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March 14, 2004 |
"God's HDL Design: " |
Pastor Brian Shimer
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"God's HDL Design: Getting dressed to Live" Col 3:1-14"
Colossians 3:1-14
| I. |
Did anyone get dressed this morning? Of course you did. Once we wake
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up in the morning at some point we get some clothes covering these frames of ours before the day begins. And morning strikes all of us differently. It was Albert Einstein who said: "The problem with the speed of light is it comes too early in the morning." No matter how we get awake eventually we must dress.
During Lent this year our Sanctuary is being "Undressed" by the worship committee. They are removing something every week. Don't you miss the banners? The sanctuary appears stark without them. Which is what life is without Jesus. This Lent we are remembering the stark reality of his sacrifice for us!
God was in Christ, Paul has told us here in Colossians, reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to himself. God did something in Christ we never could do for ourselves.
Without Jesus, we are spiritually naked-- in addition to dead and enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior. Indeed, we can be naked even if we know him. Genesis 2-3 shows that the first couple were clothed in God's glory until their sin. After that point they had to be clothed physically. Rev 3 tells of a church, which got so full of itself, it forgot God and became naked: "You are wretched, pitiful, blind, poor and naked," Jesus says to them.
I remember in San Jacinto when a group of pastors and their wives were in the church for a prayer meeting, when God spoke to one of the pastor's wives saying through her, "this people is a naked people." It was a stark reminder. As their pastor I redoubled my efforts to assist them in being clothed in Christ.
God wants His people clothed.
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How do we get clothed? Well, we put on the clothes God has provided.
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This means two things. First, we receive God's work for us. Second, we take action ourselves. As you received Christ, so live in Him, Paul said in chapter 2. Here he says, "Seek the heavenly" "slay the earthly" and "choose the godly".
As Peter says: "add to your faith" and James says, "act upon your faith" so Paul says, add clothes to your faith. Wear something. Your faith is not just a personal belief but an active reality. It shows just like clothing.
So, how do we get clothed?
A. First, realize God has designer clothes for you.
I was amazed the first time someone phoned me and said, "Hey Brian, I saw there was a sale at such and such store, and I stopped in and bought a few things for you. Come on over and see if they fit." I did and they did. I was staggered. Who in the right mind would chose such great clothes for me?
God has designer clothes for you. They are in his HDL line. They are for you who are HOLY AND DEARLY LOVED. It is helpful to remember you are chosen for His great purposes.
What if you thought that first every morning: "God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life today." I am "holy and dearly loved." Here is where the positive thinkers had the right idea.
A book called "Women who think too much" discusses the brain and how the brain develops ruts, grooves with patterns of thought. Negative connections are made so that when someone experiences a similar situation all the negative nodes light up and the circuitry between them is heightened.
This author who is not a Christian says the solution for this is to think "higher" thoughts. Lift up your eyes, the Bible says. What higher thought than to dwell upon who you are in Christ and who Christ is to you?
AS we do so, new channels of thought are built in the brain physically!
B. Next, you and I get dressed. Notice there are 7 virtues listed here, similar to the list of the fruit of the spirit and Peter's list of virtues added to faith. We cannot discuss them all at once but they all hang together.
Notice too the outline in the bulletin is written incorrectly -- The Bible does not say: "being clothed with" as if God clothes you and me. But the Bible tells us to clothe ourselves with these two virtues that relate to how we TREAT OTHERS.
First comes compassion. That means "bowels of mercy" or a "heart of compassion". Much like we would say "I have a gut feeling," so the ancients believed the gut held the tender emotions. This means we act with compassion, we feel for another's situation, we put ourselves into another person's position.
You all did this with your cards, visits, phone calls, sitting with Karen while I was in surgery and embraces as I went under the scalpel and lost my appendix. You felt with me and with Karen through this little episode. I have never had so many people tell me to take it easy and slow down in my life. In fact I have usually been the one with phantom pains the doctor could never find as an ailment, rather then the one who really has a problem!
That is compassion.
The other day I was in a situation where I did not show any compassion. I was full of myself, my agenda, my self righteousness. The result was disasterous. Wear compassion in relationship with others.
Next comes kindness. These fit together. What doorways kindness can open. A young man wandered from his home, spent himself in wild living and ended up wandering into a church where he was caught by the character of the preacher. This young man said of that preacher, Bishop Ambrose at the Cathedral in Milan: "I began to love him, not at first as a teacher of the truth, which I despaired of finding in the church, but as a fellow creature who was kind to me." This young man became the great theologian St Augustine!
Get dressed with compassion and kindness -- by putting them on in the morning. Let this verse become a morning prayer. I'm getting dressed Jesus with compassion and kindness today.
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