Turn to Colossians 3, please.
Before we begin, I want to warn you: I’ll be calling on some of you to read some Scriptures. Frankie, it gives me a chance to reach down, get my cup, get some water, and get my nerves together. So some of you guys, be ready. Turn to the passages, please.
Before we begin, let’s pray.
Lord, we really do fall upon You this morning, for there’s no way that we can really hear what You have to say—any word—unless Your Spirit opens our ears and causes us to see You. Lord, there’s no way that we can even speak without Your Spirit, and we are so thankful that we can lean upon Him to be the One who reveals the Lord Jesus to us.
Lord, I pray for every heart today that You would be speaking to each one individually. Lord, maybe a small word to help and to encourage us; Lord, something to help us in the coming weeks, just to know how to walk with You and how to live with You.
Lord, just thank You for this time, and bless it, we pray. Amen.
There’s a song we just got through singing: “I love to live in Your house, O Lord.” And I’m wondering, if you asked yourself that and had time to meditate on it, what would your answer be? Do you love to live in the house of the Lord?
You know, there have been a lot of messages lately on the house of God—in the past years, there have been. Some people have talked about how the house is messy, how it has stones laying around, and everybody—the stones—are being chipped. It’s a building site, and you’re being chipped and molded, and there’s wood all over the place. It can get some nasty places because it’s a building project.
And that’s so true. That is a picture of the house of God: that we’re being built up together. But the Lord recently has been laying something else on my heart about the house of God, and that is that the house of God should display the beauty of the Lord—that it should be a beautiful place, a wonderful place.
You know, our God has always desired to show forth His beauty and His glory—not chaos, but beauty, just plain and simple. Creation shows forth the beauty of the Lord.
The temple in the Old Testament was a beautiful temple. His place—He wants it to be beautiful. In creation, it is actually His beauty, His creative beauty, coming out. And even in the house of God today, I believe that the house should be a beautiful, wonderful place to be.
It should not be a harsh place. It should not be a place that is full of, “Oh man, I’ve got to go there.” It should be, “I love to go into the house of the Lord, to see the beauty of the Lord.”
Titus 2:10 came to mind as I was meditating on this. It basically says, “Make the teaching of God our Savior attractive.” Adorn the doctrine of Christ. That’s a little phrase there in a very practical section about adorning the doctrine of Christ, making Him attractive.
And that’s my heart today: that we’ll learn a little bit more of how we can do our part in the house of God, making it a beautiful place. There are many different ways that the house of God is made beautiful, but a brother—I think it might have been Dan one Wednesday night—shared from Colossians 3.
He read, I believe, verses 12 and 13. And I said in my heart, “Man, that’s beautiful. If everybody was that way, had all these garments, that would be a wonderful place to be.” The house of God would be really, really something.
Considering some of the troubles that we’ve had in the last year or so, you know, the Lord desires His house to be a beautiful place. And if we all had these things, it would be a wonderful place to be.
Let’s go ahead and read Colossians 3:1-14 together. My burden started on verses 12-14, but as I kept studying this passage, I realized, no, I had to go back to the section before that. Then I realized, no, I had to go back to the section before that. So that’s why we’re going to start from Colossians 3:1 and read through verse 14.
There are three sections, three divisions. As we read these sections, try to think of a phrase or a set of words that describes that section. It could be an imperative phrase. There needs to be an action phrase, or some action words, that describe that section.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,
keep on seeking those things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things,
for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, Who is your life, appears,
then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Verse 2 is really special in that section, Lord.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:
sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: