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Dear God, thank you for today and thank you again for this opportunity to just come here and learn more about you, like we always can do here. And I pray that we just in the season of Christmas, that we would just still focus on you and your gift that you’ve given us. And thank you for all that you’ve done. Your name, I pray.

Amen.

I’m thankful to be with you today. This is my first time at Agape Christian and I am thrilled to see the school that God is working in. Chris has been a friend for many years and I’m so thankful for the invitation to speak to you this morning. I’d ask you to turn in the Bible to Colossians. Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae. We’re going to look at Colossians chapter three. But I’m going to point to a few other places in the letter. Paul wrote the letter to this church and it’s helpful to remember who Paul was. He was, for the first probably 30 plus years of his life. Anti Christian, at least what he came to know about Jesus, who claimed to be the Messiah. He hated him. He wanted to do away with his followers.

Paul on the road to Damascus was converted. And about three decades after his conversion, he wrote this letter from prison where he was for his Christian faith. He wrote this letter in order to coach this young church along in maturity. I would say that maturity is the central theme of the letter to the Colossians. And in the middle of the letter he writes this Colossians 3:1. I’m going to read through verse 11, Colossians 3:1.

If you then have been raised with.

The Messiah, then seek the things that.

Are above, where Christ the Messiah, is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are.

Above, not on things that are on the earth.

For you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, or when the Messiah who is your life, appears, then you also.

Will appear with him in glory. Put to death. Therefore what is earthly in you? He’s talking about the things that pertain.

To your old life when you weren’t united with the Messiah.

Things like sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming.

And in these two you once walked.

When you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. And then he lists other types of sins. He had listed sexual immorality and now he focuses on sinful speech. He says, put these sorts of things away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, an obscene talk from your mouth. Obscene refers to things that are foul and things that are hurtful and harmful. He says, don’t lie to one another.

Seeing that you’ve put off the old self with its practices, it’s all of its behaviors. And seeing that you’ve put on the new self, which is being renewed in.

Knowledge after the image of its creator. That’s the word of the Lord through the apostle Paul. I want you to notice there in verse 10.

The Christian life involves being renewed in knowledge after the image, or we’d say the likeness, the mirror image of its Creator.

Here’s what maturity is as a Christian.

It’s growing. In increasing likeness to Jesus. That likeness is not a physical likeness. It’s not like over time you come.

To have like muscle structure and bone structure like Jesus, or that you come to have his eye color and hair color.

It’s not a physical likeness. It’s a character likeness. Maturity involves a character likeness to Jesus so that you come to reflect you image, you mirror your Creator in how you live.

That’s what were originally created to be. We were originally created to be mirrors.

Mirrors who reflect in how we live and in how we love. Our Maker. And Jesus is working in every Christian renewal.

I want to share an illustration with you. I’m going to start the message with it. I’m going to end the message with it. For a few decades, my wife and I have enjoyed the cello music of Sharon Gerber. You can check out her stuff on YouTube. I had the privilege of brushing shoulders with Sharon for several years when I was in grad school. She covers the popular song River Flows in youn one of her albums called into the Night. And I want to tell the story of Sharon’s cello. Sharon’s dad was a well known scientist, published author, and one time he went to New York City in search of a cello for himself. Sharon says that a lady had brought.

It to the store, having found it.

Among her deceased grandfather’s belongings. As soon as her father, his name was George. As soon as George saw this cello sitting in this basically secondhand music store, he bought it. He played on it as long as the Lord gave him life. He was a good cellist. George died when Sharon, his daughter, was 13. She had taken lessons from her dad for four years. A few years later, when she was in ninth grade, Sharon asked her mom, could I play Dad’s cello? There’s an upcoming school concert. And her mother said, you can. She says, I heard that familiar sound coming out of that particular instrument and I felt the comforting tones resonating through my entire being. She said, I suddenly realized with both sadness and awe that I was bringing my dad’s voice back. She said that she and the cello became fast friends.

Her dad, a scientist, had named the cello Murgatroyd and she shortened it to Murg M U r G. I don’t know what a Hornsteiner cello is, but that’s what merg is, a Hornsteiner cello. It was constructed in the Bavarian Alps around 200 years ago. Sharon is now a professional cellist. She has played merg all over the Americas, all over Europe. And at one point she met another professional cellist in Berlin who owns a half million dollar cello. And he told Sharon, I will pay you whatever you ask for. Merg, she said, I’m sorry I can’t sell is simply priceless in its sentimental value. Now, about 15 years ago, Sharon describes what happened. She says, I was in a wild hurry trying to get to school on time to teach a lesson.

