Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1
There are people who profess to be Christians, and may even know Scripture, but by their actions, they are denying that they truly know Christ.
Titus 1:16 - They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
What you believe has to be in direct relationship with how you live and behave. If we share Christ's life and have been raised with Him, then we have to share His example.
Romans 8:11 - And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
We identify with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection if we are Christians. The new life we now live is strong and powerful, but so can our remaining sin be strong and powerful as well. However, we need nothing more than Christ alone to live that Christ-centered life.
Tonight we talked about walking our talk. We can speak "Chriatianeze" all we want, but unless the way we live our lives reflects Christ in us, then we are just moving our lips. Someone can go to church every Sunday and even quote Scriptures from memory, but if they are Getting drunk every Friday night and cursing and using the Lord's name in vain in every other sentence, then they are denying that they truly know and have a relationship with Christ. And others are watching their example!
So what do we have to do to walk our talk?
Colossians 3:2 tells us we need to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.
We put two pennies beside each other on the floor. On top of one of the pennies, we placed a clear glass full of water. We asked the kids to take turns looking down at the two pennies to see which one looked bigger, closer.
As light enters the water in the glass, the speed at which it is traveling slows down. The rounded shape of the glass (and hence, of the water) causes the light to bend outwards. As it bends, it extends the image it surrounds outward slightly as well, making the object appear larger. It works as a magnifier. This experiment shows us again that things are not always as they appear. Things were made to look bigger than they actually were.
In this life, we make a big deal out of things like electronics and "toys" and clothes and possessions. They take up a big space in our minds—sometimes too often! But Colossians 3:1-2 tells us, “Since then, you have been raised with Christ, 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.” When we get to heaven, the glass will be taken away. We’ll see then how small and unimportant those things really were.
What we need to do is, once we have been made new creations in Christ, is preserve our fizz! The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” It’s sort of like a bottle of water and a bottle of soda.
We had one of the youth open a bottle of water and pour some in a glass. Then, with everyone as quiet as possible, we had another youth open a bottle of soda to pour some of it into another glass. As that bottle's seal was broken, we stopped to listen. The soda's fizz created a sort of hissing noise when the seal was broken. The bottle of soda sounded more "alive" than the bottle of water. In addition, once in the glass next to the water, the soda continued to "sizzle" and "sparkle".
Before we give our lives to Jesus, we’re a little like this plain water. We look okay, but we’re kind of bland. We’re kind of boring. After we give our lives to Jesus, we’re more like this soda pop. We sparkle. We come alive. If we don’t touch either for a minute or so, they look sort of the same. They’re both clear. The only difference is that one makes a sparkle every once in a while.
Often times in life, Christians look very much the same as other people. But when it comes time to show the love of Jesus in our lives, we tend to sparkle. How do we do that? How do we get the power to look more "sparkly" than others? God fills us with his love and power, which makes us different. It makes us "fizz"!
If we practice setting our minds on things above and not on earthly things, we will sparkle. So, once God fills us, one of two things can happen. We can keep our sparkle and fizz or…what happens when we leave the cap off a bottle of soda overnight? It loses its sparkle and fizz! It becomes like the water again...no sparkle, no fizz. Who wants to drink flat soda? As Christians, we want to keep our fizz.
If we’re going to act like new creations, we have to take care to preserve our fizz and sparkle. We have to ask for God’s protection. The bottle cap is like God’s protection. We have to put it on and we have to ask God to preserve our fizz for us through giving us a desire to spend more time with Him and grow in our relationship with Him. Then, when we come into contact with people, they will not only HEAR our fizz, but they will SEE it as well!
