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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, friends. Welcome back to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week we are in part 3 of our fix your focus series and, this is a series based in Colossians chapter 3. Today, we really talk about what is it like to live the kind of life we're supposed to live as people who have been baptized, people who have pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ.
John:This is one of those things that's challenging. Everything that we're gonna talk about is not easy. It's easy to say, not easy to do, but we are called to be different. So hope again that this is challenging and helpful for you. So if we can do anything for you, let us know.
John:Have a great week. This week we start our 3rd week of, this study we have called, Fix Your Focus, primarily based out of Colossians 3. Hopefully it has been helpful to you, but I find in my own life, it's it's every day that I need to ask this question, Is my focus where it needs to be? Often, the answer is, I need to move a little bit. I need to change a little bit.
John:From Colossians 3, again verses 1-four 4 that we will read every week, Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Amen. This was written to the church, to church people, to people who had already been raised, they had already been baptized into the name of Jesus Christ.
John:They too needed a reminder, You have been raised with Him, so that means something for your life. Last week we continued here in verse 5, put to death, therefore, what belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. And we covered, like I said, covered this last week. One thing I wanna just mention, and I think I kinda mentioned it last week, but we have our pets' sins. Y'all know that?
John:I have been in either part time or full time ministry for a little over 11 years now, and I've never once had anyone come up and say, We need to talk more about greed. Now, sexual immorality? Sure. Homosexuality? Yeah.
John:We won't talk about But I want you to notice what Paul says here about greed. He names off all this list. He says, greed, which is what? Idolatry is, like, the most important thing to god. You understand that?
John:That as we went through you remember our series where we talked about some of us have grown up with this idea that that God is just hovering over the book of life eraser down, ready to take those names off. Boy, I can't wait till he messes up. It's almost time we see god. And what I told you in that series is you don't see that anywhere in scripture. People mess up all the time.
John:Have you read your Bible enough to know that? Yes. People mess up all the time, but the thing that God does not like is for you to choose another God over him. And that's what he says, greed is. I wanted to kind of push that point just a little bit more this week just because we can overlook it so easily.
John:In our culture, working hard or working a lot is seen as a virtue, isn't it? I had a buddy of mine who, runs his own business and he said, you know what I look for, if somebody comes in and they said they grew up on a farm, he said, I put them toward the top because they know how to work. There's nothing wrong with that. Right? But what I'm saying is that we can mask greed.
John:Now, we can't mask these other things, right, as well. But if I go out and I work hard to make a lot of money for my family, that that's that can be fine, but it can also be greed if we don't keep it in check. You understand? Is that yes. This virtue of working well, he works all the time.
John:What he might be doing is neglecting his family. What he might be doing is losing focus of the main thing and just focused on my you understand what I'm saying? And so I wanted to just re reiterate on that because Paul calls it here, he said, greed, which is not just something to gloss over, greed is idolatry. We have decided we are going to worship the money over worshiping the Creator. Worshipping the one who supplies all, you understand?
John:It is not a sin to have money, it is not a sin to work hard and earn things, right? But if we don't keep it in check, it can become idolatry. And Paul says here, Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. What I want to mention there, as I mentioned having pet sins, things we like to talk about versus things we don't, Jesus kind of talks about this in the Sermon on the Mount. You all remember this this, this thing here, where he talks about not judging.
John:Now, a lot of people like to throw this verse around. Do not judge. Don't judge me. Right? Which in their language most of the time says, don't say anything about what I'm doing.
John:Right? Don't tell me anything about what I'm doing, which is not what Jesus is saying here. Do not judge or you too will be judged. We understand that. We're Christians.
John:Right? We're going to be judged. We got to keep that in mind. He says, for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Now if you were all on board with judging somebody, this ought to say, hold up just a second.
John:With the same measure I'm using, I'm trying to dip this out with a bucket this size. Right? And he said, hold up. The same measure is gonna be used on you and that ought to make us go, hold up. Let me look at myself.
John:He says, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Jesus meant that as ridiculous as it sounds. Have you ever noticed that? That sometimes we are all on board with calling out the sin in your eye, which Jesus says might be a a a speck of sawdust. It might be legitimate.
