how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
unclean spirit returning to a swept house and bringing seven worse spirits
24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’
25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.
26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
put to death whatever is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness which is idolatry
5 Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
The pastor opened in Luke 11 before moving to Colossians 3, tracing a single line of thought: the kingdom of God is right in front of us, and the question is whether we will turn from the old life and put on the new one. He was honest that the Colossians passage had been sitting heavy on him all week, including his own struggle with anger. The sermon was less a tidy outline than a working-through of something that clearly had his attention.
What was said
Starting in Luke 11, the pastor came back to the passage he had left two weeks earlier. He pointed out that the grammar of "ask and it will be given" is not a one-time transaction. Jesus says be asking, be seeking, be knocking, all of it continuous. The point is not a prayer said once and checked off, but an ongoing posture of dependence on God. And what God gives to those who keep asking, Jesus says, is the Holy Spirit.
That sets up the healing of the mute man and the reaction it provoked. The crowds were amazed, but some said Jesus was working by the power of Beelzebub. The pastor noted the irony: these people saw a miracle happen in front of them and their first instinct was to discredit it, because it was not they who had done it. Jesus answered by pointing out that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and then said the thing that stuck: the one who is not with me is against me, and the one who does not gather with me scatters.
The warning about the unclean spirit returning with seven others was read as a word against behavior modification done in purely human strength. You can clean yourself up by willpower, the pastor said, but if you have not opened yourself to the kingdom of God, what you are likely to build in its place is pride and self-righteousness, and the end condition is worse than the beginning. The Pharisees standing right in front of the kingdom of God and pushing it away were the example in the room that day.
Colossians 3 picked up from there, addressed now to people who have already believed. If you have been raised with Christ, and the grammar says "I know you have," then be seeking the things above. Be setting your mind there. The pastor tied this directly back to the Luke 11 language: same word, same continuous action. The reason, he said, is that you have died. Your old life is buried, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Because that death has happened, present-tense commands follow. Put to death whatever is earthly in you. The list Paul gives, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness which is idolatry, is not there to produce shame but to make clear what needs to keep being mortified. The pastor was straightforward that covetousness was probably what drove the Pharisees to their reaction in Luke 11, and that it drives plenty of similar reactions today.
He slowed down at anger, saying plainly that he had spent more time angry in the past couple of weeks than usual. The text distinguishes settled anger from wrath, which is the outward expression of it, and adds malice, slander, filthy speech and lying to the list of things to take off like dirty clothes. He pointed out that slander is calling what is right wrong and what is wrong right, and asked how often that happens out loud in ordinary conversation. Lord, help us, he said.
Then came the turn. Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another, and when a complaint arises, and it will, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. That is the standard he held up, not as an achievement to strive for in your own strength, but as something made possible because you have already been forgiven more than you could repay. Above all of it, he said, put on love, which binds everything together, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
The pastor walked through Luke 11 and the call to 'be asking, be seeking, be knocking' as ongoing habits rather than one-time requests. What is the difference in your own life between asking God for something once and staying in constant communication with Him about it?
When Jesus cast out the demon, some in the crowd immediately said He did it by the power of Beelzebub rather than celebrate the man being healed. The pastor asked whether we can fall into that same mindset as church people. Have you ever found yourself more focused on who got the credit for something good than on the good thing itself?
Speaker 1One day you got it. Yes. I will. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 3Good. Fantastic. No drive from from Bandra. Yeah. Which is kinda nice every once in a while.
Good morning, everybody. Hey. Would you stand with me and we'll worship together? Here it is, the good news of the gospel in one sentence, in one verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Shall we sing of it? Sing together.
Speaker 2Come on. Come on. Is
Speaker 1this thing on? It is now. Hey. Monday nights at first beep. What's happening, Carl?
Speaker 3We are on tomorrow at 06:00. Meal, music, message. Barbara's serving Sloppy Joes, and Brad is gonna be leading our gospel conversation from Mark nine, a warning from Jesus. And love to have you. Do know that it's 06:00 down the hall tomorrow night?
