Aug. 22, 2021

“ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH YOUR LIFE?”

“LOOKING UP”

COLOSSIANS 3:1

Are you risen with Christ?

Colossians 3:1 “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”

“If”- You cannot live like a believer in Christ if you’re not a believer in Christ.

Colossians 2:20 “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations.”

Colossians 3:3 “For you died…”

Colossians 3:1 “If then you were raised with Christ..”

How can you be dead and alive at the same time?

In what ways are we dead? 

Romans 6:8 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

Romans 6:2 “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 

John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”

Romans 6:7 “For he who has died has been freed from sin.”

If you are dead you are free from sin. Before you met Jesus you were dead in sin, but once you accept Jesus Christ as Savior, you become dead to sin.

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”

The law was designed to draw us to Christ to reveal to us our sin nature and our need for salvation.

Colossians 2:20 “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world..”

Are You Risen With Christ? Colossians 3:1

Philippians 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

What does it mean to be “risen with Christ?”

Ephesians 1:17-20 “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” 

Ephesians 2:5-6 “Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Are you really saved? Do you really know Him?

Colossians 2:11 “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.”

If you have, “seek those things which are above” vs.1

“Seek”- having an urgency and a desire and an ambition.

Ephesians 4:10 “He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)”

“fill” “all”- Jesus is the One who fills all things, does He fill your life?

You will not find what you are looking for apart from Jesus Christ!

What are you looking for in life?

Matthew 6:30-33 “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 12:39-40 “But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Matthew 16:4 “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.”

What are you looking for?

Luke 17:33 “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Luke 24:5-6 “Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee.”

Are you looking for the living among the dead?

John 6:26 “Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.”

John 8:21 “Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

What are the things that are above? vs.1

God is above:

Revelation 4:11

Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

God’s Word is above:

Psalm 119:89 “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.”

Bringing people to Christ and edifying others:

1 Corinthians 10:24 “Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”

1 Corinthians 10:33 “Just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.”

1 Corinthians 13:5 “Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;”

1 Corinthians 14:12 “Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.”

Galatians 1:10 “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

Hebrews 11:13-16 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

Four Steps of Faith:

1.   “Seen them afar off”

2.   “Were assured of them” or persuaded.

3.   “Embraced them”

4.   “Confessed”

Are you looking for the heavenly?

Hebrews 13:14 “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.”

“If you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above.” vs.1

The devil also seeks.

1 Peter 5:8

Where is above? 

Colossians 3:1 “where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.”

What are you looking for?

2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Keeping your eyes up and looking to Jesus- heads up!