All right. There we go. Well, good morning. Good morning. I'm going to jump on the computer here. Make sure everybody's able to join us live. So jump online, make sure everybody's on Facebook and YouTube. Make sure that the text messages sent out and we're just about ready to go we are well good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022 Lord willing, we'll make it from x to Nope. Did I talk to you about this? They told me not to do filing. I was going to slow so we're just going to Second Thessalonians just when we got that down. We're going to try to get to Second Thessalonians Slow and steady wins the race. So we're gonna go to Second Thessalonians so today we're Colossians chapter three verses one through 17 Nathan's here with us this morning. So we'll talk through the passage together. When we have some coffee, we'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.
Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for this day. Lord, we rejoice in your wonderful, sovereign love. We thank you for giving us Jesus Christ. Our Savior, our Lord, our Redeemer hope. Thank you for giving us your Spirit. Father, we pray that as we read your Word this morning that you would really be working in our hearts. conform us Lord, to the image of Jesus we pray in His name, Amen. All right, so we are at Colossians chapter three. The first 17 verses here, I'll take your tea. I know it's warm in your hands. You're nice that you like that, but I'm gonna put that there so you can grab your Bible. And we're at Colossians chapter three, the first 17 verses Nathan, why don't you read one through four. I'll read five through have instead Why don't you how do we want to do this?
Yeah, why don't we do this so Yours Yours doesn't have paragraph markers. So So yours doesn't have paragraph markers. Right sees a difference in our Bibles. So I'm gonna I like to break it up by paragraphs. Why don't I read one through six. You can read eight through 11 and then I'll read 12 through 17. Does that sound good? So I'll read one through seven. And then you'll read eight through 11 and then I'll read 12 to 17. Okay, here we go. If then you were raised with Christ seeks 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. When Christ who is our life appears then you will also appear with Him in glory. Therefore, put to death. Your members which are on the earth fornication uncleanness, passion, evil desire covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourself once walked when you lived in them
or yourself, or do you put off all things let me show you a policy Oh man, this is deep, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of God,
according to the image of God created
well there is neither quick. circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, cesium slave no free book Christ is all in in the
city and therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do but above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to which you were also called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him. Well, we need to ask ourselves, what are three questions?
What is this about?
Hey, what's this about? Best? Good B, what's the best first? Good and see what are we called to do? Perfect. All right. So this first part it's kind of like heaven versus Earth. There's stuff up in heaven. There's a way in which is right with God. And there's a way that is right in this world. And so, where does he say we are?
What do you say in that first part of verse one? It's all all of this hinges on whether verse one is true about us. Well, no, that's where Jesus is. Jesus is. Jesus is at the right hand of God. What has to be true about our condition? If you have been raised with Christ, have you died yet Nathan. So how can you be raised with Christ? Yeah, so this is part of what we call union with Christ. It's Jesus in us and us in Jesus. Do you remember talking about that the other day? So so we are in Christ and Christ is in us, right? This? Does Jesus pour out His Holy Spirit upon us and who? And so this Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. And so Jesus gives us His Holy Spirit and He unites us to him. Right, so there's this spiritual union of Christians to Jesus. So as there's this spiritual union between Jesus and us when he was Christian crucified, guess what? In the, in the eyes of God, guess what he thinks about you? You've been crucified with Christ. Do you remember what Paul said? In Galatians? Yeah, he says in Galatians 224. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, I live by faith. So if you have faith in Christ, then you live according to Jesus's resurrection. And you died with him in his death. And so it all hinges on whether you actually have faith in Christ. And if you have faith in Christ, then you've also been raised with Christ. And if you've been raised with Christ, where is Jesus now? In heaven? What's where's he in heaven? Is he like on the sidelines somewhere? The right hand of God that's right. And so what are we supposed to set our minds on? What are we supposed to think and feel and love?
Yeah, and what does he say in verse three?
Oh, see what I was saying. For you have died and your your your life is hidden. In who? In Christ Yeah, and what happens in verse four?
When Christ who is our life appears, then what will happen?
All right. So when Jesus appears, what will happen with us will appear as sinners. What's it say?
In glory, is Jesus glorious? That's right. Is Jesus perfect? And if we're in Jesus and if Jesus is in us when He returns are we going to be found to be lacking? No, we're going to be found glorious. And so if this is true, if all of this is true, then it should have applications for our life. So here, here's where we're getting into applications, right? So the first applications we're supposed to think about those things and and live our lives chasing after those heavenly things. But there's the reality that we still live in the flesh. And so, as we live on this earth, what are the things of the flesh that we should be putting to death?