Speaker 1It's good to be back. Carl and I were gone last week. We went to what we thought was gonna be a pastoral retreat. It turned out to be a men's intensive. If either of us cry this morning, I promise you that's why.
Alright. Connect hours happening between the services. I'm I'm really, really glad. That first song always is like, man, lord, is this the Sunday when nobody shows up and then you play the bass and you look up and they are here. It's so nice.
Praise God. It's happening. If you want to connect with the second service, connect hours happen in between the services down the hall. There will be food and stuff like that. But you can get to know one another.
It's a good time. Ladies fellowship happens Thursday, six p. M. In the fellowship hall. That's a great study.
They get together, they pray together, read the Bible together, and go through life together. They're doing life together. It's really good. Sunday school volunteers are needed. I think that could be a perpetual slide, right?
That's not an easy position for Liz Owens, who is in charge of that, but it is a great thing to care about the next generation coming up. So if you would, call Liz and say, yes, I'll do that, a Sunday a month or something like that. We'd love to have you. Sunday school volunteers are needed. Nick usually does this announcement.
Will Graham is coming to Idaho Falls in September, but there are Christian Life and Witness courses and church prep briefings, things like that, my goodness, that are happening before that here at this church in anticipation of that event. So, that's happening. Some of that has already happened, but some of it is happening still. And I think that's it. I'm into the next song.
We had a little mishap back in the back for those of you that didn't catch that. Yeah. We can do that. Alright. Would you stand with us and we'll sing as we figure it all out.
Glad y'all are here.
Speaker 3God, we we sing it, but we also say it. We pray it. God, may we lift your name high. From age to age, you reign. Your kingdom has no end.
You are worthy of every bit of praise that we are offering and so much more. Amen.
Speaker 2I will trust you. Morning by morning.
Speaker 3And you can have a a seat here for a moment. It's a worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite the ushers to come on forward and we get to sing, yes, I will, a song about worshiping our way through all of life, every bit of it, hills and valleys from Psalm twenty seven fourteen, wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord. Before we sing, Ray, would you pray?
Speaker 1God, thank you for this morning. Thank you, Lord, for the beauty of this hour. Oh my goodness. We're surrounded, Lord. In this valley, we're surrounded by just amazing mountains, and the difference between the peaks and the valleys is is great.
Lord God almighty, I thank you for, all of the hills and valleys. Thank you for, the things that we walk through and go through, that bring us, to you. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask that you take all, that we offer right now. Everything that we put in the plates, Lord, whether it's, in this physical temporal realm, we put some financial resources in the plates, we consent to your using us in our world. Lord, I pray that we would willingly and humbly and obediently just surrender.
Not our will, but your will be done. Lord, would you show us exactly how to do that? Would you show us the steps that you have prepared in advance that we'd walk in them? Would you show us, Lord, what we can do to be a healing balm to people who are hurting. Lord, would you do whatever is necessary in our lives to bring our hearts closer to you.
In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask that you would take this time that you'd, bless and multiply, and you do it, so that your kingdom would advance on earth as it is in heaven, your will, your way. Amen. Hey, man. It's time for children's church downstairs. And there they go.
It'll take just a minute. Every time I'm out of the pulpit for a week, I get nervous, nervous, nervous. I've got two weeks of this stored up, so lord, help them. In Jesus' name, lord, help us as we process through all that is laid out in front of us right here this morning. Lord, would you allow us to see ourselves as as you see us?
Would you allow us the grace, Lord? In your word, would you allow us the grace to see anything that is unseemly or aggravating, Lord, that you can set us free. In Jesus' name, amen. So we are up to Luke 11. Actually, we did Luke 11 last time I was in the pulpit two weeks ago, and we got through the Lord's prayer and then what comes immediately after the Lord's prayer, and we stopped on verse 14.
I'm gonna hit a couple of high points. This has been coming back to me a lot in the past couple of weeks. So I say to you, Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be open. We've heard that a lot when we're wanting something, usually, we hear that. It's something about the way he says it. He says, I say to you, be asking, and it will be given to you. Be seeking, and you will find it.
