“Forget Bad Habits” – Colossians 3:1-17

I need you to really use your imagination with me today.  Are you ready?  Okay, here we go.  Since I am so incredibly wealthy, I would like to take all of you on a wonderful, all-expenses-paid vacation.  You don’t have to worry about anything.  I am going to pay for the tickets, the food, the lodging and all the extras.  All you have to do is show up.  We are going to leave tomorrow.  I’ve already talked to your boss and he said it was fine.  I’ve lined up baby sitters and dog sitters and somebody to water your plants and get your mail.  I’m sending a limo to pick you up at 9 in the morning.  We will be gone for 10 days.  What’s the first question you would ask?

Your first and only question should probably be:  What do I wear?  Right?  That’s all you have to be concerned with.  You just need to know how to dress.  If I’m going to do all that, you don’t even care where we are going, do you?  Let’s go!  It might be Hawaii.  It might be Florida.  It might be the Arctic.  So, all that matters is how you are dressed.  That’s your only responsibility.

Did you know that God is incredibly wealthy?  Yep.  He’s loaded!  God is so wealthy that He owns everything and has promised us that He is going to take us on a trip in this life.  Do you know where He is going to take us?  I don’t either.  But He gives us a clue in Isaiah 43:18-19.  Do you remember what that says?  Can you quote any part of it?

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”

We don’t know where exactly God is going to take us but He says He is going to provide everything we need as He takes us through the wilderness and into the wasteland.  He tells us not to worry or even think about what has happened in the past.  He is doing a new thing and do you know what the only question we need to ask is?  All we need to know is what to wear.  That’s our only responsibility.  The good news is that He tells us what to wear and even provides what we need to wear and we will see that in a minute in the book of Colossians.

But first, let’s go back to our scenario where I’m so rich.  That was fun, wasn’t it?  Suppose we are going to spend 10 days at a 5-star hotel in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  We are going to play in the snow.  We’ll go skiing, horseback riding, rent some Jeeps and run over some trails.  We will make snow angels or you can just sit in the cabin by the fire listening to the live band and eating s’mores.

Now suppose you come to me and tell me that you have a problem.  Your problem is that you are in the habit of wearing only flip flops for shoes.  I say that’s okay because I have provided you with brand new boots in your size and favorite color and I can’t wait for you to try them on.  But you say, no, you can’t wear boots because you are in the habit of wearing flip flops.

I would tell you that is not going to work because we are going to be in the snow a lot so just put on the boots but you refuse.  You refuse to go on our trip to Colorado just because you are in the habit of wearing those nasty, fungus-infested, raggedy old flip flops.  That doesn’t make sense, does it?  You are going to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure – a full and abundant trip (John 10:10) – because of your bad habit.  Crazy!

God wants to take you on a trip.  He has told us He is going to provide the way.  He has proved in the past that He is faithful to do what He says.  He is generous to provide what is best for us and make it a full and abundant trip.  All we have to do is NOT pack our baggage.  Forget about all that old stuff that hinders you.

 Forget unforgiveness because that is sin.  Forget anger because nobody will believe we are going on God’s trip if we pack anger.  Forget all those regrets that Satan wants you to carry around and we have to forget our bad habits because that is not how God wants us to look on this journey.

God tells us what to wear and what not to wear in a wonderfully delicious passage in Colossians chapter 3.  Colossians is between Philippians and Thessalonians in the New Testament.  It is written by the Apostle Paul to the church of Colossae while he was in prison in Rome and there is a bunch of juicy meat in this passage so put your teeth in and put your napkin in your shirt and let’s read Colossians 3:1-17.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now 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, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.  ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wow!  What a smorgasbord of a passage.  It reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner with so much good stuff but I want us to not get filled up on the salad and the rolls.  Let’s concentrate on the meat.  There is some really good stuff in here and if we are going to go on this trip that God has planned for us we need to know what to wear and what not to wear.

