And humidity's not bad, but I don't know about you, today I was hot. Anybody else, who else is hot? And then I had brother Josh, he is demanding that I go with him to Cedar Point on Tuesday. With Eliana, where it's gonna be 107 degrees in the shade. So, am I on? Oh, okay, good. All right. Colossians chapter 3. I won't be too long tonight, as Pastor said. And he said Brother Scott kind of starts to wimp out toward the end there in this hot weather. So Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. And as you're turning there, let me ask you a couple questions. Do you believe that Christ should have a place in our life? All right. I'm glad for that. Do you think Christ should have more than just a place in our life? Should Christ be all of our life? In fact, we're going to look at that tonight. I reminded of a fellow one time, he told a story. There's a thief one time that broke into a single room apartment of a French novelist by the name of Henri de Bazac. And he was trying to avoid waking Bazac up and the intruder quietly picked the lock on the writer's desk. And suddenly as he was picking the lock, The silence of that apartment was broken by a sarcastic laugh from the bed there where Balzac was laying watching the thief. The thief was surprised and he looked over at Balzac and he said, why do you laugh? To which he replied, I'm laughing to think that the risk you take to try to find money in a desk by night where the legal owner can never find any money in the desk by day. That kind of sums us up, does it not? Think about that for just a second. People are trying to find money where there's no money. People are trying to find happiness where there is no happiness. People are trying to find comfort and security where there is no security. People are trying to find joy where there is no joy. They're trying to find something where there is absolutely nothing. Like what the Bible says over 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it says, why we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. And can I tell you, as the Bible says, as we look through verse by verse, we find out that the things of this world are temporal. They pass away. Not too long ago, we were trying to find a seat for an automobile and one that carries an airbag for a certain particular vehicle, and we were back there looking for a seat, and as we were looking, I looked at all these cars in this junkyard, and I thought to myself, at one time, A lot of these vehicles were people's pride possession. People spent a lot of time on those things. Spent a lot of hours making sure that it looked pristine and now these vehicles are in a junkyard, no longer shiny and sleek. People come to church, people come to other activities and they have their new fashionable clothes and I don't know about you, there comes a time where I figure out my clothes don't fit so well anymore. And they go to a, I don't know, those big yellow boxes over there by Deitch's, what are they called? Habit for Humanity or whatever it may be, because they don't look quite like they once did. They don't fit like they once did. One time they brought joy, one time they brought happiness, one time I thought that this was it, but we get rid of those. Paul says over in Colossians chapter 3, we're going to look at it in just a second, he says, affection on things above, not on the things of this earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." I like what one preacher said. He said this, it's not about you. Isn't that about right? Anybody ever told their kids that before? It's not about you. It's about me. No, no, we don't do that. It's not about you. The purpose of your life is greater than your own personal fulfillments. He goes on to say, your peace of mind or your happiness, it's not about you. Life is far greater than family, career, even your wildest dream or ambitions. And he finishes with this, and I like it. He says, if you want to know why you are placed on this planet, you have to begin with God. You were born for his purpose. And for his purpose, put life simply, life begins with God, life ends with God, and really somewhere we must sandwich God in the middle of our lives if we're going to find true joy. Colossians chapter 3 is an interesting passage of scripture. In fact, as you look at the last two chapters of Colossians chapter 3, We see here that Paul begins to move from practical applications of the doctrines that he was teaching in the first two chapters. Afterwards, let's just think of this for just a minute here, that little good is done in the Christian life if all we can do is declare and defend the truth if we're not willing to demonstrate the truth. What we believe should have a direct relationship in how we as individuals behave. I don't know about you, but I have found it easier in life to tell my kids to do something than to act it in my own life. Anybody ever had that before? Do this. Why? Because. But we as Christians should not only be willing to declare the truth and defend the truth, but we in our life should be ready to demonstrate that in our life. And that's where the Apostle Paul is coming here in Colossians chapter 3. And as I brought forth that question just a little bit ago, who is Jesus to you? You say, well, Jesus has a place in my life. But can I say this? Jesus does not want just a place in your life. You say, well, Jesus has a very big place in my life, but can I tell you tonight, Jesus doesn't want just a big place in your life. Jesus desires, He deserves, can we say this, He literally demands to have all of your life. In fact, in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 18, He says that all things He might have the preeminence. that he might be what is most important. So we come here to Colossians chapter 3. Look, if you will, at verse 1. As pastor said, I am battling against the heat. I see several people passed out in the back. I don't know, maybe they're sleeping. I don't know what it is, but we're going to try to be