Meg and I spent yesterday at the doctor’s office and this is the first picture we got of baby #3, tentatively due on February 22nd. We are excited, overwhelmed and experiencing all kinds of marveling at how God has again granted us conception. Please be praying for Meg as she hasn’t been feeling too hot (typical 1st trimester stuff) and for the health of the baby as he/she develops. We were already able to get that heartbeat, a healthy 168 bpm. At any rate, I knew some of you would be interested in the pic.
Killing Sin?…Good…Remember the next verses…
I hope you were encouraged and moved to action by the Holy Spirit as you heard yesterday’s sermon, Kill Sin, from Colossians 3:5-7. I’ve already gotten some emails from people this morning demonstrating fruit from yesterday’s emphasis. They realize their weakness and want to make headway in pursuing godliness.
It’s so easy, though, to drift into self-righteousness when we are putting our killing sin into practice. How do I know this is a tendency? Because of what comes out of my mouth. Paul must have realized this too, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he continues in Colossians 3:8-10:
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
It is out of the heart that the mouth speaks. And what comes out of our mouth (or emails, twitter feeds, voicemails, blogs) can either demonstrate what we are putting away or putting on. Therefore, as you speak this week, remember to speak in a way that is not full of anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, or lying to one another. These things are incompatible with someone killing sin. But let’s be characterized by speaking truth to one another in ways that build up for edification. This will show that we are putting on the new self and, indeed, being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator. He’s the One we want to live for anyway. Remember this, then, as you seek to put into practice killing sin: put away speaking in a way that’s not helpful.
Weekend Recap – Kill Sin
Today’s sermon, Kill Sin, from Colossians 3:5-7 is online. I felt refreshed in the pulpit with much liberty and thought we had a great morning. We sang songs that boasted in what God has done to save us. We looked into God’s Word and found that our hope must be in nothing other than Jesus. Our position in Him enables us to kill sin.
The applications for believers were:
1) Remember your position – we can’t fight sin apart from who we are in Christ
2) Remember your calling – we are called to kill sin, not delay its execution
3) Get help – We have both the Holy Spirit and the local church to help us in killing the sin in our lives. Let’s avail ourselves to them.
Weekend Preview – Kill Sin!
This coming Lord’s Day, we hope to gather and look at Colossians 3:5-7. The call is to put to death what is earthly among you. Here’s a quote for Sinclair Ferguson in his excellent book, The Christian Life:
“What then is the killing of sin? It is the constant battle against sin which we fight daily – the refusal to allow the eye to wander, the mind to contemplate, the affections to run after anything which will draw us from Christ. It is the deliberate rejection of any sinful thought, suggestion, desire, aspiration, deed, circumstance or provocation at the moment we become conscious of its existence. It is the consistent endeavor to do all in our powers to weaken the grip which sin in general, and its manifestations in our lives in particular, has. It is not accomplished only by saying ‘no’ to what is wrong, but by a determined acceptance of all the good and spiritually-nourishing disciplines of the gospel. It is by resolutely weeding the garden of the heart, and also by planting, watering and nurturing Christian graces there, that putting sin to death will take place. Not only must we slay the noxious weeds of sin, but we must see that the flowers of grace are sucking up the nourishment of the Spirit’s presence in our hearts. Only when those hearts are so full of grace will less room exist for sin to breathe and flourish.”
Let’s come this Lord’s Day anticipating God’s movement among us to glorify Himself in our killing sin.
Good Questions to Ask Yourself…
I found these three from Justin Buzzard:
God has given you a life and he wants you to steward it well. This involves choices. How will you best steward the gifting, personality, resources, and opportunities God has given you?
Most of us reading this know we need to make some changes in order to best invest (instead of bury) the “talents” God has given us. But we often don’t know how to discern what changes to make. I think we often make this process too complicated. Here’s one simple way of diagnosing how you’re stewarding the life God has given you. Ask yourself these 3 questions. And ask a few people who love you to give you their input on these questions.
1. What is the one thing you are now doing that you think you should continue doing? (This should target towards your greatest strength)
2. What is the one thing you are now doing that you think you should stop doing? (This should target towards your greatest liability/time waster/sin/way of harming others/etc.)
3. What is one thing you are not now doing that you think you should start doing? (This should target toward your greatest opportunity/untapped potential/a big new risk)
The other questions were from a seminar entitled Watch Your Planning by Mike Bullmore:
Is there something I have a godly desire for in my life?
Is there something God’s been stirring me to address or change?
Are there some things in my life that are not the way I’d like them to be? (these are at the 1:02:15 mark)
Ask these questions, then, and see where God might lead you.