Be knocking, and it will be open to you. It's not something that you're opening. You're knocking, and it is being open to you. And then there's this down here at the bottom that says, everyone who is asking, and it's progressive action. It's something that matters.
It's not just asked and answered. Right? Ask and answered immediate. It's be asking. Be in constant contact communication with God.
Everyone who is asking receives and everyone who is seeking finds. You're not going find something if you're not looking for it usually. You might stumble upon something. But if you lose something, you're not going to find it unless you're looking for it. So be seeking and you'll find into the one who is knocking, it will be open.
That's good. If you hear, never mind, it's a dad joke. They just spin through my mind all the time. Knock. Opportunity.
It only knocks once. Come on, Knock. You all knew it was a knock knock joke without even a knock knock. Some of you anyway. So if you, despite being evil, this is the closer.
This is the closer for last week, but it wasn't the close of what Jesus was doing. So if you, despite being evil, he had said that about if your kid asks you for a good thing, give him a bad thing, well, no. If your kid asks for a good thing, you're gonna give him a bad thing, well, no. Two in a row. So if you, despite being evil, you all start out, at the outset, human beings are bent towards evil.
So if you, despite being evil, you all know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more? It wasn't they were asking for, you know, bread and an egg. They weren't asking for anything extravagant. Yeah.
You're gonna feed them. So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit? That's what he's given. That's what he's given. And the Holy Spirit that he's giving will allow us to see things the way God sees them.
And if we're asking for something amiss, as Jesus says in a different place, then the Holy Spirit can let us know that. How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? And actually, it is to those who are asking. Right? If you're asking for it, God will give it to you, the Holy Spirit.
God help us. Show us your way. Show us the steps so that we may walk in. Lord, help us. So that's the buildup to verse 14.
It just says it matter of fact, and he was casting out a mute demon. It's the Lord's prayer. And then what we just said about asking, seeking, knocking, God's gonna give you the Holy Spirit, and he's casting out a mute demon. Now I covered this passage a while back when there's a similar passage in Matthew and Mark. And if you wanna go back, I think it was 03/13/2022, if you wanna go back and look at it.
I'm gonna hit it again rather quickly, quicker than I usually do because I'm trying to get to something that I feel like is a this is a good jumping off point for that. He was casting out a mute demon. And when the demon had gone out, the man who was previously unable to speak talked. Isn't that great? I once was blind, but now I see.
I once was mute, but now I can praise God out loud. It's pretty good. The man who was previously unable to speak talked, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, not all of them, they were amazed. All of them were amazed, it looks like.
But some of them said, he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. If you saw a miracle take place right in front of you okay, Baptist. I know that we're everything here. If you saw a miracle take place right in front of you, but it was an assembly of God preacher that did it, Would it tick you off just a little bit? Not real.
No. This is a real deal. And Jesus is doing it, they immediately because they didn't do it. Right? It's not them that did the miracle.
It's not them that even prayed for the miracle. They probably got used to this man. Some of them said, he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Others to test him, do it again. Show us something else.
Right? They were demanding of him a sign from heaven. I just see the two guys on the Muppet Show up there just grumpy, but he knew their thoughts. Oh, thank you, Jesus. You know our thoughts.
Lord, see if there be any wicked way in me. Cleanse us from every sin. Set us free. He knew their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. You can't be battling inwardly against yourself.
If your kingdom that's divided against yourself, it's laid waste, and a house that's divided against itself falls. If Satan also has been divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? If he's at one time making that man mute and healing him of the muteness, how does that work? You claim that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. Yet if by Beelzebub I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?
Y'all celebrate when something good happens that you do. Either way, this man is no longer mute. He can speak. He can speak and praise God. Be happy for that guy.
Be thankful that God has worked in his life. If by Beelzebub I cast out the demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. The the folks in the future, the ones who are looking and seeing will be your judges. Wow.
But if I cast out the demons by the finger of God, oh, there's so many things there. By the finger of God. Remember that the finger of God is what wrote the law as a good gift to let us see where we lack, where we fall short. It's a good, gracious, merciful gift. If I cast out demons by the very finger of God, I think of him sitting and riding in the sand with his finger too, the woman caught in adultery.
