're told, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above. Now, if you mark your Bible, it would be good for you to underscore the verb, seek. This is gonna be key for us. In verse two, it says, set your mind on things above. And there again, underscore that verb, set. If you look at verse five, it says, therefore, put to death. And it'd be good to underscore that verb as well, put to death, mortify the deeds of the flesh. And these are three things that will happen when Christ is preeminent in your life, when he's your all, when he's everything, when he's your life. And the truth is, for us today, the verb seek, set, and mortify, or as one person has put it to alliterate it, seek, set, and slay. And when you do that, certain things are going to happen. First of all, Jesus is going to captivate your ambition. Verse one says, if then, or since then, you have been raised with Christ, seek things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Another word of saying that would be to consider what you seek is really what your ambition is, what your goal is, where you want to end up, where you want to be. And scripturally, we know from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And here's the thing. Satan does not care what you seek on earth. He does get very concerned when you're seeking things above. And therein lies spiritual warfare. You know it yourself. Trying to have a devotion, the phone rings. Trying to have some prayer, a child cries. Someone yells, a dog barks. Something happens and Satan is not pleased and sometimes we give Satan too much credit. Sometimes it's just the flesh that is interfering what we believe God should be doing in our heart and life. And so, we recognize even as Paul spoke back in chapter two, there are gonna be things that vie for our attention. Try to get our minds off of Christ. He spoke about those things which are below in chapter 2, like the reasonings of the world. And you have conversations week in and week out with people, and people reason with you, and their philosophers have opinions about certain things. There are the rituals of the world, and why people do what they do, and what's so important to individuals. The religions of the world. And don't get bogged down with a discussion or argument about the religions of the world. It's never about religion. It's about a relationship. And then, of course, it's about the regulations of the world. And we're always trying to do more, to be more acceptable to Christ. And none of those things make you like Jesus Christ. We need to understand that when Christ is preeminent, and you seek Him with your whole heart, He'll captivate your ambition. You'll have Him in mind when you're seeking to do things, go somewhere with your life. like a sunflower, seeks the sun. He's got your attention. You want to please him. Not only will he captivate your ambition, secondly, he will dominate your attention. Verse two says, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. And if we're going to seek him as we should, we're going to have to set our mind, or as the KJV says it, affection. And the word literally means attention. You see, what you seek, you have to set your mind to. And those things will help you on what you pay attention to. Think about what scripture says, as a man thinks, so is he. Why is it? With the things that we have on our mind, it orchestrates our life and affects us in so many ways, and you're gonna see that play out as we continue in this epistle. I know early in life there were things and people that dominated my attention. We shared our testimony just a couple of weeks ago, and we shared, Janet and I met. She was 16, I was 17. She had my attention. I was concerned for her. I wanted to provide for her, protect her, meet needs in her life. When I got up, I thought about her. When I went to bed, I thought about her. Throughout the day, she was on my mind. She had my attention. Later on in business, working on Wall Street, it had my attention. I wanted to be better at what I did. and perhaps climbed the ladder of success as a result of it having my attention. Wanted to do the things that would help me be better at doing what I did. You know about the martial arts, and there again, it had my attention. I trained regularly. And I'm thankful that when I got saved, because all of those things were prior to Christ, when I got saved, those priorities got in their right order, seeking him first. And I believe with all my heart as a result of that, Janet and I will celebrate 49 years of marriage comes January. Why? Because you keep him first. And it's not you on the throne, it's God. And when God's on the throne, you do what he expects you to do. He's got your attention. I'm so thankful that in the business world, God blessed my businesses. And that wasn't always giving me what I thought I wanted, sometimes holding some things back that I thought would be beneficial. but God protected me because I sought him first. And you know, when I was in certain relationships and difficult situations, whether it was the nightclub or the martial arts, God protected me. And that's amazing in and of itself that I mentioned not sharing too much, but at the same time sharing things that glorify God and how