back to index2019-04-03: Wed Bible Study Lesson 11
00:00:00.000 |
Okay, we'll take a moment to begin, and I know that it's a long passage. You guys 00:00:11.400 |
probably had lots to talk about. It's tough to get through everything, but I'm 00:00:17.080 |
praying that since we are essentially covering it in different modes, right? You 00:00:22.080 |
at your home, when you're looking at the passage, asking questions and making 00:00:26.680 |
observations, then coming together you get different perspective a little bit 00:00:31.200 |
in the sense that people are watching and paying attention to different parts 00:00:34.320 |
of the text, and it really does help you see more things from the passage. And I 00:00:38.500 |
hope that this will just be another avenue of that. I can't cover everything 00:00:42.920 |
and I wish I did, but because this is such a pivotal passage to the 00:00:48.880 |
general thought of transformation, to the general thought of changing in the 00:00:54.140 |
maturity of Christ. And as you guys know, I love biblical counseling, wanting to 00:00:59.520 |
walk through biblical passages with people, and these passages that 00:01:03.640 |
we walked through in the last couple weeks, and particularly this passage, is 00:01:07.240 |
so pivotal to everything in terms of biblical counseling, right? What is 00:01:11.040 |
biblical change? How do you change? And all that kind of stuff. So we're gonna 00:01:14.560 |
take a moment to pray, ask the Lord's blessing, and then we'll jump right in. 00:01:17.960 |
Let's pray. God, we want to thank you for your grace. Thank you, Lord, for your 00:01:23.480 |
sweet word. Thank you so much, God, that in your love for us, you continue to 00:01:28.560 |
instruct us. What's more, God, we thank you so much because we read in your word 00:01:33.760 |
that it is clearly your will and your design that we would reflect you. Lord, 00:01:39.560 |
God, that we would be changing from measure to measure, from statue to 00:01:43.400 |
statue, Lord God, that we'd be changing into your likeness. And we want to thank 00:01:48.120 |
you so much for that, Lord. We thank you, God, that you lead us and guide us, and we 00:01:52.600 |
pray that you grant to us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart always willing 00:01:58.000 |
to learn. We thank you. It's in Christ's name. Amen. Okay. So as we jump into this 00:02:03.400 |
passage, a really quick, quick review is necessary because the verse stands with 00:02:08.600 |
"and." Starts with "and," sorry. Starts with "and." If you recall, this is only the 00:02:15.280 |
second half of the previous section. Now, in order to review, I want to start with 00:02:20.360 |
verse 1 of chapter 3. And the idea there is the whole of this entire section from 00:02:26.280 |
verse 1 to verse 17, it is talking about the applicational push. Everything we 00:02:32.760 |
have learned in the past is pushing us here in chapter 3 to apply, to put into 00:02:38.680 |
practice, and therefore to actually change. The gospel that we believe is 00:02:43.920 |
absolutely transformative, and Apostle Paul is pushing us towards that. And the 00:02:48.680 |
way I'm gonna put it is he's pushing us towards maturity. First and foremost, he's 00:02:53.120 |
pushing us towards maturity in thought. Okay? In thought. Why do I say that? 00:02:58.440 |
Because that passage in verses 1 through 4, chapter 3, verse 1 through 4, says, 00:03:03.880 |
"Therefore, if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, 00:03:07.520 |
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above 00:03:13.120 |
and not on the things that are on earth." Right? And so the command is very clear 00:03:18.240 |
that it involves your mind, that you constantly place it on the things that are about 00:03:23.680 |
Christ, of Christ. If you recall, that's exactly what he's been doing since chapter 1. 00:03:29.080 |
He said, "I want you to have full knowledge, come to full wisdom, full 00:03:35.600 |
understanding." He said, "I want you to understand who you have. You have the 00:03:40.360 |
maker, you have the sustainer, you have all, all in all. And therefore, I want you 00:03:46.840 |
to know you're complete. I want you to know that you've been circumcised 00:03:49.760 |
spiritually. I want you to know you've been baptized. I want you to know what you have 00:03:54.160 |
in Jesus." That was chapters 1 through 3 pretty much, right? Or chapter 1 and 2. 00:03:59.160 |
Secondly, Apostle Paul and the Lord desires us to have mature humility. 00:04:06.840 |
The blank there is humility. Now you could put in other words summarizing this idea, 00:04:11.600 |
but the last portion that we studied, the command for us was to put away, to lay 00:04:19.720 |
aside and trash all the things that was ignoble. And he says, "Therefore consider 00:04:24.320 |
the members of your earthly body dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, 00:04:30.240 |
and greed, which amounts to idolatry." So that was verses 5 through 9, telling us 00:04:35.960 |
that we have to have a level of humility to look inside ourselves, be 00:04:42.600 |
introspective, and be able to identify those things that are evil. Those desires 00:04:48.960 |
that are corrupt, those things that are greedy, and therefore, idolatrous. I think 00:04:53.880 |
this is sometimes a major error that we have. A major error which is this. In 00:04:59.480 |
terms of maturity, sometimes we think maturity comes by way of skill, 00:05:04.480 |
accomplishment. I've studied, I got my A, then I got to get a job, and da-da, I'm 00:05:10.560 |
here, right? Skill has nothing to do necessarily with maturity. As a matter of 00:05:16.520 |
fact, I find it kind of humorous that in our generation, we make this mistake 00:05:20.080 |
quite often, especially in just sports, the arena of sports. You have an 00:05:26.280 |