If I cast out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And faced with the kingdom of God coming upon you, being right here, right in front of you, the devil did that. It's right here. It's right here. You can accept it or you can reject it.
When a strongman fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are secure. We can do what we think is necessary to protect our possessions. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are cure are secure. Jesus tells them in a couple of different places that they're not of their father Abraham like they think. They're of their father, the devil.
So the strong man is trying to protect those who are already his. He's holding them back. He's attempting to delude them from an encounter with the kingdom of God, which is available and open, graciously, mercifully, open invitation. Come on in, whosoever. When a strong man fully armed guards his own house, his possessions are cured.
But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, the gates of hell will not stand against the kingdom of God. They won't stand against Christ building his church. When someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, that man takes away his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. The one who's not with me, I'll put this one in big bold letters. The one who's not with me is against me, and the one who doesn't gather with me scatters.
You're either a part of what God is doing in this world. At that time, that's what he's saying, and I think it's still true. The one who's not with me, Jesus says, is against me. And the one who doesn't gather with me scatters. Matthew, exactly the same verbiage in Matthew.
That's why I preached it back in, I think it was March of last year. The one who's not with me is against me. The one who does not gather with me scatters. Think about this Pharisees. They're the ones right in front of them.
They're the ones who are saying, he cast out. Actually, I put Pharisees in Luke. It just says some of them who were there. But in Matthew, it says it was the Pharisees in a couple of different places. It sounds like the Pharisees.
It sounds like us in some ways too. The one who's not with me, yeah, I'm on Jesus' side, He's against me. The one who doesn't gather with me. Are you are you working with him to gather, or are you scattering? At that time, the Pharisees were against him.
There's no doubt about it. They were against him. They were against grace, what he was trying to preach. They really wanted law because they felt like they were doing better at law than anybody else. And I think as church folk, can get into that mindset.
We're doing better than anybody else. Aren't we great? But we should be gathering in as one beggar who's found bread sharing it with another. Yes, this is where it can be found. The one who's not with me is against me.
The one who does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit comes out of a person that passes through waterless places seeking rest and not finding any, it then says, I'll return to my house from which I came. I think this is about behavior modification. I went over it further last time around. But it says when it comes out, it finds and when it comes back, it finds it swept and put in order.
We can try our best just using simple human willpower, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, grab hold and go, but not really relying on God. And we can get rid of a bad habit or two. How long the New Year's resolutions usually last? Not very long. When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order, and then it goes and it brings along seven other spirits.
If you are able to get over it, a lot of times, what it builds in you is pride and self righteousness and all kinds of other stuff. This says when it goes, it brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they come in and they live there, and the last condition of that person becomes worse than the first. Considering his audience at the time, I think that this is saying, Pharisees, you're trying your best, but you're not relying on the kingdom of God. It's right here in front of you, and you're pushing it away. You're saying, we can do this on our own.
But purely human efforts at behavior modification are problematic. They just are. I think that it's significant that the first step in the 12 steps, I mentioned these a lot lately, but the first step is admitting you have a problem. Your life has become unmanageable or my life has become unmanageable. I have a problem I can't do anything about.
But the second step is there is a higher power who can restore me to sanity, Right? He can restore me to health. So depending on him. This is where I wanna go to Colossians three. So this one has been the one that's bouncing around in my head all week.
I can't escape, can't get away from it. And so far, Jesus is kinda saying to the to the pharisees, take all this into consideration. Watch and see what it is that the Lord is doing. And you have the choice. You have the chance of rejecting it, but you also have the choice of accepting it.
So this letter, Colossians, Luke is written, it's a gospel. It's open. It's a universal invitation for everybody who would believe. Colossians written by Paul to Christians. Okay.
It's written to Christians. I'm making an assumption here that most of us that are in here this morning are already believers in Jesus. That may be a false assumption, but I think it's probably true. Okay. So the letter of Colossians is two Christians, and it says, if you have then been raised with Christ, actually the grammar there is saying, and I know you have.
