The worst of us can and are brought into Christ. We are able to love with tenderness, meekness, mercy, and longsuffering. We put off old ways and put on the things of glory that we have in Him. (Colossians 3:1-13)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12251
6:30 PM on 2/13/2022

 

P. Steve Andrulonis –

Alright. Good evening. Awesome. It’s an awesome night, right? It’s awesome to be here on a night, on
any Sunday night, 5:00. Thanks for coming. Those watching, this is a special super edition of
the Greater Grace World Outreach service. We can’t say the other part because it’s owned by
the National Football League, so we don’t say the other part of it. It’s a trademark.

Just a word about this morning’s message about Colossians. This is the book of the Bible, the
epistle that Paul wrote to a place that he never visited. It was an instruction to people who were
trying to construct an understanding of who Jesus is. This has always been a wrestling match
throughout history because Jesus is a mystery. It’s a mystery to the human mind that God would
become a man and would never surrender the essence of his deity. The fact that he was a man
but he was also God. And why was it so important for him to come and be a man? I think so he
could hide us as it says in those first verses of Colossians 3. That he could hide us in himself.
Because we are hid in Christ, we are doubly covered.

You know there’s a verse in Proverbs 31 which is about the virtuous woman. It says that her
household is covered in scarlet, but some translations say that the household is doubly covered.
When I read that chapter of Proverbs, I’m always thinking of the bride of Christ and the bride of
Christ is covered in scarlet but it’s a double covering. It’s the blood of Christ. You’re hid with
Christ; but because we are hid with Christ, we are also hid with God.

So it’s like the layer of protection upon us who are in Christ is double. It’s like can the devil get to
us? The answer is no. It doesn’t matter what kind of blitz scheme that you might devise to get to
the quarterback who is God’s man. That’s a football reference for tonight. It doesn’t matter. You
can’t get to us and yank us out of the purpose of God once we are in it.

This is like, you know, Paul trying to explain this to people. Who is Christ? What is Christ – set
your affections on things above. Money bags. That’s a great line, right? Money bags that do not
grow old. How many would like money bags that do not grow old? That’s amazing. We’re going
to give you an opportunity in just a minute to put your money into bags that will not grow old.
Just the message. Just thinking about those things that we are supposed to put off and what we
are supposed to put on. And the putting off, I think that’s the really amazing thing about that.
You know idols are always yes. They are yes-men. Yes-people. Yes-women. Yes, of course you
can do that. Fry me a cake. Give me some money. That’s what the idol says. Now, go do what
you want to do. You can read it in Prov. 7 with the adulteress. She said, I paid my vows. Now
I’ve come to kiss you and enjoy a night while my husband is away. Every idol is an adulteress
trying to seduce you saying of course. If you just pay you can play. It’s amazing.

But we go through the Bible and we get those really like people don’t like it. They don’t like, “you
shall not.” “You shall not.” But we know that the provision of the you shall nots is really powerful,
because the narrow way leads to a big place. If you take this narrow way with Christ, the place
that you wind up is infinite. Infinite and eternal. Infinite and eternal. What a deal that is! Can you
just get beyond “thou shall not”? Can you just get through that narrow door, the possibilities are
amazing. The thing that we were made for we finally arrive at. What we were made for, the glory
of God.

The Confession, an old ancient Confession from the Reformation period says we were made for
the glory of God and to enjoy him. That’s the number one purpose of man. It’s a narrow way that
leads to that place of glory and that place of joy. So, that’s amazing.
If your football team is not where you want it to be tonight, I’m sorry about that. The good news
is that tomorrow the whole thing starts all over. That’s the thing. The thing is we are, we can say
this confidently. We are hid with Christ in God and nothing shall separate us from the love of
God in Christ. That’s amazing. Alright. That’s enough. (Announcements).

P. Schaller –

How many liked that music? Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun music. Beautiful. Thank you
guys. It was great. Are you doing an album or something too? Huh? What do you think? Do we
want to encourage them. Yeah. What’s the name of the group? Landmark. Wow. We liked it.
Let’s tell them we liked it. We liked it. Alright.

Turn in your Bibles. Thanksgiving. This is our theme tonight. Thanksgiving from Colossians 3. We’re
looking at the first eleven verses as we covered this morning. We taught verse by verse and we
made a point that there is a list. Justin my son shared this with me a couple times, and it was an
interesting point. Maybe some folks from Fed Hill have heard it. Colossians 3. Let’s have a prayer.
(Prayer).

