Good morning, everyone. Oh, it is good to be with you again on this Wednesday morning. It is June, isn't it? Like, for real, we can't deny it anymore. 2020 has been a very, very strange year. Of course, you don't need me to tell you that, but it's also been going by very quickly. I mean, I don't, maybe that's just me. Of course, I don't have really small children at home and I haven't been sort of locked down at home and quarantined with small children. So maybe if I was, I would feel different about it. But, um, At first, it felt like being home all the time made the days last longer, but, you know, life just picked up speed and it feels like, you know, we're halfway through 2020 already. Summer solstice is coming. It's coming actually on our 22nd anniversary. So that's pretty cool. Our anniversary is June 20th and summer solstice is always a little bit different each year, but it's coming on June 20th this year on our anniversary. 22 years. That's a hard to believe. But then I know I have a 16 year old who's getting ready to be a junior in high school and Boy, life, life, right? All right, Colossians chapter three today, which is very practical about life, but also very inspiring in helping us remember who we are and where our citizenship is and where our focus should be. So let's pray and then we'll dig into the text together. Father in heaven, we thank you so much. for just another day of life. You woke us up this morning, you gave us life, you gave us breath for our lungs and blood to pump through our bodies and health and strength so that we can gather here together this morning and we thank you for that. We thank you for your faithfulness. which is undying and just so consistent. Father, you are our rock and we depend upon you. So we thank you for another day and we thank you for another time in God's word. We thank you for your word here in Colossians. And as we look at chapter three today, we ask that you would open our eyes to see wonderful things in your word. Help us to see Jesus. Help us to see ourselves as your dearly loved children. Help us to live what you teach us this morning. We pray by your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, let's read the text. Colossians chapter 3. 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 mind on things that are above, not on things that are on 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 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." Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and, if anyone 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. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which 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. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Bond-servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done. And there is no partiality. Well, we have fully crossed over now into the second half of Colossians. And our focus, as is usually in a Pauline epistle, in one of Paul's letters, is that we're now focused on the practical living out of the gospel truth that's been so richly built into us in the first couple of chapters. So, how do we live as those who belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ? Well, Paul's big command here really centered on realizing sort of where our true home is and where our true hope is. So you know what's home? I was just commenting to my wife yesterday that I won't be traveling overseas this summer. You know I like go to Uganda to teach Bible and theology every summer. And the summer before that, I started going to Uganda, went to Haiti, usually go to General Assembly for the PCA. I'm not going anywhere this summer. I'm going to be here, home with my family. And she said, that's not a bad thing. And it's not a bad thing. I like being home with my family. But, you know, this is not really my home. My true home, where my true life is and where my true hope is, is Above. It's where Christ is. It's with Christ. My life is hidden with Christ in God. And so my thinking, my valuing, my treasuring, my pursuing, my dreaming, my aspiring, should all be focused on things above, where Christ is. Not things on earth. Not living for a pay raise. Not living for a promotion. Not living for a bigger house. Now those things may come in due time, but it is Christ who is to be the center of my thoughts. It is Christ who is to be the aim of my aspiration because Christ is my life. Your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. That's our hope, right? Our hope is that when Christ appears, we also will appear with him in glory. So how does that affect what we do? Well, Paul basically summarizes it in terms of what we need to put to death, what we need to put on. So there are all sorts of things that if this is the truth about us, if this is true of you, remember if then. There is an if clause here. If this is true of us, there's a whole set of things we have to put to death and put away and there's a whole set of things we have to put on. And really the things that we have to put to death can come into two categories. These two categories are improper desires to have that which is wrong and an improper temperament to treat others the way we should not treat them. I don't know if you can see that there, but if you look at the text, the first set of things are really improper desires. have what we should not have. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So there's five things that are all a desire to have something that we just shouldn't have. Sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, Passion, that is living for your fleshly appetites. Evil desire. Covetousness, wanting what others have, thinking that it should be ours. And Paul uses very strong language here. He says, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. Like this is the way the world works. The world works by stirring up desires in us, by having desires for things that are not ours and have not been given to us. So God's given us certain things. If you're married, God's giving you your spouse. God's giving you your children. God's giving you your home. God's giving you your job. There is a givenness to life. God has given it to you. Are you content with what he's given? Or are you constantly wanting what he hasn't given? Right? Paul says, no, we can't do that. We used to do that, but we can't do it anymore. And now we have to put away Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk. So often these things come up because we haven't gotten the things that we want, that we think we're entitled to. Right? Whether it's a sexual experience, or a material possession, or power, or control, or status, or pride, or position, or reputation, whatever it is that we think this coveting desire to get what we don't have and we think we should have, when that's frustrated, what happens? We get angry. Right? We slander other people. We're malicious in the way we talk. We curse. We lie. Because we're frustrated in our desires to have what we shouldn't have. But we shouldn't be doing any of that. Because we've already been given the best that we could ever be given. We've been given Christ. Christ is our life. Our life is hidden. with Christ in God. And so we can put off that old self with its practices and we can put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. And one of the things about this new self is that all of the class distinctions and all of the racial distinctions that matter so much out in the world are not to matter to us. We are to be non-classist, non-racist, non-prejudiced. We are to love all and everyone because Christ died for all and everyone. So what does that look like? Well, there's some things we put on. We put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. What is that? That is an others-centered, self-denying, contented love. And if anyone has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. And above all these, put on love. So these are all really various manifestations of love, but love sort of binds them all together. I'm going to have compassion to you. I'm going to be kind to you. I'm going to be humble toward you. I'm going to be meek in my treatment of you. Meekness is a combination of humility and gentleness. I'm going to be patient with you. If you've wronged me, I'm going to forgive you because the Lord has forgiven me. And I'm going to bind all this together with love. And I'm gonna let, here's a let. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts and be thankful. So there's an emphasis here twice on thanksgiving. Be thankful and then sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness. So love, compassion, peace, thankfulness, joyful worship, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That, I believe, is a picture of gathered worship. We have to be gathered together as the body of Christ in worship to do those things. 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, so here's the summary statement, whatever it is, whatever it is that you're doing, Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3.17 is a great summary statement of what it looks like to put on godliness. Whatever we do, we do it And so then, with that as a prompt, he now moves into, okay, so what do we do in terms of our primary relationships? This is Paul's household codes, is what Bible scholars call these. It's how we treat one another within the household, within our home, within our primary place of life. Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord. Fathers do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. I am still wrestling with that. I'm struggling Bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters Right, whatever you do work heartily as for the Lord and not for men so you see the connection between that verse and verse 17 whatever you do in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. So in other words, there's a Godward orientation to our lives, which goes all the way back to the beginning of the chapter, set your mind on things above. What we do here on earth. So there's this idea that you can be so heavenly minded that you would be of no earthly good. I don't know if you've heard that expression before, but it's said that you can be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good. That's actually not true. There is the real possibility that you could be so earthly minded that you are of no heavenly good. But to be truly heavenly minded is to take that heavenly mindedness into our earthly calling. We don't desire to have more, control more, be more in this world. Well, what do we desire? We desire to serve Christ, to love more, to give more, to worship more, to honor Christ more in this world. So being heavenly minded makes us of the most earthly good because we realize this very key truth that we are serving the Lord Christ. So this is what it looks like to live out the great gospel theology that God has worked into our hearts by his Holy Spirit. We set our mind on things above, we look to Christ who is our life, and then we live life in this world knowing where our true home is and knowing where our true hope is. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for such great love, such a strong hope, such an eternal home. We thank you for you are good. Your love never fails. Your mercies endure forever. Father, would you give us the grace by your Holy Spirit to live for Christ, to live as heavenly-minded, Christ-focused members of the body of Christ, ambassadors for Christ, Children of God, redeemed, transformed, renewed. Let's live that way today. Father, let us live that way today by your grace, by your Holy Spirit working in us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, thank you again for joining me tomorrow. We wrap it up with Chapter 4. So I'm looking forward to seeing you then. Have a blessed day with your mind set on things above. you