A Transformed Life

Alright. Good morning, church. Thank you for being here. Fourth of July weekend. We are working with a skeleton crew today.

And we are making the best of it. We’re so thankful for you. I hope that you were able to move into worship already with us. It’s thinner than normal. We’re gonna live, though.

You know what? We’re gonna be fine. I’ve preached to a lot less. Believe it or not. And so I’m totally good with it.

I’m thankful you’re here. And I’m thankful for the opportunity to be in a country where we would celebrate what we’re celebrating. 250 years as a nation. So many churches have been planted worldwide. So many missionaries sent because of what God has done in our country.

I’m very proud to be an American. I served in our military for 10 years. I’m very thankful for that time. And I’m so, so happy you’re here today. And I’ve even wore, in a way, some red, white, and blue for you.

In a way. But some of you have done the same. I appreciate you. But We’re going to continue this morning in this series we’ve called Built Different. And we’re very thankful for what God’s doing at our church.

I want to begin by saying, hey, we’re only about a week out from one of the biggest, if not the biggest events we do as a church every year. And we do it all for the children. Your kids, kids in the neighborhood, kids in our community. Last year we had 6 children come to Christ during our Kids Fest event. This year I’m expecting that God will do the same, if not more.

He uses this time where we just have fun. We do these dramas that tell Bible stories. We worship with the children. We teach them various stories from scripture that point to Christ Jesus. And God moves.

He moves in miraculous ways. In ways only he can. And we get to be a part of that. That’s what’s so— such a privilege is that we get to enjoy what God is doing. Not only in our church but in the lives of our kids.

And so I just want to put that out there to you once more. You’re not too late. If you’ve got children and haven’t registered them, do so as soon as you can. And if you’ve not signed up to volunteer in any way yet, this is such an awesome opportunity to see what God’s going to do. And so I pray you will consider doing that.

But certainly, if nothing else, be praying for us. We’ve got a bunch of decorating to do. Next Sunday, if you show up, and I pray you will, this room, all these rooms are going to look real different. We’re going to be underwater. For the next 2 weeks.

We’re taking our children into the deep. And so it’s going to look like an aquarium in our building for the next 2 Sundays. So you’re going to want to come and see that. But certainly invite people and be praying for us. We already have somewhere around 60.

I haven’t looked this in a couple days. But last year we had 43. We already have 60, I think roughly, pre-registered. So we’re about to blow it up. And so be praying for us in that.

So let’s dig in now. We’re going to be in the book of Colossians chapter 3 together. And we’ve been digging into this idea of what it looks like to be built different. This is a phrase that people use to talk about someone or something that is exceptional. That stands out.

That’s cut different. Cut from a different mold. And that’s where we’re going to be for the next 2 weeks. We’re finishing this series up. And I want to remind you.

We pulled all of this from these main— these 6 main concepts of Romans chapter 12. One of my favorite scriptures where Paul writes to the Roman church in chapter 12. He says, “I appeal to you, brothers, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies.” That was one of our sermons. “As a living sacrifice.” That was another. “Holy and acceptable, which is your spiritual worship.” And last week we talked about, “Do not be conformed to this world.” And now this week, But be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So this week we’re talking about transformation. What does it mean to be a transformed, to have a transformed life that would be transformed by the renewal of our mind? I know somebody in the audience is ready to say, Autobots roll out. You know, that’s maybe what you picture. That’s what I do.

I grew up with that stuff. So transformer, that sounds great. Well, it is great. It’s even better in the scripture. But here’s the thing.

Here’s the thing I’ve observed in my own life. And I bet you’ve observed in yours. Perhaps you’ve come in. There’s various heart conditions of people coming in right now. Various ways that you’re struggling.

Maybe you’re up. Maybe you’re down. Maybe you’re still trying to walk this Christianity thing out in your life. But for so many of us, I would argue maybe all of us, we fail at times to experience transformation. I know that I do.

So don’t feel discouraged by that. That’s not even going to be the point of the message. You’re hopefully going to walk away feeling very encouraged that God is at work in your life and has started something that he intends to finish. And so here he says, you will be transformed by the renewal. What happens to us?

What causes us to not always experience experience transformation kind of life. We believe the gospel, so many of us. We know that Christ has saved us. We know he’s the way. But here’s what happens.

We still worry about what the world worries about. It’s so tempting. It’s so easy to fall back into that. We still chase what the world chases. We still lose our tempers over the same stuff we lost it over prior BC.