John:It might be a a sin, but I'm all on board with calling out the speck of sawdust in your eye, and here I am with a plank sticking out of my head. Don't I should have brought a a board today. Tammy, I'm not gonna mess this up. But Jesus meant this in a ridiculous way. This is how you look.
John:Can you imagine? Laura, let me tell you about your sin. This sawdust and what would you do had you had a plank sticking out of your head? To focus, you have to move in the right way, right? Let me I promise, let me touch your eyeballs, Laura.
John:Let me touch. Jesus meant it in exactly the way he said it. That sometimes we walk around with the biggest sins that are glaring to everyone and we're walking around trying to do eye surgery on folks, trying to pull out the sawdust. And that's what we do when we come to a list like this, and Paul is the worst, because he lists these things and you think, you know, that's not me. And then he says, and things such as these, and he's like, He covered them all, didn't he?
John:But don't gloss over any of these things. All of these things are equally as important. I think sometimes we come to them and think, well, I don't struggle with that. Let's call this out. Right?
John:And Jesus said, you better watch out with the way you judge. Why are you trying to pick out sawdust when you've got a board sticking out of your head? And we just need to remember that, don't we? Both things need to be taken care of, the sawdust and the plank. But don't be walking around with that plank trying to fix everybody else's issue when all you needed to do was look in the mirror and go, oh.
John:Evan likes to I'm going to pick on my son just a minute, he's going I don't want him to hate sermons, but Evan likes to play video games and so he wears, his headset. I don't know if you know this, but a headset creates an interesting pattern in one's hair. A lot of times he'll try to walk out of the house and we'll say, hold on, just a minute. You need to fix that. Right?
John:And all it takes is for us to look in the mirror and go, oh, yeah. It needs to be fixed. But often what we do is we're so focused and fixated on the wrong thing, which is trying to fix other people that we haven't even addressed what's going on in here, in my own heart and my own head. Right? He just finishes, and he says, How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take that speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?' You know, Laura didn't stick her eyeball out to me to try and grab, did she?
John:That would have been a horrible idea. Jesus says, You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then, and then, once you do that, once you deal with this, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. It allows you to focus. It allows you to see and to see better to do what needs to be done. And that is for all of us to encourage one another to do the right thing, is it not?
John:But we need to deal with what's in here first. Back in Colossians 3 verse 7, you used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived, again, coming out of that list he just made, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of the Creator. So what he's saying here is, you don't live this way. This should not be your identity.
John:You're in class this morning, talks about repentance and and bearing fruit from that. You need to bear fruit since you have been raised, right? That first verse that we read. Since you have been raised, you don't live a life that looks like this. This is not the Christian way.
John:This is not the focus on Jesus. If your life is full of this, the focus is elsewhere, not on Christ. 1 Corinthians 111, which we mentioned last week, Paul says, Follow my examples as I follow or as I follow the example of Christ. And what I mentioned just quickly is, sometimes what we can do is we can fill in the perfect example of Jesus with, you know, our our friends, the people that we maybe even look up to in the Christian faith, which is good in some ways, but if we don't run it through the filter of who Jesus is and what he calls us to do, we can be following something imperfect. I've heard church people say, well, if if so and so was wrong, I don't know how anybody can be saved.
John:Right? We hold some people that we we love. We love dearly. Right? To to a standard, I think that's the way I want to live, and I don't want to take that that view away from you.
John:But all I'm saying is, when you look at anybody else, even Paul, we run that through the filter of, is this what Jesus called me to be? Is this who I'm supposed to be in Christ? Do you understand? We're going to continue on in Colossians starting in verse 12. He said, therefore, now, I've said this before, you probably heard it before, every time you see a therefore, you ask what?
John:What's it therefore? So he's just said all of this stuff. Don't live this way. This is also this is kind of another, since you have been raised moment. Again, reminder, you're Christians.
John:I'm talking to church people. Since you have been raised as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness and humility, gentleness, and patience. Does that describe you this morning? I got some I don't wanna talk about it. Right?