I put the cello behind my minivan and then went back inside to get the keys. I backed out and felt a bump and heard a screeching sound like something was dragging on the pavement. To my horror, I had backed over Merc. I was too scared to look. I was frantic. I ran inside. I called my mom. Her gracious response on the other end of the phone was it’s only a cello. Be thankful it wasn’t a person, she says. I think my mom quoted a Bible.

Verse about being strong and told me.

To get back in my van, get the cello, bring it inside and go teach my lesson and move on with your day. Does that, like, bother you? A priceless cello. Ruined, backed over by a minivan.

Do you see in that?

A powerful illustration of you?

That’s why Paul uses a word like renewed in Colossians 3:10. Because you’re a priceless mirror of your creator and you’re broken, you’re damaged, and you need to be renewed.

What a powerful illustration of what every priceless human being needs. We need to be restored, to be renewed. I want to step back and just before I dig further into the two sections of Colossians 3 that we read.

I just want to speak to those.

In this room who are not Christians. I, for a few years, went to Christian school. I know what it’s like going to Christian school. You are probably being encouraged, maybe even forced by your parents to do Christian things. You go to church, you go to school. You aren’t allowed to do this. You must do this, these sorts of things. And I want to say I understand what it’s like to grow up in that. I didn’t always appreciate it. I did not always like it. Let me share the gospel with you.

You’re made by God, you exist by God, and through.

All you have to do is touch your thumb together with your pinky and.

Go study whether the apes can do.

That and realize that is built.

Into your genetic information. And genetic information doesn’t evolve. You’re made. And you’re going to give an account to your maker for how you imaged him, mirrored him throughout your life. And you do not want to give an account to your maker on your own. Because I guarantee you, if you deal with just the two issues that Paul.

Deals with in Colossians 3, verses 1.

Through 10, that’s sexuality and speech. You do not want to stand before God and give an account for how you mirrored him with not selfishly using your words or your sexual capacity, but always using it in line with what he created it. Are you ready to give an account to your maker for how well you imaged his loving nature, his other minded, unselfish nature, in just these two simple.

Areas of your life. I’m not. You’re not.

When we stand before our maker and.

Give an account for how we use.

The life he gave us, we’re going.

To have basically one plea and Our plea is going to be guilty. I have not used myself, my body, my mouth, for what you gave it.

To me. For what I exist.

I haven’t used it to mirror you. So how are you going to stand before God? The Scriptures say there is one way.

And it is through the one mediator.

That God has provided. It’s described. If you just turn back to chapter.

One and look at verses 21, 22 and 23, he says to the church at Colossae, you who once were alienated or distant from God, and who, apostle in mind, you were doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. In order to present you holy and blameless and.

Above reproach before him.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel. That describes everyone who’s turned to Jesus. We used to be distant from God and evil in our deeds, but by the death of Jesus, his physical death on the cross, the shedding of his blood for our sins, we have been reconciled to God. If you’ve taken refuge in Jesus, if you put your hope in Jesus, you’ve relied on Jesus as your only hope before God, then you’ve been reconciled. And through the death of Jesus, through your union with Jesus, the Scripture says there in verse 22, you are going to be presented before God, holy and blameless. That’s the gospel. Don’t turn from your hope in the gospel.

I’m calling you, who are not Christians yet, to put your hope in Jesus, to call on Jesus to be your savior, to admit your evil deeds, your selfish bent that comes out in your words and in your body and say, I am sorry. Forgive me, Jesus, I want you. Cleanse me. Be my Savior and Lord, I put my hope in you. I want to follow you.

I commit my life to you.

Turn to the Lord and you’ll be reconciled to God. Paul says that’s what the people in the church here used to be like.

And the cross has changed them.

The gospel has changed them. Reconciled to God, cleared their record of evil, given them a record of blamelessness through union with Jesus. And the passage we’re looking at now.

In Colossians 3 is saying, basically, how.

Then should we live? What does life for those who’ve been saved, united with Jesus? What does it look like? And I want to focus on two big points. I’m going to talk about habits. The first, in verses one through four of chapter three, the first big idea. Is should pursue new habits of thinking.

You should pursue new Habits of thinking. And this is especially new, habits of.

How you think about yourself. Notice that in verses one through four, Paul says, you’ve been. Raised with Christ. You’ve been seated with Christ. You died with Christ. You’re hidden with Christ. And when Christ appears, you’re going to appear with him.

Look at all that language of with, with, with.

If you have turned from your sin and called on the Messiah to be your Savior, saying, cleanse me from my.

Sin.

Paul teaches that sin.

Something spiritual has happened to you.