athlete, he's huge, it's surprising to me, a lot of you guys probably watch some 00:05:30.720 |
college football. Every time I watch college football, I'm like, "That guy 00:05:33.720 |
cannot be under 22. He looks like he's 30." I mean, the individuals are big, large, and 00:05:39.880 |
strong, and all that kind of stuff, and some of them can do quite, I'm sorry, 00:05:43.120 |
quite amazing stuff. And then, therefore, people go in and ask them like questions 00:05:47.800 |
about life. "Do you think da-da-da-da-da? Do you think we should vote for whoever and 00:05:51.760 |
whoever?" It's like, "The guy's not a politician. He throws a basketball, right?" But we make 00:05:57.600 |
this flawed, erred kind of assessment of what is maturity. Maybe because they're 00:06:03.560 |
really well-known, or whatever it may be. Maturity oftentimes comes by our ability 00:06:08.920 |
to see and identify reality as is. To see that there are certain things within us 00:06:15.560 |
that needs to be corrected. Now, the third one is going to be mature love, and 00:06:20.920 |
that's what we're tackling today. Mature love. That the character traits, such as 00:06:27.320 |
selfishness, and immorality, and greed, and all this kind of stuff, is immature 00:06:32.920 |
because they're unloving. And what is mature is when I can actually trust you 00:06:38.680 |
in your love for somebody else. If I tie the two together, the mature humility and 00:06:44.760 |
mature love, an individual who may be very skilled, knowledgeable, theologically 00:06:49.720 |
astute, and doctrinally sound, and all that kind of stuff, he may be all 00:06:55.160 |
that, he may be all of that, but that does not mean I am willing to place people I 00:06:59.720 |
love in his hands. Right? Because he has to show his ability to garner that kind 00:07:05.880 |
of trustworthiness through the maturity of his love. If he cared and loved books, 00:07:11.200 |
but cared nothing for people, I'm not gonna trust you with people. That's just 00:07:15.680 |
the way it goes. Right? Now, part of the reason why I've set all this up is 00:07:20.320 |
because, again, the major push. We're gonna feel through these passages this 00:07:26.400 |
challenge and exhortation for us to put on new thoughts, new attitudes, and new 00:07:32.640 |
behaviors. And that naturally is going to, therefore, then cause us to do both 00:07:37.680 |
automatically. Both to put off the stuff that we've been already doing, and put on 00:07:42.480 |
the things that God wants us to put on. And it also naturally humbles us. Because 00:07:48.440 |
the obvious statement is, you're not as mature as you should be. Right? There's so 00:07:55.280 |
much room to grow. There's so much more we should be striving for. Now, with that 00:07:59.880 |
said, let's jump into the passage and make observations specifically of the 00:08:03.900 |
various passages. Okay? So as you take a look at this, let's read down here. And 00:08:10.840 |
then, again, I'm gonna try to blaze through some portions of this. And then 00:08:16.800 |
we'll see how far we can get. In this very first section, what we find is in 00:08:23.440 |
verse 10 through 11, this is what he says, "And I've put on the new self who is 00:08:28.320 |
being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who 00:08:32.240 |
created him. A renewal in which there is no distinction between 00:08:36.880 |
Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, 00:08:41.640 |
and free man, but Christ is all and in all." Okay? So what I'm gonna say is this. 00:08:47.120 |
Verse 10 and 11 belong together. And essentially, the command is very clear. 00:08:52.680 |
"Put on the new self." So what you should have done is highlighted, and I'm gonna 00:08:57.040 |
highlight in purple, the command. I typically always highlight the commands 00:09:02.440 |
because those are imperatives that you can meditate on and you can seek to try 00:09:06.320 |
and apply. How do I make sure I apply this? I don't want to miss it. But what's 00:09:11.740 |
also very interesting is he says, "Put on this new self." And the way I'm gonna say 00:09:16.960 |
that the reason why verse 10 and 11 belong together is because it's an 00:09:21.280 |
introduction of what this new self is. Because as soon as we see this, we should 00:09:26.160 |
be asking ourselves this question. And what is that question? That question 00:09:30.200 |
simply should be, "How is this new self described in verse 10 through 11?" Okay? 00:09:37.160 |
And what you'll find is that here, as you guys have maybe seen this before with 00:09:43.400 |
the diagramming stuff, I blocked it off this way, and at least I indented it, not 00:09:48.400 |
just because I love grammar, but because it shows a flow of thought. All it's 00:09:52.240 |
doing is this pronoun "who" is describing this new self. Right? My artistic skills 00:09:59.240 |
are improving? That is an arrow. Okay. Alright. Who is describing the new self? 00:10:05.840 |
And what's more, this new self is clearly being renewed. And it also gives you this 00:10:12.600 |
idea here, this preposition "to," it also gives us a directional force. What are 00:10:19.160 |
you being renewed to? Okay? And you're being renewed to the knowledge, or true 00:10:23.800 |
knowledge. Now, here it says, "According to the image of the one who created him." And 00:10:29.120 |
all I'm gonna say really briefly is this is describing this whole process. You are 00:10:36.080 |
being renewed to the true knowledge according to the image of the one. You 00:10:43.200 |
are progressively being renewed, you are progressively being changed and 00:10:48.720 |
transformed to the image of Christ. And if you think about it, the connection is, 00:10:53.560 |
and that's why you should let go of all the stuff that was before. The commands 00:10:59.120 |
