Set Your Minds On Things Above

0:11Well, let me encourage you to keep your Bibles open. That's gonna help you know where we're going this morning. I wanna begin with a question, and if you're paying attention to the announcements, which I'm sure you were, we've already seen an illustration of it. My question is this, when was the last time you needed to reorient your thinking from a way that things were to a way that things are now? And we've already heard an example of new software. I can't play by the old rules, I can't do the old thing, I can't push the old control, whatever. I've gotta think in whole new ways. Maybe for younger children in the room, maybe you have received one or somebody else has received a I'm a big brother or I'm a big sister t-shirt.

1:07And that reality changes a whole lot for you. Perhaps more than you know, or maybe you've moved and you have to figure out a new place to put the dishes and which room that you're supposed to enter into. And it's everything is different. New grocery stores, you're just in a new place or maybe you're an athlete and you move from running in a straight line in track to running everywhere In soccer, new rules, new coaches, new teammates. You have to reorient your mind to something new or perhaps a change in employment, starting a new job or losing a job or moving towards retirement. That all focuses us to shift our thinking in new ways, to go after new goals, to go to new places, to think in different ways.

1:59Flourishing in life requires getting our minds around new things and transitioning our thinking from the old way to the new. And that's what this text is about today because that's a very vital thing in the Christian life. You can perhaps think through, let it roll through your mind what scriptures speak about. The mind Romans calls us to be renewing our minds. Philippians four, eight ends with the words, think about these things and there's a whole grid that it gives us to think about and then of course not think about other things. Things that are pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and so on and so forth.

2:49God talks quite a bit about our minds and today he wants to help us fix our minds in a new place on new realities that are true for those who are believers in Christ. And to be real honest reality is what we don't often think about. When's the last time you pressed into your mind If you're a believer I have been raised from the dead with Jesus Christ, We probably need to think about that a little bit more. This, this text commands us to be continually thinking about that. So what is that? What does that even mean? And how do we think about that and and what does that have to do with our everyday lives? There are several doctrines, core teaching of scripture in this text.

3:41And as I was thinking about it a little bit this morning, it's kind of like the sun as it rises. These are core earth shaping truths that ski spread their lights out into all sorts of realities in our lives. Too many for me to focus on today. So in just a moment, we're gonna pray and ask for God's help to focus on the things that he wants us to focus on. But this text, Paul is transitioning our minds there and he's also transitioning in this letter. You see this is chapter three. We've been at it already all summer long and we're gonna complete in the next coming weeks. But this section of the letter is a pivot, it's a move, it's a hinge.

4:22We've just been talking about all sorts of false teaching that we're supposed to reject and next week we're gonna start to look at all the ways that God wants us to be transformed so that we might be presented to Jesus Christ one day when he returns and appears in his glory. But right now, Paul wants to get our attention focused on our minds how we're thinking because often what we think very much affects how we live. So here's how we're gonna break down the passage. And you know it's really cool Pastor Aaron puts together one of these little sheets for the kids every week. There's all sorts of different stuff Last week it has a cool thing about shadows. This week it has the outline right there.

5:00So kids you like are already have a jump on the people sitting next to you. Our outline is three points. It's very simple. The first point in the very beginning of the text is the first half of verse one, this massive unseen reality believe where you've been raised with Christ. We're gonna think about that. We're gonna try to understand that we're gonna see what that means. Then in the second half of verse one and the rest of verse two, Paul calls believers that to say this, your resurrection with Christ must continually reorient your thinking. Let it reorient your thinking. Help it to cause you to keep going there.

5:43And finally we're gonna look at the final two verses because your resurrection with Christ redefines both your life and your hope. These these are core things. This is not just some big thing to kind of stick in our minds and go, wow, no, this is very on the ground, important, practical and God has some wonderful things for us in it. So before we pray, let's just each quickly ask ourselves a question. How often do I think about the things that are above? How often do I think about and focus on heavenly realities? Hopefully just asking that question will give you a humble heart to pray with me because we greatly need this text. Please pray with me.

6:33Father, we see our weaknesses all over the place, whether it's in life and from the situations that we've come out of in this week or whether we look at your word and we say, wow, I'm so glad that Jesus is perfect and his righteousness is mine. God, would you help us to follow after you? Would you sanctify us in truth? God, your word is truth. Help us. Help us to see these things. Rejoice in these things, see our lives and bring it humbly to you. Would you be at work helping us this coming week and well into the future to continually seek and set our minds on things that are above? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

7:25Let's look at this glorious reality that begins this text. The first phrase in chapter three verse one, it says, if then you have been raised with Christ. Now the way that Paul sets this up is with a question to engage us. And we'll look at that in just a second, but maybe just narrow your focus to to this word, to believers. Look at each of these words. It's amazing you have been raised with Christ.

