Col 3:1-3 Third Dimension Resolutions Pauls writing here is easily understood. \\#1\\ He was telling us to seek for some things. The idea is to take inventory, see what things we are short of, and then seek to find those missing, lost, or neglected things. This is the New Year and some people are doing just that through their New Years resolutions. Some look at their lives to see what has been missed or neglected. Then they will attempt to make changes to repair or find those lost things. Determining to make change is really a good idea although I know many have given up on because of past failures. (BC comic 12\/31\/2014, The Fat Broad resolved 4 years ago to lose 40 pounds, 3 years ago to lose 30, 2 years ago to lose 20, last year to lose 10. This year she just resolves to love herself as she is.) For those of us who are Christians, we are commanded to examine our lives and to bring them into subjection to Christ. 1Cor 3:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Ps 119:59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. Ps 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. La 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. However, as these verses indicate, there is a level of examination and accountability that is much higher for us. This morning, lets talk of Third Dimension Resolutions. I. There is a third dimension. A. Paul in giving the command to seek those things, was not speaking of mere earthly things. 1. His command is to seek those things "which are above." 2. In fact, the verse starts out with a condition to tell us who Paul was directing this command at, "If ye then be risen with Christ." 3. This command is directed toward the saved and is commanding them to seek not the inward things or the outward things but the upward things. B. The third dimension is upward. 1. Paul was not commanding the believers to seek another new years resolutions of the well-intended. 2. He was commanding them to seek after the spiritual the "things above" not "on the earth." C. Most humans are two dimensional. 1. They are a body and have a mind. 2. Most of those setting new goals for the New Year are dwelling in one of those two dimensions. a. The first dimension (1) They will lose weight, be on time, drink less, spend more time with their family. (2) These are all worthy goals but they are goals of the first dimension, the physical world. b. The second dimension (1) Or they will go back to school, read more, learn a new language, get a hobby. (2) These are also good things but they are all in the second dimension, the mental world. 3. But who will commit to winning souls for Jesus, memorizing their Bible, praying for missionaries, establishing a ministry to help the orphaned, abandoned, elderly, or desperate? a. This is the third dimension. b. It is the spiritual dimension. II. Only the saved will seek third dimension resolutions. A. Again, note that this command is directed to those who are risen with Jesus. B. Here is another discerner of the saved and the unsaved. 1. The unsaved will never think to examine themselves spiritually, let alone set some a spiritual goal beyond just going to church from time to time. 2. This is a dimension that they neither understand or even consider as important. 3. How important is Jesus to you? a. Not just the church but Jesus. b. Do you need to talk to Him? Do you need to hear from Him? Does thinking about Him ever bring emotion to your heart? Do you want to please Him? Do you pattern your life to please Him? c. If the honest answer to all of those is, "No," then ask yourself is there any conviction about it? Are you happy without Jesus? Could you live your life without going to church, reading the Bible, praying, and things be just fine with you? d. It is important that you see the implications of having no spiritual dimension! (1) If there are no spiritual goals and no spiritual conviction, then you are not Jesus! (2) This means you are lost and hell bound. e. Lets take it a step further. III. Only the saved who are focused can KEEP their third dimension resolutions. A. As I said, some have given up even on the first two dimensions of New Years resolutions. 1. They give up because of constant failure. 2. The same applies to third dimension resolutions. 3. Some have ceased to seek the spiritual. Perhaps some never really started. 4. Some have ceased to examine themselves spiritually. 5. What is the problem? B. Many Christians are not focused on Christ. 1. If you and I want to be obedient to Christ and to be the right kind of Christian, we must focus. a. To focus means we narrow our sights, cutting some things out that we can concentrate harder on others. b. Even the most gifted humans have limits and must remove some clutter from their line of sight to better see the important things. 2. God helps us to accomplish all that He commands us to be. 3. There is a Bible verse designed to help us focus. Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 4. This is an important and powerful Bible verse. a. Every Christian should memorize it. b. If you want a great first New Years resolution, memorize it! It will change your life. IV. I see three truths: A. The mind is the battlefield. 1. The command is to RENEW YOUR MIND. \\#2\\ a. That is retrain your mind, make it over again, teach it to do differently. b. This is not commanding us to think better. (1) That is two-dimensional. (2) It is a command for us to think spiritual. (3) It is a command to FOCUS ON SPIRITUAL THINGS. 2. For example, spend less time thinking physical and more time thinking spiritual. a. Think less about the value of a dollar and more about the value of a soul. b. Think less about how you look to others and more about how you look to Jesus. c. Think less about how this will make you happy and more about how it will make Christ happy. 3. Again, spend less time thinking you cant. a. Cant tell others about Jesus. b. Cant tithe. c. Cant be faithful to church. d. Cant read and understand their Bible. e. Cant memorize. f. Cant have an intimate relationship with Jesus. 4. Two dimensional beings cant, but three dimensional beings can! a. The key is being right with God. b. If you are not right with Christ, get right. c. If you are right with Christ, how about using a little faith? d. If the mind is the battlefield then faith must be the weapon! e. We need faith to change our wrong thinking. 5. Let God change what we believe! a. Change what you believe about Him. Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? b. About the possibilities of what you can do. Matthew 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. c. Quit saying you cant and start saying you CAN. d. This is called FAITH. (1) Faith is not just believing. (2) It is believing in Gods work for your life! B. \\#1\\ We should be seeking the highest calling. 1. We should not settle for wanting to be anything less for God than HOLY and ACCEPTABLE. a. Holiness is an attribute of God. (1) Granted, we cant be like God in this respect. (2) We are sinners and will always come up short. (3) However, God still commanded us to make the holy things our goal. (4) Our focus should be more on souls, eternity, God and less on greed, pleasure, and self. (5) We want to be right with God in our actions, in our thoughts, in our behaviors. (6) This should be our goal, our focus. b. Acceptable means within Gods parameters. (1) God knows that we are not holy, perfect, or sinless. (2) So although that should be our goal, God will accept us if we keep our failings under the blood and seek after Him. (3) Just focus on that! 2. If you do, you will do that which the GOOD, ACCEPTABLE, and PERFECT WILL OF GOD. C. \\#1\\ We should be giving our greatest gifts. 1. Your souls is by far your greatest gift. a. Give yourself. b. Present yourself to God as a living sacrifice. c. In the Old Testament, animal sacrifices were given to God. Once killed and given, they could not be taken back. d. The problem with many Christians is that we keep getting up off the altar! Get on it and stay there. 2. Give your time. 3. Give your talents. 4. And yes, somewhere in there, give your money and your possessions. Research released on 1\/1\/2014. % of people who usually make New Years resolutions – 45%. % of people who sometimes make New Years resolutions – 17%. % of people who never make New Years resolutions – 38%. % of people who are successful with their New Years resolutions – 8%. However, that is 8% more than those who never tried. http:\/\/www.statisticbrain.com\/new-years-resolution-statistics\/ Why dont you decide to seek those things which are above this year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Col 3:1-3 Third Dimension Resolutions Pauls writing here is easily understood. \\#1\\ He was telling us to seek for some things. The idea is to take inventory, see what things we are short of, and then seek to find those missing, lost, or neglected things. This is the New Year and some people are doing … Continue reading “Colossians 3:1-3 – Third Dimension Resolutions – Bible study”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}