Focused on Transformation

Hey, good morning. Wanna welcome everybody if you're here if you brought your car here for the car show. We want to welcome you if you're here for the very first time if you're checking us out on Facebook live. Joining us live watching over in the venue service. We are so glad to have you with us. My name is René, one of the pastors here. I want to ask you to grab your message notes from inside your bulletins that I hope you got when you came in.

Focused is the name of our series in the book of Colossians. Now Colossians is a part of the New Testament, the second section of the Bible. It's a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to some very early Christians, some of the very first Christians in history. In fact, he's reminding them to stay focused on what's important. This is a message we all need today, and this morning we're going to talk about being focused on transformation.

To kind of orient you to today's passage in the book of Colossians, quick show of hands: How many of you remember the TV show "What Not to Wear"? Does anybody remember this show? Most of the people here probably do, a lot of people over in the venue. Here's what the show is about if you haven't seen it: They would find people who were terrible dressers, people who desperately needed clothing advice, and they would turn them completely around and transform their wardrobe.

Now, I've got a couple of questions. How many of you lived in secret fear the show would discover you? How many of you honestly have somebody in your life that you used to wish you could introduce to the stylists on this show? How many of you would say you're sitting next to that person right now? Can I see a show of hands? It was actually, if you'll remember, a very emotional show at times because what they would do is they would often say things like, "Look, you are not wearing the clothes that reflect who you are inside." Let me just give you a couple of examples.

Ellen is a woman who lost a hundred and twenty pounds in two years, but her friends turned her into the show because she was still dressing in her old clothes from a hundred and twenty pounds ago. She was so different, but her caption had not changed, and so they gave her a complete makeover. Basically, they told her to dress like who you really are now.

Here's another example: Megan. Let me show you Megan. Let me ask you, where does she look like she's from? You're very close; she's from San Francisco. Now, Megan is a musician, but she started getting a following. She started playing to sold-out gigs, and so she wanted to dress more like the success that she is, and they really helped her out.

Well, in a sense, in today's passage from Colossians, the Apostle Paul is doing kind of a spiritual "What Not to Wear." Because of the original Greek language in this passage, he actually uses the terminology of a clothing makeover. Like, take off those old clothes, put on the new clothes. He uses phrases like, "You have taken off the old self, so now put on the new self. Clothe yourselves with compassion, put on love," and a lot more phrases like this, as you will see.

In other words, don't dress in the old shabby clothes of your past self; wear the new clothes that reflect your new identity. Now, before we dig into this passage, let me ask you: Why would Paul use clothing makeover metaphors like this? Well, like he always did, he really knew who his audience was. One of the major industries in the city that he's writing to, Colossae, was the clothing industry. The land around Colossae had huge pastures that always had huge flocks of sheep, and so it became a center in the ancient world for the wool industry.

Specifically, it became famous for a dark red woolen cloth that carried the name of the town. The cloth was called Colossinum, and people around the world wanted to wear Colossinum clothes that were made here in Colossae. So, Paul—do you see what's happening?—is using the language they knew to express these spiritual truths, and he's so brilliant at this metaphor.

Just a little bit more context before we dive into the passage. In the first-century Roman Empire's clothing culture, there were just three essential items of what you wore. Nobody ever just wore a toga. No matter what you did at college toga parties, there were more than that in those days. First, you wore a tunic, which was kind of like a long t-shirt, and then over that you'd wear your toga. That was like a big sash that was worn over your left shoulder and wrapped around your body.

All men would also wear a signet ring. This said your personal seal of identity, and you would use this in wax seals as the equivalent of a signature. It was your identity. Crucially, you did not choose your clothes because you saw them in a store and liked them. In fact, just kind of a quick audience poll here: Look down at what you're wearing right now—your shoes and your pants and what you've got on top—and so on. Let me just ask you, how many of you are wearing the clothes you are wearing right now because you like them? You like those clothes, and that's why you chose them, right? How many of you are wearing what you're wearing because it's comfortable? It does not itch. That's basically my priority: Does it itch? No? Then I'm wearing it. How many of you honestly decide on what to wear based on what is still clean in your closet? Can I see a show of hands?

Okay, in those days, none of that was why you chose to wear the clothes you wore. In those days, everything about your clothes—the style, the fabric, the decoration, the pattern—it all denoted who you were. It denoted your identity, your status, your group. They did this so that you could look at a crowd of people, like the crowd of people on the screen right now, and know instantly: He's a slave, he's a senator, she's a landowner, right? Listen, your clothes did not change your identity, but your clothes showed your true identity.

