Colossians 3:1-11 Out With the Old, In With the New - Todd Hoshiko

[Applause] hey good morning everyone so glad to see you all here joining us in person whether it's in the worship center for those of you out in the tent or joining us online i'm so thankful that you are here and if i haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet like davey said my name is todd i am the youth director here i have the honor i have the privilege and the absolute joy to serve with our youth ministries and particularly our high school ministry and you know we had some good news this morning we heard that the torrance little league team one so they're continuing and advancing in the little league awards series that's our very own gibson turner who's like the star pitcher his dad ollie they both come and attend spcc so we're super stoked to hear that but again i am just so humbled and so thankful to have this opportunity to share with you all and to share god's word with you and kind of like what pastor dave said for me man i was first invited out to this church in middle school so by a close family friend i was invited out and after that i went through our youth ministry so evolution our middle school ministry i went through legacy our high school ministry all even through freshman year where i was eventually baptized i think we have a photo of that and man it looks yeah it looks worse when it's bigger i was baptized freshman year of high school and this makes me excited because yeah we have baptisms next week extra excited for that but it's also pretty cringe of how embarrassing this photo is and you know that's actually my wife nicole and i uh but fun fact we weren't dating back then i don't know if you can tell but ever since then we had been together and oh yeah that was the that was the outside right so that was the old that some of you here have known for a while the old todd that was 5-2 both this way and that way pastor dave said i was around as a basketball it was super true the old todd was the kid that kicked a hole in the wall of a church that we were borrowing for vbs i know teacher lillian remembers that all too well whereas this is the new todd or newer todd that a lot of you now know a little bit more mature more responsible same weight but god just stretched me and you know i'm just super glad i'm thankful that god has changed me that he's transformed me and he continues to mold me and grow me and that there is a difference between the old todd versus the new todd and that's why the title of my message today is out with the old and in with the new because we continue in the book of colossians in chapter three paul he's highlighting this transition he's highlighting this transformation that we go through as believers as we put off our old self and as we enter into this new life with christ and paul we learned in the past couple weeks the first two chapters he addresses the supremacy of christ how in jesus we have salvation in him and him alone how jesus is greater he talked about how as believers we don't need to practice things like mysticism like asceticism which is beating or punishing your body for the goal of extreme self-denial of the flesh no but as we believe in jesus for the forgiveness of our sins we have been buried with christ and we have been raised to a new life with him because of his resurrection power and that leads us to chapter three where the author paul he focuses on practical christian living and so i invite you all to open up your bibles to colossians 3 verses 1 to 2 and if not no worries we'll have it up here on the screen for you or you can follow it on our app but let's take a look colossians 3 1-2 says if then you have been raised with christ seek the things that are above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth and so the author paul he starts by acknowledging that as we have been raised with christ as believers are those who have put our faith in jesus we are now part of a new creation and we now have this new life and paul he looks into the implications of living this christian life and what putting off our old self looks like and so verse 1 again it says seek the things that are above and the greek verb for seek which is zayteo means to search for it means to look for means to desire and you know i like the way that it's translated in the niv version this is what it says it says since then you have been raised with christ set your hearts read it again set your hearts on things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god set your minds on things above not on earthly things and the word seek this verb is in the present imperative meaning that it's a continual seeking so we continually seek what is of true importance not something that we just do once and then we forget about it no but we continually seek the things above seeking things above where christ is seated at the right hand of god and verse two it continues in the stop by telling us to set our minds on things that are above not on things of this earth it's a shift in our way of thinking it's a shift in our motivations and a shift in our priorities and so as you are taking notes for your first point you can write this down put off the old self by living in light of eternity so one of the first things that we can do as we put off the old self we do that by living in light of eternity and you know when i read this verse at first it makes me think about my life before i was married and many of you know um before i was married i love to play basketball basketball is my favorite sport and so when i would get asked by my friends to go play um i would respond very quickly to that text and tell them yes of course just tell me when and when i'll be there i'm down or when my buddies would have a 6 30 a.m tea time on a saturday and was like yeah of course i'm there all right don't you have to check your schedule no i'm free i'm good all good to go but now that i've been married for almost two years uh when my friends ask me to play basketball i'm very quick to say yes of course like i'm down down to ask my wife if i can go play i don't know i might have a dinner or if it's a 6 30 a.m tea time um all it takes is one look for my wife to be like yeah maybe