7:57That is a stunning, glorious reality. So how should we understand that? I think we need to back up just a little bit in the story because if, if you're familiar with resurrection, resurrection is for those who have died. So we need to back up the story. So let's just say we were picking up a great work of fiction and trying to begin in the middle. Some of us are like, I don't really like reading. I know I'm supposed to read great words of fiction. Maybe I can just start in the middle and that'll get me quicker to the end. Well you're gonna be very confused and it's gonna be a whole lot more work if you don't know what happens at the beginning.

8:36So let's really quickly rewind and look at the first couple chapters of God's grand story. And a reality is those who have been raised with Christ are doubly dead. So I'll explain that in just a second. Chapter one, our natural human condition is spiritually dead. Every person who is outside of Christ is the walking dead. They look alive, they live, they breathe, they talk, they do a whole lot of stuff. But spiritually they are dead. You see, we inherited that from Adam. He's created perfect, placed in a garden in fellowship with God and he chose to reject God and live by his own rules. And God warned him, if you eat this fruit, you will surely die.

9:28And he died spiritually and then he died physically. And everyone else after him is comes into the world dead spiritually and leaves the world dying physically. We are all physically dead. That means that we don't have the ability, as Pastor Sam said a few uh, weeks ago, to not sin. That's just our nature. That's how, that's the air we breathe. We come into the world spiritually dead. There's all sorts of other challenges there. But everyone in that condition is under God's wrath. The judgment is upon them. Christ came into the world not to judge the world. The the world was already judged. He came to save the world because judgment was already upon it.

10:13Can read about that in the gospel of John. We are in our natural condition as Colossians two 20 would say, slaves to sin or what? Colossians two 20 says, slaves to the elemental spirits of the world. That includes the flesh sin, demonic powers, all sorts of things. We are under that. We're in bondage. Praise be our redeeming and reconciling Jesus because he was clothed in flesh. Chapter two, he took on life in like us. He became the God man became God and man in one being, living here doing life fully. God fully man lived a perfect life and he died on the cross. And this is the significant thing when Jesus died, the scripture teaches that by faith, those who believe in him died with Jesus.

11:13It's not just this historic event that happened, it truly did happen. But in union, in this vital union with Jesus's death, believers also died with him. Do you see why I said earlier, doubly dead, we started this world dead in our sins and those who are trusting in Christ died with him. Union with Christ is the most glorious reality. It's just worth spinning your minds about it and understanding and applying to your lives. And we're gonna do that a little bit this morning that did some amazing things. If I were to put a short phrase under dying with Christ, it would be freed from, freed from with Christ. When we die with him, we are freed from spiritual captivity.

12:02Listen to what Colossians 1 21 and 22 says, and it talks about both of these chapters and you who are once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. Notice that yes, he did it on the cross but he did it with you united to him in his body on the cross. You're united to him if you're trusting in Christ. And that frees you from so much. Paul teaches more about that in Romans six. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. He's using that as an analogy and a picture to this union. We'll talk about that in just a moment in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, this is Romans six, four, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

12:55There is something new that's coming. There is something new in chapter three that we are raised with him and there is a newness of life. So our death caused us to be set free from sin. Romans six, six and our resurrection with Jesus chapter three of this story causes us to be able to walk in newness of life. We were freed from spiritual captivity in his death. We are freed to live for him by his resurrection.

13:28Baptism as was mentioned in that verse is a beautiful picture of this. I remember a service several years ago where I was helping with some of the baptisms and it was right around Easter time and there was a huge, our huge cross was still over here. So just think with me. This is sort of a picture, an illustration of God's story. Those who are gonna be baptized that day walked in off the street and that could represent the fact that they were dead in their sins and trespasses. And in order to get to the baptismal pool, which is right behind me, right here, they walked by the cross, they put their faith in Christ and what he had done there.

14:03And that would be the cross where they died with Christ. And then they're gonna go down into the water and it's going to be imaged or pictured that they died with Christ. But if you've been to a baptism service, it's a very good thing that we don't just leave people there in the bottom of the water and they don't really do anything themselves. The person who's baptizing them just as God did raise them to life. Again, some, some people in their baptism services say raised to walk in newness of life. They, they quote the scripture. So those people who had faith in Christ in his cross died with him, got out this side of the baptismal pool and walked out to symbolize walking out in newness of life. They have been raised with Christ, they've been united to him and their world has fundamentally changed.