A trait of fornication. This is like sexual immorality. This is like sleeping with a girl before you're married. This is there's all sorts of different types. of sexual immorality. That's what this is talking about. uncleanness This is talking about lewd acts. Passions, like lusts. evil desires, want wanting things that are against God's moral law. Isn't it interesting? Here, that some of these things are stuff we do? And others are things we feel and want? So it's not just the things we do but it's even the things of our hearts because the last one here is evil desire. And what's the last one after evil desire?
Covetousness right. The 10th commandment, shall not covet your neighbor's house, nor your neighbor's wife nor his manservant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox nor his donkey nor anything that resides within his gates. What does God say? These things are especially covetousness. What's he say? It is? idolatry. Have you ever thought about that before? If you're wanting you're, you know, let's say you go over to your friend's house and they have a 3d printer and all of a sudden you're coveting because you want their 3d printer. Does anybody know that that's in your heart that lets you open your mouth but who knows it's in your heart. Right so he says put to death those things right? Put that away. Put away your covetousness why verse six, why should we put away those things?
But then your own words, why should we put away or fornication and impurity and evil desires and covetousness so why is it matter? Punished Do you think we're gonna be punished for those things? I thought Jesus took our punishment
to put them off.
Yeah, I don't think it's that we're going to be punished again for those sins. But I think those things are gonna be burned away. Right. But I think what's going to I think what this is teaching us is, do we love Jesus do we want the things that are in heaven? And so we ought to out of that heart of motivation, not of motivation of slavish fear that God's going to punish us, but because we love Jesus, and we want to be like Jesus, because Jesus is in us. We should put to death those things and also aren't. Like God hates these things. As he told us to walk in them, or to put them off, even more than put them off, what does he say? Put them to death and kill it. Get get rid of it? Does that sound like an easy thing? In which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Now that's interesting. When somebody becomes a Christian, should they continue to live their lives the same way they did? Before they were Christians? Why not? If God if if the punishment is done because Jesus took it on the cross, why change their lives?
Oh, okay, so so we, we put off these things because we want to be like Jesus, and it's not until we put off all of our sins then we become Christians
Well, why would we want to try then if if it doesn't mean that we become Christian by being good enough when we can just I think you've actually picked up on the heart of it. What is Jesus say? If you abide in If you abide in me, you'll bear much good fruit. That's where we get our idea of union with Jesus. We have to abide in Jesus. We love Jesus, we follow Jesus. We listen to Jesus and as we listen to him and his teaching, does he tell us to keep His commandments? It's out of love for Jesus that we put to death these things. Not so we can become Christians. It's because we're united to Jesus. Then we bear fruits in keeping with repentance. But now you yourselves are to put off what so he gave us a list before now he he's got other things where to put off right earthly stuff, right. What are some of the earthly stuff that he has this put off
blasphemy language out of your mouth.
Yeah, mate. So that's that's some of that right? anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. So no more. No more punching people and no more. Trying not to speak bad about people. Blasphemy means speaking bad about someone or something. So no more No more of that stuff. No more filthy language. No more stuff coming out of your mouth that your mom would say give me your tongue. I'm gonna put some soap on it. No more filthy language like that. What else shouldn't we do? Verse nine. All right. Is is God the author of lies? Who's the father of lies? So who should we want to be like? And Did Jesus ever lie? No. And so we put away lying right? We put away filthy language we stop our locker room talk. We put away our anger. And what do we do instead? Right since we've put off that old man with his deeds that that old man's gone, what should we do now? Verse 10.
Yes, since you have put off the old according to the images
Okay, so we put off the old man and what do we do now? That's right, we put on the new man who is renewed in one in knowledge. It's got to change the way we think. It does not sound like Romans chapter 12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.
Yeah, that's fine, but we need to have our minds renewed. Right. So we need to have our minds renewed. And so it starts in our minds that it changes how we walk in our lives. And he's done this not just for Jewish people. But for all sorts of people, doesn't he? But Christ is all and in all this is mean Jesus is in every single person who's walking on the face of the earth. So what's the thing? It uses the word all
it doesn't matter what mission
that's right. So
you can do a question.