quick tonight. So Colossians chapter 3, look at verse 1. The Bible says, if you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordered affection, evil cupessance, and covetousness, which is idolatry." For sake of time, look at verse 11. The Bible says this, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but there's that phrase, but Christ. is all and in all. So that's the question I have for you tonight. Who is Christ to you? Who is Christ to you? Let's ask the Lord to bless. Father, I pray just bless this time that we have together tonight. I pray that you would speak to our hearts. Lord, I know it's a little warm in here this morning, but as we look at your word tonight, I pray that you would speak to our hearts or give me guidance and where to go and direct me in the path that you would have of me to take tonight. I pray I wouldn't say anything I shouldn't say. But Lord, I pray that I would say what you would want me to say tonight. Guide my lips. Lord, lead me. And again, we'll thank you so much for it. In Jesus' name, Amen. There's an interesting question where he says, the Apostle Paul in verse 11, he says this, but Christ is all and in all. And so, you know if Christ is all, then that leaves nothing out. That means that Christ is to be literally everything. And that's a big question that we need to ask ourselves as individuals tonight. Is the Lord Jesus Christ everything to you? You say, well, he means everything to me. I'm not talking about Sundays here and maybe a Wednesday night, but in our life and everything we do, are we reminded of this, that Christ is to be everything. He is all and in all. In fact, in verse 4, the Apostle Paul says that Christ is our life. Look at verse 4. The Bible says, when Christ, who is our life. He doesn't want to only give us life, but he wants to be our life. Philippians chapter 1, verse 21, the Bible says this, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Jesus doesn't only point to life, he is life. John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So Christ is our life. It is Jesus only. He is all and to be all in all. And it's not just for knowledge. It's not just Jesus plus anything. It's not something after Jesus. Can I tell you something? Jesus is to be everything to us. Paul says in verse 11, he says, Christ is all and in all. John chapter 17, Jesus says, and this is life eternal, that you might know Thee, the only true God. So it's Jesus only. And He is all and in all. So notice several things in this passage. Again, I'm gonna try to be quick tonight, but look at verse one, if you will, very quickly here. The Bible says that we have been crucified with Christ. Look at verse 3, it says this, for ye are dead. Now, can I tell you something tonight? You are looking at a dead man. Now don't laugh about it. Some of the teenagers over there are going, yeah, you've looked like you've been dead for a number of years. But can I tell you something? If you are in Christ, you are dead. I have been crucified. I have died with Christ. And if you are saved, so have you. When I was saved some 40 years ago, hard to believe, I was buried in that liquid tomb of baptism. That was my funeral service. And you know who was there mourning it? Satan was. He was the chief mourner there. His old buddy had died. We had been crucified in Christ. The Bible says that ye are dead. Not only that, it says ye have been risen with Christ. Look at verse 1. The Bible says if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. So not only are we dead, but according to verse 1, we have also been raised. Not only that, look at, if you will, at verse 4. The Bible says that we live in Christ. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. There we go. When Christ, who is our life. So we have been crucified with Him. We have been risen with Him, and we live with Him. So we have the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, look at verse 3. The Bible says we are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. So we're hidden in Christ. Now think about that. You have been crucified with Christ, you have risen with Christ, you are alive in Christ, and you are hidden in Christ. In order for the devil to get me, he has to go through God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ because I have been hid in Christ. He is my life. So what these verses are saying here is I have died with Him. I was raised with Him. I live with Him and I am hidden in Him. What am I saying here? He is everything to me. He is all, as the Apostle Paul says here, and in all. So very quickly here tonight, I want to look at three verbs if I may. when it comes to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing that He is all in, in, and in all. Look, if you will, at verse 1. I'm going to give you three verbs. The Bible says this, verse 1, if you be risen with Christ, seek. There we go. Seek those things which are above. Look, if you will, at verse 2. The Bible says, set your affection on things above. So we're supposed to seek those things which are above. We are to set our affection on those things which are above. Look at verse 3. The Bible says, for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ. We're going to see that in just a little bit. The Bible talks there about mortifying or slaying the flesh. So we see those three verbs. First thing is this, we see that Jesus is to stir our desires. The Bible says this, he says, if you be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above. Matthew chapter 6 verse 33, the Bible says this, it says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Now let me ask you a question tonight. Are we doing that in our life? Are we setting our affection on things above? Are we seeking first the kingdom of God? I don't know about you, but it's easy for me to get distracted. Even here, you get easily distracted. I go to a mall, my wife's like, you're a people watcher. I am a people watcher. I am easily distracted. I love how people can sit toward