The Closet of a Christian - Andrew Bennett

God bless everybody. I didn't know I'd be talking a bunch of high schoolers today, but it's good to have y'all here. It's a blessing. It's a blessing to be here this morning. Today I just want to talk to you guys about putting on the character of Christ and in our daily lives we can see a lot of examples of, you know, soldiers who wear their uniform as a representation of their discipline and honor, their duty to this country. We even understand as a concept called stolen valor, right, where some people will put on the uniform that they aren't, you know, worthy of wearing because they haven't put in the work and served our country. And I think of a bride on her wedding day and her beautiful white dress that symbolizes, you know, godly commitment and unity to Christ and to her spouse. And today I just want to talk to you guys about how clothing is more than just threads that are woven together, right? Our clothing tells a story and the theme for today is going to be talking about the closet of a Christian. Today we'll be looking at Colossians 3 verses 12 and 17 and we're going to be talking about how Paul is instructing the early church to put on Christ. And the text reads, Sean, I don't know if you could get it on there for me, but if not, it's fine. I could read it here. Colossians 3 verses 12 to 17, if you got your phone, your Bible at, you could open up and go there, or you could just listen to the law and that's fine. It says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another for giving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs in hymns and spiritual songs. With thankfulness in your hearts to God and whatever you do and word and deed, do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father through him. So just some background context on Paul writing this letter to the church in Colossae. They were struggling with a mix of Jewish legalism, which is extreme obedience to the law, to the point where it overtakes salvation. And they were also struggling with Gentile practice and doctrine. And in the previous letter, the Apostle Paul talks to the church about the fact that they need to put to death certain things and take off certain things, right? Among these things are common sins that we know about like immorality, lust, evil desires, greed, rage, anger, malice, slander, filthy language, lying, whatever you think about when sin, the concept of bad things and sin comes to your mind, right? Disobeying God. But in this section that I want to focus on today, the Apostle Paul is talking about how we can combat those behaviors, how we can combat sinful behavior with the character of Christ. And this term that he uses in the first verse, right, in verse 12, to put on, it comes from the Greek word and duo, which literally means to clothe yourselves, right? You don't leave the house without clothing yourselves. And that's why I'm titling the theme of this, the closet of a Christian, right? In verses 12 to 14, Paul goes through the list of Christ's light characteristics and attributes that we need to be focused on as individuals, right? Whether we're inside the body of Christ or outside the body of Christ, because one thing we realize is that without God, without Christ, this world is, is parishing. There is no hope in this world without Christ-like values, Christ-like lifestyle. The first one he touches on is compassion, which is a heart that is tender towards the needs of others, right? You need to be caring, you need to care about your neighbor, care about others, kindness, acting in consideration and doing acts of goodness that flow from genuine care. Humility, putting others before yourself as Christ does for us, right? I think one thing our society struggles with is humility. We are constantly wanting to be on top. We are constantly wanting to be the face of everything. Nobody likes to take a back seat anymore and let others work. Nobody likes to take a back seat anymore and let Christ work through us. Humility is a key value to walking like Christ so we can change and impact the world. Gentleness and meekness, responding with grace rather than anger and aggression. I could tell you, I struggle with this one sometimes, a few times on the court, I got out of character, maybe through somebody down, you know, whatever it may be, but you know, God is working on all of us and one thing I will say is that gentleness and meekness goes a long way, right? In this world where we're so combative, we're always going back and forth with one another. We need to learn how to be mild-mannered. We need to learn how to be slow to anger. And that flows right into patience, right? Which is endured grace even in circumstances of difficulty, right? Giving those around you time. One thing we need to remember is that each and every person, each and every person in this room is on their own journey and that takes time. I'm not up here telling everybody that they need to get right with Christ this moment, right? But I'm up here telling you you need to get right with Christ because I love you, each and every one of you in this room. And that requires time, that requires the Holy Spirit doing a work on your heart so that you can be transformed to transform the world. Forgiveness, it is essential to forgive as Christ forgives us, we can't expect the blessings of the kingdom if we are not going to forgive our neighbor. Forgiveness is another thing I've struggled with. You know, you have people that do you wrong in life. You have people that hurt you, that may bully you, that may say things about you that are untrue. But Christ is calling