I always say my BC days, which for me were a long time ago. I came to Christ when I was 6, and so my life has been a lot of figuring out how to walk with Jesus while also believing it, which is its own sort of difficulty. But some of you remember the days before Jesus, the days before you said yes, when you were chasing after all kinds of things and frustrated. What’s confusing is when you feel like you’re still living that way. Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Often we return to those same frustrations and sins we’ve battled for years. I wonder this. Here’s what I want to argue today. Have you ever in your life been given a fresh start? Look back somewhere in your life.

Maybe you started a new job. Maybe you moved to a new city. Maybe you finally got out of a relationship that had been slowly tearing you down and you moved on from that. Maybe the network of friends you had in high school, You finally moved away and got out of that and you knew at that moment you had a chance to start over. I remember feeling this way when I went to college.

I didn’t hate the way I had been in high school, but I kind of had this class clown kind of reputation. And here I am kind of clowning still. So there was something true in that. But I kind of wanted to move on from this goofball, This is all I am to people and people don’t take me very seriously. I wanted to move on from that.

And so I had determined when I got to college that I would do differently. And I kind of did. I wanted to be the man that I saw in the mirror and not what everybody else saw. But here’s the key problem with a fresh start. And some of you have maybe recently had one.

You’ve moved. You’ve started something new. Here’s what I’ve observed. Changing your location It does not automatically change your life. It doesn’t.

You can move to a new city and bring your same old habits. You can move to a new job and have the same, same struggles, the same sin areas, the same laziness, passivity. Here’s the great news today. Here’s where we’re going to be. Transformation is not a fresh start.

It’s a brand new life. In Jesus Christ, here’s what you’ve been given. You’ve been given something better than a fresh start. You’ve been given a new life. We’re going to key in on a passage today where it says, “Jesus, who is your life.” That’s a wild thing to say.

Jesus Christ, who is your life. Not the hope of your life. Other passages may say that. Here Paul says, “He is.” And you’ve been given new life in Christ Jesus. So here we go.

We’re going to be in Colossians 3. We’re going to see the Apostle Paul teaching first these Colossian believers that because they had died and been raised in Christ Jesus, they could live out a completely new life transformed in the Lord, that Christ had given them this new life. And the text, I believe, will show us very— 3 clear ways to live this out because we can do the same. So let’s dig in. Colossians 3:1-11.

I pray this so encourages and feeds you today. If then 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 things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died. Listen to this, church.

This is really strange but powerful language. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. And here’s the verse. When Christ, who is your life, if Christ appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Now here’s the challenge.

Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which leads— which is, in fact, idolatry. On account of these things I’ve just listed, 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. Here’s another list: anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth.

He separates this. He says, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here, there. There’s not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. This is God’s word.

Amen.

If you don’t walk away here, walk out of this building today feeling a little uplifted, then I’ve failed. I’m going to do real hard. I’m going to try my best to make you feel encouraged by this good word because Christ is saying you have died and been buried and raised in newness of life. And so now you have a new opportunity. You have a new self.

So put off the old. So let’s dig in. How do we do this? How do we actually live out the transformed life that Christ says we already have? Here’s the first.

And these are going to feel like, Jonathan, you didn’t even try. All right. Because literally these are right here in the text. When the text gives you perfect points, you don’t mess with them. Okay.

And Paul right away, he says, “Set your mind, seek the things above, set your minds on them.” Set your mind on things above. Now I got to unpack this point because that sounds very like theoretical. Like, “Okay, whoop-de-doo, I’m going to think about heaven all the time.” What are we doing here? Don’t worry, we’re going to dig into this together. Paul makes two statements that seem like they almost don’t square with our reality to begin with and we have to deal with those first.

Right away he says, “If you have been raised with Christ, you should be asking as I was asking, wait a minute, I’m alive, I’ve not died, I’ve not resurrected.” None of that’s true. So clearly Paul is talking about something in the spiritual realm. He’s clearly talking about something that although physically has not happened, spiritually has. This is often, we will say this around our church, you’ve probably heard me say this before. This is this idea of the already.

Not yet. So already, if you’ve come to Christ Jesus and said, he has paid for my sin, I walk with him, he is my Savior and Lord, if you’ve done that, then already in a spiritual sense, your inheritance is set. This is what Peter was talking about last week. This is what Paul is talking about here. You are already seated in the heavenly places near Christ.

You have already in a spiritual way been set free permanently and perfectly. But notice Paul doesn’t say, “Hey, so live up there. Just set your minds there.” He goes on to say, “So you got to put some stuff to death.” He is acknowledging that you’re still living in this life. I heard a pastor recently say, digging in on this text, he said, “The idea here is aim at heaven while you’re living on earth. Aim at heaven while you’re living on earth.” That’s pretty powerful.