the back. I can't do it. Why? I'm a people watcher. I'm easily distracted. We live in a world today where the world is trying to easily distract us. Our attention is on things that are temporal. Our attention is on things that really don't matter for eternity. The Bible says this, set your affection on things above. Our desires, our captivation should be on those things which are above. I'm going to say something very profound here. we're in Colossians chapter 3. So if there's a Colossians chapter 3, that means that there must be a Colossians chapter 2. So take your Bibles, look at Colossians chapter 2 and the Apostle Paul gives us some things here. that can cause us to lose our attention. Look, if you will, at verse 8, chapter 2, verse 8. The Bible says, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. So sometimes we as individuals, we're prone to stray because of the reasoning of this world. We've used that word before, spoiled. We know what spoiled means. When a people would take a country or an army, they would spoil that country. They would carry away the goods of that country. They would spoil it here. Apostle Paul is here saying this. He says, don't let somebody carry you away captive. Keep your affections where they need to be. Be well grounded in the faith. Don't let human reasoning ruin you. The Apostle Paul here says this, he says, don't let the reasoning of the world distract you. Now look at verse 13. He says this, don't let the rituals of this world, verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward, which is voluntary. humility and worshiping of angels, intruding in those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up in this fleshly mind. And not holding the head from that which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment, ministered, knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." There are certain things that will cause us to stray. Not only does he talk about that, but we see the religions of this world. Look at verse 18. He says this, "...angels, intruding in those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up of this fleshly mind." easily distracted by rituals, by the reasoning of this world, by the religions of this world. The other day I was sitting on the porch and I had my dog. He was sitting there and I'm kind of playing around with him. And all of the sudden, that dog got alert. And I thought, there's somebody out in the alley. It's starting to get dark out there. Something's going on. What's wrong? And that dog got alert. And he started running around, and he started chasing something. And I looked down, and it dawned on me what he was chasing. He was chasing a shadow of a bird. There was this bird down there, up here, and there's this dog down there, and he's running around, and he's chasing this shadow. It was a nothing. It was just a reflection, however that works, of a bird that was up high. And I looked at myself, what a dumb dog. I mean, for five minutes he's chasing a shadow all over the place, around the tree here and there. And I'm thinking to myself, what a dumb dog. And then it dawned on me, that's what we as individuals do sometimes. We chase things that don't matter when it comes to eternity. We chase the riches of this world. We chase prestige. We chase things that when it comes to eternity has no value at all. And we do it over and over and over again. And the Apostle Paul says, hey, set your affection on things above, not on the things of this earth. And so we see here, the Bible says we are to seek those things which are above. We are to let the Lord seize our desires. Not only that, we see this, we see that Jesus is to set my affections. That's the second verb. Look at verse 2. Set your affection on things above, not on the things on this earth. The Bible says over in Proverbs chapter 23 in verse 7, it says this. for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Literally what Paul is saying is this, that we are to set our mind on Christ. We go back a little bit earlier how I said I'm easily distracted. I don't know about you. I'm just going to, you open your Bible and you start looking. I don't know, my mind gets easily distracted. Hundred things I've got to do and I've got to go over here and take care of this and take care of that. And the year of the Apostle, Paul is saying this, hey, set your mind on Christ. Jesus is to command my attention. Simply, I am to meditate on Him. We have so many things in this life that we live that are pulling on our mind. We have work, we have recreation, we have distractions. This day and age that we live, we have, I don't have it with me right now, this little box, it's about yay long, that goes ding, ding, ding. My wife hates my ringtone. I have some, I don't know, I've had it for like 10 years now. It's some hymn or something like that. Loud and, oh, I gotta take the phone call. We have so many distractions today. And we as individuals, we have gotten to a place that our minds are not on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we wonder why it is that we become so easily distracted or discouraged in the Christian life. And that is because our eyes, our affection, our mind, our desires, the things of this life that has our attention. Can I tell you something? Jesus wants our attention. He wants our mind on Him. My wife is really good at this, and I'll be talking. We have a serious conversation going on. And all of a sudden, my phone will ring. And I'll look at it, and I'll say, it's not important. And she'll just stop talking. And I'm like, I said it's not. She said, that's all right. We'll talk later. And it drives me up a wall, because she knows my attention has been diverted somewhere else. Can I tell you something? Christ wants our attention. He wants us to meditate on Him. He wants us, as the Bible says, to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We live in this world where things are going on. How about you? Last night, all of a sudden, here comes the news. This