John:And that's okay. I I think what's not okay is for us to ignore if it actually does describe us, oh, I'm fine. And then you go out and yell at your wife here in just a minute, right? I think it's okay to say, I'm not there, but you understand you need to be. Don't harden your heart so that this is the way you live and you're calling yourself a Christian, and you're telling all your friends, Yeah, I'm a Christian, I go to church, but I live this way.
John:You are God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, he says. And because of that, you live this way, clothe yourself. That's what needs to cover you. Cover yourself with compassion. You need to be exuding compassion.
John:That's hard in certain things. We we talk about it like they pushed my buttons. I don't know what that physically looks like, but I know how it feels. Don't you? They pushed my buttons.
John:We're supposed to have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Does that sound like flying off the handle? We joke about, you know, when you are hangry, I just hadn't eaten in the law, blood sugar is going down. And sometimes that's our trigger, hell. If that is your trigger, you need to apologize to whoever you went off on.
John:But but just to remind yourself, take a breath. You know, just because your waitress didn't fill your tea at the right time doesn't mean you need to throw something. Right? It doesn't mean you need to, I am not tipping her. No.
John:We judge with the way we want to be judged. We have compassion because we are people raised with Christ. We have kindness because we are raised with Christ. All of these things because we are raised with Christ. He says, bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.
John:Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And we grit our teeth and go, I'll never do it. Right? They hurt me too bad. They stepped on my toe too bad.
John:I don't like what they said, how they said it. But what he does here is he he couches this in forgive as the lord forgave you. How many of you have needed and do need the lord's forgiveness? Raise your hand, please. Yeah.
John:And you know all about that. You know all the intricate details. That's not something you're hiding from yourself. Right? You know how much you needed the lord's forgiveness.
John:He said, because God forgave you, you forgive in the same way, and that's a challenge, isn't it? Especially if somebody doesn't ask for forgiveness or apologize for what they did. Oh. But he said, That's the way you live because you have been raised with Christ. It doesn't have anything to do with them.
John:You see, because you have been raised since you have been raised, this is how you live. That's a hard lesson to learn. I'll be honest with you, I've had to learn it the hard way. Because when people don't apologize to you and you know they know, but forgive as the Lord forgave you. That's a good reminder for us every single day.
John:You live this way. Verse 14, and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. If you ask how in the world can I forgive them? How in the world can I live this way? Love.
John:That's why. That's how. Because I'm gonna allow, again, looking to Jesus and the way he loved me, the way he forgave me, the grace and mercy he has poured out on me, and I'm gonna remember that and say, that's how I need to act. That's the way I can forgive, as I have more love than hate in my body. I shared a status on Facebook this week from a preacher.
John:He talked about the way that we show our love for God is our love for neighbor, and the way that we show we love our neighbor is to love our enemy, and we go, That's what Jesus calls us to do. That I love you enough that I don't wanna send you anywhere in my mind. I don't wanna judge you in that way, man. I hope they go to that I love just as Jesus loved. Jesus would come remember, the story of Jesus is coming to a people who reject Him.
John:You think he was all excited about that? Yeah, I want to go die for these people, to be crucified in the worst manner possible. But His love outweighed all of that. Our love needs to outweigh all the stumbling blocks that we have to all of these things. It says, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
John:If you do not have love, Paul says, you are nothing. You are like a clanging cymbal just making noise Because it doesn't mean anything. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart since as members of 1 body, you were called to peace. You understand that? You were called to peace.
John:Sometimes, I believe that Christians think they are called to war. That we we kinda get on the disciples because they didn't understand that Jesus didn't come for a earthly kingdom where they were gonna raise up an army and go after it and run the Romans out of there. Sometimes, I still think we've still missed it and that we're ready to go to war at a moment's notice. Right? Sharpening our axes.
John:And Paul says, you were called to peace. How do you have peace? You love. Is somebody gonna say say something you don't agree with? You know they will.
John:You watch the news, you talk to somebody, you war. A good test is gonna be our election this year because you will start seeing posts from people on social media that you go, Oh, no. I wish you wouldn't have said that because I go to church with you. And everything we do, whether it's something as simple as posting a Facebook status, should be run through the filter of, is this what Jesus would have me do? Is this the fruit that's supposed to be shown in my life?
