Summer Playlist: Part 11
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
I want to introduce Phil Stevenson who's going to be wrapping up our series this morning. At this time our ushers are going to be coming around giving you a card. Phil, thanks for being here.
You're welcome. It's always a privilege and I feel very honored when your pastoral team invites me to share with you. When you hand out those cards, if you can make sure I get one, I'd appreciate that. In fact, I'll walk over here and just grab one. Thank you very much. We'll refer to this later, but I just want you to have it now. Several years ago, okay, a lot of years ago, I was a youth pastor down in Southern California. This was back in the day when in youth ministry you did a lot of competitions to try to get kids to come to church and the whole thing. So we did this big competition and we had teams, we had co-captains for those, and the award or the result if your team won was the two captains got to go on a hot air balloon ride. I had a friend who was a balloonist. This is back in the day when you used to go to North County, San Diego, an area called Temecula. If you went there now, you would say there's no way they flew balloons around here. You would have been right because there were lots and lots of housing. There is now, but then there was a lot of open field. So we got there early in the morning. Had to go early in the morning. So the basket wasn't that big, so there was enough room for my friend Paul, the balloonist, and one other person. So what he did with the kids is they did what they call box ballooning, I guess. And what it was was fascinating. They understood the currents and so they would get in the balloon, they'd go up to a certain height, and the current would take them over. I think they would take them north. And they'd go for a certain distance that way, then they'd let some air out, whatever they do, and they'd bring it down to another area, and then the balloon would come over to the way where we were waiting, and he would set that balloon right down where we were at. Interesting. So that's what the two kids got to do. And so when the second kid came back, Paul looked at me and he said, "Now, do you want to go on a real balloon ride?" And I said, "Absolutely." So no more of this box stuff. So we went up, and of course they had a car. I remember it was an El Camino. Is that the kind of car that looked like a truck when it was a car? Yeah, El Camino. And they had to track us. They had to follow us. So we went up and he said, "First, we're going to do what's called skimming." He said, "What that is is that we're going to go and try to stay" -- that word "try" was a little iffy at that time -- "but try to stay 10 to 15 feet above whatever the terrain is." So there were some rolling hills over those. Trees would come up, you'd pick that thing up, you'd go over the trees, and we would keep going. So we did that for quite a while. And then at some point, of course, we just sat down. He brought the balloon down. I don't know where. We were in the middle of nowhere. It was just crazy. But it was so fun.
So what I'm saying is that what we're going to do this morning, we're going to take a look at Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 17. If you have a Bible app with you or on your phone you have a Bible or it will be on the screen, I'm going to be using a new living translation. And what we're going to do in the first 15 verses, we're going to kind of do a flyover. We're going to skim over that to get ready to go into the last two verses, 16 and 17, and there we will set down and spend a little bit of time there. So if you have your Bibles or you see right there, first of all, I want us to know this. The big idea of Colossians 3, 1 through 17 is that we have a new identity in Christ. We have a new identity in Christ that we need to live that identity out. When we gather in community like this, we need to live that identity out. We go out into the world where in reality we spend most of our time in our work, in our school, in our playtime, our recreation, that kind of thing. We also need to live that identity out daily.
Now, verses 1 through 4, Paul talks to us about that if we're going to live out this new identity, we need to change our focus. He says in those first four verses, he says "since." Now, what that implies is that it's happened pretty soon, not when this happens. He says, "since right now you have been raised to new life with Christ." Then he says, "set your sights or change your focus from what it's been to something else." He goes on and talks about on the realities of heaven where Christ sits in the place of the honor of God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Now, when he uses that phrase, "hidden with Christ," he's referring to our security in Christ. He's referring to our identity that is in Christ. So he says, "if you want to live out this identity, change your focus." Focus on your identity in Christ. Focus on your security in Christ. Walk closely with him. And then he says, "change what matters." Verses 5 through 11, he says, "first of all," he says, "so put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you." Put that stuff to death, he says. Be done with that because you have a new area that matters more than that. So that's where you need to be living. He says, "have nothing to do with them." The old you, he says in verse 7, the old you, in other words, the things that used to be, you do not do those things any longer, but now is the time. The new you, put your new nature on, verse 10. That no longer matters what you were before. What matters is what Christ is doing in you as he lives in you and through you.