for us to put off immorality, impurity, and all that kind of stuff, and do not 00:11:03.480 |
lie to each other. And it says, "Since you have put aside the old self, 00:11:07.800 |
and you have already put on this new self in Christ, and you are being renewed 00:11:12.280 |
to his image." Right? So the whole idea is your past life absolutely incompatible 00:11:20.640 |
with the progress that God is doing in you. You've heard this many times, that 00:11:25.480 |
you are in a sanctifying process right now. Right? God's will is that there is 00:11:31.600 |
active, step-by-step, progressive change in you. And all the things of the past is 00:11:37.840 |
incompatible with that plan of God. Now here, I want to make mention of this 00:11:44.360 |
concept here, which is the true knowledge. Okay? This is the true knowledge, this is 00:11:49.240 |
the image of the one. And so what I'd like to quickly make mention of is 00:11:53.960 |
this. So if we're talking about this idea that you should be putting on this new 00:12:00.280 |
self, and there is this process of change, and you're supposed to be letting 00:12:05.720 |
go of bad, evil practices from before, whether it be lying and all that kind of 00:12:09.160 |
stuff, can we ask the question that if you are doing stuff that is inconsistent 00:12:14.480 |
with Jesus, if you are doing things that you know are of greed or of evil 00:12:20.280 |
thoughts, then can we say that your understanding of Jesus is off? You know 00:12:26.280 |
what I'm asking? Here is your action on one hand, I see it, you lied. Here is the 00:12:32.640 |
intent and the content of your mind. Can we assume that your mind and your heart 00:12:39.240 |
is off? And the answer is yes. Okay? What I mean by that is, listen, the truth that 00:12:48.440 |
we believe absolutely matters. It is the foundation of our change. The things that 00:12:53.200 |
we believe about Jesus, His world, His will, all of these things matter because 00:12:58.920 |
who He is, what He's done in the gospel, and His plans for you in the future, all 00:13:03.040 |
those things change your behavior. What you believe and what you see absolutely 00:13:09.160 |
change your behavior. It does. If you are messing around, kicking a box, jumping on 00:13:14.000 |
a box, and everyone thinks like, "Oh, you're having a grand old time," you're 00:13:17.240 |
perfectly fine. There's nothing going on in your heart. You have no bad emotions. 00:13:20.960 |
You're just happy. If I tell you, "Oh my goodness, my dog was in there," now all of 00:13:26.200 |
a sudden you're guilty, you're stopped, you automatically immediately stop. How 00:13:30.400 |
you are thinking and what you find out will absolutely change how you behave. 00:13:36.000 |
Now, someone might think, "Hey, isn't that just like cognitive behavioral science 00:13:41.200 |
and psychology?" Well, here's the idea. For us as believers, the content of your 00:13:48.200 |
mind must be full on Christ. The truth and revelations that's changing you must 00:13:54.480 |
be this full understanding, the true knowledge of Christ. That's what's 00:14:00.520 |
radically changing you. Okay, so now let me kind of bring this together and 00:14:05.760 |
share a convicting point about this. If you guys notice, I made sure to kind of 00:14:11.720 |
highlight for you that sometimes we see certain actions, and then can we judge 00:14:16.160 |
the heart? Can we judge the mind? Can we judge what we're thinking? And my answer 00:14:21.320 |
to you was yes. Can I be honest with you? Typically, typically, I am incredibly 00:14:27.680 |
defensive of my heart. Let's say I was caught in a lie. Let's say somebody I 00:14:33.680 |
love caught me in a lie, like my wife or my kids or my pastor or you guys, you 00:14:38.160 |
know, like whoever is close to me come and say, "Oh my goodness, you lied about 00:14:41.360 |
that, right?" You know what I'm gonna do? Typically, my flesh is gonna be like, "Oh, I 00:14:46.320 |
know I did, but I had this thingy and this happened, but my intent was to 00:14:50.360 |
really actually preserve you and not to hurt you, and that's why I lied. So inside, 00:14:55.360 |
it was all gold, but then what came out was dirty stuff. I don't know how that 00:14:59.600 |
happened." You know, like that would be typically what I would say in defense 00:15:04.600 |
of my mind and heart. Here's a question to you. The reason why I make—the reason 00:15:12.160 |
why I make a point of this is because what we have contained in our mind and 00:15:18.440 |
our heart, we have to be humble about. And the challenges that we're receiving 00:15:23.640 |
from this passage, we have to be ready to receive with those humble hands. If you 00:15:28.800 |
turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4, Apostle Paul says the exact same thing 00:15:32.200 |
that he says here, okay? Ephesians chapter 4, verse 22 to 24. And look at what he 00:15:40.160 |
says about the renewing of our minds. He says this, "In reference to your former 00:15:49.920 |
manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in 00:15:54.320 |
accordance to the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of 00:15:58.840 |
your mind and put on the new self which is in the likeness of God, has been 00:16:03.000 |
created in righteousness and holiness of truth." So I want you to think about what 00:16:08.600 |
he says right there. He says, "Putting aside this former manner of life, it has 00:16:12.840 |
all these lusts and deceits." And what needs to happen is you need to be 00:16:17.160 |
renewed in the spirit of your mind. And therefore, you're designed to all the 00:16:23.280 |
more put on the righteousness of God. And you're doing what the Ephesians—in the 00:16:27.040 |
book of Ephesians chapter 5—says, you're imitating and copying after God. What I'm 00:16:31.600 |