I think that’s what Paul’s trying to say here. You’ve already been raised. In fact, verse 3 says, “You have already died.” We do this imagery. We did it last Sunday if you were with us. This imagery of a baptism.

What we’re trying to model and illustrate there is that in actuality in Christ Jesus, you have already died to sin. He has already paid for it. It was enough. More than enough. You’re good.

You’re free. Sin has been conquered. So when Paul writes in a moment, and we’re going to dig into it. When he writes put to death, he’s saying this isn’t like some kind of unique work where you’ve got to try real hard. It’s more like I’m going to yield and acknowledge the work that God has already done and is doing in my life.

The idea of transformation here is not, hey, I need God to trans— he needs to do this initially. No, he has already transformed me and is constantly now transforming me. The book of Hebrews says it this way. You have been made holy, those who are being made perfect. So he is sanctifying you.

That’s the part that you and I are going, that’s the part that burns a little bit. That’s the part that’s a little tricky. Because in Christ Jesus, you have been made holy, but he is making you like Jesus. And that requires pruning, some pain at times. Because there’s rough edges.

In fact, if we are like diamonds, if we are Christ’s chosen people, like a diamond, you would have to take a laser and laser off some of the edges. That’s us. There’s some rough edges that need a little bit of work. So he says, begin with, okay, so in actuality, I’m free. I don’t have to live as I once did.

I have died and been raised in Christ Jesus. Okay. What do I do with that? Well, initially what I do with that is I seek the things above and I set my mind on the things above. This word mind here is an interesting word in the Greek.

It’s probably not that important to you, but what was interesting to me, there’s multiple words for mind in the Greek. Here is the word phroneo, which has to do with the gut or the abdomen. It’s this Hebraic kind of idea. They always thought that the passion— we think passion and emotion kind of come from the heart, right? We know it’s not actually true.

I think everybody in the room knows this thing beats and makes blood flow, right? We know what it’s actually doing, but don’t we say, “Hey, heart has to do with our love and our emotion and our passion.” That’s the idea here of mind phroneo. They thought of it coming from your gut. Kind of weird, but that’s the case. In some ways we still kind of use this.

Like we might say, I might say, hey, Josh has a lot of guts. It means he has a lot of courage. He has a lot of boldness. So we’ve kept some aspects of that phrase. So here he’s saying, hey, I want you to set your passion.

Another version says, set your affections on the things which are above. Okay. So if I’ve died and been raised in Christ Jesus, if I’m to live a transformed life, then I need to set my affections, my passions, my heart is set on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. Okay, so Jonathan, are you saying— Now I just want you to know, Jonathan, I got work to do. I got kids to feed.

I got kids to parent. I got a husband. I got a wife. I got a boss. You want me to spend my life just thinking up in the clouds?

Is that what you’re saying here? Simply no.

Instead, I think what Paul is arguing and what would be so helpful to us to hear today is this idea that your life is not your own. It’s been transformed. It’s been totally changed. It’s brand new. And Paul says something careful in verse 4.

He says, Christ, who is your life, when he appears, All this is gonna be revealed. But he makes a statement there that I think most of us are really challenged by. Christ is my life. He’s not part of my life.

That alone is a very powerful idea. So I’m not a pastor who happens to be a Christian. I’m not a pharmacist who happens to be a Christian. I’m not a I’m not a person who works for the police department. I’m not a nurse.

I’m not— no, I’m a Christ follower. I am a little Christ follower. And then these other things are supplementary. This might sound kind of tough at first, like before you’re a husband, before you’re a wife, you’re a son or daughter of the King, King Jesus. He says your life is wrapped up in Jesus.

So all of this extracurricular stuff, it’s good stuff, it’s not bad stuff, and most of it, a lot of it God has actually supplied in your life for his purpose and his good and his plan. But we flip it. Most of us. I do it. I struggle to where days I pray, I spend most of my days thinking about how to be more successful in this, how to Sometimes how to be more comfortable in this.

I think about stuff like that. Paul says, “Be thinking about Christ who is your life.” Now what does that look like? That’s a better plan. What are these things that are above? It’s not being so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good.

I grew up hearing that phrase. There’s some truth to that phrase that all you do is just you’re always on cloud nine and you’re no use on earth. That’s not what Paul Paul saying. He’s saying Christ is your life, so what is Christ about? Here’s some powerful questions I want you to consider today.

No matter what you do for work, no matter what it is you do in relationships as, as parents, as grandparents, no matter what that looks like, the questions that ring in your head constantly should be centered around Christ himself. What is his character? What are his purposes? I want to give you just a couple of questions to think about every single day. What does Christ think?

What does Jesus love? What motivates him? What brings him joy? What is he up to in this life? What does he value most?