Now, right at the hill here, actually buried behind safe credit union, there is a, I know it's not really a fitness gym per se, but it's called plyometrics. And I got involved in this exercise method a year in September. And I got involved in it through my oldest grandson who plays football and he got recommended to that, so I took him on his first day, watched what they were doing and I said, "I think I'll give that a go." So I've been giving that a go for almost a year and here's what happens. Dave, who's the coach, drives me nuts. So we'll be doing some things and all of a sudden he'll say to me, "Phil, I want you," and he'll give me a certain amount of reps to do or a certain weight to use. And then I always say, "well, you know, Dave, the last time I did this," and I give him a lower weight and a lower number of reps. And then Dave says, "Oh, yeah, but that's the old Phil. This is the new Phil." And I said, "Well, a lot of times I just feel like the old Phil. If it's okay with you, I like to do this." And he never lets me do that.
But that's what we're talking about here. We have an old us and then we have a new us. And Paul is telling us that old stuff, that's gone. Don't live in that any longer. Be the new you that Jesus has formed and is making you into. Then he comes back and he talks about having to change your clothes. And he talks about the fact that when he talks about clothing, he's suggesting it's putting on our new identity. It's an intentional action. Usually when we put on our clothes or change our clothes, we do it intentionally. And he talks about what we should clothe ourselves with in verse 12. And then he tells us more about verse 13 and 14, how to clothe ourselves. I'm going to tell you a story. You're going to say, "That is not right." And I'm going to say, "It is and it's sick." I'm going to tell you. So again, before we had kids, our kids are all in their 40s, got grandkids, three teenagers. But before we had any of that, I had this buddy, and he had a new baby in his home. And his wife did the first trip away from home, like shopping or whatever, not like a long trip, but for a big chunk of the day, and left him in charge of their infant baby. And he was telling me this. He said, "Of course, what happens when you have an infant, sooner or later they poop." And they just poop. And he didn't want to change the diaper. You know what he did? He put a new diaper over the old diaper. "Thank you, yes." I said, "You're kidding me." He said, "No." He said, "Then they pooped again and I put another diaper." So he had his wife come home, and this baby's got like five diapers on her. And she said, "What are you doing?" And he tried to explain to her. By the way, that did not go over well. So we talk about having new clothing on.
We're not talking about taking new stuff and putting on the old stuff. It's disrobing, taking off the old clothes, and putting on new. When Christ rules in our hearts, we are at peace and thankful. It says in verse 15, "And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your heart." Now, Burger King--I don't go to Burger-- I don't go to Burger King very often, but they got this new little tagline. Maybe you've seen it on advertisement. Talk about Burger King, what they have, and they say, "You rule!" That's their thing. My oldest son was telling me about this before I ever heard an advertisement. He said, "You know that Burger King has a new tagline?" I said, "No." He said, "You rule." It's supposed to be like the response to Chick-fil-A. You go to Chick-fil-A, and you ask them for something, and they say, "My pleasure. My pleasure." And they do it for you. Evidently, I should go just to see if this happens. If you go to Burger King and you ask for something, they're supposed to say, "You rule." Now, wouldn't that be fun? Give you a little crown, you realize you rule? Well, you know, you and I, we may rule if we go to Burger King, but Christ rules in us. Christ rules in us, and we need to know that He's in charge of our life. So that's the flyover. We kind of skimmed over those first 15 verses to talk about our new identity in Christ and what that means for us.
Now we're going to just kind of set down, if you please, in verses 16 and 17. And take a look at this, because the name of the series is, I think, is--it hits? What? Ah, Summer Plays. Okay, good. And we're going to talk a little bit about that and how it applies to us. We're going to talk about inside out Christianity. And the first part is verse 15. It talks about the inside part of us as believers of Christ. What does it mean to come together, worship together, celebrate God together? And as we do that, what does that-- what should that do? Prepare us to live outside. As I already mentioned in the beginning of my sharing is that we actually spend more time not here than here. So as we're here, we need to be preparing for out there. And when we're out there, we begin to understand the need for us to gather together on a consistent, regular basis. And so we're going to take a look, first of all, about the inside part of it. Verse 16, it says, "Let the message about Christ in all of the richness fill your hearts. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts." Now, when Paul writes this phrase, "in all its richness," he's talking about the abundance, the depth, and the generosity of Christ. The gospel ought to saturate every aspect of our life, not just our church life, not just our community of faith as believers, but all of our life.
