Colossians Chapter 3 Verse 1

•Church, understand this. Paul is not giving a commandment with some sort of stern tone when he says this but rather he is revealing to you and to me and to all that are in Christ, simply what we need to do. We need to do this. We need it! We crave it! We seek it! And mysteriously so, especially when we are new in the Lord, we don’t always know it!

•If you’ve given your life to the Lord, then that knot in your stomach, that thirst in your heart, that ache in your soul is senioritis! (HA! That’s actually a word!) Remember when you were a senior in highschool, or a senior in college, remember those last few months? Teachers would assign homework and you were like WHATever! HA! Or let’s talk retirement. Remember when you were two months, one month away from retirement?

•Folks would bring you an issue, a problem and you were like, “Aw honey, it’ll be just fine!” Of course it will! You’ll be gone in a month! HA! Or someone brings you an idea and you’re like, “Yea, that’s a great idea! Go after it!” You’re so nice and encouraging and the idea was like so dumb, for real! Why? Why so easy going? Why so level-headed? You’re already gone! Senioritis! Well, if you are a new Christian today, welcome to senioritis! HA!

•You see if you are born of the Spirit, risen with Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of heaven, then it’s like you have side-stepped into another dimension of life! Now your eyes, your desires, your hearts, your natural tendencies are now naturally on the things which are above because you have a new nature. And yet there is much to learn. A baby has no idea that it craves milk, it just craves right!? Paul is saying, let me take you to la leche, man!

•A Christian who dwells on the material, the existential is really just confused and will be frustrated with everything! Man, Paul is really helping us out here and he is helping out those in Collossae who were looking for life in all the wrong places! I am convinced…HOOK, LINE AND SINKER certain and assured because I see it and I feel it, I’ve lived it and I’ve learned it, that the only people who are truly happy on earth, the only people that have truly mastered this life and glide with power, purity and wisdom through EVERY situation, are those whose hearts are in heaven! Paul is hookin’ us UP! This is no heavy commandment! This is a pressing need of every Christian!

•But you say, “If I take my eyes off of it, what if I lose it?” Listen, whatever you lose for the sake of Christ is worth it! You hold on so tightly to your situation, to him, to her, to it…but Spurgeon said it best, “You will never know the FULLNESS of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything else BUT Christ!” And here’s the sick and twisted flesh part of it all. Believers, if you’re running around on God with the world, you will end up despising those who are surging in the Lord! Powerful and keenly filled with wisdom and Godly GPS navigational capability…why? Because they have the fullness you’re trying to get out of the world, and they’re not even TRYING! HA!

•So let’s get practical! I realize I’m a fish out of water, suffocating when I’m living in this world and of this world so how, what, tell me…what does it mean, what does it look like to live in this world but not be of it…not only in spirit (that’s Christ’s job) but also in my daily duties (that’s my job)? We continue our conversation with Paul…

Colossians Chapter 3 Verse 2

•HUGE, ginormous statement! So weak in the English! So very power packed in the Greek! The English translation says, “Set your mind on the things above,” but the hermeneutical revelation explains that we are to literally, figuratively, emotionally, physically, practically…we are to set our clocks to heaven!

•Right now it is Sunday morning. But in Bengaluru Karnataka India…it is Sunday night! Imagine if you set your clocks to Bengaluru Karnataka India!? Where would you be? What “time of day” mood would you be in? How would you feel? What would you be up to? Something completely different than what you are doing now, right!? Probably feeling completely differently! Acting completely differently!

•So let me ask you. Have you set your spiritual time zone to heaven? This statement, this direction, the holy hook up from Paul means literally to set your affections upon heaven. Set your hope upon heaven. Set your knowledge to heaven’s Encyclopedia Heavannica! And watch, oh man…just watch your life become lots and lots of la leche, baby! Takes some time. Takes some time for sure…but watch your life and your mind and your day and your situation become exactly what you are yearning for it to be! God honoring! Wise. Powerful! Satisfying! Purposeful! Profit-filled! People of God just scratching to be around you and glean some of that good glory!

Colossians Chapter 3 Verse 3

•For your flesh is the walking dead…it died! You ever try to use a dead battery? What a frustrating mess!

Colossians Chapter 3 Verses 3 – 4

•So don’t miss this implication! This truth that every Christian on the planet has GOT to know…that if your life is hidden in Christ, then where can it be found!? Right!? In Him! The life you want. The life you’re looking for. Every answer. All answers. All of the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God! And in digging in there for life, all the way back to verse 3 of Chapter 2, you’ll uncover all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge!

•Remember when metal detectors were big? Maybe it was just me but about 10 or 15 years ago, metal detectors were a hot commodity. Especially in old Civil War Battlefield Virginia where I lived. A confederate belt buckle or sword could fetch a small fortune! Well here is where to concentrate your life detector (not Life Alert, Chin)! Life detector!

•And this isn’t just “getting’ by life!” This is the word “zoe” in the Greek…literally meaning the “absolute fullness of life!” And yet even more to come with the return of the Lord! When He appears in the clouds and calls us to Himself right before the Great Tribulation then we will appear with Him as well instantaneously in glory!

•But what about right now! I’m so stoked for that moment when I’m 30,000 feet up and not afraid of heights! Head full of hair with 0% body fat! Just HOT! But I’m also intensely concerned with RIGHT NOW! Well check this out! Now-a-cize this verse! When Christ appears right now…when you choose to trust Him right now, do it His way…He appears because His Word shows up then look at this…absolute fullness of life RIGHT NOW! Oh it may not feel that way or look that way but come on…what do you think trust is!? Well here’s what it looks like…!

Colossians Chapter 2 Verses 5 – 7

•Trusting God, digging in His Word for zoe…for life and absolute fullness of life…loving and awaiting His return and uncovering the depth of truth in all situations because you’re FINALLY rejecting the lie…that it’s in YOU…you naturally from the inside out become less and less interested and ultimately disinterested in the things of the flesh. Oh it’s so very simple…from the inside out…God’s workshop is set up in your heart…not to make you more robotic or religious…PUKE! But to make you more free and more full until the day He calls you home!

•Why would you choose self? Why would you choose to dig for treasure at the dump rather than at the treasure trove of Christ!? His wrath = orge. His origin…His nature is righteousness. My how the world has got it so very wrong and believe God will bless their disobedience. We need to know the truth…for the sake of eternal life…and a for the sake of fullness of life now, that we may be a beacon to those who will have eyes to see and ears to hear.