Walking Every Day with Jesus

Welcome to week six of our Bible study in Colossians, our women's Bible study. Today we're going to cover Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 through 11. And I gave a title to today's Bible study. I titled it Walking Every Day with Jesus, Walking Every Day with Jesus. The place I got that from was back in chapter 2, verse 6. I'll put it on the screen to remind you of this passage. Therefore, as you received Christ the Lord, so walk in him. And that is such a great inspiration, to continue to walk in him. This letter was written to Christians and intended to remind them who they are, who they belong to, and how they are to walk with their Lord. And when we become a Christian, our ambition should be to learn to walk in the power of the Spirit. And then enjoy the stability that that brings into our lives. And that might sound overly spiritual or overly simplistic to you. Let me put it another way, okay? My greatest need in life is to walk every day with Jesus. If I can learn to do that, I can learn to please God. And I can learn to say no to the things of the flesh. Because when God saved me, he did not take away my sinful nature. It is still there, and it is still active. So I need power to be able to resist that. So by way of review, what we talked about last week, we learned that doing and not doing, doing or not doing is not the path to please God. In fact, focusing on doing the right things or not doing the wrong things only builds up our flesh. It empowers our flesh. We learned that it produces an appearance of wisdom, but it has no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So it empowers our flesh. And when our flesh is empowered, it gains control. And it loves control. And it does not want to release any control. So it begins to sweep the work of Jesus under the rug. And that is the very thing that we need in order to overcome the things that are facing us. So the last thing that I said last week was this. If we want to grow in our relationship with God, it must be done through the spirit by setting our minds on things above. And I said that because that's where our Bible study is heading. So let's look at Colossians 3, verse 1, and begin to read.

So this dying and raising duet that we have in these passages actually begins in the last chapter, chapter 2, verse 20. Walk back there in your Bible. It says, if with Christ you died to the basic principles of the world, in other words, the empty philosophies that have no ability to connect you with God or help you overcome sin. If you died, then it says here in 3, 1, if then you've been raised with Christ, then seek your help from above. If you died with Christ and now you've been raised with Christ, well, seek your help from above where you have been raised. And you say, well, what do I need help with? Like, I'm a Christian. Isn't the point of being a Christian that I go to heaven? So what do I need help with? Well, let's consider our personal history for a minute and find out what we need help with, okay? Let's consider a person, any person. We'll call them a natural person. When a human being is born, they are a natural person. They have the potential to be redeemed. They have the potential to be transferred to the kingdom of God. That's the words that Paul has used. They have the capacity to know God and to fellowship with God, but not until they become regenerated. So when this person, this natural person, hears the gospel, understands, I'm a sinner, I need Jesus's forgiveness, they accept that forgiveness. Now, they have been, in the words of Jesus, born again. They're no longer a natural person. They are born again. For our purposes, let's call them now, they have become a Christian. But what kind of a Christian will they be? There's a couple choices. Will they be a carnal Christian? And when I use that word, you can see here the root word in it, carnal Christian, of the flesh, carnivorous, right? Or a better illustration is carne asada, because we love that one. But a carnal Christian lives on the power of the flesh. They're still trying to apply the basic principles of the world to their life, and they resemble more the natural person than they resemble Christ. That is a possibility, to be saved and be a carnal Christian. Or will this person, once they're saved, be a spiritual Christian, living by the power of the spirit, setting their mind on things above, endeavoring to resemble the kingdom of God, walking every day with Jesus. These are the choices that we have. And this is the main point of this letter. Since you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God, don't settle for being a carnal Christian. Don't settle for that. Rather, bring your mind and your will and set your mind on things above. So we do need help once we are saved. We do need, and that's why Paul gave us these two active and strong exhortations. Seek that which belongs to the kingdom of God. Set your mind on the things that are related to Christ. Now, this doesn't mean, when he says that, this doesn't mean I'm supposed to just really think really hard about heaven. That's not what that means at all. When he says set your mind on things above, it is a contrast, because Paul's given us lots of contrasts, right? Buried and raised, earth and heaven, below and above. You can see where that contrast leads us. And so setting our mind on things above means understanding that we are naturally inclined to the things that are below. We're a natural, we started off as a natural person. This is our natural inclination to consider the things below. But we want to make our mind available to what is above, what is of the character of Christ. And we'll circle back to that at the end of our lesson. But let's look at verse four. This brings us a promise both for now and for the future.

Okay, this reminds me with new words. This reminds me who I am and who I belong to. Because we already know that you've underlined many times in your Bible study, in him, with him. And then you wrote out in chapter two, Christ in me, the hope of glory. We already know that once I have been born again, Christ comes and lives in me. But then this verse reminds me that I also live in him. I am in him, tucked in him, when Christ who is your life, okay? So this is fantastic, but we still got that sinful nature, okay? So setting our mind on things above will highlight for us what is out of agreement in my life with him, with the character of him. What are those things in my life that still make me a carnal Christian? And that's where this passage is going for us. So let's look at the next verses, starting with verse five.