Okay? It's a letter for Christians. So if then you have been raised with Christ, and I know you have, that's the past. If Christ has raised you up, seek the things that are above. And this goes right in line with what was said a couple weeks ago and what I said earlier this morning.
Seek is really be seeking, continuous. Be seeking and you will find. So if then you've been raised with Christ, be seeking, looking into things that are above. Where Christ is, he's seated at the right hand of the father. Think about this.
He's interceding for you, knowing that Jesus is interceding for you. He's seated at the right hand of the father. He understands what human suffering is like. He understands what it's like to be surrounded by naysayers. He understands what it's like to have people depending on you.
He understands it. Be seeking the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Be continually and habitually seeking as a way of saying that. Alright? As a matter of life, be looking into the things of God.
Set your minds. So intensifying that. Be seeking. Intensifying that in the second verse, set your minds. It's really be continually and habitually setting your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.
Why? Why would we want to do that? I hear the saying sometimes that people can be so heavenly minded that they're of no earthly good. Besetting your minds on the things above, things that are true and right and good, noble. Why?
Well, in Galatians, Paul says this crazy long Greek word. It means you've been co crucified. You have been crucified in tandem. I talked to a buddy yesterday who takes people on rides out at the village on one of those wings. He invited me and then he asked me how much I weighed.
So I'll catch the next one. You've been co crucified. You have been crucified in tandem. Actually, here it doesn't say crucified, but it says for you have died. You have placed your faith in Christ.
And when you placed your faith in Christ, you died to the old self, and you have buried that. I mean, we did baptism this week too where someone was saying, want to be buried with Christ to be raised to walk in newness of life. You've died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. Whether people can see it or not, that is my that's where my life is based and founded, and it's hidden in Christ with God, knowing that he has made the effort empowered by the spirit, directed by the spirit, done the will of the father. He's done everything necessary for life and godliness.
It's available to me. The same spirit that raised him from the dead is available to me. I've died to my old self, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Amen.
Amen. That's a blessed hope. That's something to look forward to. That's talking about the future. It's talking about the future based on something that has happened in the past, but now we're gonna get into something that is, well, the when then.
When Christ appears then, so that's future focused. The if then is, past focused. So this is future focused. Now we're going to go to something that's very present day focused, okay? Present tense commands.
This is hortatory. It is exhortation. Put to death, therefore, whatever is earthly in you. Whatever is earthly, worldly in you, mortify. Be putting it to death.
It's continual. It's going to keep on raising its ugly head, the horror movie. Right? You think it's gone. You think it's finally dead, and here it comes again.
You have to continually be putting to death. Therefore, whatever is earthly in you. And it gives a list. Here's a list. Sexual immorality, porneia is the Greek word.
I actually chose not to do all the Greek words. I'm not trying to look smart. This is easy enough to understand sexual immorality. We get it. Impurity, mixed.
Good with bad. Impurity. Passion. Passion sounds like a good thing. Find your passion and go after it.
Lust is that word. That's what it is. Passion. Strong feelings actually of suffering, depraved passion. It goes on to evil desire, desire, evil desire, lust, inordinate desire.
When you put anything, anything, in front of God. And covetousness. And this one's defined in the text, is idolatry. Covetousness is idolatry also. It's avarice and greed, desire, even aggression in some places.
When it's covetousness and I think that's what the Pharisees were experiencing when they saw Jesus do that and they couldn't do it, and they said, he does that by the power of the devil. Desire for advantage, covetousness, looking around and seeing what everybody else has got and thinking, I need that. Actually, literally, I love the way it's having numerically more. A desire for more lust for greater number of temporal things and equal to idolatry as the text says. And on account of these things, the wrath of God is coming and righteously so.
Because of these things, God's wrath is coming. Now if we know that the wrath of an almighty God is coming, and we are believers that have been saved from that wrath, does it not make sense to be reaching out to all of the people around us and saying, listen, I know what it's like. I've been there, but this is great. Jesus, man. It's really good.
He's really good. He's really good to me. He set me free. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked.