next time maybe next time i can go play and of course nicole she's so amazing and i definitely am able to go play more often than not but you know the reason why i share that is now that i'm married my priorities have changed and now that i'm married now that i have this relationship i constantly consider my wife it affects my choices it influences the way i live it's less of this self-centered perspective and in that same way as we put off the old self as we are raised into our new life with christ we have to constantly consider jesus we have to have an eternal perspective prioritizing heavenly things above earthly things because our time on earth is temporary as opposed to eternity that we spend with god and that's true for us here and that's true for everyone around the world you know i know the past couple weeks many of you may have heard about the terrible things that are happening in the country of afghanistan you know the taliban is extremist group is taking rule and so we're witnessing the decimation of a country going door to door forcibly taking women taking children the people there are told to mark their house with an ex if they have a girl over 12 years old so the taliban can take them doing evil things executing families that try to hide their children from them you know along with this hit list that the taliban is carrying out against known christians hunting and killing them and there's no longer a safe place for believers to find refuge in that country and you know a heavy heartbreaking video of an afghan christian was brought to our attention as a church this video was from fai which is the frontier alliance international and uh we wanted to share it with you today because we believe that it brings awareness to what's happening there in that country and you'll notice that he's blurred out along with his voice being altered and that's for his confidentiality that's for his protection and you know this video truly exemplifies what it means to live with an eternal perspective to live in light of eternity despite our situations in this world so please take a look up on the screen foreign [Music] this peace foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign what [Music] foreign man church my my heart breaks for those that are being persecuted believers and unbelievers for their families for their safety for their faith you know the afghan man said in the video we are not leaving the field we will fight harder and continue in god's work man what a radical response right despite all their circumstances their faith in jesus is so strong in jesus who is supreme who is greater who gives them hope for this future eternal glory that they will receive you know after watching that video right now i'd like to take a moment to pause and let's pray and let's lift up this country in afghanistan will you pray with me church dear heavenly father god our hearts are heavy lord just hearing about what's happening in afghanistan god the taliban taking women taking children god hunting and killing those because of their faith so lord we just pray that your hand would be over those that are fleeing god we pray for the salvation for the deliverance and protection god are those that have been forcibly taken from their own homes lord give them strength god give them endurance strength and endurance for the afghan church lord we pray that you would bring hope to the hopeless in only the way that you can god and i pray for us here as the body of christ to be in continued prayer for those in afghanistan and lord help us as we continue to dive deeper in your word through our study we lift all these things up in jesus mighty name amen amen thank you church and so again paul in the book of colossians in these verses he's highlighting what putting off our old self and putting on this new life in christ looks like seeking things above having an eternal perspective as believers right knowing that the christians in colossae they were used to their former pagan lives how they used to live and we see in mark 10 the bible tells us about a rich young ruler a rich young man someone who had wealth someone that had possessions and yet he runs up to jesus and he asks them this question he says what must i do to inherit eternal life what must i do to inherit eternal life jesus replied by telling him to keep the commandments emphasizing the law as god's perfect standard and and the rich young man he answers back saying i've kept all these commandments since i was young considering himself faultless but then i want us to check out jesus's response in mark 10 21-22 it says in jesus looking at him loved him and said to him you lack one thing go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me and then take a look at verse 22 this is for the rich young ruler it says disheartened by the saying he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions and so it says that the young man was disheartened why is that was because his heart treasured the wealth the possessions the things of this earth over the eternal treasures that he could receive in christ his earthly wealth was blocking his view of eternity and i think that's something that we need to ask ourselves we need to ask ourselves the questions do we treasure the things of this earth more than the things above do we have a worldly perspective focused on what's temporary or do we have a kingdom perspective focused on what's eternal you know the way we start to live seeking things above all starts from the in side i notice how in these verses paul he says set your hearts he says set your minds all internal to the things above our god he doesn't work from the outside in but he works through the inside out and we start to reorient and when we start to fix our minds on things above and what truly matters that impacts the way we think that gives us new desires and leads us to seeking and living for eternal purposes that's when we see change taking place this new focus on things that last and you know for me now that i'm in my late 20s i have a lot of friends that have been looking for a new home they've been browsing the housing market and i know that man it is a blessing to just have any type of home that god provides and also