I have a friend, I've just gotten to know him the last, I'm going to say six months. His name's Roger. And I like Roger because he's older than me. That's kind of a commodity now for me, people older. He's in his mid-80s, so he's a lot older than me, frankly. But I love being around Roger because he is an encourager. He has got energy. He has the kind of appearance and energy that I hope tomorrow I'll have. But definitely when I'm in my mid-80s. And so we started this thing. You know, when you're younger, you might get to know somebody and you find out you have a common interest. And so you might go do that. Oh, we find out, oh, we like racquet ball. Go play racquet ball. Oh, we like to run. You go run. There's something like that. Or like cars. We go to car shows. You know what Roger and I have found that we like? Donuts. So we go get donuts together. And so when we were out -- actually, we went out this last week. Thursday we went to a donut shop out in Lincoln. And over there I said to Roger -- and I think some of you know this. I think I might have shared a little bit about this before here. I said, you know, Roger, when I was in college, one of my many jobs was to make donuts. I said, I was a donut maker. He said, really? And I said, absolutely. And I said, here's what's interesting. The guy who taught me how to make donuts was Vietnamese. And he did not have a lot of English skills, except for he knew two English words very, very well. And here's what they were. Not good. That was his primary English. And so I learned from him how to make donuts through negative reinforcement. He would show me something, and then I would try to do it, and he would either go -- or more often than not in the beginning -- not good. So I went through this whole process. So finally I got my first day making donuts. Now, this donut shop was not a 24-hour donut shop, and so I would go in 10 o'clock at night, make donuts all night, 5 o'clock in the morning, open the shop, handle any customers that might come in for that first hour while I'm cleaning up. 6 a.m., the morning lady would come in to deal with the rest of the morning. So this is my first evening alone making donuts. And somewhere in the not good conversations, I never picked up that when you make raised donuts, of course you have to put them in a heater area, it would kind of warm the -- so they'd rise a little bit. But if you leave them in there too long, I'm going to tell you what happens. They become a sponge. And therefore when you drop them in the grease to deep fry them, they just -- my first shift making donuts by myself was not good. These donuts were completely saturated with grease. They were terrible. I'm surprised I kept my job. But the analogy for that is that we, as followers of Jesus, need to be saturated. We need to absorb the gospel into our life so it impacts all of who we are and all of what we do. That's what we need to do.
And then we go on and let's break this down a little bit. He says to teach. That's not only understanding and hearing about truth, but it's instruction in truth. And then he says there are times that we need to have counsel and admonish one another, which is correction and exhortation when someone strays. Sometimes when, as followers of Christ in the community of faith, there are times that we have to confront one another in love about some of the lifestyle things that you might have seen or been aware of and help each other and encourage each other in those areas. Then he says with all wisdom. That's taking the idea of truth and applying it to our lives with grace and discernment. And then they talk about Psalms. A lot of the commentators will say this probably refers to the Hebrew Psalter, of course. And so I would put that in our parlance. That would be the traditional music of the church. So there needs to be some of that in the worship. And then they talk about hymns. And again, commentators would say this could be early Christian composition that's focused on Christ, person, and work. Or what we might say today, the contemporary worship. So you have traditional worship, contemporary worship. And then they talk about spiritual songs that suggest spontaneous praise and worship that begins to bubble up. So the up and coming things that we see, just trying to apply it to our day. So we have traditional music, contemporary music. We have new, new kind of music that's starting to come on the scene. And the thing is, worship should never be for us as entertainment, although it should be done with excellence. And that it should be word-centered, spirit-led response to the truth of God's gospel in our life. Singing as we sing together is not necessarily designed to elicit an overly emotional response, although it can result in emotions. Every time I hear the song, he has been faithful. I've sung that song for years. And usually I've just sung that song. But I've got to tell you, most cases now, because I'm in my 70th year, as I sing that song, I am reminded of the faithfulness of God throughout my life. It's almost like a near-death experience. You know, they say, "It's not even getting near-death yet." Your life flashes before your eyes. For me, when I sing that song, sometimes my history flashes before my eyes quickly, and God reminds me of his faithfulness throughout my life. It's incredible. All that he talks about there, hymns, psalms, spirit-led worship, is designed to have the community of Christ become a singing, worshiping, learning, loving family. I heard this pastor who pastors a church in the Scottsdale area. His name is Mark Driscoll. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. I don't agree with him on all things. But he said a statement that I think is wonderful. He says, "If anybody comes to their church and says, 'I don't like your worship,' and he's aware of it and he's able to talk to them, he simply says, 'That's okay, because we're not worshiping you.’"