This is a simple past tense. You once walked. That's the way you were. That's the way you were. Boom.
When you were living in them. That's a continuous thing. Habitual past tense. You used to be like that, but that time is over. It signifies that this is not your life now.
You're if you then have been raised with Christ, Christians, that's not your life now. You once walked that way. Yeah. But now you're seeking things above, and you're setting your mind on things above. And Jesus says, everyone who is seeking is finding or will find.
But now, you must put them all away. Put them away with God's help, of course, from yourselves that's middle, from yourselves. Put these things away. Because of what Christ did for you in the past, you ought to be living in the present, renouncing your and then that next little section is anger. This is probably what it's been ringing in my ears, quite frankly and honestly.
I spent more time angry in the past couple of weeks than I usually do, I think, but maybe it was just uncovering it, I don't know. Anger, settled anger, teaming up to oppose from a real sense of what the beholder considers wrong. That's just wrong, right? And I'm mad about it. It doesn't matter which side of the aisle you're on politically.
There's plenty of stuff that you're going to see and go, that's just wrong. And I don't like it. And that makes me mad. There are plenty of people that will stir up that anger if you let them. This is anger.
Put this away. Let this go. Do we have an almighty God? Yes. Does he say that he will repay?
Yes. Does he say leave room for me? Yes. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, not yours. He's telling us very specifically, put this away.
Take it off, actually like a garment. The put these things away is like taking off a garment. Settled anger, teaming up to oppose what you see as wrong. Wrath. Wrath, also in some of your Bibles, it'll say rage, that is the expressing from the internal disposition of anger.
It is an expression of that. It is personal venting of your anger. Very seldom is that alone. Almost always it's directed towards another person. This is kind of tearing us down to build us back up, alright?
If you see in yourself anger and you see where you've allowed the anger that fills your heart to spill out of your mouth, then you have had both anger and rage. Wrath. Malice. Malice. Malice is the under underlying principle of evil even if it's not expressed.
You can be seething with malice, wishing ill of other people without ever having said it out loud. It's still there. With Christ's help, knowing that we have died to the former way, we can put that aside. Slander. The word there is blasphemy, which is scurrilous or abusive speech.
It is taking what is wrong and calling it right and taking what is right and calling it wrong. It is saying ugly things about somebody else. Okay. Slander. Slander is when you tear somebody else down.
How often do we do that? How often do we say out loud something ugly about somebody else? Lord, help us. Help us to understand that everyone we meet is fighting a hard battle, and they're struggling through it. The same way that we either are struggling or have struggled through things.
Obscene talk, filthy speech, cussing. It's not just cussing. Filthy talk from your mouth. Yep. That one goes without saying.
I don't have to get into the Greek on that, do I? And don't lie. Don't lie. Don't lie to one another. You say, well, if I if I'm not gonna lie, how can I not slander?
Well, like your mama said, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Don't lie to one another. Why? Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices. You have died.
You have been co crucified. You've been crucified in tandem. You knew that you were wrong, and you came to Jesus humbly, admitted it, and said, this is yours. Let him have it and have put on the new self. Amen.
Here we go. Turn the corner, which is being renewed. Oh, I love that. It's being renewed. It's not absolutely right now and you're a 100% perfect forever.
It is being renewed as you are seeking the things that are above, as you are seeking after the things of God. You are being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. You are becoming the true self, the one that God made you to be. So here in this family, the family of God, there's no Greek nor Jew. There is not, we might say, lots of different things here.
But he's gonna say he's gonna give us a list. Greek nor Jew. Those are the Jews saw everybody else was apart from them. The Greek, that's just everybody else. Greek or Jew.
Circumcised or uncircumcised. Man, how important that was in the Old Testament. Man, how important that was in pockets of Christianity. He's saying that's not the point of this whole thing. This is Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian.
Barbarian, we here know what barbarian is. Scythian is like barbarian squared. Okay? For them to hear Scythian is like, woah, that's the worst of barbarians. They're just a nomadic tribe, but they had that in their mind that they were the worst of the worst.