That was in agreement with your character, but no longer is it. So let's stop and handle these a little bit. In our study guide, we called these sensual sins. This grouping were things that relate to our senses and appeal to us based on our senses. And not everything that appeals to our senses is bad or wrong. Not everything, but we can begin to understand those things that are bad or wrong when we set our mind on things above and we realize, oh, this is out of agreement with the character of Christ. This is out of agreement with the kingdom of God. In fact, these are the very things for which the wrath of God is coming. And so these are things in my life that I must get rid of. I must, in this strong language, put to death. And it begins with sexual immorality, which is our Greek word pornia. And this basically means any sexually intimate relationship outside of God's intention for men and women. That is what sexual immorality is. Any sexually intimate relationship outside of God's intention for men and women. What is God's intention for men and women? Well, it starts in the divine design. We read in Genesis chapter two that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. They have created a new family unit. And throughout the course of the Bible, as we see the character of God, his faithfulness, his covenant relationship with us, the understanding is given to us that the intention is that a husband and wife will also have that same covenant relationship and that same faithfulness. One man and one woman. So sexual immorality then includes sex before marriage, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, adultery, incest, even softened terms like living together. You can't soften it enough to change what it is. Anything sexual between a person other than husband and wife. Now, you've probably raised some children that know how to bring up technicalities in, in your instructions. And Paul had a legal mind and he anticipated that people would find technicalities. Well, I haven't technically, fill in the blank. And so in this text right here, Paul goes on to bring in other things that someone might not think is technically sexual immorality. And he added impurity, passion, evil desire. I love that he did that. It's just like Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember, he pointed out to us that anger bears the seeds of murder and lust bears the seeds of adultery. And if in your heart and your mind, you allow the anger and the lust to go, it will eventually play out and produce a crop. And that's what I see here that Paul is gathering these things in. And he goes, okay, so if this is not technically sexual immorality at this point in your life, impurity, passion, evil desire, they're just gonna grow. So put them to death, put them away. So that gives us the understanding that pornography must be dealt with. Someone could say, well, this isn't technically, but yet Paul included it and say, no, let's not do technicalities. And our books and our movies that promote improper passionate thoughts must be dealt with. Anything related to sexual immorality, even for women, how we look, listen. Women know how to dress for attention. We know how to act for attention. Even those things could be technicalities and they need to be brought into this arena. And then Paul ended with covetousness, which is idolatry. And I wanna handle that a little bit because we should ask the question, someone might ask the question, is everything that I want coveting? Like if I desire something, is that idolatry? That doesn't seem fair to me. I've got six kids and a husband and we have two bedrooms. Is it wrong that I want three? Like it would be nice to have adult boy, girl bedrooms at least. Is that wrong? Is that coveting? So let's talk about where we get the idea of coveting. Exodus 20, in the 10 commandments, Moses said through the Lord said, do not covet. And in that context, do not covet your neighbor's wife. Do not covet your neighbor's house or anything that your neighbor has. And this gives us a little bit of a hint that the perspective is comparison. Looking at what my neighbor has and then wanting it. What they have that I don't, what God's given them that he's not given me. So I wanna give us a definition that I've heard someone say this and I like this definition, I'll put it on the screen. Covetousness can be defined as desiring something so much that you lose your contentment with God. I really like that, I think it's a really good filter. Contentment with God doesn't come naturally to us. That is something, that's a work of the spirit. So the carnal Christian, the covetous Christian spends a lot of time with eyes on earth rather than eyes on the things above. And so we look around very often at the things that other people have. Houses and furnishings and clothes and cars. Or we look around at the relationships that they have that I don't. She has a husband, she has lots of friends. She has the right kind of children. She has a different kind of children than what I have. I want the right kind of children like she has. Or we look at the experiences that people have. The freedom to go, to do, to taste, to see, to post pictures about it all. We do that. And it is possible for us, I believe, to desire something that is profitable for our life, that is beneficial for our life, that is useful for our life, as long as that desire is submitted to the Lord. That is the key. I believe that conquering covetousness is wrapped up in cultivating contentment. Now that alliteration was on purpose. You can applaud if you want to. But conquering covetousness is wrapped up in cultivating contentment. And contentment is one of the benefits that we receive from setting our minds on things above. When we set our mind on what God has given, what he has assigned, what he has allowed in my life, what he might give, what he might assign, what he might allow, but then saying, your choice. Your choice of if and when. Let's move on to the next section. The social sins are what we called them in our study guide, verse eight.