14:55And I'm not just being a preacher with exaggeration. It's absolutely true. Fundamentally changes everything. We're gonna look a little bit more at how and why and what, but that's the reality. Notice that Paul begins this with an if he's already talked about this reality in the letter, but he kind of does an if then if this is true of you, then do these things. We're gonna look at that in just a second. But let's pay attention to the, if he wants to kind of engage us. So believers sitting out in the audience, is that true of you? Do you think that way? Is that a reality that either does or you want it to captivate and capture your heart? That's kind of why he's asking an if question.

15:43Then he moves to the, then let's talk about the second section, the major chunk of this text verses the second half verse one into verse two. Your resurrection with Christ must continually reorient your thinking. That reality, that doctrine, that beautiful truth that we've been raised to walk in newness of life needs to reorient our thinking. If then you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on the earth. So again, let's try to understand this and let's try to figure out what it meant for the Colossians and what it means for us.

16:35The first thing you need to know is this is a continual command. How many of you have ever seen somebody walk on a treadmill? Okay, what happens if they only take one step? It's gonna be bad news for them. They're probably gonna stumble, fall, be thrown off the back. That's bad news. Okay? This is a treadmill command. It's not just, oh, I've done that check. Moving on, this is a, I'm gonna just keep walking in this. God calls me to keep walking and doing this thing. So what is this thing that I'm supposed to keep doing?

17:14First, seek the things that are above. What does that mean? Seeking the things that are above is a heart related reality. It's a a purpose, it's a desire, it's a moving in a certain direction. It's pursuing a certain sort of thing. So you know, Minnesotans love getting out into the cold and it takes a lot of heart motivation to bundle up and go skiing or whatever else we might do sledding, that kind of stuff. But there are some people that have a lot of heart motivation. They get in on this thing that the winter carnival, the St. Paul Winter carnival puts on and they bundle up and even in the middle of the night they've got light shining out and they are searching for a medallion.

17:59It's like this big, it's crystal clear and it's buried in the snow. And they gather these little teams together and they're like searching for it, hunting for it, sifting through each using their own strategies as they follow different clues to various parks around St. Paul. And they're hunting. Remember for a clear medallion that takes a lot of heart motivation. The same is this is what God is talking about here. Let your heart motivation move in a strange direction that's different than this world.

18:35Shape your priorities with view to heaven's priorities. Shape your trust based on the king. That is Jesus who is on his throne. Jesus talked about this in Matthew 6 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. When Jesus taught that it was in the middle of his teaching about anxiety, he was trying to bring calm to the thinking of the people who are concerned about these daily things, what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna wear, what they're gonna put on, what they're gonna drink, all that kinda stuff. They're focused on these worldly things and Jesus calls them in many ways to trust God.

19:14But his primary positive command in that section is seek first the kingdom of God. Reorient your mind around God who is on his throne in heaven. Think about that. Seek that. Let that be your first priority and he's gonna take care of whatever you need. Sometimes your needs might be different than what he thinks are your needs, but whatever you need, he's gonna give to you. Seek first his kingdom. And that's exactly where Paul goes to as we look on in our text. Colossians three, one says, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, these heavenly things are above. They have a king who's reigning over them.

19:56And it would be wrong for us not to just pause and just rejoice in something where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Do you know that our great God, Jesus Christ, who took on flesh, still has flesh, he still has a body. It's so amazing, it's a glorious body. It's been transformed, but it still has wounds and we are gonna marvel at them forever.

20:28And he is seated in the highest place of the universe at the right hand of God. Now God doesn't have a hand, it's a picture. It's a picture of in his presence at the highest place, our God fills the heavens in the highest heavens. But wherever this is, our Christ is seated. It's not visible for us right now, but it's very true. Jesus rules and reigns and our minds need to go there. It needs to go with the exalted king and our union with him focusing our desires, plans, casting our anxieties in the direction of King Jesus who is on his throne. What does keep setting your minds on things above mean?

21:15We're gonna get real practical in just a moment, but we need to understand this. What does keep setting your mind on things above mean? This is a call to keep renewing your mind. This is the central focus of the passage, specifically the call here is to remind yourself in an ongoing way that you are united to the king in heaven. And then here's some implications. His freedom from sin can be your freedom, his powerful resurrection life unites you to the power to live pleasing to God. His righteousness is your righteousness. His exaltation above demonic powers allows you to share in his authority over them.

