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Your King Demands a Change
Colossians 3:5-10
Let’ suppose that you are going out for a night on the town with your
significant other. It’s your 3-month anniversary and they are going to
take you out to the nicest restaurant in Birmingham. You have been
looking forward to this night for a long time, 6 whole days. Your
parents are letting you go and you have all expectations as you drive
through Jasper, then Adamsville, and then finally Birmingham. Once you
get there they ask for your reservation and you make your way to the
table. But you are not ready for what you see. You have to brush the
food crumbs off the seat before you can sit down, and the tablecloth is
covered with the catch of the night. Your waitress comes to the table
with black stuff under her fingernails, those green things in her eyes
and her hair is all catawampus. Now how much are you going to enjoy your
meal? You are probably not, you see your impression of the food has
already determined before it even gets to the table.
Tonight we are focusing on Jesus being our King. And the same way that
we would decide on the taste of the food by the way the restaurant looks
people will make their decision of your King by the way you act.
In Colossians 3:5-10 Paul discusses how we present ourselves to the
world around us. He says that if Jesus is our King we need to take off
the worldly attitudes or attire of sexual sin, perversion, passion,
lust, and greed (which is the same thing as worshiping wealth). anger,
hot tempers, hatred, cursing, obscene language, and all similar sins.
And don’t lie to each other.
There have been so many times that I have wanted to look at this lists
and use it as a check list.
Sexual sin – Nope
Perversion – Nope
Lust – Nope
Greed – Nope
And I usually feel pretty good about myself so I stop while I am ahead.
But Paul goes even further
Anger – Only justified anger, that’s spiritual right, Jesus got angry.
Hot tempers – Well it’s not as bad as it once was and any growth is
spiritual growth
Cursing – Haven’t said a cuss word in the last 38 minutes.
Obscene language – Is it obscene if it is in the dictionary?
And don’t lie to each other – I don’t lie. Well maybe just little ones
like when you ask me how I am and I say fine when really I’m not but you
don’t want to hear about my problems so I’m doing you a favor.
But Paul doesn’t stop there. Listen to again to verses 9 and 10 “You’ve
gotten rid of the person you used to be and the life you used to live,
and become a new person.
Have we really become a new person? Are we really that different from
world, or do we blend in with the wickedness quite well. If we are going
to serve our king most of us have got to make a change.
Let’s read starting in verse 12 about the attire of men and women who
serve Jesus as their king.
The first thing we must put on is Compassion.
Compassion does something. Compassion causes us to show others the love
that then need so badly, and the King who loves unconditionally.
Compassion must lead us to involvement.
It’s like the story of a fifth-grade class at Lake Elementary School in
Oceanside, California, that had fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one,
however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O’Gorman, was undergoing
chemotherapy for lymphoma, and all his hair was falling out... so he had
his head shaved. But then 13 of his classmates shaved their heads, so
Ian wouldn’t feel out of place.
Ten-year-old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys,
and before long they all trekked to the barbershop. "The last thing he
would want is to not fit in," said Kyle. "We just wanted to make him
feel better."
The next item Followers of the King must have is Kindness.
In this world that lives by the motto Dog eat Dog why should we show
kindness to others? Because kindness is our natural response to the
grace God has shown us.
Kindness is the character of God. God desires for us to show kindness to
others because that is part of His wonderful character. He is full of
loving kindness toward us. And God didn’t just tell us He loves us, He
proved it.
Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
When you put Christ on in Baptism He became your King and there was a
change in your life. We should no longer want to live like those people
who don’t know God, we live by a higher standard. I believe that the
more you understand and appreciate God’s grace and mercy, the more you
will want to show kindness to others.
The third thing we need to put on is Humility.
This is probably the hardest item for us to put on, because we all can
be very full of ourselves. And when we live a life full of pride we must
spend every waking moment defending and reestablishing our superior
positions in the minds of everyone we meet.
Real humility, not the fake kind we try to pass off at times, comes when
we see ourselves as Christ sees us. When we think of our past failures,
and sins, and look at our great limitations of our life we can’t help
but humble ourselves before an all powerful and holy God.
Humility is probably the rarest trait of a follower of the King while
Pride is plentiful. Pride is a junkyard dog feeding on everything in
sight, including the blessings of God. If we are not careful even the
answers to prayer can make us think that we are something special when
in reality we are not.