So, if you remember so far in our study in the book of Galatians, we've been going through it verse by verse. Paul's been saying to the Christians at Colossae, spiritually, what's happened is your identity has changed. I want to very quickly remind you of the verse that we looked at last weekend. Paul uses to kick off this section of Colossians all about transformation, and that's Colossians chapter 3, starting in verse 1. He says, "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, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

What does that mean? You have been raised with Christ means you have a new life right now. For you died means that God looks at you as if you had died on the cross and paid for all your sins, and so he sees you now as free from sin, as free from any condemnation, as holy and blameless. That's how God sees you right now. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God means that God now sees you as so one with Christ that he delights in you as much as he delights in his one and only begotten son. Do you get this? That is the gospel.

The gospel is not that we give God a good record of our good deeds and then God chooses to bless us. The gospel is that God, through Jesus Christ, gives us a perfect record and then delights in us, and then we live for him out of the freeness of that acceptance. That's the gospel. Paul says, "Set your heart on that. Let your imagination be captured by that." That is what changes your identity. Now you have a choice. You need to decide to wear clothes, so to speak, that match your new status. You have been set free from your old slavery. You're now, you know, a king or a queen in God's eyes, so don't wear those old stinking slave clothes.

This is where Paul is going, starting in verse 5: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to that earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming." In other words, all these things hurt people, and God is angry when his children are hurt by greed and by immorality and so on. He says, "You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves of all things." So he's saying, go through your closet. He's a "What Not to Wear" guy. Go through your closet, take all the old clothes that reflected your old life, and throw them away. Things like anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Don't lie to each other. Take those old clothes off; they don't suit you anymore. They don't reflect your new identity.

You don't stop doing these things to be blessed by God. You are blessed by God, and so dress differently spiritually. Now, truth be told, most of us don't really want to do the things on this little list. I mean, who's really arguing, "I would like to be full of more malice and rage"? I would like to be more evil. Very few people are. So today, I want to concentrate on the question: Yes, but how?

You see, follow me here. Most sermons that I heard growing up on passages like these focused on the list, and usually they were three-point sermons, right? Point one: God says not to do this. Point two: Yet you do this. Point three: You shouldn't do this. Let's close in a word of prayer, right? Not very helpful. What you and I want to know is, "Okay, how do I change?" Well, check this out: Studies have shown that self-destructive behavior is often rooted in four things. Very quickly, fill these in your notes. First, self-perception. I think of my identity in terms of my faults. It's just like me to lose my temper, right? It's just like me to be late to everything, and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Second, resentments from ways that I've been treated in my past, so I live in the past, and I go around angry all the time. Closely related to third: pain. People are in pain from their past, bad stuff that's happened, and their addiction—anger, or sex, or alcohol, or whatever—brings them temporary relief from the pain. And fourth, negative influences, right? The songs we listen to, the movies we watch, the people we hang out with. Modern culture tells us it's no big deal to live in all those ways, ways that are ultimately destructive to myself, destructive to my relationships.

So how do I change my life? Well, I need to deal with these four root issues, not just tell myself to stop. In fact, maybe you've gone to church your entire life, and you've gone to seminars, and you've read books, and you've gone to groups, and you've really tried, and you still haven't really made progress in changing. My guess is it's probably because you've been focused too much on changing the behavior without focusing on these root issues, all of which have to deal with your identity. But that's exactly where Paul goes in the verses we're going to look at this morning.

How do I change? And since he uses a clothing metaphor, I will too. Jot these down: Number one, I need to wear my ID. I need to wear my ID—my new identity, who I am in Christ. Go back a verse. Paul says, "Here's who you really are: You have taken off your old self, your old clothes, with its practices. You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator." This is so rich, but circle the words new and renewed. He's saying this is who you are. You are new; you are clean, and even when you fall, you are continually being renewed.

Then later on in this passage, in verse 11, Paul goes on to say more about your identity. Think of how revolutionary this was. He says, "Here in Christ, there is no Greek or Jew." What? More than that, there's no circumcised or uncircumcised. There's no barbarian. In those days, barbarian was used by the Romans and the Greeks for anybody who wasn't a Roman or a Greek. Then he goes further: "There's no Scythian." The Scythians were nomadic people from the region of Iran who the Romans had never conquered, and they were considered even more barbarian than the barbarians. Yet Paul says, "In Christ, we're all the same: slave or free. Christ is all and is in all." I mean, do you get this? He's saying now in Christ, all those old badges of identity that you used to wear, all those ways you used to identify and peg and pigeonhole everybody, now they're meaningless because in Christ, you're all brothers and sisters. You all share a new identity, which is what?