You are not just a body, you are an embodied spirit. And your spirit, that part of you that is you, has been united with Jesus. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around it. And so Paul and Jesus and other New Testament writers use all kinds of illustrations to say, it’s like stones in a boat building. It’s like. It’s like branches in a vine. It’s like a husband and a wife. There’s union between you and your Lord. There’s inseparable union.

You’ve been united with his death so.

That you’ve died to the person you used to be. You’ve been united with his life, raised to walk a new kind of life. A life under Jesus authority. You are right now inseparably united with Jesus. And when he appears, it is going to be physically obvious that you, a follower of Jesus, are in eternal, inseparable union with Jesus.

Is that how you think about yourself?

Paul says you need to develop habits of thinking rightly about yourself, that you’re.

United with Jesus and it should affect every area of your life. Notice his words there.

In chapter three, he says things like, seek the things that are above.

Verse 2.

Set your minds on things that are above. He’s talking about a habitual thinking. So let me just give three practical.

Recommendations for all of you.

If you’re a Christian, how do you set your mind on reality, on your union with Christ? That you have been inseparably, spiritually, vitally united with Jesus, and that is going to persist as your identity for the rest of eternity.

How do you set your mind on that? Number one, go to church.

Every week.

Go to church, because church is going to be where you sing about Jesus and you read about Jesus and you’re taught about Jesus and you’re reminded of Jesus when you witness baptisms and when you eat the Lord’s Supper. Commit yourself to a church and commit yourself to church attendance.

Now I’m talking to Christian school kids. You probably right now don’t have too.

Much of an option of going to church one day you will. And I tell my kids all the time while you’re in my home, you’re going to go with us to church. But you’re going to have a decision that you make when you get older. And I pray that you make a decision to follow in the footsteps of your parents and to follow our example. But that’s going to be your choice. You guys are going to have to determine at some point. Is Jesus the Messiah? Is he your only hope for being right with God? Are you united with him? Do you need to be reminded of that on a regular basis? Do you need to be continually throughout your whole life instructed about what it means to glorify Jesus and live for Jesus?

I pray that all of you will.

Commit your life to Jesus and will commit your self to his church and you will commit yourself to regularly setting your mind on things above. The second thing I’d say is pray every day the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a habit that I try to live in and have tried to live in for years. For me, the first 20 minutes of my day are a playlist where one song reminds me of Our Father in heaven and the next song I pray, hallowed be your name. And the next song your kingdom come and the next song your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And the next song, give us this day our daily bread. And the next song forgive me my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. And the final song is protect me from the evil one.

I want every day to be living in this mindset that I exist in.

Glorify God that Jesus is coming again, that I am desperately needy for every one of my biggest needs.

I’m desperately needy before God. Keep yourself in that mindset. Another thing I would recommend this is the third recommendation for how you pursue new habits of thinking. Don’t just gather with the church on the first day of the week. Don’t just pray the Lord’s Prayer every day. But I would say gather.

Create a playlist about union with Jesus.

And memorize the songs. Create a playlist of songs that glory.

In union with Jesus.

Maybe in Christ Alone or the newer song by City of Light, yet not I but through Christ in me or before the throne of God above or one of my favorite historians I am his and he is mine by the cross of Calvary I am his and he is mine. His forever only his who the Lord and ye shall part.

Get your mind into habits of thinking about reality.

That’s verses One through four. Second, pursue new habits of living. I’m sorry, verses one through four was pursue new habits of thinking. Verses five through ten. I think I said one through four. Again, verses five through ten is pursue new habits of living. And Paul is especially focused on sexuality and speech. He says in verse five, basically, stop using your mind and body in immoral ways, giving yourself to immoral thoughts and immoral activities.

He describes basically wartime mentality using the.

Language of put to death the things that are in you. Of course, he’s not talking about doing.

Any kind of physical violence to yourself. He’s talking in gruesome terms about stopping your desires and your activities, starving your desires and activities, not allowing them to live. Zero tolerance for sexual immorality. Of course, according to Paul and the.

Rest of the Bible, cover to cover.

Sex is God given and it should be held in high honor.

This is the language of Hebrews 13.

The marriage bed should be held in high honor. Anything outside of sex between a husband.

And wife is immoral.

What is inside of God’s created boundary is to be held in high honor. What is outside of it. Paul says, zero tolerance in your desires, in your activities. Zero tolerance.

And then he moves on to speech.

And he says, zero tolerance for slander. Teens, let me tell you, at a young age, as you are growing, you guys are not in your 20s yet. You’re in your teens. As you are getting older, take very seriously the issue of slander. That is, speaking words about another person, whether they’re true or false, with the.

Intent of damaging them.

Zero tolerance. Paul says, if you’ve been united with Christ, it should come out in your speech because God’s wanting your speech, your loving speech about other people, to mirror what your Creator’s like. That’s why you exist. That’s why you have a mouth. You have a mouth to praise God and to bless others. Don’t be hypocritical like James says, and.