he controls things. And there was a time in the nightclub business that I went head to head With a made man at that time, that means somebody in the system of the underworld. And I dared him to raise his hands to me. Foolishness. Today that individual heads up the underworld back in New York. And that God had not snatched me out of that still amazes me when I speak about amazing grace. How God just pulled me out of that environment. kept me safe. Why? Because he had my attention. And for each of us here, we are told to set our minds on things above. We've heard it said sometimes, you know, some people are so heavenly minded that they're of no earthly good. And I understand that concept. Sometimes people are so spiritual, but not doing anything as a result of that. If you're heavenly minded, God is going to bring forth fruit in our lives and keep us busy doing the things we should do. But truth is, we're not told not to be heavenly minded here. We're told to be heavenly minded, to meditate on him, to set my mind on him. And as you look through the scriptures and understand, that was the whole idea of what Paul was bringing in many of the epistles. Keep them first. Think on these things. Don't be anxious. Let your request be known with thanksgiving. But he goes through that list of what we're supposed to focus on. And guess what? Later you can look at that list in Philippians chapter 4 and you'll recognize, you know what? Those are things that are above. And that's where God wants our mind. He will do great and amazing things as you seek Him. I know there are many things pulling out our minds. and pulling out our activities. That's for me, that's for you. There are things that we feel are important, but they have little eternal value. Even now, some of you may be thinking, what time is it? All right, in an hour, I could be sitting in my easy chair, enjoying this day of rest. Truth is, for Christians, it's a day of worship, and I have nothing against relaxation, because I'll be doing that later myself. The problem is when you let relaxation interfere with worship, what we're doing right now, it's wrong. Some of you may have had on your mind minutes ago what you're gonna be doing either later today in an activity or this week or next week, and oh man, looking forward to that. Nothing wrong with the things we do and activities we do if it's Christ honoring, but if it interferes with your time of worship, it would be sin. And so with all the things that are pulling at us and competing for our attention, you're going to have to seek Him intentionally. That's the whole point. Your ambitions are going to have to come to a burning focus of you wanting Christ and Him alone. You're gonna have to set your affections where Jesus dominates your attention. So the first verb is seek, the second verb is to set, and the third verb is to slay. Notice, Jesus is to regulate my actions. Jesus who captivates my ambitions, Jesus who dominates my attentions is the same Jesus who will regulate my actions. Why? Because he's my all in all. Because I want him to live through me. I want to make decisions based on his thoughts. Notice now in chapter three, verse five, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. Well, what would that be, Paul? Paul's pretty clear, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. And don't miss this, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Listen, God is not idle. And because He doesn't strike us dead when we do wrong doesn't mean that He's not pleased with what we're doing wrong. And that wheel of justice turns slowly, but it still turns. We want to be sensitive to the things that God points out. And truth is, if my life is Christ, if He is preeminent, I want Him to have His way in my heart and life. This verb means to put to death forcibly and immediately. There again, there's gonna be a spiritual battle. It's not something, well, let's see if this happens. No, when God speaks to your heart, you do it. And you do it by his grace. You put it out of your life. Now, why would you put something to death? I mean, we're Christians. Is that the Christian thing to do? Speak about death? Well, the truth is, Death or hate is a part of it. If you're gonna put something to death, it's probably because you hate it. And today you may learn to have to hate certain things. And there again, in our world of inclusiveness and politically correctness, you might say, hate is something I don't know that I wanna be involved with. Well then you have to understand there's gonna be a limit to what you succeed as a Christian. Because this is following in the steps of God. And maybe you don't realize it, but God is a God that hates. Truth is, you can't have love without hate, just as if you can't have high without low, or hot without cold, or in without out. It just goes hand in hand. If you love justice, you hate crime. I hate watching the news now because of the things that happen and the people that are victims by evil people. There's so much crime. If you love your health, you hate disease. I hate the fact that we continue to lose people to certain diseases, and I understand there's a natural process, but I hate disease. I love flowers, so guess what I hate? Weeds. I hate those buggers, and