Yeah, so couldn't can barbarians be Christians? Can Scythians be united to Christ? Can Jews be united Christ can circumcised people be united to Christ? Can uncircumcised people be united to Christ? That's right to in Greek, circumcised and uncircumcised? What about slaves? They're not allowed to come to Jesus. Are they? Oh, okay. Well, that's pretty good news. So like all sorts of people. Therefore, so the logical conclusion from all this, of all the putting off stuff, therefore, as the one oh, there goes that word, the elect. Right verse 11, says that there's all right Christ. is all in in all and then it goes and it narrows that down to the elect, right? So we always have to read the bigger context and it helps us so therefore as the elect of God, who are we as the elect of God in verse 12.
holy and beloved, have you been consecrated by God set apart for his works? And is he just using you as a tool or does he love you? Right? he dotes upon us He loves us, He has affections towards us. So if God treats us that way, right as holy and beloved as he's chosen us to be His people. What should we put on? What should we do? What should we walk in?
long suffering
that sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn't it? These are the things that are above in heaven, not according to the earth. Right. So tender mercies, kindness, humility. meekness. longsuffering. This sounds a lot like the fruits of the Spirit, doesn't it? It's like the same Holy Spirit gave us both of these.
Remember, when we do Bible study Tuesday night? Jesus healed for three days.
He was yeah, he was suffering long. He was patient wasn't he tried bearing with one another? What do you think? That means? bearing with one another. Oh, do I always make you happy? Does mommy always make me happy? Do people annoy people in the church? Should we put up with each other? Yeah, right. That's, that's part of putting on Christ. Right as we go, Well, Jesus has to put up with me. So what should I do with others? Put up with them. Right Bear Bear with them. Good. And, oh, here's the hard part. Was not just bearing with one another, not just like gritting your teeth, but what should you do
if anyone has to show you also. Next watch because like we have to think about all of it.
He wants us to bear with each other but but he even wants us to do what
forgive. Do you know what biblical forgiveness looks like? It looks like saying, I forgive you than it looks like. Purposely right when God forgives us, he doesn't punish us for it right? So so there's restitution that happens. But then when God says He forgives us, this is what I was pointing out before. God removes our sin from us as far as what? The East from the west. God remembers our sins no more when he forgives us, our sin is gone. And so when I say Baba, I forgive you. I have to purposely not think about that again. So even though somebody in the church might have hurt me, they might have wounded me. It's not just looking at the ailment, gritting my teeth and going on. Remember when they made me mad, and they did that thing against me. It's looking at them and saying, I love that person. I love them because Christ loves me. He's forgiven me. And I'm not thinking about that anymore. I'm going to deal with this issue right? In front of me. I love this person. When Jesus said at the end of the Lord's Prayer, alright, we're told by Jesus to say, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. But after the Lord's Prayer, do you know what he says? For if you do not forgive others have their sins against you, neither will your heavenly Father
you think forgiveness is a big deal. A Biblical forgiveness is a big deal, isn't it? Is it really hard to hard to forgive your sister when she hits you in the face? Right. Is it hard to forgive someone when they break our stuff? Is it hard to forgive someone when they lie to us? It's not hard to forgive them when they lie to us. Yeah, these are hard things and hard things. But Jesus has forgiven us. But above all of these, what are we to put on?
The bond of perfection Yeah. Also you are called in one body.
Okay, so we're to put on love, right? Because love is the bond of perfection. And we're to let what the piece of that was we're to have the peace of God. And then we're also to be at the very last part of that thankful. So here's some commands, right? So love, be filled with peace, and be thankful. And then here's another command, verse 16.
What the Word of God
well, not the word of God the Word of
God teaching a militia when they love songs and see grace in your hearts.
Yeah, alright. So as Christians when we get together, is it being a Christian a solo act? Oh, that's a huge yard. Do we go about being Christians by ourselves, me, myself and my Bible and that, you know, go sit underneath a tree and tell everybody else to go be by themselves. We need each other. Right. This is a command from God. Yeah, he's in our midst, right if we're gathered together in his name, especially even when there's things like church discipline that specifically in the passage where we're talking where we're taught how to confront each other, right, how we're to work our way through sin, so here, we're getting really long men. Here, were to admonish each other. Right where to let the words of Christ dwell in us. And whatever you do in word or deed, do what?
That's right. That's right. What do you think is the best first, let's wrap this up. We talked about a lot of things we ought to do. And we've talked about a lot of this already. But what do you think? Is the best first to get with this
what I would underline one through four
if I would underline, I probably do. 899 and
12. Okay, well, we need to go ahead and wrap this up. I think we've had lots of things that we could take home and do. All right, forgiving each other loving one another putting away all sorts of sins. Feel free in the comments and let us know how you think this most challenges you in your life. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, we thank you so much. For this day. We thank you for Jesus Christ and we thank you for the work that you have done. In Him. Lord, we pray that you would please watch over us and care for us to stay. conform us the image of your son let us put off the old man and put on the new in Jesus's name. Amen. My Lord bless you may walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and we'll see you tomorrow. Bye
You
Transcribed by https://otter.ai