What is he accomplishing in this world? What would please him most today? You want to know what it looks like to set your affections on Things above where Christ is seated? Who is your life? That means we need to get to know this Jesus.

You might start to think as you attend our services more and more, you might just think, “He beats that drum a lot.” Well, friend, that’s pretty much what this life’s all about. There was some writers many, many years ago, it’s in the Westminster Catechism, it says that man’s chief end is to know God and enjoy him forever. They’re right about that. They’re dead on. You have one primary purpose, to know your creator and enjoy him forever.

Okay, so if I’m to set my affections on things above, then I need to get to know this Jesus. I want to know his mind. There’s a song we used to sing. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but the words were something like, I want to know you. I want to hear your voice.

I want to know your mind. It was a great little song some years ago. It’s dead on. So then life is more spent. If my life is Christ and all of these other things are who I am in Christ, I’m a father and this is something that God has gave me, but I am Christ’s first.

Then I’m constantly asking, okay, God, well, if I’m to be a good dad, what’s that look like? Who are you as a father? What do you love? How would you speak? How would you think?

How would you see that? How that dialogue might completely change the way you approach things. God, how would you be a boss in this situation? How would you be an employee in this moment? How would you speak, think?

That’s, I think, where Paul is at. Christ then becomes the center of our attention. His priorities are our priorities.

If you want to be transformed, you got to seek something other than the things that the world can give. Here’s what Jesus said himself on the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 6 of Matthew. He says, “Don’t worry about these things saying, ‘What will I eat? What will I drink? What will I wear?'” These things, they dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.

That’s true. “But your Heavenly Father already knows all your needs.” So here’s his command. Seek then the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously and he will give you everything you need. I want to give you an illustration to close this first idea. There’s currently right now, I think almost everyone in the room knows this, but there are sound waves in the air right now that you can’t hear.

Right now if we pause, you hear the air running, right? There’s that sound wave. You hear the sound of my voice. Some of those in the back corner, you might, if you tuned in real tight, you might be able to hear that refrigerator in the kitchen. You might even hear a light hum from the speakers.

Although I hope we’ve got that out.

You got your own voice, right? Which isn’t technically making sound, but there’s something going on there. But right now there are Your phones are communicating. Scary thought. Right now in every home in America, Alexa’s listening.

I mean, there are things going. There’s tons of audio waves in the air right now. And you and I can’t hear them. We don’t have the appropriate headwear. We need some antennas.

You know? We need some stuff. When you get in your car, you can tune it in and you got to get that right. None of us do that anymore because we just all have iPhones and phones and things like that. Some of you might still have a tuner and you’re thinking, “Man, I’m old school.” Here’s the thing I want you to hear, the reason I tell you this.

The Lord is speaking constantly. There is what you might call a heavenly sound wave that’s running constantly.

And the problem is not that God is not speaking. The problem is that we struggle to tune in. Now here’s the good news, friends. In Christ Jesus, you have been given the correct hardware.

But you’ve got to actually pull away enough from all this other noise to hear it. There’s many stories I could give you right now, but one that I would go to is God appears to one of the prophets and first comes through like a loud thunderstorm and an earthquake and various things come by. But the voice of God comes by in a very still and calm voice.

I don’t know exactly why God does this, but I think part of it is because he wants to be Lord of all. He wants to be the center of your attention. He has made you for himself. He wants to be at the core. And so he will often show up when things are most quiet.

So do you want to tune in? Do you want to be transformed? Then you’ve got to tune in. You’ve got to take time every single day living as if Christ is real, as if he’s really speaking. And maybe tomorrow, maybe before you close your eyes tonight, maybe as you’re on the way home today, say, God, I’m tuning in.

I’m tuning in. Speak to me. Let me hear your voice in prayer. Let me hear your voice in your word. Speak.

And remove some distractions. You know, when you wake up tomorrow, don’t open the phone up right away. Before you open anything, Lord, I’m tuning in. I want to hear your voice. I want to see your face.

I want to know you. That’s number 1. Set your minds on things above. Now, number 2, the second way in which we’re going to live transformed. And here’s the hard one.

Well, you might think so. I think number 1 is pretty challenging because we’re so distracted. Get that out. Set your affections there. And then Paul says, put the old self to death.

Whoa. Okay. I’m glad I came to church today. We’re talking about killing me. This is wild.

Put the old self to death. He says various ways here he’s put it. He says, put to death the old you, the old sin, The old mess, the stuff that you used to live in. And the way that he tells us this is not like some kind of self-effort and you’ve got to get it right. He’s saying, “Look, friends, you’re already dead in Christ.

