Dear Saints,

Attached are my rough draft notes from the sermon for Sunday, November 17th, 2019. Please realize that these will differ from what was actually presented, But as in times before, I share them with you for the purpose of your own Bible study.

 

 

Love For God

Colossians 3:1-17

Wes Pinkley

November 17, 2019

 

INTRODUCTION

Exo 20:3-7  “You shall have no other gods before me.  (4)  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  (5)  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,  (6)  but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.  (7)  “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

God is a jealous God.  Idolatry has no place.

 

 

We turn to the admonitions of Exodus, to love God as He should be loved.

 

He is to be loved from a pure heart.

1Ti_1:5  The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

2Ti_2:22  So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

1Pe_1:22  Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

 

Our focus today is Colossians 3:14-15  Love for God vs Idolatry & Lust

Put on love

Let peace rule your hearts

Be thankful

 

Love for God vs Idolatry & Lust

God puts it this way;

Jer 2:13  for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

 

Idolatry (Methods)                            Lust(Demands)

Anger                    to get                                    Power/control/peace

Sex/Porn             fantasizing                          Respect and dominance

Gossip                  manipulating                      To be feared and idolized

Education            seeking                                 approval and competency

Perfection           to say that you                  Are better than others

 

We want Idols, wherein I do X and you provide for me Y

Idolatry & Lust are the method and motivation to a craving desire of the self.

 

It is replacing God with some aspect of creation, Broken cisterns.

Idolatry replaces God for

• Joy and Satisfaction
• Solutions to life
• Strength to be
• Sanctification to grow and change

 

This is why battling temptation is hard.

To not battle is to give in.

Christians hate sin and long for God.

Therefore, we do engage in the battle of the spirit over the flesh.

 

It is easier to turn to things for temporary pleasures rather than glorify God by holding out and fighting.

We turn to (List from Dr. Nicholas Ellen)

People, places, products, perspectives, positions, power, platforms, politics, money, medication, media and ministry.

 

God calls idolatry harlotry.

Jer 3:6-8  The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?  (7)  And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.  (8)  She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

In judgement, He destroyed Israel and Judah for chasing false idols and looking like the people of the land.

We must repent. This is very much the church today.

To fail to turn to God is a failure to glorify Him. It is glorifying to creation rather than the creator. It is being in control rather than submitting to and loving God.

 

Lusting is a heart issue. It is a craving to be self-governing.

It is worship without God. self-pleasing, self-glory. It is what Satan offered Adam and Eve as well as Jesus.

Jas 1:12-15  Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.  (13)  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.  (14)  But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  (15)  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown brings forth death.

 

Gal 6:7-8  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  (8)  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

 

Lusts

What do we lust for?

Acceptance, approval, security, freedom from hurt, to be served or significant, to be loved by peers and people, to be famous and favored, to have revenge.

These heart desires are evidenced by

Motivations, mindset/worldview/values, talk/speech, thoughts/meditations, what we keep or give, treatment of people, use of time and money.

Php 3:17-20  Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.  (18)  For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.  (19)  Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.  (20)  But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Jas 3:13-18  Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.  (14)  But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.  (15)  This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  (16)  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.  (17)  But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.  (18)  And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Gal 5:16-21  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  (17)  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  (18)  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  (19)  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  (20)  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  (21)  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 

Questions to ask yourself?

Are you willing to sin to get it?

Do you attempt to hide it?

Do you justify your actions by saying “God will understand?”

Do you hear yourself saying, “Just one more time?”

 

But let’s find our hope

Col 3:1-17  If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  (2)  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  (3)  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  (4)  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  (5)  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  (6)  On account of these the wrath of God is coming.  (7)  In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.  (8)  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.  (11)  Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.  (12)  Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  (13)  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  (14)  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  (15)  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  (16)  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  (17)  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

 

CONCLUSION

Rom 8:1-6  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  (2)  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.  (3)  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (5)  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  (6)  For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.