Our next spiritual garment is Gentleness.
Things don’t always work out the way that we hoped that they would, and
the bottom drops out of our best-laid plans. Life has it’s
disappointments and that’s where gentleness comes in. When we don’t live
a life of gentleness we dishonor our King and His sacrifice by venting
our irritation as if God was not aware of our struggles, and let our
world spin out of control.
Someone can’t decide between a Quarter Pounder with cheese or a Big Mac
and we get huffy. The person in front of us doesn’t realize that the
light turned green and we lay on the horn. There are people who go
through every day living in anger because something has not worked out
the way they planned and they think life is unfair.
But we must realize that God has not only showered us with His love and
grace, but he made us this promise.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck
down, but not destroyed.
That brings us to the article of patience.
There are many words that could be used to describe us. "Patient" is not
one of them.
I miss Calvin and Hobbes. I remember one cartoon pictured Calvin’s
father sitting at a computer saying, "It used to be that if a client
wanted something done in a week it was considered a rush job, & he would
be lucky to get it. Now, with modems, faxes, & car phones everybody
wants everything instantly."
About that time Calvin walks by holding a microwave dinner, reading the
instructions. "It takes 6 minutes to microwave this," he says. Who’s got
that kind of time?"
It seems that the faster life becomes, the more impatient we are. But in
many ways the kind of patience that can help us get through our daily
frustrations of someone committing a 21 item in a 20 item express line
violation is a minor league compared to type of patience as Christians
we are called to wear.
Biblical patience has to do with long-term situations. God is well aware
of our time and what’s going on here. In the Bible God’s patience with
us is what gives His compassion the chance to save us. Over and again in
the Old and New Testaments we read that God is slow to anger and that
precisely this patient slowness is what keeps him from any snap
judgments. God’s ability to stick with us desperately flawed folks is
what mediates between wrath and grace.
Our final article that we need to put on is love.
We use the word "love" a lot, & I’m afraid that our use of it can be
rather confusing. For instance, I love Trista. For the last 10 years she
has been my companion, my encourager, my counselor, and my friend.
I also love Crockett Mississippi. It is the Spencer Home place and at
many times in my life a place of refuge.
But even though I used the same word "love" to describe my feelings
toward Trista and Crockett, you realize that I don’t love them in quite
the same way. Our word love is a catch-all for many different feelings.
"I love my Dog, I love cherry pie, I love my truck.
Since we use the same word to express all those different emotions, we
sometimes get confused.
We are told to put on love, but how do we do that? To me it seems to be
the perfect garment to end with. It just seems to encompass all of the
other garments.
Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience all hinge on the
amount of love we have in our hearts.
Do you want to see how love is acted out? Then look at 1 Corinthians 13:
4-8:
"Love is patient." That means that I don’t get into a hurry with you if
you don’t do things the way I would like for you to do them. I’ll wait &
I hope that you’ll wait for me in return.
"Love is kind." I wouldn’t say anything unkind to you because my King
wouldn’t say anything unkind about me. Therefore, I couldn’t be unkind.
I won’t envy you. I won’t boast about myself. I won’t become proud,
because I am more concerned about you than I am about myself.
"Love is not rude," means that I won’t crowd before you in line, & if we
get to the door at the same time, I’ll open it graciously & let you go
before me. It means that I am not self-seeking. It means that I am not
easily angered. I won’t throw temper tantrums any more. It means that I
won’t keep any record of wrongs. We must all tear up our lists & throw
them away & start anew with each other.
Love has to trust. God shows His continual trust in us because we are
His only plan to get the good news out. There is no plan B. There is no
other way. It is just us. And He trusts us to put on the right garments
so that His kingdom will be attractive to a world that so desperately
needs a little compassion, and kindness, and humility, and gentleness
and patience, and most of all love.
God is love and like the apostle, we can only exclaim, "I love God
because He first loved me."
Tonight is Jesus your King? Our text for the test tonight says that He
is the Best option we have.
Have you crowned Him king of your life by Putting Him on in Baptism? 1
Peter 3:21 says that baptism now saves you not the removal of dirt from
the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience.
And maybe you have asked him to be the King of your life but you realize
that you are not dressed any differently than the people you go to
school with. Well tonight is the night to make a change.
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