22:06His kingdom advance is what matters even in earthly suffering. And I would say especially through earthly suffering, that's that's how God rolls Being united to Jesus changes everything. And yet our hearts are bent to earth. I don't know how space suits work, but somehow the propelling and all that kind of stuff keeps somebody an astronaut like fixed down at least in much. Or maybe they're connected to things, whatever. So if I, my science is off, just work with me. The reality is oftentimes we walk around with spacesuits keeping us even more planted on the earth. Gravity already does that and we keep moving in that direction and we don't go where we're supposed to be.

22:58We've been enabled to go where we're supposed to be and we often don't. Peter's a really good example of that. We can learn from him 'cause most of us put our hands over our mouth. He doesn't always do that. Uh, but in Mark 8 33 things were clicking with Jesus. Miracles were happening. People were being saved, people were being healed. And it was trajectory up. And that was the point where Jesus, it says, began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again. And what did Peter do?

23:39It's a little bit scary. He puts his arm around Jesus. Perhaps he draws him away and begins to rebuke him about that thinking. And it's probably maybe, maybe other disciples were like, dude, somebody needs to talk to him. And Peter, you're the, you're the bold one. You go do it in front of his disciples. Jesus rebukes Peter and he says, get behind me Satan, for you are not setting your mind. Same idea here. Not setting your mind on things of God but on things of man. We're prone to do that. We're prone to focus on the stuff of earth here and now. And and God is saying his priorities, reality is that he has taken place.

24:23We need to be like our electronic devices and our hearts need to keep pinging off the satellites and looking for things that are above us. That's what we need to be doing. So how do these realities, let's try to get this onto ground level. How do these realities apply to the Colossians and how do they apply to us? If you were here last week, you know Paul was calling them to reject false heavenly things. These people were being tempted to buy into these plans that others false teachers had for them about angelic worship and doing different things to be enabled to enter into these heavenly experiences.

25:06And what Paul is saying kind of in a a backhanded correcting way here is that, you know, that plan that they had is super earthly. It's rejected Christ. You is seated in heaven, your focus needs to be there. It's cut yourself off from him and it's focusing on making you proud and like all super excited about your earthly kingdoms. That was what was going on in the Colossians. And there was some really practical realities there. There was shame going on for them and there shame that's going on for us. So let's try to think about that for ourselves. How does focusing our mind on heavenly things help us fight shame?

25:43Well a major stumbling block in our growth of godliness, and we even sang about it this morning, is false shame. Okay? Shame is like this focus like look at how bad you are. Look at yourself. You're really, really, really bad for past sin for what you did this last week. You're just bad or you don't fit in or you're excluded from us. That was stuff that they were dealing with. That's stuff that we are dealing with. Guilt lifts our eyes. Heavenward in saying that's where my hope is. God, I'm humbling myself before you. That's what the spirit does. The enemy does the shame thing. So how does this help us fight that if we are feeling misplaced, shame, we can remember believers that we are united to Jesus in heaven.

26:31Is there more of a place of acceptance? Is there more of a place of righteousness? Jesus has been welcomed into God's presence. He is enthroned there and we enthroned with him. There's no shame there. We're united to his righteousness accepted by God. Secondly, spiritual powers. We didn't look at this reality last year, last week, but if you look at two 20, um, it talks about you have died to the elemental spirits of the world. If you're familiar with Ephesians, there was definitely stuff going on in Ephesus. Demonic powers, magic, all this kind of crazy stuff. There were also, there's several things in this letter that point us to those kind of things that there were, there was a fear that they may have had and that they needed to understand.

27:23How do I combat that? How do I battle that? How do I take heart in the midst of oppression? Well, Ephesians two 20 and 21 gives us some help. It points our eyes to the exalted Jesus Christ who is seated far above all rule, authority, power, and any name that is named. And why is that a big deal? It's a big deal because Ephesians two, six says, you are seated there with him. So if Christ is exalted above all rule, authority and power and we are seated with him, what does that mean for us? It means that we have been given an ability to share in Jesus' authority. So just as in Matthew four 10, Jesus said, be gone.