John:Is this what I'm showing bringing people to Christ? And what we often do, I think, is we run it through the filter of, will they like this? How many likes will I get on this? How many comments? How many people will it show that, oh man, I'm popular?
John:Instead of, is this the way I should be living my life? We are called to peace, And he says, be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom. Notice that. We teach, we admonish, don't we?
John:We encourage, we try to help. Right? But we should do that with all wisdom. Again, not the plank sticking out of our face as we do it, but we're working on ourselves as well. And he says, with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit.
John:There's a as we come together and we sing these songs. How many of you just love to sing? I I do. You know, I've told you that. I guess, morning, I'm I'm gonna be singing all day.
John:I'm just gonna tell you. But we do this with wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the spirit. Singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. He says, whatever you do, whatever you do, notice this, that catches it all, doesn't it? Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of lord Jesus, giving thanks to god the father through him.
John:Amen? That covers it all. There's no need for us to live one life in this building as we come together for an hour or 2 a week, and and a different life as we go to work or go home or sit in the car in just a minute. But we are called because we have been raised to a life that shows other people who Jesus wants us to be. That's not always easy, is it?
John:I know what I'm saying and what Paul is saying here. It can be very difficult, especially if we allow ourselves to kind of get down further off the trail, Remember the forgiveness he gave, and you live your life this way. Ephesians 4 says just a little bit more about it. As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. That says it in a little bit way a different way to me.
John:Worthy of the calling You have been raised, talking again to Christians, you have been called, you're sitting here a baptized person this morning. This is you. Live a life worthy. Don't blow it. Don't say I'm a Christian and just live a completely different life.
John:Live a life that's worthy of this. He says, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Boy, doesn't that just make you mad right there? What do you mean completely humble and gentle and patient and bearing with one another? Well, I don't like that word either, do you?
John:It's like perseverance. Like I say, you don't persevere through the good times, bearing with one another, because guess what? You have disagreements. If you are a married person this morning, you may have lived with your spouse for a long time. But guess what?
John:You don't all think the same, do you? Now, you may be living a a a life that, you know, when your wife says something you don't agree with, you just correct her and that's it. And I say, you're wrong on that. But we all think differently. We all have different understandings, right?
John:But we are called to bear with one another with love. I don't know if you know this, but we live in the Burger King Society, don't we? If I don't get what I want right here, I'm going to take myself somewhere else. Right? That's as true in the fast food line as it is in the churches.
John:The only difference is, just depending on where you live, when I went to college at Harding, they said the difference they saw in the churches down south is one of the kids I remember was from up, I think, Northeast. And they said the the closest next church to them was, like, an hour away. So if they got mad, they really had to think about it. Do it really is it really that important? Whereas, we're blessed to live in the places we are, Now, sometimes there's a good reason for that, or we have bore with one another long enough to know, okay, this is not healthy.
John:Don't get me wrong to say, it's never okay to move. But sometimes we are pretty flippant about it, aren't we? I'm just mad. I want to go somewhere else. And what that leads to is us, the Church, never showing these things.
John:We can't show patience if we are not here to show it. We can't bear with one another if we are gone at the drop of a hat. You understand what I am saying? I I was probably pretty hard headed when I left my last church. I had, what finally took me leaving was some of my very close friends saying, you need to get out of here before you're left holding the bag.
John:So I'm hard headed. I think we ought to work things out. You know what I'm saying? I think we ought to, as Christians, be mature people who can do this. But sometimes in some circumstances, you finally understand this is not going to work.
John:But let's not be flippant about our love for each other. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. You see how that's just keeping that going. Make every effort. You say you love the people around you.
John:Show it. Right? Be there for them. Don't run. Sit here and be here and love one another.
John:Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called 1 Lord, 1 faith, 1 baptism. Since you have been raised, would you stand with me as we read our scripture today? From Hebrews 1212. Read with me, please.
John:Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of god. We've got an invitation song picked out. We'd love to pray with you. We'd love to encourage you.
John:We'd love to see you begin that walk with Jesus this morning. If you have any need, you can come as we sing our song.