saying is this, there was a wise, wise pastor who once said—this wise pastor is 00:16:38.240 |
Pastor Peter Kim, okay? A lot of the wise things that I've learned, I've learned 00:16:41.760 |
from him. There was this one time where he said, "You know, sometimes we're so 00:16:45.840 |
defensive of like the condition of our heart and wondering, 'Hey, am I 00:16:50.360 |
compromised or not? Did I do something that was compromising?'" It was really 00:16:54.760 |
interesting. He said, "You know, most of the time it's not even a matter of if, it's 00:16:58.120 |
how much." And I went, "Oh, man." You know, like, it's deep. All of our hearts to some 00:17:05.920 |
degree are compromised. If you're gonna sing that like child song, which is 00:17:11.320 |
positionally true, right? Like, "The reason I know, He saved my soul, 00:17:15.960 |
'cause I dug deep down and I found pure gold." I'm not sure if I can sing that now 00:17:22.520 |
that I'm older and I've seen my heart. Honestly, right? I dug deep down and said, 00:17:28.320 |
"Oh, I don't want to sing it. I don't want anybody to see this." You know, like, 00:17:31.280 |
because there's so much that's already there. I didn't realize. What I'm saying 00:17:37.280 |
is this. We need the humility to admit, as the challenge is being said, you need to 00:17:43.800 |
be renewed in your mind and you're being conformed to the true knowledge of God, 00:17:47.600 |
that even the intent and the content of our minds, there is already levels of 00:17:52.760 |
things, filth, lust, deceit, and error that need to be corrected. And if we have this 00:17:59.880 |
defensiveness where we're like, "Yeah, no, my actions, I can see how that looks 00:18:03.840 |
bad, but then inside my heart it's really gold," you're never gonna get anywhere. 00:18:08.200 |
You're not gonna have the motive and the conviction to put on the 00:18:13.240 |
things that God is challenging us to put on. Why do I say this? It's because, take a 00:18:17.760 |
look at this. This renewal, okay, so boom boom boom, right? This renewal of the new 00:18:23.000 |
self, the true knowledge, the image of the one in this renewal has no distinction. 00:18:27.460 |
That's weird. You should be asking the question, "Huh? Why?" Why would he start 00:18:33.000 |
talking about this distinction? Why does this matter? If I ask the 00:18:37.840 |
question, what is the point here? What's the statement here? All he's saying is, 00:18:42.640 |
"Hey guys, there is a list of various things you need to put on. These things 00:18:47.640 |
include conditions of the heart, mentalities, attitudes, and you need to 00:18:52.000 |
put on love, loving desire for the other people," right? All that kind of stuff. But 00:18:55.960 |
then he says, "All that stuff you need to put on, everybody needs to put it on." 00:18:59.560 |
That's the point, right? Doesn't matter who you are. We all got to wear the same 00:19:05.920 |
uniform. That's the point of that passage there. But I also again want to give a 00:19:11.600 |
quick, quick convicting point, which is this. If it's simply the point that all 00:19:18.440 |
of us have to put this on, why does he name these individuals? The Greeks, the 00:19:24.160 |
Jews, the circumcised, the uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free. You 00:19:29.600 |
should have been asking, "Who in the world are the Scythians?" Because I don't know. 00:19:33.400 |
We don't normally use this name. And who are the barbarians? Because man, I'd be 00:19:38.680 |
offended right now, right? You should be asking, "Who are these people? Why does he 00:19:43.160 |
name them? And how does it connect to all of us need to wear the same uniform?" 00:19:47.520 |
Because this is true. Here's a challenge to you. Whenever you study the scripture, 00:19:53.040 |
start to meditate, and when you meditate, picture it. I want you to picture a Greek 00:19:58.200 |
and a Jew sitting in the same church across the table from each other, and 00:20:01.600 |
think about how awkward that could be, right? When maybe before Christ, they 00:20:07.380 |
would not walk in the same road. They would not walk through the same city. 00:20:10.680 |
Think about the circumcised and uncircumcised. It is the same distinction, 00:20:14.320 |
but you guys have probably heard before. The circumcised considered the 00:20:18.080 |
uncircumcised absolutely filthy dogs. And then picture barbarian Scythians, and 00:20:24.320 |
then slaves and freemen sitting in the same church. Mmm, now we're getting 00:20:32.760 |
somewhere. You think some of them had reasons why they would resist putting 00:20:37.600 |
this stuff on? If the pastor of the church said, "I want you today this 00:20:42.840 |
morning, after we have this great worship, please turn to each other and 00:20:46.200 |
greet each other," and there would just be awkwardness, like crazy, like, "Hey, look, 00:20:50.400 |
snacks!" You know, like, and you start going because you don't want to have awkward 00:20:53.960 |
greeting time. Why? Because the guy sitting next to you used to be a slave 00:20:57.460 |
driver, right? Used to actually own people. And I was kind of thinking, like, in our 00:21:03.700 |
day, what would be, you know, kind of indicative and apropos to that kind of 00:21:08.980 |
comparison? I don't know, imagine if you had a horrendous dating experience and 00:21:13.540 |
across the table from you was your ex, and you're like, "But that's my ex, you know? It's 00:21:18.460 |
my ex-girlfriend. How awkward!" Now, don't start looking at each other and don't 00:21:23.460 |
start pointing fingers, okay? Because I'm not talking about any one particular 00:21:26.500 |
individual. I'm just asking you to imagine, do you think people had valid 00:21:33.860 |
reasons, at least they thought in their head, why they didn't want to apply some 00:21:38.220 |