So just accept this reality. Start to live as though you’ve actually had this occur in your life. Put it to death.” He says here, in fact, this word put to death, there’s no way of getting around it. It literally means to slay. He’s taking a radical approach.

Here’s the problem in a lot of Christians’ life, mine included. I often am not experiencing transformation because rather than killing sin, I’m tolerating sin. Rather than killing it, I’m trying to manage it. I’m just going to try to compartmentalize it and put it over here rather than say, this must die. I cannot do this anymore.

I will say there are many programs that get these things right, like the programs for alcoholics. He’s saying, “Hey, I can never ever touch this again because if I do, it’s too dangerous.” The rest of us should be treating sin like that. I am never ever going to dabble here again. I’m not going to manage it. I’m not going to tolerate.

I’m going to kill it. Jesus says it very plainly too. Don’t think for a moment that Paul has like somehow made this way higher. No. Jesus said it even stronger.

Matthew chapter 5, he says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” That’s crazy. That’s what Jesus says. He goes on to say, “For it is better that you lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” Now, is Jesus literally saying we need to tear off body parts? No, but he is definitely making this a dramatic emphasis.

He’s saying you need to put it to death. This thing you’ve been toying with that does not represent the new you, the new Christ in you. I love what John Owen once wrote, the famous Puritan pastor. He says, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Good. Okay.

So this is a process. Put it to death. And then he gives us more. He says this first list that seems to be focusing primarily on passions and desires from immorality to covetousness, from idolatry here. He says sin In fact, he’s talking about this idea that it begins with your desires long before it begins with your behaviors.

This is what Jesus teaches in Matthew 15. He says, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander.” Out of the heart come these things. You’ve been given a new heart in Christ Jesus. You have died and been raised in Christ Jesus. So he’s saying, hey, don’t manage Don’t encourage sin anymore.

Don’t tolerate it.

On account of these, Paul says, the wrath of God is coming. This is why God has to judge the earth, is because of man’s terrible brokenness that Christ has paid for. He gives us a second list here. He says, now put this stuff away too. Kill this, put this away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, Obscene talk.

Some of you in the room are like, “I know my anger is kind of unjustified.” But then you get to obscene talk and you go, “Ugh, man, I’ve been talking this way my whole life.” Yeah. Well, we came into this world sinners. We have to change at some point. At some point we have to say, “I’m not going to tolerate this lifestyle anymore. I’m not a particularly good witness by running my mouth the way I run it.” He says, put this stuff away.

This second list seems to be more relational. The first is about desires and passions. The second seems to be about how we deal with one another. Is it anger? Is it malice?

Do we speak ill of each other? And then he separates, verse 9, I find this fascinating. He separates this one thing. He says, do not lie. Do not lie.

Now I don’t know exactly why that one kind of has special attention, but I want to give just a couple of thoughts on the why. First of all, we know that the evil one is called the father of lies.

Lies. It’s kind of in his DNA. It’s who he is. And so when we lie, we most closely emulate the evil one. Also, I think so often Jesus says that he is truth, the gospel is truth, God is truth.

I think perhaps this is separate because it so models who we are in Christ Jesus. We should be truth tellers, not in the sense of telling people off, but in the sense of I don’t tell lies. I don’t even tell fibs.

Some of you have separated, you’ve tolerated even this field of lies and said, “Well, that’s more of a white lie.” What does that mean? “Well, I had to do this to save face. I had to do this to not hurt feelings.” Paul says simply, “Put it to death.” And closes this middle section by saying, “Put it off, put off the old self.” You’re set free from this, friends. You don’t have to live this way anymore. So many of us are tolerating this rather than putting it away and putting it to death.

Paul writes to the Roman church. He says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to…” What does it say, church? Nothing. The body of sin in you is dead. It is killed.

It is done for by the cross of Christ. This is true. So now Paul is saying, so live that way.

I’m addicted. I’ve been this way my whole life. And we make excuses. I’m not saying this isn’t hard, but in the power of Christ Jesus, you are new. So no longer make excuses.

You can instead come before the Lord and say, man, look where I’m struggling. I’ve been doing this wrong for so long, Lord. I’ve built terrible habits in this field, but I don’t come saying, hey, I can’t change. I come saying, I want to I need your help, Lord Jesus.

We need to be careful with this, Christians. Church, we need to be careful with this. Making excuses for sin areas and saying, “Ah, this is how I was raised. This is how I’ve always been. I just have an addictive personality.” No, no, no.

Instead of that, say, “Hey, I’m a sinner saved by grace and I need the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, help me in this place where I’ve struggled for so long.”. But I don’t want to be this way anymore. I’m new. Here’s what I know.

Lord, I know I’m new in you. I know you’ve transformed me. So let me see it. It’s a process, my friend. It should encourage you.

