weekly sermon
10-28-07
Putting It On!!
Last week I spoke about a pastor that preaches on how we should live our lives
and how we stay away from not living the correct way. He speaks of a happy way
of life and how we should treat each other.
This week I want to talk a little on how the Bible says we are to act. Turn with
me if you will to Colossians 3:12-17.
"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; (13)Forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even
as Christ forgave you, so also [do] ye. (14)And above all these things [put on]
charity, which is the bond of perfectness. (15)And let the peace of God rule in
your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
(16)Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17)And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do]
all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."
We see many things from these few verses. "Put on therefore, as the elect of
God". Who are the elect of God? These would be any folks that are chosen by God,
no matter the classes, races, colors, sexes. The types of people in Christ, make
up the elect. This is not talking about the Jewish people that are the chosen of
God, but any people or nation that is in Christ, is the elect of God. If you put
on being the elect of God, then you MUST act as though you are the elect
of God. This means being the holy and beloved as it says. Here we see the word
"holy" in verse 12. This word "holy" is the Greek word "Hagios" which means
"Saint". This tells me that we should act as a saint of God. The next thing we
see is the word "beloved". The Greek word for "beloved" here is "Agapao",
meaning "beloved of God". This is what we are when we become the elect of God.
The word bowels here, means the center, so we are to be the center of mercies.
This is giving or showing kindness to enemies. We see kindness is the next word.
Do we really want to be kind? If you can be nice to someone who hates you, that
is the type of kindness that God is talking about here. Many folks that become
the elect of something know that with being the elect comes power. And when
folks get power, they also get a big head, and God must have known this would
happen so he put in the next few words, "humbleness of mind". This tells us,
don't be such a big shot, be yourself, be the center of mercy that God wants us
to be, and not the power or money hungry that stems from this. This word,
"longsuffering", is simply a word that says that we should be patient towards
all things such as, injury or trouble.
Then all the sudden here comes the hardest part to put on. Be forgiving. Anytime
someone shouts at you, cuts you off in traffic, or is just down right rude, you
must treat them as God wants you to treat them. If we did to each other what man
did to Christ, then I would think it would be very hard to forgive him, but we
are to forgive each other, just as Christ forgives us. When we look at the
severe punishment that was inflicted upon Christ when He was being tortured all
the way to His death on the cross, we see that He said "Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do." This is the ultimate forgiveness that God wants us
to have towards one another. This verse does not say that you will not get upset
or be angry or argue, it simply says, if that happens be quick to forgive. There
is a non-biblical saying, for every sixty seconds you're angry, that's a full
minute of happiness lost. Biblically it s Biblically it says, if you have anger
with someone then you need to forgive it before you come to God in prayer, Mark
11:25 "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that
your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." If we
really look at it, what folks get upset about is usually trivial in matter and
is forgotten before you know it. So let us see if we can do our best to be the
bigger person and forgive quickly and be happy.
"Put on charity", this obviously is the most important here, because He stated
it as "above all these things", meaning we should be extremely charitable that
it may make us closer to perfection with God. What is charity? Most of us know
charity as giving money to the poor, the church, or some contribution to an
organization. But in this instance the word charity is love. Love is the bond
that makes us closer to perfection in the eyes of God. We can be no more perfect
than God. 1 John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." 1 John 4:12, "No man
hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his
love is perfected in us." We can see here, by these two verses, that God is love
and it is His love that bonds us to perfection. Next we see "let the peace of
God rule your heart". As we just read in the above verses God is love. Being
that God is love, this tells me that God is a peaceful God. If we allow God's
peace to rule our heart then we KNOW that God's love is in our heart. When we
have this loving peace of God ruling our heart we become one with God. Being one
with God makes us that elect with God that we discussed for which we should be
forever thankful.
In verse 16 we are suppose to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all
wisdom, meaning we are suppose to be as a living Bible knowing His word that we
may be ever wise. If we become this living Bible that is described here, then we
will be performing the next part of this verse automatically. We are to teach
and admonish one another. The word is dwelling in you, you are richly engulfed
in wisdom for a great reason here, to teach and admonish one another. To teach
is to relay wisdom upon another, to admonish is to caution, counsel, or advise
against something. I have spoken on this many times in different words, this is
how we are to treat each other. Teach and admonish in psalms, spiritual songs,
all the while singing with grace from our hearts to our precious Lord. If this
song of grace is in your heart, then you truly have the word dwelling inside
you.
And lastly, everything we do, all this kindness and mercy and charity and
humbleness and teaching and admonishing and singing praises and grace in our
hearts, do this, giving thanks to the Lord our God and His Father by Him.
If any of you know me, or have kept up with my messages, then you know that I
stand very strong on my beliefs, the I give all thanks to the Lord my God, this
is done whether it is for something that I was hoping for, or something that was
unexpected, or something that I really did not like or want to happen. To all
things give thanks, to the good or even to the bad, 2 Samuel 22:50, "Therefore I
will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises
unto thy name."
If you understand this then you know that it would be better on all mankind if
we treated each other as it is stated in these few verses. If you did not know
this prior to now, and you would like to get to know my best friend and personal
Saviour, then say this simple prayer with me;
Dear Lord, come into my life and forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of
everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received
salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our
link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few
things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Stone