We are talking about bad habits this morning; things that will hinder us as we take our trip.  In this passage, Paul is specific about some bad habits and more general about others but this applies to whatever bad habits we all struggle with.  Maybe your bad habit is eating or drinking or otherwise putting something in your body that is not good for you.  Maybe it is something that comes out of your mouth or through your mind.  Maybe it is a place you go or something you choose to put before your eyes.  Paul did not intend to name every bad habit so I won’t either.  We don’t have to.  This passage applies to you and your situation no matter what your bad habit is.

Paul starts off by giving us an overview of how we should live; how we should dress, if you will.  We should get up every morning and set our hearts on things above.  That’s verse 1 and that sounds real good, doesn’t it?  But what does it mean?  What does it really look like for us to set our hearts on things above?  Does it mean we should just think about Heaven all day?

Well, there’s nothing wrong with thinking about Heaven.  We should probably do that more often but there is more to it than that.  Setting our hearts on things above means to concentrate on the eternal more than the temporal.  It means to focus more on what is going to last; what we are going to get rewarded for in Heaven rather than what might be rewarding in this life.

So, with that mindset, Paul starts to get a little more specific.  He says in verse 3 that we have died.  He is talking about our death to self that is represented with our baptism.  We know that baptism doesn’t save us but it represents our old self being put in the grave and our new self – in Christ – being raised from the dead.

Some people may not completely understand that when you became a Christian, you made the choice to make Jesus Lord of your life and I don’t think that is always explained well enough.  It means that what you want to do and how you want to live (your old self) is no longer your driving force.  It doesn’t mean you don’t have preferences anymore.  It means that you want what God wants for your life and nothing else matters.

I hear professing Christians says sometimes that, sure, they know what the Bible says, but they are going to do it their way instead.  Let me make this real clear.  That is your old nature and that is sin.  In verse 5, Paul actually says that we are to put to death that old nature and gives some examples of what that old nature looks like.

The commentaries tell me that this list of five things is primarily sexual in nature, even the last one, greed.  It starts with sexual immorality which would be something like out and out prostitution.  Now, even prostitutes would say that is a bad habit, right?  J  He goes on with impurity which might be something like living with someone you are not married to.  Lust would include wanting someone sexually that is not your spouse.  Evil desires might include looking at porn and down to that interesting word, greed, that might include something we might think is as harmless as comparing your spouse to somebody else.

Those are bad habits and Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that I don’t care who you are, God will punish that kind of lifestyle.  You used to live that way, Paul says, in your old nature.  That’s how unbelievers live.  Don’t be surprised when that happens but we, as believers and as disciples of Jesus don’t live that way.  The behavior in that list are all things that are destructive to us.  1 Corinthians 6:18 says, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.”

He goes on to another list that is indicative of our old nature and it includes things we do that are destructive to other people.  This includes anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language and also lying.  Those are obviously bad habits but Paul goes on to say that all of these, whether sexual sins or other sins, are like clothes that we as Christians just don’t wear.

He already told us in verse 5 to put this stuff to death.  Have you ever had any clothes that need to be put to death?  You know, put out of their misery?  Ok, so here is today’s episode of “Todd’s Embarrassing Stories”.  I’m in middle school and I wore a pair of jeans to school that I hadn’t worn in a while and didn’t realize until I got there that the jeans had a hole in the worst possible place.

I thought for most of the day that I was getting away with it until Renee York ever so nicely whispered for me to please keep myself covered because all the girls were laughing at me.  Yep.  True story.  What do you think happened to those jeans when I got home?  I couldn’t kill ‘em fast enough.  I was mortified; embarrassed to death so I killed those jeans in humiliation and that is just how we should all feel when we wear those clothes of our old nature.

When our bad habits come to light, we should be humiliated.  That is not how we are to be dressed as followers of Christ.  We can’t go on the trip God has planned for us dressed like that and it should be so embarrassing to us that we can’t stand it and will do whatever it takes to put those old habits; those old clothes to death.