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved. If you've got your pen or pencil out, circle the words, the descriptors: they're chosen, holy, dearly loved. That is you; that's your new identity. This is what we are in Christ. In fact, would you say those words out loud with me? Say those words we've highlighted: chosen, holy, dearly loved. Now say them again, but put the word "I am" in front of that sentence: "I am chosen, holy, dearly loved." Do you really believe that?

You know, one of my favorite shows these days, believe it or not, you're going to maybe—some of you will laugh—is a show called "Call the Midwife." I don't know if you've got any other "Call the Midwife" fans here. If you've never seen it, I know it sounds so corny. I actually started watching it because I wanted to get husband points, you know, and my wife was really into this. She'd cry watching these shows, so I'm like, "I'm going to sit down and watch it." Now I'm the one crying. Let's just watch one more binge-watching "Call the Midwife." It's really good. It's based on true stories. The original shows are set in the late 1950s, early 1960s in a very poor part of London.

In the episode I want to tell you about, there's a young woman who's convinced she could never be a good mother. Why? Because she was once a prostitute. One day, she starts going to church, where she meets a wonderful, well-to-do guy who falls in love with her and marries her. Even though he knows about her past, he gives her a brand new life. But she still struggles to really believe this new identity. I want to show you three quick scenes from that episode.

Watch this. "He treats me like a princess. This was his mother's house. He said no other woman would ever live here, and then he met me. And he lets me live here like the lady of the house—me!" "You are the lady of the house." "She's still perfect in she because she's from you." "Why can't you see what I see?" "Because you don't see what's real. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding." "I'm not real." "You are to me. You will be to our daughter. All she will ever know." "I've used this." "That's what's real. That's what's perfect." "Having a fora has come to me like you said it would." "After you." "For seeing in me, but I couldn't." "Hey, always I love my face." "See, she doesn't stir. She knows she's safe. She knows she's loved." See what I mean?

Listen, do you know you're safe? Do you know you're loved? Do you know that the Bible talks about us sometimes with the term "bride of Christ"? That means he's like the man in that true story who took that prostitute and gave her a new life. That's what's real. Do you believe it? See, the key question here is, where do I find my identity? Right? If I find my identity primarily as, "I'm a failure, I'm a loser," obviously that's going to impact you negatively. But even if you find your identity primarily in life as the breadwinner of the family, or the good provider, or the good mother, or the good father, or the good son, or the good daughter, even in all those things, your sense of self-worth is going to fluctuate based on how well you think you're performing in that role.

But if you find your identity in the unconditional love of God for you, then it's going to be rock-solid because that never changes. That's what's real. Now, do you see how that addresses the very first bullet point on that list on page one, self-perception? As your self-perception alters, you see your new identity in Christ; your behavior is going to be impacted. Okay, but what about the second root problem? Resentment? Well, Paul says, "I must clothe myself in grace." Clothe yourself in grace.

There's a new movie out right now, believe it or not, about Mr. Rogers. It talks about how he had one word, "grace," in his office, and deliberately every morning he chose to clothe himself in grace. That's what Paul's talking about. Look at all the ways he's basically saying the same thing: "Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other." He's saying as a Christian, this is your brand. This is how people know you're a Christian more than a t-shirt or a bumper sticker: whether you're gracious. "Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Now, this is hard. You know why? Because humans love anger. We do. We love to hold grudges. We love to be outraged. Anger is an addictive emotion, and that's why so many TV shows and talk shows and soap operas and movies and even politicians of every stripe kind of feed on anger and feed on outrage. But it's a vice. I need to take that off. How do I get motivated to forgive? Circle the next phrase: "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." This would be so much just kind of positive thinking pablum if it wasn't anchored in historical reality.

So far in Colossians, Paul's been saying in Jesus, God really came to earth. God came to earth, and God really paid for our sins, and God really gave us this new identity. This is why communion is so important. At the end of the service today, we're going to take communion, remembering this. Because that's what anchors all of this. That's what makes this all so much more than just wishful thinking: you forgive because you've been forgiven. So let's make this very personal. What harm has someone done to you that you just can't feel like you can forgive? You are wearing a piece of rotten clothes. Do you still want to be wearing something from that moment in your history? You can forgive because you've been forgiven.