of this stuff? Probably. And then there's a convicting point for you and I, right? 00:21:43.780 |
In our day and age, we live in an incredibly peaceful society where the 00:21:48.780 |
worst enemies perhaps might be some exes, you know? But then, if a potential ex, 00:21:55.500 |
whoever, an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend was like, "Apostle Paul, I don't know if I 00:22:00.540 |
can put on compassion, kindness, and gentleness right now." And Apostle Paul 00:22:05.300 |
would look at you and say, "Dude, I just told that slave." Yeah? "I just told that slave 00:22:11.660 |
and that master to go talk to each other." That's pretty convicting. And we need to 00:22:18.780 |
recognize that because this letter has its actual circumstance and context of 00:22:24.940 |
people coming together in the name of Christ and he says, "Christ is all in all. 00:22:29.740 |
There is no distinction." That's why that's there. Okay? So, introduction, already 00:22:37.660 |
pretty heavy stuff. Pretty challenging stuff. That we need to put on the new 00:22:42.180 |
self. We are progressively being renewed to the image of the One, our 00:22:48.900 |
Lord, and that there is no distinction. That this is a command for every single 00:22:53.980 |
one of us. And we have to have that humility to accept it. Now, because of 00:22:59.780 |
this portion here in verse 12, he says, "So, as those who have been chosen of God, 00:23:05.620 |
holy and beloved." Okay? We're gonna move on to this little section. And this 00:23:10.860 |
actually, to me, three, I guess, identifiers of who you are. Right? That's all it is. 00:23:18.900 |
You can just put in there that these are three IDs of who you are. Now, what's 00:23:24.220 |
really interesting about this is that he's offering to us the rationale. 00:23:32.620 |
If before there was perhaps a rationale as to potentially like combat why the 00:23:37.580 |
individuals wouldn't obey those commands, he is giving us then here. If you need 00:23:42.980 |
reason, look at this. You're chosen of God, you're holy, and you're beloved. Now, for 00:23:49.380 |
the sake of time, I'm just gonna identify this as this. You knowing who you are is 00:23:54.780 |
powerful. Yes? Right? I'm not sure how many of you guys have seen those movies 00:24:00.020 |
where it's so silly. Like, they're getting beat up by the villain. These 00:24:04.540 |
individuals are like lost. They don't know what they're doing. And all of a 00:24:07.820 |
sudden, some guy has to scream at them. I'm thinking of four, okay? If you guys 00:24:11.260 |
remember, I'm not sure if you saw the movie, it was like, "Who are you?" And he's like, "I'm the 00:24:15.800 |
"God of thunder." And all of a sudden it's like, "Brrrr." Everybody dies. Right? It's like, that's just how it is. Your 00:24:20.780 |
identity is incredibly powerful. It's funny in the movies, but the reality in 00:24:26.660 |
Jesus is incredibly powerful. Okay? Now, I'm just saying, I'm just gonna leave it 00:24:32.260 |
at that, and I'm gonna ask you this question for your discussion. These 00:24:35.940 |
specific identities, the chosen of God, holy and blessed, this is pretty huge. But 00:24:44.220 |
the question you have to ask is, how does that motivate and provide this 00:24:48.460 |
rationale, base, and reason for me to do everything that follows? How does that 00:24:54.180 |
empower me? Why is it so important that I know I'm chosen, that I know I'm holy 00:24:58.460 |
because of Christ, and that I'm beloved of God? Why? Why is that so important? Why 00:25:04.100 |
does it matter to this process of change? That's what you need to ask. Okay? I'm 00:25:08.420 |
gonna leave that for your discussion, because it's super important. Alright? And 00:25:12.140 |
if some of you guys have ever had a Thor experience, share it with your group. 00:25:15.340 |
Encourage everybody. And the lightning came out of your eyes. No, I'm just kidding. 00:25:19.380 |
Alright. Next section, alright? So I'm gonna draw a line here, because here is 00:25:25.300 |
the command. So sometimes, if you remember the way I do it is, okay, that first 00:25:30.780 |
section took me 24 minutes. Alright. The way I do it sometimes is, I just 00:25:38.420 |
build the sections that I'm studying based on the actual command verse, right? 00:25:42.220 |
Especially in a section like this where you know it's applicational. Well, here, he 00:25:47.060 |
repeats the idea, so you know he's changing gears again and saying, "Put on," 00:25:50.900 |
and what he is doing is simply giving you the details and the specific pieces. 00:25:55.620 |
If you are to wear the clothes of Christ, so to speak, here are all the pieces. Now, 00:26:01.860 |
I cannot go through every single one of these, but let's just read it first, and 00:26:06.420 |
then let's highlight a few. Okay? First, "Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, 00:26:13.820 |
humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each 00:26:18.940 |
other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you. So 00:26:24.740 |
also should you. Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of 00:26:30.740 |
unity." Man, we could just camp out here and just go for forever, but this is what 00:26:37.260 |
I'm gonna do, okay? If you recall that encouragement, especially when there is a 00:26:42.380 |
laundry list of terms, but these terms happen to be loaded terms, you know 00:26:47.240 |
they're big, it's important for you to do word studies, right? Word studies. And one 00:26:52.240 |
of the things that I use, oh no, is not that, okay? It's blueletterbible.com. 00:27:01.780 |
Now what I'm gonna show you is here, Colossians 3 verse 12 in the NASB, okay? 00:27:11.220 |
blueletterbible.com, and it's awesome because here, look, you have these verses 00:27:16.540 |