a blessing to be able to search for one and so it made me think about when me and my wife when we were looking for a new home it was honestly one of the most stressful things to make this huge decision of where we were going to live after we got married right it was something that took away our attention it took a lot of concern it took away our energy a lot of our time and i see some of my friends going through the same things but you know one thing we were always challenged with throughout that process was setting our minds on things above considering jesus as we moved forward seeking eternal treasures over the earthly you know i remember all the time spent at open houses i remember getting advice from certain friends saying you should send a letter to a seller all right let them know that we're a young couple work at the church a little personal touch but of course i look back i don't think that really helped at all but trying to make sure we didn't get outbid right being so fixated on making this offer instead of viewing this in light of a kingdom perspective not just seeking to make the best offer but seeking to use this opportunity as an offering to god by using this potential home to bless others to provide a place to help others to help our friends a place for fellowship of gathering setting our minds on things above considering jesus in all of the choices that we make knowing that regardless of any money that house can buy or any money that that house can become it's ultimately for your temporary home because as believers our citizenship our home is in heaven and paul he brings that to the attention of the believers at colossae in verses three to four he gives them some reasonings behind that let's take a look so colossians 3 3-4 it says for you have died and your life is hidden with christ in god when christ who is your life appears then you also will appear with him in glory and so paul he's addressing this present security that we have because we are in christ because we are in christ we are inseparable we have been eternally secure and then check out what paul is saying he says when christ who is your life appears christ who is your life appears paul makes it crystal clear all right because it's so easy to get caught up in this world and what this world has to offer but the truth is your job is not your life is not your life your possessions are not your life your accomplishments are not your life even your family is not your life but jesus gives us life and is our life and when it comes to all that we have here on earth we can do one of two things we can either hold them with clenched fists not wanting to let go being tied to the material and immaterial things of this earth like the rich young ruler or we can hold them with open hands with an eternal perspective right seeing everything we have through a kingdom lens like those continuing to share the gospel all around the world like in countries like afghanistan regardless of their situations living in light of eternity again we put off the old self by living in light of eternity you know so now as we live in light of eternity putting off our old self life before knowing christ that leads to this response and so for your second takeaway you guys can jot this down put off the old self by cutting off old sin we put off the old self by cutting off old sin you know we see this in colossians 3 verse 5 it says put to death therefore what is earthly in you sexual immorality impurity passion evil desire and covetness which is idolatry and so in the first part of this list paul he's addressing the sexual sins that we are to put to death sexual immorality impurity passion which translates to things like premarital sex sex outside of marriage pornography watching things you know you shouldn't be watching lusting after others and paul his call was radical to the pagan culture in its day knowing that this was a part of the colossians former way of living and unfortunately this array of sins is prominent in our society today we see it in tv we see it in social media we see it sometimes in movies and the battle with these sins is common to unbelievers and believers adults and teenagers the youth those that are married those that are single and i know how hard the struggle with this type of sin is to be honest at the end of high school and in college for me i used to struggle with these lustful temptations watching things i know i shouldn't have been watching and you know this isn't the easiest thing for me to share especially last night when my parents and my family my grandma were here in the audience but you know i share this because i know that some of you here may be struggling with that right now this may be an immediate struggle and during that time man god he really put my faith to the test he gave me this conviction of this old sin this secret sin or something that was so easy to hide from other people something that i knew scripture said to put to death and that doesn't mean just to lay it aside and that doesn't mean just to put it over here no but the greek verb necro means to cut off it means to mortify to kill to literally put this sin to death and practically what that looked like for me was seeking out accountability from close friends accountability from my now wife and god convicted me he convicted me to go into my phone settings to set up a browser lock and content restrictions on my phone that only my wife knows the code to deleting certain social media because of all the click bait that there is out there all these temptations having a filter on my safari to help me continually seek things that are above seek the everlasting joy in god over these momentary pleasures that this world has to offer cutting off my ability to sin completely cutting it off putting to death this old sin and this was me dying to myself dying to my old former way of living and now considering jesus in all of my actions and you know i know that this is a tough struggle to deal with i know that this is a hard sin to put to death right one that may be coming back and keeps coming back especially when it has a strong grip on your life and that's why paul he says here in colossians to get rid of it to get rid of the evils of