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A Sharp Dressed Man
Colossians 3: 5-14
I wanted to start today by telling you a story, but I have to warn you
that I originally heard it from a preacher, so I cannot verify its
truthfulness. It’s a story about an incident that happened at a Cadillac
Dealership in Tennessee. A man appeared on the car lot back in 1956
wearing an old hunting cap, a dirty pair of overalls, and muddy boots.
He meandered around the lot for almost 30 minutes with no one offering
to help him. The manager of the Car lot asked the newest employee to go
and see he could get him to leave. It wasn’t good for business to have
unsavory characters out there with potential customers. The new sales
man obliged and went out to meet the man.
The man in the overalls greeted the sales man with some questions about
some of the cars, and the standard equipment on the vehicles. The
salesman was rather short with his answers, trying to be polite but also
trying to let the man know that he wasn’t really interested in wasting
his time. After about five minutes, the man in the overalls asked the
salesman if they would accept cash for the cars or did they need a
check. Trying not to laugh the sales man said either would be fine. So
the man in the overalls said I would like to buy this car, in every
color, and I’ll pay cash. And with that, he pulled a roll of $100.00
Bills out of his coat pocket.
The man in the hunting cap, dirty pair of overalls, and muddy boots was
none other than Elvis Presley.
Now I am sure that you have heard the old adage that “the clothes make
the man.” And to a point, I believe that’s true. If you see someone who
is wearing ragged and dirty clothes their hair is unkempt and dirty, you
generally make some assumptions about them. But if you see someone in a
Brooks Brothers Suit, the assumption is usually not the same.
I would like to know what some of you are thinking about my clothing
choice for today?
“This casual dress for worship has gotten out of hand.”
“Give a preacher some time out of the pulpit and this is how he thanks
us.”
“Maybe he got to much sun, down there in South Alabama.”
I needed to dress like this today to get your attention. You see we are
called to be the bride of Christ, and when I think of a bride, my mind
goes to my beautiful bride. Almost 11 years ago, I stood in a church
building with my back to the door while Trista made her way into the
auditorium. As I turned around my eyes caught the most beautiful woman I
had ever seen. She was perfect in every way.
In our passage today, Paul discusses the dress of the Bride of Christ,
but he is not going to talk about physical clothing, Instead he
addresses how we really look to the world around us. You see in the
church we usually look at the list found here in Colossians 3:5-14, and
the similar ones found in Revelation 21 and Galatians 5 and use them as
a check list. Open your bibles with me to the book of Colossians and let
me show you what I mean.
Read text, Colossians 3:5-10.
There is our check list:
Sexual sin – Nope
Perversion – Nope
Lust – Nope
Greed – Nope
And we stand there looking at that list feeling like we are dressed like
a prince, while we really look like a pauper. But Paul doesn’t leave us
there he goes even further:
Anger – Only justified anger, that’s spiritual right.
Hot tempers – Well it’s not as bad as it once was and any growth is
spiritual growth
Cursing – Haven’t said my favorite word in months
Obscene language – Who is to say what is Obscene and what’s not.
And don't lie to each other – I don’t lie especially to my brethren.
Well maybe just little ones like when they ask me how I am and I say
fine when really I’m not but they don’t want to hear about my problems
so I am really doing it for them.
So maybe after looking at that part of the list we see that there may be
some fuzz on the jacket and a wrinkle in the shirt, but then the Holy
Spirit sees fit for Paul to write one more thing found in 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.
Did Paul just say a new person? Well that’s kind of tough. Honestly,
have you really become a new person? Are we really that different from
world?
You see those are the questions that we have to ask ourselves if we want
to get an honest look at how we present the bride of Christ. I can be
deceived into thinking that I am dressed to the nines when all then
while my actions have made the church a laughing stock.
Church I really believe that if New Hope is going to be the Church that
God desires for this community then most of us have got to change our
clothes. We have got to take off the rags that the world offers us and
be dressed in the robes of the believers. We must be individually
dressed like men and women who have been chosen by God.
Let’s pick back up where we left off in our text and start reading again
in verse 11 about the attire of a sharp dressed man or woman. (Read
Text)
Paul says that we have got to learn how to put on Compassion.
Compassion does something. We can’t be compassionate and just sit there
and look at the plight of others. Compassion causes us to show others
the love that then need so badly, and the one 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."
Ian’s father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys
had done. He said simply, "It’s hard to put words to."
"Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of
Christ.” - Galatians 6:2.
Next we must wear 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 God saved you, He began to change you. You no longer want to live
like those people who don’t know God. Church, 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. You see it doesn’t
matter if we have $5.00 in our checking account or $5 million dollars in
our checking account 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 ponder 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 article of spiritual clothing found
among God’s people. Pride however 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.
I love how the Phillips translation has translated gentleness, it’s “The
grace to accept life.”
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 its
disappointments and that’s where gentleness comes in. When we don’t live
a life of gentleness we dishonor Jesus and His sacrifice by venting our
irritation as if God was not aware of our struggles, and let our world
spin out of control.
We buy a new car, it has some defects, and we are ready to go into a
tirade. Children don’t act like little adults and we loose our cool. 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 two promises.
1) We Will Struggle
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are
God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God
and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order
that we may also share in his glory.
2) We will endure
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. That is what
Peter told his readers in 2 Peter 3. Already late in the first century
Christians were becoming impatient with the fact that Jesus had not yet
returned. They started to ask, "What in the world is God waiting for? We
didn't think Jesus would take this long!" So in this his last letter
Peter reminds us that God's time is not our time.
God is well aware of our time and what's going on here. But he has a
purpose for letting the time pass. 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 12 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 lime aides, I love my truck, and I love
this church.
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 that we have discussed
today. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience all hinge
on the amount of love we have in our hearts.
Do you want to see the garment of love acted out? Then look at 1
Corinthians 13: 4-8. The Holy Spirit is leading Paul to say, "This is
how love acts. This is how it behaves."
"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’ll wait for things to change. I’ll wait for those edges to be knocked
off, & I hope that you’ll wait for me in return.
"Love is kind." I wouldn’t say anything unkind to you because you are
the object of my love, & the important part of my love is to make sure
that you feel loved. 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 Him
because He first loved me."
For this sermon I went to the local Thrift Store and bought brown
polyester pants, a navy blue leisure suit jacket, a hot pink button down
shirt, a fish tie, and I wore a flip flop on my left foot, and an old
combat boot on the right foot. The visual had the churches attention
from the get go.
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