So maybe some of these sins are a familiar part of your past. Maybe they're a familiar part of your present, whether you want to admit it to your group or not. In the previous group of sins, Paul called them enemies that must be put to death. And in this group, they are like old, worn-out garments that must be taken off, literally stripped off. I often like to say that holiness would be a lot easier if I didn't have to live with people. Because who would make me angry? Who would stir up rage? Who would there be to slander? I would be the nicest, holiest girl that you have ever met if it wasn't for other people. But you know what? It's these temptations. What did we learn? God is knitting us together. Just this morning, I snagged my sweater on something, and there's a big pull. And I'm like, oh, because it's knit together, I have to stop and deal with this. Because it's a big snag, so I had to kind of work with it a little bit, put a piece of tape on it, because it's knit together. Same thing happens in our lives. We have to stop, we have to deal with it. And so God uses these temptations to show us how far we have fallen from his glory, how much we need him, his grace, and his power in our lives. We should take a look at some of the things that Paul said. The first one was anger. Anger's a problem. People make us angry. Our kids make us angry. Our husband might make us angry. Our boss might throw us into a rage. We might have a coworker that's so maddening that we come home and slander her. And when these things happen to us, they should make us realize, oh, right now I am acting like a carnal Christian. That is how I'm acting. Because the source of my anger is not the people, it's my flesh. Because my words were not heard. Because my feelings were not taken into consideration. Because my desires were not taken into consideration. Because my, my. my. So the root problem is a focus on me. It is a mind of the flesh rather than a mind of the spirit. Same thing is true of lying. It is a focus on me. It is a mind of the flesh. I stifle the truth if it's going to put me in a bad light. I exaggerate the truth if it's going to make me seem more impressive. I conceal information if it's going to highlight my weakness or my sin or my failures and sometimes I conveniently leave out the truth altogether. And I learned what a liar I was when my kids were at home because I had one child who decided that onions were not to be anywhere in the Laboutier home anymore. Didn't want onions in anything and one day I was making spaghetti sauce and said child came in and asked me did you put onions in there? And I hadn't decided as a mom if this was my hill to die on or not. I just hadn't reasoned this all through yet and so I answered and I said would I do that? What a liar. I thought I was getting off on a technicality but then the Lord had to show me you're lying. I can't remember if I ever told said child that there weren't onions in there but I'm just I'm not trying to lighten it. I'm not trying to make these sins in good standing like oh yes we all do them. I'm trying to make it relatable and I'm trying to show us that to allow the Holy Spirit to show when we're trying to get off on technicalities and when we're just not speaking the truth because we are being knit together and so anger and lying and all these things it breaks trust. It breaks trust between us. So our answer is not found in trying harder. Our answer is not found by saying I am going to control my temper or I am going to stop lying or I am not going to watch those movies anymore. That is only applying the flesh. It's going to give us an appearance of wisdom but no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. So how do we control those things then? What do we do? Well let's go back into verse 10. I'm gonna pick it up in the middle of verse 10. We'll finish our text with 10 and 11.

Our answer lies in Christ and what we do with him. First I want to talk about verse 11 because he is the answer for all of us. You're no different than me. Okay? None of us are in a special category and I think that's what Paul was saying when he said all these different categories of people. Our answer is all the same. You know there's a lot of ways you can categorize people in the world. You can divide up people in two groups all day long. You can say boys on this side, girls on this side. Gentiles on this side, Jews on this side. Slave on this side, free on this side. But in this context the only thing that matters is in Christ on that side and not in Christ on this side. If then you have died with Christ and raised with him you are in Christ and now your answer for this, the ground is level at the cross and so your answer is remembering that you are in Christ. Remembering that he is in you. Remembering that you have access to the power of the Spirit. Peter said he's given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him. And Paul said here we are being renewed day by day. Being renewed. We were made new when we accepted Christ. That was our new birth and now the process is being renewed as we walk every day with Jesus. It's a daily choice. I want to wrap up by giving us two other passages that talk about this renewal because it's so important. 2nd Corinthians 4 16.

Notice he didn't say we are being renewed at the new birth. Everything is new. Everything is fixed. So if we if we're hoping that our journey from a carnal Christian to a spiritual Christian is a matter of praying and saying Lord would you please take away my temper and would you please remove all the things from my life that are a problem for me. If we say that we're going to be disappointed because that's not how God has chosen to do it. It is a renewal day by day. He's given us the privilege of grabbing our mind and grabbing our will and setting them on things above. To be renewed day by day. Let's look at Romans 12 2.

So again if we are hoping that God does all the transforming when we are saved then we're going to be disappointed because that's not how it works. God has given us the privilege of releasing our minds from the pattern of this world in order that we can focus them on the pattern of Christ because he didn't save us just so that we would go to heaven. He saved us to be conformed to the image of his son. So that's why I titled this walking every day with Jesus. For me this week this gave me a fresh understanding of starting that day saying Lord I choose. I bring my mind. I bring my will. Here I am right now setting my mind on the things that are in agreement with you, in agreement with your kingdom and I'm going to trust you to give me the power to say no and to eliminate the things that are in agreement with the world, in agreement with my flesh, in agreement with what I call being a carnal Christian. Remake me today into a spiritual Christian and you know what? Tomorrow morning I'm gonna have to start all over again and that's okay. That's okay. God wants us dependent on him. It is okay. Let's pray. Father God we thank you that you have fresh power for us every single day and Lord I thank you that the way that Paul has written this to us and instructed us as Christians is in a way that we have a strong foundation in who you are, what you have done for us and we can use that foundation to set our minds on and to know that you desire to do a good work in transforming us day by day. So Lord help us to lean into that and help us Lord to put to death the things that are still remaining of our carnal nature that we need to do. Help us Lord to take off those things that do not promote fellowship with one another but actually destroy that fellowship. Lord we need you and so we ask you for your grace and we thank you for this lesson in Jesus name amen