28:07Satan believers too can say in the authority of Jesus Christ, I say to you, demonic powers be gone. Do not return. Do not harm be gone. Finally, and this is perhaps the most practical. Our sinful flesh. Our sinful flesh, focusing our minds on heavenly rallies helps us fight our sinful flesh. How often do we get stuck in a rutt and say, I can't change, I can't do anything about this. This has got me. I might as well just give in. Don't go there. Those are lies. You're focusing your thinking in your mind on earthly things. Don't go there. That's not true of you believer unbeliever. That is true of you flee to Christ.

28:55But those who have flee to Christ have been united to his death and have been connected to his resurrection life. An amazing hidden way. In the book of Romans chapter six, verse 11, Paul talks about that 10 11 for he that is for the death. He that is Jesus died to sin. He did it once for all but the life he lives, he lives to God. That is what's true with you. If you are united to Jesus, you have died to sin once for all and you now live to God. And Paul goes right to the mind, he says this, you must consider or think about yourself. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

29:47Okay, so what does that mean? When we feel our flesh rising up, the flesh is the the old nature within us that just wants to seize control of everything and make the world work in our ways by our power. We just wanna have it and grab it and hold it and do it. When that rises up in us and we're like, I don't know how to control that, we can say I have died to that. I have died to that I am died. I have died with Christ, therefore I have died to sin. And how do I live? I'm alive to God. I'm alive to God in Christ Jesus. I can live with resurrection life. It doesn't have to be this way. I've died to that and I'm alive to God.

30:31I've heard teaching on this before. It's been very helpful. It, these are big things that you really need to dig into to understand and apply. But I've often said out loud, sometimes often out loud, I'm dead to that. But what was helpful for me in this text is that I should also say I'm alive to God in Christ Jesus. There's resurrection power that I can tap into. There's grace from God that I can tap into by faith as I trust in him and move forward in faith.

31:01This is very practical and it's gonna get a little bit more personal in these final two commands for our good. In chapter three verses three and four, we see our redefined life and our new hope. Look at those verses with me. 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. Both of these truths are rooting. Why we should focus our minds on things above. And they are very helpful. Notice verse three, your life is hidden with Christ in God, the hidden life. What does that mean? I think Paul is tapping into a way that the people in the colossae would think they had this Jewish apocalyptic thinking where there were hidden things in heaven that you could only see if you had a vision.

32:03He's not talking about that, that being a true reality. What he's saying is that is a hidden truth in heaven that you don't see now. And as we look in the next verse, it's going to appear. But there is a hidden reality. And the reality is the most vital truth about your life is that it is hidden with Christ in God. You are living in the here and now and you need to keep focusing your mind there because your true life is in heaven.

32:35Your true life is in heaven. And yet there's so many things that keep pulling us down. Let me just put my finger on a few examples and ask this question. Are you living free from the things that are designed by human humans to draw you in and fix your attention on the here and now? I'm gonna point to four, but I'd really encourage you if none of these apply to you, um, to pray and ask the Holy Spirit what does apply? 'cause these are only four very obvious examples. These are four things in our world designed to keep you focused on the here and now, 24 7 news, tv, Twitter, et cetera. Anytime you turn it on, we hear it's bad and we need to be afraid.

33:30I remember a dear friend at the very beginning of c said, I have to stop watching the news because I'm just so afraid. And it's set up that way. It's designed that way. I'm not saying we don't know what's going on in our world, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'll clarify what I'm saying in a moment. What I'm saying is, are you ensnared by that second thing, social media, if it's designers, don't let their children use it. We should be on guard. Social media is constantly saying keep up. How do we keep up by doing stuff on earth? Keep up and you're missing out of things on earth. Rarely does it focus us on the things that are above. And again, I'm not saying do life like unplugged from everything.

34:26There could be good things for that. But um, what I'm asking you is, has it ensnared you and completely focused you on the here and now? Your life is hidden with Christ and God. Video games, again, I'm not saying don't play video games. I'm saying they're set up to give us endless empty victories and if we're ensnared by them and there really is a thing called video game addictions. If we're ensnared by them, they're focusing us on the here and now and keeping our attention away from eternal things. Finally, streaming entertainment. Do you notice when you turn on a newer TV these days you're presented with thousands of options and anytime you watch anything, it always says what's up next?

35:19And if you're just like getting popcorn or using the restroom, it's just gonna start for you endless entertainment. And and do we realize stories shape us? We need to be very careful about what we put before our eyes because stories shape us. Now really quickly, what am I not saying? I'm not saying that these are the only four areas. They could be real life things like a life that's focused on gossip, which is all about the here and now and not looking at heavenly things and we're distracted from it. It could be so many other things. I'm inviting you to ask the spirit, search me. Are there things that are ensnaring me, that are keeping me from pinging off the things that are above you? See, God has designed life to help us to rejoice in Christ all of life, entertainment and hikes and cooking in so many other things.