us to love those people, right? Because if we are internalizing anger and hatred towards people, then the Holy Spirit cannot properly work through us. And this flows right into love. And Paul calls this, you know, it's almost the glue that holds all these things together. The ultimate article of clothing is love. Christ-like love is what makes all of these qualities real rather than surface level. Christ-like love fuels genuine kingdom relationships and kingdom care for the world. Verse 15, "The apostle Paul tells the church to let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. To rule means to govern, to control. Anytime we are acting out of impulse, and we're not walking in step with the Spirit, we make dumb decisions." And that's facts. Like, we cannot do what we're called to do on this earth if we're acting by the flesh. In every circumstance, Paul is reminding us that the peace of Christ should be our guiding factor rather than our fleshly instincts. If you notice that you're getting out of character, if you notice that someone is getting you to that breaking point, you need to step back until ask God to calm me down, to recenter me, to let me be focused. So I'm operating in the peace of Christ rather than out of my flesh. As a body of Christ, we need to notice and take notice of any situation or action that is disrupting our peace. We need to step back and recenter on Christ's direction. And this doesn't only help us individually, but it helps us as the body of Christ, right? One thing, if you're a believer and if you're not, if you're in a community of believers, you understand that if heads are constantly clashing, then no work is going to get done in the kingdom. We need to constantly be working in collaboration with one another, using our gifts with one another to properly serve God and serve His people. Verse 16, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you, reading and meditating on God's Word is essential, right? We cannot be the body of Christ if we don't know who He is. How can we know God if we're not reading the Bible? Every one of us has access to a Bible when the Lord comes back. There's not going to be any excuse when He acts. Why don't you know me? We need to get in the Word. We need to know Christ for ourselves so we can share Him with other people, right? That is our purpose on this world. We were made in the image of God, each and every one of you made in the image of God. And that means that we have a responsibility to communicate, to communicate Christ properly, right? We got to be able to communicate Christ properly. And if we're not doing that, you know, anything else we do doesn't really matter. We see in our society, we see all the celebrities, whoever it may be, whatever celebrity comes to your mind, even the ones that have, you know, fallen off. The scripture tells us what is a prophet of man to gain the whole world but to lose his soul. There is no amount of riches, no amount of status, no amount of blue checks that can replace you being made in the image of God. And that's something that fuels me each and every day. When I realize that my identity doesn't lie in what I do on the court or what's in my bank account, what kind of family I come from, what kind of background I have, the struggles I go through, the sins I struggle with. When I realize that my identity is secure, in my heavenly Father, that changed my life completely. In verse 17, living for Christ, right, everything we say and do should reflect Christ. Because like I said, we are image barriers. And I just wanted to, I wrote this down a little bit ago, but I wanted to be communicating James 5, 16 to you guys. And it says, confess and pray for one another that you may be healed, right? As a body of Christ, as individuals, we, it's the enemies tactic to have a struggling and isolation. He hates community. He hates seeing all these young, old, whatever age people in this room gathered to learn more about him. He hates that. And that's how he gets you, right? The second you start to struggle with something, the enemy uses that to make you want to withdraw. But we have to be praying for one another. You have to find somebody that you can trust, find somebody that you can just confide in and confess to them, you know? You've got to open up. Nobody's too tough. We got to take off the mask, right? And this goes back to the clothing. When you walk out of your door in the morning, who are you? That's stepping out of your room. And I want us to keep that in mind. We need to remember that our walk is much more than what people see. Before we look in the mirror, we need to remember our spiritual closet. So today, I just want to ask you guys some questions. What are we clothed in? What are you putting on in the morning when you step out that door? Are we hanging on to parts of our old self or parts of our current self that is constantly killing us? Are we actively putting on the character of Christ? And again, we cannot know the character of Christ if we're not opening up his word, learning more. We have an entire history story book about this, the God man that came here and dwelled on earth, that we can learn more about him, learn the things he did, learn how we interacted in the face of trials, persecution, unfair treatment, all of these things. We have that tool at our disposal right in our pocket for many of us right now. So there is no excuse. And finally, right, if we belong to Christ, then our lives need to look like it. If we belong to Christ, then our lives need to look at it, look like it, right? We are representations of the kingdom. That's all I got for you today.