and it asks you, "Do you want tools?" And I'll say, "Yes, I want them tools." And look at 00:27:22.620 |
all those tools it gives me. It gives me Bibles, cross-references, commentaries, 00:27:26.620 |
dictionaries, and miscellaneous. But this is why I really like it, it's because it 00:27:30.420 |
makes it so easy. He says, "There's all the words individually broken down, of God, 00:27:35.740 |
holy, beloved, put on a heart of compassion." So what I'll do is actually 00:27:41.020 |
look at this and I'll try to pronounce the word, splagnon. And then, remember how 00:27:48.500 |
Pastor Peter talked about the Strong's numbers? You click on that guy and it 00:27:53.620 |
gives you a bunch. It gives you the pronunciation, I can even listen to it if 00:27:57.420 |
I want to, but then the important part is just the definition. It's probably here, 00:28:04.340 |
it means your bowels and your intestines. Interesting that we call it heart, right? 00:28:10.700 |
But it gives you the definition here that the bowels are regarded as a seat 00:28:15.660 |
of the more violent passion, such as anger and love. The Hebrews had this as a 00:28:21.700 |
seat of tender affections. That's pretty awesome. I get to see the definitions and 00:28:27.420 |
I get to see the lexicon of like the different ways it's used and what's more, 00:28:31.220 |
I can see also where concordance, where else it was used. Pretty interesting, right? 00:28:37.180 |
If I go back, just go back to this portion right here when I was looking at 00:28:42.260 |
it, the heart of compassion, I could actually just click heart. 00:28:46.500 |
And what that will do is it'll give me pretty exhaustive concordance. Now I can 00:28:50.940 |
look from Genesis all the way down. Pretty cool tool, huh? Now, some of you 00:28:55.900 |
guys might not have the time to go through every single word, that's fine. 00:29:00.180 |
Just use the words that you know you just haven't studied very much. For 00:29:04.420 |
example, if you're thinking about something like heart of compassion or I 00:29:08.260 |
like the idea of kindness here. Why? Because I'm thinking kindness and maybe 00:29:12.500 |
you're maybe kind of like me. I don't have a whole big range of emotions. I'm 00:29:17.500 |
watching sports, I'm just like, "Oh cool." They lose, I'm like, "Oh man." Some, you 00:29:22.540 |
know, some guys are livid, they're just like, "Oh my gosh!" Right? I just don't have 00:29:25.500 |
a huge range of emotions and I'm sitting here thinking, when I hear, "Oh be 00:29:29.940 |
kind," I'm like, "Oh man, what if I don't know how to do that?" You know? What if I 00:29:35.220 |
don't know how to show that emotion of like, "Aww, are you hurting?" Like, I just 00:29:39.380 |
don't know how. It just gets awkward, right? Maybe you're like me. Now, so you're 00:29:45.620 |
thinking, "I don't know how to apply this." Well, sometimes learning the ideas behind 00:29:50.020 |
it really helps. Is kindness thought of in the Bible as, "Aww, are you hurting?" Is that 00:29:57.900 |
kind of compassion and kindness like, "Hello!" Like everything's just super daisy 00:30:02.380 |
and super sweet and all like joyous and all that kind of stuff. Is that the way 00:30:06.100 |
the Bible is picturing this? Here's something really interesting. You look up 00:30:09.540 |
the definition and it thinks it's more on the lines of moral goodness and 00:30:13.660 |
integrity. What? That's interesting. Here's Strong's definition, "usefulness." The way 00:30:21.740 |
that the Bible most frequently, the definitions that come first are the more 00:30:25.740 |
frequent uses. The way that the Bible more frequently uses the idea of kindness 00:30:30.700 |
is knowing that your heart is good. That if I entrust myself to you, I know you 00:30:37.220 |
will do me good. Why? Because you're a man of integrity. Because you're kind in that 00:30:42.180 |
way. You're useful. You're constantly seeking to be helpful, to be of their 00:30:48.300 |
good. That your intention is not to take advantage of them. Your intention is not 00:30:53.060 |
to tease them, make fun of them, and have a good laugh at their expense. But no, 00:30:56.740 |
your constant thought is, "I'm gonna try to protect you. I'm gonna be trying to be good 00:31:01.340 |
to you. I'm gonna be integrate. I'm gonna have integrity with you." That's kind. And 00:31:06.220 |
then I think, "Oh, okay!" Right? I can have a better picture of what kindness means. 00:31:13.500 |
Now, I'm gonna stop it there because we don't have time to go through every 00:31:18.140 |
single word. My challenge for you is, if there are certain terms, like I said, 00:31:23.220 |
you're like, "I don't know how to apply that though." Start looking at the general 00:31:27.620 |
concepts of the Bible. However, I want to give a caveat. Do not look at a Bible 00:31:32.180 |
dictionary. Look at 15 different, you know, they call them glosses, the entries, 00:31:38.620 |
the definitions that you see within the entry, right? And then be like, "Ooh, that 00:31:44.100 |
sounds really good. I'm gonna pick that one." You can't do that, okay? You have to 00:31:48.360 |
first get the general feel of how this is used generally through the Bible. Then 00:31:53.060 |
reread it in your text so that you know, in context, how is this being used. The 00:31:58.820 |
tough part about this context is it's a laundry list of things you should do. So 00:32:03.420 |
what should you do? Well, I have a challenge for you. Think about how 00:32:09.300 |
the concept is being perceived. How is every one of these concepts being 00:32:15.940 |
perceived? I'll give you a hint, just as the Lord. You are to think about these 00:32:22.620 |
concepts as they exist in the perfections of Christ. You are to think 00:32:30.500 |
about these concepts as in the perfections of Christ. You should be 00:32:35.980 |
reflecting, "How has the Lord?" Because who do you know? Who do you know who is 00:32:42.540 |
compassionate in heart, kind, humble, gentle, patient, bearing with 00:32:47.340 |
everybody, forgiving each other? Like, who do you know who's all of these things to 00:32:51.660 |
its perfection? I could name a few of you who are like outstanding in 00:32:56.420 |
several of these areas. None of us have these to perfection. Now, what's 00:33:01.720 |
challenging for us though, is you take a concept like patience. And the 00:33:07.340 |
reason why I picked this is because our pastors have been talking about it. Like, 00:33:11.420 |
just in our past meeting, we were just like, "The Lord is so crazy patient. It's 00:33:16.860 |
crazy." We're so astounded by how patient God is. Why? Because some of you 00:33:25.020 |
have been Christian for a long time. You know? You have. And therefore, I'm willing 00:33:32.260 |
to bet you have had repetitive seasons of not being sober, and being sober, and not 00:33:38.980 |
being sober, and being sober. And lately we've been talking a lot about drifting 00:33:43.540 |
and stuff like that. And if you've been Christian for a certain extent, there is 00:33:48.100 |
probably even a frustration with yourself. "Why am I so susceptible to 00:33:53.460 |
getting lost?" Right? Now, I want you to think about that for a moment. Whatever 00:34:01.020 |
frustration you feel about yourself, God actually has the right to feel about you. 00:34:07.500 |
Were he not perfectly patient with you? Were he not so understanding, sympathetic, 00:34:14.820 |
and compassionate with you? And what's wild to me is I've been walking through 00:34:20.100 |
the book of Romans with the high school students, and I came across this passage 00:34:24.060 |
and it just like blew me away. I was floored. Why? Romans chapter 9 through 11, 00:34:29.500 |
theologically thought of as the section on what about the Jews? What's the plan 00:34:33.380 |
of God for the Jewish people and the Gentile people? What gives? Are they all 00:34:37.340 |
gonna die? Are they gonna be saved later on? What's gonna happen? I don't think 00:34:41.660 |
that's the point. It's the question. It's not the point. The question starts off, 00:34:47.420 |
"What about the Jews?" And Apostle Paul says, "I wish I could be a curse for them. I 00:34:50.180 |
want to save them." Right? And then they start complaining, "Well, is it our fault? 00:34:54.260 |
Did God tell us?" And Apostle Paul's like, "You all heard! You killed all the prophets, 00:35:00.580 |
remember?" You know? And then it just weirdly keeps going. Like, the people ask 00:35:05.180 |
questions like, "But you're sovereign, then how come you blame us? And how come, you 00:35:09.180 |
know, you blame us for this and that?" And there's just this accusation and 00:35:12.260 |
accusation. And I want to read you an interesting passage. Amidst all the 00:35:17.000 |
complaints of, "How come, you know, you blame us when you didn't tell us? How 00:35:20.780 |
come it was unfair?" And yada yada yada. Romans chapter 10 verse 19 to 21, just 00:35:26.360 |
listen to this. He says, "But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they?" So that's 00:35:31.260 |
that question. Like, "Israel didn't know about it?" And he says, "First, Moses says, 'I 00:35:35.060 |
will make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation without 00:35:38.980 |
understanding, I will anger you.'" God had to bring hard affliction to get them to 00:35:45.680 |
understand. Verse 20, "And Isaiah is very bold and says, 'I was found by those who 00:35:51.140 |
did not seek me. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me.'" Verse 21, 00:35:56.860 |
"But as for Israel, he says, 'All the day long I stretched out my hands to a 00:36:03.420 |
disobedient and obstinate people.'" God, there's an amazing picture of God being 00:36:11.940 |
so patient with us that he's stretching out his arm all day long. Gonna be honest, 00:36:21.140 |
if my kid doesn't take what's in my hand in a matter of seconds, I might lose it. 00:36:27.500 |
Yes? God's perfect patience is incredible with us. For generations upon 00:36:37.220 |
generations of people making constant excuses and sometimes, and sometimes 00:36:43.780 |
pointing the finger right back at him saying, "It's your fault." God has 00:36:48.460 |
stretched out his gracious hands all day long. That's pretty incredible if you 00:36:55.260 |
think about it. How are we to think about these concepts we're supposed to think 00:36:59.700 |
about in the perfections? And Apostle Paul says this, "Yet for this reason I 00:37:04.300 |
found mercy so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might 00:37:10.460 |
demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in 00:37:15.100 |
him for eternal life. Now to the eternal King Immortal, invisible, the only God, be 00:37:20.040 |
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Okay? Sometimes we need to do that. Where 00:37:28.700 |
we take a certain word, we look at where the references are, and we see, "Where are 00:37:34.180 |
these references sometimes used of God? How is the character of God manifest 00:37:38.900 |
through these collection of terms?" Okay? Alright. Then the last final section, and 00:37:45.340 |
then we're done. This next section, verses 15 through 17, reads like this. 00:37:52.260 |
"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called 00:37:59.260 |
in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with 00:38:03.780 |
all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, with psalms and hymns and 00:38:06.900 |
spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 00:38:10.380 |
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving 00:38:15.620 |
thanks through him to God the Father." Okay? What I've done for you there for 00:38:20.300 |
