Set Your Sights, Put Off, Put On

In one paragraph

This message came from Colossians 3:1-17, with Pastor Blake preaching in Ray's absence. He walked through three imperatives Paul gives to believers: set your sights on heaven, put off the old nature, and put on the new. The whole thing kept returning to the same center, which is Jesus himself. Blake opened by grounding everything in what Colossians has been arguing all along, that Jesus is supreme...

Read together

1. Psalm 24:1 read aloud to open worship: 'The earth is the Lord's and everything in it'
2. Lamentations 3:22-23 referenced before singing about God's compassions being new every morning
3. Colossians 3:1-17 main sermon text on set your sights, put off, and put on
4. Psalm 27:13 from a video clip: 'I am confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I am here in the land of the living'
5. Psalm 123:1 from a video clip: 'I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven'
6. Matthew 10:8 attributed before singing: 'Freely you have received, freely give'
7. Colossians 2:9-10 quoted to explain Jesus' supremacy: 'in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body'
8. Colossians 2:12 quoted on being buried and raised with Christ through baptism
9. 1 Peter 1:3-4 quoted on new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Christ
10. John 8 referenced for Jesus telling accusers to cast the first stone, illustrating kindness
11. John 14 referenced for Jesus' patient response to Philip after saying 'I am the way, the truth, the life'
12. Colossians 3:17 read as the benediction: 'whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus'

Talk about it

1. The pastor talked about shifting our gaze from discouragement and problems to looking up at the realities of heaven. What does that shift actually look like in a normal day for you?
2. The sermon pointed to C. S. Lewis's observation that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak, and that we are far too easily pleased. Where do you think your desires tend to get misplaced or aimed in the wrong direction?
3. The pastor read through the list of things to put off, from anger and rage to slander and lying, and said these things were buried with Christ in his death. Which of those is hardest for you to leave buried?
4. Working through the new clothes in Colossians 3, the pastor said he could hear Jesus in every single one of them. Which of those qualities, tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, or forgiveness, do you find hardest to actually wear day to day, and why?
5. The sermon closed with the idea that we are all still a work in progress, none of us having arrived, and that we are being renewed each and every day. What does ongoing renewal look like practically in your life right now?