And here's what I know about worship. All of us have preference, don't we? Some people love the hymns, older songs. Some people love contemporary music. And some people love a certain format and style of worship. We all have our preferences. But here's the thing. If you're in the celebrating of God, if you're together as a faith community, and on that particular Sunday, your preferences aren't being met. Here's what I would say to you. Your question should not be, "Why are we not doing fill in the blank?" Instead, the only question you should be asking is this glorifying God. And it may not be in your area of preference, but if it's glorifying God, you should participate and be with that. That's the inside stuff. And that inside stuff begins to, or hopefully should flow into the outside part of our life.
Inside, outside Christianity. And then they come back in the same passage in verse 17. It says, and I love this, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." And whatever, that's pretty wide girth, isn't it? "And whatever you do or say." Paul is breaking down sometimes the self-imposed barriers that you and I put up. The barrier between the sacred and the secular. We might say it that way. The church and the world. And Paul says, "No, that's gone. And whatever you do, whatever you say, do it all for the glory of God." When we say whatever, we live our life by His authority in alignment with His character. And we give, as a result of that, what we begin to do, we give thanks for all things. We give thanks for all things. We learn to live a grateful lifestyle. It says in Psalm 32:8, these words. The Lord says, "I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you." Galatians 5:25. "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives." See, the outside part of our Christianity, it's living in the whatever. Whatever we do, whatever we say, we do it all for the glory of God. And His Spirit will guide us in what that looks like. He will watch over us and teach us our pathway as we go forward. You know, in Ephesians 2:8-10, we begin to understand that whether it's our beginning point of our relationship with God, our walking point with our relationship with God, that sooner or later we understand it's all by grace. Ephesians 2:8-10. "God saved you by His grace when you believed." And you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Verse 10, "For we are God's masterpiece." He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. It's by grace we have been saved. It's by grace we have entered into a relationship with God. It is by grace we live out that relationship with God. Grace cannot be earned. It cannot be repaid. The response to grace is to live a life of thankful obedience. That's what the response to grace is. Not how can I earn it, not how I can repay it fully to God, but can I live a life of thankful obedience to God, the grace of God. And I can't remember if we'll have these up on the screen or not, but I have a couple things about things to ponder or think about as you go into this week. How can I cultivate daily thankfulness to God for His grace? What can you do? What can I do this week to cultivate this thankfulness? How can I honor Jesus by my actions in words this week? What needs to change in my habits so my life better reflects His name?
Now, that card that was handed out just before I came up here, it's a prayer that was written by Susan Wesley. Susan Wesley was the mom of John Wesley. John Wesley was not the founder of the Methodist Church, but he was instrumental in the Methodist Church coming to light back in the day. This church, Spring Valley Church, is part of that history of the Methodist Church/Wesleyan Church. And what I have in this prayer, I want you to have this card, and I want to encourage you, actually I want to challenge you, that this next week you will put this someplace where you will literally see it every day. It may be someplace where you go to spend the time quietly reading Scripture. It may be just in your car because you're in your car regularly early in the morning on your way someplace. Maybe in the refrigerator. Maybe wherever you put it so you'll see it every day, and then I want you to not just see it. Ideally it can be done in the morning. It doesn't make any difference. Maybe at lunchtime, maybe in the evening, but ideally in the morning, that you will simply read this prayer. And as I wrap up, I want to take this prayer, and I'm going to frankly read it, but I'm going to make it more generalized and just specifically so you'll just take a moment and just pause, be quiet. “Help us, Lord, to remember that religion has to be confined to the church or closet, nor is exercise only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere we are in Your presence. So make our every word and action have a moral content. May all the happenings of our life prove useful and beneficial to me. May all the things instructed us and afford us an opportunity of exercising some virtue and daily leaning and growing toward Your likeness." Amen.