Greek and Jews, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythian, woah, for crying out loud, he really means this, slave or free. Man, what a difference. Here here in the family of God, all of that other stuff doesn't matter. Republican, Democrat, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter.
All of that other stuff doesn't matter. Country bumpkin or urban socialite. Here in the body of Christ, it doesn't matter. Christ is all. Christ is all, and he's in all.
And you gotta recognize he's in all to be able to go forward. Repent. That's that's what he's saying. If you don't see yourself in that list, my goodness. I I I have been tortured by this list this week just thinking about it.
Repent. It's possible. I'm turning from that. I'm gonna let that go. And now these are the clothes that fit a Christ follower.
I'm doing two weddings this week. I'm probably gonna use this in at least one of them. Not the whole sermon, my goodness. But these things coming up. These are the clothes that fit a Christ follower.
That's what one commentator said. Put on then. Oh, yeah. So put off all those take off those dirty garments. Take them off.
Baptism is kind of a representation, a outward symbol of an inward act that's already taken place. And I've taken off the old and I've put on the new. I've been buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life, put on then as God's chosen ones. Can you believe it? That God, though we didn't deserve it, has opened an invitation.
And once we've accepted it, we know, wow, I'm his. So then put on as God's chosen ones. Holy. Holy. He has made us holy and beloved.
He loves us by his mercy, by his grace. Put on then compassionate hearts, compassionate hearts, recognizing recognizing the difficulties that other people are facing. Pity, favor, mercy, grace, compassionate hearts, be soft hearted, tender hearted. Kindness. Kindness is useful goodness.
It's profitable for someone who is suffering. Well fit. It meets the needs and avoids the human harshness. One commentator says, we have no term in English that quite carries this notion. Kindness, humility.
God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Meekness. There's a a settled gentleness even when faced with opposition and patience. That's the clothes that fit us. I can feel my shoulders loosening up right now.
Just thinking on these things, really. Compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience bearing with one another. And if if one has a complaint against another, it's gonna happen, folks. We're human beings. It's gonna happen.
You're gonna have a complaint against the other. I tell that in premarital counseling all the time. Eventually. I know you're Twitter pated right now. But eventually, you're going to love each other and you can love each other forever, but eventually, you're going to tick each other off.
And you got to figure out that if you have a complaint against the other, you have to figure out how to let that go. Because you have been forgiven, you can forgive. Forgiving each other just as the Lord has forgiven you. That's the standard, really? That's the standard, really.
Because God has forgiven me, I can forgive someone else. I know I don't deserve it. I may be right about the situation in anger. I may be right to be angry, but I can still put that off by forgiveness and compassionate understanding. Forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, in just that way, you must also forgive.
So these are the put off put on list right there. Put off sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy talking lies, and put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, and be bearing with one another, forgiving each other just as the Lord has forgiven you. Above all these things, we're closing in on it here. Put on love. Amen.
Which binds everything together in perfect harmony. If you feel unloving, be seeking the loving heart of God, and you will find it. Above all of these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony and allow or let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you are called into one body, one body across denominations, across stripes, all stripes. You were called into one body by all means. Allow love to rule.
Allow the peace of Christ to rule in your hearts and be thankful. That's the close right there. I'm going get up to verse 17, I think. Let's don't do that. Let's just stop right there.
That's good enough. I think the benediction will be 17. Would you stand with me? We're going to sing whatever Carl says we're going to sing. Graves in the Gardens.
That's perfect for this. Absolutely. All of those previous things that we're supposed to put off, that's the grave, man. But the things that we are to put on, that is what God has turned it into a garden. Amen.
You still call me not Amen. And as the benediction today, just let this wash over you. Because of everything that came before it, we did the whole third chapter before that. This is God's word for us. Whatever you do, whatever it is that you do, whether it's in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Giving thanks to God the Father through him. In Jesus' name is the way that we are to be operating. It's the way that we're to be seeking and asking and knocking. In Jesus' name, it's the way that we're to be operating in everything we do. God, would you help us in that journey?
Help us recognize when the old man is raising up against us, and allow us to put that off and put on love. In Jesus' name, amen.