Paul says, "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace." Do you see what he's saying? This is a fashion choice. You can be a person of love, a person of peace. Would you rather be draped in love and peace or draped in misery and resentment? It's your choice. Because of what Jesus has done in your life, can you see how this kind of grace and forgiveness is an answer to that second root cause on page one, resentment?

And number three, Paul says, "I must wrap myself in gratitude." Here's the toga that goes on over everything: wrap yourself in gratitude. It starts in verse 15: "And be thankful." Then the next verse: "Sing with gratitude in your hearts to God." And then the next verse: "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the God the Father through him." Three different ways in three different verses he says give thanks, and this answers that third root cause, which is pain. Because when you're grateful for what you've got, it helps to move you past your pain.

I mean, I'll never forget about six years ago, I was part of the funeral services for this man, Mike Fitzgerald, a wonderful guy who attended TLC. He died at just 52 years of age of ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Do you know what that does to you? It keeps your mental faculties completely intact, but your body becomes your prison because your body ceases to function. Well, Mike lived this gratitude verse. He always found something to be grateful for, and on the occasions that I visited him up in Boulder Creek, he would always ask me a question at some point very gently. He'd say, "René, what are you taking for granted that I can no longer do?" He'd say, "You can swallow. You can chew. That's awesome. Wish I could do that." That puts things in perspective, doesn't it? What are you taking for granted in your life? Your health, your freedoms, your family, your church? What do you just assume? Your eyesight? Wrap yourself in gratitude in the present if you want to get past pain in the past.

And then finally, be soaked in the word. You know, just across the valley from Colossae were famous hot springs where they had these Roman baths. Incredibly, even though they're in ruins now, you can still go there and still soak in these ancient Roman mineral springs. I've actually been there myself. Back in the day, Romans used to come from miles around to soak here, and they had perfumes that they would soak in for days so that their skin would just be infused with this great scent. That's what this next verse reminds me of: soaking my soul in the fragrance of Christ. Back to verse 16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom." Let the word of Christ dwell in you; just let it seep in. Let it soak into you till the fragrance of it surrounds you like atmosphere.

You say, "Well, how?" Paul's got some ideas: "As you sing psalms, hymns, spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." In other words, the media that you make a part of your life—the music, the songs, the art—that impacts you, that changes you. This answers the fourth root cause on page one: negative influences. Right? What you put in your mind affects you. In fact, let me take a little movie poll here. How many of you have ever gone to the movies and cried like you just did at that "Call the Midwife" clip? Can I see a show of hands? How many of you have ever gone to the movies and laughed? Anybody ever gone to the movies and laughed? Now let me ask you something: Why? Was it something that they put in your popcorn? Was it some kind of mood-altering drug? No, something on the screen went into your imagination and produced real-life effects. What you think, what you put into yourself media-wise affects you. It affects your emotions; it affects your being. That's why Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." You're continually being changed by what you put into yourself.

Now, I want you to look back over the notes at these four points. To be clear, I do these things not as a legalistic list of things to do to earn God's blessing. You don't do these things to earn brownie points from God. These things just reflect what is already true of you. You're already unconditionally loved by God through Christ. This is just wearing on the outside the truth of your new status, your new identity.

And so I just want to encourage you to do these things every day this week. Just as routinely as you stop at your closet in the morning and think, "What am I going to decide to wear today? Well, that t-shirt or that shirt or these jeans or those nice pants," decide: "I will choose to remember, number one, I have a new ID." Watch your self-talk. Don't think, "I'm such a loser." No, that's not who I am. I am new and being renewed. God has great plans for me. I'm chosen, I'm holy, I'm dearly loved. If you do not choose to wear your new ID, you're going to fall into patterns of thinking about yourself in old ways that the Bible says are no longer true of you if you put your trust in Christ.

And I will clothe myself in grace every day. I will choose to let my graciousness show on the road when other drivers make me mad, in the store and long lines, to that person against whom I still harbor resentment. And I will choose to let my graciousness be a badge of my new identity, of the fact that I've been graced. And then number three, every day when you get up, remind yourself, "I'm going to give thanks to God for things I see around me today that maybe yesterday I took for granted." And fourth, spend time soaking in the word of Christ, you know, God's word through music or some other way.