Colossians 3:5 we have a list. We said this morning, we wrote it down and made a list like this. We said
there’s a list of words that are external action – fornication, uncleanliness, passion, evil desire.
That’s just inside my heart. Covetousness and idolatry. This is very easy for us as P. Steve
explained that as unbelievers, we have idolatry. Idolatry is so common to the heart of man. It’s
simple anything worshiping anything who is not the real God. That’s creation. Objects of
devotion. Creation. Things made. But our God is not made. This is beautiful.
I want to teach you a Latin word, aseite. God is this word and it means from himself. He is from
or of himself. He is not caused. He never began. He is dwelling in the everlasting. He is from
everlasting to everlasting. He is the uncreated one. Everything else is created. Everything
comes from him. He always was. There was nothing he ever needed. He didn’t need to create
the world.

Why did he create the world? Can you give me a biblical? Why did he create the world? Of his
own pleasure, Revelation 4:11. Also his own will and he also did it from his own wisdom. His own
wisdom, his own will, and for his own pleasure. But did he need it? No, he needed nothing. He
is the primary, the first, everything rolling off of God. And for us to be  worshiper  of God is a
great gift to us. We would not be able to do this unless we were born again.

Before you were born again, you can search for him but you cannot really know him. He must
show himself to you. This is Matthew 11:27. Nobody knows the Father but the Son and him to whom
he will reveal. Very important word. You cannot know him unless he is revealed to you. Because
he has revealed himself to you in Christ, then you become a worshiper of him. And that is a
great privilege. We are worshiping Almighty God, the Eternal God, the only wise God. We are
privileged. We are different. Others that are worshiping are worshiping idols, and there is a lot
of worship in the world. John. 4:22, the woman at the well, Jesus said, “you worship but you don’t
know what.” But the Father seeks such to worship him in spirit and in truth. Remember? And
somehow she was seeking. Jesus knew it. He had to go to Samaria. He had an appointment
there. This woman was to get saved. She said, “I know that Messiah comes and he will show us
all things.” And Jesus said, “I am he.” He revealed himself, right? And she became a
worshiper.

Because you are a worshiper, then this first list of sinful things we are able to mortify. We
mortify or we kill them. It actually is killing them, these passions and desires. And of course, it’s
not explained how that happens. But I like to think of it as just ignore it. Avoid it. Do not yield to
it. It dies. It has no real power. It’s like a chicken with the head cut off running around the
courtyard and drops over. For a while, you think it’s alive. But my sin nature has been crucified.
It will live if you allow it. It is alive, but if you reckon it dead, you ignore it. You avoid it. You do
not feed it. Then it falls over dead. That’s the first list.

The second one is deeper. This is more attitude and tongue. This is that list of vs. 7 is it? No, vs.
8. I can avoid fornication, but I can’t avoid cursing people. I can curse people under my breath
or in my private conversation or on the telephone I can gossip or slander or find fault with
people easily. This is so easy for us as people. “You should not have done that.” “Why did you
do that?” “You offended me.” “I am hurt. I am hurt by what you said or what you did.” “I will
retaliate. I will get you back. You slandered me; I will slander you.” This is all very natural and

very normal. It’s what divides families. It’s what splits churches. It’s what hurts companies, police
stations, hospitals, working places and everywhere. This list of sins we don’t have authority
over, but as I said in the beginning, we are born again. We are worshipers of God. And God
gives us the Holy Spirit and by the Holy Spirit in my heart, I’m able to put my heart on something
higher. Higher. Higher. Put our hearts on God in prayer. Our hearts on God in love and our
minds on things that are awesome, important. We could say big.

When we came out of Egypt, and we would say we were slaves in Egypt. There was no way we
could come out of Egypt. But God brought us out of Egypt and on the other side of the Red Sea,
we were dancing. We are just saying, woe! It is God that did that. Do you have anything in your
life where you can worship God like that? Where you can say, I would have been destroyed but
God saved me. I would have been empty and lost but God saved me. God put me in his Son
and he anointed us. Do you have anything in your life where you could say, wow! That’s just,
that releases me. It encourages me. It builds me up and it’s because of Jesus Christ. Okay.
This is the premise for this teaching is that this has happened to the Colossians. That the
Colossians are able to set their hearts on things that the world does not know about. Set our
hearts on the things that are above. At my right hand are pleasures forevermore. We find in the
Word, words of life. We find experiences.

I have a short list here of things that we are thankful for. We are thankful for the completion of
great undertakings, Nehemiah 12:31. We are thankful before eating. We eat food in John. 6:11. We are
thankful always as the remembrance of God’s holiness. We are thankful for the goodness and
mercy of God, Pslam 106:1. We are thankful for Christ’s power and reign, Revelation 11:17. For the
reception and effectual working of the Word of God in other people. Have you seen it in other
people? Yes, we have. And we are thankful for that.