Praise God on Sundays. And then Sunday afternoon, tear down your little brother or sister.

Your mouths exist for God and you’re gonna give an account for every word Paul says.

Have zero tolerance for slander in your life. I want to end with three. More practical applications of how you live with these new habits and sexuality and speech. And then I’m gonna share the end of the story about Merck. First application is this. Every time you recognize sin, whether it’s in your sexual desire activity or in your speech. Repentance to God and repent to those you sin against. If you have torn down your little sibling with your words, go to them and say, I’m sorry I didn’t use the mouth God gave me to love you. Please forgive me. You might think that’s hilarious to actually do something like that in your home. No, it’s not. That’s Christianly. It’S good. Grow in this kind of maturity every time God convicts you of sin. Repent to God and as necessary to the people you sin against.

Second, I would say react to every input of media. Our culture, and particularly your age demographic is apparently, if statistics are true, in front of screens for multiple hours a day. And I would just say if that’s the case, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing if that’s the.

Case right now, train yourself not to be a passive listener or watcher, but to be an engaged listener or watcher. Every time you see someone slander someone else or use obscene talk for every time you see a couple making out who’s not married, say, that’s opposed to what God designed. That kind of language is not what God intended. Be an active reactor. Obviously you want to watch good stuff, but even if you pick great stuff, there’s going to be peppered all throughout it objectionable elements. And you need to say, that’s wrong. I love what’s right. I want to have a mind that is shaped by what God loves and what God hates.

Be an active watcher. React to every wrong input from media. And lastly, I’d say pursue a few true Christian friends.

Proverbs says that true friends sharpen each.

Other, that true friends are there for you in hard times, and that true friends give you faithful wounds when you need it. Pursue in this school, true Christian friends. If you don’t have anyone that you.

Can talk with who helps you fight.

Your sin. Anyone in your life who will love you enough if you tell them, here’s what I said to my. My sister, or here’s what I did with my girlfriend. If you don’t have someone who will say, stop it. Don’T do it again, repent.

If you don’t have someone in your.

Life like that, you need to pursue a biblical friend. The way it’s been put is the Proverbs doesn’t look at friends is just icing on the cake of life. Proverbs says if you don’t get good friends, you’ll ruin your life. Every one of us needs a good friend.

So how do you develop habits? Pursue habits of right living.

I’m saying repent.

React to input.

Pursue good friends. These are just Some very basic, on the surface, applications for pursuing healthy habits of life. Well, I want to conclude by returning to the story of Murg.

In the days after she broke her.

Instrument, Sharon took her broken cello to a man named Mike Weems. She says he’s an amazingly patient and skilled luteer. She says she took the splintered cello to him and he began a restoration process that lasted months.

She said after many long months of.

Restoration and a few more months of breaking it back in, I began to use Murg again in performance. To my surprise and delight, she says, his voice gradually came back and it was even richer and sweeter than before. She said I had performed with a conductor who knew the sound of my cello well. And he said at our first performance back in his orchestra, he called me afterward and said that he was amazed at the sweetness and the fullness in me. Merged sound. Sharon then stopped and reflected. I’m quoting her. She says, it was then that I realized the deeper spiritual truth that God was trying to teach me. She says I was broken and crushed by the weight of grief and hurt and my own wrong responses in life.

And yet I know God, the Master Lutier, who was waiting and wanting to restore me. I knew he wanted my life to sing with the fullness of his beauty and love. But she said I would have to give myself completely to his restoration. I would have to let him take.

Me apart completely, piece by piece, habit.

By habit, and put me back together the way he wanted me.

Me.

And he would have to strengthen every joint with the Holy Spirit. And I knew that it was a process that would take years and it.

Would take even more crushing.

But she says, I’ve learned that the eternally patient, infinitely skilled Master Lutier is doing a beautiful restoration on my own life. If you’re a human, then you’re a priceless instrument made by God. And for God. You’Re broken, damaged, and you need to be renewed. If you’re not a Christian, call on the Messiah to save you. He’s your only hope for being reconciled. Reconciled to God. He died so that your sins could be forgiven. Take refuge in him. And if you are a Christian, then don’t resist change. Don’t resist change, especially as it addresses.

Your sexual capacity and your speech capacity. These are ways that we so often use for ourselves. We live in the earthly, the old way, and we’re selfish.

Let God restore you piece by piece.

Welcome change day by day and year by year, thought by thought, action by action.

Because God wants Christ to be seen in your life.

God I pray. That the gospel would work change in our hearts and lives. For Jesus glory and our good, our eternal good, I pray.

Amen.

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