In verses 9 and 10 Paul says that we should have taken off our old selves and should have put on the new self.  Now we have to move on to the meat in verse 12.  Are you still there?  Look at it.  Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 

Did you know that you, as Christians, are God’s chosen people?  Do you understand the significance of that?  Do you understand that the Creator of the universe, the great I AM, who just spoke the worlds into existence and at whose name Satan and all the demons quiver in fear…chose you?  He may or may not have chosen the other guy but that is not your concern.  God chose you and that is more than enough.

In verse 12, Paul makes that point and goes on to call us “holy”.  Do you feel holy?  I don’t but God calls us holy.  What does it mean to be holy?  It means to be set apart just for God.  It means to be different.  That’s us.  Right?  Then Paul says we are dearly loved.  Dearly loved by that same King of kings and Lord of lords.  Proven before the world was created and proven again to the point of sending His Son to die for our sins in our place.  Chosen.  Holy.  Loved.  And we should dress like it.

Guys, what if your wife said to you “Honey, since we are going out to dinner tonight, I would like for you to wear that plaid, flannel shirt hanging in the closet.  I just love how you look in that shirt.”  Then she does that thing she always does when she really wants your attention.  You know how women are.  They want to make sure you are looking at them in the eye so they get right in front of you.  Then she says, “I love how it brings out your eyes and it makes your arms look so big and you look so good in it.”

She has your attention now, doesn’t she?  But she continues.  She says, “Honey, I chose you all those years ago and I would choose you again.  I will not share you with any other person on this planet.  You are mine and mine alone and I love you dearly and want you to wear that shirt.”  Then she starts to walk off and says, “Besides, flannel makes me hot.”

Guys, what shirt are you wearing to dinner tonight?  That’s right.  What shirt are you going to buy 6 more of tomorrow?  Absolutely!  Well, God has chosen us.  We are holy to Him and He will not share us with the world or our old nature.  He has proven His love to us and we should dress how He wants us to dress and He says to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Forget that old lifestyle; that old self, the old man with those bad habits.  We are new creations and we should dress like it.

Now, I want to close with one last piece of meat found in the last paragraph.  Verse 15 says, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.”  That’s another one of those passages that sounds real pretty but it’s hard to know exactly how to do it.  That word “rule” is an athletic term and literally means “to preside at the games and distribute the prizes.”  In the Greek Olympic games they had judges or rulers.  We might call them umpires.

The peace of God is the “Umpire” in our believing hearts and churches.  When we obey the will of God, we have peace but when we step out of His will we lose it.  (Wiersbe, Bible Exposition Commentary, V.2, page 139) How do you know what bad habits you need to forget?  Do you have peace in your heart while you are doing it?  If there is no peace, call that bad habit “out” like an umpire.

Lastly, look at verse 17.  Can you do this habit with peace and can you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him thanks for it?  That’s the test.  If you can do whatever it is in peace and you can thank God for providing it and do it in His name then wear those clothes.  But, if not, put those dirty clothes with all their embarrassing holes to death.

God wants to take you on the most fulfilling, abundant and wonderful trip.  But you can’t bring your baggage.  He is providing everything you need.  Forget the unforgiveness, the anger, the regrets and the bad habits.  Put them to death along with your old self and your old ways and your old clothes.  He is doing a new thing.  Do you not perceive it?

This trip that God is going to take us on is a very exclusive trip.  It is only for true believers.  It takes more than just church membership.  First, admit that you are a sinner.  Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners.  Romans 6:23 says we deserve eternal death which is Hell for our sin but God tells us in John 3:16 that He has provided a way out of that.  He sent His only Son to die on the cross and all we have to do is believe.  That belief will manifest itself in a life change just like we have talked about today including baptism, a changed life, a growing relationship with Jesus and peace in this life.  If you don’t have all that today, I need to talk with you right now.