sexual sins and he doesn't stop there in verse five he continues on to talk about putting to death covetedness right greed which is idolatry paul uses this word not only to talk about this desire to possess more than one has but also this desire to possess something that someone else has comparison it's a common struggle that we hear in the youth all the time but i know that affects all of us something that we all may struggle with idolizing what others have and what you don't have all right looking at the influence the followers that someone has that you don't and let's be real maybe for you it's you're trying to keep up with the joneses or you know if you're too young you don't understand that maybe it's you trying to keep up with the kardashians right all these different things and this ongoing struggle of discontentment of what you don't have maybe it's you comparing your body to the body of someone else or the way that you dress with how someone else dresses maybe for you it's being careful not to compare your kids to someone else's kids or compare what your friends have that you don't have that you want and paul he warns us about these sins because it places a selfish desire over our obedience to god and in verses 6 to 7 paul he gives two reasons for putting off these sins let's take a look colossians 3 6-7 it says on account of these the wrath of god is coming in these two you once walked when you were living in them and so it's saying on account of these things sin evil it provokes the wrath of god because god is just because god he's holy because god detests sin so reason number one sin brings god's judgment and reason number two sin is part of a believer's past former way of living all right paul makes this point since we as believers have been buried we've been resurrected and now ascended with christ now we no longer walk in our former way of living and that includes the second list so paul shares a second list in verses eight to nine it says but now you must put them all away anger wrath malice slander an obscene talk from your mouth do not lie to one another and what comes out of our mouth is usually rooted deep from our hearts and it's this anger and this wrath that is boiling right below the surface ready to erupt and some of you if you're like me this may come out when you're driving like i don't know if this speaks to you guys but when you're driving especially when someone cuts you off and not only do they cut you off man they don't use their blinker and not only do they not use their blinker they start to slow down and so you you're rolling down your window you're ready to let them have it right until they turn into the same church parking lot right maybe for you it's not that you're you're angry anymore but you you get out of your car and you start walking to church you look you turn to your spouse you turn to your family member you turn to your friend you start talking about man how bad of a driver that person is how you're glad they're here at church man they they need jesus all right jesus take the wheel like literally they don't know how to drive jesus take the wheel but paul he talks about malice and slander too he talks about hurtful speech towards others bringing others down gossiping talks about obscene talk foul abusive speech lying to one another and man we've seen throughout the whole bible how hurtful lies can be and get this lying is even a characteristic used to describe satan it's a great sin against god it's a great sin against the church and against loving others and that's why paul he makes an effort to say put them all away i put off the old self i just like how we were to take off our dirty clothes these dirty clothes at the end of the day you know paul he's encouraging the believers in colossae to discard to get rid of the filthy rags of their old life their former way of living and so again we put off the old self by cutting off old sin and in order to cut off old sin what also helps us to put off the old self this is your last takeaway truth you can write this down we put off the old self by being renewed we put off the old self by being renewed and you know back when i was younger my bachchan so bachan means grandmother in japanese and so my bachan she would always pick me up from school and she would watch me and you know even though i am a hundred percent japanese i know like one percent of japanese so again i know bachan which i just said was grandmother i know my japanese food like teriyaki takoyaki all the yakis you can think of and i specifically know the word abu nai and some of you might know that i know the word abu nai and i'll explain what that means in just a sec but when my bachchan she would babysit me i always remember her calling me abu nai abunai abu nai and back then i honestly used to think oh dude me me and my botch and we're tight like we're so close she has a nickname for me i'm her little abunai guy you know and eventually though i learned that abunai meant danger in japanese and so i would hear this every time i went over to her house because when i would try to do things like touch the stove she'd be like ah wouldn't i stop it or when i would run around and almost hit my head on the corner of every table she'd be like abu nai stop it or when i would jump off the couch because it was super fun or jump off the bed she'd be like abunai i'd stop it and i share that with you all because we can just read verses five to eight and think paul is only telling us abunai stop it a danger stop it just don't do that anymore try harder do better it's all on you why we think he's saying just stop lying just stop thinking lustful thoughts stop acting out in anger stop cussing just stop it but that's not the fullness of what scripture is saying here it's not about stopping a behavior anyone can try to do that but as we put our faith in christ we are changed from the inside out or we die to our old self and we live these new lives in him right through christ we can truly put to death old sins putting off our old self isn't just based off what we can do but it's based off all that christ has done and we know that god he loves us so much that he sent his one and his only son jesus to die on the cross for our