He goes on and to the Romans, Paul writes in chapter 6, verse 12. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. It is no longer king. It’s no longer in charge. I noticed something this week as I was studying this and thinking about ways in which to illustrate this.

I thought of the story where Jesus comes and raises Lazarus from the dead. All of this language Paul has here about how we’ve died and we’ve been raised, and I started thinking about that. There’s something interesting about the Lazarus story. You know a lot of the details probably, but I’ll give you a few again because they’re so powerful. Jesus purposely— go back and read John chapter 10 and 11.

Jesus purposely waits. He does not come and heal Lazarus. He lets Lazarus die. That’s a whole different sermon that somebody probably needs to hear. I’ll preach that one Sunday.

But he lets Lazarus go ahead and die, and there is mourning in the camp, and he shows up, and Mary and Martha have two different complaints to towards him and they’re devastated because their brother has passed. And Jesus basically gives both of them a powerful testimony. He tells one of them, in fact, I am the resurrection and the life. He gives a clearer Savior testimony to them than maybe he had to so many prior. But he stands before the grave of Lazarus and it says very simply in the text that he wept.

But why did he wait? The reason he waited is because he wanted the people there. He wanted the witnesses there to see that he had power, not only in life, but in death. The Savior we serve, my friend, has power in all things. Life, death, resurrection.

He has the power. He has incredible power. Omnipotence. And so he waits to show up to do this thing. But here’s the thing.

Here’s the part I caught this week that really blew my mind. I’d never thought of it this way. When he says, you know these words, those of you who know the story, he stands, he weeps, and then finally he says, Lazarus, come forth. Cool. That’s so sweet.

And Lazarus comes creeping out of there, which must have been spooky. Some of us don’t think about just the creepiness of some of these stories. He comes coming out of there in what the Bible calls grave clothes. They’ve put these rags across him and covered him. And put spices on him, and he is beginning.

They’ve already said, “Hey, Jesus, he stinketh,” the King James says. “We don’t need to go in there. His body is beginning to turn.” And he says, “Lazarus, come forth.” That’s the first thing he says. You know what he says next?

“Unbind him. Take off these grave clothes.” Now here’s why that’s so sweet to me. Jesus has said to you and I, in the payment of the cross and the offering of salvation, he has said, “Jonathan, come forth.” And then the very next thing he says to you and me, “Take off those grave clothes.” That’s not minor. It’s not minor here to Paul. Paul says you’ve died and been raised in Jesus.

So here’s step 1. Put off the old grave clothes. That’s literally what this means. The word put off and put on in the Greek, it has to do with putting clothes on. He is literally saying take off the grave clothes.

They’re dead. In fact, I would argue they stink. The King James, they stinketh.

And we can all tell, friend, just out of love, just out of courtesy to you, when you decide to come into our Christian spheres with all your grave clothes back on, we can tell. And we love you. And those who love you and know you best will say, “Hey, buddy, you should take off those old nasty grave clothes and start living like the person you truly are in Christ Jesus.” You know you’ve got a true friend who will look you in the eyes and say, You are not that person anymore. In Christ Jesus, you are not that man. You are not that woman.

Live according to the power of the Holy Spirit in your life now. I know it’s a challenge. I’ve got mine. But I’m making a determination every single day that when I wake up and step my feet onto the floor, I don’t put on them nasty clothes that Christ died for. You hear this?

I pray you hear it. You’ve been saved and set free from it. Stop choosing the old man. That’s what the word literally means there. The old self, the old man.

Some of us have made peace with sins that Christ died to defeat. We’ve excused them. Some of us have excused our anger as personality.

Some of us have excused our gossip as, “I’m concerned.” No, you’re not. You’re a gossip and it needs to die. Some of us have excused our lust as, as this is a weakness. Yeah, it is. It’s called sin.

We’ve excused our greed as ambition. Paul says those things are dead. Jesus says, come forth and unbind him.

Stop, church. I pray today this doesn’t discourage you, but encourages you to stop coddling the things that Christ has condemned. Hear that. Put it to death. And then lastly, and let’s close here together, Paul writes very carefully.

He says, “So now put on like clothes, like new clothes, put on the new self.” This is where he concludes this thought. In fact, he’s concluding a long thought that he started back in Colossians Chapter 2. I want you to hear this whole section is centered around this idea that the people in the church are having trouble getting along. Sound familiar? Everywhere I go, workplaces, churches, various places that I’ve been, army.

You put people together, I’ve noticed something. They don’t get along all the time. Some of you have come to church expecting that these people will always get along. I have bad news. We are sinners.