One brother visited us this morning, Jim Mastercola (spelling?). An old friend of ours from
Lenox. I said how many years since I’ve seen you? He said forty. And it was like we had been
together yesterday. The effectual working of God in the hearts of people is something that we
look at at Eurocon when we go to Poland next month. And we meet and we recognize it that this
is not invented by us. We would be idolatrous. But now, we have a living God and every
Eurocon is different. Every time we assemble together, there is something different cause this is
the Body of the living God, the living Christ. This is the mind of Christ. We haven’t been this way
before. This is new. We went through our covid period and now we have another thing. And
we’ll have another one. We are being prepared to meet God and this thanksgiving is written
here.

Go now to the last list. It is vs. 12. There’s another list here and this is a beautiful list. We have
two bad lists of sinful living and now we have the list here of what happens to us because we
are hid with Christ in God. I love what P. Steve brought out in these two words we mentioned
this morning. We are hidden with Christ in God and then we have the word “appear.” We will
appear with Christ. So right now, we are living in a sense God has hidden us in a pavilion from
the strife of tongues, the psalmist said. We are not fighting with tongues and fighting with people
and arguments and fights. We are hidden in a pavilion from the strife of tongues, and we have a
clear sound.

I was listening to a message by Billy Graham today, this afternoon. I love the clear sound. The
auditorium, I mean the stadium is packed. It must be 50 or 70,000 people. American people
listening and the camera zooms in on the people, and they have the funny hair and the clothes
from a long time ago. I think, wow! That’s amazing. Thousands of people in America listening to
God’s Word and what God can do in the heart. The clear sound of an evangelist. The clear
sound of a missionary. Why did you come to our country? Why did you come to our country?
I remember one lady who was with us in Hungary in the beginning. She had like a dawning. She
goes I know why you came because life is better in Hungary. You came because of your
money. You can buy more things with American dollars. Your money is more powerful.

That’s why you came here. I remember. I was shocked. Like how she saw it. How she thought about it
and what she said to me and how she believed that. She left our fellowship and she believed
that. It is so possible for any one of us to be misled, and think of things differently from the way they
really are. But look at this list here. I’ll say a couple things here. We are hidden and who cannot
see us is Satan cannot see us. People cannot see us also. There are people that cannot see us.
Remember the poor woman that put in two pennies in the offering and went on her way. Jesus
said, see this woman? I’ll say it this way.

She’s hidden. Nobody knows that she put in more than
everybody. She’s hidden from man. Man doesn’t know that little woman, but God knows that
little woman. She’s hidden with Christ in God and so are you. How you think about people. How
you live early morning or late night. What you do in your life in faith and the treasure you and I
are putting in heaven because of this list we have here in vs. 12.
We’ll say it this way, vs. 12. That’s us. Holy and beloved. The elect of God. We are privileged,
chosen. We are holy and beloved. Remember Daniel was told by the angel, Daniel, you are
greatly beloved. Your prayer has been heard in Daniel 10.

Put on tender mercies. Really, be very forgiving. Be very merciful. Be gentle. Be very kind. Kindness. Humbleness of mind. What a privilege to think that we can be humble like Jesus Christ and we can be so kind and thankful for
everything and look to serve. How can I help? What can I do? We are before God like this. It’s
not phony or artificial. It’s a real thing. It’s seen in how I can control my anger, how I can control
my passions, how I can control my tongue. I’m not going to say anything. Sometimes when I’m
with people that are like this, it’s so beautiful because they could say something but they’re not
going to say anything negative about anybody. They’ll let God decide. Let God deal with some
problems. Of course, it’s very clever, wise, very good to communicate, but I think you know what
I mean. Maybe we are talking more than it is needed.

Maybe behind my statements is some secret pride, maybe a little bit of revenge. Maybe I would like to put that person in their place because I think they are pretty high and mighty and maybe I can cut them down at the knees
with my words. Maybe I feel I have to guard God’s work or guard his interests. And we do as
God has gifted leaders to deal with things, but at the same time, there is something beautiful
about love, about humility, about being gracious, and about being able to suffer long. Vs. 12.
Longsuffering and then bearing with one another. Bearing with one another. “I can’t stand that
person.” Oh, you can’t? I think Jesus can. “I can’t stand that person.” Really? Jesus died for that
person. God wakes that person up every morning. God is on the side of that person. God gives
grace to that person. God loves that person. Who am I to make those judgments, right? This is
the idea. This is what it’s saying. I believe this is the meaning.

It says bearing with one another. I’ll give you a minute just to enjoy that thought with your
neighbor for a minute. Just say, do you know how much I tolerate you? How much I forebear?
Do you know what I put up with? Go ahead for a second, especially the married couples. I’ll go
over here and tell these guys. Do you know how much I put up with you guys over here? Do you
know how much P. Love tolerates Jen?