is happening and that is happening. Can I tell you tonight, Christian, keep your eyes on Jesus. Meditate on Him. That first verse there says, seek those things which are above. That second verb is to set your affection on things of, not on this earth, but to set your affection on things above. Look at the third verb we see here very quickly, is to slay or to mortify. Look at verse 5. The Bible says, mortify therefore your members. which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness." By the way, there's some pretty bad things there. idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in the which you also walk sometimes when you lived in them. But now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of thy mouth." The list goes on and on. But can I tell you, Jesus is to control my actions. The Bible says that we are to mortify, we are to slay. If Christ is my life, if Christ is everything to me, that word mortify literally means to put to death. And not just to put to death, that word mortify means to do it forcefully. And sometimes my flesh, I don't know about you, my flesh really likes to come out. Anybody ever said something, you say, why did I just say that for? Why in the world did I just make things 10 times worse? Why did I think that? Why did I act that way? And the Bible says here that we are to mortify the flesh. Literally, we are to put it to death forcefully. And here's the interesting thing, as if you hate it. That's the idea there. You know that there are some things in the Christian life that we literally are to hate? You say, I don't know about that. You know you cannot love without hating some things? You cannot have highs without lows. You can't have hot without colds. You can't have a with without an out. In fact, the simple fact is this. If you love justice, then you'll hate crime. If you love health, you'll hate disease. If you love purity, you'll hate pornography. If you love flowers, you'll hate weeds. Do you know that God is a God that hates? I won't for sake of time have you turn there. You say, I don't know if I believe that. The Bible says over in Proverbs chapter 6, it says this, these six things that the Lord hate. Yea, seven are abomination, a proud look, a lying tongue. hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that diviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift and running to mischief, a false witness that beareth lies, and he that speaketh are so with discord among the brethren." There are certain things in our life that we need to put to death, that we need to mortify. Psalm 119 says this, "...through thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way." Psalm 119, a few verses later, says, I hate and abhor lying, but thy law I do love. It also says, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. If there's a sin in our life, can I tell you something? Hate it. Mortify. Mortify the flesh. Put it to death. Why? Because Christ is to be all and in all. Christ is to be everything to me. My relationship with Christ, my walk with Christ is to be all and in all. Not halfway, not partway, not partial. Well, you know what, I got Sundays for God and the rest of the week I got here and there. Can I tell you, Christ is to be all and in all. And because He's all in all, I set my affection on things above. Because He is all in all, I seek those things which are above. Because He is all and in all, I mortify the flesh. Say, what is the Christian life? Now, I'll close with this. What is the Christian life? Can I tell you tonight, the Christian life is not Cornerstone Baptist Church. The Christian life is not prayer. The Christian life is not the Bible. The Christian life is not doing good. You say, those things are bad. Those things are great. Those things are needed. Those things are very important. But the Christian life is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about Jesus. He is our life. He is to be all and in all. As I said tonight, I'm going to be short and I'm done. Let me leave you with that thought tonight. As the Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter 3 verse 11, he says this, but Christ is all and in all. I've often wondered When you look at these apostles' life, you look at these disciples, you look at these great Christians that gave everything for the Lord Jesus Christ, willing to give their life. Many did. I've often thought to myself, who knows where this, where we may end up. There may come a time where I have to give my life for Christ. I don't think we're there right now. But I'll tell you something, Jesus Christ sure wants me to live for Him now. And I am not going to be the Christian that He desires of me to be. My walk is not going to be what it should be, and other areas of my Christian life is not going to be what He desires of me to be if Christ is not all in all in my life. Let me ask you tonight, what does He mean to you? I think sometimes we're satisfied with some of our life, a portion of our time, a portion of this, a portion of that, that's the Christian life. But can I tell you tonight, the Christian life is Christ. It's all about Him. is Christ all and in all. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this evening. Give us for your blessings. Thankful for the Word of God. What a question we need to ask ourselves tonight, and that very simple question, is Christ all and in all? Is He everything to us? Lord, so often we get distracted, we have the things of this world that weigh us down, that cause our attention to be diverted. Lord, maybe tonight some of us just need to get to the place where we say, Christ, it's all about you. Whatever you want in my life, that's what I'm willing to do. Maybe tonight we just need to come to this old-fashioned altar and say, Lord, I give you everything. Lord, I pray you'd bless, we'll thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. The piano's gonna play, I know it's a little hot there. Maybe you just need to come to the altar tonight and say...