We are, and I am one of them. Paul writes, “I am chief among them.” Sometimes I hurt people’s feelings. I didn’t even know I did it. I didn’t mean to. So often I hurt people and I didn’t even mean to do it.

Some people do it on purpose.

Paul says in the midst of all this, where he’s trying especially to get Jews and Gentiles to get along. He says right at the end, verse 11, Christ is all, is in all. Now there is no longer slave nor free, Jew nor Gentile, circumcised, uncircumcised. None of that stuff matters anymore. We’ve been, we’ve died and been raised in Christ Jesus.

We have a new identity, so put it on. I love this final section. Put on the new clothes, the new clothes in Christ Jesus, because he says in verse 10, The new self is being renewed to the image of its creator. Here’s what God is doing. This grand narrative, this whole Bible is one big story that God created a world that was awesome and he created man and woman in his image and he said it’s good and it’s good and it’s good.

And then man and woman, they failed and they sinned and they fell into sin and then we just see the darkness that comes. Because of the result of this mistake. But this story is basically a giant smile, or maybe you could call it a giant mountain, I don’t know. I would say the pinnacle is the cross, but to some degree it’s like the valley where Christ fixed it all. Where it’s bad, it’s bad, the people of God can’t get it right, they’re walking away from God, they ask for kings and the kings are a mess and It’s bad, it’s bad.

And then right in the middle of your Bible, all of a sudden the cross shows up and everything changes.

And it changes in such a way that it’s being restored. These things are not accidental. God has a perfect plan. Paul sees it clearly. He says this new self is being renewed into what?

The image of its creator. So the imago dei of Genesis chapter 1 and 2. Is being restored. This is what Revelation is overall truly about, the restoration of God’s creation. God is going to make it all things new again.

Here he tells the Colossians, and now he tells us, put on these new clothes.

Wake up tomorrow. This is going to be powerful for somebody Tomorrow, maybe even today, it’s going to be powerful for you to say, “This is who I’ve been, but in Christ Jesus, I’m done with that. I’m going to walk in newness of life. I’ve got a new set of clothes. I’m putting these on, and this new set of clothes is being renewed to look more like the imago dei, the image of God.

I want to look a little bit more like Jesus tomorrow than today.” Now that’s a task I can endeavor towards. I’m not going to perfect tomorrow, but I can look a little bit more like Jesus tomorrow than today. Maybe I start— some of you just need to make— maybe you just need to make a mental checklist. These are the things of the old self that I’ve been living in. I’m going to one by one put them to death.

I don’t know that I can do them all instantaneously. I would understand that. Maybe you’ve got a long list. But tomorrow I’m going to speak a little bit different. Maybe it’s simpler than that.

Tomorrow I’m going to think a little bit differently. I’m going to get up, talk to the Lord and say, help me with my mind today because you know how it goes to dark places. You know how easily angered I am, Lord. You know how given to frustration I am, but I’m new. And I believe that.

So I’m going to start there. I’m going to think a little different. And then a week later, my thinking is beginning to move into the image of its creator. So now my language, now my action, now this peace that I’ve been longing for, not only in my life, but in my home with my wife, with my husband, with my children. Now I am part of the influence.

I missed that. Maybe I missed the fact that the more I start to look like Jesus, The more I start to have the things of this world that I desired most. Peace, joy, love. He ends this section by saying, Christ is all and in all. Don’t miss his main theme, church.

Christ is your life. You want to look a bit like a transformed person? Look more like Jesus tomorrow. We are being transformed into his image. 2 Corinthians 3, it says, We all with unveiled faces, we contemplate the Lord’s glory and being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory.

It’s growing. I’m looking more like him, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. He also wrote to the Romans in chapter 8. He said, God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his son so that his son would be the firstborn. Among many brothers and sisters.

I want to end with a story that I think is appropriate for Fourth of July weekend. I was thinking about this as I studied this week. I’ve had these various times in my life where I felt like I had imposter syndrome. Anybody ever had that before? Where you feel like you started a job and you’re like, I don’t know why they hired me.

Because I don’t know what I’m doing. Or maybe you were in an environment. Maybe some of you feel that way at church. I pray that changes. And swiftly.

But maybe you feel like an imposter in here sometimes. Like, “I feel like everybody else in the room gets this and I don’t.” I really pray the Lord would move in your heart in such a way that you would feel like you belong. Because you do. But I felt probably the strongest imposter syndrome ever when I went off to basic training with the military. It’s kind of wild.

You get there and most guys, definitely me, You get there with orders. The government has said you’re supposed to be there. You get there with a uniform. I got ahead of the curve. I went ahead and cut my hair because I didn’t want them completely mowing me over with some dreadful haircut.