sins not his he was perfect and because we are all sinners because we've all done things that are displeasing that are just obedient to god and because the penalty of sin is death separation from god life apart from him jesus did what only he could do and the good news is if we choose to put our faith in him believe in jesus because of god's grace we can be forgiven and we can be saved from our sins and spend eternity with him and you know as we enter into this relationship with god we are filled with his spirit and paul in verses 9 to 10 he shares that as believers put off the old self and as they put on the new self it's not this instant spiritual maturity right it's not like this microwave faith that you heat up for a little bit and you come out perfect are not having to deal with sin anymore no because in this life there is an ongoing battle against the flesh there is an ongoing battle against our former way of living our old self and so listen to this paul he gives us the answer in colossians 3 9-10 paul says this seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self listen to this which is being renewed you guys can underline that if you want which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator and so paul he's telling us the way and the process of how you and i who have been given this new self who have been given this new life in christ how we put off the old and put on the new be transformed by christ is through this process called renewal through the process of renewal it's because of the resurrection power of jesus that we can be renewed that causes our hearts and our minds to now desire the things that god desires right it leads our hearts to choose jesus over these old sins not just stopping a behavior but choosing jesus over our old self i take a look at what romans 12 2 says it says do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of god what is good and acceptable and perfect we are transformed by the renewal of our minds and not being conformed to the world but growing in our knowledge of god and how do we grow in our knowledge of god well the source of knowledge is the bible it's god's word time spent in scripture time spent with god and the word of god is food that fuels our growth as believers and you know this knowledge of god progressively leads us to being conformed into the image of our creator living a life like jesus through constant renewal and you know as we are being renewed day by day by day what happens also is it changes our human relationships look at how paul ends this section in colossians 3 11 it says here there is not greek and jew circumcised and uncircumcised barbarian scythian slave free but christ is all and in all so paul he's saying that neither greek nor jews so regardless of racial barriers regardless of religious barriers circumcised or uncircumcised despite cultural barriers barbarians scythians or even social barriers slaves free christ is all and in all there is no room for man-made barriers in the body of christ now why is this important well this is important because as we're being renewed that impacts the way we see it impacts the way we treat and it impacts the way we love others in the same way that god sees treats and loves us again we put off the old self by being renewed and you know when i think about something old that has been renewed constantly in my life i can't help but think about my 1992 nissan maximus my very first car i gave it the nickname of maroon 5 because it was maroon and it's seated 5. but this old car this is a car that got me through high school it got me through college and man i drove this car for a good amount of years until it started to break down and the thing is whenever i had problems with my car before even calling aaa i would always call my dad and without fail he would always help me fix my tires he would help me change the oil he would help me send my car to the shop and my maxima would always come back renewed all right and it wasn't always a quick fix but i knew i could always call upon my father for help because there is usually nothing i can do i know nothing about cars but i know i can always call upon my father and you know when we follow jesus when we put off the old self we live in light of eternity and when we live in light of eternity that moves us to put to death right to cut off old sins and in order to put to death these old sins we can call out to our father we can call out to our father in heaven his spirit to constantly renew us to the renewal of our minds as we grow in knowledge as we grow to know him more and more and that sanctifies us that transforms us and that changes us out with the old and in with the new let's close this time in a word of prayer as you bow your heads and you close your eyes take this time to consider jesus when we put our faith in jesus we put off our old self and we put on our new lives in christ that means putting to death old sins things that have a stronghold on our lives right by being renewed in him and for some of you today and maybe this was the first time hearing about god's amazing love the first time hearing about what christ has done for you on the cross and now you want to start a relationship with him following jesus living in light of eternity or or maybe for you it's that you want to recommit that you want to reconsider jesus and if that's you today will you pray this prayer with me will you pray father god thank you for your love god thank you for your grace even though i'm a sinner you know what i've done you know my former way of living and yet you sent jesus to die on the cross for me and because of his blood i am saved [Music] lord i believe or i believe in you i want to start this new life in you from this day forward god help me to be renewed god help me to cut off old sin to live with an eternal perspective and lord i know this isn't something that i do alone but with you and because of your resurrection power that i can now be raised into new life in christ thank you for loving me i commit my life to you now and it's in jesus mighty name i pray amen

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Length: 42min 34sec (2554 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 22 2021