the sake of time is, I noticed that there is a pattern where it talks about an 00:38:26.420 |
element of Christ, whether it be his peace, whether it be his word, whether it 00:38:31.300 |
be his name. Okay? His peace, his word, or his name. And all of these things are 00:38:38.580 |
supposed to affect you deeply, either by way of ruling in your hearts, dwelling in 00:38:45.620 |
you, or actually encompassing everything. And what that's supposed to produce is 00:38:52.620 |
various. It's supposed to produce a one body. It's supposed to produce this kind 00:38:59.380 |
of admonishing one another with psalms and singing. Whoops, sorry. With psalms and 00:39:05.620 |
spiritual songs. And what it's also produced is thankfulness. And what you'll 00:39:10.740 |
find is that that concept of thankfulness has been repeated three 00:39:15.340 |
times. That this should lead to a heart condition of thankfulness in your heart, 00:39:20.580 |
and thankfulness in your heart, and thankfulness in your heart. In thinking 00:39:26.820 |
about all this, we can sit here and dive deep into this stuff. What does it mean 00:39:33.220 |
to have the peace of Christ? Right? And I want you to think about that kind of 00:39:38.580 |
stuff. If, for example, all the various terminologies up here had to do with 00:39:45.220 |
various hard attitudes and thoughts that you're supposed to have with the other 00:39:49.820 |
brother and sister in your community, the people around you, all that kind of stuff, 00:39:54.020 |
and it's supposed to be a disposition of who you are, right? How does the peace of 00:39:59.140 |
Christ affect you in that? How does it really motivate and move you for that? 00:40:03.300 |
Those are the kind of questions you should be asking. And what in the world 00:40:07.100 |
does it mean to rule? How does peace govern and dictate your heart and the 00:40:13.780 |
decisions that you make? Those are all questions that you can talk about and 00:40:18.380 |
you can ask. What I'm gonna say is this. Today we were talking about maturity. 00:40:23.620 |
A sense of maturity of your mind, a sense of maturity in your heart where you're 00:40:27.900 |
humble and willing to break down the things that you think, "Oh no, my 00:40:33.020 |
intentions are good though," right? Have that introspectiveness, have that 00:40:36.500 |
conviction to lay it on the table. But also a maturity of love. And my 00:40:42.660 |
challenge is going to be, for all of us, if you saw thanklessness when there was 00:40:49.780 |
privilege, if you saw bitter discontentment when an individual had 00:40:55.300 |
lots, wouldn't you sit there and think, "How immature," right? There is a level to 00:41:03.100 |
which the condition of your heart where it is thankful to God, not because of all 00:41:08.460 |
these things happening, but despite the fact that your circumstances, the outside 00:41:14.140 |
stuff is not going your way. And also, especially despite the fact that inside 00:41:19.620 |
there might be some turmoil, there might be some conflict, and there might be some 00:41:23.900 |
pain. If you're able to look at the Lord and say, "God, thank you so much," I believe 00:41:31.540 |
the Lord will look at you and say, "I think now you understand," right? Much in 00:41:38.320 |
the way, much in the way younger children, when they live their lives and they look 00:41:43.440 |
at their parents and they complain about how controlling their parents were, 00:41:46.780 |
they're complaining about how involved and tigerish their parents were, only to 00:41:52.460 |
later on realize, "Now that I try to live my own life, I just want to thank 00:41:56.980 |
you for the hardships and the difficulties that you endured." Now again, 00:42:01.020 |
I know that not all of us have had parents that we're looking up to 00:42:05.260 |
as examples or models for us, but even then, if you can have that kind of source, 00:42:13.820 |
that kind of power in your heart to look to the Lord and say, "God, thank you so 00:42:18.340 |
much for all that you are, have done, and will do for me," I believe God will look 00:42:24.580 |
at you and say, "Wow, you've matured a lot." Let's take a moment to pray and go 00:42:30.340 |
before the Lord. Our God, we want to thank you so much, again, because Lord, we 00:42:43.640 |
realize, God, that you didn't simply just give us an escape and then leave us to 00:42:51.340 |
be. Your heart of love drew us close. You not only delivered us, but you 00:42:58.460 |
transferred us into your home. And then to think on top of that, God, that you 00:43:05.020 |
would call us your children, and then on top of that, you desire to impart on us 00:43:10.700 |
your knowledge, your heart, and then all the more your character, that you want us 00:43:16.500 |
to reflect who you are. Lord, what a privilege. Lord, what grace, what 00:43:22.940 |
incredible love. Father, I pray that we recognize that your gift of righteousness 00:43:28.500 |
to us, your gift of holiness to us, is something far beyond what we could even 00:43:34.580 |
imagine or think or even dare ask. So God, we thank you so much that by your 00:43:40.580 |
love you've initiated and you've granted to us so much according to your grace. 00:43:44.780 |
And I guess simply, Lord, I want to pray that all of us, Lord, would grow in that 00:43:49.540 |
knowledge, and God, there would be thankfulness in our hearts. Lord, that 00:43:54.140 |
there would be a true sense of gratitude in every season of our lives. Father, God, 00:43:59.500 |
we confess the struggle, Lord, oftentimes when we set our minds off of you, Father, 00:44:03.980 |
Lord, we confess, God, we get distracted, but I do pray that you would draw our 00:44:08.700 |
eyes back to you and cause us to sing with thankfulness. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.