They accepted mine. It was very high and tight. So I went ahead and had the haircut. I had the orders. I had the uniform.

But I know this, I didn’t have a clue what to do. I didn’t know how to Speak. Here’s what’s crazy about military life. They talk different. They walk different.

They act different. Everything’s different. I didn’t know how to do any of that. I made mistakes constantly in my military service because I am a Southern gentleman. I’ll tell you what happens to me.

I came on to be an officer, and every time that I speak to an enlisted soldier, I’m not supposed to say, “Yes, sir.” But if you’re older than me, I can’t help myself. I got in trouble constantly in those 10 years for saying, “Yes, sir,” to people that are supposed to say, “Yes, sir,” to me, and it never felt normal.

That first month, 3 months at basic training, that first month, I was spooked. I didn’t know what to do. Everything’s different. I’m not a morning person. They got us up early, moving and working out.

Here’s what’s true, friends.

In Christ Jesus, you’ve been given orders. You’ve been given the uniform.

You’ve been called a son or a daughter of King Jesus. But you got to learn to do it now. It’s not an overnight change. I know some of you wish that was the case. It’s not so.

This is why Paul writes, put off and put on. And it doesn’t happen once. It happens daily. I have the uniform. It’s new life in Christ Jesus.

But I’ve got to put it on. And put it on correctly. I got to tuck in my boots right. I got to wear the uniform right. Because God has a prescription for how we should live.

And he has a training manual. And he has a drill sergeant. The Holy Spirit. That little voice that says, “Don’t say that. Don’t do that.

Stop that.” Can you start listening to that voice, please? Because it’ll get louder and then it’ll get really hard. Listen to it when it’s easy. I’m telling you, in the military this is very simple. The quicker you just say, “Yes, Drill Sergeant,” and do what you’re told, you stay under the radar.

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Whatever you say. How high? How low?

Where do you want me Where do you want me to dig? Where do you want me to climb? I’m in. And you will never get in trouble. It’s those knuckleheads that show up and think they’ve got it figured out.

Their life is going to be a living yes.

And I watched it and giggled in my heart. Because you can’t giggle out loud because you’ll be next.

But this is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life pushing you, convicting you, urging you. Listen, you have the uniform, put it on and put it on according to the prescription of the Lord and walk in him. And then the one who has already transformed you will continue to transform you. I hope this helps you today. Set your minds on Christ.

Who are you? I want to know you. I want to hear your voice. This old me, I’m putting it to death. This stuff isn’t true anymore.

I’m not an angry person. I’m not an act. I’m not those things. You’re not. Your life is in Christ now.

And then put on the new uniform that says, “I identify with you, Lord Jesus. Walk in me. Walk by me, beside me.” As the ancient saints used to say, “Before me, behind me, beside me. Be ever present in my life.” Let’s pray now together, church. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your goodness to us.

This whole sermon hinges around the fact that you first paid the ultimate price for us. The fact that we can have newness of life, the fact that the old self is truly dead and we can continue to put it aside, the fact that all of that is true is because of your sacrifice, Lord Jesus. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for your mercy and your grace to us. It is undeserved.

We praise you this morning. Lord, we also recognize that someone may have come in today and they’re enjoying this. Perhaps they’re even going, “Man, I wish I could do some of this.” But they know good and well that part of the struggle, part of the hangup they’re having is they’ve never said yes to Jesus to begin with. They have not yet died and been raised in Christ. If that’s you, my friend, today, you’re feeling this news.

That Christ Jesus has died for you. He has paid the ultimate price and you have newness of life because of this. I pray you’re hearing that today and ready to respond. It’s no accident that you’re here today. This is a perfect opportunity for you to say yes to Jesus and experience not only a current life change, but an eternal life change.

Dear friend, if that’s you, would you confess Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior with me today? Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Friend, if that’s you, pray with me. Jesus, I believe today that you died on the cross for my sin, that you paid the price for my old life, but it’s dead now. And God, I believe you raised from the dead, and that gives me great hope. God, I’m asking now, would you guide me now in this newness of life?

Thank you for saving me. Help me now to live according to your purpose.

Help me to experience this new uniform, this new— these new clothes, this new self you’ve given. Dear friend, if you prayed that with me, by faith you have been saved. He now walks with you. Take every opportunity every day to speak and to interact and to be in his word and to be in prayer. And we are alongside you, the whole church right now.

Lord, we lift this up. Lord, help us to walk in newness of life. You have said, come forth. Now, Lord, also charge us daily. To unbind, to take off those grave clothes and live in a new life.

We love you, Lord Jesus. Thank you for all your tender mercies. It’s in your name we pray. Amen.