Update on Andrew…
Well, we had a full morning, having to be at the hospital by 5:30 (yes, that’s AM). But the procedure was effective. Andrew handled the anesthetic well and we got home around 11AM. We are praising God for a good morning and above all for glorifying Himself in our lives as we’ve sought to be patient and humble parents. We continue to need your prayers to be patient with him in the recovery. But again, we are praising God that everything went well this AM. Thanks to all who prayed, those who brought us coffee this AM, and those who have called. We feel loved and grateful to God to be a part of such a wonderful body of believers, as well as being blessed with friends in other places.
Please Pray for my 4 year old son Andrew…
…who has an outpatient surgery scheduled for tomorrow (Wed, 7/7) morning. Meg and I want to be able to impart to him a solid trust in a loving Heavenly Father as well as the love and nurturing his recovery will need. Thanks.
Parenting Issues for the Idols in your child’s heart…
Here’s a great post from Chad Mahaney on Video Games, Idols and Your Child’s Heart. The post highlights a question C.J. was asked at a Pastor’s College gathering about video games and a 12 year old. As is usually the case, C.J.’s answer reflects Biblical wisdom, a genuine understanding of the human heart with its weaknesses as well as the humility we should display toward our children. Read and be encouraged.
Covetousness, which is idolatry…
From our church’s current newsletter, an article I wrote:
As a church we place God’s Word at the center of all that we are. We exist to glorify God and enjoy Him forever and we know how to do this by what God has revealed to us in His Word. During our Sunday morning worship gatherings, we have been looking at the book of Colossians which is rich in telling us much about Jesus Christ and our relationship to Him. We are looking at that section in chapter 3 about putting off certain things and putting on others. In Colossians 3:5, we read: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” For the past few weeks, we have been memorizing the Ten Commandments and the last one is “you shall not covet” (Exodus 20:17). But Paul ups the ante a bit and tells us that covetousness is really idolatry.
Many of us don’t think we struggle with idolatry. We picture some Old Testament buffoon bowing down at some golden calf or other image. But, Paul says that the problem of idolatry isn’t so much about the outward stuff as much as the inward desires and cravings or, to put it like he did, what we covet. In his recent book, Gospel in Life, Tim Keller writes: “Why do we lie, or fail to love, or break our promises, or live selfishly? Of course, the general answer is “Because we are weak and sinful,” but the specific answer is that there is something besides Jesus Christ that we feel we must have to be happy, something that is more important to our heart that God, something that is enslaving our heart through inordinate desires. The key to change (and even to self-understanding) is therefore to identify the idols of the heart.”
He continues: “We often don’t go deeply enough to analyze our idol-structures. For example, ‘money’ is of course an idol; yet, in another sense, money can be sought to satisfy other very different idols. That is, some people want money in order to control their world and life (such people usually don’t spend their money, but save it), while others want money for access to social circles and for making themselves beautiful and attractive (such people do spend their money on themselves).” Richard Keyes in his essay The Idol Factory notes, “All sorts of things are potential idols… if this is so, how do we determine when something is becoming or has become an idol?… As soon as our loyalty to anything leads us to disobey God, we are in danger of making it an idol… An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero…
• Work, a commandment of God, can become an idol if it is pursued so exclusively that responsibilities to one’s family are ignored.
• Family, an institution of God Himself, can become an idol if one is so preoccupied with the family that no one outside of one’s own family is cared for.
• Being well-liked, a perfectly legitimate hope, becomes an idol if the attachment to it means that one never risks disapproval.”
To help identify idols in our lives, on top of the above info, Keller gives the following questions: 1) What is my greatest nightmare? What do I worry about the most? 2) What do I rely on or comfort myself with when things go badly or become difficult? 3) What makes me feel the most self-worth? What am I the proudest of? 4) What do I really want and expect out of life? What would really make me happy?
There are various ways to deal with idols, but the Gospel solution is the only one that will produce lasting change. Simply repent and rejoice. Repent or turn from that idol and rejoice or delight in the all satisfying-ness of Jesus. In The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, Thomas Chalmers writes, “The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one… It is when admitted into the number of God’s children, through the faith that is in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured upon us—it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and is the only way in which deliverance is possible.” Let’s escape covetousness, which is idolatry, then, by clinging to the greatest of all possible good – Jesus Christ our Lord. “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:20-21).
Weekend Recap – Patriotic and Putting on Christ
Had a good Lord’s Day, even though it was kind of dreary with the rain, rain, rain. The sermon, Put on Christ, from Colossians 3:5-17 is now online. The sermon really highlighted how we need to put off the things of earth and put on characteristics associated with Christ.
It was nice to be back in the pulpit after vacation. And it was good to reflect on God’s kindness to those of us who live in America, realizing the freedoms we have been given. My heart was drawn to think of the other nations who need to hear of the freedom we have in Christ. All in all, it was an edifying day. Here’s how Platt put it:
Let’s live for the gospel to spread to all nations more than we long to be safe, secure, & satisfied in our own nation.
As Christ died to make men holy, let us live to make men free, while God is marching on…
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