I try to get them up at the roof, but guess what? They come back, but I hate it. If you love purity, you hate pornography. And you have to understand that hating is an important thing because God is a God who hates. Proverbs 6 verse 16 says, these six things the Lord hates. Yes, seven are an abomination to him. A proud look, lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among the brethren. Not sure of the order of importance, they're all important. But I think it grieves God when someone is sowing discord among the brethren, especially. Because those things ought not to be. And too often, as a pastor and as a church, I experience individuals that perhaps are hurt by someone. or have an offense toward someone or feel an offense toward them. And they don't follow Matthew 18 and go to that individual and go and tell your fault between him and you alone. Instead, they take that pain and that hurt and they speak to someone else. And sometimes they disguise it in saying, hey, pray for this. But they're bringing another person's name through the mud and they're so in discord. How sad that is. And today it's even worse when we begin to air it to others and now even social media. We're not at all hesitant to put something out there and let people know, hey, this is going on. Wow, where does that go? It goes everywhere. And there's no way of pulling back the discord that was sown. And the Bible tells us these seven things the Lord hates. These are things that need to be put to death to be mortified. The psalmist said in 119 verse 104, through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. And I know today we are once again to be tolerant, but I wonder, do we go to an imbalance when someone shares where they go to church and what's being taught and you know it's not scriptural and you kind of just in a real kind, fuzzy way. Well, I'm glad God is there. Bible tells us that we are to identify wrong. The psalmist said, I hate and abhor lying, but thy law I do love. And of course, in a loving way, expressing it in a right way. Hey, can I share something from scripture about what you just mentioned? and help people step into the light, I think it's important. So what are we to hate? What are we to put off? Paul's pretty straightforward about that. He mentions fornication. That's porneia. It refers to primarily sexual relationships outside of marriage, but it includes all kinds of unlawful deeds, including deviations, like mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5.1. And God looks at this sin with great disdain. In the Old Testament, it was punishable by death. That's how serious that is. He goes on to mention uncleanness, or impurity, which refers to evil thoughts and intentions. The evil thought is always what precedes the evil deed, and that's why we have to protect our mind. That's why he's telling us, set your mind on things above. That's why Paul said, listen, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God is working in our hearts and minds, and we have to be careful what we let in. Goes on to speak about passion. Pathos or lust is related to the next item on the list. It's a passive term referring to latent sexual desire. He goes on to speak about that evil desire, and this is more intense passion. It's more active than just passion. Latent sexual desire becomes activated sexual desire and creates evil thoughts, which then turn into evil deeds. This is so important. Linda, you getting all of this? This is important stuff. This is stuff that helps us take steps. in our Christian life. He speaks about uncleanness next, or impurity, which refers to evil thoughts and intentions. He speaks about covetousness, which is idolatry, and that's greed, literally. It means to have more, and in this context, it means to have more of what is not yours, and may be forbidden to be yours. And we should hate it because it's idolatry. It's causing us to put earthly things before God. And it consists of many things that I won't get into at this point. And so, those of us who have been raised with Christ are to demonstrate this new attitude towards sin. This new attitude not only applies to lustful sins, but it also applies to sins of speech. And so next, Paul jumps on that attitude of speech. In verse eight, he begins with, but now. I love the but now. That applies for my life and it, I assume, applies for your life because there was a time, and he addresses that, you know, you were once in these things, you were once this way, you were once in bondage, but now. And that all speaks about God and what God is able to do in our lives. And so he reminds us now that in decided contrast to our previous pagan state, and the imagery here is that of putting off or stripping off filthy-smelling clothing. I was working in the yard yesterday, I was kidding with someone because now the nice weather's coming, and I thought for sure, and maybe it's true, some of us would be walking in like this. Because why? We're doing things. I was carrying stones and preparing to do something, and that's the way it is. But when I was done, I stunk. No amen from you. But I stripped off those dirty clothes. And I didn't want to have them on me anymore. And that's kind of a picture of what he's talking about. And