36:14Joe Ring wrote a book about it by the way, and you can read it. There's a short one too for those of you that don't like to read. Um, anyway, it's called The Things of Earth. That's that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is sometimes we can get in ruts where these things focus us down, our spirits go down, our minds go down and we are just consumed. Is that true of you Invite the spirit to search, you invite other believers into the full picture. And if you're scared about inviting believers into the full picture, then that's probably more evidence that you need to invite believers into the full picture of those things. Well, where are we supposed to look? The this text ends on hope.

36:59Paul's final words in three four. I'll read it again. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. That's where your life is right now. And that is going to become visible. You'll I, you'll be able to see it. If you're living for Christ and everybody's like, you're so foolish, they're all going to see. And may they see now, may they see Now there is a very real hope notice. It doesn't say probably Christ is going to appear. It doesn't say very likely someday. It doesn't say if Christ is going to appear. Notice what it says when, when. We just don't know. When we know that.

37:47We just don't know yet when. When Christ appears that is the Christ who is your life, which we just talked about, then you also will appear with him in glory. First Thessalonians helped us connect some of the dots. It describes Christ appearing the Lord himself. He is not sending a delegate. He's not putting somebody else in Air Force one to fly over here and do it. He himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with a voice of the arch angell and with the sound of the trumpet of God. Christ is going to appear. And there's other scriptures that talk about it. Those words are used to encourage believers, but there's more when he does that, the dead in Christ, those who have trusted in Christ and are in Him and are united him, but have died, they will rise first. They are first in line.

38:36They're gonna see him and be with him first. Then we who are alive, if he were to appear today at three in the afternoon who are left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. Is that the earnest desire of your heart? I want to be with the Lord. May it be, and if it's not, seek him. Two final really quick applications on this. Set your minds there. Think about that reality because it helps you think rightly about glory. We all so much want glory, but all earthly glories will fade and all glory that's pointing to Christ will be forever When we are with him in glory, when we appear with him in glory, I think that's why crowns are thrown down.

39:26That is why the chant of heaven is worthy. Is the lamb the one that deserves all glory, honor, dominion, and power? So may that reorient. May we be thinking about, you know what Christ is gonna appear? Is this for his glory? Am I seeking his glory? Is this gonna be joined up in that or is this going to fade away? It also helps us prepare our minds for his return. Like a bride waiting for her groom. That's who the church is. We're supposed to get ready for Christ's return. And that's what the rest of Colossians is gonna talk about. It's gonna talk about how to put off old things and put on new things to prepare to be as the words of Colossians say, presented to Christ when he returns.

40:16Let me close with this. I've given you a lot of different things to think about and there's so much more to meditate on and think about and draw into your life. Two quick things. Number one, prayer. That is a gift from God that often helps us to set our minds on things that are above. Pray, pray with other people. Pray on your own and pray about your mindset. I'm gonna explain the psalm and then use it and invite you to pray it with me. I love Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24, and it is very poignantly connected to this text. Psalm 1 39, 23 and 24 after 22 verses of just exalting in the inability to hide from God and his knowledge of all things.

41:05The psalmist says, search me oh God, and know my heart. Remember that's what we're seeking, what we're seeking after. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. That's the second half of this text. What am I thinking about? It probably means my anxious thoughts, the things that are I'm hashing over in my mind and see if there'd be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. What's so amazing is I think we often realize my thoughts are not where they should be. My outlook, my priorities, my thing is not where it should go. God help me. Come examine me, look at me, and then pick me up from where I am and shepherd me back onto the way of your word.

41:50Let me pray that for us as we conclude. Lord God, we want to look to you and we wanna ask you, we wanna humble ourselves before you and invite you to search us and know our hearts. Would you see where our priorities are, what we're pursuing, where we're going? Would you be merciful to us and shepherd us? Search our hearts? God, would you try us and know our thoughts? Would you look into our thoughts and see what are we anxiously spinning our minds about? And would you help us? Would you see if in any of those places there are grievous ways? God, would you please lead us in the way everlasting?

42:43We need this many times, every day. We need you to help us to come to you in prayer. Would you help us even as we sing this next song, to think about you being our life, our lives being holy bound to you and resting in you and your work through us? Lord God, would you please fix our minds on things that are above? I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.