Where’s this lead us? Where’s this go? It goes to the living God. That’s where it goes to. That he
can put love and patience in our hearts and blessing and not cursing in our hearts. Somebody
said, I don’t like Baltimore. Well, who are you? I could care less. What’s that mean? I don’t think
Jesus particularly liked being in Israel hanging on a cross in the first century. Was his water
clean? Was his food good? Where did he sleep? Hanging on a cross dying for our sins. You
know what I’m saying. I’m just trying to provoke you to think with me. If this is God we are
worshiping, I would expect people to somehow see God, Matthew 5:48. “Be perfect as my heavenly
Father is perfect.” I’m with you. I’m not at you. I’m with you.

I’m preaching to myself, together thinking about this. That’s what changed history. Europe was all paganism. The Mediterranean Sea was all paganism. Egypt was all paganism. The Scythians. It’s listed here. vs. 11.
Do you know what Scythians means? It’s actually the tribes up in the Ukraine which were very
barbaric. They were very barbaric. They were ruthless barbarians. He has the word “barbarian”
but then he goes further, Scythian. When you meet the Ukranians at Eurocon, tell them! I don’t know if they were Tartars from the Russian – there’s history. I read about it. I don’t want to say
dogmatically, but just to say the Apostle Paul, he goes, these are all people. And the worst,
most miserable people you can think of when they are in Christ, this is what they have. They are
meek. They are humble. They can serve. They can forebear.

They can be patient. They can bless and not curse. They can give and not take. They can serve and not be a thief. They can love and lay down their life. This is how they saw this happen in Europe, and paganism went
underneath Christianity. Christianity grew and became what it is, the pillar of western civilization
because it’s the living God that changes people. Now, we’re so smart. We’re so smart as a culture and we’ve moved away from God. And look at how we suffer. Look at the numbers, the statistics, the mental sickness, the suicide, the
depression, the drug usage. Look at the problems of the human race. It’s all these lists here.
These first two lists here, right? Forget it. It’s those things: fornication, anger, wrath, idolatry,
covetousness. And they’re not being taught. We’ve lost our way. Therefore, it is a great thing
that you are here.

It’s a great thing that you are living a certain way. It’s a great thing that you’re okay. That you’re
happy. That you’re thankful. That you’re satisfied. That you can meet somebody and talk. You
can lead them in education, lead them in love, lead them in faith, lead them in prayer. I would
say there’s probably young people that have never prayed before in their life. They’ve never
heard a prayer. They’ve never heard their parents pray. They’ve never been in a school where
they prayed. They’ve never been in a library where they’ve prayed. They’ve never been on the
internet where they prayed. I would say there are young people who never heard a believer
pray. I would say that.

But we are here. We are here. Thank you, Lord. Let us make every effort in our heart to set our
minds on the things above and out of us will come forgiveness. We’ll say, don’t worry about it.
It’s okay. Situations will happen and we’ll be there and have some kind of a ministry. I’m not
saying we will be milktoastie, wishy, so soft, gentle, feminine, or sentimental or any of those
things. No, we will be like Jesus Christ. He was humble but he had authority. He was lowly but
when it was time and he had something to say, people listened to him. When he was called
upon, he was there. When there was a need, he was available to his Father, and he was able to
raise the dead. He was a combination of a human being and God.

He came into this world so we would see that, and we also would put on the new man and put off the old man just like we put off our pajamas in the morning and we put on our clothes for the daytime or whatever way
you want to say it. We put off something. We don’t need it. We’re not doing that. We are putting
on the new man and one of the characteristics is thankfulness.

Could we put on thankfulness as a way of life all the time and be just thankful? Thankful. I don’t
know how to say it. Just be thankful. Start with the year you were born. How about it? The year
you were born. Just think of that year, 1952. 1953, my mother changed my diapers. ’54, I got a
toy. ’55, my dad picked me up. ’56, my little brother. ’57, go through your whole life. One thing
every year and once you finish, go back to 1952 and start again. And think of all the protection,
all the blessing, all the food you have eaten, all the breaths you have breathed, all the
heartbeats you have had, every footstep, every car ride, every bus, every airplane, every
conversation. Think of the day you got saved and you were called and the day you were Spirit
filled. And the day you started to understand the Bible. The day you found this church. The day
you started to live by faith.

The day you put away the old things and put on the new man. Think
about your life and say glory be to God! I got a bag that’s an eternal bag. What was the phrase?
Money bag. I got an eternal money bag that has no holes. I have an eternal money bag that we
store our treasure where moth does not corrupt and thieves cannot break in and steal. We have
received it because we are worshipers of the living God. Amen. Would you pray with me,
please.