these first three items point to sins of disposition or internalized sin. And they may or may not be expressed in overt action. He speaks about anger. And we're all familiar with anger. And we all are angry at one time or another. But this refers to a smothering. resentful bitterness that refuses to be pacified. It becomes a way of life if it's not addressed. And anger always gives way to the second thing on the list, and that's wrath. Rage refers to a temporary blaze of sudden anger. And we see that. And sometimes we see it in ourselves. And that's why I pray, God, speak to our hearts. If this is evident in our life, we've got to strip this off. We've got to get rid of it because you're preeminent to us. We want to please you with our life. It flames furiously, but then it quickly burns out. But malice, next on the list, is the result of wrath. It refers to general evil or wickedness. It denotes a vicious disposition which promotes injury to others. That's why it's so bad. If God hates discord, can you imagine how God feels about this? It's the sin of ill will toward others. And then the other sins are verbalized, blasphemy, and literally means to vilify someone, evil speaking about someone, to slander someone, which is also a result of wrath. And when we vilify someone, once again, we may flower it up and make it look good and ask for prayer about this, but when we are speaking about someone and they are not present, we are guilty of malice, of blasphemy. Next one there is filthy language out of our mouth, and this is obscene, abusive language, and it carries the idea of being foul-mouthed abuse. This is what Paul referred to in Ephesians 4, 29, when he said, let no corrupt, there it is, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is what? Good, for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. So when we get hurt, when we feel that anger, Lord, help me. I'm a new man in Christ. You have preeminence in my life. Let me minister to this person and extend grace. And you know why we should be people that extend grace? Because we received grace. God never gave us what we deserved. He goes on to tell us not to lie to one another. All right, so does that include the big lie? Sure it does. How about the little lie? How about the white lie? Well, I was protecting them. I didn't want them to know. Yep. Let me help you with that. Let me ask you this. Does it really matter how much you steal? Whether it's a lot or a little? If you steal just a little, does it take away the terminology of you being a thief? No. And the truth is, no matter what the lie is, if it's deceit, you're a liar. God has to bring that out. If we're going to walk with him, if we're not gonna be sons of disobedience, we have to get that right with him. So how do we put off these filthy clothes? How do we make this right if God is speaking to our heart today? Well, it all begins with confession. That's the way it began with our salvation, and that's where it brings us along to the next step. If these things are evident in our life, God is telling them, move it out of your life. Apostle John reminded us if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aren't you thankful for 1 John 1.9? I am. So why is all this necessary? Well, it's because as Christians we say, Christ is all to me. He's preeminent in my life. And as we're ministering and witnessing to people and wanting the world to be saved, Let's get back to us for a moment and say, Lord, am I right with you? Are these things evident in my life? And it doesn't matter in a moment when we have an invitation what anyone else is doing, and it doesn't matter what anyone else is thinking. If God is speaking to you, then you want to respond. And because there's nothing more important than those words on the screen, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Please don't let that be you. Please be sensitive to the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit. You may be here today, and this is kind of going over your head. You're just not sure about all this. How does this work? Seek, set, mortify? I'm not sure I understand any of this. But let me ask you this. Are you sure that if you died right now, you'd go to heaven? And if you're not, would you take the time today to speak to me? I'll be at the hospitality table, one of our pastors, maybe someone that invited you today. How can I know about this Jesus? How can I make him my savior? How can he be preeminent in my life? May God be glorified as we spend this time together. Pray with me. Father, we are once again so thankful for your word. And Lord, it is to edify and to equip. And Father, this is so practical for our lives. So often in council I see folks struggle and Lord, slip and get back to that place of sin. And Lord, it's simply said here, it's because we're not seeking you with all our hearts. It's because we're not setting our mind on things above, and Father, today we desire to do that. It's, Father, because we're not putting to death and slaying those things that hinder the Christian walk and bring shame on the name of Christ in the church. And so today I ask, as we sing a song, Lord, that represents our hearts, move your people, have your perfect way. In Christ's name we ask, amen.