Now, let me close with this: Does this all actually work? Let me tell you a story, and then we're going to take communion. You might remember the true story of a man named Johnny Lee Clary. I'll show you a picture. Johnny Lee Clary was once the grand imperial wizard of the white knights of the Ku Klux Klan—a violent, hateful man. He says in an interview that I read again last week, he came from a home that did not know love as a child. He witnessed his mother's alcoholism and adultery, and at 11, his own father's suicide. He grew up in racist gangs on the streets of LA. As a teen, he joined the KKK and quickly rose in its ranks to become the leader. He even was a guest on Oprah defending the KKK, you can imagine that.

But it all started to change one day when he and a local African-American pastor, this man, the Reverend Wade Watts, were guests on a radio show in Oklahoma City. He's already there in the studio, and the pastor enters the room and immediately says to Clary, "I love you," and puts out his hand. Before Clary realizes it, he's shaking hands with this guy. So I want you to see Pastor Wade was choosing to wear those clothes of grace toward Johnny Lee Clary, right? Then outside the radio station after the show, Clary is warmly greeted by a group from Reverend Watts' church. The Sunday before, he told them, "I'm going to be on the radio with this guy from the Ku Klux Klan. I want you all to come down, and I want you all to tell him that you love him." So they all gather around and tell him, and then one person holds a baby up from the crowd close to Clary. Clary says, "The baby smiled at me," and he felt such a tie to the baby that he held her in his arms and cuddled her and smiled. But then he caught himself and he thought, "This pastor and his church are making me look foolish." He quickly hands back the baby, stomps off, and that night he burns a cross in Pastor Wade Watts' front yard and dumps dead animals and trash in his front yard. He calls him up, makes death threats, and he tries to burn down his church, does a lot of damage to the building. Can you imagine?

The pastor Wade greeted every threat with nothing but grace. For example, a short time after their interview, Clary and a gang of Ku Klux Klan members found the pastor and some friends having chicken dinner at a local restaurant. Just as the pastor started to cut into the chicken with a knife, Clary said, "Whatever you do to that chicken, I'm going to do to you." At that, the pastor looked at him, smiled, picked up the chicken, and kissed it. True story.

Well, many years later, Johnny Lee Clary's life is spiraling downward. He becomes an alcoholic, suicidal. For some reason, he decides, before I take my own life, I'm going to crack open my Bible and read it. As he says, "I had a Bible; everybody in the Klan had a Bible. We just never read them." He says that day he read verses that said Jesus died for all people, that there was no slave or free in Christ. In fact, he read these very verses we're studying this morning in Colossians, and that started an internal change. First, he put his trust in Jesus, and then he enrolled in a Bible college. One day, he kind of gets convicted and decides, "I need to ask that pastor for forgiveness. I did a lot of bad things to him." So he calls Pastor Wade Watts just to ask forgiveness, and guess what the pastor does? He invites Johnny Lee Clary to speak that Sunday at his church.

After the message, a teenage girl comes forward for prayer, and it turns out, as Johnny Lee Clary is speaking with her, she's the very same infant girl he had held in his arms years before at the radio station. She says, "I've been a rebel, and I need to know that Jesus who has turned your life around." He leads her to Christ, and it gets better. He becomes her godfather, and it gets better: Johnny Lee is ordained as a pastor at the same church he once tried to burn down, literally wearing a new robe, exchanging his old robe for a new robe.

Now, how does a man like Johnny Lee Clary change? And how does a man like the Reverend Wade Watts show that kind of grace? Humanly, that's impossible. There's only one way. Clary had a lot of old rotten clothes, but Jesus changed his identity. And the Reverend Watts, you know, he had to deliberately choose to remind himself of his identity in Christ every single time John Clary put him down with some racist remark. He had to choose to wear grace and to forgive and be kind, and he had to choose gratitude and choose to be soaked in the word—the word and not the words of the world. But look at the impact he made. People, this is our faith. This is how it works, and the good news is Jesus Christ can transform you and transform those around you the same exact way.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? Heavenly Father, there are people listening now who want so badly to change, but they've been demoralized by so many failed attempts to change their behavior from the outside in. So God, I just pray today that you'll begin a change in them from the inside out. And Lord, some of us need to pray for the very first time: "Father, forgive me. I'm a sinner. I need your forgiveness through Jesus Christ, my Savior and Lord. I need a new identity." And others need to say, "God, I'm coming to you again. Help me to change." But I think my problem's been I've been setting my eyes on me and my sin. So help me to set my eyes on Christ and to dress like the new person I am. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen.